fred milne

I think its more the case that Carragher, Gerrard and Bellamy have (finally) hit their stride. Pity it didn't happen two months earlier.

Gonzalez may not have Garcia's ability to produce a goal out of nothing but he is quicker, stronger, gives the ball away less cheaply and holds his position better out wide. He's also shown he knows where the goal is. To me, he looks the better bet.

Garcia is a useful player to have on the bench, but he is too erratic to play on a consistent basis in midfield.

The player who can't be moved is Alonso. Gerrard showed last season that he is eminently capable of moving between RM and CM.

I wouldn't go as far as that but I think he is worthy of a place in the side. We just need to make sure we have enough goal-threat elsewhere in the side to compensate. Reina Finnan Carragher Agger Riise Gerrard Sissoko Alonso Gonzalez Bellamy Kuyt That looks like a strong, well-balanced side to me.

I'd go along with that. Too often there is a lack of conviction in his play. Its possible that its a short-term confidence issue but I have my doubts.

I remember it taking Overmars, a much more experienced but not entirely dissimilar type of player, a good few months to get used to English football.

I probably agree with you on Pennant and possibly Riise, who has gone backwards this season. Gonzalez has potential, though. P.S. Your old mate Traore was up to his usual tricks.

By his standards, I thought he had a dodgy spell earlier in the season (around the time of Galatasary at home) but he seems to have come out of it recently. He was excellent last week. I thought Gonzalez had a decent match and with each passing game looks to be getting more used to the pace and physicality of English football. I'd be worried if I were Garcia.

We gave at least as good as we got for the first 60 minutes in that match. They gave us the run around in the last phase of the game at least in part because Thommo went too attack-minded with his subs. I think we ended up with a midfield diamond of Murphy, Gerrard, Litmanen and Berger, with Fowler and Owen up front. As a result, there was next to no pressure on the ball when Barca were in possession.

Agreed. I'm looking forward to it.

We've been saying that for the last 8 years....

That assumes he is able to kick his habit of trying to hit the defence-splitting pass every time.

He's probably in his peak years now. It will be interesting to see how he much he is able to adapt his game when he gets closer to 30 and starts to lose the outstanding athleticism he has now.

Takes a minute or so to get going and best watched with the volume off...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgd4zFLmLDI

There is a tendency (and I'm as guilty of this as any) to focus too much on his weaknesses (e.g. carelessness with possession), whilst other players' shortcomings (Sissoko being a good example) are ignored by comparison.

I think that's overstating his importance. Its true he did a solid job of giving us width on the left and not giving away the ball cheaply but I think the biggest factor between this season and last season is the form of Carragher and Gerrard. Thankfully, they both seem to be getting their games together again in recent weeks.

The other thing I'd add is that he seems pretty tough mentally. I remember practically his first touch in Euro 2004 was to concede a penalty but he didn't let that faze him and went on to have a good tournament. Similarly this year, all the fall-out from the World Cup and his antics with Rooney don't appear to have affected him.

Based on last season's form yes.

Rooney and RVN were only sure-fire certs in hindsight. One was a young kid with a questionable temperament, the other a player coming off a serious knee injury and unproven in any of the major European leagues (c.f. Kezman).

Agree with that.

They may not have recouped as much pre 2003 as they did post 2003 but it was still probably more than we did in that period. (They got decent returns on the likes of Stam and Ince.)

I'm sure they've recouped more than we have too (e.g the sales of Beckham, Veron, RVN).

I think its closer to "nearly all do", although I'm hoping that Wigan is a sign of things to come and that we will continue to see the likes of Reina, Gerrard and Bellamy playing at that level. I'm not sure that's a better comparison though, as Kuyt does tend to play deeper than Bellamy.

Reina vs Van der Saar Finnan vs Neville Hyypia vs Ferdinand Carragher vs Vidic Riise vs Heinze Pennant vs Ronaldo Gerrard vs Scholes Alonso vs Carrick Garcia vs Giggs Kuyt vs Rooney Bellamy vs Saha You can argue whether it should be Pennant or Sissoko but I don't think the difference in our points tallies is just down to Rooney and Ronaldo. At least based on this season's form, too many of our players come off second-best in a direct comparison.