2 striker formations are somewhat of a rarity among the top sides in Europe nowadays, but we just can't seem to get on with 1 up top, so a 3 at the back formation seems the only way to go if we're to keep a lot of bodies in the midfield area.

I'd put it down to us not signing proper wingers. The only natural winger I'd say we have right now is Ibe. In his time here Brendan has preferred to sign forwards/number 10s who can do a job out wide. Markovic would be an exception in that his best position was obviously on the wing, but we chose to deploy him as a wing back and then loan him out...

I think Coutinho suits playing behind the 10, allows him to dictate play better.

I'd line up like this, once everyone is fit:

Mignolet

Sakho Skrtel Can

Lucas

Moreno Milner Henderson Clyne

Coutinho

Sturridge Benteke

Are you saying you'd prefer Coutinho in the Milner/Henderson role instead?

That wouldn't be a bad lineup, but I don't think the PL will let us field 12 players

Yep, alongside Henderson or Milner in the central midfield role. I just don't think Henderson and Milner are a good enough pairing to control games. Plus Firminho is a better finisher and could be more effective as a 10.

Whoops, clearly I'm good at counting.

Fair enough, it'd be interesting to try at least. But hey, what do I know, I listed 12 players?

Our young keeper Lawrence Vigouroux has his loan at Swindon terminated after paying a £50 late-for-training fine in pennies.

do they actually take the cash? I always assumed when players are fined it just comes off their wage slip.

Having said that, thats pretty funny

I thought the same on reading the post by Munch, surely they dock it off his wages? If he did do that, good on him, shows originality!

Guess it depends on his attitude of doing it. If he came in with a joke and said "im here to pay my fine" its ok, if he stormed in with an attitude of "here, take your f***king fine" and slammed 5000 1p's on the table i can understand the club getting the hump.

I think most of us would be fairly positive re Christmas Cake's line up but it does raise some issues (apart from there being 12 in the team ), namely

1) After Can being played as a defender for the last half of last season many said that he had to play in his natural position this season which they said was midfield. Are we now saying after 6 games that he is after all a defender and that is where he will play for LFC? In short we mostly agree he is good enough to have a long term LFC future but is it in defence or midfield?

2) Gomez got rave notices after playing in the first few games but he is not now in the team with Moreno preferred to him? Are we all happy over this?

3) ings has come in and had very positive feedback on the way he has played in terms of goal scoring, movement and enthusiasm for the cause but this line up prefers Benteke, is that what we want?

I have no definitive answers to the questions I pose as I do wonder over Can's long term LFC position and I am not sure if I want Gomez or Moreno to play right now but if pushed I'd say play Can in defence for now and Moreno over Gomez for now - agreeing with Christmas Cake on both matters. The one where I may differ is Ings over |Benteke as I think his style of play would fit with Studge better and make us more attractive to watch and likely to break down packed defences.

This makes my tentative line up something like
Mig
Can Sakho Skrtel
Lucas
Clyne Hendo Coutinho Moreno
Ings Sturridge

but it is all negotiable and up for grabs - and no doubt with injuries we will very seldom have all the players available anyway!! Also I have had to leave Milner out which I am not happy over but to me he has not played well enough and people need to know that places are not automatic, they have to be earnt!!

Think there's a limit on the number of pennies you can use to pay for something.

If he dumped them all on his manager's desk I can imagine him not taking that lightly, but the picture I seen had coins in bags so at least he had the decency to package them.

Apparently he's been playing well for them, too. Lighten up, Swindon!

1. Can is most definitely a midfielder. He can do a job in defence if we ever have an injury crisis, but he's always looked more comfortable to me playing as a box-to-box midfielder. He doesn't really have the awareness to be an out and out defender.

2. I'm glad we're protecting Gomez, as I don't want to burn him out. Plus he's not a natural left back, and it's starting to show. I suspect though that the main reason Moreno has kept his place is because he's been outstanding since he came back into the team. Especially from an attacking perspective, he offers so much width and threat when bombing down that left hand side. I feel like he's looked like one of our most dangerous players in recent weeks.

3. On their day, Benteke has way more quality than Ings. And we're gonna have to justify the £32 million we spent on him, so I think it's a given that Benteke plays when he's fit, unless Ings scores a hat trick the week before. Ings does suit our style of play more though, I agree. Mainly due to his tenacity and work ethic, as Benteke is himself capable of playing with the ball on the ground. I really like that we have both as options though. A massive upgrade on Balotelli and Borini.

that image just made me laugh out loud!!

they'll be spending them in the amusements on the 1p machine!

seriously though, it shows serious dedication to save up 5,000 pennies!

1) I'd prefer Can to be in midfield, where I think he offers a lot more, I suppose we could play Toure there instead, and move him forward, and I remember there was a time when we had a million centre-backs, now we only really have four.

Wisdom should have been kept in the squad for me, as he'd be another option..

2)As a wing-back, it's Moreno over Gomez all day long, Gomez isn't a natural left-back, and he offers little going forward compared to Moreno..plus as others have said, I don't want him burning out.

3)I'd like to see Sturridge/Benteke given a chance. They would surely both be aware that Ings is waiting, and more than capable of stepping in if their form is poor..

My concern with a Sturridge / Benteke pairing is that I don't think Benteke has the movement to compliment Sturridge. I think his natural style of play is more direct i.e. he moves up and down the middle. This will leave Sturridge to do all the legwork on either side trying to pull defenders away. In the SAS days both players were all over the pitch and defenders had no idea how to defend that.

I agree with this, I think Ings will be a much better pairing with Sturridge, Ings moves all over the place, just needs to up his scoring rate and those two can be deadly. Benteke would probably do better with Firmino /Courtinho. But what the hell, to have the choice of attacking options after last season is a massive boost.

I see Vigouroux has been returned to Liverpool, love to be a fly on the wall!

I'm not really looking forward to the EL game this week. I guess I'm in the minority that would like to see us have a real go and do as well as possible in this competition.
There are three reason for this: so much of our clubs history is rooted in European success; it's a competition that should be winnable to us and therefore another option for a CL place; and thirdly, every result counts in the effort to keep our dwindling UEFA co-efficient at a half reasonable level.

However, with a derby game we really can't afford to lose just three days after, I can see us fielding quite a young/reserve team on Thursday night ( even Enrique could be in the frame for this one! ) Hopefully Sion are one of these teams that don't travel well and the youngsters can get stuck into the game and show what they are capable of.

I'd love to see us have a go in Europe too. It's important to establish a winning mentality. Our team has definitely lost an edge.

We can afford to lose to Sion and still get through. Play the kids I say.

I'd rather we fielded a good side. Form and confidence is important right now and would benefit us more at the weekend.

I am really hoping that with all players from LFC having watched Sturridge perform last week, that that's going to put that 'edge' back into the whole squad. It might just make a lot of them see that we DO have a winning option in game plans, and that if you keep trying you can get that win. If he didn't give them that boost, nothing will.

It was fantastic seeing Daniel try, try & try again to get that ball into the back of the net. Put in a young/2nd choice team by all means, but put 2-3 really strong players on the bench to come in and rescue if need be, It's a home match, so having DS, Coutinho and Ings on the bench for the evening is a no brainer.

How would that work it would make it a struggle to get through if only got 1 point from two games

7 points will be enough I think. More importantly the Everton game is far far more important so something has to give.