Super stuff Gerry.I haven’t been in since i was over at the debrecin game i’ve had a few probs with my laptop.I still have to catch up with the comments so i won’t say much more than i’m pleased with the teams form of late and hope there’s two wins in the coming week for the reds.I won’t see either game as i’ll be travelling to and from spain while they are on!And Gerry,is there any team you don’t have a nickname for?Ford Cortina….love it.

Spot on Gerry, especially the part on Spurs rolling over. Over the years I do notice that there are many teams playing like that, strong against us but rolling over against ManU. Beside Spurs, Everton, Aston Villa, West Ham and Bolton are also guilty. Most of them just give up after conceding the first goal, teams who “park the bus” and play hard against us to earn a point did not show up against ManU, Chelsea and Arsenal. I hope we could trash these teams to teach them a lesson but the irony is we had lost to 2 of them already!

Great blog Gerry, as always.
I think your comments on Masch is spot on. While he can be good, he is playing below his potential. Lucas on the other hand has stepped up his game and is playing better than Masch. Let’s see how Masch fares over the next few games. For me, Lucas has been playing better and better: passing, tackling, getting forward.

FS, I wrote to you at [email protected] and [email protected]. The latter bounced back. Is the former correct?

Hi Gerry, Your blog is spot on as usuall, You are spot on about the issue with these explayer pundits. Immagine sometimes in future someone like Rio F. or Rooney as a football pundit, what gabbage could they throw out considering the size of their brain. I dont bother hearing most of them especially the so called ex-players
About our game today, again my post is 4th one, therefore our team will score that much.(4goals)

Against Hull, my score is 4-1.

Great piece.

Is this for real?

http://liverpoolfc.co.za/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/1126051643/m/302102294

Spot on Blog Gerry and don’t have anything to add.

Hoping for a solid performance today, a clean sheet and 3 points. Thank you very much.

SonOfAKhan, no idea about the rumour but GG is supposed to be at Anfield today.

Sorry to divert the blog so early but I enjoyed reading this article earlier, from the daily manc of all places:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1216111/STEVEN-GERRARD-EXCLUSIVE-The-trial-changed-It-frightening-I-celebrate-bar–Liverpool-England-star-frank.html

Thought some of you lads would enjoy it as well.

SOS, they have been reporting that over here during the week, there was also a report in one of those money magazines from America. Hicks has apparently been in Saudi Arabia all week, who knows if it true, do we have any Arabic speakers and is that the true Prince.
.
4-0 tonight.

Sorry for the diversion so early in the blog too but I had a mixed feeling when I read about it. Especially when it says the ‘investor’ is looking at up to 50% stake. I feel like doing a cartwheel at the moment but I am afraid I might hit the windows and find myself 5 floors down with a broken heart.

…and one more, not that our hero needs any defending:

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/brian-reade/Liverpool-fans-turning-against-Jamie-Carragher-should-have-a-word-with-themselves-Where-s-your-loyalty-to-a-man-who-s-bled-for-your-side-for-13-years-article170869.html

Knight, barring no setbacks it’s looking good for Aquilani to feature at Sunderland. He started running yesterday which is slightly ahead of schedule. He won’t be rushed back of course, but all being well the last 20 minutes at Sunderland should be acheivable.

Steve, that’s right. 20 minutes for Aqualani at Sunderland and perhaps 20 minutes again against Manure.

I was sickened this entire week after the manc derby & thought I’d never recover but kopblog mates here slowly brought me back from the dead ! Let’s hope 4 a win with clean sheet in today’s potential banana skin game. Started today’s morning by reading the blog. Our un-sensational start to the season has got me thinking – Out of the available 30 points, what sum should be minimum 4 us against manc,chav,ars,city,tot & villa this season according to u guyz ? If we want to be ‘there’ in the end, of course.

Good blog as usual Gerry-about conceding goals,you forgot to mention “refereees mistakes”.Regarding the latter,I don’t know whether I’m biased but they always seem to favour “ManUre” and go against us.Even the extra-extra time in the Manchester derby,otherwise 2 points will have been dropped.I know it’s early days but it’s another obstacle to overcome to get the Premiership Title.

Given the problems that Drogba has caused us before there must be a strong case for putting Hercules on him next weekend with Carra just behind him.

So much of Chelsea’s play goes through him especially in the air, that if Hercules could batter him/win his fair share of headers, it will seriously limit the chavs attacking threat.

The other thing that has struck me recently is how our attacking options and goal threat is improving.

Compare us to a year ago and I think our options have improved and are about to get better.
Previously alot of it came from Nando and SG. Benny has moved his game onto another level and Johnson with his assists and goals is almost like another striker. I think Kuyt has improved by leaps and bounds in the last 12 months. Aquaman is about to make an impact and dare I say it even Babel has shown an improvement in recent games.

If all the above happen or most of it, we have as much goal scoring threat as anybody in the PL.

Now let’s work on tightening up the defence a bit so that these goals don’t go to waste.

Hull should be a walkover, if you can’t keep a clean sheet, forget about winning the title.Time to bring on Babel and finish them off.The defending has regressed back to the closing days of the Houllier and Evans eras.

After 55 mins the Mancs and the Chavs are drawing 0-0 and 1-1.Fantastic hat-trick from FT.Time for Riera to score.

