Poolfrog

Who cares? All the captain does these days is call "heads" or "tails" before kick-off. Being awarded the captaincy is just a device to massage the delicate ego of certain players - our Stevie being a classic example when his head was being turned. Anyway, any player who needs someone to motivate him, cajole him, gee him up etc on the pitch really shouldn't be playing at the highest level in the first place, so whoever the captain happens to be should be irrelevant to any half-decent player in any team

I thought I was alone on this. His pronouncements are pounced upon eagerly and repeated as if they really had some weight. From what I can see he invariably gets things wrong and is a card-carrying doom and gloom merchant who only writes negative, sensationalist articles about us

Feel free to quote me at the end of the season - I will be happy to remind you This love-in about the Mancs and Chelsea is a joke really

I agree 100%. If the weather hadn't been so appalling at the weekend I fancy Blackburn would have caused them a lot of problems. They missed a couple of clear-cut chances

It would be hyper-critical to say Liverpool struggled in most of those games too. We had more goal attempts in every single one of them and absolutely battered Spurs, only losing in a freak result. Cheslea on the other hand, were lucky in all the games I mentioned and - it is an inescapable fact - that they looked pretty clueless and quite ordinary against us at Stamford Bridge. My point is that most posters on here seem to overlook their obvious weaknesses this season, gloss over their indifferent home form and make them out to be a super-team. I repeat, we made them look clueless and ordinary. Ouir goalkeeper was more or less unbothered for 90 minutes and at no point could they muster any pressure on our goal. They were also made to look very ordinary by a struggling Roma last week

In contrast, they've only won three of their 6 home games, so have failed to win a whopping 50% of them - hardly the stuff of champions. Reading this thread you'd imagine they were on maximum points and we were about 9 points behind

I think we played well throughout the Chelsea away game to name but one. We were comfortably the better team. Reina could have leaned against the post and read a book for all he had to do

Chelsea have already said that they won't be signing anyone in January so won't be "augmenting their squad" as you suggest because Abramovich has lost billions in the Russian Stock Market collapse and, as he's already owed £500m by Chelsea, he's told them no more money's available right now. So they will be in a worse position to improve their squad than we will be in January. I would also take issue with your view that Carragher's one of our two most important players. Gerrard is a key player but we have plenty of cover at CB over the next few years with the current squad, never mind if we buy other CBs in that time. Torres and Mascherano are, I believe, more important to the team than Carragher. You can forget Man U too. They're a busted flush

Your statement about Chelsea is not borne out by results - and performances. They were very lucky to win 1-0 against Wigan, being on the back foot for 86 minutes with their goalie being nominated Man Of The Match. They were outplayed at home by bottom-of-the-table Spurs. They were outplayed by us in every area of the pitch and were lucky only to lose 1-0. They scrambled a 1-1 against a Man U team that's hardly setting the world on fire this season. Let's not forget that they were also battered by Roma only last week - a team that had previously lost 6 league games this season. Based on this I can't see why you're talking them up. There are plenty of chinks in their armour

Mancs cruising under the radar? They were very lucky to get a point against Everton, who played them off the park for the entire second half. Then they got a 2-0 home win against a truly lamentable West Ham and will now doubt beat Hull easily today - at home, but the quality of their play has been nothing to write home about this season. I'll be more than happy if they carry on exactly as they are at present

It takes all sorts I suppose. Something tells me you're very, very much in a very tiny minority of fans anywhere, never mind Liverpool. Personally he makes me feel like throwing up whenever I see him on TV

I was a football purist even at 9 living in a hovel in Speke! Anyway, football just never looks as exciting in black and white

Er....he scored one goal in his first 2 games, got injured after about 20 minutes in his next game, didn't score against Stoke (like the rest of the team) and then got two in his next game against Everton away. So that's three goals - all from open play - in 4 games plus 20 minutes or so. If that's "off form" I'll be happy for a similar return for the rest of the season - in fact I'll be ecstatic

Arsenal also lost to Fulham and have now already lost 2 out of six games before even playing any of the good teams in the Premier League.

