DomL

Its overall a rather young defence with little experience working together, its going to take a month or so of consistancy but if we can keep the back line fit it will be a very good back line. Johnson has already said that tactically he is learning so much more than previously so getting such an understanding of the game will come and if someone such as Johnson is reffering to being so uneducated then it's no surprise Insua has had problems considering his age. Considering the type of football everton played i thought we handle it pretty well, the only thing that could have helped was our confidence if we had more confidence with the ball we would have certainly kept it for longer periods of time which would have eased the pressure on the defence. This week hopefully the players will get fitter and rested as well as having more confidence in themselves which should help greatly.

He is a better player than adebayor was when he first came to this country so if we can have a player that will develop into a sub or squad player of that quality then i will be happy. This club is more likely to fail because we wont allow players to develop in the long run, why we can't just allow players time is beyond me, but hey football is more about the now rather than present, even though its one of the reasons why we are in the fucking mess we currently see's ourselves financially on and off the pitch.

Wow what a post a slow decline really?, i imagined last season did, a supposed record breaking season without this legendary Pako, Jeez. Right so how many times now is buscoumbe going to trumpet the O'neil card and for nothing to happen, if he is being considered then wow the owners are certainly wanting to kill this club rather than revive it. The Fact that the article says that Kenny would come in is another worry, if he did his status would be tarnished because he certainly wouldn't do any wonders for this team. If any of this does materialise then we are likely to further down the pecking order rather up, i hope to god this is another hatchet job from that noob. I would just like to add if gerrard is throwing a fucking hissy of Alonso he needs to get over it, for fuck sake its a fack of life in football players are sold it shouldn't really matter about the reason. Also if Carra like nick has stated is pumping info into the public domain he certainly has no reason to considering his current form and performances. Our lives would be alot easier if we didn't have so many cunts wanting a bite out of this club, but every tom, dick and harry has to have their say and has to have their info. If Rafa does go then he will likely leave us with the finest first team this club has seen in a long time and i certainly wouldn't want O'neil and his long ball, penatrating free kick tactics anyware near this club

I think maybe develop was the wrong word but Agger seems to have certainly help allow Kjaer to express himself in the correct way without looking a fish out of water and that is something i think can be credited to Agger, It's something i dont like about Carra he is a defender you have to think about because he is clumsy on the ball as well as rather slow on the turn, Agger would'nt really have these problems with Skrtel

This may well be the biggest thing Rafa will have to do for this club, i feel it is time for a change and it may well take time to settle which may be what settles Rafa's future here but its a risk i think he should take especialy for the future of this team. Agger has gained a great amount of experience with Denmark in terms of leadership and knowing how to be a strong character, he has enabled Kajer to develop as a CB and considering Kajer's age i think it shows Agger's ability to guide him through a match and enable him to show his skills. I feel Agger is the type of person that would relish the challenge, their was a moment in the manc game which showed aggers character, Carra had put him in an akward situation with the ball and Agger delt with it as best he could and it resulted in more pressure on us. Carra's reaction was straight away to shout at Agger, Agger wasn't having any of it he went straight back at him and it seemed to actually put Carra in his place somewhat, This is the type of skills that are all important in a leader, Its also a quality i think many people don't seem to think he has, he is a very aggressive defender, he impressed me immensely with his ability in the air at that Game. Skrtel has alot of ability very much like Carragher he makes that last ditch challenge and has the aggression to get at forwards, i always remember the man city game ware he did somewhat illegal flying kick into I THINK Benjani's back, now i know it was illegal but that aggression is necessary i feel. Both would also be a very balanced partnership one left one right, with Skrtel and Carra, Carra has to normally cover the left possition and with Insua their its currently a problem due Insua still learning his craft, Agger would have the pace and ability to cover these mistakes. Wether we like it or not a time will come ware Carra will go and maybe now considering we may well be out of the title race is the best time. (we may well not im just speculating)

No Rafa didnt know he would be out until November as their anitial prognosis suggested it would only be a month, unfortnatly that wasnt the and we have had to go much longer which is something Rafa did not account for but have to due to the injury. Im sure their is another stick that he be beaten with but that isnt one of them.

