Carra has been playing rather badly in recent games - he struggles to keep pace and ends up committing fouls (and giving away penalties!), he's getting worse in the air and, along with a mediocre Skrtle, presents free headers to opposing players - hence our poor record in defending set pieces..

If Rafa is brave enough, he should consider trying out a new pairing!

I agree that Carra needs a rest. Kyrgiakos (spelling?) is experienced and good in the air. He also seems to be able to influence others around him. If he can communicate effectively with the others, he could be another Gary MacAlister!

Gerrard, Johnson, Reina, Kuyt, Lucas, Skrtle and Torres will definitely play. The other 4 will be from : Carra, Kyrgiakos, Insua, Aurelio, Benny, Riera, Babel, depending on how Rafa thinks!

I'm hoping to see another win with at least a 3-goal margin!

Great goals, great win ... but I wish it was 6-0!

No, I'm not being hard to please or overly critical. The goal we conceded was just so unnecessary. It was a poor heading clearance from Skrtle and then ... there was no cover! - Carra was with Skrtle and Insua was nowhere in sight! Our defence really has to improve.

Having said that, I'm elated to see us winning and scoring so many!

I don't think so. Chelski's defence is also shaky at the moment and, with Cech suspended, this seems to be the best time to attack them. Moreover, we will have a psychological advantage having won 6-1 while they lost 1-3. Logically, if we attack all out even Drogba will have to come back and help the defence.

Having said that, you are also right about our defence not being 100% so far this season. Probably both Masch & Lucas will have to do extra training in preparation for running up and down during the Chelski game!

More often than not, whenever a Chelsea/Man U/Arsenal defence breaks up an attack and clears the ball, the ball finds its way to their own player. When our Reds defence clears the ball, it either goes to an opposing player or to no-man's land! It frustrates me whenever I see that. Oh, I'm not saying that it happens each and every single time - but for a supposedly top class team, it happens too often!

I agree that starting with Riera instead of Benayoun weakened the team against Chelsea, but overall, I felt that we didn't play like serious title contenders. We had fewer than 4 shots on target against more than a dozen from Chelsea. The law of average worked in their favour!

I'm trying to be positive though. So, I'm really looking forward to seeing Aquilani running out as a sub against Sunderland on 17 Oct.

Perhaps the worst thing to happen to LFC thus far is to be owned by these yanks. Nevertheless, I find it very hard to like a manager who behaves like a bigot and looks at his watch whenever his team scores.. Yes, he is not bad but ... Liverpool FC cannot do with a manager who is simply .. not bad!

Our only hope is for the players to take pride in the jersey they put on, find some inner motivation and play their hearts out from now on.

We do have some very good players and LFC can still beat anyone on a good day. In fact, if we drew with Chelski on Sunday, the forum postings would look quite different now.

Who are our really good players? world-class: Gerrard, Torres, Mascherano, Reina, Benayoun; PL class: Johnson, Carra, Skrtle, Agger, Kuyt .. That list would make any manager envious in Britain and across Europe. Hopefully, Aquillani will also turn out to be 'world class'.

My biggest grievance against Benitez : his inability to blood youngsters! Where are the Gerrards, Carras, Fowlers, Owens or those promising young stars Benitez kept buying in recent years?!

"He is a young player who is doing well for us. When you talk about young players, the idea is to try and promote them."

Obviously, he is not "trying" hard enough - what happened to the dozen or so youngsters he bought over the years?! Did they get better after they came or did they get worse because of his coaching?! Rafa is not a bad manager, but I don't think he's good enough for the Reds. He gives the impression that he is ALL HEAD (e.g. looking at his watch when we score instead of showing the players a little morale-boosting celebration) but he has his favourites with whom he persists even though they becoming embarrassing to the rest of us!

"It's a long race and if we make mistakes and give up too early, it will be impossible. So, the main thing for everyone here is to try and be calm and keep working hard."

At first glance, this sounds so right. However, if we make so many mistakes that cost us too many points, it will truly become mission impossible without a happy ending..

Keep working hard .. yes, but he'd better start working smart too.

Agger plays, Masch is on the bench and Spearing starts!

Rafa is opting for a 5-4-1 formation with Kuyt shouldering the striking responsibility with Benny and Babel in support.

Big question : can Lucas handle the heat or will Spearing surprise us all?

The balloon aside, the team is playing like a bunch of schoolboys man! Spearing is totally out of sorts and Lucas is not able .. just not able ..

We are making this mediocre Sunderland team look so good, especially their two strikers - our defenders just cannot cope with these two.

