To be honest, it's obvious for all to see what our problem is.

We're a side who over recent years have had an exceptionally strong spine to the team, a solid, tried and tested spine. However, this year, one of the biggest cogs in that spine has been ripped out and replaced with a player of insufficient quality. Aquilani isn't back yet so we can't base him, but Lucas just isn't up to the standard of Liverpool FC. Aquilani could end up replacing Alonso, but it'll be pointless if we end up out of it by Christmas like all the other seasons.

I hate being so negative, but we can't afford to be playing catch up this early. We're not out of August and we've already lost two games, I was expecting 9 from 9, or 7 from 9 at least.

Joleon's press conference. He is looking forward to the challenge apparently...

at the scousers.

Crap load of tosh hard to see how win can win the title from here one of them nights I wish I had saved my money, so of the tatics by villa were shocking though, time wasting small time s

Were was all you Mancs when Burnley did you over? now they come out to play..

We should sign you up then Rob, how shiite does our bench look? serious mate its crap spuds are got a better bench than us

We have a few injuries but I agree. It doesn't look good when you see Nemeth sent on loan, either.

Where's Riera?

To be honest, we need to drop Gerrard deep because we're not getting the ball to him so far up the field, he's so good there but Lucas is so far from Alonso it's untrue. Until Aquilani is 100%, Gerrard has to play there, but then who plays up front with Torres? Rafa will probably use Dirk there, whilst I'd be happy to see him off the wing, I can't help but think Babel would be a better forward than Dirk at the mo. For me, we need to get Yossi on the right, Riera on the left and just f*ck Dirk off for the time being. He offers so little throughout the game, he passes it backwards so much and his touch lets him down too often to play on the wing. Johnson was barely used tonight because every time got the ball, he cut in and gave it to Mascherano due to his lack of ability.

It's worrying. When we lost Alonso, one of the attributes I also believed we'd miss a lot was his underrated defensive game. He often covered so much ground, won so many 50/50's and battled to the death, Lucas at the moment is just giving foul after foul away.

I don't know where the money from Alonso has disappeared to, would love us to get a versatile forward/winger, someone like Zarate is beyond my wildest dreams at the moment. I hope he has somebody lined up, last year shown we weren't strong enough depth-wise, so far, I'd say we're weaker at the moment than last year. Of course, Aquilani could change that, but we're talking about October at least, most probably November

That was my hope rob, really happy at the thought of ossies replacement coming in but teletext are reporting him as a left winger so bit of shuffle, bilyaletdinov to left, pienaar to the right and osman to the park end.

Can't believe Villa got a penalty for the tackle by Gerrard, looked like self defence to me.

I think he's like most attacking midfielders these days, comfortable on either side but probably at his best through the middle. When's Arteta back?

It would be a shame to split the Baines/Pienaar partnership that has always looked good when I've watched them, but Osman has looked terrible lately.

Just got in and seen the Liverpool result
They've lost the same amount of games as they did in the whole of last year and we're still in August.
Can't wait to hear what Fat Rafa has to say
Thought they'd walk it tonight. Had them half-time/full-time.