I don’t understand why Rafa is bringing on the washups like Voronin, or proven performers like Masch when the game has virtually been sewn up

If he really wants to develop the youngsters like Pacheco, Plessis or Spearing he’s got to give him that 20 minutes or so

Seriously does anybody have a plausible explanation for why he’s not doing that? I hate to say this but Wenger and Fungusface do it all the time so why doesn’t Rafa?

So after winning 6-1 should we forget about the title BM?

MTMMC, BM’s actually right, we ought to be worried about struggling to get 4th spot, or even contemplate a fight to avoid relegation. :p

After Torres and Gerrard were subbed out, I was relieved that the Torres/Gerrard-less team scored 2 more goals, or people might be having a go about how Liverpool is a “two-man team” again.

Admittedly, the 6th goal was a bit fortunate, Riera’s lop bounced off Babel, who had completely no idea about it.

Will read the blog and comments later.
Just a quick message to Knight…
[email protected]

If you have any trouble getting in touch, put your email up and I will contact you.

Got to dash.

And Cech is out of next match with liverpool … One more plus point to look at after today’s games …

Sometimes I amaze myself for doing silly stuff. I actually got into a heated argument with some jackass who continue to carp on and on about the defects of zonal marking, especially concerning those of set pieces.

Ignoring the records of previous seasons, he declared, based on the 10 goals we conceded this season, that zonal marking is no longer viable.

Despite my trying to reason and defend the system, I even used the Tony Barrett article Fatty provided, he goes on to accuse me of being a hypocrite and dodging the issue of set piece defending. Funny, I thought we were discussing zonal marking overall.

I thought, if he wants to continue to think that way, well, fuck him, and I left the conversation with a parting shot and complained about his abusive attitude to the mods.

As I’m still fuming about it, I’m just gonna vent it out here for now, seeing as most people here are sensible enough to know zonal isn’t responsible for all our defensive woes.

BTW, way to go Wigan. It’s a pity we won’t be the first to end their unbeaten record, but we’ll ensure Wigan won’t be the last next week.

Many guys are being unfairly harsh on Voronin. C’mon the guy today had some very nice touches and great passes. He has a great footballing brain and a nice soft touch on the ball. We need to give him a chance I think.
Brilliant game today… coulda had 10!! Strange how we are supposed to be the team struggling yet we are the top scorers in the league. One more loss for either manu or chelsea and we are above them. Strange game this….

Well read the blog, nice one Gerry. As usual loads of sense and humour, but fuck me what are these footy players like nowadays. Just in case working 40 minutes a day, playing the game you love twice a week, getting all the birds and the millions isn’t enough – now they’re making bloody comics about them. Like you said, shame most of them are such absolute knobheads…

You know the most sense I’ve heard on zonal marking all week… Darren Gough. Yep that Darren Gough. The crickter!

He has a show on Talk Shite with that knob that called Carra a bottler when he threw the towel in on England. The knob wasar it again… “Is Carra finished? Can Liverpool win the title while they use zonal marking?”

The phones didn’t stop with people wanting to slag both – sadly LFC fans and Scousers amongst them. The knob lapped it up. But I must say, I was absolutely shocked by Darren Gough. He understood zonal marking more than ex-player or pundit I’d heard, and he tore into the fellas that where slagging it, Carra and Rafa off.

I was genuinely shocked and very pleased to hear him. The man went up a million fold in my estimation, even though I’ll never be able to take that thick Yorkshire accent. But I must say he was bang on. So hats off to Goughie.

Zonal marking isn’t the problem. For some reason, I can’t work out we just aren’t doing the job correctly… We are missing too many first balls into the area, and then not getting to the second one from flick ons.

Even though we won comfortably today, Hull scored from one such incident and had quite a few opportunities from the same scenario. Pepe also had to come charging out and intervene a couple of times when it was a defender’s ball. A better team would have punished them mistakes today, and we must get this ironed out fast… Our defence must attack the ball into the box, and if they miss it they must be first to the second ball.

If you made that youtube video last season, that’s exactly what they would be doing. And I just can’t work out why they aren’t now.

But having said that, I’m sure we’ll soon sort it out, and you have to take into consideration that we are pretty much playing with 2 new fullbacks and the centre half position hasn’t been exactly settled.

I knew one of the others would slip up today. Sadly I got the wrong one and had the mancs down to get beat when it turned out to be the chavs. Not too bothered about that though. In fact, I reckon, it could be a little bonus as I’m sure the mancs will slip up a lot more than the chavs this time round.

But you’re bang on Gerry – Stoke started with their forward line on the bench today and tried to park the bus and defend from the kick off.

I just can’t work it out. Why the fuck do these teams and managers do it?

Oh well, I always knew when we won it back we would have to tear it from the hands of not only the mancs and the tramp, but also the media, the FA and the refs association. Know we’ll just have to add the league managers association to the list.

Oh and here you go. Here’s a text doing the rounds. I’m sure you’ll like it…

Man Utd dressing room just before the players are due to go out for last weeks Derby.

