A brace from Fernando Torres, one from Ryan Babel and a first goal for the impressive Alberto Aquilani won it for the Reds. But it was the manner it which they achieved this result which will be more encouraging.

Admittedly this was only a win against Portsmouth, a club in the midst of turmoil and seemingly destined for the Championship next season, if indeed they survive at all. Yet, how many times this season have the Reds made very heavy work of similar matches against sides intent on a draw. And at this moment in time any convincing victory is a blessing.

This was the first time Liverpool had scored more than 2 goals in a single Premier League match since late September. And perhaps the only blemish on the evening was some lax defending late on which allowed Nadir Belhadj to collect his second goal against the Reds this season with a late consolation. Robbing Pepe Reina of another clean sheet.

Under the circumstances, few were particular confident prior to kick-off, even considering the lowly opposition. However the Reds were improved in many departments here. Torres, often frustrated since his return from injury, was back to his lethal best here, grabbing two goals. There were also improved displays from Babel, Maxi Rodriguez and Steven Gerrard. But it was the performance of the crafty Italian Aquilani which was most encouraging.

Aquilani had thus far showed very few signs of living up to his reputation since returning from injury in the autumn. But the former Roma man’s game seemed to finally click into place here. This was a rare occasion on which Rafa Benitez elected to omit Lucas from the starting line up in favour of Aquilani. And the difference was indisputable.

The Italian plays his football at least 10 yards further forward than Lucas at all times. That only makes a difference. And there was not better illustration of that than his first goal for the club; scored from inside the penalty area after 32 minutes. Aquilani’s partnership with Javier Mascherano provided a far greater balance in midfield. Allowing Mascherano to sit deeper and do what he does best. Whilst Pompey afforded Aquilani the space to utilise his often excellent movement and passing in advanced areas of the field.

The Reds dominated proceedings from the offset. With Portsmouth allowing the home side time and space on the ball, Liverpool were able to piece together some encouraging attacking moves. Whilst rarely testing stand-in goalkeeper Jamie Ashdown in the opening minutes.

There were appeals for a penalty when a ball directed towards goal made contact with Ricardo Rocha’s hand in the penalty area. And there were signs of what was to come when an incisive and well worked one touch move found Aquilani in the box and his first time effort flew across the face of goal. But it was the opening goal after 26 minutes which laid the way to victory for the Reds. The goal was somewhat fortuitous, although Gerrard deserves credit for his desire in chasing down Ashdown’s clearance. And the ball eventually found Torres, who stroked home nonchalantly with Pompey’s defence absent.

Liverpool went on to score a further 2 goals in the subsequent 6 minutes and effectively end the game as a contest before the half time whistle. First Torres took the ball down at the far post and fed Babel, who escaped the attentions of visiting defenders and did well to slot the ball past the keeper. Then- with Portsmouth seriously under the cosh – came Aquilani’s first for the club. The south coast sides defending was growing increasingly poor with mounting Liverpool pressure and Aquilani took advantage when Torres’s clever back heel found him with the space to confidently slot past Ashdown.

The Reds were growing in confidence and playing some of the best football they have displayed in a while. They could have added to their advantage before the interval. An excellent curling effort from Torres struck the post, whilst Gerrard went very close moments before the break.

The second half became something of a formality for the Reds with the three points already safely secured. This was the first time in too long that the home fans were able to enjoy the remainder of a Liverpool match safe in the knowledge that a win was already secure.

Papa Bouba Diop’s chipped ball over the Reds defence gave Pompey their first real glint of goal early in the second half. Frederic Piquionne found himself in space at a tight angle and the Frenchman fired a shot across goal and just wide of the far post. Before Reina was forced into an good finger tip save from Michael Brown’s effort.

Gerrard tested Ashdown and Babel forced an excellent save from the keeper from distance. As the away side struggled to cope with the Reds movment. Liverpool probably should have been granted an opportunity to add to their lead when Belhadj fouled Glen Johnson in the area, yet the referee waved away the appeals.

But the fourth goal eventually arrived with 13 minutes remaining. Torres hadn’t been involved much in the second period. Although when the Spaniard peeled away from Rocha to receive Aquilani’s pass, the striker was able to cut inside in clinically fire home his second and Liverpool’s fourth.