This is something i deffinatly agree with, we had a reserve team in similar form to that that lost in such a mannor at arsenal, and considering the youth of the players last night it shows their has been a great deal of improvement in our squad and youth set up. You also have mentioned about most of our younger players not being ready this year which is dissapointing and something which i feel will change next year as i think the likes of Ecclestone, Amoo, Palson, Saric, Mavinga will probably start to show up more within the first team and thats when i feel we will start to get credit for our youth set up because they are all at a level or similar to of Insua if their development continues. I personally have no problem with the Rafa i handling our younger talent granted it would be nice to them earlier rather than later but for Ecclestone to come on is another step in the right direction for the introduction of talent . Arsenal are a very different species in terms of helping their younger Talent, thier main goal is to have a young team wether it wins or looses the idea is that it is to promote youth, the money that they throw at such talent should also be seen. The fact that have spent 5mil or more on talent like Walcott, Ramsey, Denilson and others says alot considering our highest payment for i think a nineteen year old is close to either one or two mil for N'gog and Insua and considering the ability they are showing i would maybe suggest Rafa is possibly close to being equal to finding young talent.

Palson for me is our best prospect in our youth set up for CM, considering his size and age as well as high skill level i feel he has a very good chance of making it here. I know we dont get alot of credit for creating great talent but i think over the next year or so that will change, with Ecclestone, Amoo, Palson, Mavinga, N'gog and possibly Pacheco will hopefully progress to the level of Insua who unfortunatly is going through a tough period but will likely come out of hit a much better player.

well if he does go we will be in an even worse possition because their is no one to come in, although i dont know if mancini is free he would be acceptable.

Managers are made are far easier scape goats these days than players, all that article does is to try and make two players beyond being critisisum in a football world when players are treated like kings and many complain about this fact, i cant believe such a writter like him would produce something like this. Winter has also been surprisingly critical generally of liverpool this season which is strange considering he is normally a rather possitive writter for us in the Telegraph but this is just another in the long line of articles this season ware he has tried to unearth patterns and areas of critisisum's that dont exsist. The comments were made after a match which were deserved both Carra and Gerrard were shit gerrard even admittited it. Also why are five years of Rafa being here and the fact that he doesnt give enough critisum even though over the last couple years Rafa has handed many complements to Gerrard, Carragher, Torres, Reina etc. All this article seems to be is an easy write up for Winter, it has been mentioned that if we against sunderland our points difference wont be any different to last year at this point so ware is the major problem. Articles like this are just poor journalism at its worse as their is no real evidence just conjecture and opinion, Rafa's job will be on the line soon in the next article.

It is all up to Insua he looks like he is going to be an excellent player he just does need experience in terms of learning when to time runs how to keep his line with the CB when to show inside and outside on the appropriate occasions. You mention Johnson had excellent attacking capabilites at an early age so does Insua he has a great cross, touch and judgement of how to keep onside when he is receiving the ball to stretch the defence. One thing he does need to have is more concentration he can have lapses when he doesn't realise when the ball is being stretched out to his possition so he has to scamper to block the ball from the winger which can be missed timed. I have faith in Insua becoming a very recognised full back in world football and one we should be pleased to have considering he cost two million i for one am not complaining and i doubt we will be in the future because he may well of saved us seventeen million on that left flank.

The only problem with the two defenders is the pairing itself they are both very similar in their marking and attitude towards defending normally you have a real balance between a defence, i can remember skrtel was excellent last year with Hyppia because they complemented each other. For me Skrtel is a fantastic defender who just needs a partner he can feel comfortable with, if Agger can be a leader in our back line him and skrtel will certainly be our future, i think many people will be surprised how far skrtel will come when he isnt paired but with Carra.

