Conrad

Benayoun of the current crop. I still don't think he's good enough to be a regular starter, but he's played really well of late and is now a valuable member of the squad. After Dudek's heroics in Istanbul I couldn't understand why Rafa was so keen to make his first post-final signing a goalie. It's not that I didn't rate Reina, I didn't know much about him. But what a signing he's been. Immense.

No

kipper?

And? Kuyt was superb last night - Aurelio also had a good game. Not surprising if either get included.

Yep.

I'm going to have to eat some serious humble pie - thanks Yossi. He's been excellent past couple of months and really gave us an extra dimension going forward tonight.

the thing I find most confusing about Rafa is that he is clearly a brilliant manager and a man with an eye for detail who likes to be in control of all footballing matters (rightly) so - how come we sign so many mediocre/poor players? It isn't just about budget. If you decide you want to sign player X then player X has to be good enough for Liverpool, even if he's coming on a free (Zenden, Degen) (although free = big signing on fee, good wages and a position in the squad filled). To me, whether Zenden was free or not he was a poor buy. Pennant was a poor buy. Lucas and Babel are increasingly looking like poor buys, and Riera isn't pulling up any trees. Yes, Rafa has been hamstrung in the market (I would have loved to see Alves here, and Barry - but not at Alonso's expense) but the combined cost of Pennant Lucas Babel + Riera = Ribery plus change left over. And that's not even factoring in the £20m spent on Keane.

I don't think Rafa is too cautious actually. I think his tactics are generally spot on - we control games even against the best sides in europe. People forget the alehouse football we played under houllier. my biggest gripe with rafa is that his transfer policy has been far too hit and miss, and given we don't have utd's or chelsea's resources he can't afford to make so many mistakes.

I don't think Wenger would sell him to us.

In other words we failed to get the right people in. And if you are going to talk about targeting the right positions, I'm not sure spending £20m on Keane suggests we even managed that.

What does that mean? The intentions were right. I hardly think Rafa's plan last summer was to see if he could spend £30 million with a view to not improving the squad.

spot on

Now, that made me laugh

remember that, Ipswich at home I think. Marcus Stewart nicked one for them and Igor came on as sub for his debut IIRC

Why? FWIW I think the 2009 team is quite a bit stronger, despite its obvious flaws. It would be more depressing if it wan't. Only Babbel and Owen would def get into the current side, plus a fully fit Berger maybe. Gerrard, Carra and Hyypia 2001 vintage are common to both. And you could also make a case for Hamann ahead of Mascherano - certainly on this season's form. Reina Babbel-Hyypia (2001)-Agger-Carragher (2001) Gerrard-Hamann-Alonso-Berger Torres-Owen

Sums it up for me. I'm desperate for us to win the league but particularly desperate for us to win it while Gerrard is our captain - it would be a travesty if the greatest Liverpool player of the past 25 years didn't end his career with at least one league winners' medal.

He'd walk into the Arsenal team.

I don't think there's a top club in Europe that wouldn't want Agger. Get him signed up on a long term contract. Now.

Sami Hyypia is the best centre half at the club, but his career is winding down and he can only play to a really effective level if used sparingly Carragher should be the first name on the team sheet. that leaves Agger and Skrtl, both of whom are fine defenders. Agger has the edge as an all round footballer. So, first choice pairing should be Carragher-Agger with Hyypia in from time to time (depending on opp, formation etc) and Skrtl as back up.

the really weird one for me is not the mainstream media who, we all know for obvious column and air-filling reasons, love to create stories where none exist but your average football fan. I have mates whose opinion on football I respect - they don't support Everton or Utd or any of our rivals, but they generally don't rate Rafa. Or at least they are suspicious of him - when I point out he has made Liverpool arguably the single-most feared side in European Competition, they trot out the Champions League is no big deal line like it was an easy thing to win. In a way I wonder if the sheer mentalness of Istanbul will forever have Rafa cast as a lucky manager, people conveniently forgetting we had to defeat sides like Mourinho's Chelsea, Juve and so on over 2 legs to get there in the first place.

How anyone can make that claim is beyond me. Insua looks ok - promising even, nothing more. Dossena is taking time to settle, but looks to have far more in his locker than Insua at this stage. I'd back him to make the left-back position his own next season if he keeps progressing at the rate he has been recently.

I wonder if (after Heskey signed for Villa) Owen was being lined up for a return until his injury scuppered things at the last minute...

I was a mixture of confused (how will he fit into our system?) and excited (he could be a great no. 7 to link with Torres) when we signed Keane. He hasn't performed well - arguably you could say he's been found out as not able to handle the pressure of being at a top club (it's worth remembering how quickly he was shipped out of Inter). BUT - it is mentalist to not replace him for the remaining 4 months of the season when we are fighting for the title. We should have lined up a loan striker - why not take a chance on Jo for example? It's not a big gamble as a short term loan. If Torres gets injured we don't have adequate cover.

It's like a parallel universe on here day. People celebrating that we've shipped out a £20m goalscorer for £12m and replaced him with no one. And this benefits our title chances how exactly?

there's very little you say that I agree with, but that is spot on.