ma_chaud

we shouldn't be blaming plessis, alonso is the more experienced and senior player in that partnership and he was worse than plessis. do you see now why we need barry. barry would not have let anyone dominate him like that. And the number of times alonso got caught in possession just made me frustrated. at the end of the day he aint physical enough to get stuck in when a team plays like standard liege did tonight. and don't get me started on kuyt, i used to be a big admirer of his. he works hard for the team but we need flair not a workmanlike performer on the sides. he does not have the speed nor the technique to get pass anyone. we were simply sh*te today

haha. i'll give you an exlusive. if we don't end up getting barry, i'll wager that we'll end up getting ruben de la red from real madrid

that may well be true, but when it comes to most things liverpool, he is usually is spot on

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- well actually if you listened to him on the time podcast you will be aware of the fact that he said a lot more than "there will be a nice little surprise".

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- example???? but hes good mates with rafa. is it just coincidence that the stuff he makes up on liverpool is usually true. i think not!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- i'll guess guillem will prove you wrong again..... he is a genuine itk, esp when he comes to liverpool.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- are you serious. If there was an ever an ITK, then Guillem is THE ITK. Didn't he say yesterday that ManU had a bid rejected for Silva. What did Silva's agents say today? Oh, that ManU had a bid rejected for Silva. He was also right about Robbie Keane. He's more that most media outlets.

this sh*t is getting stupid now. mon used avfc.co.uk, H&G use liverpoolfc.tv, and rafa goes through guillem balague. this is getting ridiculous. so now we can conclude that liverpool have the money to finance the barry transfer, as rafa implied the other day. But the owners don't want to pay the full £18m for barry. Which means, according to guillem, that the deal is not dead but we're still in negotiation. I just have the hunch that Barry will be ours by wednesday.

haha, earl. i'm new to the forum and i'd been having troube posting and reading messages.... but yours, flights etc idea is spot on. if we get barry i think we will be very close to the EPL. moreover, we'll have another leader in the team, which boasts well as we dont have to always rely on stevie g and el nino

<BR><BR>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- finally, flight is someone who understands what is going on in rafas head. all this debate about alonso being better than barry is not the real issue. Rather, the point is who will be the most effective player in the system we will use. As flight points out, the system that we are likely to use is 4-2-3-1, which means that the 2 holding midfielders ie masch and barry will not only go forward but when the full backs are attacking and providing us with width (which is the reason why degen and dossena were bought) then the like of masch and barry will need to provide cover in the full backs position. This is what rafa is on about when he talks about versatility, and this is something alonso cannot provide. whilst alonso is a great "quarter-back" pinging those great long passes, he is unlike masch and barry as he cannot get stuck in or bomb back and forth between boxes. I have discussed this at greater lengths elsewhere: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A39340091