yellow jumper

i'd like to see kewell start alongside, or just behind crouch on sunday. with garcia left and gerrard right. with the option for the three of them to swap around depending on how the game's going. alonso/hamman in the middle.

there were far too many long balls and not enough concerted pressure, incisive passing on the edge of the birmingham penalty area. lack of movment from the front two? or a lack of imagination from midfield, defence? other than kewell, i thought the midfield was under-par. hamman and gerrard became too stretched. not sure if this is a defence of morientes. it might be. he certainly played his part for the goal.

he did the same to staltieri recently. and rio ferdinand against england. he's might be soft, but i think his strength is one of his great strengths (thanks go to KK for that one). thought pennant was great on wednesday. saw him against pompey recently and he was very good then too. definitely the best crosser of a ball in the premiership right now.

lee sharpe went on loan i think. the way in which the reserve sides and academies produce talent has changed though. i think the strike rate will be far higher as they're looking to get the quality in far earlier then ever before. look how many premiership quality players arsenal have seen throught there system in the last few years. bentley, pennant, fabregas, toure, senderos, cole, clichy, hoyte etc. how long did terry spend in the chelsea stiffs? he certainly spent a few years behind the likes of desailly, lebeouf and gallas in the pecking order.

em, over. love that.

that's it. most everyone sees the potential in FSP. the period in which he begins to show he can fulfil that potential is now. sitting on the bench once every five games isn't going to make that happen. he's yet to show much in the prem. if he's to make it as a red he needs to show he can cut it in that competition first and foremost. a move to rovers is ideal.

maybe he could get together with that other famous footballing saxophonist, nolberto solano, to record a collection of all time favourite terrace chants. featuring kenny g, glen hoddle and paul gascoigne in a reworking of "don't cry for me argentina".

i think they bring different qualities to similar areas of the pitch and will both be used as regular first team members. for what it's worth, i agree with those who say we've missed luis in recent weeks.

yeah, think he might have been a little worried about the ease with which evra was getting forward too. without garcia and hamman on the bench his midfield options were limited as well.

we were getting a little stretched and i was surprised rafa didn't go 4-5-1 early second half. and try to get gerrard into the game as more of an attacking threat. couldn't really work out the ste/momo swap.

i'd imagine benitez would be pretty aware of how much he has to spend before he scouts a player. in which case you'd think he was also involved on the value judgements too.

personally i believe the "bring back owen" thinking is all wrong. it's putting a bad result before proper consideration of our performance. i accept a lethal goalscorer might have tipped the balance today, but i don't think he'd have changed the quality of the performance in the final third. other than crouch and alonso i thought what we lacked more than anything was composure on the ball, particularily at the back and with cisse up front . while owen might have turned one chance into a result i don't think it's unreasonable with the foundations we are now building to expect this side to evolve into something more than a hit-and-run outfit. if anything, i'd like to see a different kind of forward player brought in: a creative, ball running threat in the rooney or giggs mould. they were the real stand out performers today, and probably the only real element of the game in which they held the edge over us.

i know wenger has a good record of making signings out of the leftfield. but splashing £12 million on a 16 year-old seems a touch reckless given the current state of their squad and finances. two or three years down the line they might have a team world beaters, but as it stands their midfield looks powder-puff and their defence continues to concede silly goals. how long can they afford to wait for a bunch of teenagers to come good? seems like a hell of a risk to me.

the heskey, owen, anelka period was the best we looked under houllier i thought. hard to believe he'd have been any more troublesome than diouf. he'd certainly have been better on the pitch. from ged's point of view i thought he made the wrong call on that one. wouldn't entertain having him back now though.

his finishing hasn't been any better or worse than i expected. he was never a fowler from what i saw of him in france. it's the rest of his game that's disapointed. the everton goal, his whole performance in fact, offered a glimmer of hope. not only did he beat his defender by not just trying to knock it and run, he finished with a cool side-foot rather than just t***ting it as hard as he could. beyond that he also looked better linking, and worked harder generally

i think for the kind of money being talked about he needs to be a hell of a lot more than just a decent prospect with lightning pace. if you added a couple of seconds onto his 100m time would he still be worth mega-bucks?

we should go there looking to pass and move them off their own pitch.

the hype's irresistible.

i'm not dismissing them, i'm just suggesting that a killer goalscorer isn't a panacea. the difference between the sides you mention and ourselves and spurs is that we're both teams that are making giant strides forward without the help of natural finisher. instead relying on a hold-up player predominantly and midfield strength behind that. which "on the shoulder" striker are you suggesting we go for? would he be a first pick? for how much? what differentiates this player from cisse? you can't seperate the improvement we've made in the league this season from the change in the strikers we're using (both from an offensive and a defensive point of view). we look as dominant a force as we have for many years using a back to the goal striker with a between the lines man in behind. beyond that we have at least two other options in pongolle and cisse. not to mention garcia, gerrard and kewell. all of whom have or will get their fair share of goals.

defoe benched. cisse benched. crespo benched. van nistelrooy's the only prolific goalscorer getting a regular starting berth for a top 4 side. probably just a case of mourinho, benitez, and jol being "too clever".

saw charlton brum on saturday. and sutton was very good, never really rated him, but he won everything in the air and his first touch was a class apart. charlton were truly awful, very lucky to win. rooney/ibrahimovic would be my choice.

not sure how morientes/crouch constitutes 442, while aimar/mista doesn't, other than in people's perceptions of who and what a striker is. think what benitez asks that second forward to do is generally the same in terms of the space they occupy and defensive work they're expected to do. perhaps we just had a string of easier games, many of them at home. morientes got fit. crouch got intergrated.

maybe robben had been watching footage of jose's touchline sprint at old trafford a few seasons back.

more than just a coincidence, perhaps? not in mourinho's mind.