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Garcia is a cracking player. I can't see him being sold unless someone much better becomes available. He's struggled a bit this season but: a. foreign players sometimes do worse in their second season because they lose their surprise value as opposing teams work them out; b. he's been injured; c. he still scores goals; d. we play better with him in the team; e. he's earned some f***ing loyalty. It's rare for any player as useful as Garcia to be shipped out after two seasons I think. After two seasons they've either adapted or not. Those who don't adapt leave (Cheyrou, Josemi, Cisse?). Those who adapt adequately (and are happy at this level) stay as squad players for a bit (Smicer, Dudek, Pongolle). Those who adapt brilliantly hopefully never leave (Hyypia, Hamman, Alonso?). I think Garcia is at the level of someone like Riise: first XI more often than not, but not an ever-present.

I think maybe Finnan edges it now.

It'd be great to see Morientes (and the other three) scoring more goals, but as long as we keep winning I don't f***ing care who scores really. Reina could be our top scorer and I wouldn't give a s***. We're having our best season in a good while, and while I take the point that we would be having an even better one if the strikers were taking more chances I don't see the need to single out Morientes. One way or another he is a big part of our team, and our team is winning alot of games.

Damn. Sussed.

Jesus, this is verging on a Gary Neville love-in. It's refreshing to see someone tell it like it is. Fair play to him really. He dislikes us, we dislike him - but in a weird way I think there's a grudging mutual respect. This is why you need local lads in any team.

Riise has come on defensively under Rafa, that's for sure. He was one of the best LBs in the league before Xmas...and I used to dread seeing him there.

We play better and score more goals with Garcia in the side. He's a great player with bags of heart, and it astounds me how much stick he gets.

I dunno, he's certainly capable of better but...we're having a f***ing decent season really. Plenty of room for improvement, but if we finish second this year and people spend the summer slagging off Crouch, Morientes, and Cisse it'll be unfair. Rafa plays a team game, and with the sometime exception of Cisse you can't fault Morientes for team work. He needs goals, but Rafa might keep him a bit longer yet I think.

Take a look at Dalglish's stats for further proof of that argument.

Exactly my choices, and the same reason for including Gerrard at no.1. 18 goals from midfield already this season is pretty special: a nice reminder of the times of Barnes and Molby.

Except that it's a bit naive to think that the ramblings of an internet forum have no effect on the outside world. To claim that discussions here are somehow safely vacuum-packed and have no impact on the outside support is just daft IMO. Yeah we all need to vent, but there's no magic boundary between this place and the real world. Arguments rehearsed here, myths reinforced here ("Morientes deffo cost Fowler a goal"), pub abuse continued here, even songs tried out here...it all feeds in and builds up, and it will find its way into the stands. (Heskey, I think, suffered from this particularly viciously. Although that was more on another site - the one we don't mention.) Anyhow, "open discussion" shouldn't be a fig-leaf for vacuous slaggings. And it's a misleading term anyway: there are rules we all abide by (and thank f*** for that).

Simply not true. Definite chance, yes. Definite goal, no. The b*****d son of Maradona and van Basten could still've missed it, let along Robbie Fowler (version 2006).

Or maybe it's a bit of both? Either way, our strikers and our midfielders are not gelling as they should. But that doesn't mean that we should ditch our forward line as some people are suggesting, any more that it means we should ditch our midfield. I just think that there must be something wrong - somewhere - with any system that cannot get goals out of Crouch, Morientes, and Cisse. On paper that is a great pool of strikers (with Fowler another potentially excellent resource if we can get and keep him fit). That three quality strikers have had such slim pickings between them suggests, to me, that maybe the problem is to do with formations or tactics as much as personnel. I mean, we've all said it: we need a genuine, quality right-winger. And it's obvious that Rafa is looking for one: Simao, Joaquin, Pennant, SWP and Victor being only the cream of the names mentioned. The amount of dosh he appears to be willing to spend on this position surely illustrates that even with Gerrard and Alonso all is not peachy with our midfield? Maybe he wants us to use the space on the wings to more effect, stretching defences a little more so that gaps appear for the forwards to score? Or, even more obviously, he wants someone who can plonk quality crosses (and maybe even corners) onto Morientes's head? Or somebody who'll simply worry defenders with their ability to run at them, leaving them less able to cope with the physical presence of Crouch or the pace of Cisse? We're a work in progress. I have 100% faith in the manager to sort it out. Goals from our forwards will come. In the meantime, we've hopefully just ended a blip in what has otherwise been a season of remarkable progress - goalscoring strikers or not.

