Saintslfc13

It doesn't though. Whatever club buys him, their FA would have to also uphold a ban. Just because the ***** at FIFA have made this thing worldwide does not mean every other FA will follow suit. Just like when we bought Luis in the first place his ban had no effect in England other than he lacked match fitness.

He is the Anti-Kuyt

Didn't mean to do post that twice.

Anyone get the feeling he's off too? I'm starting to think FSG may still be well pissed off about the whole "racism" fiasco and may be looking to cut ties with the main people involved. I hope that's not the case and I'm just in paranoid mode but I just wanted to know if I was the only one feeling that way? Anyone get the feeling he's off too? I'm starting to think FSG may still be well pissed off about the whole "racism" fiasco and may be looking to cut ties with the main people involved. I hope that's not the case and I'm just in paranoid mode but I just wanted to know if I was the only one feeling that way?

The only flaw I can of this season has been his finishing wasn't what we would have hoped nor up to the standard he showed last season and at Ajax. Other than that I can't think of too many more, sure at times he tries to do to much with the ball but then the players on the pitch with him look for him to do that most of the time as well, it seems to me that more often than not when someone was in a better position he was happy to attempt giving them the ball.

I'd have Rafa back, but I don't think FSG will really consider him if they're taking advice from people "in the know" of English football. If they're taking advice from former Liverpool FC people than he'd have a better chance providing their names aren't Rick Parry or Christian Purslow. If we're hiring from outside the premiership, which we should be, then I'd have Klopp in a second. What that man has done at Dortmund is a fantastic achievement, and with his best players wanting to move on to pastures new the man might feel it's time for a change of his own as well. Might even land us one of his Dortmund players if it happens before they move. After him I'm not sure, I don't want Martinez at all (though he doesn't fit my idea of us hiring from outside the premiership anyway), and AVB was very poor at Chelsea but then loads of managers found that a tough job with the way Abramovic meddles and the power the players have within that dressing room. The fact that he'll likely hate those c*nts as much as we do is a plus in his favor for me. The other names being thrown around that I've seen are Deschamps, Blanc, and Lambert. I know very little of those three, the least of which being Lambert.

To be honest I think the "tell all" about Roy is that the only benefit we get from having him is that the press actually like our manager now. Other than that he's been nothing but a huge disappointment, even for those of us who never wanted him. I was part of the number who didn't want Roy and even I didn't think we could possibly fall this far under him. I didn't think he'd take us to a new level but I didn't think he'd drop us to one either. When you take into account that all but the most sky-washed of our support couldn't give a **** whether the press like our club or our manager it really shows this appointment for what it was, garbage. I'd be far happier winning everything with a manager the press can't stand than with someone they drool over like Fergie, as far as our club goes, we're well liked by almost everyone around the world, except a few English teams and Juve (which is fair enough considering that unfortunate moment in our history.)

For me there are two candidates on a Temp basis: Dalglish or Hiddink. The main problem with Kenny is who's to say he wants the job on a Temp basis, It could hurt a very good relationship with our #1 living legend if he gets the job, does alright given the circumstances and then we kick him to the curb for someone permanent, even if that someone is Rafa who we all think he has a good relationship with. This problem would be compounded if he exceeds expectation, sure the easy answer is keep him, but do we know he has enough knowledge of the now international scale of the transfer market to make good decisions consistently? It's a question only time will tell and giving him that time is definitely a risk given how much the game has changed since he's last managed. The problem with Hiddink is that he's obligated to Turkey but Temp Job's have been his MO at club level recently. As far as permanent candidates there are three that come to mind: Rafa - 2 year contract at Inter, doesn't seem the type to leave midseason, and we don't know exactly how much it would take to buy him out. Likely wouldn't want to be back if Purslow is still here, I think he could manage Gerrard but would definitely ship Carra out if the rumours are true although if the rumours are true he deserves it. Pellegrini - Not exactly young but has done well everywhere he's been, would still be at Madrid if UTTER C*NTS didn't run the club. Plays a brand of football we'd all love to see at Anfield but may need time to adapt to a new league, although I think that's less of problem for managers. Hitzfield - Another who's done well everywhere he's been, speaks fluent English, has a no-nonsense approach, hates ferguson, I don't know much about his brand of football however but he has done well everywhere he's been as I mentioned before. Not young either though. Two more I know would undoubtedly be linked but I don't particularly want: MON - Not a fan but he did well with Celtic, not as much at Aston Villa as I felt they underachieved. Again I will restate I don't want him anywhere near our club. Mourinho - C*nt, still mad at us because we picked Rafa and not him as well as the fact he can't get over us beating them in the Champs league in 04-05. Allegedly recently said he wouldn't manage us ever, but I don't particularly believe that, I think what he meant was I won't manage them unless they have money, IF he said that at all. Don't want him at all though I must say.

Lucas will be fine winning the ball back and has proven himself in the derby before. That being said, I don't for the life of me understand why Roy doesn't stick Meireles in the center and have Lucas play that wide role. If he insists on the 4-2-2-2 then why not let Lucas be one of the attacking 2 as that's exactly the role he played for Gremio, whereas Meireles has ALWAYS been a center mid for club and country.

That's because it was just about the softest foul anyone's ever seen. It was a 50/50 challenge that he didn't like the outcome of, still though our second half performance was horrible, our entire team went and hid after Johnson's OG.

