Who should be our guaranteed starters?

[lfc4ever]

What was it Shanks said "get the spine right, the rest will follow"?

[G_Man]

Kuyt? What's he done to guarantee a place?

[Morph]

Think he's looked the hardest worker so far of our up front options, I'd be tempted to partner him with crouch as I think Bellamy is too similar a player. I'll be happy when Kuyt gets a few goals under his belt.

[MrMichael]

Kuyt? What's he done to guarantee a place?

From the man who predicted he'd score 5 today

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

In no particular order;

Gerrard
Crouch
Kuyt
Garcia
Agger
Finnan
Carragher
Alonso
Sissoko
Riise
Reina

Those are our best players, play them.

[carrsim]

Okay there's ben a lot of talk about not rotating the team too much so who would you pick in a consistent starting eleven. I've come up with-

Reina
Finnan Carra Agger Riise
Sissoko Gerrard
Kuyt

I think these 8 should play almost every game and the rotation should be around the other 3 positions. Now in all fairness with the odd exception I don't see rafa changing these 8 core players through the season.

The other 3 will be filled depending on what system we adopt for the particular game, so is all this rotation criticism lark a load of rubbish when you really look at it.

Pennant or Gerrard will fill the RW role depending on the game.
Aurelio/Gonzalez/Kewell/Zenden will fill the LW role depedning on the game
(Gonzalez might hopefully make this role his own eventually and thus become a starter)
Crouch/Bellamy/Fowler/Garcia will fill the second striker role depending on the game.

People bang on about the rotation policy but really I don't see those first 8 players changing much now providing everyone stays fit, apart from the odd game.

no one should be guaranteed a place, but given our squad:

reina
finnan
carra
riise

momo
stevie
xabi
kewell

crouch

there is a bit of a debate about sami and agger and at the moment agger is the man with the shirt and deserves to keep it

i know kewell is unfit now, but was decent and added good balance last season for me

crouch has to start for me. not the most stylish but quite simply our most effective striker.

[G_Man]

From the man who predicted he'd score 5 today

Yes and we all know about my predictions. The point is, he's done nowt to deserve an automatic selection. Crouch deserves it more.

[alunevans]

dunno if Agger is guaranteed. he's very young and will inevitably make some howlers that he should be forgiven for and nursed through. he's knocking on the door though for sure.

alonso on usual form would be in that list too i reckon, though i'd be playing gerrard centre mid and having "Alonso or Sissoko" as the other surefire starter.

[Gavzie]

Pepe
Finnan Carra Agger Riise

Pennant Stevie Momo HK

Bellers Kuyt

Simple as

Shift SG and Pennat around depending on fitness and Xabi with Momo dpeending on form as with HK and Speedy.

Lurch, King Luis, Sammi, Fabio make up the rest on the benches

442 attack and get used to playing a run of games together