MFletcher

I'd like us to play Kewell and Babel on the wings. We have to win, we're at home, they're really not that great a side. We should go for the jugular. A thumping win would be a real confidence booster as well.

Absolutely Fred - said myself yesterday that we might see a big improvement in Babel if he has a proper footballer in Aurelio rather than Riise or Arbeloa behind him. To be fair, Arbeloa is a more than competent footballer. His problem is that he is right footed, so both of them would be looking to cut in on to their right to cross. Arbeloa/Kewell would be a good combination down the left, as would Aurelio/Babel.

I think Jones has looked quite useful this season. OK, he's probably not going to be good enough for us and I'd be horrified if we spent £12M on him. But he's certainly not the donkey everybody thought he was when Sunderland bought him.

Sometimes when I watch Babel play, it seems like he's the only person trying to make something happen. Against Besiktas, he was trying to take his man on, get shots in etc. Given that we were completely blunt in attack, I was delighted when the ball actually went to Babel, because he was at least trying to do something and be creative. People seem to forget that he is a 20 year old flair player, who is being played in a new position, in a new league with a new team. He needs time. Not everyone will have the same impact in their first season here and it is absolutely pointless to compare players. They are different players. Different metalities, different styles etc. It's not a case of X was great first season, so Y should be as well. It doesn't work like that. He needs time to adjust himself to the pace of the league, to the way his team mates play and he'll learn when to pass and when to shoot. That comes from experience - something he isn't going to have at 20. And the comparison with Cisse is, frankly, laughable. Babel is a naturally gifted footballer. Quick, strong, athletic, excellent technique. He has the attributes to be one of the best players in the league and if we give him time, we'll see that in the years to come. Whether the "I want everything and I want it NOW!" brigade can wait that long is a different question entirely.

Berbatov is a great player. Excellent control, tremendous technique and a good finisher/header of the ball. His "moodiness" is really overplayed quite a bit, although his behaviour when he was on the bench was childish. He is lazy, but he's a selective user of energy. He knows when to run and when not to. Rafa likes his strikers to close down the defence. That's probably one of the reasons Rafa wouldn't be interested. I'd still take him without a second thought though. Great player.

Gerrard's run for that chance was shocking. Absolutely shocking. What was Kuyt meant to do? The Blackburn players were running with him and if he'd passed it to him, they'd have stopped the shot. Gerrard should have checked, lost his marker and made himself available. He didn't. He kept running towards the near post of all places and ended up in a position where even if Kuyt had passed it to him, there was no chance of him scoring. He's scored five this season, has three assists and would have had more assists if not for the continual screwing up of his teammates. I rate Kuyt highly. I think he has been played out of position at times but he has put his head down and tried his hardest to ensure that he plays in that position to the best of his ability. It's certainly something that Elisha's mate should take on board. None of this "I should be playing as a striker" b******s. He takes one for the team, his goal scoring rate suffers and now he's being hounded by sections of our support. And I don't want to hear that two of his goals were penalties. If Crouch had scored them both, it would have been a case of showing real bottle to put them away. If Torres had scored them, it would have been a case of him showing his natural goal scoring touch. But because Kuyt scored them, they're only penalties so who cares. His work rate is excellent and we've looked at our most attacking this season when Torres and Kuyt have partnered each other. He is not a lone striker but was played there on Saturday. He got his head down and tried his hardest to play the role to the best of his ability. Yes he missed a couple of chances, but he was still in the position to miss them. It can't help his confidence to see our fans behind the goal berating him for missing either. Kuyt is a much better player than people give him credit for.

Riquelme is much stronger than people think. Yes he's a lazy so and so, but that's his role. His role in the team is to get the ball, put his foot on it and create something. If he can't create something, then he keeps things ticking over. You have to build the team around him to ensure he gets on the ball enough. If he's not on the ball, he's not going to be doing anything. That's why the Argies play with two - sometimes three - holding midfielders. They do his work for him, win the ball and give it to him. He probably would be a failure for us under Rafa, considering he likes his team players and doesn't want to build the team around one player. Riquelme is also mentally fragile.

Carragher really should shut his mouth sometimes. I was pleased to see Masch tell him to f*** off. He was right as well, there was absolutely nothing on and he might as well have taken a punt. Carragher's getting a dreadful tendency to shout at people in games. The incident that really annoyed me was a minor miscontrol in the midfield. Carra proceeded to advance from defence, hoof the ball into the stand and then start berating them for losing the ball.

I've reached this post in the thread so far, but I really do feel the need to respond to this. You don't pick players like Agger, Alonso and Torres off trees. Rafa spent on areas he felt needed filled in the summer. We bought two wingers, two strikers and a central midfield. The only gap was in defence, and Rafa did try to buy Heinze. A respected poster on RAWK stated at the time that the club were gobsmacked by the decision as they expected it to be an open and shut case. This meant we didn't quite have the time to get in a proper back-up. It is not his fault. If Rafa had brought in another central midfielder to cover for Alonso, people would have been up in arms at him for spending money on a non-necessary position. Players like Alonso are coveted by all teams and you're not getting one on the cheap. The same with Torres, the same with Agger. Really, your comment is so ridiculous it borders on the laughable. Put the Rafa bashing stick away and apply some common sense. Agger and Alonso are integral to the way we play and they're injured. It's a reason as to why we're so disjointed at the minute - not an excuse. No-one expected Sami would have to play this run of games and, as a consequence, we're forced to drop deeper to accommodate his lack of pace. Now, with the £7M that Rafa had left in the summer to spend - that was going to go on Heinze - perhaps you would like to suggest a left sided, ball playing, defensively solid, technically sound central defender that could be brought in to cover for Agger who A) won't mind sitting on the bench as constant rotation would dent Agger's development B) will cost less than £7M. It's not football manager where you can go into the search engine, filter players who have the necessary stats and then go and buy them.

