I forgot something. Kevin Davies massive .

Tamas on Vaughan in the Norwich v West Brom game was horrible. A proper sly elbow. How the referee fails to see that is beyond me, especially after the penalty he gave to West Brom.

Some very poor penalty decisions this weekend.

You think? I wouldn't swap Suarez for Hernadez.

Not Hernandez. Hernandez is a great goalscorer with good instinct, but in terms of all-round play, Suarez is more creative, a better dribbler and asks more of a defender in terms of how he moves, i.e. he drops deep, pulls wide, goes behind and plays off the shoulder.

Aguero's a top player, I've always felt he's overrated though. His performances for City haven't surprised me as in terms of talent, there aren't many better, but he's never convinced me of his consistency or his ability to play in big games. Maybe all that will change this year and he'll establish himself as a world class striker, but I always felt Forlan was better in every aspect than him for Atletico for the majority of their time together. Obviously, they were at different ends of their career, with Aguero looking to enter his prime now, he should really start to hit his ceiling in terms of potential.

Still, I wouldn't swap Suarez for any forward in the league at Liverpool. I'm sure United fans would keep Hernandez over Suarez and Aguero, and City fans would keep Aguero, it's a matter of preference. Suarez is a 90 minute menace for us, our problem seems to be finding his ideal partner. Kuyt's OK with him, but we could be doing better, Carroll has had lots of harsh criticism aimed his way, but it's clear we're not working for him and he's not working for us so far.

Rooney better than all of them.

Rooney is a great player, but is he truly top class in a Pele/Zidane/Maradona kind of way??

I think that in the comfort zone of a Ferguson-managed United, he does look great, but put in among average Joe's in an England shirt and he looks a shadow of the striker we see, week in, week out.

A truly great player (and Messi is the closest we have in modern football, and even he has failed at international level) is the type who can carry an average team to glory....Maradona in 1986 being the obvious example.

Rooney is class, but his reputation is enhanced by the high profile media attention that football receives nowadays....Its scary to think what Maradona would be worth in modern football and what kind of adoration would be poured on him, because he was simply one of a kind.

You think the 1986 Argentina side were average?

I think without Maradona they wouldn't have won the tournament....The games with England and Belgium were basically Maradona saying '...how fookin' great am I'....



His stats of 5 goals (1 the greatest World Cup goal ever) and 5 assists is pretty strong evidence of how much he carried that side.

Granted Maradona was special but Passarella, Valdano, Ruggeri, Burruchaga were hardly passengers.

Passarella was a good, solid defender....However, taking him out of the side wouldn't have made a jot of difference to them winning the '86 tournament.....In fact, he never played in that tournament anyway....



Seriously, those players you list were all good players, but the fact is, remove any of them from the side and they would have been adequately replaced (as Passarella was), remove Maradona and they wouldn't have won the trophy.

Mare meva!


Wayne Rooney is world class.

Compare and contrast the following from Kenny Dalglish... [uMay 2011[/u Quote “Sometimes I worry that the ones who shout the loudest get more ­beneficial decisions – and that is totally ­unfair. “This week the theme has been about referees and I’ve got to say that when I came back in as manager I was made fully aware of the respect campaign with regard to officials. I think we have adhered to the campaign in every respect. We have never come out and criticised match officials in an of our games."'" Read more: www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Li ... z1XiZHfBkX Sign up for MirrorFootball's Morning Spy newsletter Register here ...with... [uSeptember 2011[/u Quote 'If we keep playing like that, we'll be OK, but if we keep getting battered by things outside our control and jurisdiction that's different,''" Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... fs-us.html He's going to 'speak to the owners' before commenting further. Presumably they'll tell him that:- - It's sport, you win some, you lose some - There is no consipracy against Liverpool Football Club - Most managers whinge about referees. If he does, he will be fined and may get a touchline ban but it won't affect your chances of winning anything. What does affect your chances is spunking £35million on a substitute when it could be better spent on replacing your crocked captain. Final word to Tony Pulis (of all people!) who nailed it:- Quote Pulis added: 'Kenny will be as biased [towards Liverpool as I am towards Stoke City. I respect his opinion and will have a look at the incidents later.''" Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z1XiaTBYWF

Compare and contrast the following from Kenny Dalglish... [uMay 2011[/u Quote “Sometimes I worry that the ones who shout the loudest get more ­beneficial decisions – and that is totally ­unfair. “This week the theme has been about referees and I’ve got to say that when I came back in as manager I was made fully aware of the respect campaign with regard to officials. I think we have adhered to the campaign in every respect. We have never come out and criticised match officials in an of our games."'" Read more: www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Li ... z1XiZHfBkX Sign up for MirrorFootball's Morning Spy newsletter Register here ...with... [uSeptember 2011[/u Quote 'If we keep playing like that, we'll be OK, but if we keep getting battered by things outside our control and jurisdiction that's different,''" Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... fs-us.html He's going to 'speak to the owners' before commenting further. Presumably they'll tell him that:- - It's sport, you win some, you lose some - There is no consipracy against Liverpool Football Club - Most managers whinge about referees. If he does, he will be fined and may get a touchline ban but it won't affect your chances of winning anything. What does affect your chances is spunking £35million on a substitute when it could be better spent on replacing your crocked captain. Final word to Tony Pulis (of all people!) who nailed it:- Quote Pulis added: 'Kenny will be as biased [towards Liverpool as I am towards Stoke City. I respect his opinion and will have a look at the incidents later.''" Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z1XiaTBYWF

Rooney is playing extremely well. but it will be interesting to see whether it will be him or Silva who will be picking up the awards at the end of the season. Wouldnt like to put money on either of them at the moment.

