The OFFICIAL Liverpool Supporters thread

[Rossie11]

Gerrard gonna be a problem. Not suitable for this team

Agree magpie. Only place I would put him is right back.
He has pace can tackle and is a better distributor than Finnan. Of course Sky, the beeb (and Gerard himself) would do a nut..

[ExiledGael]

Very impressed with Liverpool's start but I keep wondering if Benitez is certain of his strongest team? Who's going to lose out, especially in midfield, Sissoko and Alonso most likely, though Alonso was excellent at the weekend. Excellent squad but it remains to be seen if they'll be happy as squad players. Would this be the strongest XI all being fit?
                               Reina
Finnan          Agger      Carragher     Arbeloa
Pennant      Gerrard   Mascherano    Riise
                     Torres          Kuyt

[heganboy]

what has Benayoun done wrong this season?

[Norf Tyrone]

Good start for the Pool. I didn't/don't rate Torres, but he's slowly prooving me wrong. Someone hit the nail on the head there a wee while back, and stated that Liverpool's main problem is that Benitez doesn't know his strongest 11 and that could manifest itself later in the year.

It's certainly going to a lot more interesting title race this year, with very little between the 'big 4' and a group of 5, or 6 teams well capabale of taking points e.g. Spurs, Villa, Man City, Everton etc.

[Balboa]

I hope the fact that Benitez and his assistant Ayesteran have fallen out with Ayesteran (leaving/left?)  does not destabilize or have a negative influence on things this year.

[Hound]

I was worried there'd be too much tinkering with the team early on and that would cost Liverpool points. It still may, but at the moment there's no apparent weak links among the players being used. For 3 games in a row (Sunderland, Toulouse, Derby) the team has played in a very similar way - depsite the fact that the team for the middle game was totally different from the other two. There is no Zenden-type player this year, who automatically brings the level down when he comes in (personally I think the two weakest first team players in the squad, who get starts, are Riise and Crouch - but I can certainly live with that). Of course those were 3 poor teams - but at this early stage it does look like Liverpool shouldnt have many problems putting the poor teams away this season.

Does Bentiez know his best XI? Maybe not, but I dont think there's any such thing as a best XI any more, because it changes from week to week, depending on form, level of fitness and opposition.

And obviously the question hasnt been answered (coz it hasnt been asked yet) about how this team, the new guys in particular, will cope in the lashings of cold rain in the winter and when they are getting kicked around by the more physical teams.

[Rossie11]

The way Benitez operates he isnt worried about his "best 11". He picks the team based on opposition not on the current form of the individuals at his disposal..
In my opinion its not the way to go as it takes the trust away from the players.

It has worked for him in Spain and is a system more suited to Europe/knock out competitions, hence his success there.

I dont think it will work long term at a club as players will eventually get pissed off of not knowing where they stand but it may work this year in the Premiership.

[Chrisowc]

Good Jamie Carragher interview on the Times football podcast.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/audio_video/podcasts/thegame/article2363430.ece

[02]

I dont think it will work long term at a club as players will eventually get pissed off of not knowing where they stand but it may work this year in the Premiership.

So a full season isn't long term?  Benitez chooses players with the 'right mentality' for rotation, if they don't like it he will be ruthless as before.

[The Real Laoislad]

I see Engerland want Gerrard to take a pain killing injection...
I was thinking about this and started to wonder if this injection could be classed as performance enhancing drug?
If Gerrard wasn't to take the injection surely if he played he wouldn't be able compete or play as well as if he did have the injection..Just wondered what everyone else thought.Obviously it's not a banned substance that will be used but technically it is performance enhancing

[charlie stubbs]

Gerrard gonna be a problem. Not suitable for this team

Agree magpie. Only place I would put him is right back.
He has pace can tackle and is a better distributor than Finnan. Of course Sky, the beeb (and Gerard himself) would do a nut..

doubt he would like playing right back.

all this talk about a great start and being world beaters is too early imo.sunderland will be found out,11 players from this board could beat derby and are perenial problem of beating the top four still exists,even though we where robbed against chelsea.

the derby result was great win,but you have remember gerrards importance,who pulled us out of a hole on the first day?its great to have the current competition for places though and being able to replace 1 good player with another which until know rafa hasnt really been able to do.voronin has taken me and alot of people by surprise,seems be number three striker at the min ahead of crouchie

[The Real Laoislad]

It cannot be classed as performance enhancing, it is merely a pain killing injection. The effects will wear off after 4 hours and he had one before the Chelsea game.

But he is able perform better with the injection than without the injection

[full back]

LL - Once he has it, he should be able to perform at or close to his normal level. It wont make him any better than he normally is.
It's like if you damage your wrist - bandage it up - it wont help you, but you should be able to perform close to your normal level

[The Real Laoislad]

LL - Once he has it, he should be able to perform at or close to his normal level. It wont make him any better than he normally is.
It's like if you damage your wrist - bandage it up - it wont help you, but you should be able to perform close to your normal level

Grand so!

[Balboa]

LL - Once he has it, he should be able to perform at or close to his normal level. It wont make him any better than he normally is.
It's like if you damage your wrist - bandage it up - it wont help you, but you should be able to perform close to your normal level

Laoislad knows all about damage to the wrist