super-xabi....

[Rashid]

Barry as a left winger is akin to playing Kuyt as a right sided attacker - just too defensive for my liking.

[blacky]

Well a large number of fans spoke last night...the xabi alonso chants were briiliant. And then there were the 'stick gareth barry up your arse' chants.

From reports I've read from forum members who were at the game it was a minority of fans from a renowned section of the kop, these fans were boo'd aswell. A lot of fans also left the game in disgust at the chants. If you think this is the voice of the average liverpool fan you want your head examined mate.

[Rashid]

The Alonso shouts were loud and clear as were the anti-Barry chants without a doubt and it wasn't just the centre right block of the Kop.

[shanks69]

Well a large number of fans spoke last night...the xabi alonso chants were briiliant. And then there were the 'stick gareth barry up your arse' chants.

that just shows what idiots we have going to the matchwe could now start the season with a unhappy manager who had system all planned out for the new season.but because of the 2 prix who are in charge the manager can't do what he wants.after seeing the way dossena plays its clear why rafa wants barry,there's been a number of times were dossena is out of position when gets forward and we are left exposed on the left.but if we had barry we wouldn't get caught out on the left because as soon as dossena goes forward barry would drop back and cover him,that in my mind is what rafa has wanted all the time with the two deals.now it looks like we will have to put up with a signing that the manager doesn't really want,once again we don't get who we want

[Vermilion]

I'm going to reserve judgement, i hope he'll be fantastic, but i want to see him play Premiership football and keep this form.

[HotSwine]

...after seeing the way dossena plays its clear why rafa wants barry,there's been a number of times were dossena is out of position when gets forward and we are left exposed on the left.but if we had barry we wouldn't get caught out on the left because as soon as dossena goes forward barry would drop back and cover him,that in my mind is what rafa has wanted all the time with the two deals.

Interesting post Shanks. If we don't sign Barry do you think Dossena would, defensively at least, leave us weaker than when we had Riise last season?

[Sarb]

From reports I've read from forum members who were at the game it was a minority of fans from a renowned section of the kop, these fans were boo'd aswell. A lot of fans also left the game in disgust at the chants. If you think this is the voice of the average liverpool fan you want your head examined mate.

I'm sure you speak for the majority of Liverpool fans when you say you want Barry instead of Alonso.....or was it just a small section chanting for xabi yesterday?????????

[shanks69]

Interesting post Shanks. If we don't sign Barry do you think Dossena would, defensively at least, leave us weaker than when we had Riise last season?

what i've seen of dossena so far i will say he's a big improvement on riise alround.but we have been caught out few times when we have gone forward and it's only pre-season it won't take teams long to work this out. by the way i'm not making this point as having ago at dossena it's his normal game,what i've seen of him so far i like.now as i see it thats the whole point of getting barry like i've said dossena goes forward barry drops back and covers.

[blacky]

I'm sure you speak for the majority of Liverpool fans when you say you want Barry instead of Alonso.....or was it just a small section chanting for xabi yesterday?????????

I never said that. What I did say was a minority of fans chanting abuse at Gareth BArry from a small section of the kop does not represent the voice of liverpool fans as a whole? You used last nights episode in the kop to try prove your own gareth barry argument.

[dww]

Barry as a left winger is akin to playing Kuyt as a right sided attacker - just too defensive for my liking.

Is a formation set up as 4-4-2 in the style of Arsenal with Overmars one side and Parlour the other too defensive for your liking? I think a realistic possibility with Barry coming in would be a midfield of:

Barry - Gerrard - Mascher - Babel

Obviously with a switch of side but Barry in the role of Parlour (but better) and Babel in the role of Overmars. Then Keane and Torres up front. Looks a pretty decent team to me. I think the signing of Barry would give us a good set of options that would allow us to vary our set up in a similar way to those employed by United last year.

[frank the tank]

Is a formation set up as 4-4-2 in the style of Arsenal with Overmars one side and Parlour the other too defensive for your liking? I think a realistic possibility with Barry coming in would be a midfield of:

Barry - Gerrard - Mascher - Babel

Obviously with a switch of side but Barry in the role of Parlour (but better) and Babel in the role of Overmars. Then Keane and Torres up front. Looks a pretty decent team to me. I think the signing of Barry would give us a good set of options that would allow us to vary our set up in a similar way to those employed by United last year.

you could be right in some games.... but i think the signing of keane and barry, them both being versatile players, indicates that we won't be starting in the same formation each game......which annoys me to be honest because i was hoping that we'd fundamentally stick to 4-2-3-1 with gerrard mainly deployed as the middle in the '3'....... because we have signed keane, noow gerrard is going to be played on the wing a lot - and i don't have a problem with that because he is awesome wherever he plays. However, i think kuyt and babel are two players that need to have the same role week-in week-out to reach a consistant level of performance.....

basically, i can see the rotation issue come up again pretty quickly if we dont get a good start......but this time, the anti-rotation brigade will have the fact that when rafa stopped rotating last season, LFC went on a great run from end of jan onwards...

[Guest]

Barry as a left winger is akin to playing Kuyt as a right sided attacker - just too defensive for my liking.

The Alonso shouts were loud and clear as were the anti-Barry chants without a doubt and it wasn't just the centre right block of the Kop.

Oh **** off you clown, you're really pissing me off. Why don't you come here and discuss positives ? It's always when you're searching for an argument that you come on here and spout bull**** such as that. Bring on consistency FFS.

[Assassin]

Oh **** off you clown, you're really pissing me off. Why don't you come here and discuss positives ? It's always when you're searching for an argument that you come on here and spout bull**** such as that. Bring on consistency FFS.

[dww]

you could be right in some games.... but i think the signing of keane and barry, them both being versatile players, indicates that we won't be starting in the same formation each game......which annoys me to be honest because i was hoping that we'd fundamentally stick to 4-2-3-1 with gerrard mainly deployed as the middle in the '3'....... because we have signed keane, noow gerrard is going to be played on the wing a lot - and i don't have a problem with that because he is awesome wherever he plays. However, i think kuyt and babel are two players that need to have the same role week-in week-out to reach a consistant level of performance.....

basically, i can see the rotation issue come up again pretty quickly if we dont get a good start......but this time, the anti-rotation brigade will have the fact that when rafa stopped rotating last season, LFC went on a great run from end of jan onwards...

It was a suggestion for one possible formation - I agree that we will see at least two but I think something similar to that the system I posted (maybe Gerrard right with Alonso centrally) slipping possibly into a 4-3-3 (with the right sided player moving forward) will be one used a lot along with 4-2-3-1 assuming se sign Barry.

I'm not so sure about Kuyt needing the same role. I think he will be fine - Babel on the other hand is developing as a player and yo may well be right.

I think rotation will and zonal marking will always be questioned when we do badly. The arguments for and against haven't been notably altered by last season as we have always rotated early in the season in order to finish strongly and rotation has always been lessened at the end of the season as part of this. You can argue it either way - we are fitter and hence better than other teams at the end because of earlier rotation or that the reduction of rotation is what causes the improvement in form.

My suspicion is that rotation is fine but you need to put three real goal threats on the pitch every week and in the past we have struggled to do that. Keane helps and I feel that if like Villa we can exploit Barry's set pieces then he will help to make rotation early more fruitful.

I would however say that I think again the number of changes in our squad might count against us if we have to sell players to bring in Barry.

[dww]

Oh **** off you clown, you're really pissing me off. Why don't you come here and discuss positives ? It's always when you're searching for an argument that you come on here and spout bull**** such as that. Bring on consistency FFS.

Insulting fellow posters is not acceptable. Please leave it out.