RedAdmiral

When Prentice mentioned in his Echo column last week that we wont win the title but would go close, I got a warm fuzzy feeling knowing that the biggest bitter of all was worried that the title could be returning to Liverpool FC.

He's not going to come out and say Rafa's job is safe, not until he has spoken to him face to face and made his feelings clear about how he has viewed Rafa's actions. By saying nothing he's giving Rafa a little slap on the wrist and showing him who truly is boss.

The thing is though, if you can retain the ball well as a team then you dont need a Momo. If you dont let the other team have much of the ball, then the other team cant do any damage, this is very much Arsenals way of playing and the way we played in the 80's.

He's a real 'Liverpool' player of the pass and move variety. He's Boss, in the non Momo way.

Is Alonso still not fit? That would be my only change with that team, Alonso in for Momo, but other than that it looks like a team that is very capable of getting a good result against Newcastle. Just hope Gerrard keeps his position and doesnt keep floating into the centre, it that is how Rafa intends to play this.

Really cant wait for this game against Newcastle, I think we will well and truly stuff them, now that we seem to be getting back to our best.

I dont think people realise how highly Rafa rates Momo. Whenever he has a good game for us rafa always seems to single him out for praise more than he does with other players. This may be a confidence thing, with Rafa thinking that Momo needs that extra support to perform at his best level, but there is no doubt that Rafa loves his non stop running style of play. He will only sell him if the board give the ok to signing Mash, which i'm sure they will.

Is that confirmed?

I'll be seriously pissed off if Crouch doesn't start the game, although not surprised in the slightest.

Its been a weird kind of start to this season, our performances have ranged from excellent to dreadful with a few average games thrown in to boot. But even so, something tells me that this is going to be our year, and I can see the championship race going right down to the wire with us in the thick of it. Its understandable why so many of our fans have been a pissed off with the team of late, but I think its mainly out of frustration that we know that this team IS good enough to win the title, but they have to believe they are good enough themselves (and maybe so does Rafa). I had to laugh when the reporter after the Blackburn game asked Rafa if he thought we were out of the title race on account of us being in 7th place. A true reflection is we are 6 points off the top with a game in hand, and its still only November. I think there is still a lot more to come from this team, and as the season goes on we will only get stronger, as has been the case with Rafa in charge. The only difference this season is we have given ourselves a better start, dont forget we were 11 points off top spot this time last year. When we finished the season with 82 points in 06, we had lost far to much ground on the leaders early on, but we then went on a run which I think at one point we won 10 games in a row. If the season would have started in October that season, we would have been champions. Which is why I really do believe that something special is going to be happening come May. Keep the faith. Prediction for the game Liverpool 4 Fulham 0

I think you may be right.

I think its more the case of us over estimating the quality of our own players. We are missing three of our most important players at the mo, and until we get them all back we will not be playing at our true level. With Torres in the team yesterday we have beaten Blackburn.

I do believe in a God of sorts, but it certainly isn't a big white beared man sitting on a cloud. Your sitting their now looking at your monitor, seeing images that have been creating using millions of bits of information that have been stored on tiny microchips. You can speak to anyone in the world through this machine, little bits of information flying at the speed of light backwards and forwards through cables and through the air. It really is a fucking astonishing piece of kit, but it took a lot of intelligent people to create it. And its things like this that make me sure that it took a great deal of itelligence to create us aswell. Now, I know your going to through 'evolution' into my face on this one, but hear me out. I have no doubt that we have evolved into the forms we take today, but I also believe that evolution has been assisted by an itelligent force that exists throughout nature. Its like your computer, it cant create itself or evolve into a better machine, it takes us to make that happen. The world just seems to much of complex place for me to believe that there is no god.

This is the midfield I would go with from the start. Gerrard____Mash___Alonso____Kewell ___________Torres_____________________ ________________Crouch________________ You can say what you like about Kewell, but we all know he is still the best player we have to play left wing. If he's fit, then we should play him.

Thought i'd share some reasons why I think we'll beat Arsenal. * Confidence will be high after beating Everton * Gerrard showing more than a glimpse of returning to form * We battered them at Anfield last season (Carling Cup, never heard of it!) * We have a better defence than they have (but we really could do with Agger back for this game) * Fernando Torres * Kuyts confidence will be sky high after scoring them derby goals * Alonso should be back * Its at Anfield Liverpool 3 Arsenal 1

I cant wait for this to get started now. I had a crazy dream last night that we will win this game 3-2, after coming in 1-0 down at half time!

One thing that this team has always done under Rafa is they always put in a performance when the odds are against them. Most blue noses think that they have a great chance of beating us tomorrow, and most pundits are going for either a draw or an Everton victory, which is why I'm sure we will get the win we so badly need. Fuck being worried, I just cant wait to see Torres against Stubbs.

A thread like this needs a good two day build up to get us in the mood! This is what i'd go with; _________Torres___Voronin__________ ____________Gerrard____________ ____Yossi____Mash____Pennant____ Arbeloa____Sami_____Carra_____Finnan ______________Reina________________ Lets face it, Everton are gonna pack their midfield and play for a draw, so the only way to counter-act their 5 man midfield will be to utilise our full backs in an attacking sense. They should be organised and compact, but they have been making a lot of mistakes in defence of late so it really will be important to keep them under pressure when we have the ball. Everton 0 Liverpool 2

A goal on Saturday will see him good.

Gerrard has been poor again for England today.

And todays word of the day children is....

You evidently have stuck it in your pipe and smoked it! Then you pressed 'post'.

I wasn't trying to blame Gerrard for the teams failings, I just think that it would benefit his own game as well as the teams. He is the Captain, and other players are going to look to him for inspiration, which he just isn't giving at the minute.

At this moment in time, playing Gerrard on the right would benefit the whole team, as it would take a lot of pressure off him considering the average form he's been in of late. The problem is that without Alonso being an option, its a risk that Rafa would not take (bearing in mind momo's awful form of late, and constant lack of creative flair!). I dont believe any bullshit that Gerrard has demanded to play in the centre or he's off, Rafa would pack his bags for him if that was his attitude. I think Rafa just feels he can play him in the centre as long as he has a reliable right winger, and with Pennant being in good form (well, maybe not the last few games, but who has!) he's decided that this is our most creative team, which it is. I just hope that the Captains ego could handle being placed on the wing again though, because I really cant stand it when he comes out with bullshit comments to his bessy mate in the whole world - "well it is my best position Jeff. I just hope the manager can see that now!")

Is the correct answer. He's not trying to put pressure on his own players, he just wants fair treatment when it comes to these situations. He will be telling his players something completely different though, its just how good managers work. They use the media to try and force changes to the game, sometimes it works, just ask Slur Alex.