MFletcher

Does Simao not play on the left for Benfica?

My understanding is that we bought him from MSI for 1.5M for an 18 month period. In the contract there is a set price to enable us to make the deal a permanent one (probably between 12-17M).

I could look a threat if the team were playing the ball to me all the time. A better right winger would have had Jankulovski chasing his tail around the pitch. But he didn't attack him once and cut back and inside far, far too often. Coupled with his poor delivery all night, I fail to see what he ultimately offered us during the game.

No. But my judgement is being clouded by my complete disappointment at last night.

You're arguing your point very well here. He played poorly and his decision making was bad and his crossing pretty dire all night.

I'm more than capable of giving players credit where its due. I don't rate Zenden, but I felt he did well against Chelsea in the semi final second leg and he put away his penalty was great ease. You seem to believe that Pennant did well simply because he had the ball a lot. The two "chances" - and I use that term loosely - that Pennant created were never, ever going to give Stevie a real chance on goal. Pennant did not play well. I'm more than capable of arguing my point here. Pennant was never going to score that chance. He provides no real goal-scoring threat and one goal all season is testament to that. And using the Liverpoolfc.tv Man of the Match as a point of reference is not good. As someone else pointed out, they must just give it to the player who had the ball the most. Mascherano was the reason Kaka was anonymous and deserved the Man of the Match award. Unfortunately because he didn't have the ball a lot it goes unnoticed. And I think you are far too optimistic when you say "90%".

The first one was a whack across to Gerrard. The second one was hardly a chance. Why did he lift it up into the air? What was wrong wtih a nice simple pass along the ground?

He was on the ball constantly because we were playing through him. Now, what did he do with the ball that created a chance or a likely goal scoring opportunity? I can't think of ONE incident where he provided a telling pass.

That is how it should read.

I thought Mascherano was fantastic last night. Brilliant tackling and positioning. He kept Kaka in his backpocket all game. It's no coincidence that as soon as he went off, Kaka actually did something and setup the second goal. I really do think the only reason Alonso was kept on was because taking him off would have been saying "Javier is more important than you now" and it probably would have made him decide to go back to Spain. Either way, the players will learn from this defeat - Agger especially. We'll be back again next year.

I felt Pennant had a poor game last night. Everyone here seems to think he "stepped up to the plate" and so on, but what did he actually do? The reason that he had so much of the ball is because we were constantly looking for him. He was the outlet. When he got the ball, he refused to take on the full back, didn't make a single good cross all night, cut inside far too often and provided no goal threat whatsoever. I'm a very average player when kicking the ball about with my mates. But even someone with my limited ability could get the ball on the right and run back into our half whilst running across the pitch as he did on a couple of occasions. I can recall three crosses alone that were just awful. We need better quality if we are to challenge on all fronts next season. I'm happy enough for him to stay here as second choice RM (well, third considering Stevie will be there a lot).

This doesn't surprise me. As much as I wanted Gonzalez to stay for another season, I'm pleased that Rafa has moved so quickly to correct any "mistakes" he feels he has made in the transfer market. It's one of the things that makes Rafa a fantastic manager. If a player doesn't prove his worth, he's out the door. No more hanging around in the reserves until your contract runs out. I'm glad to see Zenden leaving as well. I wonder what kind of fee we'll get for Gonzalez. Would 5M be too hopeful?

I'd take Huntelaar any day of the week.

I'm glad the Djib has scored some goals. It means we'll get more money for him when we finally ship the lazy so-and-so out the door.

I'll take any scrap of information regarding a possible Tevez arrival. It would be wonderful for the club - and a real signal of intent - for us to break our transfer record for a player of his quality.

Regardless of what anyone says, Gillett and Hicks really are making the right noises. Did anyone see the level of debt the Glazers have saddled on United? 663M apparently - with 62M in interest payments a year.

No doubt there's a pub somewhere in Liverpool where every single fancard holder there was lucky enough to get a ticket. It's our allocation from UEFA that has caused these problems. No doubt the club have contributed to it with their lack of transparency, but that has now come after the depth of fury at their refusal to "enter the number's game". If we're going to protest against anyone, we should be protesting against UEFA and their obvious determination to get as much money as possible into the kitty at the expense of ordinary fans. What's worse is that they sell 9,000 to "neutral" fans. The vast majority will end up on the black market, as will a number of corporate seats. Milan won't take up their allocation either. What baffles me is why they don't offer ANY remaining tickets to the clubs and if one doesn't take their allocation, the other club get it. It would enable proper segregation of the supporters. But no. They're so concerned that the "football family" of suits, their workers and people who'll give them money get sorted that the ordinary fans can **** right off. It's disgusting. The problem will only get worse as UEFA and clubs attempt to get more money from different sponsors, thus increasing the tickets allocated to them for any final. Pretty soon we'll have an official supplier of toilet paper for the club toilets, an official supplier of washing powder for the kits and an official gardening partner for the pitch. Dutch fans were made to go into stadiums in their underwear because UEFA wouldn't allow them in wearing clothes which bore the name of a Dutch brewery. Why? They had an official partner who were a beer company. I think it was Alan Green who commented that he was forced to take the label from around his water because it wasn't the same kind as the official partner. It's a dreadful problem, but there is nothing the ordinary fan can do. We should console ourselves that our fans are determined and passionate enough to take the tickets from the underserving and get into the stadium. The fees will be extortionate, but if we win the memories will make the price seem small. I'm sure fans who spent £500 on a ticket to Istanbul didn't really care how much lighter their wallet was in the moments following Jerzy's save. I don't for one second believe that ticket touting is acceptable. I think the people who sell the tickets for extortionate prices should be sent to jail. But its the way of the world and, as I said, we'll vastly outnumber that Milan fans in the stadium and can have a direct influence on the team as they chase Number Six (see YNWA being sung through the stadium at half-time in Istanbul).

