alias75

Personally i think both Riise and Finnan are good going forward but i get the imrpession in certain games this year they've been told not to be too attacking. Finnan for sure puts in more quality than Pennants managed and Riise is a much better wide left player than Garcia who always plays better in a free role. As for the lack of central midfielders well Alonso should be back for the next league game so the midfield 3 can be Alonso - Gerrard with Garcia in the hole. Surely Finnan and Riise cant offer any less than Pennant and Garcia did last night. Riise in particular seems a perfect wingback to me, in that his game is all about getting up and down the pitch.

Not sure i understand that. Playing 4-4-2 you have one midfielder that supports the forwards (Gerrard) and one that holds (Alonso) you also have your wingers, now if those wingers arent performing you have a big problem. Playing 3-5-2 you have 2 attacking midfielders (Gerrard and Garcia) plus your 2 wing backs. My point is at the moment i think Riise and Finnan are a far better bet than Pennant and Garcia for those wide positions. If we're at home and the opposition are playing 1 up we have Agger who is capable of bringing the ball out from the back. It may sound as if 3-5-2 is a defensive formation but if your wingers are offering virtually nothing going forward you are in effect playing with 2 forwards and an attacking midfielder in a 4-4-2

If the opposition only plays 1 up then it gives 1 of the CBs (id say Agger) the license to bring the ball out and almost become another midfielder. I think one of our big problems this season is were getting next to nothing from our wide players, Pennant is clearly lacking confidence and Garcia isnt the same player when hes stuck on one side, 3-5-2 solves that problem plus it also plays Garcia in his best position.

yes but when you have only 1 of these players its not difficult to stop, when you have 2 or 3 of this type of player one of them is always likely to do something.

I made this point a few weeks back, we are lacking 1 or even 2 real word class players in the final 3rd, player for player theres no way we are any worse off than Utd from defence to midfield, in fact id say we're stronger, but then you look at their wide men in Giggs and Ronaldo and add in Rooney and thats precisely where the difference is. These are the types of players that make the difference when games are tight and teams come to defend, you get 1 goal and the space appears for more, but if you cant get that 1st goal its a long night as we saw yesterday. These are the types of players we badly need big name proven players that will provide in the final 3rd.

I think i did explain this, top players are top players because they can perform to a very high level consistently, now of course players arent machines and even great players play badly thats part of our problem this season, our consistent performers havent performed consistently this season and thats had a knock on effect. As for our CL form its clear some of our players are far better suited to playing in that style of football compared to the PL, Garcia and Alonso are 2 players that get a little bit more time and space in the CL and their games improve because of it. I agree that all our problems arent Moores related, a big part of it is simply our players arent performing to the levels we expect of them, however in order to sign the best players we need a bigger stadium and we need to be spending more than the 20 million or so we have the last few seasons. Signing better players doesnt guarantee anything but i think better players play badly less often.

Of course with the players we have the results and performances should be better, but when you buy your 2nd or 3rd choices sometimes thats the risk your taking. Top players are top players because they perform to a high level most of the time although even the great players have bad days. When you take risks on players like Pennant or Bellamy their performance levels will be inconsistent, unfortuneately for us this has also been true for the players we take for granted like Stevie, Alonso, Carra. We need to buy players that will slip straight into the first team, but again there are no guarantees as chelsea are finding with a 30 million pound player.

Its a sad fact of life with the way the game is going, we cant be shopping at budget levels anymore if we want to compete. Rafa clearly wanted Alves this year but we could get the extra few millions that descision now looks so bad given what we brought in instead. its time the manager was able to buy his #1 targets and we can judge him on that. We also need a bigger stadium you cant have 30,000 less fans than a team like Man Utd every home game and expect to compete on a level playing field.

