spk

frankly right now matey we're looking for first and second choice central defenders

benny johnson reina

cant stand this ad, looks almost tacky or something. i guess the art style and that level of hyperbole just doesnt do it for me at all.

its fair enough - rafa is clearly a man who needs total control and micro-manages. for some thats not an issue, for others it creates an environment they cant work in.

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/feedarticle/8726607 fwiw the dream is over in terms of fans buying the club - no chance they could raise that kind of money

don't count your chickens: source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/t...sea/2658069.stm

why was mach on the bench today?

one in three sitters doesnt strike me as good enough.

torres lucas kuyt

our defence shocking again ... ffs!

30m alonso 12m keane total 42m 18m johnson 20m aquilani 2m greek dude total 40m chuck in a few quid on the numerous contract extensions and increased salaries and you're on the money. wheres this gaping deficit?

alonso was sold becasue he wanted to leave, even going so far as to put in a transfer request which sacrificed his loyalty bonus. in fact in alonso's own words: it's tiresome seeing each and every bit of news twisted to have an anti-g+h flavour. alonso wanted to leave, was sold for around 30m and 20m was reinvested immediately in aquilani. im not saying i support g+h but the agenda to slate them in the absence of any evidence is just childish - "you're not my real dad - i hate you" *sigh*

agree with this frankly. also there is no evidence alonso was sold to service debts, we bought aquilani with part of the money alonso's sale raised. stating we're selling first team players now so enable the owners to pay debts is nothing but scaremongering hyperbole.

Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Dossena, Aurelio, Spearing, Mascherano, Riera, Babel, Ngog. Subs: Reina, Gerrard, Torres, Skrtel, Voronin, Plessis, Johnson

just dont see carra starting, and if he's going to carry on playing like he has done we need our other central defenders getting up to speed pronto so i'd be starting with the greek. personally i'd take dos out of the team and drop aurelio back into defence, then play mach in the midfield alongside spearing as he's missed a couple of games and the addition of a senior player will help the team. --------cavilieri-------- degen greek agger doss ---spearing----mach--- babel------vog----riera ----------ngog-------- i'd guess we'll have some of stevie, torres, reina and carra on the bench "just in case" but i'd like to see eccleston, pacheco, amoo and ayala / darby make the bench alongside them.

its a big concern. we usually deal with pace through physicallity and good positioning having read the game really well, but today, well all season, our central defence isnt do either well at all. up against pace we look poor.

not really that harsh, carra pushed him over and it was absolutely blatant. that was f***ing amateur. he's had a shocking first half.

what a f***ing tool

think they needed a tall well built lad that can deal with high balls, crosses and boss the defence

1-0 to us - ngog in about the 3rd or 4th minute

be interesting to see whether cloughie tries to pick up any of the lads on loan in the next few days. was sat right in front of rafa which could suggest they were aiming to have a chat after the game. ayala and derby would be good prospects and regular football at that level would help them develop defensively, and maybe amoo. i think the rest rafa would probably want to hang on to either because of their age, or because he needs his home grown players for this seasons european campaign.

aye had a cracking second half. spearing really demonstrated the gap between the standard ressies and someone able to make the first team bench.

pity about that red. i missed it the first time round and its very harsh, i guess it didnt help the united player going to ground like that but ultimately it was six of one and half a dozen of the other. good to see we're largely still bossing the game atm.

theres a cracking spine to this lot. martin, ayala, eccleston and amoo have shone once again. i'm slowly finding myself starting to turn a little on ngog, its difficult to see what he offers on the pitch.

eccleston and ayala both go close