So he was a bit faster than Morientes in one single instance. All hail Fowler! Still doesn't mean he would've scored! It's less ridiculous to state that Gerrard cost himself a goal because he was so eager to tee Robbie up. 40 odd goals in 130 odd games for Robbie since leaving Liverpool. People used to slag Emile Heskey off as useless for scoring at around a 1 in 3 rate (if my memory serves) - and he was never a goal-scoring genius in the way Fowler was. For me, Fowler starts with a nearly clean slate (he f***ed up, but he has the chance to make amends), and I hope he repays everyone's faith in him - not least Rafa's. But my hunch is that people will see by the end of the season that Robbie Fowler is nowhere near the player he was five years ago, let alone ten. This ridiculous Fowler hype has the potential to damage the team. We're already seeing people slagging off our other three strikers. Proclaiming that Robbie should be #1. That Morientes cost him a clear goal. That Crouch and Cisse aren't fit to lace God's boots. Based on ninety minutes or so of very decent but hardly brilliant football. I hope Rafa knows what he's let himself in for should he decide that Fowler isn't the player he wants and doesn't play him as often as the congregation want. Maybe he'll roll back the years back at the club he obviously does love and bang them in. But can we *please* wait until he's actually doing so before getting all frenzied up?

I think Owen might not suit Rafa's tastes, but he's the best option out there that I know of. It's critical that we get someone who knows the Premiership.

But keep Fowler, yeah?

On current form he *looks* like a better option than Cisse or Moro. Agreed. But the hype is doing my head in already, and the judging is unfair: he's looked decent for about *90* minutes or whatever, whereas the other two have played much more - and thus their current failings are amplified. Over the course of the season so far Fowler has not been significantly better - ask the City fans.

Dudek: 7 Riise: 7 Carra: 7 Hyypia: 7 Finnan: 7 Kewell: 6 Gerrard: 6 Alonso: 6 Hamman: 7 (MOM) Fowler: 7 Morientes: 5 Kromkamp: 6 Cisse: 5 Rafa: 7. We won, away, against a decent battling team, on a s*** pitch, with some knackered/unfit players, to end a losing streak. Job done.

I would agree with that. But Crouch has been excellent in those departments too - for much longer - and yet people are already intimating that Fowler is our best forward option. That's what bugs me. The risk with re-signing Fowler was as much about the blinkers of the faithful as it was about his fitness, etc. All of a sudden he's our #1 striker? Really? Anyone who criticises Gerrard needs their head reading. I was prepared for him to leave with all the Chelsea bulls***, wanted him to go no less. But he's far and away the best player in England at the moment. He's earned enough slack to have a dozen dodgy games in a row, injury or not.

I think he will. Sissoko has done brilliantly overall for his first season in a tough new league. But we're entering the part of the season where experience and nous counts for more than energy and willingness. Didi has both to spare, and he's fresh. Saving him for the second half of the season *could* be a very canny move by Rafa.

Paris is seven games away.

Let's judge Fowler when he's played 20 or so games. From what I've seen so far - less than two hours - he's been better than I expected, but to say that he's shown 'more understanding and awareness' than Crouch this season is just daft. And I ain't joining in with the slagging of Morientes or Cisse either: both have obvious faults and could well be sold at the end of the season, but one has put in the effort and team play, and the other has somehow scored 12 or whatever goals.

Maybe I was watching a different game today, but Fowler was far from 'superb' and is nowhere near looking like our most dangerous forward. Good to see him working hard, and it's obvious that the spark and hunger is still there, but did he have a shot on goal? Morientes was ineffective, but were it not for a fantastic save he would've at least scored a very good goal. Pains me to say it, but I think the problem with our forwards lies elsewhere. A frontline that has, so far this season, included Crouch, Morientes, Cisse, Pongolle, and Fowler should be banging a good few goals in. These are not s*** players! Instead, we have Gerrard on 18 goals. As long as we're winning games then it really doesn't matter of course, but maybe Rafa just isn't getting the best out of our strikers yet? Yeah they've all missed chances, and recently those chances have cost us points. But it's not as if they've been wasting a torrent of excellent service. Our crossing is poor. Our corners are poor. We have some of the most incisive passers in Europe (Alonso and Gerrard, and Kewell too recently) but it sometimes seems as if they play excellent balls to the wrong players: passes that require Cisse's pace are laid on for Morientes, passes that require Morientes's vision or Crouch's touch are laid on for Cisse. I have no doubt that Rafa will sort it out, and it may take a change of personnel to do so. We're a work in progress - no shame in that.

No way you could leave Ferguson out of a list of great managers. (He's one of the world's great a******s too of course, in public at least.) But that his greatest side only ever won one European cup hurts him, just as it hurts every Manc fan out there. It's why he keeps going despite retirement looking like the best option. Will Rafa overtake his achievements? I think so. Ferguson has been managing for 3-4 times as long as Rafa, and yet Rafa's already picked up big trophies: one European Cup, two Spanish league titles. That he's done it without the inflated budgets available to Ferguson (Man U used to be Chelsea) or the luck (how many managers get the likes of Giggs, Scholes and Beckham for nowt?) goes to show that he's got the nous to match anyone out there.