“Right lads listen up. I want 110% effort from the first fucking whistle against this blue shite.
Remember the bastards did us on the Anniversary of Munich and have been spouting off about it ever since.
If you don’t win …those cockney twats down at Chelsea will be 6 points clear.
Now I don’t give a toss if you kick, punch or headbut your way to victory…..3 points for Man Utd is all I’m interested in.
We MUST win this game at all costs……..Good luck lads”

All of a sudden the door opens and Ferguson pops his head in and says….” Thanks ref……….I’ll take it from there”

got that one FS another we beaut doing the rounds was:

NEWSFLASH- Giggs has just scored to make it 5-3.

Anyway well done today lads,that result was just what i was hoping for. I think everyone in here was expecting us to hammer them but i no(like me) to many were afraid to call it. Anyway chelsea lose an all of a sudden our tragic start to the season doesn’t look so tragic anymore. thank you men and well done again.

p.s imagine any other top four manager is being interviewed after winning 6-1 think of the plaudits and congratulations not our rafa what does he get

…….. “so rafa i suppose the best thing about today was chelsea losing”

FS, thanks. Please check your e-mail.

Fantastic win, 6-1. Could have been much more. Hull totally collapsed after Torres’ hattrick. And what beauties he conjured up!

An Irish policeman in Liverpool found a dead horse in Cazneau Street.

Not being too sure how to spell Cazneau Street he dragged the beast into Lime Street.

Knight I have no emails from you. Put your’s up in here and I will contact you.

Roarin… I’ve never seen LFC get the respect they deserve from the media. I’m even used to Rafa getting none now.

What I can’t understand is why do the media kiss the arse of the likes of Appy Arry and Fat Sam? I can sort of see why they suck up to The Tramp. But Droopy and Fat fuckin Sam? That’s completely beyond me.

Have you seen what’s been going on with Diouf this week? Even the Blackburn fans are ashamed and asking for him to be sacked. What happens? Fat Fuck plays him regardless and not a word is said. Not a bloody word. Disgraceful.

Last night I watched match of the day. After the LFC game, Gary Linacre says they don’t take the ball home after scoring a hat-trick in Spain. Then says Torres shouldn’t as it won’t be safe in his house.

Just a little joke… yeah, one implying all Scousers are thieves – but not making any remark about Diouf saying we are all racists.

It’s never been any different, so I’m not that bothered. But it would have been nice if they’d mentioned Chelsea’s man to man marking getting ragged to bits by Wigan from every set piece – especially considering they have 2 ex Liverpool centre halves as pundits.

Oh well, business as usual.

MTMC: you should text that one to Talk Sport. The inquiry into who shot the horse would be funny.

PS… just watched our goals again. As if there’s any need to say this, but… What a player Torres is. The lad has it all. But wanted to ask this, who thinks Gerrard meant it?

I do.

The first comment the ‘pundit’ on Supersport made after hearing we had won was “well, it was probably more of a case of Hull being terrible, than Liverpool being great?” I shit you not. Do you have to win 8-0 to get any respect?

6-1 great result. Don’t want to get too carried away, but if we beat the Chavs next Sunday we will move above them having played the same number of games.

There may then well be the opportunity to move into top position before the end of October by beating the Mancs on the 25th. Happy days? Let’s hope so.

FS, I just re-sent the e-mail to you. Not sure if you can receive that.
My e-mail is [email protected]

FS, I think this time Gerrard just fluked it, as did Babel. But I am not complaining.

yes, Torres’ hattrick makes it looks so easy. That guy is class. Beautiful goals, all of them. Two taken with his left foot and one with his right. Not too many players shoot with both feet. He is certainly one of them.

One of your best blogs Gerry, (yes all are top notch) the humor and spot on analysis was up there with your very best, great read and made me chuckle and agree all at the same time.

To yesterday’s great victory, I am glad that you felt the same FS, while yes it was a good win I felt it was a scrappy and far from polished performance. It just goes to show how far we have progressed under Rafa that when playing far below our best we can still trounce a side 6-1. I felt we lacked control for long periods of the game and our midfield passing and ball retention was not what I have become accustomed to, with Gerrard, despite a great goal, being the main culprit with a slew of miss placed passes and wasted position and opportunities. Saying that it is a testament to the team that we can still stick 6 passed Hull, yes they are poor, with so much more to come from us.

For the life of me I cannot understand why we are so shaky and unsure in the middle of the defense and can only assume that with two new wide backs, as FS mentioned, it has affected us more than we realize. I hope we get back to the solid defensive unit that we are accustomed to before we are made to pay for these sloppy goals we are letting in.

On the bright side our attacking play and options are a joy to behold. The movement, interchanging and the number of different threats we can throw at the opposition is streets ahead of where we were this time last year and almost to the same level as when we finished off the campaign last year with much, much more to come. We are starting to get into our stride, Aquaman is still to be introduced, Torres is staring to purr like a V8 engine and with Gerrard still not at his best, the signs are all there for this team to become really special and I am staring to get excited at the possibilities for this season.

I think the criticism of Vorinon is unwarranted and he does add some clever touches and great vision coming off the bench. He will open up defensives as an added option for us. Yes his finishing leaves a lot to be desired but his contribution is more than that. I think Babel could be a major bonus for us this year and he seems to have settled down and his contribution from the bench will also have a major influence on this season. All of a sudden our bench is not looking quite so light weight as I first feared.

