Alonso

Now for Agger to sign a new deal and our spine is sorted! Oh and Mascherano to sign a permanent deal!!!

Quiet simply

I'm sure I heard someone (I think it was Carra but I hope not!) call out "Lampsy" during the England v Brazil game.

I think Alonso looks like Gerrard in that pic.

If Carra is as narked off as Bascombe suggests I wonder whether we will see a premature retirement from International footie a la Scholes?

This.... ...ties in with the original post from NYR:

Dyer or Brown by all accounts!

27 on June 13th.

Or Owen......

The worrying thing is that he is better without the ball than with it. When we generally are having 60% of the ball against most teams and teams that defend deep he is next to useless as he won't provide the creativity to break a team down nor will there be much need for him to hustle and harry to get the ball back especially as we now have Mascherano. I do rate Momo in certain aspects as he is quality at breaking other team's attacks down, not giving players anytime to settle on the ball and his fitness and work rate are second to none. The question is does this offer enough, maybe if we have the creative players ahead of him but for me he is certainly 4th choice behind Gerrard, Xabi and Mascherano and possibly 5th choice now behind Lucas as they are more rounded players who offer more on the ball.

Lucas has an Italian passport so a WP isn't a problem.

A reply from one of the you tube Quaresma links: dionneemma (1 day ago) from an arsenal fan he will sign for liverpool.i have it from a close source that liverpool will make a bid for him next week.

Not to mention the Swede!

Bascombe trying to play down our war chest or are we really gonna have to make do with the "cheaper option" again? If so it could well be Owen and Malouda for £20m with one more coming in with the funds raised from sales, be that Simao, Alves or Mancini.

No. A player who is confident and starting to believe and fit into his surroundings is an asset and likely to play to a high level. When Pennant first arrived everyone said he should be more confident and start taking on players and not be over awed playing alongside the likes of Gerrard. Now he is an has greatly improved and I for one hope he builds on his first season and starts to fulfill his potential.

What made me laugh yesterday on SSN was when all of a sudden they must of had a tip off that Gerrard "was gonna play in a new role, not on the right, not in CM but just off a lone striker." They way they said it was as if they were gobsmacked as if he'd never played there before and hadn't even entertained the idea as they thought it would 2 from Kuyt, Bellamy and Crouch up front. They also couldn't believe it that Rafa wasn't gonna man mark Kaka even tho he explained why not as we don't man mark but defend with a zonal system so expect that old chestnut to rear its head in pre-match analysis tonight!

I've been awake since bloody 5.20am and didn't get to sleep til gone midnight, still a few vodka red bulls and adrenalin should see me through the game!!

Rafa was saying that we won't be man marking Kaka as we use zonal marking, so probably closet man to Kaka will pick him up. So long as we don't give him the space in behind the midfield and attack to run into/play in like Man Utd did we should be ok. This space (if we play 4-2-3-1) will be taken up by (presumeably) Alonso and Mascherano so imagine both will have to stay tight on him. This will probably enable us to keep a better shape too when we counter or get possession back.

I've heard that if Bale is gonna move then it'll be to Spurs and not Man Utd.

Most definitely! I've just got promoted and spoke to my new manager for the first time today who wanted to meet up for a coffee on Thursday but said I had it off cos of the final and she said "Lucky me!" as she'll have to drag herself in. She said we'll catch up next week and talk about how we're 6 times champions of Europe. So a new job and a manager who supports Liverpool!

If we go 4-2-3-1 there'll be some interesting match ups Very simplistic I know!!

I'm off to the Roo Bar in Bristol from about 5.30 to try and get a decent seat. However I did phone them up to ask what time to get there and the bar man said he didn't know what time KO off was!!!

I really can't see Xabi not starting on Wednesday. If he doesn't that means that Zenden or Sissoko will start ahead of him, both of which are carrying knocks and Sissoko out of form or that he's going 4-4-2 with the same team that beat Chelsea. Personally I can't see Rafa doing that against the strength of Milan's midfield as Gerrard and Mascherano could easily get over run against Pirlo, Gattusso, Ambrosini and Seedorf.

They can bring what they want but they won't be prepared for this..... .....Riise striking the ball with his right!!

Quitely confident. I think our midfield (Alonso, Gerrard and Mascherano) will be enough to nulify theirs and give us that edge. Rafa won't becaught out again like he was in Istanbul. Once he knew how to contain them we beat them 3-0! Their strikers aren't a patch on what they had in Istanbul and their full backs are certainly a weak area. Ok Kaka seems to have gone up a level since then (god knows how!) and is the best player in the world but Rafa will know how to stop him (probably Mascherano on him). Crouch's presence will cause them problems at the back and with Kewell and Pennant working the wide areas where there will be space due to their narrow formation.