Rafa will take one of two approaches to Bentley and Pedersen. We'll either go with the defensive option, designed to restrict their space and stop them getting crosses in. Or we'll go with the offensive option, where we'll play an attacking player and force them back into their own half. Knowing Rafa, we'll attack one side and defend the other - so something like Riise at left midfield and Gerrard on the right would suit. Pedersen is out of form, so Gerrard can drive at him and force him back, giving Masch and Momo the chance to break up their midfield and stop Tugay from passing it about. Riise's job will be to restrict Bentley and keep it simple once he gets the ball. That's my view on the tactical side anyway. Blackburn are a good side and they are probably the toughest away outside of the top four. I'm not sure playing Crouch would suit for this game, given that Samba is more or less the same size and should be able to handle him in the air. Kuyt/Voronin is a partnership that most dread but if we can ensure that one (Kuyt) stays more advanced and doesn't drop deep then we can allow Gerrard to cut in field and look for them. In the second half, we can bring on Yossi/Kewell/Babel/Crouch etc. to stretch the game and try and break them down if we're still at 0-0. I'd much rather see a 4-2-3-1 with Crouch at the top, Masch and Lucas in midfield and Gerrard, Babel and Benayoun alternating positions. We'd have the players to get in around and Crouch's knockdowns then. He's been poor away from home this season, but he's the most suited of our three fit strikers to the system.

He can't turn around in the Israeli media and say he hopes Grant gets sacked. It wouldn't look good for him there. Please take that into context. Anyway, Yossi is a quality player. I expect we'll see a lot more of him in the second half of the season. He's a great little player who can beat his man, create goals and score them as well. He's certainly a bigger threat than Pennant, and he works his socks off for the team. £5M. Bargain.

I have the exact same team in Fantasy Rafa. I'd like to see Babel get a start up front - if we go with Crouch and Voronin/Kuyt we'll have no real pace again in the attack.

I'm sorry, but the idea that a goalkeeper has to make a series of "Hollywood saves" in order to be effective is just plain daft. Part of Reina's brilliance is his positioning and the way in which he can make even the more difficult saves seem easy.

I don't think you can blame the two of them for being played together. They're similar players and they'll both do their best for the team, but it's not their fault that they've been paired together and started to run into each other. I'd quite like to see Babel played up front alongside Kuyt. If we go with Crouch with Kuyt/Voronin, we'll have a complete lack of pace again and I really don't want to see that.

Eboue is a spiteful c***. The sooner a player takes exception to his play-acting and gives him a proper reason to roll around on the ground "in agony" the better.

We've made obvious strides forward. Our away form has been fantastic this season, but I can't quite understand why we've been so dire at home. Four draws out of five at Anfield is a very poor record indeed.

Sissoko was ill. And if Alonso had to come off, we could have simply moved Gerrard to the centre, moved Kuyt/Voronin up front, the other to the wing and brought Babel/Benayoun on and gone 4-4-2. As it was, Alonso was forced off when we were 1-0 up with twenty minutes left and they were running the show. By bringing Arbeloa on, the aim was clearly to settle for what we had.

It's because Rafa has the players closing down all the time when we don't have the ball. There really is only so much running you can do before you start to struggle.

I think Carra came back a bit early from his rib injury and he's suffering for that. Really though, we were playing like the away team yesterday and were basically chasing the ball for most of the game. Torres was a passenger in the first half and the rest of the team needed to cover for him and Alonso. It's no surprise they were getting tired towards the end.

I think we need a left winger, a left back, a centre back and a striker. Kewell is as good as gone, Riise is probably going to be moved on, Sami is over the hill these days and Crouch will probably move as well.

Riise did nothing but hoof the ball all day. It's an embarrassment that you can claim that Mascherano and Kuyt were worse than him in their use of the ball. Mascherano was immense today. We have to sign him up on a permanent deal.

I just don't understand why we played Kuyt and Voronin out wide in a 4-3-3 when we had Babel and Benayoun - two players infinitely more capable of playing such a formation - on the bench. They can both beat their man. Voronin and Kuyt are good, honest, hardworking players but they're not wingers. And how in the hell was Torres deemed fit to play in that game? It's ridiculous. He was struggling from kick-off. Mascherano was an absolute star though. In the last few minutes, he was haring back at full speed despite being unable to run properly. A fantastic performance from him. Really though, Arsenal's quality was so far above ourselves it was staggering. They were passing it around as though they were the home team and we just couldn't get the ball off them. When we did get the ball, we simply gave it back to them.

Xabi breaking the same bone is unfortunate. Torres playing with an injury is stupidity. He was struggling from kick off. How the hell the medical team thought he was fit to play I have no idea.

Mascherano Reina Carragher

Do we not usually have separate threads for the build up/game and then another one afterwards when everyone turns up and abuses the players/manager/physio/bus driver for us not performing well enough?