Torres was not allowed the time to complete his hat trick, however, as he was replaced by David N’Gog with Lille in mind. And Liverpool perhaps became a touch lethargic and complacent in the dying moments. Allowing Belhadj to slot home from Piquionne’s ball across the face of goal, much to the frustration of Reina.

A comfortable win for the Reds and one which could have been achieved by an even greater margin. However this will only be considered meaningful if the Reds can translate this result and performance into some critical upcoming games, as the matches come thick and fast.

MAN OF THE MATCH
Alberto Aqualani

Has certainly taken his time to find his feet but looked impressive and effective here. Perhaps not helped by a lack of opportunities; should surely be given a run in the team now. Very encouraging.

In any other season, a home fixture against Portsmouth would be a case of “how many will we score?” rather than “can we win?” As I got ready to watch this one last night, I was actually wondering if we might lose. That’s more than just a little out of character for me; I normally look at every match as being one that we can win, and can win easily, no matter who we face. But this season I’ve actually been as pessimistic as I’ve been in quite a few years about where we’ll finish at the end. We started off badly with a loss at Spurs and then went on to suffer more losses in the Premier League over the next couple of months.

We were only three games into the season and we’d already lost as many as all of last season (two), including a humiliating 3-1 defeat at home to Aston Villa who were billed as one of the threats to break into the top four – but surely not at our expense! By the end of October, we’d lost to Spurs, Villa, Chelsea, Sunderland, and Fulham in the Premier League, putting us well off the pace to mount any semblance of a title challenge, had lost to Fiorentina and Lyon in the Champions League with only four points from four matches, effectively putting an end to any hopes of progressing to the knock-out stages, and had been knocked out of the League Cup by Arsenal’s kids (again!). As I said to several fellow supporters at the time, our only remaining hope for the season was a good FA Cup run starting in the New Year, but otherwise our season was effectively over and we hadn’t even put the clocks back to end daylight savings time yet.

By the middle of December, the inevitable had happened with us losing out in the Champions League. We’d also lost to Arsenal and Portsmouth in the Premier League, meaning that we’d now lost seven in the first half of the season alone. That’s more than the two previous seasons combined! Could it get any worse? Surely the New Year would bring us some joy, with the FA Cup hopefully providing some consolation and possibly a reasonable chance at some silverware to redeem what was shaping up to be our worst season in many years. Well, we all know how that turned out, with a pathetic home defeat in a replay against Reading.

February arrived and gave us some hope by starting off with a win over Unirea Urziceni to put us into the next round of the Europa League, although the performances over the two legs were nothing to get too excited about. Back on the domestic front it didn’t improve at all with another loss to Arsenal, and failure to take points from Man. City. Somehow we survived all of this and were still within a few points of fourth place, although other contenders for that last Champions League spot have games in hand over us.

As if all that wasn’t depressing enough, the first half of March has given us two consecutive 1-0 losses – first to Wigan in the Premiership and then away to Lille in the Europa League. Both of those performances were so bad that we had to hope that we’d now reached rock bottom and couldn’t possibly sink any further. Surely there must be some improvement soon as it’s unthinkable that we’d fail to finish in the top four, but there are only a handful of games remaining. Which brings us to last night.

There were several reasons to worry about this one, including the last two sub-standard performances, the fact that we’d already lost to Pompey earlier this season, and that we’d failed to win a Monday night fixture in our last eight attempts. But as it turned out, we needn’t have worried and we won convincingly on the night with what was one of our best performances of the season. Actually that’s not saying very much, but considering the state we were in before kick-off we desperately needed a convincing win.

Rafa finally put out a side that didn’t include Lucas and Kuyt, giving Babel a rare starting place and Aquilani only his fifth start of the season, plus the return of Glen Johnson at right back. Overall it looked like a much more attack-minded side, and that proved to be the case with Maxi Rodriguez combining nicely with Aquilani and Torres, resulting in the first goal after 26 minutes. Two more from Babel and Aquilani pretty much put an end to the contest before half time, with three unanswered goals in six minutes on the way to a 4-1 win.