Pennant doesnt need to be in the first team with our strongest 11 Stevie should play there as he proved last season, im not sure if Stevie's decided hes not going to play wide right anymore or if it was genuinly a loss of form that at least seems to be improving since he moved back to the middle. I think saying Kuyt is the only positive this year is wrong as Agger is clearly a first team player for the forseeable future. But it is clear we now need players that will come straight into the first team like Alonso, the squad is strong but we need top class players that arent a "maybe" although as 2 very high profile players are proving over at Chelsea there are no guarantees in this game. I dont think we are too far away with all our players fit but we are clearly lacking real top quality in attacking positions.

Both finnan and riise are more than capable of getting forward and putting good quality into the area, i get the impression they're under orders in some games not to get too advanced. you could see 3-5-2 as playing an extra defender but if its played correctly its really an extra attacking midfielder (garcia) lots of onus on the 2 wing backs but the way pennant and garcia played today and for most of the season as traditional wingers it isnt working. until we have better quality available wide left and right i think 3-5-2 is the best formation for the players we have available.

Id take him back too even if its wide right at the moment, but theres no way Rafa will have him back. Hopefullywe get the 8 million for him.

Alonso and Bellamy should be back for the next league game but given the form of our wide players (especially Pennant) surely 3-5-2 is the way to go with Riise and Finnan providing the width. Garcia is so much more effective when he has license to float and Agger has the ability in a back 3 to bring the ball out and start attacks that way. Ive been so dissapointed with pennant and if it wasnt for the complete lack of wide right players and injuries id look to offload in January while we can still get 70% of our money for him, hes on a long contract and at the moment it looks like another Diao, Cheyrou situation where we're going to have a player on big money that isnt good enough and we cant shift. Hopefully he comes good but his poor attitude has surprised me given this was his big chance, i hope im wrong and if he wasnt first choice at the moment it wouldnt be so bad but he shouldnt be in our first 11 at the moment 3-5-2 solves that problem. hopefully Bellamy will start performing now he has all his off field problems sorted out, ive been happy with his effort and i still think he could be a key player for us hopefully now he starts scoring cos when hes confident hes as good as anyone in the league.

Alonso and Bellamy should be back for the next league game, which gives us a few more options including 3-5-2 which given the form of our wide men could be the way to go with Garcia in the hole. Looking on the bright side its another clean sheet and hopefully bellamy will be able to concentrate fully on what he does best.

There were reports on skysports.com i think last week about us being linked to 2 Real Madrid youngsters, im not sure if that was posted here, they said we faced competition from Chelsea for them, but with Rafa here we may have an edge. Obviously if we get the investment we need then the money issue isnt as important as it is now.

If Alves is still a possible id certainly wait and get him maybe next season, but SWP i think could be great for us, its a pity we were almost forced to sign Pennant because of the lack of wide right players but for 3 million more i know which player id prefer.

Fair enough but i think we're at the stage with Agger that the only way he'll improve those areas of his game are by playing which means Sami will be mostly used as a squad option for certain games. Neil may be 30 but he has 4 or 5 years of playing ahead of him that Sami doesnt and as a squad option he covers the entire back 4 wheras sami only covers CB. It'd be hard to let him go but if we wait another year his value to other teams could be zero, we want Neil, Blackburn want 2 million for him if we wait another year Sami wont get us 2 million.

Calm down buddy i was only asking the question, we are due around 8 million for Cisse as i said in my post im not sure if that money has already been spent on Kujt but if it hasnt then theres some funds. As for Sami hes been a great player for us but i think even his greatest supporter will acknowledge he has maybe only 1 or 2 years left at this level. His lack of pace has been exposed this season (even though his overall performances have been good) and with the progression of Agger and we also have Paletta there hes not as indispensable as he was 2 or 3 years ago. Dont forget hes on decent money so if we did bring in Neil im not sure why we'd keep Sami around on those wages, Neil can provide the experienced cover at centre back as well as cover at right back and left back. I think you'd also find there'd be a number of clubs prepared to pay 4-5 million on Pennant those middle level PL clubs.

