alias75

I mentioned Gera last season as a possible signing, this year hes been injured for most of the season, but everytime ive watched him play ive been impressed. 1. He has very good technique 2. He works extremely hard for the team 3. He can play wide right / wide left or as an attacking midfielder 4. Hes proven himself in the PL 5. If WBA get releagted we could get him cheaply Not sure what his injury was but ill be interested to see how he goes until the end of the season, last year he was a player i thought would be an excellent signing.

Maybe that first one isnt a fake? http://forums.thisisanfield.com/viewtopic.php?p=203026

Yeah but he actually finished it

Well i think if any team knew Rooney was going to be as good as he is now they wouldnt have to think twice about paying £20 million for him at 17, providing he stays injury free hes going to be a top player for the next 7-8 years. The initial invetment in his talent will have been well worth it. Every time you spend big amounts on young players your taking a risk, but some players are less of a risk than others. Ive seen a fair bit of Aguero and think hes a special player. If those quotes are accurate id do whatever we could to sign him, its been a long time since we have signed a young player with so much of a positive buzz around them. So far it looks like we've signed a few players for next season if the Victor story is also true that could be 2 bosmans so the squad has been strengthened without spending anything on transfer fees. Rafa should be able to sell a few first team members giving him a decent amount for a few forwards and maybe a higher profile right winger. £10 million maybe rising depending on certain factors i think is a risk worth taking for this particular player.

I remember early in the season Arsenal were conceding lots of goals from set pieces, not once was man to man marking mentioned as a possible reason why. The truth is goals from set pieces usually fall into 2 categories 1. Individual mistake - i.e losing your man or ball watching 2. Great delivery - sometimes the quality of the ball put in is too good and there isnt much you can do about it. Our defensive record proves that whatever Rafas coaching is working, but no matter how hard you work mistakes will happen and also the quality of delivery is sometimes just too good. Let them keep moaning about zonal marking and we'll just continue to keep clean sheets.

I like the first one (hangs his head in embarrasment)

Our first Brazilian, but with Rafa in charge im sure we'll be seeing a few more south americans signing.

hopefully its LFC related in the summer (sorry)

Nice one Maureen , surely the player knows hes better off away from the Bridge (hopefully to us) Cole off too and im sure he isnt too happy at being singled out again.

Worked pretty well today, the wingbacks gave us good width and it freed up Kewell who is probabaly more effective in that role. We all know Rafa has signed plenty of centre backs we have Roque, Antwi and Hobbs in the reserves and Agger arrived in the winter with Paletta joining in the summer, do we think this formation could be used more often in future? Riise certainly is a perfect left sided wingback and Finnan and Krongkamp can do a good job on the right. That formation also frees up players like Kewell and Garcia who seem more effective when they arent restricted to one side of the pitch. So is this the reason we've been signing all these central defenders or is it a formation that we'll still use very sparingly?

I know hes a whinging so and so and he'll be gone in the summer but his pace gives us so many more options and at least gives the opposition defenders something to worry about. When we play with 2 slow forward up there it makes the oppositions job so much easier. Cisse was excellent last night and personally id play him much more often until the end of the season when hopefully we'll sign an equally fast player with the right attitude and technique to go with it.

I mentioned it when we signed him that its going to take any new defender time to get used to the defensive system we use and that would probabaly mean he spent his time learning the system in training before making reguar starts. From what ive seen of him his natural ability will get him through games now when called upon but he has been caught out a few times, i wouldnt be surprised to see him start next season instead of Sami after a full pre-season.

I think the plan involved our strikers actually putting the ball in the net on the odd occassion. Pace is important in this league for sure, but if you dont have it you need to be a clinical finisher. Van horse face isnt very quick yet hes very prolific in front of goal. We've cretaed the chances in most games for our forwards and they havent been good enough. I dont care who we sign to replace them as long as they put the ball in the back of the net consistently. That is after all a huge part of a strikers job.