Three goals in six minutes! That last sentence should bring back some memories of happier times, and hopefully this could be the turning point as were the three goals in six minutes in Istanbul. From being written off as dead and buried back then, we fought back and went on to victory. Such glory won’t be in our immediate future, but at least the signs of life are there to be seen and that has to give us some hope. We desperately needed something to lift the spirits and bring back the confidence that we seemed to be lacking, and this should surely do that. What we have to do now is build on that and look forward to a strong run-in to the end of the season.

Our next few matches will be a big test for us, beginning with Lille on Thursday where we need to overcome a 1-0 deficit from the first leg, followed by a trip to Old Trafford on Sunday. But, those of us with reasonable memories will recall where we were at around this stage last season. We managed to thump the mancs 4-1 in their own park after being similarly written off a few games earlier, and opened up the race at the top. This time around we’re not even close to challenging for second place, but we have to believe that fourth place is surely well within reach.

All we can do from now until the end of the season is go out and win as many games and pick up as many points as possible. And, if the gods are with us, then we’ll hopefully see Spurs, City, Villa, and others, drop away as contenders. We have a habit of having a strong finish to a season and we have to hope that this year’s finish is as strong as ever.

We also have the Europa League to contend with, which is our only remaining hope of silverware for this season and would be our first trophy in four years if we were to be successful. It’s often been said that Liverpool Football Club is all about winning trophies, and normally I’d agree with that sentiment. But to be honest, I’d happily give up on the Europa League if it would let us concentrate on the Premiership and give us the all important entry to next season’s Champions League by finishing fourth. That’s a terrible thing to say, and a club like Liverpool should never have to make such choices, but that’s pretty much where we stand.

After feeling as though the season was already as good as over back when we were turning the clocks back, I’m now starting to feel a good deal more optimistic as we put the clocks forward. Surely it’s better to look ahead than to look back, and really that’s all we can do. As the cliché says, there’s still a lot of football to be played, and I for one will be behind the players 110% cheering them to victory right to the end. I hope you’ll be there with me, in spirit if not in person, remembering always that “You’ll Never Walk Alone.”

Liverpool go into Thursday’s encounter with Lille 1-0 down from the first leg in France a week ago, but off the back of a resounding 4-1 victory over Portsmouth.

For the first time in at least six months, the Reds impressed with their attacking flair on Monday night against the Premier League’s bottom club, seemingly finding some lost confidence.

Rafa Benitez will be without Maxi Rodriguez, who is ineligible to play in Europe for the Reds, but signs of Glen Johnson reaching full fitness after 8 weeks on the sidelines were positive at Anfield on Monday.

Javier Mascherano limped to the finish line in the final stages of the Portsmouth match and may be a fitness doubt.

Liverpool must overturn their 1-0 deficit, caused by Eden Hazard’s 85th minute strike in the first leg.

A place in the last eight of the Europa League awaits the winner.

The game gets underway at 8.05pm and it’s live on five in the UK.

Opinion: Attack, attack, attack – Full time report from Anfield

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson (Kelly 70), Carragher, Agger, Insua, Aquilani, Mascherano, Maxi, Gerrard, Babel (Benayoun 73), Torres (Ngog 80).
Subs not used: Cavalieri, Kyrgiakos, Kuyt, Lucas.
Booked: None.
Goals: Torres (26, 77), Babel (28), Aquilani (32)

Portsmouth: Ashdown, Finnan, Wilson, Rocha, Hreidarsson (Owusu-Abeyie 75), Brown, Diop (Mokoena 64), O’Hara (Webber 85), Dindane, Piquionne, Belhadj.
Subs not used: O’Brien, Mullins, Webber, Hughes, Kanu.
Booked: Dindane, Mokoena.
Goal: Belhadj (88)

Referee: Stuart Attwell (Warwickshire)
Attendance: 40,310

Stats:
POSSESSION: Liverpool 58% – 42% Portsmouth
ON TARGET: Liverpool 12 – 3 Portsmouth
OFF TARGET: Liverpool 11 – 4 Portsmouth
CORNERS: Liverpool 8 – 4 Portsmouth
FOULS: Liverpool 10 – 15 Portsmouth

Liverpool 4-1 Portsmouth
Goals: Torres, Babel, Aquilani, Torres

On the 118th birthday of Liverpool Football Club, the Reds produced three goals in six minutes to lift the air of tension around Anfield. The context wasn’t quite of Istanbul-like proportions but in the bigger picture this win may prove almost as important.

