Paisley

What a difference those four would have made to this team.

It's a bizarre fact of life as a Liverpool supporter that you're more confident of beating Real Madrid at the Bernabeu than you are of beating Middlesborough at the Riverside! Until we start treating these 'lesser' sides with the respect they deserve we won't win the league.

Agree with that completely. He's the only person in control at our club who I have faith in, and it worries me greatly that if Rafa did walk we'd be left with Hicks, Gillett, Parry and 'Advisor Extraordinaire' David Moores. What the guy needs is serious financial backing and to be able to concentrate on beating our rivals - not his own board.

Torres was 'three weeks' at first as well though wasn't he? and we all know how that turned out. If it takes five weeks to get Gerrard fully fit then I'd rather they did that than rush him back and watch him break down again.

Maybe Lucas could fill the 'Gerrard' role behind Torres while Stevie is injured. Forget about defending (which he can't do anyway) and play him ahead of Mascherano and Alonso to see what he can do in a more offensive role.

1: Lucas - Another match winning display from the Brazilian powerhouse. 2: Skrtel 3: Carragher

Where's Lucas?

No because he was his usual lightweight, clumsy, completely ineffective self.

Can't believe anyone could think Lucas was having a great game. The man's a f***ing liability.

I am staggered by this decision - If Gerrard had done the same thing in that game then Sky and the papers would have made a huge thing of it and he'd have been banned for a month.

He comes across as a pathological liar from his responses there, and must think people are stupid - but that last bit is particularly despicable.

Kevin Nolan is being linked to Newcastle - would much rather have him as back up to Alonso and Mascherano than Lucas.

Play Torres at centre-half?

If the price really has fallen to around £400m then I can't really understand why Dubai wouldn't be interested anymore. Part of the reason I liked the idea of them taking over was because they'd pursued us for so long, and seemed to have proved they were committed to the club. I can understand why they would walk away if Laurel and Hardy were asking for a ridiculous amount of money 12 months ago, but if the price has dropped then now they could buy club and claim a moral victory. Maybe they weren't so committed afterall, and if so maybe it's not such a bad thing if they don't become the new owners.

All of these kits would be improved if they had the 'proper' Liverbird on them.

Have Man City bid £30m for Kuyt and Lucas yet?

Anyone but Heskey is fine by me. Always thought Tevez and Torres would have been a great combination if we could have bought the pair that summer.

Masch and Alonso in the middle and Gerrard on the right seems to be the logical solution but there seems to be some verbal agreement that Gerrard doesn't play there. Shame because he was great on the right the season we won the champions league, and Kuyt adds little other than work-rate in that position.

And 'gives away far too many cheap free-kicks' Last night was comical - comes on to collective groans and first thing gives away a free-kick. Last minute, 45 seconds to go, clatters into an Everton player for no good reason and there goes our last chance. It's hard for a player to prove his utter sh*tness in just two minutes, but Lucas is no ordinary player.

Doubt it, and the fault for that goes to...

It's not Howard Webb's fault if we can only manage three decent chances in a derby game, where a win would have put us back on top of the league.

What worries me is that we have two more of these late night away games coming up against Wigan and Portsmouth. We're going to have to perform much better in both of those games if we're seriously going to challenge for the league. A more positive, attacking approach to those games would be very welcome.

Kuyt and Lucas are Rafa's Heskey and Murphy - he'll stubbornly play them regardless of form or performance. We could have won that game with Keane and Torres on from the start. I really don't understand why Keane was on the bench for this and the Hull games. Rafa being too clever? We really don't have the quality of squad to not play our top players in every game. More crowing Mancs at work on Monday...

Can't believe anyone thinks bringing Heskey back is a good idea. It makes me despair - He proved he wasn't good enough first time round so we're bringing him back again. Would he get into Man Utd's team or the Liverpool team of the 80s? Are our expectations that low now?