Im not 100% sure of the financial position we're in, we could get some money for Cisse but im not sure if thats been budgeted for with Kujt, but if there is money there for Rafa what positions would you like to see strengthened. 1 possible that has been discussed here is a swap with Hyppia and Lucas Neil, i wouldnt be against that even though Sami has been a great player for us we have Agger who needs a run, Neil will provide that cover at CB plus also cover right and left back. Right back is a position we dont really have covered. It looks as if SWP is available for 10 million and id really like us to go for him. Im sure hed rather be playing here over West Ham but of course we all know how tough dealing with Chelsea would be. We're still short on the right and im not convinced with Pennant and wouldnt be against moving him out already if we can get 4-5 million for him and bring in SWP.

I am Rafa Benitez and i claim my 5 pounds!

how about 3-5-2, that covers the problems on the wings it would mean we'd probably have to go Gerrard, Zenden and if fit Garcia in the hole as the midfield 3. If not Gerrard / Zenden in the middle with Bellamy doing a job on the right

While it'd be hard to see Sami go i dont think its a bad deal, you move out a great servant but someone clearly coming to the end of their career at the very top level, we have Agger whose ready for the 1st team and Paletta too. we bring in a player thats performed very well at the highest level (world cup) is a good few years younger and can cover right back which is a position we need cover for.

Ok i want to make it clear first of all that i dont want to sell Gerrard, on form hes priceless, but i will be devils advocate and answer the original posters question. hypothetically say we sold Gerrard for 40 million how about .... Hargreaves 10 million (much needed options in centre midfield) Alves 10-15 million option at right midfield and right back Gareth Bale 7 million - great young player, left back is a position i think we could strengthen So thats 3 players and still maybe 10 million left over, now im not suggesting we do sell Gerrard, but if the stories we keep hearing about his personnal life are true it could be a possibility that he'd want to get as far away from Liverpool and the UK as possible, while id hate to see him go for the right price and if the right players are brought in with that money it is of course possible that even though we're losing our best player the overall quality of the first team improves. (runs for cover) Ok ive just re-read the first post and realise ehs asking who would replace him in our squad. I think its obvious that he has to play when fit because theres noone in the squad that can do what he does. But when you look at the possibilities of the players that could be brought in if he was sold then its not all doom and gloom if the worst case scenario happens.

If the nature of the problems are accurate id find it hard to concentrate on anything else. Im sure (if there is any truth in this) hed rather be playing than not but at the moment something is not right and it simply isnt a loss of form, his attitude hasnt been right and it has been pretty noticeable in the last few games. We dont have the luxury of leaving him out at the moment even if we'd like too but for the good of the team we need a fully focussed captain playing to a high level. He sets the tone for so much of our attacking play.

After listening to 606 last night im convinced the rumours about Gerrards personnal problems have more than a grain of truth to them, that would certainly explain his attitude in the last few games where hes looked like he has other things on his mind. If there is any truth in those stories im sure playing over not playing is one way of getting your mind off things even if its for 90 minutes every week, but we need Stevie at something like his best to bring the best out of the rest of the team.

winning games can make a huge difference to peoples perceptions had we won the game 1-0 today (which we easily could have given our dominance) the threads woud be completely different on here in terms of the performance. At the moment we're not playing well but sometimes the team plays badly and wins and that hides poor performances, at the moment we're not getting that 1st goal away from home, had we got it today the game would have opened up and we could have got 2 or 3. I think its a bit rich that guys like Kujt are now getting ctiticised, yes he wasnt great today but if we're going to start bagging players that have been good all year on the back of 1 average game we may as well give up. Certain players deserve criticism but someone like Kujt is allowed the odd poor game. In the last 7 games we've won 5 drawn 1 and lost 1 yes we arent playing great but things arent as bad as some people are making out, at the moment almost all of our key players are below par so the room for improvement is clear, it doesnt take a drastic change of tactics we just need these players to find some form.