an tha

He is one of the best finishers at the club and for me would add more playing further up the park. Look at Lampard today for Man City, Gerrard can do that perfectly for us. Especially whilst we are struggling creatively and not doing enough in terms of chances.

Spot on and repped. For me Stevie would be much more effective further up the park.

Chelsea reverting to bus parking today, it's horrible to watch, but if it gets them the results they need away in the big games then the end justifies the means as they will beat up most of the shite.

The mancs are a shitter version of us last year

True, yes - and if we don't put the bitters, QPR and west Bromwich, Newcastle and hull to the sword then I think we are in trouble.

Without wanting to jump on the 'we have lost Suarez we are fucked' bandwagon - I do think that even forgetting his 30 goals and 15 assists or whatever it was that we miss his energy and his ability to put us on the front foot from nothing. How many times last season did we score or crate pressure due to him chasing a lost cause, forcing a mistake or just creating space for others, he may not have got the assist or the goal but it was his work rate, him winning a lost cause or forcing an error that began the move for the goal - we haven't got that at the mo and we are not creating pressure and are too easy to defend against.

Worth noting here, we were laughing at these a couple of weeks ago, probably too soon....By same token just because they look like smashing a couple of newly promoted teams it does not make them world beaters either

Reads like an aggregation of the match thread.

Exactly. Which shows me how unbalanced the squad is... Ok nobody can help the injuries, but then injuries are all a part of the game. I just don't think we have the depth we need in the right areas, which is why we are fucking around with our shape and making changes game to game at the mo... Which is hurting our cohesion.

He did, but he did so in a way that an ok player does, not in the way a really class player does. Case in point was when he took that shot on instead of putting it on a plate for Moreno. A top class player looks up squares it and we almost certainly score. Put him in that position ten times and nine times out of ten we come away without a goal. Put a top class player in that position and nine times out of ten we come away with a goal.

A telling fact about our squad (ok injuries aren't helping) is a mate of mine just challenged me to name a balanced 11 for the league cup game Tuesday.... I couldn't do it, not unless it's a midfield made up of attacking midfielders.. Try it (keeping in mind we need to rest Gerrard) and probably protect some of our usual starters. Best I could do without picking reserves was Jones Manquillo Enrique Toure Skrtel Coutinho Suso Lallana Borini Lambert Markovic For my money our squad is unbalanced, has too many similar players - namely attacking midfielders and not enough quality in terms of defensive/central midfielders and we are light up front.

Borini when he shot instead of putting it on a plate for Moreno summed up our problem for me. If he does the right thing there then despite our shite defending we possibly get a result. That was what we did last season, but at the moment we haven't got the intelligence/quality needed to dig ourselves out of our self inflicted holes. We let in bad goals last year we have and will let them in this, difference is we aren't half as good at the other end.

We aren't very good at the mo, but we aren't that frigging bad...... Are we?!

We are in bad shape. Poor individually at the back, poor collectively at the back. Lacking impetus in the middle and predictable up front. Needs sorting soon, before this turns into a rot. A lot for Rodgers to think about and do, and some players need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Shambles, we just can't fucking defend. Individually or as a team.

One thing I have seen that is good from Borini is his movement, that might just be handy today especially if Raheem cam dictate play.

For me he should today, but that's just my opinion, it's his job and he knows more than me

Is Lucas not in the DM role, with Steve and Henderson in front...That is how I read that 11 anyway.... Sterling behind the front 2 as you say could be the difference.

Allen injured, Can injured. It's not that unbelievable.

Well Borini wanted to prove himself, go on then, lad. Here is your chance.

Hope Stevie can handle 3 games in a week. It is weird seeing Lucas and Borini start after all the money we have spent. That's injuries though... Coutinho not even on bench, I know it's early in season but seems to me that there is too much in and out with players across the team, which does not help with cohesion.

They are getting battered on here..... https://twitter.com/hashtag/WeGoTheGame?src=hash

Tellyclapping is Kopite behaviour, can't be having that, lid...

http://www.evertonfc.com/ Getting desperate to shift tickets to all their game going fans....

Fair do's.