In a week which sees Rafa Benitez’s team host Lille on Thursday, fighting to stay in the Europa League, and then travel to Old Trafford on Sunday, a win – and a good performance – was paramount here.

The last time the Reds scored 3 in the first half of a Premier League match was almost exactly a year ago – when they hammered Aston Villa 5-0 to follow up wins over Man United and Real Madrid. The circumstances for this first half demolition were different but just as enjoyable after months without an attacking performance.

If you’d have asked me what I hoped in terms of team selection, I’d have said but never expected Kuyt and Lucas to make way for more attacking players. Cue my surprise and optimism when the team came through.

If then you’d have asked me what I hoped in terms of the match, I’d have said but never expected Babel and Aquilani to both play the full match, put in good performances and a goal for each would have been a huge bonus.

It would be simplistic to say this result was down to removing ‘workmen’ like Kuyt and Lucas, replacing them with more creative players in Maxi and Aquilani, and keeping pace in the attack with Babel. But then you have to take into account the opposition here.

Mind, a week ago we failed to muster a single shot on target against a Wigan team who had recorded just 3 wins since end of the October. They went on to be hammered 4-0 when Bolton actually attacked them on Saturday. C’est la vie.

Steven Gerrard moaned and groaned his way through the defeats to Wigan and Lille last week and along with Torres actually managed to focus on playing football tonight. The 2 of them combined with Johnson, Aquilani, Babel and Maxi brilliantly to give Liverpool an attacking verve we haven’t seen this season. It was no co-incidence that most the attacking threat came down the Reds right where Johnson is coming back to form following injury.

Gerrard could and perhaps should have had a hat-trick but he the only time he hit the target was when his forearm struck Michael Brown’s head. Gerrard probably remembers Brown’s many discrepancies down the years like his headbutt on Xabi Alonso a few years back. Finally some comeuppance for the thug.

Even Rafa’s subs were spot on tonight, resting the three key players, bringing in Martin Kelly for his debut, Yossi Benayoun after injury and David Ngog to keep him involved.

It’s a massive week and this was the perfect start to it, follow it up with another two wins and Liverpool fans may even be able to crack a smile.

Mind, we’ve turned that many corners already this season I’m dizzy but no doubt it won’t stop numerous quotes of how our season starts here… shame it’s mid-March!

The quote in the title of this post is something repeated several times (with some perverse pride) by Dan Johnson, the Premier League Head of Communications at the BBC’s “Football in the Red” debate in Manchester two weeks ago. His statement was met with derision by the audience because it summed up the football authorities’ blasé approach to one of the key problems in the national sport. I may have lost my temper with him and accused him of ludicrous complacency.

I do have some sympathy for Dan (who I can only imagine was desperate for a challenge when he accepted the role), after all the man has to clean up after Richard “£866,000 and no clouds in the sky” Scudamore. Dan tried to fob the BBC audience off with the Premier League’s souped up “Fit and Proper Person Test” and the laughable new “early warning system” (relying on auditors to spot problems, just like they did so brilliantly at Enron, Lehman Brothers or Portsmouth FC). The Premier League can tinker with processes and procedures, but the overall philosophy hasn’t changed, if it’s legal the Premier League are in favour of it, if Pompey have four owners in 12 months, that’s fine.

This weekend, news has emerged that a private equity firm, Rhone Group has offered to invest £110-120m (reports differ) in Liverpool FC in exchange for a 40% stake. The club’s current owners, Hicks and Gillett would have to accept this 40% dilution, but with the deadline for their Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd acquisition vehicle to reduce its debt rapidly approaching, not accepting such an offer could lead to the owners forfeiting their shares in the club.

The financial structure at Liverpool is not dissimilar to that at United, with over-stretched owners desperate to solve a debt crisis that was entirely of their own making. Neither club has gained anything from the leveraged buyouts that were used to acquire them. In United’s case, the main consequence has been the pricing out of traditional supporters, whilst at Liverpool Hicks and Gillett’s stewardship has further delayed the building of a new stadium that everyone agrees is needed.

