Are three pints enough to see off Liverpool?

As promised, Three Pints has chipped in with his thoughts on current affairs surrounding those 'uns from the other end of the East Lancs.

So Mr Pints, I know you fairly well now and your opinions on current events around Anfield but try to outline for us your current state of minds regarding Rafa Benitez and specifically his rant (which can be heard here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZHosq1fxSM – if you need a reminder)...

As things are, Rafa Benitez is not the man to lead Liverpool to a League Title. His choice of football is far too defensive. People sometimes say that Jose won the league with Chelsea being defensive, but this is incorrect. Mourinho is a shrewd operator, and I'd like to see him take the helm at Liverpool. His rant was embarrassing. Whilst a lot of the stuff he said may or may not be true, the fact he came out publically and said it was no good. The effect it had on the players was evident as our form dropped quicker than a prostitutes pants.

The current situation at Anfield is definitely not ideal. Two American owners who don't give a rats ass and a Chief Executive who blocks transfers. Now, United have an American owner that doesn't care, but your manager is in control of absolutely everything. In our situation, Benitez has to ask Parry, and this obviously leads to a lot of friction. Solution? Yanks out, Parry out and Benitez either puts together a proper squad or he gets out too.

In a previous post on your blog, Three Pints, you mention a core of players you believe are vital to Liverpool and that the rest are basically expendable. Who do you blame for this accumulation of poor players? Rumours abound that Rick Parry undermines Benitez at every turn in terms of funds available and on players targeted...

I think the blame for our accumulation of poor players must be shared between both Parry and Benitez. Parry has been known to deny Benitez the funds required to sign the players he wants. An example of this is Gareth Barry (must point out I can't see why we'd swap Alonso for Barry) when Benitez didn't get the man he wanted. However, Benitez is the one who actually signs the dung. Babel, Kuyt, Lucas, Skrtel, Dossena, Benayoun. None of these players are good enough to be League Winners. You only have to look at what Liverpool do when we struggle in a game. United bring on Carlos Tevez, Liverpool bring on Ngog.

Given that Benitez guided you to the top of the table, the argument is there that the squad is good enough. I assume you don't agree, so do you agree with me that this year has seen a fairly poor performance across the board and that Liverpool simply took advantage of that until we found our form?

The only reason Liverpool were top of the league is because of the poor form of the other teams around them. It took you lot quite a while to find form. The fact we were still top after so many home draws is indicative of this. If you want to challenge for a league, you must win all your games at home. This is an absolutely vital part of becoming Champions. You also must impose your style of play on other teams. For instance, when we go away from home, we set out our team as it suits us and the other team sets out theirs to try and counter-act it. Not the other way around. We shouldn't go to other teams and change formation to try and defend against a possible threat. We play our game and force them to change! Manchester United do it, Chelsea did it when they were Champions. Arsenal too. To answer your question, no our squad is not good enough. Out of it, Reina, Agger, Carragher, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano (ok, he's having a bad time but the quality is definitely there) and Torres can be considered good enough. The rest need shipped out and the team needs to be built around this spine. We need pacy wingers who aren't afraid to beat their man on the outside (Babel and Kuyt can't do this, they always go inside, Babel especially) and whip in a good ball. We need another GOOD centre forward. Someone to compliment Torres, in an ideal world, David Villa. We need two full backs, and not rubbish ones, I want Rafael and Evra standard please.

You come to Old Trafford hoping to do the league double over us, something you haven't done in a fair while... What team do you think Benitez will go for and would you change it? And what do you think the result will be?

I think we'll not go defensive like we would have if we were above you. We HAVE to win this game (well not really, I consider it over already) so I think we'll set out our stall in the usual manner. 4-5-1. Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Dossena/Aurelio (Aurelio is the less shit of the two), Arbeloa (I can't remember the injury situation at right back so I'm going with him) at the back. In the middle the usual, Gerrard and Alonso with Mascherano just behind. Kuyt and Riera out wide (yes, apparently Dirk Kuyt is a winger. Go figure). Up top Torres. Torres will be marked out of the game no doubt, by a very much in form United defence. We'll try feeding balls into him and they'll be cut out every time or else he'll get the ball 20 yards from goal with his back to goal and 4 defenders in his way. As for changing it, it's been shown this season that we actually cannot play any other formation successfully, so while I'd love to go 4-4-2 we just cannot do it (the fact we only have one decent striker doesn't help either). Player changes? Tough one. Again, we have no strength in depth, so it's like swapping piss for shit. As for the end result, I'm going to go for a clear win for United. 3-0, just like last time, except this time I really hope that little scrote Nani doesn't score one and Mascherano shuts his mouth.

If you do come away from OT with a win, is your title chase back on? How do you see the league panning out from here?

Even if we do win, it's 4 points with a game in hand for you, so realistically, we are still 7 points behind. I can't see you losing 3 games. No way. If you win, then it is most definitely over - 10 points with a game in hand. Our title challenge is over, and at the time of writing, the match tonight (Tuesday) makes or breaks our season. Get dumped out of the Champions League and this really has been a shitty season (I may go as far to say that even if we win the CL it's been a shit season).  As for the league panning out, I see United winning it by some distance. 13, 15 points clear, or something like that.

And finally... The Quintuple – can we do it?

Yes. Who is going to beat you? You are in unstoppable form and it's going to take some seriously bad luck or a serious off day for you to lose. At the very least, you'll clean up domestically and possibly get a bad draw in the Champions League (us :p). Come on Inter Milan, might I add. But in all seriousness, I think the quintuple is most definitely on and you have a good enough squad that you can rotate players to prevent burnout and not compromise quality. The Quintuple is there for you, the only people who will stop you winning it is yourselves.

Well, even I must say, I didn't expect our lad to be as defeatist as this. The Quintuple is never happening in my opinion, but I am glad to see that you've seen through Skrtel for the poor player he is!

You can read more from Three Pints at his blog, www.threepints.co.uk and it's linked from my read blogs section.

I set off early doors tomorrow for Manchester, armed with cider and a Gogs. It could get messy.