You and me both



Landon Donovan though, really? I'm not so sure on this one.

All a bit jazzy round here these days, I like it

PMSL. I think your evaluations of players are usually spot on but this one isnt. id take Sagna at Arsenal or Bosingwa before Johnson. Since his addition, a very formidable defensive side has suddenly become an average defensive side. I agree that hes a very good attacking fullback but his all-round game isn't there for him to be described as best in the league.

The owners to start up rumours over Klinsmann again.

Rafa to kick off and say it was the final straw and walk.

Notts county up for sale!

Sven & the current CEO interested in the purchase.

I think that is more down to Carragher having an awful time of it recently.

Reina would start at any of the 3 clubs mentioned
Johnson would defintely get in Uniteds team and have a good shout of Arsenal or Chelseas
Gerrard would start at any of the 3 clubs mentioned
Mascherano would start for Arsenal
Torres would start at any of the 3 clubs.

So that's 3 that would walk into any of the other 3 teams. If we were doing a joint squad of the 4 teams, we would fill our share comfortably and could make a case for having 5 players in a hypothetical 18 man squad.

It's nothing to do with that though. It's the fact that United/Arsenal and Chelsea have better squad players than us. The likes of Agger, Benayoun and hopefully Aquilani are all good enough to be part of a championship winning side IMO but the likes of Aurelio, Degen, Babel, Riera, Kyriagkos, Insua, Kuyt, Lucas (who has certainly been better this season), Ngog (currently) shouldn't be starting ANY crucial games for Liverpool.

All teams have poor players though. It's just that Liverpool seem to have more.

If i were to pick a team from the top 4 it'd be:

GK: Renia

LB: A Cole
CB: Vidic/Ferdinand
CB: Terry (C)
RB: Johnson

CM: Fabregas
CM: Gerrard
CM: Lampard


ST: Drogba
ST: Torres
ST: Rooney

Bench

GK: Cech
DEF: Carragher (On his day)
DEF: Vidic/Ferdinand
MID: Carrick
MID: J Cole
ST: Owen
ST: Van Persie

I dont think Arsenal have a great squad, they have players who play well but would struggle to get in anyother team apart from RVP and Fabregas.

Sound logic, but slightly glosses over the issue. Yes, in a team made up from the 'big 4' you'd probably hold your own, but there's still a problem. You point out that 3 of your best 11 would get into those of your rivals, but the key issue there is the flip side; all of your title rivals have knocking on 8 players in their team who are better than yours. That's just a huge gulf.

In fact, extend it a bit. How many of your best 11 do you honestly think would crack the Spurs team? It's a closely run thing IMO, and they have better depth. That shouldn't be the case such a short time after them being relegation candidates and you topping the table.

Vermaelen, Clichy, Walcott, and Arshavin/Rosicky would all get in Liverpool's 11 IMO as well, and possibly Gallas too.

Sounds you have a lot of good individuals who need to play as a team. Or maybe it's the manager.

Vermalen ahead of whom?
Walcott is vastly overrated.
Arshavin and Rosicky are pretty decent players, i'll give you that.

This season, Carragher. And from what I've seen so far he's quite possibly better than Skrtel and Agger as well. From this thread, it seems that many Liverpool fans are blind to how monumentally poor Carragher has been this season.

Walcott is overhyped I agree, but still a good player when fit. He's certainly a more dangerous player than Kuyt IMO, who aside from work rate doesn't offer a great deal to a top 4 side.

The thing is, before the season kicked off it was almost unanimously thought that Arsenal's was the top 4 place under threat from big-spending Man City, due to what people perceived as the weakest squad. As it's turned out, they're now looking stronger than last year's runners up whom they finished 14 points behind with just miniscule changes to their team. So is it Arsenal's players overachieving this year, or simply their emergence and Liverpool's overachievement last season?

What about Sagna? you not putting him in the squad!?

Reina

Sagna
Vermalan
Terry
Evra

Arshavin
Essien
Fletcher
Giggs

Drogba
Rooney

That would be my team made up of last season's top 4 on form this season so far.

I dont like Sagna, I think he can be caught out quite easily at times.

Hence the placing of Carragher on the bench, he has been fantastic for Liverpool and is a fantastic defender but his form has dropped and he knows it. On his day Carra can quite easily be up there with the likes of JT.

Just like Johnson.

I thought that was basically what I had said in my previous post? We've got some fantastic indiviudals but that our squad depth is poor?

Same with any FB imo.

Am I missing something with Vermaelan? Seen him outjumped by a Blackburn player who's name escapes me, to score and has kept about 2 clean sheets all year. And leaving Fabregas out is pretty harsh.

Also, there's two ways of picking this team. Form and Permanent class.

Form:

Reina

Johnson
Terry
Carvalho
Cole

Fabregas
Essien
Giggs

Torres
Rooney
Drogba

Based on if I was to pick the players at their current peaks:

Reina

Johnson
Terry
Vidic
Cole

Essien (EDIT J Cole out for Essien)

Arshavin
Fabregas
Gerrard

Rooney
Torres

I'd rather Skrtel, Agger, Carragher and Gallas than Vermaelan.

Reina, Johnson, Agger, Mascherano, Gerrard and Torres would get into Arsenal's XI.

Liverpool haven't conceeded less than Chelsea since 2001. Liverpool's best defensive performances haven't been as good as Chelsea's over a season. Chelsea's best defence over a season has been a great deal superior to anything Liverpool have been close to.

Liverpool like to go with FACHTS. The fact is that for all the jerking off over Reina and Shay Given, they've both let in nearly twice as many goals as Cech.

I see that yet more Gerrard diving has gone on without comment or criticism from the press.