Anyone with half a brain knows our bench is weak, is it down to Rafa and youth players? no way.

He has, but some of his 'stats' are from his performances through the middle, especially his goals stats.

I'm not saying he's bad, because he's not, but Rafa does rate him over Yossi and I believe that's madness.

See, you said you disagreed with everything I said then you say that 'anyone with half a brain knows our bench is weak'. I can't believe you're questioning your own intelligence and so can only suppose that you didn't fully read my post. That would explain the contradiction.

All I wanted was a reasonable answer from an expert. I count the true Liverpool fans on here as experts and so want to hear what they think.

Ok then I think 5 years aint enough time to bring his "own" young players in besides he only took over the youth teams about 2 seasons ago.

None of us are experts pal.

Our bench is weak and we struggle for depth, some will blame the owners as we've been forced to accept mediocre free signings like Degen and Voronin, however, some will point to more expensive flops like Babel and Dossena as the problem. IMO, we need another clear out of the deadwood. There are players here who've had their chance and aren't up to it.

Rafa likes to have both on the field.

Most of his games have been on the right, get rid of him then we will be even worse the whole team would have to change round.

If that. One of the main stalling points with his contract was control over the academy. Considering Piet Hamberg was let go after only two years, I can only imagine he wasn't Rafa's appointment. Rafa has his men there now, it will take a long time before the fruits of any of Segura's work happens, as they usually target the age groups younger than 12 to get the full benefit of their work. There should still be a fair few lads coming through the ages, though, and we'll probably recruit a few younger lads in from outside of the academy, too.

The clear out aint too far away I can't see Rafa being here this time next year.

Can you see George and Tom here, though?

Do you think players coming through the club has been a problem for quite a few years now? who was the last decent player who came through? Gerrard?

Amoo
Ayala
Darby
Pacheco
Kelly
Spearing
Ince
Nemeth

The next batch who [icould[/i offer something to first time

Wisdom as well. I've heard there's a young local lad called Karl Clair in the academy who looks good. Not been able to see much of the youngsters this year so I can't pass comment. There's also Dalla Valle and Eccleston who look good, as well as young Bruna who has bags of ability but a very slight frame. Saric is now finally fit, there's bags of potential in the reserves, it's just making that step up where they struggle.

It's been said in the past, but the reserve league these days is in a real state when compared to the past. Teams now need bigger squads, so most reserve teams are basically an extension of the academy, whereas in the past, the reserves would have senior players playing; the level was much higher.

Until we adapt a similar set up as Spain, where we have B teams competing in the lower leagues, then the transition from reserves to senior football will always be a very big task for youngsters, and the numbers of players coming through will always be low.

It probably was. There has also been the likes of Guthrie and Warnock, but they were only average and never achieved much at the club.

The academy has been very outdated and clearly hasn't been working. Rafa's brought a more continental style to the academy and, with his experience of working at some of the best academies in the world, I'm sure things will improve in time.

All takes time if in two seasons time an Rafa is still here no one else has come through and is offering anything to the first team or the bench then yes I will blame him for it.

Which academies? He was at Real Madrid but I can't think of the others.

Sorry. I meant like, his working at Valencia and being involved with their academy. We also have Segura who's the head of our academy, he's a former Barcelona coach and has a very impressive CV.

Ah ok. Yeah, we all know what he did at Valencia. Wasn't he at Madrid for about ten years? He was involved with the academy and reserves and left with a great reputation.

Madrid have a great academy, they don't play enough of the players that come through IMO.

Hopefully, given time, he can transform our academy into a similar set up, although we'll never have the power that Madrid have and the ability to cherry pick from around the nation like they do.

You say that but look at the academy players that have been allowed to flourish at Madrid; Guti, Casillas and Raul. It's been a while since anyone has broken through.

Look at some of the players who have been elsewhere, like Mata and Negredo. Granero has only just returned, whilst what happened to de la Red was unfortunate. They continually sell players with small buy back clauses in the deal, it's a pretty cheap way of doing things but I guess it works for them.

Looks like Strachan is going to be taking over at Boro 1/6 with SkyBet

Berbatov proves you can be booked for getting fouled in the penalty area

Valencia scores, 1-0 to United, 4 minutes to go.

How e is Nani?

Like London Buses for Valencia

Thought Nani didn't play too badly just the final ball that let him down.