A fully fit midfield - how would you line them up?

Just imagine for a moment that we have every single midfield player fit and at 100%:

Aquilani, Babel, Benayoun, Gerrard, Kuyt, Lucas, Mascherano, Riera. (Possibly Aurelio, Spearing and El Zhar too, up to you.)

How would you line them up against the smaller teams that we need creativity to break down?

Would you stick Benayoun and Aquilani in the center and play them in advanced roles, rather than Masch and Lucas in defensive roles?

Or against the larger teams - would you opt for the defensive option instead, and let the other players graft while our back four are protected?

Here's mine:

(Smaller teams)

Code: [Select]

Aquilani - Benayoun

Kuyt - Gerrard - Riera

(Larger teams)

Code: [Select]

Lucas - Mascherano

Kuyt - Gerrard - Benayoun

Aquilani may be a creative mind, but IMO he'd have to prove himself against the smaller teams in order to challenge for Lucas or Javier's place.

                                             -Aquiliani- Mascherano

                                          Kuyt-  Gerrard- Benayoun 

My fully fit midfield would be:

                Aquilani  Mascherano

  Kuyt              Gerrard              Benayoun

Also, my point with this thread is that we don't (as people are saying all over the 'net) have a paper-thin midfield.

We have depth in our team for every occasion, and we have a squad to win the title, and other competitions.

                    Mascherano

  Kuyt            Aquilani         Benayoun

                     Gerrard            

       Mascherano

  Kuyt            Aquilani         Benayoun

                     Gerrard     

For the smaller teams, I'd go with:

Gerrard - Aquilani - Lucas/Masch - Benayoun

Rotate between Lucas and Masch for these games and I'd go two up top with Kuyt and Torres.

For the bigger teams I'd go with RedLFCBlood's line up.

Small team or not I think we need a settled midfield and not chop and change too much. Something like that.

-------------Mascherano-------------
----------------Aquilani----------------
-----Kuyt----Gerrard---Benayoun-

Understandable that most people see Aquilani's price and decide to throw him in.

Masch hasn't been on top form this season but he was excellent against United.  I do also tend to think it would be unfair on Lucas just to get binned off.

Interesting to see how it all develops.  I'm under the impression that Aquilani is a more offensive player than Lucas or Masch so I'm not sure planting him in the holding position is a dead cert.

I guess with more games and hopefully his return to fitness we will be able to tell where and how we will line up with him.

Small team or not I think we need a settled midfield and not chop and change too much. Something like that.

-------------Mascherano-------------
----------------Aquilani----------------
-----Kuyt----Gerrard---Benayoun-

Yep
Rotating Lucas in with that as well