Interesting article about a possible Saudi investor and reading between the lines it seems Gillette is more in the driving seat at the moment, financially wise, than Hicks. I will wait to see how it pans out before getting too excited. It would be a bonus if the new investor can get more than 26% (above 25% is the magic boardroom benchmark to make major decisions, as 75% give the owner’s total control) this would lead to better corporate governance and be more difficult for anyone to take advantage of the situation. I for one would welcome it as a step in the right direction instead of being at the total mercy of these two mercenaries and off the two I have a feeling that Gillette is the better of the two evils and that THicks is only there to see how much he can grab. I might be wrong.

Yes Saffa, I did notice the comments when they finally took their heads out of ManU collective butts, in order to make a comment about Liverpool. The commentary team of Supersport should just declare themselves as the unofficial ManU supporters club; they couldn’t be any less obvious. I am looking forward to the day, it will happen, when it blows up in their faces when ManU is found out not to be as good as everybody is crowing about. Just wait.

Knight check your emails mate. I just sent you one.

Bang on there Keith. Imagine when it all does click. Gerrard wasn’t his usual self but we all know what we have to look forward to. And I loved Rafa’s after game comments… Torres must improve.

He’s a hard bastard that man but I love him. I can’t wait for The Tramp to open his gob about us and watch Rafa go for him. And it won’t be long.

He’ll start when we are about to play them. And you’re dead right… they just aren’t as good as they are made out to be. So, he will try to paper over the cracks with his usual nonsense.

On top of that, Chelsea aren’t all they’re cracked up to be either. The media has convienently glossed over all their shortcomings, but anyone can see they haven’t been quite the machine the press like to make out. They’ve tweaked their way through at least 3 games this season, winning by a late late Fergie time type goal.

And I don’t want to seem as ridiculous as one of these hacks over here, but I’m becoming more and more convinced that Man City will be the danger this season.

Oh well, we’ll see.

As for the takeover, I’ve kept shtum as I’ve been trying to say nothing about the doom and gloom. That’s why I never even posted this…

http://www.spiritofshankly.com/news/George-Gillett-_-You-sss-re-Not-Welcome-Here!.html

I’ve got to move now, only really came in to check if Knight had got my message. So, I won’t go on about the situation right now, but the Saudi press is saying a 350 million quid has been made for a half share of the club and a decision will be taken this week.

PS… If you lad’s can get Talk Sport on the PC you should listen to Mickey Quinn who’s on now. I’ve said this before but I love Mickey. He’s dead funny today – winding all hands up really bad, insisting LFC will win the league, that the mancs are crap, and even singing Nando’s name.

Nevermind the blindman, a deaf one on a fast horse would know it’s a wind up, but they are biting like a pack of rabid dogs.

Nice one Mickey.

PS… when Aqualani is fit, I can see Masch struggling to get into the team if he doesn’t buck up. But we need him playing well, as he could well be the majority of next season’s transfer budget.

Hicks once courted an Indian Premier League Club owner and now we have Gillett and the Saudi Prince. Is it me or it is obvious that those two clowns are at loggerheads? Hope it does not become a case of too many cooks…

This is pathetic:

http://www.people.co.uk/sport/football/tm_headline=jermaine-pennant-rafa-benitez-treats-you-like-a-robot%26method=full%26objectid=21703498%26siteid=93463-name_page.html

FS, got your message and replied already. Got the e-mail address wrong: I wrote LEEWATCHES instead of LEESWATCHES.

FS I would be more than happy with them selling a 50% stake for 350 mill it would leave them with 25% each or one of them bailing. It also makes commercial sense. The debt on the club would be zero and give them 45 odd mill in their pockets while retaining a decent share. Raising the funds for the stadium would be, excuse the pun, a walk in the park (hopefully Stanley) and they would then own 25% of a billion pound company instead of 50% of a 500 mill one, with no personal risk as the stadium cost will be secured against the actual building. The interest rates will be very favourable (under 6%) and the business and feasibility plan will be more than covered by the increase in match day revenue that will still leave the team, after repayment, with a decent amount of cash to invest in the team. A win, win situation for all parties concerned, I wonder how THicks & Gutless can fuck this one up. I would love to see the odds on them disagreeing and it becoming a media circus and plunged us into the middle of another public feud that once again distracts us and takes the gloss away from our on the field performances.

I forgot to add previously that how can you fault Rafa for fielding the reserves in the Carling Cup when surly his objective has to be to give his reserves and fringe players to the first team a run out in case they are needed to step up. We forget that we are a young team and the likes of Ngog, Insua, Lucas, Babel, Ayala, Kelly, Darby, Spearing and even Masch to a certain extent are very much in the same mould and age of anything Wenger throws on, not that we have to be measured by that standard as it has failed so far to produce anything over the last 5 years for Arsenal and I back Rafa’s judgement as well as record against anything Wenger can put on the table. Rafa is not sacred to throw on youngsters when he deems it is right and necessary, least we forget Ayala at 17 being thrown on. If we did not have to throw a mars bar and Nemeth at AK Athens to get Hercules, Nemeth would be very much in the picture as well at 19, but Ngog is only 20. Pacheo has just come back from injury and at 17 needs time to build up his strength, especially in the rough and tumble of the physical English game. It might not be a coincidence that Arsenal so call puberty wonder brats suffer so many injuries.

