DarthVader

Cavani and Hamsik would be 2 players in my dream team but that will never happen without CL football. Cavani is a natural goalscorer who scores for fun and Hamsik in my opinion is perfect to take over from Gerrard. Both are of the right age to develop into truly outstanding world class players. How can Carroll be the finished article anyway when he is only 23 and barely had half a season of PL football before we bought him. I think he was a bit of a panic buy because everything happened very quickly in January when Kenny couldn't convince him to stay. We were always gonna sign Suarez but paying 35m for Andy will go down as one of the craziest transfer businesses ever. The thing is he's got a hammer of a left foot and is good with his head. There are only 2 ways to utilize Carroll's strengths - play wingers either side or play 1 or 2 support attackers close to him. If we do get a right winger and if by some miracle Downing goes from a 5/10 or 6/10 average player into a 7/10 or 8/10 average player then play with 2 wingers to feed Carroll but Carroll himself needs to buck up. He needs a consistent run of games though to really see if he can hack it if we play to his strengths as well and just just to the strengths of Luis or Bellamy or Gerrard who offer more fluid movement. If we mix it up we might actually see a very different attacking team next season full of goals. Even if we want to stick with 4-3-3 it would be fine but the problem as we have seen in most home games is that the likes of Adam or Henderson or Downing don't have a lot of goals in them. We need to sign 1 or 2 goalscorers in the summer - 1 who is comfortable playing wide right in a 4-3-3 and 1 who offers a link between midfield and attack and I don't think we really have to spend a lot of money. Clint Dempsey who plays for the team who have scored more goals than us and is just 3 points back has got like 20 goals this season playing mostly as a support striker and he scores goals against teams that we struggle to score goals against it seems. He's 29, got a year left on his contract, is American and I believe there is a good chance he'll be playing for us next season.

You sound exactly like "Butters"

Jesus Christ man ! Some of you are still moaning like a couple of puzzies. We dominated that game and had we taken our chances we would have won 4 - 1 or 5 - 2 or something like that. Who knows maybe we'll beat Sunderland by 3 or 4 clear goals next week. We were unlucky but this team is on the right track. With 2 - 3 strong additions to the first team in our weak areas next season we could push for 3rd. This season is like a test season for Kenny after all the major investment made. He will know what went wrong and how to fix it in the summer. We just gotta concentrate on the Cup game versus Stoke and gaining as many points and goals as possible until the end of the season.

He hasn't featured more because each team can only have a maximum 2 bald players on the pitch. UEFA rule 43 (2) part b.

He will be replaced by Clint Dempsey in the summer. I'm calling it right now.

Why did Kenny pay 35m for Carroll then if he had doubts he would fit in ? Carroll won't be sold and doesn't need to be sold. Just get a right winger, play 4-4-2 and mix it up a bit.

The thing is we should have won that game before RvP scored the second. Suarez should have scored, Kuyt should have scored the penalty, Henderson should have smashed it home instead of trying to place it and Kelly should have scored. But they didn't. The team put out had the chances to win 2 home games but it's been the story of our season. We were dominant, failed to covert our chances as we usually do and were hit by a sucker punch volley by a brilliant striker. We need to forget about this game and focus on Sunderland next.

Well Arsenal and Chelsea have had pretty average league campaigns by their standards. One of them will miss out on Champions League football next season - looks like Chelsea at the moment. I think they will both make significant improvements to their playing squad next season and I fear we might fall further behind the top 5 next season with what we've got. Or we could just be a Cup team from now on.

That's true , that's we require. But it will be a Cavani or a Hamsik or someone in the 30m - 40m bracket. We're not going to get CL football and that's where any top superstar wants to be.

Why is Kenny getting so much flak ? If we win 2 cups and gets us 6th, is that so bad in his first full season ?

He's gonna get the sacked tomorrow or the day after...just wait.

But we already paid 35m for a goal scorer.

Didn't you read what Comoli said a couple of days ago ?

We should now call this thread race for 6th. By the way who thinks AVB get sacked tomorrow and is replaced by Rafa ?

The 2 against us makes it 25 premier league goals but we as a whole have still scored more goals than him. He's nothing special. I hope we win the FA Cup, who cares where we finish. Win the FA Cup and it will be our 16th domestic cup win which means we will be 1 better than United's record.

Also worth to point out that GuaComoli said no major signings in the summer. So this is will be next season's squad with maybe 2 - 3 new additions but we won't spend like we did last Jan although we desperately need a 30 season striker like Cavani. Maybe we'll spend 15m - 20m on someone like Huntelaar.

So, basically you guys are saying that you want Kenny out and Rafa back in rite ?

Once Gerrard is back, it will be back to Henderson-Adam-Gerrard in the centre. Spearing did alright today though.

It won't happen this season. We need to focus on getting as many points as possible from our 12 remaining league games and score as many goals as we can although that is a hard ask. Our primary focus should be the FA Cup.

Not surprised by the result really. We had our chances - 13 corners, 2x hit the post and didn't even score the goal, was an OG. But that's how it has been the whole season, we just don't score enough goals from the chances created. Don't know why anyone should have a go at Carra. RvP is in the form of his life and is the best striker in the league. Carra should not have allowed him to get ahead of him for the first goals and the second was just a well controlled volley, a difficult skill executed to perfection by the Dutch master. The game showed what we lacked and why we will finish either 6th or 7th this season. We need a 30 goal a season striker to partner Suarez, preferably one who is who has good movement.

I agree. Enrique has been poor the last few games. Johnson has looked very good whenever he's played at leftback.

When he has been played in the midfield 3 with Adam and Gerrard, it hasn't worked. The balance just isn't correct as neither of these guys are capable of holding or screening. I think them 3 will start in the centre against Arsenal's midfield so it be another examination of their ability to play together.

Maybe so but Spearing was dropped after the loss to United. He cost us a goal and I don't think Kenny would want to start him in big games again unless absolutely necessary. So it will probably be Henderson-Adam-Gerrard versus Song-Arteta-Ramsey/ Rosicky on Saturday. Arsenal have goals in them. I think they will probably score at least 1, so the question is whether or not we can put 2 or 3 past them. We've only scored 14 at Anfield this season. Let's see if this cup success can push us on. He's had more ineffective games than effective ones in his first season. I was expecting more because for the under 21s, he seems to have more confidence about him when driving forward from midfield and shooting.

Johnson's pen was the best. He should be taking penalties for us from now on.

Coates looked really good in that south american tournament before we signed. He and Lugano were rock solid. Thought he would be playing more by now. A loan next season would be good.