lawrie

Oh thats OK then

Agreed mate. I read the match threads before I actually got to see the full 90 on Sky and was expecting a woeful performance off the lad. I actually thought his all round play was better than Torres on the day but obviously with his lack of confidence in front of goal he will be scrutinised very unfairly at the moment.

Not really a conspiracy theorist but Liverpool TV is free today and has the first run out of the 60 minute interview with Stevie....

I'm defending Rafa more than I should at the moment to counter balance all the s*** he's getting off the media. What a joke

they beat us comfortably only after Frank scored his customary jammy b*****d goal, after Alonso went off and after we went down to 10 men with our largely second string side. I know you're pissed off but really you need to take a deep breath. Oh and the cost of the team only becomes relevant when people start to question the manager's transfer policy

Most sensible post of the night (and OUR support was f*cking boss)

I actually thought Rafa's 433 worked quite well today until the red card. Will agree that 3 at the back in the latter stages would have been a good idea although perhaps Rafa's position with the owners at the moment means he doesnt want to risk getting stuffed.

Jeez, just hang on, at the moment we're performing at roughly the same level as Chelsea, not bad considering they've spent at least 3 times more than we have in the last 3 years. On Sunday United's team that started cost Ferguson more than double what we paid for our starting line up. We are not competing at the level you require simply because we are not spending the amount of money required. This argument only falls down when you compare us to Arsenal, but Wengers youth programme is at least 5 years ahead of our own (and does anyone seriously think they'll still be up there at the end of the season? )

F*** are we going to have this mass over reaction every time we lose from now till the end of the season? Rafa sent out a team with a game plan. That game plan was working to perfection until fat Frank scored his 'jammy b*****d' goal and then of course Crouch got himself stupidly sent off. Remember Alonso had just been substituted - he was never going to play much more than an hour - and that left us with a midfield of Momo and Lucas. With Lucas having to take over the more defensive role it was always going to be more difficult to score, Crouch going meant it was almost going to be impossible. Taking Babel off may have seen daft to some but he was clearly struggling in the role vacated by Crouch, so really Rafa didnt have many other possibilities. I'm sure if Crouch has stayed on the pitch Yossi would have come on for Babel but on the left. You could argue that Torres and Masch should perhaps have been on the bench, but make no mistake, only one man really lost us that game tonight and it sure as hell wasnt Rafa.

Strangely I also felt we were capable of winning today. As Rafa says it was a small detail that did us. Perhaps our manager just needs to be a tad more expansive when we play the other top four teams, given our awful record against them, its worth a go I think.

Adding up the transfer fees of the players that started today - Manchester United approx. £115.5 million. Liverpool approx. £58 million. This does not include homegrown players Giggs and Brown for United or Gerrard and Carra for Liverpool. It also assumes that the values of Tevez and Masch roughly cancel one another out.....

Its very clear that the wording of Parry's statement is intended to be ambiguous and therefore to decieve. In consequence I am now more than a little worried about the wording of the various statements relesed by Hicks and co which have been almost wholly interpreted as bringing Rafa back from the brink.

Steven George Gerrard, haha Stevie Gee Gee

I'm not Carra's biggest fan and although his distribution is awful and he hasnt really been up to his usual standards this season, I thought yesterday he did a lot of extra work making sure Hobbs was OK

4 3 3 with Voronin and Crouch really was asking for trouble

I haven't changed my mind from the first few games of the season. It has to be Kuyt if you want your two forwards to actually link together.

I suppose it depends where you were in the ground. I was in the Paddock so could hear the Kop loud and clear (to be fair though it WAS rubbish in the Paddock)

It was OK for the first hour then went very flat

Sorry, don't agree, for most games it should be Torres and Kuyt.

Hey up lad, them were the days

Aye, he needs to keep it simple. and just talk about the match

1. Gerrard 2. Torres 3. Lucas

Actually if you're right thats the one chink of light I've gleaned from these message boards today. Rafa looked like he'd climbed down a little in his post match chat yesterday, hopefully he's jumped down a few more steps today.

Don't think there has been for a while tbh. This silliness between Rafa and the Americans needs sorting though, especially if its holding up the Masch deal.

He was immense, well done Stevie