Poolfrog

No chance that Everton will finish above us - none at all

Anelka was unadulterated s**** against us on Sunday. He did precisely zero. He looked anything but a £15m player. Crouch had a far, far more effective game. At least he actually got into the opposition penalty area now and again

Well if you can tell me what a number 10 is supposed to play like I'd be interested to hear. When I started watching football the number on your shirt told you what position you played. Number 10 was Inside-left and that player was either a secondary striker alongside the centre-forward (Number 9), or he was an advanced midfielder. When Tommy Smith got into our first team he was the first player I ever saw to go against this tradition by wearing number 10 but playing alongside Ron Yeats as a twin centre-back. This was revolutionary at the time, both the disregard for the numbering system and playing twin centre-backs as opposed to a centre-half (number 5) playing between two full-backs (nos. 2 and 3). If Gerrard is mentally feeble enough to need the boost of playing with a higher number on his back (and I'm prepared to believe that he is) then fair enough. But from my watching of the game Gerrard played in precisely the same role as he has done for England most times (when not shunted wide to accommodate the over-rated Lampard). Numbers mean nothing these days

You're entitled to your opinion, but the fact are that they played with a very laboured build-up, created practically no clear-cut chances - and lost. They had plenty of the ball in our half, but always in non-dangerous areas. They didn't seem to recognise that the ball occasionally has to enter the opponents' box. To say they dominated while they never really looked like scoring is overstating it somewhat. Their goalie stopped at least a couple of other goals, while ours was a virtual spectator. If we'd played like they did and lost I would have said we deserved to lose because we never looked like scoring and were trying to walk the ball into the net. If success were measured by how many 10-yard passes you can make to team mates in the middle third of the pitch then they were fantastic; but if success is measured by creating chances and scoring they got exactly what they deserved. Their lack of discipline was extremely poor too and I was glad to see a couple of our lads just get up and walk away when they were chopped down cynically

Aside from anything else I would take Kilfoyle's views with a pinch of salt as he's a lifelong bluenose

I agree. Mackay-Steven was very impressive. He's strong, fast, good on the ball and looked a real prospect. The Arsenal players didn't get much change out of him. I thought he was the best player on the pitch

I would disagree completely with your assertion that the youth cup team was completely outplayed by Arsenal. Arsenal did play nice - but quite ineffective - football. Lots of triangular passing movements around the half-way line taking an eternity to get the ball anywhere near the Liverpool goal, by which time our defensive had a comparatively easy time of keeping them out. Our team had all the best chances and it was their goalie, not ours, called upon to make memorable saves. Arsenal scarcely threatened in any meaningful way with their over-elaborate, painfully slow build-up and when they were chasing the game they generally lost their cool and resorted to cynical fouls, having one player sent off. Considering that, as the commentator said, three of them had turned out for Arsenal's first team before it was surprising that they were so blunt and lacking in creativity in attack. It was good to see them lose their cool big time when Liverpool hadn't read the script and didn't roll over and let them win. I scoured the papers the next day but couldn't find a report of the game. But I'm sure if Arsenal had won we'd have had glowing reports praising Arsenal's "kids" for turning over the Youth Cup holders.

If winning the Champions' League makes a team "just a cup team", I'm prepared to bet that 99% of European clubs would be happy to be decribed in that way. Some of our so-called fans make me laugh. The start of your last line is scarcely believable: "FFS, yes we won in Istanbul..." is spat out with the contempt I would expect to be shown if we were crowing about winning the Sherpa Van Trophy

Both Carragher and Gerrard have been poor all season - long before we hit a run of bad form. Both seem to be in the team on reputation rather than form. Gerrard was anonymous last night and mis-hit passes all game long. Carragher looks like a penalty-kick waiting to happen in every match. The idea from some self-important tabloid journalist that if these two over-paid prima donnas are in a huff then it reflects badly on the manager is a joke. A decent perfomance from either of them would be a welcome change

Crouch alone of the players with 2 years left on their contracts at the start of the season refused to sign an extension. Despite recent statements about wanting to stay, as far as I'm aware he still hasn't signed up, so will only have a year left at the end of the season. Benitez's attitude to selecting him coincides with Crouch's lack of commitment to the club I believe

You were whingeing about how he should be sacked months ago - before you then decided he shouldn't be sacked - before you decided again now that he should be sacked. Have I missed anything?

