Nerik

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www.lfc.tv NO KUYT BUT AURELIO AND BELLAMY START Mark Platt 19 August 2006 There is no Dirk Kuyt in the Liverpool squad for today's Premiership opener against Sheffield United but there are starting places for fellow summer arrivals Fabio Aurelio and Craig Bellamy. Xabi Alonso also misses out as Rafa Benitez makes six team changes at Bramall Lane. Steven Gerrard, Sami Hyypia and Robbie Fowler return, while Jan Kromkamp replaces the injured Steve Finnan. Team in full: Reina, Kromkamp, Riise, Hyypia, Carragher, Gerrard, Aurelia, Sissoko, Zenden, Bellamy, Fowler. Subs: Dudek, Agger, Gonzalez, Crouch, Pennant

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The best player in England The best player in Spain The best player in Chile The best Brazilian left-back The best African midfielder The tallest outfield player in the EPL Oh wait we have them all.

What they said.

£850,000,000,000 of which were legal fees on Diouf.

Liverpool under Moores and Parry have been far from perfect but they never took their eye off the ball or were tempted to go the Leeds, Chelsea (under Bates) or now Newcastle way. It is silly to compare our spending ability to that. In the case of Chelsea under Bates, Leeds and Newcastle it results in massive debts with disastrous consequences unless there is an Abramovich waiting to take over.

My sources in Dublin tell me that until last night Kuyt wanted to sign for Newcastle. He only turned them down and chose us when: Newcastle manager Glenn Roeder and chairman Freddy Shepherd flew to Wednesday night's match in Dublin in an effort to contact Kuyt, who they had earmarked as a strike partner for Shola Ameobi. lol

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Test for echo

Lampard and Terry.

I was worried about lack of creativity with no Gerrard and Alonso starting. I was confident Agger could do well. I think this game proved that Chelsea lose out a lot when Makelele is out and that like England they will have the same problem if they play Ballack and Lampard in CM (same as Sven not dropping Lampard or Gerrard).

Riise is limited as in one sided but his intelligence is very underrated. He rarely makes a hash of tackles and few goals are ever his fault. He is a handy player to have around. With Gonzalez and Aurelio signing we may see less of him but he is still an important player. He is also a big game player. He has now scored in the Super Cup, League Cup Final and Community Shield.........oh and the FA Cup semi.

He was great today. BBC were analysing how he was covering ground an d winning back possession for us. Lee Dixon went as far as comparing him to Vieira and coming from someone who played with Vieira in a great team it is a fantastic compliment for Momo. Dixon also thinks we may beat Chelsea to the Premiership title.

Even though Cudicini gathered his freekick easily it showed that he has a few tricks up his sleeve and will surprise a keeper at some stag this season.

We should have signed s***tu.

Chelsea are apparently in for Obafemi Martins. Hopefully that is true and means that it is us or Newcastle for Kuyt.

If we produced a Gerrard every 6 years we'd be better off than any other team.

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Glad to see that the problem has been tackled i.e. need for a RM. LEt us see if Pennant is the answer. The potential is there, as are the doubts.

Hopefully he will be here for longer than that.

Especially if it is Bowyer and Dyer seated next to each other.

Erm he runs the academy doesn't he?

As long as we get one in each position I am happy. Last time we did something similar we ended up with Dudek and Kirkland............