The way to go...

[Joe Le Toff]

Rafa will only sell Kuyt if he doesn't do the work he is told to do on the pitch good enough.

Nothing to do with how many goals or assists he makes. It's the overall performance from Rafas point of view that counts.

Rafa stated at the beginning of the season that he expected 15 goals from each of his strikers this season.
In my opinion, that target is way beyond Dirk, and surely Rafa can see that our strikers cant be workhorses only.

[Joe Le Toff]

The 4-2-3-1 formation is the way we should go in the future. As things stand, it's the best formation for the players we have and we should buy future signings in order to suit this.

..............................Pepe

.......Finnan......Agger.........JC......Arbeloa

..................Alonso.............Masher

..Benayoun............Gerrard................Babel

............................Torres

Then in January, ship out Kuyt and Voronin. Sign a new striker to replace them.

And with the turmoil and uncertainty at Spurs, now is the time to SIGN AARON LENNON.

Play him in the Benayoun position, let Babel get a run of games in that formation and i think we'll see a major improvement.

We dont have good enough strikers to play 4-4-2.

Masherano's protection is needed. Alonso's ability to pull the strings is needed. Gerrard needs to do what he does best and drive through the centre.

The best solution is this formation and we're far closer to having the right personnnel for THIS formation than any other.

Id take Lennon in a heartbeat.
JUST what we need, and young enough to get even better.

[bobbyfallon]

Id take Lennon in a heartbeat.
JUST what we need, and young enough to get even better.

have always thought he was decent

[badpiggy]

The 4-2-3-1 formation is the way we should go in the future. As things stand, it's the best formation for the players we have and we should buy future signings in order to suit this.

..............................Pepe

.......Finnan......Agger.........JC......Arbeloa

..................Alonso.............Masher

..Benayoun............Gerrard................Babel

............................Torres

Then in January, ship out Kuyt and Voronin. Sign a new striker to replace them.

And with the turmoil and uncertainty at Spurs, now is the time to SIGN AARON LENNON.

Play him in the Benayoun position, let Babel get a run of games in that formation and i think we'll see a major improvement.

We dont have good enough strikers to play 4-4-2.

Masherano's protection is needed. Alonso's ability to pull the strings is needed. Gerrard needs to do what he does best and drive through the centre.

The best solution is this formation and we're far closer to having the right personnnel for THIS formation than any other.

while the jury still has to be out on babel and benayoun, the priciple of having an attacking formation like that is very appealing. but i bet the idea that you have in your head is one of fast movement off the ball and a potential six man attack. 2 things come to mind:

1. we would change that formation and lineup to suit the opposition.

2. i'm not sure that we've been given any indication from rafa that attack is his first instinct. our movement off the ball - spot on in a thread from af2 - is atrocious at the moment. there is no indication that rafa is interested in coaching this type of approach. tbh i don't really understand waht he is trying to do but that's just my ignorance.

of course if our 2 wide men were up to the job of defending as well as attacking ( would that be alves instead of benayoun and ? instead of babel) then would we be close to the team that rafa seems to want to create according to the interview in another thread?

[RPAS]

If we sign Mascherano permanently this formation is good but we'll need much better competition at centre-back; either side of Gerrard (although Lucas looks like he may be an option) and upfront.