Pedersen is Mr. Average. He scores the occasional quality goal, but he's not good enough for us. I'd take Derbyshire though. I think the kid has fantastic potential.

The numbers make sense to me. And regardless of what anyone says, the club has to give tickets to sponsors and so on. It's absolutely ridiculous that corporate people can take tickets, but its the rather disgusting way of the world. To be fair, I think it's mainly UEFA's fault. The stadium can only 72,000, so if we got, say, 32,000 and 6,000 of those went to corporate sponsors, we'd still have 26,000. It's the fact that our allocation is just vulgar that demand will never, ever be met. They're actually reducing stadium capacity by 9,000 to fit in extra advertising hoardings. It makes you weep.

The Editor has removed the offending paragraph. Fair play to him for not letting it stay there. The only person to blame is the **** of an "author".

It's a tough call mate. To be fair, it has been clear this season that the left side has been our weak point. However, Kewell has been out all season and Gonzalez can't be expected to come in and rampage down the flank in his first season with England. Kewell is reaching the point in his career where he'll have to deliver, and I think he will next season. He looks in excellent physical condition and those operations have probably sorted the long-standing problems in his feet. With Gonzalez, I've explained my reasoning above. He needs another season. To be honest, I haven't thought of the flanks has been a real problem for next season. This season we lacked on the left, but we've been unlucky with injuries. We had a squad overloaded with left sided players at the start of the season. Little did we know that Warnock would be sold, Kewell wouldn't make it back until the third last game of the season, Aurelio and Garcia owuld both pick up long term injuries, Gonzalez wouldn't really perform and Zenden would get injured before the biggest game of the season. We've been dreadfully unlucky, and I think it creates the impression we aren't strong on the flanks. To be fair, the lack of goal threat comes from the right when Pennant plays. The only goal he scored was that cracker against Chelsea, and his shots are generally dreadful. Kewell and Gonzalez both provided a decent goal threat. I wouldn't be disappointed to see us sign Simao - as he can play on both flanks. But we have this youngster Leto coming in and he's meant to be a real prospect. It wouldn't surprise me if either Gonzalez or Kewell went, but I think we should stick with the pairing for one more season. We could be genuinely surprised. And I don't really think Rafa would chase a player for a year if he didn't think he was a long term prospect. As I, and many others, have said, Gonzalez's performances for Real Sociedad last season were fantastic. He needs time to adjust his game to the league and it would be foolish to sell him now.

I can't see Henry leaving Arsenal, but if he was, why would us signing him be a bad thing? Some of the posts here seem to be suggesting that he's completed washed up, doesn't want to know and would rather sit in Arsenal reserves, be injured and collect his moment. People are also suggesting that he hasn't scored in any major finals he's played in. That may be, but without him his teams wouldn't have got there. The two most recent examples are the CL final last year. If Henry hadn't scored that wonderful solo goal in the Bernabeu, then there's every reason to suspect that Real would have knocked them out. He was the difference. Even in the World Cup, he scored the only goal in the quarter final and won the penalty that Zidane converted for the only goal in the semi final. He's a wonderful, wonderful player and anyone here suggesting that we shouldn't even look at him because of his age needs to think twice about what they're writing. He's only 29. He has a good three or four years left and he'll be at his peak now. The injury has probably done him good, because it will give him a chance to recuperate after his World Cup fatigue. If we sign Henry, we will win the league next season. I have no doubt about it. Not only would he be used to the Premiership, but he'll have the double burden of being Arsenal's captain and shining light lifted from. Wenger relies on him too heavily sometimes and he suffers for it. Would be a wonderful signing. I can't see it happening, but it would be absolutely fantastic if it did.

Gonzalez deserves another season and I think he'll get one. Rafa didn't wait a year for a work permit to bring him in just so that he could sell him after one injury ravaged season. His form for Real Sociedad last year was fantastic and he was the catalyst to keeping them in La Liga. Now, he may not have recaptured that form here, but he's picked up a lot of injuries and he has shown glimpses of his potential. He needs to be given another season. If he is poor next season, then it would be sensible to move him on. His stock will remain high in Spain regardless, so we would be able to collect a good fee for him. And Kewell should stay next season. He looks in excellent condition physically - more like the Kewell we all remember from Leeds. I think he could be the key man in Athens, because he'll be absolutely determined to prove to fans that he isn't a waste-of-space who'll collapse in a heap when things aren't going well for him. He'll be our main threat and, quite frankly, he has more than enough skill to rip Oddo to shreds. Keep the faith.

I'm really Peter Crouch trying to cement my place in the squad for next season.

Let's be honest here, you could make anyone look good or bad on YouTube. You could make Cisse look like the best striker in the world and you could make him look dreadful by showing clips of him standing still, missing at Old Trafford and then thumping a shot into the crowd. I'll make my own decision on Leto once I've seen him in a Liverpool shirt.