With all due respect my friend, you've had it in for Lucas since day one, so it doesn't surprise me you've found very little good to say about Lucas. The guy didn't put a foot wrong on Sunday, he was good in defense and got himself into good positions throughout the match, in fact his knack for good positioning is among the best we have in the squad. I'm not sure which time you were referring to when Ballack burst passed Lucas, can't say I saw that, I do however remember Ballack "bursting" passed Insua down our left like he was having a jog through the park on a cool morning, but I think that was more due to our players caution than him really just beating him. If this was the incident you were referring to and I confused the players then I apologize. Back to the main point, Lucas made himself available to Masch time and again, in good positions where he wasn't too close or bringing in an overwhelming or unexpected number of Chelsea players. If Masch gives him the ball, maybe Lucas passes it back, maybe he runs forward with it creating options or maybe he makes a higher percentage (and often better technique-wise) pass to another teammate who is now in a better position to receive the ball. Since Masch doesn't give him the ball, Lucas does nothing and then everyone who doesn't rate him and never will talks about how invisible he was. How can he produce if he's not given the ball? How can he score when he makes good runs every game and never gets played in. He's trying and others just aren't giving him the opportunity to grow in confidence, it's not just Masch as Carra does it too, but it's far more obvious and detrimental to the side when one half of your CM pairing refuses to pass the ball to the other. It was very very Amateur from Masch, in fact it was almost as if he had a grudge against him or the argentine-brasilian rivalry takes priority to winning a match for your club. I'm sure Rafa has seen it and hopefully he will have a word with Masch and it will all be sorted, but if this continues then we have no choice but to drop one of Masch or Lucas and put Gerrard back in the middle until Aquilani is fit. Perhaps Spearing should be given a chance, but the way Rafa seems to put anyone else on before him (Aurelio against Fiorentina for example) I don't think that's going to happen.

Lucas was one of our best players today. He was constantly available for the pass and Masch refused to give him the ball. It got to the point where he gave the ball away and they scored because he didn't want to pass to Lucas. Masch defensive game was on point today but his distribution and passing technique left a lot to be desired. I agree we need Aquilani fit, only because we do need another attack-minded midfielder if Masch is going to continue to ignore Lucas every time they play together. We also need to experiment with the CB pairing because they aren't inspiring confidence at the moment, maybe Agger coming back will change this, his distribution from the back is definitely much better and it should make Carra's hoofing seem less of a nuisance. Gerrard wasn't at the races today unfortunately. His freekicks were poor by his standard's as you sad and he's always been crap at corners, we have 1 or 2 good corners from him every now and then and the rest are awful. Benayoun should start over Riera for the time being. Kuyt will come good. overall our play was good at first, the we faded and never quite regrouped and got it back together. We had something going before Masch made his error and after that it was downhill.

You're having a go at them for something that's completely out of their control. Do I think they should **** off, of course, but are they the reason we lost today, not at all. We lost because the team didn't show up until we went a goal down and again we gave up two goals off of set pieces. Their first was because no one closed them down after their initial attempt from the free kick and the second was a header directly off a free kick. Carra has to do better in that instance, he was playing with a knock to his head though so maybe that's why he didn't get to it, still it's not good enough. In the end, all this loss means is we aren't going undefeated this season and we have another week to wait to see if we can get the three points. This ONE loss in august is hardly going to cost us the league, we as fans and the players need to get over this minor setback and continue to support our team. Also out of the players your mentioned, Lucas was hardly horrible. Babel looked his usual self and that is why there is a good portion of our supporters who DON'T feel he needs to be given a run of games. He did **** all today and continually does so but his pace provides us with a threat the others don't so I understand Rafa's idea, it just didn't pan out because Babel's game intelligence is simply not of the level of our other players. Someone needs to sit him down with Torres and Gerrard and have them all chat about what they want to do on the pitch because there were times that Babel could've gone free but didn't do to a failure to anticipate a pass to himself or he could've sent one of the others through but failed to see/anticipate their run.

thought the same thing myself. I always thought betting was suspended when it was almost or in fact, a sure thing. In this case, surely they want people to take the bait and bet that Ribery will come to us, knowing full well he won't, and they'll make loads on it. By suspending betting they don't make more money and so the stunt would've been rather pointless. I don't think we'll get him but this betting thing does make it slightly interesting.

I think he can more than likely pull it off, he's often the first player off the bench for us and has started against big teams so I don't think his athleticism is in doubt. He's bulking up because he thinks he will become a better player for us if he does and I would imagine our training staff agree because otherwise they wouldn't let him do it. He's far more mobile than Alonso and can play all the passes in the book, but like was mentioned his main similarity to Fletcher is that he does whatever Rafa tells him to. Instead of going on the pitch and playing his game regardless of instructions (see Babel) he goes out and does a job for the team and his manager, sometimes a simple pass is far more efficient than the hollywood passes we see from Stevie and Xabi so often, having someone who isn't "afraid" to take the "lesser" option but still has the ability to make those long through balls is the type of player any manager in the world would love to have. In terms of footballing ability he should aim for a Gerrard or Kaka type peak if you ask me, I think he has the potential to be that good, but he needs the confidence and the playing time to develop the potential into something substantial.