Ponky

Well if we had one or two slightly more creative players this wouldn't be as big a debate because we would not be so utterly dependent on Ashley for ideas going forward. The other thing is if we signed a couple of similarly talented players god-forbid Ashley might not be allowed to take every free-kick and corner he could get his hands on - and that might actually hasten his departure!

Any more than that tismyk? Line up for us, any of the injured chaps back? A report on the Leicester OS Apparently Dunne played!

Both Delph and Gardner are going to need a lot of time to get themselves up to the standard we hope they can achieve. You only have to look at Downing's comeback last season and how he is a different player now with a pre-season under his belt. And that's for a seasoned Premier League player. They will play bit-parts at best this season I would say and you would have to say barring another injury crisis they would find playing opportunities few and far between, in my view.

Don't really have any figures to back this up but you'd have to say some combination of Heskey, Albrighton and Downing has been responsible for at least 70-75% of our goals/assists this season.

Back 4 looked pretty solid for me. Lichaj had a good debut but still let Thomas get away from him a few too many times. The big difference having Carlos there is that, apart from that one occasion, he meets every ball and times his clearances perfectly. No fresh-air shots and hacked clearances from Carlos. I gave Downing as MOTM, but could have easily given it to Albrighton. Hesky looked well off the pace in front of goal but his aerial and defensive work were a god-send. Halsey was his usual incompetent self. Jara could have easily been sent off twice over and I thought Scharner's hack at Young's ankle deserved more than a laugh and a stern talking to. And what was with the time-keeping - I swear they initially showed 3 minutes time added and then changed it to 4 - sneaky buggers!

You should read the main board

Anyone think he might do a decent job at left-back? He is not the fastest but neither is he the tallest for a centre-half, but he uses the ball pretty well. He would be an extra body in the box for set pieces, like Cuellar was last year and Mellberg was in his seasons at RB.

I have been in the "needs more time" camp and I have been feeling that once players start coming back and with a good January we might have a strong finish to the season. I am increasingly worried though that Houllier doesn't seem to be capable of setting us up to win games - or at least not lose games - as the performances are getting worse rather than better. At this point in time I think we need to give him a few more weeks to turn because at this point in time the last thing the club needs is more instability. Unless there is a ready-made replacement in the wings, we are better with the Devil we know... for now.

Totally this. We just got hammered by the worst Liverpool side in my lifetime. As I commented at half time, we were shite, shite, shite. Hogg MotM, but he didn't have much to beat. Time to say Au Revoir, Gerard. This is the thing - I don't think they hammered us at all - they only really had 5-6 chances of note and happened to score from them. All Liverpool really did was sit back and let us do their work for them. We really are lacking leadership and confidence. Our players are getting caught out with the ball and misplacing passes way too often, which is because they are playing a style of football which is against their natural style. Luke Young for example is never going to be a pass & move player because the ball always bounces 10 yards off his feet when he tries to control the ball. One thing I will say - we look far more convincing & threatening with 2 strikers on the pitch. We need to play 4-4-2 to give us a chance of scoring. I am not in favour of sacking Houllier just yet - I think given the money next month he could bring a few good players in - but if he was sacked I wouldn't be particularly upset about it, as long as they had someone to replace him immediately.

Do you notice though how many people actually struggle to know how to use a knife & fork these days?

Book yourself into a hotel that has foxtel and preferably foxsports, even if just for one night. It's a night match so kick off would be about 6 am there - unlikely to find a pub or anything open, although foxtel tends to replay matches through the day. Your only other bet might be the casino, which may be open 24hrs and have a sports bar running the match. If you can find yourself somewhere with foxtel you'll definitely get to watch it. It's a Liverpool match.

FIFA in corrupt decision shocker!

I agree with you srsmithusa - it is a bitter, bitter pill, but we have to swallow it for now I think. That said, I don't have to co-exist in my community with those awful, vile, disgusting creatures called Blues fans. All I can say is I sympathise but can't imagine what it must be like to have your life endangered simply going to a footy match

Disappointing result although it was a competent away performance. I have defended Dunne all season but he was abysmal, abysmal, abysmal. He looked like he was pissed off to have to be out playing in the cold, put in so many half-arsed challenges and kept on doing tame headers that bounced front and square outside our penalty area. Personally, I think it's time for Houllier to have a bit more faith in our forwards and play two of them at once. It's once thing for Gabby to head out wide left and cross it in, but we need someone on the end of those crosses. And why did two of our players get yellow cards for dissent in the 2nd half and the likes of Ridgewell were screaming at the lino in the first and not even a word from the ref? The telly said Ash was suspended now for the Liverpool game - maybe this will force Houllier's hand with the striker situation.

****' hell! Is a game of football worth all this?

Pressure is 100% on them really. If they can't beat us under these circumstances they may as well pack up and go home. Come on boys - big effort tonight!!

Before the match it looked like Collins was sucking on the pain-killing "whistle" - so he was obviously not quite right to start with.

Also Houllier appeared to laugh at something Nasri said to him after the match. I think we need a thread about that. And Pires was kissing the Arsenal players before the match. Need a thread. Collins wasn't holding a little kid's hand before the match. Need a thread.

We were destroyed by a gulf in quality. Strategically too I think we were all over the shop, and we looked infinitely better with two up front and Downing on the left. Was a disappointing match, one we deserved to lose, but congratulations to Clarkie for two quality goals and to Ireland for showing some balls. Warnock, Collins and Luke Young were shockingly bad.

Obviously the time zone thing is all relative. Considering it's Worlc Cup and not the Euro championships it would be nice for countries in the Asian time zones - which represent massive numbers in terms of TV viewership of football - to have an opportunity to watch matches in their waking hours and even get the chance to travel less than 6 hours on a plane to watch a World Cup match. So fair's fair really. You guys can "gorge" on football for the next 11.5 years, and we'll take 6 weeks of gorging, and you lot can have it again for the next 12 years or so...

I think it will be USA but I hope it will be Aus.

They are missing Fabregas, we are missing potentially an entire first XI. I think I'd rather be in their shoes, although you'd have to say their poor form is more worrying than theirs because at least we have an excuse.

Time for a 442 I think with Gabby and Nathan up front and Downing/Young out wide. We have to be positive and captalize on our strengths which we cannot do with only Gabby in the box. Hopefully Collins will be back so we can play Clark/Bannan in the middle. Young has tormented Clichy in the past but he is Sagna's bitch, so I'd put Young RM and Downing LM and keep them there. Unless Albrighton is fit of course.

I thought we were far better in the second half when we stopped trying to play killer balls across field and allowed Bannan to run the ball through the middle. None of our forwards were prepared to hang onto the ball and look for options, rather than be smart-arses. The few actually successful through-balls we managed Gabby was totally unprepared for. Ashley Young played the entire first half as if he was miffed that Bannan has been getting more press than him and seemed keen to prove that he was the team's main man every time he got the ball and completely ignored the fact that he had teammates. There was one moment in the first half where he tried to dribble through 3 defenders when Bannan was standing at the top of the box with 15 yards of nothing but grass around him and a clear shot at goal. VERY frustrating. And can someone please tell me why Downing played the entire match at right midfield/wing? Delfouneso looked good when he came on and far more of a goal threat than Gabby, and Pires too showed that given a bit more match fitness he could be pretty valuable for us - but very slow! I agree though with the poster who said we need to give Blackburn credit for their defending. As brutal as it was at times, they let very little past them, and backed on to two pretty lucky goals, they deserved their win - unfortunately.

Little boys or Nuns?