Kindred

Surely the answer is £3m. 2 years ago we valued Cisse at £14m. 1 year ago they valued Owen at £17m. They'd get a pacy flambouant striker with attitude who if the whole team was built round him, would probably score 20 goals a season (miss a few as well!). We'd get one of the most composed strikers in front of goal around and would get us 20 goals a season, but spend half of it injured! Seems about fair to me

Concur with Fred & Dus. Although, this game wasn't the best one to judge them on with us needing to attack, we look better balanced and also control the game a lot better with Hamann/Sissoko in the middle with Alonso and Gerrard nominally on the right a la Nedved/Zidanne etc. with licence to roam. When they play together in the middle there often seems to be lots of space in the midfield which enables the opposition to counter attack a lot more easily (see first half of Istanbul for a prime example). I think the wide midfielders need to do a lot more work to help out in there if its to work better, but then we become too narrow and struggle to get width in the play.

I hope your right for his sake as much as ours. Ive got a lot of time for him, as at times he really looks a class player but his confidence & belief seems to be shot to peices at the moment. Probably needs to stop 'trying' to score and to let go and let it happen. Some of his efforts on goal have been no more than toepokes at times but hes a brilliant header of a ball with good touch & control. Maybe we haven't got the players(wingers) yet to get the best out of him. As you say it would do him the world of good to score in a big game. Bring it on Fernando!

Its just come up now as Lawro, which wasn' there before so feel free to ignore it and go back to worrying! IIRC a LONG time ago Rafa said he felt it was better to stay where we are than move to a new stadium. Whether the motivation for saying that was purely footballing reasons or he felt that the financing would get in the way of squad development I don't know. Incidentally, aren't the board treating the two things (stadium & squad) independently, i.e investment for the squad is a seperate thing to stadium financing, so any move forward on the stadium wouldn't neccessarily mean squad development?

Clink WEEKEND reports seem to suggest Rafael Benitez is on his way out of Anfield unless he is handed a transfer pot of gold this summer. I don't think Liverpool fans need worry. The club is very aware of what a good manager they now have in charge and I am sure the board will be planning to back him so he can bring in the kind of quality players that will take the team onto the next level. Benitez did initially make one or two mistakes in bringing in players he was more comfortable with, but he is changing and adapting to the demands of the Premiership and I am sure David Moores and Rick Parry would trust him with a substantial kitty for the summer.

As above

Feck, forgot that. Hopefully, we'll have enough possession not to worry him too much. Lets just hope he concentrates for the full game, cos he is capable, just seems to switch off at important moments.

Anyone any ideas as to what plans B & C are, as mentioned in the AGM?

Im kind of hoping that against Benfica we have a lot of the ball, so maybe its less important for him to miss this game, despite its importance. Perhaps even Agger might bring the ball out of defence a bit better. Im sure Hyypias experience will be missed though.

Is it possible now that rafa has had a good look at what is required in english football, that he's decided that Garcia is not what is required? When rafa first came formations changed alot and Garcia was sometimes played as the deep laying forward off a striker, whereas now its largely 442. Maybe rafa needs the money to buy a couple of right sided Gonzales' for next season ie a proper right winger to cross for the strikers, which is why he keeps saying we don't score enough goals.

Sami Hyypia will undergo a scan at Melwood on Sunday to assess the extent of his hamstring injury that makes the Finnish international doubtful for Wednesday's Champions League clash with Benfica. The Reds defender was forced to leave the field at half-time during the goalless draw with Charlton Athletic because of a tight hamstring, and Rafael Benitez will be hoping for good news ahead of the match with Benfica. "Sami will have a scan on Sunday as he has a hamstring problem," confirmed Benitez. "We need to wait to see if he will be okay for the Benfica game." .tv

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I really can't see it happening. I don't think he would have made the decision to uproot his family (and those of his backroom staff) to a foreign country, particularly when his children are going through school, without seriously expecting to be here for the duration of his contract (5 years). That would give him enough time to do his job properly and progress his career, whilst giving a genuine life experience to his family. Im sure he also knows that if he is successful here over the duration of his contract all the doors he wants opening (ie Madrid & Spain) will be there for him later in life. Hes still quite young for a manager and time is on his side. I also think he appreciates the honesty and integrity of both the club and the fans and would reciprocate that when the time comes.

Svens said he'll play his strongest side in the first half and then make changes!

I thought Rafa had made it quite clear that Morientes is playing games at the moment because hes short of confidence and Rafa thinks the best way to revitalise him is to play him and support him - like he did with Crouch early in the season. Cisse clearly isn't performing to Rafas exacting standards and so is on the sidelines today, as Fowler cannot play in this game.

According to Balague, Rafa certainly meets with the players agent, prior to a transfer. What the level of discussion is isn't certain though.

I had a feeling that there might be a surprise tonight. Thinking back to Betis, it is possible it will be 4231 with the 3 forward players interchanging positions. Rafas spoken of Fowlers ability to link play as much as score goals so maybe hes essentially behind Morientes but swapping with Garcia & Kewell as the game goes on.

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Do I take it that all you pay for is a list of links from which you can stream games? (which can normally be found elsewhere anyway!)

Interesting if not incredibly revealing! The quotes about Agger by the way! (Sorry if its a Rom, can't see it anywhere obvious) offal link

No we haven't. But my thinking is that as it took all/most of our players quite a while to fully comprehend and put into practice the way Rafa wants to defend, its quite likely that any new players, particularly defenders, will take a while to adjust to this way of defending. If one had some experience of playing something near Rafas system with a previous club, I would have thought he would be likely to 'acclimatise' quicker than someone who has not. Thats all. Obviously, usually most players are brought back to defend set pieces against us, so its not neccessarily just denfensive players that have to adjust to this system. Sorry if thats come across a bit waffley!

Thanks. Hopefully, Agger may adjust a bit quicker then.

My concern when bringing new defenders like Kromkamp and Agger in is how long it will take them to adapt to Rafa's defensive system. Obviously we need cover, but its taken the regular defenders quite a while to adapt to it and now we have a couple of new players to try and adapt to it. So surely its likely that it will take them time as well. [im not aware how their previous clubs defended - maybe someone can help?]

The boy Fowler Seen this elsewhere (TLW) and haven't seen it on here yet. Well worth it. (Need WinZip - 30MB) Very well put together. Courtesy of Djibrilliant_9 I believe