Keith. You are absolutely tight that despite the 6-1 win, we have yet to be at our best. We are not gelling at the rear as well as we should. We are still nervy whenever the opposition attacks. And we are still not at our best during set plays.
Nevertheless, we are progressing, game by game. Especially in attack. Torres is becoming sharper tahn he ever was. Benayoun has improved by leaaps and bounds this year. And Babel has also improved in the last two games. Even Voronin is not bad and had a number of good intelligent touches and knows where to position himself.
Then we still have Aqualani. Aurelio came back in one of our recent games (Leeds?) and could then be avaialble for Florentina game. Then Agger and El Zhar both to come back soon. That should give Rafa more options.
Even SG has not been at his usual best. Hopefully he clicks from the Chelsea game onwards.

One point I have noted is that Masch has not been at his best too, yesterday being the exception. Lucas, in fact, is better than him now. So much so Lucas is the preferred player over him. Notice that Torres, Gerrard and Benayuon were rested for the Florentina game and Lucas was not taken out simply because he was playing well.
FS could be right that Aqualani may well replace Masch when the former is fit.
The line up might then be:

Reina
Johnson, Carra, Agger, Aurelio
Kuyt Aqualani, Benayoun
Gerrard
Torres

Replacements for Agger will be Skrtel and for Aurelio would be Insua

subs: Cavaleiri, Skrtel, Insua, Masch, Lucas, Babel, Ngog

Quite formidable, don’t you think?

Keith,

I do not mind the Saudi prince coming in to buy up 50% stake from G&H and hopefully a tidy portion more later. Both G&H have to ease up their shares when the Stadium is built. 60,000 seater would be the absolute minimum, with 70,000 being best.
Let’s see.
FS, There was an article about the SOS group giving Gillett the hair-dryer treatment. But I could not see the banners last night calling for the Americans to leave and not come back. Anyone here can comment on that?

Keith, it seems the deal – if there is any – is of Gillette’s doing and Hicks seems to have nothing to do with it. So, it seems to be just more pie in the sky to me.

How would it work? The Prince and Gillette 50% each. The Prince 50%. Hicks Gillette 25% each.
I know Hicks won’t go for anything that will cut him out as the majority share holder. So I can’t see how it’s going to work.

It was bad enough when we had joint manager’s, Evans and Houllier. Can’t see joint owner’s flying – especially when one is Hicks.

Plus I don’t know anything about the Saudi fella. Who knows he could be just as bad as them.

So, I’ll hold judgement and belief just yet.

I think Rafa should put the best possible 11 on the pitch for every premiere game along with the best possible bench. If one of the kids forces there way into that, great. But if they are not in the best possible squad we can assemble for all league and Chamion’s League games then they shouldn’t be in it. Carling Cup and FA Cup is the place to blood them. Saying which…. funny we’ll be facing the Arse Babies in the next round.

I had no problem with the CC team selection for the game at Leeds. We fielded 7 full internationals, many of whom were in need of a runout. I would have liked to have seen Voronin get a game because I think he’s got a big part to play for this squad this season.

I am curious to see how the CC match with the Arse pans out. It’s got to be better than the last time we drew them in this comp (us 3 – them 6, Baptista with 4 goals and a missed PK).

I can see Rafa picking a very strong side because it looks like we’re going to give it a try to win this comp. Yet again the draw hasn’t been kind to us. 3 years ago we got the Chavs away at this stage, last year Spurs away, and now another trip to North London.

Will Wenger play the kids or do you see him mixing in some 1st teamers? We haven’t won a trophy since the 2006 FA Cup and I believe Arsenal haven’t won one since the 2005 FA Cup, so I’m thinking both managers are feeling a little pressure to add somethin to the trophy case.

Here’s a nice wee honest statement for ya’s lads, Brian(the beast)Jensen the burnley goalkeeper was on goals on sunday and was talking about playing the top four when asked who was the hardest to play against he said “definitely liverpool its just the way they knock the ball around we literally couldnt get out of our own half. I mean we’ve played chelsea but liverpool just move the ball around so well.” To me that just pure honest and the type of thing thats good to hear……. for a change.

Keith, your post on dumb and dumber selling 1/2 the club makes such perfect sense financially but I can see those twats effin’ things up. I can’t see Hicks giving up his controlling interest, but he may not have the financial strength to dictate right now.

This may sound naïve, but I could care less who owns us right now as long as the club is able to invest a large amount of money to buy and keep players the manager feels are important. I don’t want profits used to service debt and nothing else.

I don’t need to see Man City type investment, but we should be able to spend on par with Spurs, Sunderland, and Villa. Give Rafa 25 million plus whatever profits he raises through transfers and that should be plenty.

I can see turning a profit if selling a player for 80 million like Manure did with Lady Boy, but that wasn’t the case with us. We sold a very good player in Xabi for a tidy sum, but our net spend in the transfer market was awful damn close to zero. That’s disheartening when all of us felt we were so close at the end of last season.

For those keeping track at home, yesterday’s win versus Hull now puts us 1 point ahead of last year’s corresponding fixtures.

Funny how not drawing games effects the table. We’ll need to win at the Bridge on Sunday just to keep pace. It can’t hurt that Cech will be suspended.

