MFletcher

Arbeloa is just a consistently excellent player - to pick him up for £2.65M is unbelievable. The terrifying thing is we could have had Lucas Neill in the line-up instead.

He's an exceptional player. He's still young, but he always seems to be in complete control of the game. When he's in the team, I have complete confidence that the other team won't socre. He always seems to be there, making safe tackles and looking forward when he has the ball. I would quite happily fork out £20M for him without a second thought. He's going to be the best player in the world in his position. He'll give Gerrard, the wingers etc. the freedom to attack properly because they know he'll be cleaning up anything behind them.

As a Northern Irishman, I have nothing but contempt for the England team and the media-frenzy that surrounds it. Liverpool pay his wages and why he thinks the Premier League is doing Rafa a favour by allowing him to work here... The guy is blinded by patriotism. That's all fair and well, but he wanted Nobby Solano to stop playing for Peru. Is that because Peru isn't as important as England? The article is filled with false information and inaccurate assessments. I like Bobby, but he's talking complete and total nonsense there.

I had Riise in for Arbeloa today, but I got the other ten right. It will be harder after the internationals though.

I reckon we'll win 4-0 with Torres getting a brace.

When you can buy a good, solid squad player like Arbeloa from Spain for £2.65M? I maintain that if they're good enough then they'll make it through to the first team squad, regardless of competition. The likes of Darren Fletcher and Kieran Richardson were "good solid squad players" for the Mancs - that doesn't mean I'd be in anyway interested in having our own versions.

I recall an interview on Five Live with Dominic Matteo saying that, when Stevie was 14, he could tell he was destined for the first team. In the same way, Owen would always make the breakthrough as would Fowler. The question is whether they are good enough. It's OK giving the kids chances, but they're either good enough or they're not. You can't play someone simply because they're from the area - their game isn't going to leap from poor to above average simply because they're wearing the Liverpool shirt.

The guy is made of glass. We'll be lucky to get thirty games out of him this season.

That's what I think as well. But he'll have "agents" advising him - and they could well see a huge payout for themselves in such a transfer deal. They won't necessarily put his interests first.

I'm questioning whether he'll start to "believe the hype" about himself - especially if the English media constantly ask him about his position. We could see an "Owen deal" tomorrow. Highly unlikely, but the only reason Owen went to Newcastle was to cement his place in the WC squad. Maybe Crouch will feel similarly about the Euros. It is extremely unlikely of course.

I think it's tabloid rubbish myself.

It's the English media though - not Crouch's fault. They like stories with an England-focus to appeal to fans of other clubs. They're going to continue this rubbish all season if Crouch is in and out of the squad - let alone in and out of the team. The reason I'm pushing Anelka was because he wanted to come here last time, he's made it clear he'd love to player here again and, apparently, he accepted a low contract offer to come here before Houllier had to pull the plug - believing he'd reject the contract. As far as I'm aware, no player had a bad thing to say about him when he was here.

Anelka offers more than Crouch on the pitch and would get more game time. Crouch is being used in certain games, whereas Anelka would have the pace and skill to play in any game. Is it against the rules to believe that another player is better than one currently on the books?

Mirror claims that he's been offered to us for £8M. Great player in his Sevilla days, but he moved to Madrid and stalled his career... Wenger didn't exactly play him a lot either.

Just because Crouch is keeping Bent out of the England team doesn't mean he's a better player. Ledley King kept Carra out of the England team - as did Wes Brown at right back. Does that make them better players? Of course not. The reason Bent went for so much is because he is young, English, pacey and can clearly finish well. He allows Spurs to play on the counter attack comfortably, because his pace will rip teams apart. If we were offered over £12M for Crouch - our fourth choice striker who is attracting headlines every time he doesn't make the squad or scores when he does - then I'd definitely consider it. I'd then buy Anelka as his replacement, activating his £9M release clause. I think it would be a good deal for us.

I'm hoping we'll move for Chiellini, but after that I'm not too fussed. I'm happy with our squad but feel that relying on Arbeloa to cover all three defensive positions could backfire. Especially considering that Aurelio is made of glass and probably won't get through the season without a couple of niggling injuries.

I liked Flo-Po. I always thought he had a good attitude and he scored some important goals for us. I wanted him to come back from his loan and fight for a place in the squad - I think he's good enough. At the end of the day though, he's at an age where he needed to move and play regular football and that just wasn't going to happen for him here. Le Tallec is woeful compared to Pongolle.

