Turner had a much better season than that, and if you're honest you'll know so or you simply don't know what you're talking about. Yes, plenty got carried away with just how good, but he did have an excellent first season in the top flight. Much better than any 'defender' I saw in a Newcastle shirt.

Wayne Brown played a big part in City's in their promotion season. Doesn't make him any good.

Careful what you say, Ash will be foaming at the mouth if you dare to critizise the likes of Colloccini

Taylor

Beye

and Bassong, the last of which is half decent. Still Kadar and Nile will come good for em, in League one

I personally don't rate Turner that highly, although many of on here will see him more than me. There are about 10 or more english centre backs better than him in the premier league.

He wasn't being compared to Turner. By the way, our defence wasn't the problem last season, it was the midfield.

How did I know you'd be next to reply? Entirely predictable.

Do you think so? I don't remember your strikers firing either to be fair, although in fairness it doesn't help when your "Messiah"...sorry I meant manager plays a striker in centre mid.

I don't recall Owen, Martins, Viduka, Lovenkrands, Xisco or Ameobi ever playing in central midfield.

Has he, or has he not handed in a transfer request? Are the sticking points his price and wage demands or not? I reiterate, IF the wage demands and rumours about angling for a Villa move are true, it's another case of a greedy player just out for as much as he can get, probably having come about from the silly money your lot have been willing to throw at mediocrity in the past few years.

Neither was Kadar until you mentioned him, and for good reason.

If you think your only problem last year was midfield you're deluded. You were poor everywhere but in goal.

That normally happens on a public message board Ash, look Carl Spackler has just responded

Mixed really. Has a sketchy injury record, is coming from a pretty slow league and although he isn't small, he is pretty lightweight in the way he plays.

Has bags of ability, if he has the mentality to succeed over here, I think he will. I'm sure Rafa wouldn't spend so much if he didn't have the determination to cut it in England, but I do have my doubts.

Defour is a good, all-round midfielder. He's a little small but he doesn't let it show in the way he plays.

Handing in a transfer request sacrifices his right to a loyalty bonus. He wants to leave, simple as that. So instead of stringing people along, he's made it clear, which in my opinion, is the right way to go about things. Out of the full senior squad (the ones who've played, not just in there to make the numbers up), Beye is on one of the lowest salaries. There's a hell of a lot more dross in the squad that are being paid a hell of a lot more money.

So if you had the choice I am sensing you would rather go for Defour? I would not have thought Rafa would be wanting both players would he? Not unless Mascherano leaves which is fairly doubtful now I would have thought.

I think you need to read back and see where Kadar came into it.


And that's from somebody who watched us how often? I didn't say it was our only problem but it was our biggest problem by a long way.

You cant of seen much of us last season if you think he's "extremely average" he was one of the most consistent players in the league obviously he's gotta carry that on again this season to have anychance of going to the world cup.

Taylor on the other hand is only good at 2 things, sticking his hand up for offside every 2 minutes and his play acting on the goalline have to say that is world class



Taylor isnt the finished article and neither is Turner both have stuff to work on but based on the last 2 years i'd have Turner anyday of the week over Taylor as im sure most Premier League clubs would to

Reports suggesting Real are ready to pull the plug on the Alonso deal. Hope so.

I'm not sure, really. If Aquilani develops a more aggressive side to his game, and shows more will to get stuck in and battle, then I'd rather him over Defour. I'd probably rather Aquilani, I think he has more potential than Defour, he's naturally much bigger and I don't like the idea of Masch and Defour in the middle, a little short IMO. Furthermore, Aquilani has more attacking ability than Defour which I think we'll need, it's just about him developing his aggressive side, something Defour already has.

I would imagine the Aquilani deal is subject to Alonso joining Real, which seems to be stalling so you could yet end up with Alonso staying put. Whilst I would imagine most Liverpool fans would be happy with that it would raise a question mark over keeping a player who is not 100% happy at the club, a little bit like Ronaldo last season.

Possibly, then I stand corrected. But it's still a strange comparison.



Multiple times, either highlights or live games. And your post said midfield was THE problem, singular, and that defence wasn't. Over the course of the season your team was poor all over the pitch, as proved by your relegation. Frankly, it's about time you admitted it and dealt with it as you're starting to make yourself look silly otherwise.

IF that's true, I wonder the state of mind Alonso will be in for the forthcoming season. Don't want him if he's going to be seething at missing out on his dream move.

Spot on, but it was always going to be the case that he'd be judged on the previous year. He started slowly, granted, but was still United's most important player throughout the year. And their best for the second half of the season.

It's the danger of Alonso staying at Anfield, but he's a true pro. If he could turn in his best season after a summer of Benitez trying to get shut of him, I don't see why he can't do the same this season with the whole of Liverpool hoping he stays. Add to that he has to preserve his spot in Spain's midfield, and it should be okay.

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 183638.stm

news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/footbal ... 183638.stm

Ok, I missed a word out. The midfield was the [imain[/i problem, and that's by a long way. For years our defence has been awful and the root cause of our problems. Last season, this wasn't the case. Our midfield created very little in attack and barring Jonas, hardly offered any support in defence. Nicky Butt is meant to be the defensive midfield type player in our side, yet the only time he decided to track back was when he thought it'd be a good idea to give away yet another penalty. The amount of times last season he was caught out of position and not tracking back was unreal. He constantly gave the ball away to the opposition (as did most of our midfield, but he was the main culprit). All of which heaps pressure on the defence. Our best three players last season were defenders (Bassong, Enrique and Taylor). The defence did make some errors at times, who doesn't? The strikers also missed a few decent chances between them, mainly towards the end of the season. Out of the three units on the pitch though, the main blame lies with the midfield.

Owen, for example, will do well at Man Utd because he will have lots of chances created for him. We didn't create enough for him, hence why he struggled for goals.

why keep a player that wants to go

No quotes? What did he say?