alias75

Exactly, in the grand scheme of things football is pretty irrelevant.

I know that but he does play wide left a lot, more than anything we need wide players that will attack their full backs and provide a goal threat too. How many goals have we got from our wingers this season?

Id love Alves here because hes such an exciting player but its a bind cos right side isnt a priority at the moment, but imagine a right side of Alves and Gerrard pretty unstoppable. A top quality left winger is probably our #1 concern at the moment not too many names spring to mind though, maybe Simoa. Todays game also showed up the need for a real top quality striker, Villa and Torres are 2 possibles, we need someone that is clinical in front of goal, if it means sacrificing someone like Crouch then so be it. Should Mascherano sign central midfield is very strong and that also frees Gerrard to play wide right making that position in less need of fixing with Pennant being used more as a backup. Central defence i also think is strong enough providing the new guy is up to scratch.

We need to stop Xavi in midfield and we then have a chance, the thing about Barcelona is they will give players like Alonso and Gerrard more time than their used to. We need to play Stevie wide right to help with Ronaldinho and also exploit the space he leaves and tell Momo to get in the face of Deco and Xavi for 90 minutes.

I think we've got to accept this season is the end of one chapter and next season is the beginning of something new. Every fan hurts after a loss, especially after a game in which we could have easily been leading by 2 or 3 goals at HT but of course some of the over the top posts are way too far the other way. Some of our players arent good enough thats true but i feel at the moment we have less of these players than we have for a long time. There are very few weak links in the squad at the moment. Ideally some starting players will be used as squad players (Pennant, Riise) and im sure that will be the case in the summer when hopefully 2 or 3 real top quality players come in.

The first half performance was very good, we should have been leading by at least 2 goals, i think todays game illustrated perfectly where we need to improve the team. We need a much more clinical finisher that will take 2 out of 3 good chances, and once again the lack of top quality attacking midfielders was clear. We had 2 players in midfield both of who havent played for a while, ideally you wouldnt have to play Zenden especially, obviously next season he wont be here but im not sure why he was started today (was Gonzalez injured?) We need better quality in the attacking positions, we need players that wont miss 4 chances to get 1 goal, and we need better quality in the wide positions. Im sure these areas will be addressed. As it stands the team isnt far off, yes its a bad result today but lets not quickly forget the great run of results we've had in the last few months. 2 or 3 real top quality players plus maybe a new left back and imagine the difference. Summer is going to be very important, we need to secure Rafas #1 targets. But no time for mass panic on the back of 1 poor result which in truth could easily have been a very good away win.

Im pretty sure those comments were NOT made directly to that rag, but they've just picked up and reported the story.

Surely we can do better than that, especially given the timing of the takeover you'd expect a few big companies to be interested now. Theres also the problem of having a company that sells alcohol as a sponser when we're looking to market the team in certain countries where alcohol advertising is prohibited or where its forbidden as part of their religions.

anyone seen this guy play or heard anything about him? figaro maybe

for those that wondered Mascherano didnt figure for Argentina yesterday

Did Mascherano figure for Argentina in their friendly today?

Like what their saying especially about being in the background and concentrating on their areas of expertise. Would have been a very interesting meeting with Stevie and Carra!

Gonzalez did alright in La Liga maybe this type of game will suit him. Bit more space and time on the ball against a team that will leave him 1 on 1 most of the time.

Ronaldinho never tracks back so the Barcelona left back is always exposed i was listening to the Danny Kelly podcast from near the beginning of the season and Ballague was making this exact point to van Bronkhurst who conceded it was very tough sometimes being the fullback in front of Ronaldinho and that particular week Valenica exposed that space well. Think its a smart move you have Alonso and Momo or Mascherano in the middle and Stevie able to exploit that space on the right and also help contain Ronaldinho. The other key when playing Barcelona i think is stopping their central midfielders we have to press them and not give them the time and space to dictate things, Deco and Xabi are excellent with time to play but they arent the most athletic players we need to hassle them and get in their faces for 90min.

Would the manager of a "big club" still be in a job if they had Moye's record in the 4 years hes been there?

Any new owners wont be signing players so to use examples like Rodriguez or the fact he hasnt sorted out the Rangers' pitching isnt really relevant. The key is we need a bigger ground which in turn will increase our revenue every home game and we need fresh ideas on how the team is marketed and promoted. We are already setting up soccer schools in certain parts of the US and if this happens it will give us an edge in the US market which is now full of Hispanics crazy about football. Hopefully any new owners concentrate on their areas of expertise and let Rafa run the football side of things.

I really want Alves here next season, especially if we're going to be playing 3 at the back more often hes ideal to bomb up and down that right hand side. Then we only need someone for the left side.

No formations yet im shocked!

or even as the most advanced centrally in a 3-5-2

Interesting comments about Gerrard wide right and Masch and Alonso as the holding 2, thats how i see us setting up for a lot of games (if he joins) That would give us a very solid 2 in midfield holding and it allows the other 4 players to concentrate solely on attack knowing they have protection. For most home games you can add in the 2 full backs as attacking threats too. Be interested to see how Sissoko is used too, we know Rafa is a very pragmatic manager im sure he didnt expect a player of Mascherano's quality to become available and for all Momos strengths he still has to improve basic elements of his game. Providing Mascherano is a success it could mean Sissoko is used more sparingly and for certain types of games. Maybe even as an impact player for the last 30min of games where players are tiring and we can use his high energy to go beserk in shorter spells.

I think the difference is now theres a huge number of hispanics in various parts of the US ive recently been to Miami and theres a majority of Spanish speakers there, these are people that are already football nuts.

Arent we in the process of opening some academies in the US too, theres a huge number of hispanics crazy about football in the US now, its obviously a huge market and one we could get an edge in.

Moores and Parry are coming accross as a pair of clowns completely out of their depth when dealing with real powerful succesful businessmen. I love the way the echo turned it into a positive that the Americans had only taken 3 days to check the books over! As if thats a good thing ffs.. At this moment things are going well on the pitch, the recent run of results has maybe showed we dont need Chelsea like investment in order to win the PL but more its about preparing well at the start of the season and not making too many changes all at once. The new stadium is obviously a huge move but maybe the way Arsenal have done things is a better way than getting into big debt in order for it to happen.

Giles Barnes didnt figure for Derby today, he wasnt injured which suggests hes off in the window. Hes a player we have been linked with before although he'll probably go to Tottenham.

played 20 times this season for Depor according to soccernet he did start their last league match a couple of days ago.