We need to bring on Masch to calm things down in the middle ... AND a miracle to rescue us from defeat no. 4!

No change to players or pattern of play ..

I think Rafa wants to make a point ... that he should not be LFC boss anymore!

If we can rescue this game, it will be in spite of, not because of the manager.

Kuyt and Benny went for the same ball and prevented each other from scoring ... aiyoooh!

Both Masch and Voronin came in. Spearing's gone. Don't know who's the other - hope it's Lucas!

Rafa said we have quality in our squad but he brings in Voronin and Ngog! Ngog coming in for Babel just shows how much Babel has deteriorated under Rafa. However, Ngog is not quality either.

Even with 7 minutes added, I don't think we can equalize now. Reds .. please prove me wrong!

We lost ... again.

I think we have to really fight for 4th place this season.

Got this sinking feeling that we peaked under Benitez last season .. and that's it.. we just need a new manager next season!

At least under Houllier, Liverpool won quite a few trophies. Who can forget that great treble year? In fact, it was Houllier who argued that Rafa 'won' the CL with his players, which I think was a fair point. Hamann was benched by Rafa but came on to turn the game around and he is only one example of Houllier's players. Perhaps Rafa might want to get rid of Gerrard and Carra now since they are the only guys from Houllier's era!

Bottomline is Rafa is just not good enough for Liverpool.

Well, we've reached near bottom now, by the Reds' standards. Hopefully, it will not get any worse in the next few games.

Rafa is putting up a brave front. He admits that the team didn't play well but stopped short of admitting his own mistakes in selecting Lucas and Spearing as the main midfield pairing.

I don't agree that the whole team played badly. When your main midfielders keep losing the ball (Spearing) or keeping giving away free kicks (Lucas), and don't have a clue in feeding the frontline (both), the others will be shaken and some will try to cover them, and in doing so expose the areas they are supposed to cover.

I wish Dalglish would take over ...

After 5 years, he ought to have learnt some lessons! Many questions still remain with Rafa but one big question may be beyond his control now : how much time has he got left to get it right?!

Liverpool rarely rocks the boat by sacking the manager mid-way through a season. Moreover we still have the CL, the FA and (yes) even the Carling to play for. Except for the CL, the others may not be enough to save his job though .. especially if we drop out of the top 4!

No Torres for Lyon tonight although Gerrard is fit.

After such a below average performance on Saturday, I just hope the likes of Kuyt, Benayoun and Johnson will stand up and be counted!

Win or lose, we are still ardent Reds fans. Afterall, we've endured almost 20 years without a premiership title .. we just love to watch and support Liverpool FC.

But we can't just watch and not express our feelings. After Bob Paisley, we had two more great managers : Kenny Dalglish and Gerard Houllier. They know the game and are passionate about Liverpool; they performed consistently and focus alot on development. Hence, they were successful - of course, never as successful as Bob was - but we were proud of them.

Rafa Benitez : first we had hope, then were surprised by his lack of emotion - which many of us now believe is a lack of passion - alarmed by his spending, irked by his Spanish favouritism (willing to take it because he's Spanish afterall), dismayed by his unwillingness to develop our youngsters, shocked by his selection and ... now, convinced that he is not the right man.

Bring Dalglish back - afterall, he's already here, he loves the club, he has a tremendouse managerial record and he's our top player of all time (even Gerrard cannot get near him) - I'd prefer him, win or lose!

BBC News just reported that Liverpool cannot afford to sack Rafa because the club will have to pay him 20m pounds, as he just signed a 5-year contract worth 4m+ a year!

Like I said before, I don't believe Liverpool will sack the manager mid-way through the season - it will probably make things worse.

Just relax and watch our favourite team play the rest of the season, without any high hopes lor. I am looking forward to this Sunday's match. Very sure the team will give the devils a run for their money!

Now Rafa should start to worry. American businessmen are typically dishonest these days and have learnt alot of bad ideas from their politicians too.

What can the yanks do? Well, they can hire somebody as director of football who will then interfere with Rafa's team selection or even over-ride him. Rafa would stress like mad and when he finally cannot tahan, he will resign or both parties will agree to part ways "amicably" i.e. a massive discount on the 20m pounds!

Hope this won't happen to my favourite club - what a mess it will be!

This team to beat Man U again on Sunday :

Reina, Johnson, Carra, Agger, Insua, Aurelio, Masch, Benayoun, Riera, Lucas and Kuyt

Hopefully, Gerrard, Torres and Aquilani can all be on the bench.

My IKTS prediction : Liverpool 3-1 Mancs