I think we are ranging when we use each Full Back sometimes we use Insua as our main fullback outlet sometimes Johnson when we used both we cetainly didnt have much affect alla the Villa game. As a fullback just like a forward you have to be able to time your runs its something that i think Johnson has been asked to do find the best time for himself and the team to attack, we are going to have trouble at the back untill we have at least a few more months with this back line, every back line when resorting to using different tactics will allways have teething problems. I can remember when the ManU had all that trouble with Evra and Vidic they were all over the place and considering we have two full backs who are rather young and inexperienced at this level it is no surprise that we are suffering a little but fortunatly their attacking quality is making up for such errors. I think by the time we hit the christmas period we should see i feel a more comfortable defence i think also having a settled midfield of Masch and Aqualani will help tremendoulsly not the defence but to the whole team. I guess we just have to be patient.

H certainly should not be a starter but to have him come in when Aqua is injured for me is fine for me, it certainly hasnt helped that the team have played poorly and for some reason he has been the focus of our poor performances which shouldnt happen. He is a good player nothing more nothing less and is a good squad player to have, he reminds of fletcher in terms of his role with the team, he does his job to the best of his abilities and can step it up against bigger opposition like has been mentioned. You saw when the team played well against Stock he played well its the way he his, he needs to feel as though he shouldnt be the saviour but rather just apart of a team unlike Gerrard or Torres and now Johnson you can see though players thrive on that big moment Lucas fails at this time and that can be seen through the teams performance recently. We should certainly keep him and allow him to develop as a player and just be happy with the player that he his.

Well its going to interesting to see how Ayala does, he is a big lad so dealing with the physical will hopefully be a bit easier, the football i dont think will be that preaty though.

Mate i know what your saying and maybe my point is getting lost in i imagine the rather shit explanation of my point, but surely we should have a high amount of money ware the seven million becomes an advantage rather than a disadvantage.

But again isnt that the point we really shouldn't have to these as major issues within a transfer budget yet it obviously is, but again people don't seem to realise exactly the value that Rafa realisticly has to work with, many seem to think that Rafa has a value that is very easy to work with but obviously isnt.

Yes he cost us seventeen mil but surely should we have to really on seven mil being owed to us from another club granted it isnt something to be sniffed at but i personally dont think that seven mil should really be included within their so called promised transfer budget, surely it should equate to us having more money than less which seems to have happend.

Why are people saying we spent 17 mil on Johnson when seven of that was actually still from the money they owed us for crouch, which i thought that had been cleared up, so we have actually spent ten mil and i doubt much of that was up front considering the state of affairs. ATK has stated that Aquliani is likely to be payed for over the five year period of his contract, Aquliani has obviously been seen as the right player, he maybe injured but should we really sacrifice the perfect player for a fit one, if their is to be a future of this club least Rafa seems to be thinking about it. so it seems Rafa has actually had fuck all money at all, a top four club that has an overall spend of ten mil for what we need is disgusting to be ohnest and how anyone really can actually try and accuse Rafa of anything at this time is beyond me. He didnt know the circumstances we would be under in the current two games did he, but in a world we live in today ware we must look at others rather than ourselves to blame, football is an emotional game for us as fans and as we all know emotion can get the best of us at the best of times, perhaps we should do what we love doing support the team and chant the players and managers name rather than abusing them as ware does it get us. Perhaps are anger should be directed towards our owners it is a sensible idea as surely they are the ones that have caused us and our team the most problems.

I know it is highly unlikely are it is more reasonable to assume that their investment or lack of is likely to going towards themselves or the repayments of loans, which i guess in the scheme of things is the same thing. But could it be such a detraction from their word could be a positive thing, like the selling of the club, are the owners likely to add money of their own which they look considerably short of to a business that is likely to be sold or has already arranged to be a previous date or price. Possibly you could say that they would try and invest more to accumulate more but they seem to two people who have a strong sense of their own worth (which is way beyond their actual worth, which is more like whats on the bottom of my shoe) I know im probably dreaming i just don't want to be depressed about a situtation which i can only really observe rather than act any way as rightly or wrongly im am not a regular match go'er. Hopefully these will be our darkest times and we could soon have light at the end of the tunnel, but i doubt it and thats the worst thing of all.

