Starting line up is as expected. Subs a bit weird. Sterling better than Cole in my opinion, but maybe Rodgers going with experience. Also, with adam, henderson, and shelvey all on the bench seems strange, three centre midfielders options for substitute. Take two of the three, plus Sterling would have given more options on the bench imo. Anyway, really excited bout this game. Let's hope we win big.

Some rumours say the Sahin deal is being held up cause of Arsenal, while some say Real Madrid is waiting to sign Modric first. Fingers crossed, hopefully it is the latter, and he'll join us once Modric sign for Madrid.

That was a horrible performance, especially second half. I struggle to find any positives in that. I don't think there is anything wrong with Rodgers tactic, he just doesn't have the right players, and it will take time as he overhaul our squad piece by piece.

Suarez finishing is horribly poor, let's be honest, he has been wasting chances like that since last season. That's not the first time. To me I feel Suarez is best playing out wide, let him create chances and someone else to finish. The other player I was very dissapointed with is Gerrard, gave the ball away so many times... I expect better from the captain, he cannot be putting performance like that... Downing was hardworking, but not effective, just like last season... Borini was poor, Lucas equally poor maybe due to lack of match fitness... Allen was okay, the only midfielder who didn't give the ball away needlessly... Johnson didn't look good on the left side, everytime he got the ball on the left, you can see he is not comfortable crossing with his left foot. Skrtel was very poor today imo, Agger was okay until he got sent off. Kelly and Reina was average...

This is going to be a long season, I hope the owners stick with Rodgers though... Give him time and allow him to rebuild this squad...

The game against Hearts itself was pretty poor but it is kind of expected with mostly second string players. Reina and Sterling stood out for me, both played very well. Adam also did quite well but I think it is because he is free of heavy defensive duties playing in that formation, Adam's defensive qualities have always been questionable imo. Borini was a little unlucky hitting the post, but I thought he suffered mostly from lack of service in the game.

So much criticism I see over here on Rodgers, patience guys. Rodgers is no Harry Potter, he can't wave a magic wand and turn our team to a world class team overnight. The only way to learn to play like Barca is to try to play like Barca. If you stick Carroll up front and play long ball, how are we ever going to learn to play tiki taka. This is going to take time, but I'm sure the owners and Rodgers himself knows it. It will take time, and a squad overhaul along the way. Rodgers will bring in a few new faces and slowly we'll see a better team once they get used to Rodger's style of play.

Enjoyed the game very much, this game is just a glimpse of what a fully functioning Rodgers team will be like. I still think the players are not truely comfortable with Rodgers philosophy, such as Skrtel's mistake. But given time once the team gets used to Rodgers style and hit top gear, I think our Liverpool team would be a very formidable team. A couple more signings and we will be a great team. But having said that though, both our goals came from set pieces, our finishing is still not good enough yet.

Kudos to Rodgers for having the balls to play Coates instead of Carra, and Sterling instead of Downing. Rodgers is brave enough to make big decisions like starting Sterling, kind of like his sifu Mourinho.

I'm quite disappointed really. If reports are true, Brendan Rodgers tried very hard to convince the board to release some extra funds to sign Dempsey, but they refused. I am pissed with FSG if that is true, is it really so hard to just release an extra 2 to 3 million to allow Rodgers to sign Dempsey? After all, they sacked King Kenny and appoint Rodgers. At least show some support to the man you choose to replace King Kenny, 2-3 million is not a lot. It is not like we are asking them to come out with an extra 15 million also... Really disappointed. Now we have only two senior strikers in Suarez and Borini. If both injured, we'll be in trouble. Morgan look overawed against Hearts, and Samed Yesil is also equally inexperience...

On another note, any of you willing to take Judas (Owen) back? As much as I hate him, he could really provide extra cover for now until January... He is available for free...

Well his fitness is a big worry, I agree. Still I wonder how are we going to keep our players fit for all games, we have the league, the league cup and a tough Europa league until January. Two centre forward only in the squad is just asking for trouble when injury happens imo. If they could't afford Dempsey, then they should have kept Carroll at least. Right now can only hope that either Morgan or Yesil will turn out like Sterling.

For me personally, I wasn't so disappointed about losing out on Dempsey, but more to the failure of the board to back Rodgers. You sack King Kenny, and put him in charge, then you refuse to give him an extra few millions to get a player in. The board and Ian Ayre had acted very unprofessionally imo, first they announce Dempsey has signed on FSG's own website, then after that still don't want to come out money to buy. I'm sure if they did come out a couple million extra, shirt sales in the USA would have recover back the extra few millions. Rodgers himself was quoted to say that he would be crazy to let Carroll go, then he let Carroll go expecting a signing that didn't came. I'm pretty sure Rodgers would be disappointed as well. Our upper management stinks of unprofessional-ism and incompetence at the moment. Heard some rumours that Ayre may be replaced, if true I say good riddance, heads should roll for making us a laughing stock after the deadline day debacle.

Carroll did well yesterday, wasn't too surprise, Allardyce team is famous for long balls and it will really suit Carroll. Hope he will have a wonderful season and then we can sell him at a higher price.

Our first team though is still quite strong, so I hope we can get a good result against Arsenal. Sahin will make his first start I'm sure. Let's hope we win today and Suarez stays injury free for the next 6 months at least.