Why would he walk? He gets £6m pay-off if he's sacked, so on both counts - walking or being sacked - he's going nowhere

I'd say you were wrong. Anyhow we will beat Sunderland

Agreed. Mascherano was our only midfielder who played reasonably well. The other three were anonymous - Gerrard included

The poster is right about Ansari. He's gone on record numerous times saying that he's a Liverpool fan and still goes to games when he's in the UK, despite DIC losing out last time with their bid

In fact the majority of our fans form opinions based on their own intelligence and experience and take no heed of what the media say. Your comments are very patronising to most of our fans

No - I'm a Liverpool supporter not a 6-0-6 influenced knee-jerk merchant

OK, OK we get the picture. As you keep telling us every five minutes we realise you're not happy. You clearly have too much time on your hands so can indulge yourself - and inform us ad nauseam - through incessant posts, constantly whining and chipping away. I can take you're Rafa Out/Save Rafa/Rafa Out whimsical turns every few weeks, depending on whether we've won that week or not, but your self-indulgent whinings when we fail to win are wearing a bit thin now. We really do get the picture, so no need for interminable threads by you on the same subject

You say 3 shots on target. In my two papers this morning one says we had 7 on target and the other says 6, compared with 3 and 2 respectively for Boro, which goes against your assertion that they "...cut us open at will...". I saw the highlights and while I have a very short memory and often forget key moments from games very soon after, I recall that your list missed at least the header from Hyypia that Schwarzer made a great stop from

It's a joke to to have a post that starts with the assertion "...is our negativity.....". One thing we are not is negative. We regularly have more shots on target and corners than the home team when we're playing away. Yesterday was yet another in a long line of examples. In fact I can't remember when a team we were playing had more shots on goal than us. If the poster meant "is our inability to score more often......" I could see his point, but negativity is an entirely different thing and, I repeat, one thing that Liverpool cannot be accused of.

He was perfectly qualified to play for England too but as a young unknown it made perfect sense to take the Irish option when offered to him. His parents were English and I believe his family came from the Sheffield area but they decamped to the Irish Republic when WW2 broke out, as it was a safer option than dodging doodlebugs and V2s in England. His non-Irish accent was obviously a result of being brought up in England when his family eventually returned to England after the war

I was at the 1971 final and I well remember the BBC documentary. I think it was a Panorama special. He was seen as the next big superstar who came straight from non-League football to Liverpool's first team in the blink of an eye. He was guest speaker at my old school's (the now-defunct Hillfoot Hey High School near Hunt's Cross in South Liverpool) "A-level" awards night in the summer of 1973. He gave an excellent talk and his wife Sue (a million miles from the depressing modern phenomenon of the spray-tanned, dim-witted gormless WAGs) handed out the A-level certificate and prizes. He was a thoroughly nice man. He was a household name at the time and instantly recognisable everywhere in the country. I can't imagine any of our overpaid prima donnas giving up an evening of their own time at a similar extremely low-key event these days, but maybe I do them a dis-service

I believe that we finished 15 points above the mighty Arsenal in 05-06 and how on earth can we finish third together with them last season??? We were third and they were fourth. Also, so much for being knocked out of the cups by their youth team, I'm pretty sure one player at least was 29 and another was an on-loan full Brazilian international (Baptista) that Real Madrid paid £16m for. Some youth players! In the game this season where we were "outclassed" (in reality a 1-1 draw - outclassed is if you lose 4 or 5-nil) I believe they only had two shots on target. Please, let's keep a sense of proportion

God almighty - what's the point of the original post? Another glass half-empty bore-athon

Your juvenile incoherent ramblings also make me - and many others I suspect - cringe. What has acknowledging that we will from time to time lose games we should win have to do with having a spine or not? Man U have lost twice as many games as us, also to teams they should have comfortably beaten, while Arsenal were outplayed and deservedly lost to a team somewhat worse than Reading yesterday, who they too should have comfortably beaten. It happens. Mind you I have no doubt that their fans' fora have an "Ant" equivalent ranting and raving and assuring everyone that they have all the answers while their respective team managers and fellow forum posters are clueless.