4-2-3-1 seems to be the formation Benitez wants to be able to play. A formation like that can go from 4-5-1 to 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 in the same game = tactical advantage. I think the reason Rafa wants (wanted?) Alves was for him to play in the position Finnan plays today. Against better teams he could play on the wing to make our team more solid on the right flank. And that is also the reason I think Rafa wanted to play Gerrard out on the right. With the amount of running Alves does in each game it wouldn't be such a huge problem if Gerrards drifts from the position. Lets imagine that we don't buy a trillion players that go into the first XI for next season. Lets say we buy one top class striker (Torres?), one winger who can play on both wings (Simao?) and Alves. If those are the buys this season that go straight into the first team we'll be able to line up like this: - - - - - - - - - Reina - - - - - - - - Alves - - Carra - - Agger - - Aurelio - - - - - - Alonso - Masch - - - - - - - - Gerrard - Simao - Kewell - - - - - - - - - - - Torres - - - - - - - - - - The 3 behind the strikers can all switch positions with each other. We'd be pretty well covered for all of them if anyone is injured (Pennant, Leto, Riise, Alves, Garcia). Few additions also mean less time to gel together as a team. For the two behind them we'd have Sissoko and Lucas (as well as Gerrard) as possible backups. Add to that Voronin (can possibly play in all 4 positions in attack) and one good back up central defender and I'd say we are looking pretty strong. (Yeah, I know Football Manager stuff but the season is over so what are we going to talk about? )