carrafan

Haha, when United were 8 points behind and Chelsea were scoring many goals people thought that Chelsea were our biggest threat to the title.., a couple of poor performances later they're not? I think a draw would be the best result for us as both end up dropping points and only 2 points are given away as opposed to three if a particular side wins.

Degen for Insua. Bring in Hammill (or Heskey) in for Ngog and replace Pennant with big Sami.

For us, no. Did alright in his first season though. As i said, a waste. Agree with what Ernest Blenkinsop said about Riera.

Always hated them to be honest. They give Newcastle fans a good run for their money in the race of delusions at the beginning of the season.

A fully fit in form Harry Kewell wa a much much better player than Riera. What a waste.

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You are talking from a Liverpool perspective, what i meant was the general opinion about him.

More fans thought that Torres would be a flop than the other way round, most 'pundits' had marked Torres to be the big money flop of the season at the beginning of last year even though Bent had been signed for 17 million. Although those dont count for much, he was rated just as a talent as opposed to a world class buy when Rafa did get him. But almost every big club in the world, showed an interest in him and he was Spain first choice along with Villa in the '06 World Cup. Credit to the team, Rafa and the coaches and to Nando himself for having a great season with us last year...playing with a better bunch of players definitely helped him.

He was rumoured to have an attitude problem didnt he? Pourie, thought he was better than the others? Hope we got some buy back deal placed in there.

FWIW, i still love Houllier who was a good manager without some of the antics you see from some of the managers around, a Liverpool fan and someone who brought us back on the map after a hopeless decade in the 90's. Gerard, though made some mistakes in the transfer market after the season he had his heart attack and hence left a poor squad when he was sacked, one which was clearly going downhill. He made some bad buys and was just unlucky with others. Benitez had to work with that squad with a low on morale Gerrard and an Owen who wanted to leave. Looking back, think we could easily be a mid table side now if we had got the wrong manager then. Rafa has got our squad from there till one respected by teams everywhere, not only in the league but in the whole of Europe. We expect to progress deep into the European Cup every season, no one could have said the same for Houllier's squad. The English league under Houllier's time was also easier to play compared to what the case is now as United and Arsenal were the only two teams truly in the mix for the league. Rafa has had to compete with Chelsea's multi millions, an Arsenal squad which had matured and went over a season unbeaten and a very good United side. Add the backroom drama after the Americans were got in, The fact that he's not only managed to prevent us from going under but actually bridged the gap to the other three is testament to the stellar work he's done here. Spurs, Newcastle and others have spent millions of pounds on players transfer window after window, where are they? We are on top of the league.

Walcott is over two years younger though. To be fair, both players have all the talent in the world. Babel moreso because he's a physical beast, the player who matures quicker will live out their talent.

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To be fair, I do rate Carrick. He keeps things simple, works rate and makes them tick in midfield. Alonso's better at that, Carrick doesnt have the passing range that Xabi does..only Scholes does have that. And Mascherano's a great purely defensive mid, NWR. I cant think on one right now whose visibly better.

Rooney's not even that.

Sorry. Misunderstood ya. Why did Rafa play almost our first team minus Kuyt and Reina today? Was it to only to keep them match fresh? Wouldnt this have a good opportunity to atleast give El Zhar and Ngog a chance instead of say Alonso and Riera who will definitely play the bulk of our games till the end of the season and could have done with an extra week of rest. Darby didnt even feature in the squad list.

Whats up with him? Will he be here till next year or have there been any offers this window? Could use the couple of million euros we get for him.

Gerrard Riera Hyypia

Haha nice pick. In the game against Newcastle, there were two occasions quite similar to today when Babel was just waiting unmarked waiting to tap the ball into goal and Gerrard went for the shot both times. He mis*** the first and scored the second.

Which is what i said.

Babel looked out of sorts on the right but when put back on the left in the 2nd half wasnt too bad. Ran his ass off over lost causes at the end as well and won a long ball that led to our 2nd goal. Think Rafa tried something here but putting him on the right today and it just didnt come off. Robbie Keane's movement is absolutely brilliant. He adds a man in midfield when he comes deep but also times his runs perfectly when he works the channels..his shooting boots werent on today but he's always had a good scoring record at any club he's been at and i see no reason why suddenly he's said to have turned s***. Nando got a freebie today. Lucky git. As A@A said, its more a worry if we arent creating chances and we created a lot today. Just need Alonso to be back against Stoke and all is fine.

GK Casillas RB Sagna CB Carvalho LB Chivu DM Mascherano AM Gerrard RM Messi LM Robben FW Torres Of course, all of Ronaldo, Messi and Robben are forwards and not right or left midfielders. There are very few good wide midfielders around who do their job both attacking and defending.

How is this signing clogging up the reserves? The reserves and U-18's have a bunch of talented forwards but the midfield is rather light. Spearing isnt rated very highly and Plessis has been absolutely cack this season, maybe its because he's already tasted first team action and the step back to the stiffs has been depresing for the lad..but in an ideal situation it should only have spurred him on further; it hasnt. Irwin can do a good job there but he's been preferred at fullback more. Duran is very highly rated but has had a wretched time with injures. This Icelandic boy is rated higher than the likes of Kasami, Poloskei and others who are even younger. I have no problems in signing kids to be fair..maybe not forwards or keeper but competition in other spots can only be good.

Do you have a nickname?

16 million total for a 17 and a 21 year old?! 'Twas 17 million each for Anderson and Nani too wasnt it? And 30 million for Berbatov. Its an absolute shame that everytime a 'pundit' mentions Keane, the the 20 million figure gets branded about everytime but these c**** are just let off.