bonna7

Look at the bright side, guys. We will be facing a rudderless Portsmouth at home, on form, while Spurs have an extremely tough derby fixture against Arsenal, which will definitely take its toll on the players, and possibly dampen spirits with a loss. It's all good!! (By the way, I take full credit, singlehandedly, for the Chelsea win. Went to cut my hair 3 hours before the game, and ended up as a skinhead, involuntarily. So my bad luck gave us good luck, this is deffo the reason for our win )

Carra is not playing well.... How much of it is down to playing with Riise and Sami, and how much down to himself? I think it might be partly because of the other defenders, but then again, he still played poorly when they were all fit and we had Agger and Arbeloa in there. So his form is deffo pretty bad at the moment. What is more worrying, though, is the seemingly bad atmosphere in the squad right now. They just seem uninterested, playing for themselves, not as a unit, and blaming eachother for mistakes. Not good!

Agger is playing regularly, so is Torres, Arbeloa, Mascherano and Reina. That's 6 out of 8. And the other two are young with great potential, bedding in slowly. Compare with Manu: Nani and Anderson are only playing this much because of 1) Injury (Anderson, and he hasn't played a lot) and 2) suspension and, guess what, rotation (Nani, rotation and suspension of Ronaldo)

Then I would reply that they have spent a hell of a lot more money from a stronger base. Hence giving them a clear advantage. And I would also say that we have a few new good players too, like Agger, Torres, Alonso, Arbeloa, Babel, Mascherano, Lucas and Reina, that's 8 right there, from a weaker base with LESS money to spend, I might add... (I include Arbeloa, Babel and Lucas as you have included Nani and Anderson for Manu, which look good, but are only young, like Babel and Lucas especially)

I do agree that some of the decisions have been surprising, yes. And all is not rosy. What I'm trying to say, I guess, is that it's not THAT bad. And Manu have had a long time to assemble a squad with class players, so they would then arguably be a bit less affected by injuries to key players. Like if we actually do get 2 more class players last summer, so that we have a total of 4 (Gerrard, Torres, plus the two new ones), then we would not be hit THAT hard by injuries to the best players we have. Does that kinda make sense? Or am I rambling here?

And we are much LESS behind the top teams this year than previous years, and less ground to catch up, yet there's still calls to sack the manager? How does that work?

So we undoubtably progressed as a club under Houllier. Fighting hard, VERY hard to get in the top 4, it wasn't a certainty that we would be there at the end of the season. And at that time all the talk was of a big two, not four. Now, we have been 3rd two times in a row, been in 2 Champions League finals during that same time, while we have had a better start in terms of points than normal. And it is the top 4 now, not top two anymore... Is that not progress, in terms of the league? Also consider that this has happened at a time when we have injuries to key players, not just key players but the ones that make us play good football. And the argument that it is now, for the first time really Benitez's own squad, how many windows has he had this big money to spend? One, right? Maybe, just maybe, we will get one or two players more of the caliber of Torres next summer, which would also evolve the team drastically. Last thought: How much money did we ACTUALLY spend last summer? 15 mill? 20 mill? Then have a look at how much manu spent....

Except they HAVE been there, and drew, in their only other away game of the season..... Which kind of invalidates the argument, doesn't it?

And another thing: most here argue, and agree, that one of the biggest problems is the hoofing from the back. Well, why is that? Who is responsible for that? Currently, Riise gets most of the stick, as do Hyypia. What about Carragher? He is one of the worst hoofers. If we were to improve, as you guys say, the style of play, then certainly Carragher has to be left out for a more ball-playing centre half? Why is this not being debated? Because he is untouchable, a scouser? He is as much a part of the problem as Riise and Hyypia... Granted, he brings passion and workrate to the team, but if we want to progress, than don't we have to have a better ball-playing centre half?

FFS, we are struggling at the moment with injuries to key players and bad form, have just won the derby, got a point and had more chances than Arsenal in the last match, and we are still just one point behind Chelsea with one game in hand, 6 behind Man U with 1 game in hand... And Wayne, you still didn't answer how we are not better off this year, with no improvement in the league, when we have had a better start than we have had in the years we finished 3rd? Since we HAVE had a better start, isn't it reasonable to argue that we will also finish with more points than we have in previous years? When we finished 3rd?

How about this argument? Plenty of supporters are always talking about expanding and exploiting the overseas markets, then wouldn't it be logical to give them some tickets? Give them their one chance to see Liverpool play at Anfield, hence strengthening their tie with the club, possibly also influencing other people in their respective countries...

Yes! getting ridiculous now, the games are so important, the players give so much, and everything is spoilt by a bent? referee!!!

Happy about the subs as well, very positive substitutions from Rafa

Arbeloa is not primarily a full back! He is primarily a center back, who played occasionally on the right in Spain...