FS, guessing Lineker’s comment was more related to the number of players who are getting their houses robbed. After Everton’s Phil Jagielka was robbed last week…

That was me point MTMMC. The people of Liverpool are constantly portrayed in the press as thieves, every man jack of us. Admittedly, the house robbing doesn’t help, but it’s happened to players in Manchester and London – and check the crime rates for the 3 cities.

As I say, I’ve come to expect it and it doesn’t really get to me anymore. But look at last week Diouf accuses of us of being racists – although it was Everton fans. His manager, The Great Fat Sam, backs him, says he’s done nothing wrong and has nothing to answer too. And there it is… bingo, Scousers… all robbing racists. Even though Doiuf has been shown to be lying through his teeth.

But what do you think would have happened to Diouf if he’d said it against The Great Sir Alex, his team and the good people of Gangchester?

Then how do you think this sort of bias makes it’s way into the commentaries/punditry in Ireland and all over the world?

Seems to me all the lads in here, have to put up with the same sort of anti-LFC reporting wherever they are from. How did pundits in Asia and Africa come to these conclusions… Of course the bias of the British bloody media has affected them.

Read that piece that SonOfAKhan linked by Pennant. FFS he’s slagging Rafa in Spain! Fucking Spain where he’s understood and rightly revered.

I’ve had Talk Shite on all day. The usual shite, this time… zonal marking and Rafa’s lack of man management. Seems to me Our Jermaine read a bit too much, but shame he didn’t read the articles by Reina, Carra, Insua, Mascherano, Lucas, Gerrard, Bennayoun, Riera, Kuyt and Torres – who, to a man have applauded Rafa for making them better players.

Babel should take note.

I know anyone reading this would think, “Oh aye, And you say you take no notice of it and laugh.”

But I honestly do. I’m just making a point. Just this minute, I’ve heard Ray Houghton – yes our ex-midfielder – calling us a two man team. And saying how wrong it was for Rafa to blame the senior players – especially Gerrard and Torres – for our early defeats. Then he went on about how well they are playing now, and how we would be fucked without them.

Obviously it doesn’t occur to him that they’ve been playing well since Rafa bollacked them!

Obviously he doesn’t realise any team in the world would suffer if they was to lose probably the best striker and attacking midfielder in the world!

So, as I say, I just laugh at drivel like that.
Being accused of being a city/population of corrupt racists isn’t quite as funny. But there’s nothing I can do about that. So, I have to just live with it, although I admit it would be nice not to.

As for the footy/team the only thing that bothers me right now, is the slack defending. It needs sorting out sharpish. Watch the Hull goal again… Van Hessling of Hull gets between both Benny and Johnson, rises above both, when Johnson should have cleared, and knocks it harmlessly across goal where there is no Hull player. But both Carra and Skrtle are there. It should have been Carra’s ball, (No call?), but Skrtle jumps ahead of him and gets to it. Even then, he should have nodded it clear. But… the daft bastard, after straining to get to it ahead of Carra, can only knock it across his own area to the only place where there’s a Hull player – Geovani, on his own in acres of space. Where was Insua?

So very slack defending indeed, but fuck all to do with zonal marking. In fact, if they’d all been in the right zones, it would have been cleared.

Oh well. I’m sure it’s something Rafa is working on right now. The mad obsessive bastard.

As for the media, I’m going to do me best to keep shtum. Talking about them just makes me look like the other stereotype Scouser they like to say we all are… whingeing, victim mentality, moaners.

Can’t wait till May to see them all eat crow.

It’s funny how failed players are the only ones who have a gripe against Rafa. I cannot remember who posted it but ex players for the most part and especially the ones who end up commentating, are firstly thick, lazy to actually do some research or trying to make a name for themselves by joining in on the popular crusade of the Manc and London media. Yes there are the exceptions to the rule before somebody gives me an example.

Gerry the quip about the biggest club in Manchester was amusing

FS the racist card is always played when you want to try and divert the attention away from being a c..t. If it wasn’t so tragic the media bias in favour of the Manc and the cronies that support them would make a great comedy. The sad fact is it is difficult to ignore especially when the neutrals by into it and spout the same nonsense as if it was an extract from the bible or Koran before I am accused of being politically insensitive. (That was funny it automatically corrected the word Koran (again) to a capital letter, but not the word bible. Who can I complain to it’s defiantly discrimination of the worst kind?)

Just the way of the world Keith. I’m used to it. I know it must seem like I’m always whingeing on about but I’m honestly not. I just try to tell people in here to ignore it when it happens in their part of the world. Amazing to think I we’ve got Steve Cohen trying to convince America that we’re all murderers, and Gary Bailey and the likes spreading their bias in your neck of the woods.

But yes. You’re right. It’s worse when your so called own spread it, like McMannaman and co in Asia and Ronnie Whelan and Souness in Ireland.

Suppose it’s nice to not go un-noticed.

FS, I am from pakistan but have been supporting liverpool for as long as i can remember …. My cousins and friends from England always mocked me with the same SCOUSERs Theives Thugs bullshit … I had never been to liverpool ever untill the stoke game at anfield last year .. And i had the most amazing experience with the locals and absolutley loved them … Infact, me and my mate who was driving, didnt know the exact way around to the stadium so as we were waiting for a green light at the signal all dressed in our red liverpool shirts, we asked an elder man in his car next to us abt the directions … That nice fella’ took us to his home, offered us tea and then gave his own garage space to park our car … i will never forget that hospitality and the nice gesture by him … and that was also amazing given that we both werent locals (being pakistanis) and all that sort of suspicious things being related to our types in the media, that guy not only took us home but also gave up his garage space to park our car … I wud say from wat i saw and experienced, liverpool locals are damn decent lads …

Knight

Your post at #45 was good about our future line looking promising but if the others are still playing 11 we may as well try to match them

Something that struck me earlier and Molby made the same point on LFC TV if you compare the Stoke and Hull results last year to this year. Two draws last year and this year 4-0 and 6-1. That is some improvement in results and goals scored.

