I have to say I wasnt really impressed with the game last night but Steve G. saved us, once again. I have always loved Sissokos commitment and energy but with the arrival of Mascherano I think he has come to a fork in the road, he will either rise to the challenge or break. I hope its the latter. I was impressed with Pennant but I would still want to see a class winger brought in this summer. Someone to push Gonzalez and Pennat. I think that is our weakest link and something that needs to be addressed. What ever Benitez decides to do will be fine with me, my faith in him is total. I dont understand these inputs about him not getting to grips with the premiership, he just needs the time and resources. As for the little story about his bonus in the CL. so what, he obviously isnt out for the money, that much he has proved. I guess the media is always trying to stir things up. Wonder if Morinhou leaked that Honestly does anybody believe that Chels. are not thinking about revenge???
Anyways Wigan this weekend and then for the big one, cant wait.

Gerry, good article.
I agree about Momo he has fallen down the batting
order.His passing is atrocious.When you look at
Mascherano and the way he passes the ball around people , You would have to play him before Momo…
I am not a fan of Pennants but he did do some good things lastnight, especially in the second half
Zenden is just not good enough to wear the Red shirt..
I thought when Stevie G went in to Central Midfield
the tempo of the game picked up and all the Lads
started to play with more believe.
Rafa is Magic.like you said he’s not about the money..
We have a very bright future ahead of us..
Scum and Chelski Beware….
3 pts Saturday then we can concern ourselves
with the CL…
Cheers , mate….

As inconsistent as Momo’s form has been of late (and i have to say im starting to think maybe its a good time to sell him as we will get descent money for him and his form isnt looking the best), i still think he will be the first name on the team sheet when we face chavski. Everytime we have played them, Momo has caused them an awful amount of trouble. he owns the midfield when we play chelsea and i think rafa will look to play him and xabi in the middle, possibly with masch behind them and with a loan striker (crouch or kuyt). im looking forward to it and i think we will leave stamford Bridge with a 1-0 lead. then probably 6-0 at anfield. Ha

The match was quite boring in the first as it looked as if they left the “City of Man” stadium to anfield and it only when there was re0shuffling during half time that breathed life into the team. We all know that SG is the heart of the team..and if he is not playing at the heart..then everything seems to go haywire. Although it is too early to start raking up old statements of “one man team” we need someone who can do what SG is doing at least 60% of what SG is capable of doing. Mom is still young and can get only better and instead of selling him, if he is provided competition, he will automatically start performing to our / Rafa’s expectation and even his own expectations.
Like Gerry mentioned, I think the TV “Pundits” have already started dreaming about a Man/CSKA London semi-final which is competely ridiculous as they are over looking one of the greatest European teams ever..who have won the European Cup 6 times..way more than any other team barring Madrid.
I think Rafa may pack the midfield with 5 and play Crouch or Kuyt as the lone striker, with Finnan as RB and AA as LB. Before we even think of next week we have another EPL match against Lancashire locals (Wigan) and the momentum we gain from this match will hold us in good stead for the CL match. If we are able at to do half of what we did at Nou Camp, at Stampbored Ridge, we will come victorious and we know what Anfield is like on a European night and more so against CSKA London…
The Future is Red and will Stay RED

Gerry,
It really is good to know that money isn’t the sole motivation for Rafa. However I don’t think Rafa would join Real Madrid at all simply because they have a habit of sacking managers when they fail to deliever. I can’t remember who but there was a manager who left even though they won the European cup that year! SO Rafa obviously knows there is no continuity, there is no real building blocks and most of all there is no respect. Rafa gets all this from every corner of LFC.

So while its good he turned it down he wasn’t daft enough to accept it anyway.

In Rafa we trust

Gerry, could’nt help but be mystified at Real’s statement ” the board of directors refute the allegation’s of Mr Benitez that we have approached him yet again ” then i thought that news came from every source of media thats possible ? do you think they have said this to appease the moaning one in case they go after him i’d like to know your’s and the lad’s opinions on this. My lad went the other night against Boro and he said Momo now has a habit of scrunching his eye’s up every now and then, as he thinks he still having problems with the eye injury, lastly whats with lampard and that tongue job ? watch him when he was substituted against w ham, is it in anticipation of blowing the moaning one.
theredman YNWA.

i think rafa is pure class, as a manager and a person. we are very very lucky to have such a quality manager with LFC. with regards to Real, i think they are one of the worst clubs for football in the world, and i say that completely honestly. when it comes to play, they are average (despite their hugely stacked squad), and when it comes to the rest of football, they are awful. they are slimy business men, tapping up players every single year to unsettle them in an attempt to sign them. no other club comes out openly an announces who they are going to buy – and worse assumes that it is a given. for the past two years, they have been telling the papers everywhere that ronaldo is coming. while i would not mind seeing him go, i think it is disgraceful the way they go about their transfers. even with rafa, they openly stated he was top of their list, as well as the 4 managers gentlemen they were looking at. now they come out and pretty much call rafa a liar. that, my friends, is unacceptable. they are dirty dirty slimeballs, and to come out and question the integrity of a good and honest man like rafa is ridiculous. i’m so sick of them calling themselves the best team in the world when they havent won f*** all in like 3 years. their club might have history but they lack class, which is something that LFC has always had, from the owners down to the management and players — and we always will.

YNWA

As much as I have always criticised Momo, most of the timepreferring him to stay on the bench, I am NOT for selling the lad. What I would like to see of course is some improvement, and I feel the 22 year old can definitely improve IF he is to play in the reserves. Once his passing issue is solved, bring him in slowly. He might be under pressure now that he is playing alongside probably the world’s best central midfielders. Keep him but train him well.

