yellow jumper

just a pity ged isn't their manager any more. he knows how to get the job done.

robinho's was nice too.

played full back twice this season, been directly involved in two goals. his crossing's good.

insua's not ready defensively, although that shouldn't exclude him from the smaller cup fixtures. didn't think he had a great game last night, but obviously a talent.

much like kaizer's 'stats' in that regard.

i bet derby have rotated less than us too.

perry groves was the ginger pele, or more simply pele groves. i think lucas has shown some promise, but hasn't reached any level of consistency even within the space of a single 90 minutes. i think for a 20-year-old he's got a pretty impressive appreciation of the game, knows when to get forward and when to sit. and doesn't hide, always wants the ball. don't think he looked out of place in either the inter game or the chelsea match recently in an essentially defensive role. and made a difference in an attacking sense when he came on against west ham and everton. i agree with those who say he needs to adjust physically. but that isn't unusual for those coming into the english game from abroad. with time and confidence he'll improve.

less obviously bad challenges?

he's quality. rafinha's good going forward, but he's only about 5'5 and not a great defender.

are "cautious european coaches" any different to cautious english ones? the tenets of benitez and houllier's management are as different as their personalities. and a european coach, however cautious, is likely to be far more aware of the benefit of an attacking full back than his english counterparts. rafa tried to sign dani alves three seasons ago.

true. sagna's probably the best crosser of the ball they've had in a while, and adebayor probably the best header.

was good too. for those of a sensitive nature this clip contains gratuitous footage of jon arne riise's left foot.

i'd say europe is the truest test of a manager's tactical nous. there are only styles and approaches in the premiership. in that sense benitez is probably guilty of over-complicating things in that particular competition. i think the speed of the english game makes it much harder to control games without either exceptional talent or exceptional athletes, or in the preeminent cases both. i think rafa's admitted as much recently. how else do we explain the discrepancy between the domination of the english game by a world class 'shouter' like ferguson, the subsequent economic strength of his club, and his relative paucity of european success?

i'd say the most encouraging thing about lucas at the moment is his movement.

this sort of stuff is usually the prelude to an arsenal meltdown. or is it the other way around?

his record in europe is pretty good, about 1 in 3. i just don't think he gets as many opportunities in the premiership, which is in part down to his own deficiencies, and in part down to the team's.

sure. maybe he wasn't the best example, but on early viewings he looks physically equipped for it at least. he's not going to get bullied. the same with babel, who still has a lot to prove, but from day one looked big and fast enough to go with the little flashes of ability. i just think the idea that rafa doesn't get the premiership is a false one. he is slowly but surely trying to address our limitations in that competition. even before this summer i think the signings of players like agger, gonzalez, sissoko were an attempt to make us quicker, more athletic. with varying success obviously. but that's true of any manager. i think given genuine big money he's shown he can get it right more often than not.

the european game is slower. we'll progress in the premiership by adding players that can cope better with the pace at which it is played. we have a few now but not enough. our european success is completely down to rafa's genius. his approach can work in england too, but he needs to add players with the physical skills as well as the technical ones. he's shown by signing torres, mascherano (almost), babel and skrtel that he's grasping that fact.

two holding midfielders only makes sense if you regard your full backs as attacking players. it can be really effective then. as brazil prove time and again.

the two go hand in hand. the bigger the gaps the harder it is to press effectively. a pressing midfield and a defence that's dropping off becomes a recipe for disaster. we either sit as a team, or we press as a team. not one half doing one thing and the other half doing something else.

that's probably true, but i also think that because we're stretched the midfield particularly are having to put out more fires over much larger areas this season. there's a difference between not conceding many goals and having a solid platform from which to build attacks and control the game. the quality with which the ball comes out from the back is obviously critical to the attacking game, in the same way that strikers can defend from the front, defenders can influence the attacking side of the game. not only with how they use the ball, but the positions they hold on the field. if the back four are comfortable coming up the pitch to hold a high line when we're attacking it makes us far more compact. if they aren't, we'll always be susceptible to the counter. it's also why the famous back five that wenger inherited were so important in allowing him to win the league so quickly. i don't believe united were playing 'go for the throat' football from day one either. we're scoring more goals, but we've gone backwards defensively this season.

i'll put you down for a 'no' to mourinho then. i don't believe rafa's a defensive coach. i think he believes in a defensive platform from which to control midfield and build attacks. at the moment i just don't think we've got that platform.

the major difference is the speed of the game. which make it less easy to control without a very physical set of players. as soon as wenger suspects a player isn't physically up to it he generally gets rid. i can only really think of bergkamp who defied that rule, and he was the biggest genius of them all. i think we have some good technical players, and some good athletes, but not enough who have those two things in combination. we need more signings of the torres, babel, skrtel, agger ilk.

if a manager puts eleven men behind the ball and loses 1-0, is that the fault of his strikers or the fault of his defenders? it's an over-simplification of our problem, but just because we don't concede many goals and score less than our rivals doesn't mean to say that the problems all lie with our strikers and not with our defenders. i don't blame carragher, but i do think he has limitations (even at his best) and has dropped his level this season. i don't blame sami, but i don't think we'll get anywhere near winning the league if we have to rely on him on a regular basis. i do think carra-hyppia at centre-half is now a considerably worse partnership than arsenal, united, and chelsea. i also suspect it may be worse than what villa, everton and man city have had to call on this season.