If we had lost.....

[Dhav]

Gonzalez did OK today. You're too harsh on him.

And on Kuyt.

They're both in their first season yet apparently it's perfectly reasonable to air all these doubts about them.

Extremely valid points - people acclaiming Crouch today as our best striker and criticising Kuyt seem to have short memories and forget how Crouch struggled last season in his first season at the club.

[Johnny]

How people still see fit to criticise Crouch is both baffling and, frankly, laughable.

The perfect hat-trick today, a brilliant hat-trick, yet people will still criticise him. Crouch could score 40 a season and the haters would still stubbornly bury their heads in the sand.

He's our best finisher, he's our best at holding it up, he's our best link man, he's our top goalscorer. What more do people want? 9 goals in just 16 Premiership starts, and 17 in all competitions spells one thing out very clearly indeed - he is our best striker. End of story.

He`s catching up with Cisse(Sic)

[Dero]

Let's say we get Villa in. So we have Villa, Kuyt, Crouch & Voronin. What happens if Villa gets a bad injury? Then we're effectively left in the state we're in up front this season - no consistent proven Prem goalscorer.

No proven premiership goalscorer even without an injury.

Gonzo is a worry to me, he plays a bit like you would expect a 17-18 year old from the youth team to play in that he seem slightly overawed which i don't understand because he has played in big games and in front of big crowds in his career. He does show some things in the games but then if it doesn't work he seem to go back into his shell.

Has anyone else thought there might be something between Gerrard and Gonzo as when I watch them play Steve seems to ignore a lot of Gonzos runs and the like and just refuses to give him the ball.

[Nicey]

.........Rafa would have been panned for his team selection

Good to see Crouchy back playing. He is miles better than every striker at the club. He does pretty much everything better than anyone we have.

Masher was tremendous today. If Crouch hadn't have scored a hat trick he'd be my MOM. Superb display from him and I'm starting to get excited by him.

Pepe made a truly world class save.

Aurelio's show boating shortly after our goal was ace.

Really good stuff from us in the main.

But I'm singling out Masher and Crouchy for praise. I'd like to see more of both.

If we had lost .... even when we spank someone .. we get Thread topics like this ... Prozac please

[Guest]

That Voronin signing was a bit strange to be honest. Even though Robbie's fitness isn't up to the required standard, the guy's still a genius in front of goal ... But he's not been playing too much. Voronin hardly seems built in the same mould. Anyway, the time will come to judge him, not now.

I do feel that David Villa is as good as ours though. He must be one of the best, if not the best striker in the world right now. Would he cut it in the premiership, time will tell ... Tevez could be another great option and with the added advantage that he already knows the premiership and is younger and a proven force on the international stage.

[Michael]

I thought Pennant was excellent... but he did seem to fade


I really liked the way we played….. sharp, quick and creative,,,,,


That was until Kuyt came on……

Somebody should tell the lad he is not a central midfielder…… he did run a lot though!

[Kopite_Colin]

He should watch Crouch's performance on DVD and learn. See what happens when you stay in the box and make your runs in there.

[Parm]

Fair to single out those 2 but I'd like to praise Aurelio and Pennant for finally giving us that width we've been looking for.

As for Gonzo though

indeed mate, you read m mind. I thought in the main Pennant was good, although there were times when he went quite. Gonzo was very average at best, a few ok runs and there was that cross from him in the first half. Bt where has his pace gone?

[Shaggy]

indeed mate, you read m mind. I thought in the main Pennant was good, although there were times when he went quite. Gonzo was very average at best, a few ok runs and there was that cross from him in the first half. Bt where has his pace gone?

Eh? Didn't you see him absolutely skin Eboue? Eboue is seriously fast, and Gonzalez did him all ends up for pace. Twice.

[DeeGame]

Eh? Didn't you see him absolutely skin Eboue? Eboue is seriously fast, and Gonzalez did him all ends up for pace. Twice.

Exactly - one of Gonzo's best games in a LFC Shirt

Was also surprised to see Pennant skin Clichy in the 1st half

[Kopite_Colin]

Shaggy - I think you and I are the only people who though Speedy was Ok for us yesterday.

[Kopite_Colin]

OK add DG to that list too...

[Shaggy]

Shaggy - I think you and I are the only people who though Speedy was Ok for us yesterday.

Bizarre isn't it. I'm sure none of us think it was a world-beating performance, but there were clear signs of improvement IMO.

[Kopite_Colin]

Yes. I'm not saying he was amazing but compared to some of the performances he's put in for us, there was definite improvement...and against one of the league's better sides.

[DeeGame]

We just got to be careful as Arsenal was not at their best yesterday