Like I said earlier, I respect Mr. Benny and for him to come out and take the blame for Momo’s poorer than normal performance only increases my respect for the man. Fully agree with you there Gerry, a great manager, a great man, you nailed it.

I do hope that with this game and so many other games, he will realise that Stevie G plays better in the centre where he can control the game more and run at defenders who will back peddle. Putting Stevie G playing off the striker restricts this, taking out this threat cos he’s always covered by a defender at his back. I reaally do not know about the team balance and all but I fully agree with you Gerry, Masherano and Stevie in the centre, based on current form.

And yeah, what a load of rubbish from Real… never trust what is coming out of their camp. slimy dirty dealers.

satyromaniaman, what you said about gerrard sounds almost exactly like what i said in the last blog, (in between everybody’s fights with kopkiller)…i agree with you totally. i’d put gerrard and mascherano in the center, personally.

YNWA

Lads something to think about. Could Mr B now think of cashing in big time for Xabi(God forbid I said that.) And spend the entire amount on a right winger/type player.

Mashers has been a godsend while stevie has been in an outof the middle. Maybe its time for Momo to go, this will then utilise some decent money to be spent elsewhere.

I don’t really want him to sell anyone, but when you look at who’s in demand and who commands money then Xabi’s it.

Ruffie pick for a move in the summer.

Off topic, but what a fantastic goal by Messi.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe4teUFUmNg

If Agger had scored against Wigan, his goal would also have been up there with the best of Messi… great goal.

who saw man u escape with a draw today??? disgraceful indecision by the ref…o’shea’s tackle at the end of the game was one of the clearest penalties i’ve ever seen. f*** the dirty mancs, they are the luckiest team on the face of the earth. i would love to see a statistic about how many penalties are given against them…it certainly seems like never.

YNWA

alec_the_red, let’s face it, the media and the ref always have the soft spot for Man U and Chelsea; we have to do it the hard way, but let them have all they want but the Champions’ League, mate.

Concerning the game against Wigan, I was really impressed with Arbeloa. No mistakes in defending, and he was very impressive going forward!

YNWA,
Hyde

alec_the_red, you’re dead right, that’s 2 games in a row that the Mancs had a clear penalty against them that the ref was too scared to give. I put it down to the refs being completely shitscared of old whiskey-nose Ferguson because he is apparently untouchable as a manager and will get away with murder if he wants to slaughter a ref after the game. I guess that’s what a completely undeserved knighthood gets you. Our gaffer is pure class but unfortunately this also happens to mean the refs are not scared of him and we don’t get the same decisions – Gerrard is probably the only player on our team who gets somewhere near the same treatment that the entire Manc team gets…. I mean how the fuck does John O’Shit deserve to be untouchable??? It sickens me.

As for the midfielder situation – let’s keep them all, remember that if we want to be fighting on more than one front every season then we need DEPTH, so having conundrums about selecting Momo / Mash / Xabi is a GOOD thing… as long as they all don’t get upset if they don’t play 50 games per year. But I think all 3 are very loyal to Rafa for what he’s done for them so I can’t see that being a problem. I think our main problem there is that we have really got 3 defensive midfielders who aren’t particularly versatile (Momo, Xabi, Mash) and 1 versatile attacking one (Stevie). If Momo could shoot or pass, he’s got the drive to be more attacking…. but he’s got a long way to go on that one. Maybe Mash could get there though? He seems to have the class for it.

Incredible goal by Messi… ahhh the value of having a player who can beat opposition players on the dribble. Who have we got like that again?

Great win Today..I agree Arbeloa gets better and better.
We looked so sharp in the second half .Kuyt
should have had a hat trick and Gonzales could have had a couple to.How he missed that header
only he knows.we are peaking at the right time.
Bring on Chelski…
Is Finnan injured or just being rested for WED?
Anyone else think Heskey took himself out of the game, when there was nothing wrong with him?
I can’t wait for WED GAME….
YNWA……….

Some of the decisions Rafa makes astound me. Why leave Stevie on the bench only to play him when we’re winning 2-0. What if he broke his leg in a dead game. Diddo for Agger.

Great win though all the same.

I still think one of those midfielders will leave, just to free up some cash.

I agree with Andy Wirral, I would prefer to keep both Xabi and Momo. ( the two central midfielders in question, Zenden to me being more of a Left sided oneand Garcia errrr a second striker???). To be challenging on more fronts we need to rest players and have others come in and do the work. Xabi and Maherano can take turns to start with BOTH finishing the game when we have taken enough of a lead ( replacing and conserving our Captain whenever possible ). Also, we DO NOT want to fall prey to injury. Because we have these set of players, we have done well to cover the past few weeks when Momo as well as Xabi had some minor problems with injuries.

I am so happy to be seeing that happen since Masherano arrived. We are able to rest players and still perform. Same goes for our strikers, though we do seem to be having a touch too many in hand. With CIsse coming to FORM, he could be offloaded, and Ponggole performing well where he is, our pacy strikers department is overflowing. It would be a shame to have them back without enough games for them and then have them moan about bench warming.

Speedy tried and tried so hard yesterday, and he definitely has speed to take on defenders, if he could find the quality cross regularly in his game, we’d be having a fantastic player on the left. With Kewell coming back ( I do hope he plays to his abilities REGULARLY) we’d have great attacking options down the left.

I think Finnan was rested. Maybe Mr Benny told Stevie G to go have a run, and not get into anything too demanding, I do not know but it was risky. As maybe he brought on Agger to rest Carra or protect Carra. I like the fact that our players can be rested.

All hail King Rafa indeed!

Speaking of Momo, he started off as a striker. I nearly fell off my chair when i heard that. he doesnt look like he oculd hit a barn door when he goes for goal.