yellow jumper

all of these things are linked. players, being players, will find excuses. it's easy to blame rotation, the takeover, benitez's man management skills, the loss of pako etc. when things aren't going well. in fact it may be none of those things, but just the fact that they're looking for excuses at all. of course, ultimately it's the managers job to work things out. but if we have significant numbers of players playing the blame game we'll struggle to win the league whoever's in charge. shows a lack of character and desire. think it's the other way around. you try to have a settled defense if at all possible. the back four need to be drilled, the attacking players can work more off the cuff, assuming they have a bit of talent. for reasons of form and injury we haven't had a settled back four this season. crouch is a better partner for him strangely. allows him to get into the box and feed off knockdowns. torres' pace makes it much harder for him to get into threatening positions i think.

don't agree with the initial statement, as i think we have more holes in the squad than them.but this is the first season in three they've outperformed us. things can change quickly.

i don't think they all have. some of them might. those that have aren't top class players, even if they, and everyone else believes they are.

i don't know. but if we do, i'll feel very happy and if we don't i won't. if arsenal finish second their fans won't be dancing in the street because they challenged, they'll be wondering why they haven't won anything for the fourth season in a row.

the back and the front aren't seperate entities. if you're fragile at the back it effects the entire team. even barcelona or manchester united or real madrid with their 30 million attackers and reputation for gung-ho football have shown that if the defensive side of their game isn't right the whole team is affected. we don't have their attacking talent either. the games in which we've scored lots of goals this season are the ones in which we've controlled the opposition defensively. either because they've been powder puff or because the defence has played well as a unit. newcastle, galatasaray, marseilles, derby etc. how many chances did those teams create against us in those games? on saturday barnsley rode their luck, but they also looked a threat on the break and were creating enough chances to give them hope. as well as getting skrtel, agger and carragher fit, i really believe we need to add two top class full backs, as that's the position that offers the biggest outlet in the modern game, links defence and attack, and gives all the width. ronaldo's considered a winger, but how many times in a game does he actually get to the byline and cross the ball in the traditional sense. he attacks the goal. the same is true of arsenal's wide midfielders. or barcelona's. real madrid have started to do it too with robben on the right and robinho on the left. all the width comes from energetic, attacking full backs like clichy, evra, salgado, zambrotta etc. which in turn creates a dilemma for the defending full back. alves alone would revolutionize the way we play.

are arsenal actually going to win anything this season?

i think picking dalglish wouldn't be far off the keegan appointment at newcastle. the game's changed over twenty years, and while kenny was, and still could be a great inspiration, i have doubts he has either the desire or the expertise at this stage to manage the modern liverpool. it's no longer the club he took over, or left. or even the same game for that matter.

really good post that.

i take your point about itandje, but the defence hasn't been right all season. carragher's been average on the whole, and at times - yersterday being a case in point - not very good at all. hyppia's still a great reader of the game and under the high ball, but he's just not mobile enough to defend a high line. next summer we need to add dynamic full backs on both sides of the pitch, with carragher, skrtel and agger competing for the two central berths. i think if we get back to being watertight defensively - and surely no one can question benitez's ability to make that happen - with the benefit of two quality raiding full backs i think we could be much better pretty quickly. yesterday there were huge gaps between attack, midfield and defence again. and that comes down to our central defenders, for me. everytime barnsley broke carragher and hyppia looked vunerable, backing off all the time. we're so stretched that it inevitably effects our ability to pass the ball.

benitez is a proven winner over numerous seasons with different teams. mourinho comes in and wins it next year, i'll credit rafa shall i?

carson was a good buy. i haven't seen mihaylov at all, but at the very least it looks like we'll make a quick profit on him. itandje was shocking. i thought the same about carra today.

cudicini, fabianski, and kuscsak have all played at least as many games for their clubs this season. reina for 6 mil, carson and mihaylov for peanuts. he can pick a keeper better than most.

no one with any sense is saying that. you're wilfully ignoring perfectly sensible arguments on the other side of things. which isn't to say rafa's beyond criticism. the players who perform week in week out rarely get rotated.

pitiful, if true.

moyes has been given time, despite a few bad seasons

moreintes cost 6 million and was regarded as one of the best strikers in europe at the time. crouch has increased in value and was an important part of the team that got 82 pts. bellmay was also good value and a player we made a profit on. voronin was a free to replace fowler. torres is torres (and the only one who cost a really big fee). so kuyt then.

i pay less attention to the others, but i think most of the top teams are rotating to some extent or another, perhaps just with more quality. generally our best players play. the players getting rotated are the likes of benayoun, riise, aurelio, babel, crouch, pennant etc. if we had ronaldo, do you think he'd get rotated any more than he does at united?

i think disappointment is part of being a player at a big club. step up and show you're un-rotatable. i understand that you might not agree with it, and i too think he sometimes tinkers too much, but it isn't as outlandish and uncommon a policy as is often made out.

he has the highest premiership points total in our history, betwen two european cup final appearances. yeah, he's s***. if we were finishing second for four years with 70/80 points and winning nothing. there'd be just as many, if not more, moaning on here.

what has the impact is how the players prepare for the game during the week. everyone's kept involved, and no one knows exactly who'll be playing. that way they should all be motivated to perform in training and will also be comfortable with the system being used wheteher in the starting xi or not. it's the same policy capello uses.

that's because you're letting a bad six months cloud your vision. which erratic purchases?

i don't think there is a manager out there who could take this club forward any quicker than benitez has. i think that he is the most visionary man at the club. and needs to be backed. i think he's the one showing the ambition to build something significant and is being hobbled.

fair enough. personally i think that turning around a twenty year title drought is a bigger job than three or four years allows, and that small backwards steps are sometimes a part of evolving into a better team. expectations inevitably change when you win a european cup, not only from a fans and media point of view, but also opponents. benitez has made mistakes. he's also done a lot right. i think the squad's getting younger and more talented year on year, compared to the aging, injury ravaged one he took over. i also think for the first time in an age we're making money on players when we look to move them on. he's also been working with hands tied for much of the last year.

he's needed to spend less money. he won the title four years ago. the constanst comparisons are becoming really dull. wenger's clearly a very good manager working under very different cirumstances, anyone looking at his record over recent years will also see he isn't infallible either. can benitez take us forward with the correct backing?

i don't think we're good enough. the back four we've used this season would struggle to raise 20 million on the market if we sold them. how does that compare to our rivals? everyone assumes we've just got great defenders, i think we've got a great manager at organising a defence. player for player, i think we have the goalkeeper, central midfield and a striker. i think our record in the domestic cups is a decent one. the arsenal example proves a lot of other things too. it proves that even when you've won a title it can take three years to build a side to challenge again. it also proves, with patience, the value of a strong youth policy. it shows that since chelsea joined the party it's become harder and harder to win things. it's also the only example of a side achieving significant things with a lower spend.