alias75

They both have long contracts here they're both good pros, if we don't get the deals we want for either of them we don't have to sell them and im positive that won't affect their form for us. If Barcelona and Real Madrid want them so badly then they have to make us an offer way over the odds, both teams have some good players we might be interested in. Its getting pretty tiresome hearing all of these stories most of which come out of Spain despite flat denials from Rafa that they're not for sale the stories keep coming which stinks of some sort of illegal approach for both players. Either way we're in a position of strength in that we have both players on long contracts if we don't get the deals we want for them they aren't sold its pretty simple.

So Villa would be on the bench unless Torres is injured?

So if we had the chance to sign Villa you wouldn't take it because it'd either mean breaking up the Torres / Gerrard partnership or mean one of Villa or Torres doesn't start every week.

My point was for the vast majority of games we play we don't really need a Mascherano type in there, so its not as if Gerrard would be playing a traditional central midfield position, granted he'd be deeper than he currently is but he'd still have plenty of license to link with Torres and get forward as much as possible. Yes for tough away games and against the top 3 in the PL you'd maybe go with 2 holding midfielders and Gerrard behind Torres but maybe you could find somebody that could do a job there for those types of games that wouldn't cost a fortune, thus freeing up any money we got for Mascherano to buy a real world class attacking player like Villa.

Every player has a price and however good Mascherano is if we were offered anything like £30million plus i think it would have to be seriously considered. For the vast majority of PL games a central midfield of Gerrard and Alonso is fine and with that money we could possibly get someone like Villa that would certainly add to our attacking threat. Mascherano's real value is in those games against the other top PL teams and usually away in the CL league, it would be a gamble but you could look for a cheaper alternative that could come in a do a job in those types of games. We were linked with Christian Poulson before he signed for Juve and thats maybe the type of player you could bring in relatively cheaply to do a job away from home in certain games without him having to start every week in the PL.

£17 million for Johnson and £6-8 for Arbeloa isn't right even taking into account the "English tax" Arbeloa has been very solid this season and is now in the Spanish squad we should be looking to close to £10 million for him looking at what other players in that position are going for.

There is a pecking order in football and unfortunately for us we're not at the top of it, just as we can influence the players of teams below us in that pecking order to get their players so teams like Barcelona and Real Madrid can try and do the same with our players. Rafa doesn't strike me as the type of manager thats going to give in easy to this type of tapping up and im sure hes not happy with our big players constantly being talked about by other clubs, they're under contract here and Rafa has specifically talked about keeping the spine of the team strong so unless he wants to sell them they stay here unless we get offered silly money. Both Alonso and Mascherano are good professionals even if they do want to go if we decide to keep them im sure they'll continue to be completely professional. Mascherano in particular owes us some loyalty.

We could lose Babel and Dossena with minimal impact on the overall squad. Insua has shown he's pretty capable at left back and since we're nailed on to sign a left sided player that covers Babel leaving. If we kept all our major players and signed Silva that would be a good summer.

the type of player that is going to sign for City is the type of player we don't need, whatever they might say about being part of a great project etc. etc.. its about being offered wages they simply couldn't get elsewhere. I certainly would question the motivation and ambition of a player close to 30 that chooses a team not even in Europe when there are top 4 teams interested in them. Personally i think a summer in which we sign Silva and maybe a couple of fringe players like Distin and sold nobody significant would be a good summer. We have a few young players like Insua, N'gog, nemeth, pacheco that can step up and fill in some squad positions.

Im all for getting Tevez he might not start all the games but he'd be a world class option to bring on in games where things aren't working out. If you look at what's really cost us the title this season its all those home draws, having a player of Tevez's quality to bring on would be a huge improvement, he adds that quality and energy and numerous times this season his introduction has helped Utd. Think there are certain games when you can play Gerrard instead of Mascherano or Alonso, i also think Tevez would be fine wide left or wide right. Also as we've seen this season injuries happen and you need top quality replacements when that happens.