Thank you Dizzy. That’s nice to hear, and I’m glad you enjoyed your visit and had such a good experience. But the truth is, like anywhere else, there is good and bad in Liverpool. But it’s perfectly acceptable, in fact, it’s almost traditional, for the rest of England to slate Liverpool and it’s people.

It’s sad that it’s even reaching other parts of the world, but what can you do?

Well, as I said earlier, I just laugh at it and for the most part ignore it. And I’d like to say, I’ll never mention it again but I would probably be lying as sometimes it becomes impossible to ignore.

Hope Babel’s goal and a half has set him off on the right track. I remember being very impressed with him at times in the first season and thinking he could only get better. He hit a slump in the second season but still, I’ll always revere him for netting the winner against manure at home.

We need everyman at his best and if Babel can realize his potential he’ll be quite the asset.

Gang,

Great blog Gerry and great posts above. It’s such a pleasure to read comments made by people who not only support Liverpool but also watch and carefully analyse what they see. This to compare with lazy pathetic pundits like (unfortunately) Jamie Redknap, Ray Houghton, Graham Souness, Mark Lawrenson as well as the bitter and useless (see under Ronnie Whelan). In my opinion Alan Hanson is the best of the crop of our ex-players who now pontificate, also David Fairclough and (just because he so obviously wears his heart on his sleeve, otherwise he’s pretty useless too) Phil Thompson. My opinion only ok.
Houghton in particular irritates me because he is truely awful as a pundit, Ray-bloody-say-something-obvious again.
It goes to show us all up in these islands tho’. We don’t generally have much of a clue how to analyse a game. It’s a lack of footballing culture I think. I lived in Brasil for a few years and I loved to watch the football shows in the evenings. they’d go on for hours chatting etc .. Obviously there were poor arse-lickers there as well but boy there are some shit hot pundits and commentators. Tostao from the Brasil 70 side, Falcao another one. The other thing I noticed there was that you didn’t have to be an ex-player to be an analyst. The best ones weren’t. They had an intuitive understanding of the potential and breath of what was possible, of tactics and individual temperaments etc .. A real footballing culture, bloody poetry! I’ve heard it’s even better in Argentina, don’t know tho’. Anyway different times, this is Sky Sports etc …

What i really came on to comment about was something Maximus touched on earlier. It would seem to me that even playing, as we have been, below our potential, which is great, we have the ability to deal with the lower end dross and bus parkers of the EPL world. Unlike last year, where we all know we lost the League with silly draws at home, we are now putting these teams to the sword. I know better than to tempt fate so I’m sure we will have the very odd cock-up. These apart we are now left (imho) with measuring ourselves against the best. So who are they ?

For me it’s the usual 3, Chavs, Manure, Arsenal, as well as Man City, Villa, Spurs and Everton. I believe, all things being equal they are the only teams really capable of taking points off of us, and probably the only teams we’ll drop points too (odd calamity/no-show apart).

We have already lost to both Spurs and Villa but both of those games were really early and a bit of a lottery (Villa, where we should have won). So how do people think we will do ?

I think really need to win (certainly not lose) at Chavski. It’s really the first biggie of the season and a real marker for us. For me I think we can win and we will win if we keep a clean sheet. That’s the clincher, can we keep Drogba at bay ? Big moment coming up. If we do them it’s a real big statement and “a mimi-crisis” for them.

I see no reason why we shouldn’t generally take 4/6 points against these teams overall. Obviously excepting Villa and Spurs where we are -3 already.

Any thoughts ? Night shift, to work!

Morning Chaps. I’ve got to agree with FS with regards to the bias against the Liverpool People and the city. Take the story about Jagielka getting robbed, he lives in Knutsford which miles away from Liverpool but no it’s those thieving Scousers at it again. I get it at work, Oh careful check your wallet, ha bloody ha! It’s water off a duck’s back but when I don’t chortle or have a fit of laughter I’m greeted with don’t be so touchy it’s only a joke, err well I didn’t find it funny the first time why would I find it funny after millionth time? it’s like saying to a window cleaner “you missed a bit” he doesn’t get offended but it’s just boring.

On to our performance, Well Torres is just outstanding, the lad is absolute class, I can’t say enough about him but his mentality is superb.

FS: Do you get the Kop fanzine? Lads try and get if you can it’s excellent for an insight on the reds. There was an article about Torres, that even his goal celebrations are based on the club and the history of the club. Take his Blackburn beauty last season, he pointed to the heavens, His goal against the Chavs he sat crossed legged like Rafa did.

Leave Jamie Carragher alone! He is absolutley desperate to win the league for us. If Babel had half his desire he would probably be the best player in the world. I would have Carra in the centre of defence for us over any other CB when are backs are to the wall, that’s a fella you want in the trenches with you. He’s not finished, he’s been a bit shaky but he’ll make sure he’s back to his no-nonsense best.