United win 5-0 and their fans want to discuss, amongst other things......Liverpool. How strange.



I watched the Liverpool game in the pub on Saturday. Firstly, the Carragher incident was a penalty. Doesn't matter how easily Walters went down, Carragher clearly had his arm around him and any striker worth their salt goes down in that situation. The last 2 goals conceded now have directly come from Carraghers failings. His legs have completely gone and it's time he was benched. It's a good job for him that the decision was contensious to deflect the attention away from him. We battered Stoke in the 2nd half and we should have had a penalty, no question. Decisions like that even themselves out over a season so I'm not overly concerned. The thing that worries me most of all, and it's not a huge worry 4 games in to the season, is that we didn't seem clinical enough. 20 shots to 4 overall and multiple corners with a huge weight of possession quite clearly demostrated how much we dominated. You have days like that though and we need to put it right next Sunday now.

Quote ="Ian 77 Redux"Compare and contrast the following from Kenny Dalglish... [uMay 2011[/u Read more: www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Li ... z1XiZHfBkX Sign up for MirrorFootball's Morning Spy newsletter Register here ...with... [uSeptember 2011[/u Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... fs-us.html He's going to 'speak to the owners' before commenting further. Presumably they'll tell him that:- - It's sport, you win some, you lose some - There is no consipracy against Liverpool Football Club - Most managers whinge about referees. If he does, he will be fined and may get a touchline ban but it won't affect your chances of winning anything. What does affect your chances is spunking £35million on a substitute when it could be better spent on replacing your crocked captain. Final word to Tony Pulis (of all people!) who nailed it:- Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z1XiaTBYWF'" I look forward to your appraisal when SAF and every other manager in the league contradicts themselves this season when a decision goes against them.

Quote ="Ian 77 Redux"Compare and contrast the following from Kenny Dalglish... [uMay 2011[/u Read more: www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/news/Li ... z1XiZHfBkX Sign up for MirrorFootball's Morning Spy newsletter Register here ...with... [uSeptember 2011[/u Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... fs-us.html He's going to 'speak to the owners' before commenting further. Presumably they'll tell him that:- - It's sport, you win some, you lose some - There is no consipracy against Liverpool Football Club - Most managers whinge about referees. If he does, he will be fined and may get a touchline ban but it won't affect your chances of winning anything. What does affect your chances is spunking £35million on a substitute when it could be better spent on replacing your crocked captain. Final word to Tony Pulis (of all people!) who nailed it:- Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/footba ... z1XiaTBYWF'" I look forward to your appraisal when SAF and every other manager in the league contradicts themselves this season when a decision goes against them.

There you go again mentioning United

Anybody who claims Rooney is even close to a crowd of players like that is crazy. Of all the top strikers over the past 10 years, where would you rank Rooney against players like Shevchenko, Henry, Villa, Forlan, Crespo, Henry, RvN, Raul, R9, Del Piero, Eto'o, Drogba, Inzaghi, etc.?

He's a good player, but I'd take the majority of those above in their pomp over what Rooney's been so far in his career. Whilst I've probably missed off a fair amount of other players.

It's very difficult to make a list out of them. I'd say only Henry, Messi and Ronaldo (both) were clearly better than Rooney. Rooney certainly deserves to be mentioned in the same bracket as all the players above for me. He isn't similar to all of the above players and if I was doing a like for like comparison out of them players it would be Del Piero. I'd pick Rooney over Del Piero with both in their pomp.

I think Rooney has to have a big international tournament, with England winning or reaching a final/semi final, or move to Barca/Real Madrid and be successful, for him to ever be lauded as a true great.

At United, because of their dominance in the English league, his 'greatness' will always be questioned, similar to how Lampard has built a big reputation at a successful Chelsea, whilst being painfully obvious that at the highest level, he often gets found out.

International football isn't what it once was. The game has become more and more about fitness and peaking physically. These days, the international tournaments are played at the end of long, drawn out seasons where players are often fatigued or half injured. Furthermore, all of the best managers in the world manage at club level, and the highest level of football is by far and out the champions league. World cup finals and semi finals will always be great occasions, but the tournaments on the whole are generally declining, as international football's decline seems to be showing more in the players' approach to it more than anything else.

For me, if a player can do it over a few seasons in the Champions League, then he's proven far more than he could prove by doing it for his national side. Messi's stupendous form in Europe over the past years have put him at a level I feel no other player that's played the game could reach. Maybe that's OTT, but the game of football only gets better, and he's easily the greatest modern player.

As for Rooney, I've made no secrets of my lack or appreciation for his talents. He's a good player, but I believe he's massively overhyped. He's a good player who works hard and isn't this type of individual who has to be carried, but, in terms of his sheer ability and his influence on a football game/ability to score goals, I don't believe he's in the upper echelons some like to think he is. I'm sure my good mate Mark will put it down to bitterness, but I've never rated him, not even when he was the Boy Wonder at Everton.

Didn't know there was a Manchester derby on tonight? Thought the Monday Night Football match preview is supposed to be about the two teams playing.....

What do you expect with Sky?

True.

They've just said they are going to look into the match in detail and focus on some of the "danger men".

Shouldn't they have already done that by now considering the programme started at 7pm.....

I look forward to watching the build up to the Manchester derby in October when no doubt they will be focusing on Leon Best and Adel Tarrabt.

We should be 4 - 0 up at least against Newcastle United !!!

Torres dropped by Spain, then dropped by Chelsea. Now having to answer claims that he's called his team-mates 'slow'. That plus 1 goal in 18 appearances.

Can anyone else see him being shipped off by the end of the year a la Schevchenko?