Although (according to figures from http://www.transferleague.co.uk/) Benitez’s net transfer spending since he took over at Liverpool is actually £1m higher than Sir Alex Ferguson’s over the same period (and that is ignoring the proceeds from the sale of Ronaldo destined for the PIKs), the amount of revenue generated from matches at Anfield is far too small vs. other comparable clubs. Hicks and Gillett haven’t produced accounts for last season yet, but looking at the 2007/08 numbers, Liverpool only generated revenue of £1.3m per home game vs. £2.3m at Chelsea (who have other sources of cash of course) and more than £3m per game at Old Trafford and the Emirates (these other clubs’ figures are for 2008/09).

The reporting in the weekend papers suggests that Rhone Group would pay down Kop Football (Holdings) Ltd’s debt with its equity injection. This would greatly improve the chances of raising capital for a new ground. So far, so altruistic (“Scouse Knights” perhaps?). But of course the arrival of a business like Rhone Group on the scene marks a new, sad twist in the pawning of the English game. The Glazers made a half-hearted and wholly unconvincing attempt to paint themselves (or at least Joel) as United fans. Hicks and Gillett launched their takeover talking of their intention to be “custodians” of the club which they would hold as a “family asset”. Whilst many Liverpool supporters had been hoping Dubai International Capital would acquire the club, the acquisition by Hicks and Gillett was initially generally viewed positively by fans and it took eleven months before organised supporter opposition began in earnest.

Rhone Group will not of course claim to be staffed entirely by Liverpool supporters, they are transparently in it for the money. For many Liverpool supporters, the temptation may well be to welcome any new owners, especially one who could pay down almost half the club and parent company’s debts. I think welcoming such attention would be a terrible mistake, private equity firms can’t spell altruism let alone practice it. Look again at the table of matchday income above again. Liverpool bring in around £30 per occupied seat per game. The two London clubs bring in more than £50. United is now far closer to Arsenal than its traditional north western rivals. In 2004/05, the last year of the plc, the equivalent number for United was £33, revenue per seat has risen 45% since the takeover, a small amount of the change is “mix” (relatively more corporate facilities when the quadrants opened) but the vast majority of the change is from higher ticket prices.

Rhone Group (and no doubt other similar organisations) see the opportunity to get into Liverpool at an enterprise value of just over £400m. They no doubt see a famous club with a global brand, charging ticket prices 30% below those at United. They see desperate current owners. They smell a money making opportunity.

For the Premier League, a deal along the lines Rhone Group are proposing will no doubt be seen as a triumph. At least £100m can be knocked off the Premier League’s debt total, a shiny new stadium may well appear, the appeal of the league to global capital will be confirmed.

Best. League. In. The. World. Fact.

As Dan from the Premier League said, they are “ownership neutral”, they care nothing for the motivation of people who buy into our top clubs, they care nothing about the consequences that flow from allowing financial buyers to acquire clubs, and if in five years time aggressive pricing policies have stopped thousands of Liverpool FC’s traditional, working class support from being able to see their club, well, that’s business……

Of course next weekend we play Liverpool at Old Trafford, just over 100 years after we first played them there. I understand how controversial the idea is of United and Liverpool supporters coming together in some way to protest at what has been done to our clubs, but I’d ask people to think who the real enemy are before dismissing all such ideas out of hand.

After two 1-0 defeats last week, Liverpool host bottom of the table crisis club Portsmouth at Anfield on Monday night hoping to get back on track in the pursuit of fourth place.

Pressure is mounting on Rafa Benitez and with Spurs having consolidated fourth spot with a win over Blackburn on Saturday, three points against Avram Grant’s Pompey is a must.

Grant, despite the club going into administration, has kept Portsmouth’s heads above water and managed them to a place in the FA Cup semi-final. Their last league match though saw them lose to Birmingham.

Pompey won the reverse of this fixture at Fratton Park 1-0 earlier this season and on current form will be confident they can inflict they can cause an upset again.

This fixture last season saw a Steven Gerrard penalty prove the winner in a 1-0 home win.

Rafa Benitez has an almost fully fit squad to choose from, with Maxi Rodriguez available after being ineligible in Europe, and Yossi Benayoun likely to be back in contention.

The game’s live on ESPN in the UK and USA, 8pm kick off.

Head to Head and Team Stats

Not any more he won’t. Not in my eyes. No matter what happens.