My take on it is that Crouch is unhappy with his lot at the club. He's probably annoyed at missing out on the final - and I'd expect him to be. Now he's missed out on two Premiership squads altogether and has only played 187 minutes of five matches. It's OK to want to play games, but he has to remember where he was this time 32-33 months ago. He was in Southampton reserves as they battled relegation. He'd have given anything for the opportunity he has now. I think he's been a good signing, but Rafa stood by him when he went 19 games without scoring and I think he'd do well to acknowledge that Rafa has allowed him to make the jump from average journeyman to leading international. To be brutally honest, I think he's starting to believe some of his own press. That he's the first man to hit X amount of goals in X amount of games for England etc. But the fact remains that he's the weakest of our four strikers in terms of options and mobility and he still can't head the ball. He didn't exactly answer his critics last night - he simply demonstrated that the old problems remain. That for every one chance he'll put away, he'll miss three or four excellent opportunities. I'd go as far as to say that two of them were sitters. It's good for him to be upset and angry at missing out - I'd be shocked if he wasn't. But he can have no complaints at his position in the squad. His heading is woeful sometimes and that can lead to many good scoring opportunities being spurned. He's not going to create a goal for himself either - unlike Torres or Kuyt (his first last night - the one-two with Babel and the finish were superb. Not quite "by himself", but Crouch would never score a similar goal - he's too slow). I'm a Crouch fan and don't believe his comments last night were intended to highlight his unhappiness, but if he does start to moan during the season he'll be off in the next window - Rafa won't appreciate such indiscipline in the squad.

I also read an article that claimed that Agger and Sissoko were "misses". I usually consider such articles on Rafa's transfer dealings comical as the person writing it is usually clueless. I thought our play last night was excellent though. When you consider that Gerrard, Carragher, Alonso, Torres, Aurelio, Kewell, Voronin, Pennant etc. didn't even step foot on the pitch, it makes you appreciate just how strong our squad is at present. Some of ours goals last night were really excellent. I thought that Kuyt's two goals were especially well taken. In the third, there was a good long ball up to Crouch, a good through ball to Kuyt and a wonderful give and go to Babel from him. Then he got in, took an excellent touch and got the shot off as quickly as possible. In the fourth, our general passing was superb and the ball through to Kuyt from Benayoun was just brilliant - cool finish as well. I have such high hopes for us now. Pennant has been performing well all season and if Benayoun can keep his from last night up, then Rafa will have a job on his hands trying to pick one or the other. That goes without mentioning Momo and Mascherano giving an utterly superb midfield performance that would have made you forget you still have Alonso and Gerrard to come in - not to mention Lucas. And our striker's stats for this season: Torres - 1 goal, 1 assist Voronin - 2 goals, 1 assist Crouch - 1 goal, 1 assist Kuyt - 2 goals, 2 assists Our depth is just excellent. Hyypia seems to have found his old dominating form again - which seemed to desert him at times last season and Arbeloa is shaping up to be one of Rafa's most astute buys ever. I can't believe we got him got £2.65M... I'm really, really happy with the squad at the minute and I thought our performance last night was immense. We were passing well, the desire to win the ball back was unbelievable and we could well have scored 8 goals - no exaggeration. Long may this continue.

1. Mascherano 2. Kuyt 3. Arbeloa I couldn't fit Momo or Benayoun in. An excellent team performance tonight.

I was thinking that mate. The French league isn't exactly poor and they came third. We put out a side without five key players (Finnan, Carragher, Alonso, Gerrard, Torres) and we played them off the park without having to try. Imagine what we'd do to some of the inferior sides he wants to let into the competition... Anyway, I thought that we were excellent tonight, with Momo and Masch exceptional in centre midfield and Benayoun really excelling on the right. I was really pleased to see Kuyt get off the mark, but Crouch should have had four goals tonight. Really, really pleased.

I got 9. Sissoko and Leto wrong. No-one got the Sunderland team correct. I'll be surprised if anyone gets this one either.

Reina Arbeloa Hyypia Agger Riise Benayoun Masherano Sissoko Leto Kuyt Crouch From RAWK.

Did Beckenbauer not play on with his arm in a sling during a WC?

I am genuinely shocked. An absolutely tragic event...