Espanyol want to win, we seem we couldnt care less were just running about, i mean we have a probably one the best teams in the world and espanyol are playing us off their pitch im sorry but if we gave a shit that would not happen, i cant believe people actually give a shit about this game. I mean were still wearing though's stupid monitors so its still obviously about fitness and the team moving and getting certain plans out on the pitch, i know we are loosing but seriously if this is the way we will play at spurs then we really will be in trouble but i just cant see it happening.

right why is everyone going into fucking panic mode, two players who really arnt that great have signed for two different clubs, both barry and panjic arnt that great and their are better options out their for the price of each of them. i'm sure rafa has alternatives which are just as good if not better they just might cost more which means selling players which is something he may have wanted to stay away from in the long run. Untill rafa comes out with must act quicker in the transfer market i am not very worried as i feel we are likely to get are first choice targets.

Dave what the fuck your condoning some other player to throw a kick at our own for fuck sake and your meant to be a sensible person what the fuck. Skrtel has been very consistant considering he has been here what a season and a half and he has been at the heart of our defence in a title challenge, he has done so well and is improving all the time and also considering the injury he had which could well have been career threatening he has done great. Skrtel also plays for the obstruction very well he doesnt just leap like an idiot like arbeloa he gets ahead of defender and just simply follows the run of the ball Carragher has been doing that for fucking years but hey he cant be touched can he. When he is the one that is on his last legs and is struggling which i hope he admits to himself soon else he wont be around forever. Why the sudden wish for agger in the team when we have actually conceded more when he has played also we have lost less with skrtel in defence as well. Our problem isnt centre back its right back Skrtel is exposed time and time again by arbeloa not being able to defend and now he has been told to attack more we are going to see skrtel struggle more. Once we have a very good RB that consistantly plays as with LB and the CB can understand their runs etc i doubt we will conceed many next season if it is adressed. Skrtel is a very good defender and player and i hope he stays more than agger who has got to big for his boots in seems. People opinions are so wide ranging its quite bizzar.

Zarate for me sounds the more likely option considering how we play and what Rafa wants from the second striker i.e. be able to pull out like gerrard does etc Cruz wouldnt i doubt be able to do this at the pace or with the quality required. Zarate can also lead the line we would have to play in a different manner but i think we could do it. Zarate, Kuba and then a full back and i think we would be sorted as then we could really bring through our younger players who seem to have a good enough quality for the back up striker. Or we could look to bring in Cruz as well as our back striker which maybe he would be rather a good buy for say what 7-10 mil at a push i would probably take it.

Its sad really, to see two grown trying to belittle and bully another grown man, through a way that is just childish and that in somebody's other words is "beyond contempt". I think Fergie actually thinks that what he has said will either get under the skin of Rafa or will try and influence the people in the media or football fraternity, if this is the case then Rafa isnt the man i thaught he was and the media are well and truly up his arse. We can see as football fans what Fergie and the other fat cunt are trying to do im sure the rest will. When i heard fergie come out with that i really did get angry as what he said has more cause for retaliation than what the response was for. I hope Rafa either makes light of it or mearly rejects any questions on the matter because it doesnt deserve a response. Fergie hasnt half the mind Rafa does and if Rafa had a better command of the english language we would see that. When reading translated artciles from Rafa you can see how bright he truly is and it surpases the scottish dick whos tactics meerly seem to be to have built an air of invicibility around him. Wenger did it once and now Rafa is doing it again and hopefully for a longer period of time. Isnt good to have a man with a mind on football instead of a man with one eye on a bottle of whisky and the other with his mind on the his next pie.