You talk as if we in the past and others since have always consistently beaten lesser clubs when winning titles. This couldn't be further from the truth. All teams drop points against teams who subsequently end up near the bottom or are relegated - check our own records in league and European Cup winning years and other teams if you can be bothered - so your constant negativity and whining is completely groundless. If you can't see that Chelsea, Man U and Arsenal have all also been "far from convincing" this season - and they are likely challengers - then I respectfully suggest you know nothing about football. You're the kind of person that no doubt last season would have said "it's all well and good to beat lesser teams but if you can't beat the likes of Man U/Chelsea/Arsenal in the league it will be hard to challenge never mind win" Some people are never satisfied and their glass is always half-empty

Interestingly, Arsenal Reserves played home to Villa last night - who we beat 3-0 to take the national title - and were stuffed 4-1. Watched bits and pieces of it and Arsenal were very much second best. Reflects badly on Sheffield United. Strangely, didn't see any press comment this morning about their "kids'" shortcomings so soon after turning over the Blades

I saw it live at the time! Scrappy game with lots of poor football by today's standards

Everton's huge chances resulted in.....er......NO shots on target. We were completely and utterly in control for the entire match and won in a canter. Everton were just awful

That would be the same Chelsea who were ouplayed at home by bottom of the table Spurs and whose goalie was by some distance Man of the Match at Wigan away as they desperately hung on and who scraped a home draw against a poor Man U team?

With respect that's utter b******s. My working class credentials are impeccable, for what it's worth, being born in rundown Edge Hill in central Liverpool in the immediate postwar years, when people really were poor. Take your head out of the sand and consider the critical role played in destroying manufacturing industry played by extreme left trade unionists under Labour in the 6os and 70s, whose intention really was to destroy the country for political means and make it like those other shining bastions of democracy, Cuba and North Korea. Even the soviet bloc saw sense subsequently and rejected state control in favour of democracy and capitalism

Exactly right. It always takes about 12 games before any kind of pattern develops, so why people are obsessed with it 4 weeks into the season is beyond me. In the numerous decades I've been watching Liverpool we've always dropped silly points at home against no-hopers and teams that have subsequently been relegated, even when we've been European champions way back when - all top teams drop points against no-hopers. At the moment we're one point off the top, one of only two unbeaten teams and our likely main rivals are all playing indifferently. Chelsea had one decent performance against Portsmouth, but the way Portsmouth have been turned over by all and sundry since picks big holes in that form. Chelsea were lucky to get a home draw against bottom-of-the-table Spurs, were outplayed at Wigan and stole a win with Cech being man-of-the-match and they were very scrappy against Man U yesterday in a very mediocre game. Arsenal were played off the park by Fulham and duly lost and have been unconvincing in their other games, while Man U have been poor in every single game they've played this season, including their sole win in a scrappy performance against Portsmouth, who everyone beats. So lets keep a sense of perspective please everybody. It's not like we're floundering while everyone else is playing dazzling football and winning every game in great style

Indeed they did bring it up this time, but my point was that Ferguson moves Rooney around a lot - because he's not a real striker, as taking 4 seasons to notch his 50th league goal attests, but he wants to accommodate him somewhere - but hitherto there wasn't so much as a peep by commentators when he played on the left in previous games. They didn't have the excuse of trying to accommodate a new striker then either

Ferguson always moves Rooney all over the place but it merits just the occasional aside from commentators. Man U aways play a cagey game at Anfield with one up front, getting behind the ball and trying to catch us with counter-attacks or set-pieces (I leave aside that if we played as negatively we'd be slaughtered - when they do it Ferguson's a tactical genius). Although Rooney played on the right this time, he's played the last few times at Anfield on the left - and deep on the left at that. But this seems to pass commentators by.

I reckon he'd even pick up an injury if he appeared on A Question of Sport

Berbatov's vastly over-rated. Only 15 league goals last season and 12 the year before and suddenly he's a £31m player? He's a lightweight really and I'm not at all bothered about him.