He has been a useful player and showed his worth last season in the CL but hes by far the most frustrating player at the club. For a player with so much ability he makes so many stupid descisions and makes so many simple mistakes. His ability to do the spectacular is why managers will always give him a try but personally i hope we cash in on him and bring in a similar player that does it much more consistently like Aimar.

At the moment we're serious lacking options in certain positions. Our forwards simply arent doing the most importnat part of their jobs and thats putting a huge amount of pressure on the whole team. Today we didnt play great but in others games in this bad run we've dominated the play but havent got the goals the play's deserved, that has to have an effect on the confidence of all the players. Im not sure what Rafa can do at the moment, he has 4 stirkers to choose from and he trusts none of them really. He's obviously written Cisse off but hes the only player we have with genuine pace. We dont have many games to go now this season and maybe its time to go with a partnership and stick with it.

yep his workrate is badly missed, Didi does a simialr job but he does it in a different way. At the moment we dont have many out balls, be it a quick winger that can relieve the pressure or a quick striker with good touch that can make something out of nothing.

It has nothing to do with zonal marking, its all about individual errors and that can happen if you go man to man too. Sometimes every mistake gets punished and that highlights it.

defending set pieces boils down to individual mistakes, players arent perfect and will always make mistakes usually you get away with it but occassionally they lead to goals and it gets highlighted.

Not really similar since Owen wasnt prepared to tell Madrid its us or nowhere. If Nolan was available im sure there would be other clubs interested but im sure Nolan would jump at the chance to play for us given we know hes a mad fan too and so he would tell Bolton its us and noone else. Thats different to the Owen situation where he obviously made it clear he was preapred to go to Newcastle even though they may have not been his first choice by talking to them. Had he played a better game of poker im sure we would have got him for around £12 million.

The thing is with a transfer fee if we do want Nolan and the player has set his heart on the move that leaves the selling club with very little leverage. Im not sure what sort of contract hes on, but the only options they'd have is to cash in or risk losing him once his contract expires (plus they have an unhappy player in their team) I get the impression Rafa is keen to add local players to the squad and so wouldnt be surprised if Nolan isnt being watched closely, a midfield 2 of Gerrard and Nolan certainly wouldnt take a step back from anyone.

Think he'd be a top signing Didi doesnt have many years left and i think Alonso will become our holding midfielder with 2 players with good energy around him (perm 2 from Stevie, Sissoko and Nolan) He is a mad red and so thats a huge factor if we were in for him. Id imagine the transfer fee would be around £6 million and the players desire to play for us would obviously take any real bargaining power from Bolton. Yes midfield is an area we arent short in, BUT as we're finding out when your trying to win 3 or 4 different competitions you need a large squad and midfield is the area where you need the most backup since these guys get through the most effort every game, would love to see another local lad in the team.

Id play Hamann in most away games until the end of the season, his passing his much better than Sissoko at the moment and hes much less likely to do anything rash and leave us with 10 men. Sissoko has already proved he will become an important player for us, but he needs to work on certain aspects of his game. Hes very young and im sure Rafa is aware of the areas he needs to improve on, in that position though Didi is an excellent player to learn off.

Thought we were just naming strikers in the PL that would do a better job than our current mob. Id take Shearer too even though hes in his mid 30's

What about McBride at Fulham, works hard and gets his share of goals, simialr role to Morientas but certainly seems more effective in this league. Even Kevin Davies (cant believe im saying this)

Think we may have to think about strikers for the league games and maybe a different player for the CL type games. In the PL pace and power are the key attributes, ideally you sign someone with pace and power with the class and awareness but this typeof player is tough to find and very expensive. Players like Defoe, Owen, Andy J even a Darren Bent type player will make their own chances because of their pace, these players are also pretty selfish in front of goal which is what we need. However of the above players only Owen and maybe Defoe i think could cut it in the CL and a slightly different style of football. Here you need a striker with clever movement and good first touch, ideally with pace and power. Someone like David Villa i think is an excellent all round forward, quick and strong and he scores plenty of goals.