Poolfrog

Top class post. An oasis of sanity in a desert of knee-jerk dross

I've read some utter crap on here over the years, but your reaction takes the biscuit, so congratulations!

Another bloody knee-jerk merchant. No-one forces you to pay £32. If you're that embarrassed, just vote with your feet - and take your whingeing and whining elsewhere

Well as long as their "better" football keeps them with fewer points than us, like now, I'll be happy

Congratulations! You win first prize for the first knee-jerk anti Rafa post tonight. He played a weakened team against a weakened team. Arsenal didn't actually play all that well they just capitalised on some poor defending and goalkeeping.

At the end of the day it was a scratch team so I wouldn't get too carried away. If we'd played our strongest team and got tonked by their strongest team I'd be bothered. I'm fairly sure we actually had more attempts on target than them, strangely enough. I'm more bothered about 3 points against Watford at the weekend to keep Arsenal where they are - behind us

Lawrenson also played LM; Barnes played as a central striker; Emlyn Hughes played everywhere across the back four and the midfield; topping that, we signed Geoff Strong as an inside left and he played everywhere except in goal for us, being absolutely top class whether he was left-back or a central striker

It's not exactly a unique situation. After our first ever cup win in 1965 we were knocked out at home in the 3rd round (as far as I remember) by Chelsea. These things happen

This might be a simplistic question, but if Arsenal's possession game is so good and our system is so crap, how come we finished 15 points ahead of them last season and are still above them now after our own indifferent start? It's a fair point

I'm no defender of the appalling BBC but, in fairness to Motson, he explicitly explained the link with McKenzie and his working for the BBC. There was no reticence at all. He spelt it out clearly and unequivocally

All this is academic as when Benitez has the players he wants in the squad, ie with quality wide players, he'll revert to his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation, with Sissoko and Alonso sitting in front of the back four, with Gerrard in the centre of the advanced three midfielders. He doesn't particularly favour 4-4-2 as a formation

He was clearly well on the wane before we shipped him out under Houllier. Playing frequency had nothing to do with it. He suffered a bad knee injury and was a shadow of the player he was before that. He became very ponderous and moves would routinely break down when the ball reached him. It was a fantastic piece of business by Houllier to get £11m for a player so clearly in decline. So let's not demonise Houllier for Fowler's shortcomings which were blindingly obvious all those years ago. His form at Leeds and Man City when he was also underperforming had nothing to do with playing frequency. City fan mates of mine were chuffed they got rid of him, glad to see the back of him and frankly amazed that we'd taken him on. At least he'll be put out to grass at the end of teh season. To be honest I'd rather have Pongolle back as 4th choice and I'm no particular fan of his. At least he's mobile and looks like he can be arsed.

You're 100% right. The excuse of his apologists is that boyhood Evertonian Fowler "loves the club" so basically his presence is all that is required. The fact that he appears uninterested and is clearly way, way past his best doesn't seem to matter. You might recall the laughable suggestion last year that he should have gone to the World Cup with England. It's a classic example of the Emperor's new clothes with Fowler I'm afraid.

He was a huge disappointment. He chose us over the mancs. I thnk he was playing in Italy at the time. In his defence - sort of - it was said around the time that he'd been used as a sweeper (remember them?) behind the back four in Italy and we played him as an orthodox CB in a 4-4-2, which he wasn't used to

He got booked when he spat his dummy out against Sheffield United in one of his frequent tantrums and the commentators said categorically that he would miss the cup game against us through suspension because it was his fifth booking of the season

It wasn't just that - plenty of my mates who could afford to go and lived in Liverpool couldn't be arsed a lot of the time as they were sated with success. Our home record was excellent and it was a great surprise if we didn't win so home games were a formality usually. Couldn't understand it myself, but that was certainly the attitude of more than half the lads I used to go to matches with in the 60s and 70s

You can actually buy Liverpool wristbands from street traders in Thailand - they sell them for just about every club, about 10p each. Best laugh we had when I was there with a bunch of mates (including a scum fan) was when the bloke selling them asked me which team I supported. When I said Liverpool, quick as a flash he showed me a wristband declaring "f*** Man Utd". Absolute quality.

There were many games with no atmosphere in the mid-sixties too, so all this RTK stuff is absolute b******s. Any minute now we'll become figures of fun on national TV because our fans have to be told what to do by a bunch of self-appointed know-alls. I'll guess the average age of those behind this is about 30 top whack

Maybe you don't know what it means but in the Oxford English dictionary it is defined as, in its current usage, "a worker who is reliable but not outstanding". I think that sums Barton up perfectly. If City sell him it won't be Chelsea, Man U, Arsenal, Barca, Real Madrid or AC Milan who will try to sign him, it'll be Newcastle, Everton, Spurs etc. That's because he's a "journeyman" and hence not good enough for a top tier club - in other words us Yes but the laughable Carlton Palmer got 18 caps, so being in the England squad is no stamp of excellence. I give you Stewart Downing as a classic example in very recent internationals.

That's quite possibly because he's a defensive midfielder and his role is to break up play in the same manner as Didi Hamann did - who also offered "...absolutely nothing going forward..." but who was extremely important in our overall strategy. Gerrard will go to the right when Sissoko returns ebcause there's no-one better. When we sign a quality RM I expect Gerrard to be the central player in the forward three midfielders in Rafa's favoured 4-2-3-1 formation - a system that we have rarely played because we haven't got the players yet to make it work. When we do, rest assured that Rafa will use that system

If he makes the bench in the FA Cup game he'll only get 5 minutes if, like yesterday, we're 3 goals up. It's obvious he can't cut it and will not be given another contract

They were doing "you're not singing anymore" in the mid-sixties. Trust me on this. There were many crap atmospheres back then in the so-called heyday too. RTK b******s is a load of sanctimonious twaddle by people who have an inflated sense of their own importance.

He's even worse than the journeyman Barton - nowhere near good enough for us

I do like to start the New Year with a good laugh so, many thanks. I didn't think I'd live to see a post where someone of the obvious quality of David Villa would be compared unfavourably with someone called Kevin Doyle who apparently looked good in Division 1!!!

Carra's an OOTer - he's from Bootle!