He didn't say that, he said the relationship with Alonso and Rafa isn't the best and that Perez was pretty confident he could make him his first signing. He also said he expects Tevez to stay in England and not too far away from Manchester.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/media/free_0809_...irwell_high.asx

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/media/free_0809_...irwell_high.asx

Ramos was a fantastic defender when he broke through at Sevilla, i can't remember too many players getting the better of him. You have to remember playing at Madrid turned defenders like Cannavaro into less than reliable. If it were possible to go for Ramos i think we should take it, he would improve defensively under our structure and is fantastic going forward from fullback, plus hes potentially world class at centre back. Id be hoping for minimal change this season, we can sell Lucas, Babel, Dosenna that should bring in close to £20 million, Barry replaces Lucas and Insua is already an able replacement for Dosenna. Ramos would give us that other option at right back plus centre back. Personally id also try and get Tevez, think he'd fit into our team really well.

we need to hope Silva wants to come here and only here, given what playing here has done for our other Spanish players id imagine we're a pretty attractive option right now for any Spanish player. Hopefully he wants a new challenge in a new country and if he does surely we'll be in pole position. What Spanish player wouldn't want to play with Torres and Alonso not to mention Gerrard.

Replacing Babel with Downing wouldn't bother me too much, i think in the PL Downing is much more consistent than Babel's shown so far. Like it or not we do need to bring in some English players. I also think you have to remember Downing is playing in a side thats going to be relegated when looking at his form this season, attacking players are always more effective when they play in teams that are dominating games. Against us he was far and away their best player to the extent where Rafa played Skrtel out of position to try and deal with him, i agree hes not much of an upgrade on Riera but he is more consistent than Babel so if you assume you can virtually swap them without it costing us anything it improves the squad slightly without spending any money (plus we bring in an English player)

the English factor might swing it towards Downing, personally i don't think hes much of an improvement on Riera (if any) maybe he'll be more consistent and maybe its a better option when Riera doesn't play. I think the main reason Riera has been hit and miss is because he struggles physically with the pace of the game and the intensity of the game over here, by resting him more often we may get better performances from him when he does play. We're not a million miles away, but we do need better than Downing, but i wouldn't be too disappointed if we swapped Babel for Downing and brought Barry in. That should still leave us with plenty of money to get the real top quality player we need. Personally i think Tevez is made for this team and is precisely the type of player Rafa likes. But you cannot ignore the home grown rule its something we do have to consider when signing players. Barry is both English and top quality so thats ideal, Downing is probably a lot more consistent than Babel as an alternative to Riera so for that reason he'd be an improvement.

The rumours about Alonso leaving aren't going away, could it be possible that we get Ramos and Madrid get Alonso? With Barry coming in to replace him. I know Alonso has been linked with Madrid recently.

I think as a base its very strong but it can be improved upon for certain situations. Sometimes you can sacrifice the work of Kuyt for a player with more flair, sometimes you might want to sacrifice one of the holding midfielders with another forward or somebody else in the Gerrard role and Gerrard back into central midfield. So i still think we need 1 or 2 more attacking players just to give us more options and different types of players for different situations.

think we need to be smart with him and keep him fresh, Agger and Skrtel are younger and should be able to play more games, for most games they are fine defensively. We still need Carragher for certain games where we need his defensive strength and organisational skills but to get the best out of him we need to play him less, like we've done with Hyppia. Hes not suited to games that get stretched because hes not as mobile, but when we're compact and solid hes still more than capable of doing a great job.

We had to push last night and were left exposed late in the game, neither Skrtel or Carragher are the type of defenders that can cope well in that situation, they rely more on a solid defensive structure in front of them so they can concentrate on just doing their jobs. Games like last night don't happen very often so it would be foolish to write players off on the basis of that game, personally i wanted Agger on in that 2nd half because i could see us getting stretched and he has a bit more pace about him and ability to cope 1 v 1 but in a normal game Carragher and Skrtel are both fantastic defenders (as is Agger)

thought Mascherano was very good today, surprised he was taken off because as we pushed there were always going to be big gaps and hes pretty good at plugging those gaps.

surprised Agger didn't come on too when we were pushing both Carragher and Skrtel aren't the best when left exposed like that. But you can't fault the effort of the players to almost win it twice from 2 behind is an amazing effort. (Hope Barcelona t*** them!)

really proud of the players tonight, many teams would have gone out tamely but to come back not once but twice from 2 goals behind was an amazing effort. Ultimately i think that effort in the first 45min took its toll on the players in the 2nd half, and when we had to push our defenders struggled to cope. Amazing game to watch.

He did drop his level last season maybe thats because he was injured for parts of the season, but hes better than every at the moment and those 2 in central midfield are world class.