Yep, we might get a better player in January, who knows maybe walcott still won't sign a new deal. I wasn't too fuss with Dempsey, good player but not really special... Refusing to let other clubs bully us of course is a good stance, however, I do think that left us pretty short up front. I feel like something actually went wrong in the last few days of the transfer window, I doubt Rodgers would have let Andy Carroll go if he knew we wouldn't get another player in. I just think that under those circumstances, an extra 1 or 2 million isn't too much to fork out for a short term signing. Bellamy was pretty old when we sign him, but he was one of our best players last season imo. The only good thing that come off this I think is that we might be seeing more of the youngsters like Morgan and Yesil. Who knows, Yesil might turn out good. Morgan looks a bit nervous though in his first start against Hearts. Anyway, let's hope for the best.



Agree with this. Ian Ayre should be focusing only on marketing imo. Get somebody in who is a good negotiator, but let Rodgers have the final say on which players he wants. At the moment, there is nothing to do but to soldier on. Let's just wait and see. I'm not into baseball, but I've read somewhere that FSG did have some sort of a high wage clear out at Red Sox as well. It is like a change in policy for FSG. Red Sox is losing a lot lately though.

That is what I am worried about as well, january might be too late if Suarez and Borini gets injured. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe Premier League clubs can't loan players after transfer window closes. Only championsip clubs can I think.

Michael Owen huh... I hate the guy but I do think he can provide sufficient cover for now until January. However his wages is probably expensive as well. Another option would be Klasnic... Anyway today we still have a good chance to beat Arsenal, our first team is quite good. Sahin I think surely will start cause Lucas is injured. Let's hope we win to lift the gloom of the last few days.

I agree with what some of you said. My only criticism of Rodgers so far is that he has stubbornly stick with Suarez down the middle with Borini wide. I would prefer, if he swaps them round. Other than that, I can't really see too much wrong in what Rodgers had done since he took over. He has been very honest and forthcoming with all his press conference, and that is what I liked most about him. He takes no nonsense from anyone. If Rafa was the one who stood up against Hicks and Gillett, I believe Rodgers would be our man to stand up against FSG.

For the record, I don't think FSG has any bad intentions or anything, but I personally feel they are not capable of restoring us to our former glory. How do you rebuild a squad? You invest, you need to invest to improve. No need record breaking signings like Carroll deal, just good average price signings will be enough. But unfortunately, you get the impression that after the failure of last season signings, FSG has tighten the purse strings. I also get the impressions that FSG is willing to accept a poor performance this season so long as they don't waste money (Dempsey saga). They are business people all the way. Compare them with people like Roman Abramovich. Roman Abramovich is rich enough already, he don't need to make money through Chelsea. What he wants is to fulfill his passion to see his club winning. So who loves football more? I personally think people like Roman and the Sheikhs are more passionate about winning than the likes of FSG or Glazers at MU. We got the wrong type of owners sadly, that is my opinion.

So just because Carroll, Henderson and Downing to a certain extent had failed to live up to their price tag, does that mean we shouldn't spend big anymore? Cause in my opinion, that is what FSG seems to be doing right now... MU failed with Juan Sebastian Veron, Chelsea with Adrian Mutu and Shevchenko, Man City with Robinho, still they go on spending in the following few years... Kenny and Comolli are both gone, you can't punish Rodgers for their mistake... That is unfair, he wasn't the one who spend 35 mil on Carroll. Bad signings will happen, it is part of football. Besides, 6-7 milion for Dempsey is hardly overpaying, MU paid 24 million for a 29 year old Van Persie, who coincidentally scored a hattrick to save MU yesterday. Dempsey who scored close to 20 goals last season, is surely worth a quarter of Van Persie price... I personally don't think it is unfair to ask the owners to show a little more desire to succeed, to sacrifice a little more to achieve success.

I disagree that we can't attract great players, most players are like mercenaries, if you offer them high enough wages they will join your club. Who would've thought that Ramirez will sign for Southampton of all teams? Our problem last season was the high wages and transfer fees were spent on the wrong players. But Rodgers this season seems to have spent his money more wisely. I think a lot of people would agree if I said Allen for 15 million was a steal the way he is playing right now, Sahin on loan was a good deal. Only Borini for 11 million remains unproven.

I think John Henry is being quite honest there, their policy is to build with youngsters. But there is a major flaw in that so called long term plan, just look at the team that beat us yerterday. Arsene Wenger had many years to set up his youth policy and he is very successful at it but when all his players reach their prime, they leave for greener pastures. Ask yourself this honestly, if we finish 8th this year, 7th the next year and 6th the following year, do you think the likes of Raheem Sterling and Jonjo Shelvey would want to stay with us? The likes of Man City, Chelsea, PSG, Barcelona and Real Madrid will come calling and they will leave us just the same way Torres did. Bottomline is, building for the future is good, but if you sacrifice the present for the future, the future will never come. Arsenal had consistently qualified for CL, but they had not win the title ever since the likes of Chelsea and Man City came, so even if John Henry's long term plan succeeds, we could still end up like Arsenal. Only time will tell. The good news is at least FSG won't try to bankrupt us like G&H.