The common opinion is that Tom Hicks and George Gillett are Liverpool’s biggest problem right now – rightly so. But from Rafa Benitez’s point of view, they are his saving grace, because had our ownership situation been more stable the pressure on Benitez would be at least double fold and he’d have been long gone under a good ownership.

I wrote after the Reading match that I doubted he would ever be able to ‘turn it around’ and nothing I’ve seen since has made me think otherwise.

Let’s face it, we’re talking about a man who failed to motivate his players (no matter the financial restraints, these are his players and his squad) to beat a struggling Championship side over not just 90 minutes, not just 180 minutes but 210 minutes. Scoring only from a cross that luckily went in and a deflected own goal.

A manager that has led his team to defeats against some of the most struggling sides in the league at Portsmouth, Sunderland and Wigan, and trudged away with draws at fellow strugglers Wolves and Stoke. Add in defeats to Fulham and in Europe to Fiorentina (twice), Lyon and Lille.

For all I wish Rafa could turn things around, there’s no chance of it happening. Nothing that happens on the pitch has inspired me to think otherwise and clearly nothing Rafa has done has inspired the players to think otherwise, or for them to behave otherwise.

Whether it be Rafa’s handling of the Aquilani situation, his failure to blood Stephen Darby or Martin Kelly in Glen Johnson’s absence, his insistence in playing Carragher and Mascherano out of position in Johnson’s absence, his persistence with Insua (even when Aurelio has been fit), his treatment of Babel by dropping him after he’s been one of few players to show any desire, his blind faith in Kuyt… the list goes on and on.

Back in the good old days Benitez used to mock Jose Mourinho for throwing Robert Huth up front in the dying moments of a game, nowadays (Wigan on Monday) it’s Rafa throwing Kyrgiakos up front and pumping long balls up to him.

Back in the old days, the fans had faith in Benitez because he’d showed tactical acumen by outwitting the best teams in Europe, nowadays he can’t outwit a team in the Europa League never mind the Champions League.

Back in the old days Benitez would be ruthless by dropping (even selling) players who didn’t make the grade, nowadays it’s the blind faith in Dirk Kuyt, Lucas Leiva, Emiliano Insua and failure to provide adequate back up to Fernando Torres that has seen his squad so poorly exposed.

Back in the old days, Xabi Alonso would pull the strings while Javier Mascherano would eliminate the threats, thus complimenting each other perfectly. Nowadays it’s sideways passes that look great in statistics but fail to show the lack of cutting edge and lack of ability to get the ball forward at pace and before the opposition have time to react.

Some may say we overachieved last season, but the truth be told we actually missed our best opportunity to win that elusive Premier League title due to the manager’s reluctance to go for a win. This season that has doubled by settling for a draw before the game has even started – aiming to avoid defeat ahead of aiming to go for the win. No wonder Spurs, Man City and Villa are rubbing their hands.

At the end of the storm, there’s a golden sky… not that we will be seeing it any time soon.

Liverpool slumped to their second defeat in just four days as Lille took the advantage in the first leg of this Europa League tie in France.

The pressure continues to mount on Rafa Benitez as hopes of qualifying for next season’s Champions League fade back home and now the Reds are left with work to be done in the return leg at Anfield next Thursday.

In a lacklustre game with very few chances or exciting football by either team, it was Eden Hazard’s free-kick from the left that was crossed in, beating everyone – including Pepe Reina to give the hosts the victory five minutes from time.

The Reds go back to England now for a Monday night must-win Premier League clash at Anfield against bottom of the table Portsmouth, before Lille again three days later.

Media Reports

BBC Sport

Team Line-ups and Substitutions

Lille: Landreau, Emerson, Beria, Rami, Balmont, Cabaye (Dumont 73), Obraniak (Toure 83 yellow card), Chedjou Fongang, Mavuba, Hazard,Frau (Aubameyang 77).

Subs not used: Butelle, Vandam, Souare, Souquet.

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Agger, Insua, Carragher, Gerrard, Mascherano, Lucas, Torres, Kuyt (El Zhar 88), Babel (Riera 73).

Subs: Cavalieri, Kyrgiakos, Kelly, Aquilani, Ngog.

Ref: Alan Larsen
Att: 18,000