alias75

Brazil don't pick half decent players in the key position of their midfield. Hes got better and better every season hes been here and last year when things were tough he was one of not many players that was consistent. People forget hes still only 24 years old, and for someone so young to get so much uncalled for stick so early into his time here in the UK hes shown a lot of heart and spirit to stick with it and come through it. Think he'll only get better, he's confident in the team now is a key player in our midfield.

agree you can't play 4-4-2 without proper width be it from traditional wingers or full backs that will get forward. We have central midfielder's or forwards playing out wide and 1 centre back in the fullback position, until we sort out the balance of the team so we have players in their proper positions its going to look scrappy which is how it looked today. To get the best out of Carroll we need fullbacks that get forward and can deliver good quality and wide men that can get to the byeline, Newcastle basically played with 4 wide players to get the best out of him and we need to do something similar.

mentioning no Rooney's!!

he needs better service too, if you watched him at Newcastle, Barton used to deliver him top quality service, we need to be better in that area.

think we just have to grin and bear it until next season, we just don' have the personnel at the moment and the balance of the team is awful. No width centre backs playing full back, our best attacking midfielder out of position. Roll on next season!

Hopefully this... ..............................Reina............................. Carra..........Skrtel........Greek.........Johnson ....................Lucas......Spearing.................. Kuyt.....................Meirles......................Suarez ............................Carroll............................. But if we play that way theres a big emphasis on the fullbacks getting forward which i don't think Carragher can do.

Carroll needs better quality but he showed tonight even with poor service he could have scored a couple and created a couple. We have nothing down the left at the moment not helped by the lack of a proper left back, Wilson is there simply because he can use his left foot, once we have a proper left back in there the balance to the team will be much better. Obviously the wide areas need addressing too, its no good pumping long straight balls to Carroll even though he proved tonight even with that type of service he can make things happen but you have to get behind teams and get to the byeline none of our wide players can do that only Johnson does it occasionally and its not good enough. We were missing 2 of our more creative players tonight in Gerrard and Suarez but we need another 2 of that level to progress. Cole isn't good enough, Kuyt should be considered and nothing else apart from in an emergency and Maxi needs to be surrounded by players with pace to be effective.

the one positive is the noises from Kenny after the game about lacking creativity so at least the manager knows the areas we have to improve and hopefully the right players can be brought in. obviously your going to miss 2 creative players like Suarez and Gerrard but we need much more from those wide areas, and that also means left back, Wilson clearly isn't a fullback but the fact he can use hi left foot makes him our default left back at the moment but we got very little width from either fullback today. Carroll needs better service than he got today, but the encouraging thing was even living off scraps he could have scored a couple and created a few. Kenny is given chances to people like Cole to prove they deserve to be here and they just aren't making their case very strongly.

Is #40 Wisdom??

.......................Reina.................... ......Skrtel........Carra......Wilson...... Kelly...........Lucas..Gerrard.....Johnson ...................Meirles....Suarez............. ..........................Kuyt........................... Stronger than i thought we'd be...

Play the U18's against them!!

Hes obviously talented because there's no way a club like Man Utd would keep him on after doing that stuff if he wasn't. That's the hypocrisy in football if your a talented player someone will always be prepared to give you a chance and you'll be given far more leeway than a less talented player.

Apparently we've signed some highly rated kid from W.B.A 14 years old, don't know his name, but we do seem to be adding quality to the academy all the time now, hopefully it bears fruit and saves us some money!!

We have to look to move on, Cole, Jovanovic, Poulson, Konchesky but as the previous poster said because they're on massive contracts here that might be difficult, we've made this mistake so many times and i think it won't happen again under the new owners. Hopefully because we got Cole and Jovanovic on bosmans we can settle for less in terms of a transfer fee and that might attract clubs to them, hopefully they have ambition to still play and not sit doing nothing and pick up their wages, i get the feeling someone like Cole would move if he knew he didn't figure the same for Jovanovic. Then we have players like Skrtel, Maxi, Kuyt who id sell if we got decent offers for them but i also think they've proved they can offer the 1st team something if called upon, so if the offers don't come in for them id keep them and these should be our squad players not part of our strongest 11. There should be a concerted effort to reduce our wage bill this summer and if we do pay big wages make sure your getting value for money, we have too many players on big money that are offering very little return for that money. We need to start promoting players from within to fill the squad and add top quality that can come straight into the first team.

I think we have 2 groups of fringe players at the moment... Group 1 - Cole, Jovanovic, Poulson, Konchesky - high earners that aren't contributing to the 1st team they can all go Group 2 - Kuyt, Maxi - i think these 2 are worth keeping because when they play alongside our strongest team thay can give us something. They're not good enough to be guaranteed a place in our strongest 11 but they're good squad players with good attitudes that do offer something. Maxi is someone that plays better with better players around him, in a game like yesterdays he's never going to contribute but if you add Gerrard, Suarez, Carroll and he will improve, he covers a lot of positions and seems a good club man (like Kuyt) so for those reasons id keep them, but him and Kuyt should be our squad players instead of part of our strongest 11.

Carraghers gonna become our top assist man.

Some websites saying a pre-contract has been agreed. Not sure how reliable any of them are mind.

hes good but still really raw, just think for the balance of the team it'd be better with him wide right and Suso more central.

any idea whose on the bench?? Is Tony Silva still eligible for the youth cup? If he is id like to see him on the right and bring Suso more central. The scary thing is ive seen this team play better than this but usually we waste loads of chances, tonight their going in.

This is the least involved ive seen Suso too, would like to see him play more centrally. Another great finish from Sterling.

2-0 gary coleman's younger brother again!!

Wisdom looks a good one too, because hes so good physically you do worry that as he progresses through the ages his advantage lessons, but hes not only physically strong but technically hes really good so i think he has a great chance. Id be very surprised if the 2 fullbacks aren't squad players in the next 2 years, and Suso and Sterling have already been given squad numbers so itc clear their going to get a chance. There are others like Coady that have great qualities but they play in a position that's traditionally tough to break through in, but i see no reason why he cannot get a chance with the first team squad and then its up to him how he progresses.

Think we need another Suarez type, and then you have Suarez, Meireles, Gerrard and 1 other swarming around Carroll. Maybe Ashley Young is that player?? What i really like about Suarez is technically hes very good, the same goes for Meireles and that makes such a difference. I think the idea is to play Carroll up top, and have these 3 or 4 very good technical, quick players playing around him. The encouraging thing is hes not 100% match sharp yet and Kenny admitted he wanted to take him off but couldn't cos we needed the goal so theres more to come from him and when we get Gerrard back and can start playing Carroll things are only going to get better.

Yeah i know what you mean i do think there's potential first team players in almost every position in this group. Its probably easier for defenders to make it so Flanagan and Robinson look good things, also Wisdom, and as you say Suso and Sterling are as close to good things as you'll find at their age. I think the key difference now is not only do we have the talent in our youth teams but we have owners that will encourage their progression and a manager that will give them exposure to the first team squad.

Really enjoying watching this current group of young players. For the first time in a long time we look like we're going to produce not just 1 or 2 players for the first team squad but 4 or 5. Almost in every position there's potential to become a first team player. Still think this team lacks a finisher and in some of the games ive seen had we had one we could have scored 6 or 7 easily, but some of the football they play is excellent. Really looking forward to the game tonight!