digs_nz

He certainly excited us on here... before he "returned" from injury

Seems more like he put all his eggs in the Aquilani basket last summer..

What a fantastic surprise! If they come bearing investment, will they trust Rafa for another season?? Should we??

4 Liverpool 68 5 Tottenham 68 6 Aston Villa 68 7 Man City 67 This is what happens if Man city loses to Arsenal and United, and draws with Tottenham and Villa. Not entirely unrealistic but they have been on form. This also assumes that all teams (including us) will win their other fixtures against sides lower than them. However, we have to beat Chealsea at home, and improve our goal difference a couple of points to get above Tottenham. Us beating Chelsea at home does not allow United to win the title either, as long as they win the other fixtures. Very academic, I think Tottenham might take it (and hope they do, as opposed to City)

Aquilani Mascherano Johnson In whatever order.. Aquilani was painful at times but was our only player with any creativity. Mascherano made what I thought was our best chance, only to be stopped with a good save.

What the f*** happened this season. I don't want to watch the season review dvd. On the plus side, if we meet Fulham in the Europa finals, this performance indicates that with Torres we should dominate them

Havent yet watched the game, very very interested to see how the formation worked. Did it change back when Torres was subbed on? Using a 4-4-2 (for now, anyway) is valid because we could use Gerrard out right, Aquilani and Masche, and Kuyt/Torres/Ngog up front. With that setup, our right is absolutely immense. The Left is a much greater worry

I like that, but wasn't it reported that Torres would start? (I remember thinking it was a tad ********* for this pointless game) Want Aquilani to get a good 50-60 minutes from a start. Perhaps rest Mascha for Lucas as well?

I thought Stevie played really well at times, and his periods of good play coincided with times when we looked most dangerous Masch Gerrard Johnson I think it should be mentioned that I thought the Ngog sub was effective at improving our attacking quality.

No

N'gog has been advancing in leaps and bounds. Since the goal vs united his confidence has grown. I will admit I didnt think he featured much vs city from what I saw, but still not too bad.

Absolutely. Almost every game he plays he will put in a wonderful ball which just makes me wish he was fit more often. It's also great having him on because he takes over the free kicks and (sometimes) corners from Gerrard.. which as has been discussed many-a-time frees Gerrard up for a volley or header. However as others have said, defensively and for the team, a Insua is arguably a better long-term option. Perhaps play Aurelio in the midfield a bit more, if Benayoun is out/playing in behind Torres (for whatever reason) As for Man City, they are almost an as bad a run as us, after a good start. At Home, with the preferred back 4 in the starting line-up, and Gerrard back, I have to back us to win this one

This is exactly what has been happening so far for a lot of games (Sunderland - Fitness worries, Lyon, late equalizer, etc.) Its just the combination of all this bad luck (and a few bad performances) which is causing this "crisis"

Johnson Agger N'Gog

You jinxed it

We were the better side. Shouldn't have conceded the first goal, and should have taken our chances better, but thats how it goes.

I thought he had some poor moments in the first half, but his second was much better. As a side note, first thing the commentary says about Aquilani is: "Very popular with the ladies" Mad props

When Ngog got the ball, I thought "Havent seen him do a thing this half" Then THAT!! Penalty

Johnson is such a beast

I agree on the whole, but their second goal was more a stroke of luck than a hole in our defence. No bias here though, of course

God

Riera is not passing the ball, but he is making some good runs

Johnson, marvelous

Ngoal! Fantastic run from Johnson to slip between 2 defenders and then put a cross in, a few blocked shots and ball falls to Ngog. Johnson playing well, a nice through ball to put Benny in with a chance earlier

I'm hoping for a start. This is the fixture that everyone imagined him putting in his first start, right after he put his first minutes for the reserves. Something like - "Realistically, first start against Birmingham, maybe get a run out vs Arsenal in the cup" Although, he did pick up a virus in there as well, and we would have expected a few cameos for the reserves to gain some fitness, but he hasn't had any (that I've heard of?). At least give him more than 10 minutes at the end!