MFletcher

Pellegrino went the summer that Reina came in. Josemi left in January of that year and Traore the summer of 2006. So Reina played 0 games with Pellegrino, half a season with Josemi and a season with Traore.

Reina, Buffon and Casillas are the three best goalkeepers in the world.

Newcastle fans have delusions of grandeur and believe that - for the money they've paid and the support they give to the team - they are deserving of a team who are: A) capable of passing the ball around to a decent level B) don't resort to hoofing it C) playing the players they have in the correct positions D) not isolating a striker they have paid £17M for Allardyce is the sort of third-rate gobs***e who sets his team up to hoof the ball, win a knockdown and win the second ball. It worked at Bolton because he brought in players who were incapable of proper football eg. Kevin Davies. Now he is presented with an expensive squad of players, who have experience at top clubs and at the top level, and he hasn't a baldy what to do with them. I hate Newcastle just as much as Allardyce, so him getting sacked and them getting relegated would be excellent. I do expect him to be sacked though, and rightly so. The way he gets on is an embarrassment to himself and to Newcastle. His interviews are cringeworthy and he will end up at some other third-rate club where he will repeat his Bolton trick of hoofing the ball, diving to win set pieces and generally acting a c***. And he dislikes foreign managers because he thinks they are obstructing his way to the top clubs. As if any top club would ever consider taking him on. I'm still amazed he thinks he should have had the England job. That would have been even more laughable than SCS finally being appointed.

I assume he means Lescott, but I could be wrong.

Fair point actually. You'd think one of them - Kuyt most likely - would have been told to play right up top and leave the other to work between the lines.

He seems comfortable on the ball, so he could probably do a job at full back. I can't say with any certainty unfortunately. I've only seen him a limited number of times.

Torres' penalty record for Atletico was dodgy. He missed as often as he scored. I'd trust Kuyt, Alonso, Gerrard, Agger, Mascherano and Kewell.

Voronin was great on Saturday. Good ball control, great strength etc. He drove at the defence, played one-twos, hit a great cross in towards Hyypia. His finishing was a wee bit off, but he didn't receive a single chance he "should" have scored. I was worried by his recent dip in form - mainly a concern that he was slowing returning to "his level" following a boost from being at a new club and playing at Anfield. Thankfully his two recent performances have shown it to be merely a minor blip in form. Great player. Free transfer. Bargain.

He's a reliable poster. Kompany has real potential - Carra's long term replacement most likely. But I'm sure I've read that he's injury prone, which wouldn't be a positive start.

Can you link to the post mate? Either way, we do need cover in the centre of defence. My understanding is that Kompany is made of glass though.

At the same time, Arbeloa looks more capable of getting down the line at speed with the ball,. He's also pretty good with the ball at his feet. Finnan's crossing is much better at the minute, but the understanding between Yossi and Arbeloa has been great in the past couple of games. It's great to have two genuinely great right backs competing for the one spot. Arbeloa is just as good at left back as well.

I disagree about the availability of a "load more quality holding midfielders" but I do understand what your point of view is. I think we'd struggle to find someone of Masch's quality, especially someone who allows Gerrard to attack and be the quality goalscoring midfielder you are referring to. I really rate him - as you can probably tell - and I think he's a credit to the club. This really isn't a swipe at Gerrard BTW - he's a fantastic player and we're lucky to have him at the club. But if you want to challenge for major honours, you'll have to beat the better teams. And to beat the better teams you need to have a player of the quality of Masch in the holding midfield role. Having an "adequate" player there isn't really good enough when Kaka is charging at you with the ball at his feet.

Rubbish. Quite seriously, who do you suggest replacing him with? I challenge you to find a defensive midfielder we can replace his qualities with. This guy shut Kaka down completely in the CL final and has shown his outstanding tackling, positioning, discipline, hard work on more than one occasion. Never mind that his passing has started to find it's range - the pass to Benayoun for our eighth goal on Tuesday was absolutely world class. Or the fact that he was crocked against Arsenal but still ran half the length of the pitch to try and help the defence. He can play with anyone in centre midfield and he's only 23. Gerrard is 28 and there is a raging debate about whether he's actually a central midfielder, a right winger etc. He can't play with certain types of player in midfield either, and if we put him on the right then there's a fair chance he'll sulk again. Especially given the comments in his autobiography about the right being the "graveyard shift" and he has repeatedly gone on record to say he wants to play in the middle. I think we could put Masch in goal and he'll roll his sleeves up and work his a*** off to make sure he didn't look out of place. Masch is certainly not "far more replaceable" than Gerrard. I'd sooner sell Gerrard than not secure Masch on a long-term deal. That's how important I believe he will be in the coming years to us.

If we play with Babel on the left and Sissoko in the centre then it will really cut down on the options available to Crouch. Momo isn't going to break from midfield like Gerrard and Babel will cut in from the left, rarely going outside his full back to get a cross in. Thus Pete gets isolated and is basically useless due to his lack of pace.

If we're to play with Crouch in the team, then we'll need the likes of Aurelio and Arbeloa at full back, Gerrard in centre midfield and Kewell on the left wing. Then we can play to Crouch's qualities. If we aren't going to look for Crouch from crosses or give him runners from midfield to link up with then he's not going to do very much and shouldn't play. It's not his fault, it's simply the limitations in his game.

I think it's good to have debate about the players. Everyone has a different opinion about each player. In the Mascherano thread, I've stated my belief that Masch is more important to our long term success than Gerrard. Others won't agree of course, but this forum would be a particularly boring place if everyone agreed with each other.

Gerrard is an incredibly important player for us, I'm not debating that. Great player. But I do think Mascherano is more important to our long-term success than he is, given his age and role in the team.

My opinion is that Masch, Xabi and Torres are the three "best" players at the club. Yes, Carra, Gerrard and Reina are great players but the midfield partnership of Masch and Xabi will probably be the best in the world in years to come. Torres has already shown in his short time here the skill, pace and determination to be one of the world's best strikers. I doubt many people will agree but it's only an opinion.

Of course I haven't. I have seen a good chunk of them - whether that's through the internet or on TV and I have been very, very impressed with him. He is in the top 3 best players at Liverpool alongside Alonso and Torres.

It is certainly not "way, way, way over the top". Have you seen his performances in recent matches, or indeed at the tail end of last season? He's a vital player for our future. He is easily one of our most important players - and probably the best player in the world in his position on recent evidence. And he's only 23. I'm still amazed that there are people questioning him...

Xabi really is a top bloke. I daresay that him signing a new five year contract last summer was easily the best piece of business we've done since, well, 2004 - when we bought him in the first place. He's a great player and a credit to the club.

I'd quite like to see the same team from Tuesday night, except with Kewell instead of Riise on the left wing. I think it could be a great attacking formation and we'd put Fulham to the sword. I do expect Rafa to change it about, but I'm hopeful that both Benayoun and Crouch will start on Saturday.

Yossi Masch Voronin

At the end of the day, we need a new stadium to keep pace with United and Arsenal. Once the stadium has been built, the increased capacity will mean a much larger income, and a much larger operating profit - meaning the interest payments on the new loan won't have as large an impact on our finances as people think. We didn't have the capability to build a new stadium under Moores, and we were struggling to buy players. Kuyt's fee came out of Moores' own money. If he had remained in charge, we'd have no Torres, Babel, Lucas etc. We'd be trying to build a completely uninspiring 60,000 capacity cereal bowl and most would be complaining that he should have stepped aside to allow for increased player funding and a better stadium.

I can only hope that our owners don't subscribe to the "I want everything and I want it now" school that you seem to agree with...