Well apparently lads, it’s all down to Bill Shankly….
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/article6851617.ece

Yes, apparently the great man himself is to blame for our “Aggressive Self Pity.”

And on that hilarious note, I promise I’m going to try my best to not mention it again. I don’t bother mentioning the time of the day, and this shit is so reliable you could set your clock by it… The Sun goes up. The Sun goes down. Scousers are thieving, murdering, whingeing bastards. Oh an apparently all racists now to.

So, I’ll leave it at that.

But as for this weekends hackneyed LFC cliche… zonal marking, rotation, and bad man management has been pushed aside by the other old reliable chestnut… A 2 man team. Who will score the goals if Torres and Gerrard are out for any length of time?

Well, I’d say it will fall to the fellas who scored them last season – when we finished the league’s highest goal scorers and Torres and Gerrard only started 13 games together.

But why should journalists/pundits ruin a perfectly good stick to bash LFC with by actually doing a bit of research when there’s a cliche for every occasion – especially when it leaves lots more time to frequent the bars of Fleet Street?

I’d much rather talk to Dougle about Brazil. Tell you what Dougle mate, you get about don’t you lad. Good on you. Somewhere I’ve always wanted to go to Brazil and I swear will go watch a match down there one day before I go beer belly up. Always had a soft spot for Flamenco since they beat us up and we was great then. And I’m sure seeing some better punditry than we are served up is a treat, but let’s face it… it wouldn’t be hard task to out do these feckers over here.

Morning all, I have been thinking, yes rare occurrence, why we are taking teams apart they way we are while we struggled to last year. Yes we did it towards the end of last year but towards the end of a season teams need points and tend to attack and open up a bit more which made it easier for us to break them down.

With Alonso gone we have changed our attacking style of play slightly. We are more fluid and interchangeable, more one touch football, running at players taking them on. Yes Johnson, Insua and Benny have had a big say in that. With Alonso we tended to wait for his killer pass, which he is one of the worlds best at, this allowed teams to sit deeper which made it easier to cut out these passes which in tern frustrated us, hence the draws. With our style of play sans Alonso, we are running more at the defense, making them come out to close us down, creating more space for the likes of Torres in behind. With Aquaman I can see Rafa’s thinking and his conclusion of how to break deep lying teams down. Its already happening and we still have the key person Rafa identified to do this to come into the team. I think we are in for a good season

Good point well made about Carra, Kenny.

We will be relying on him big time come the trip to Chelsea on Sunday, and we all know he going to rise to the challenge.

Interesting reasoning on why we are breaking the bus parkers down this season, Keith.

But I think it’s more due to confidence after that fantastic run end of last season, with the lads believing in their own abilities.

Just looking at Kuyt and Benayoun, together with the added threat of Johnson and hopefully Aquaman will banish any lazy thoughts of us being a 2-man team. Just imagine if we’ve had fully fit Agger and Aurelio….

Well Fatty as exotic and foreign as i get at the moment is down the lane to pick blackberries.

Priceless family moments # 1,043 watching my 16 month old cramming porridge, blackberries (yum yum), toast, peanut butter and apricots into her mouth … at the sametime … such are the highs of the babysitting Dad!

keith, along with players providing more attacking options is the “mentality” that makes you look for this. The surround players are beginning to play with a controlled freedom and looking to play outside their standard slot. it’s what we have been looking for i reckon.
No-one can replace Xai, rafa isn’t trying to replace him. Lucas, Johnson, Insua, Benny, Dirk and their replacements are all as you say more “fluid and interchangeable”. Rafa saw this a long time ago. I wonder when the “pundits” are going to cop the f**k on to it ? Never I hope !

It’s interesting to reflect on Rafa’s approach. He doesn’t let players go out and “play their natural game” .. No he blends them to the vision of the team and .. perhaps now, we are seeing these players begin to express their game intelligence and natural abilities in a cohesive way. Kind of metaphysical multiplication of talent vision and discipline, the sum of which is greater than the parts !!!!

Blackberries and mushrooms eh!

Haven’t had time to go thru all the comments but just read about possible Saudi interest.

Any news or updates?

Have to proceed with caution here as next to that article was a piece about Aston Martin in trouble as Kuwaiti owners in dire straits. So not all Mid East consortiums are financially sound. (But could they be worse than G & H?)

ps: Ace blog as usual Gerry!

Funny that with Liverpool still being called a two-man team and the pundits still going on about zonal marking. There is no reason to listen to what these people are saying. I’m sure there is Liverpool bias involved, but it’s also a lot down to them being truly daft. There is no sense in it. There are so many fallacies in their arguing you don’t even know where to begin.

Following along those lines then Chelsea is undoubtedly a one-man team considering how important Drogba has been to the start of their season. The mancs, well, unless they had that lad from Croxteth they wouldn’t be where they are right now. They used to be a one-man team with Ronaldo, still are now with Rooney. At least if your argue like the pundits. And would also mean Liverpool is twice as good, because at least we have two world class players making it all happen.

If you was a bricklayer and the walls you built kept falling down, you’d never get another job.

Football reporter, footballer manager, pundit… can’t think of many who’d have made a good brickie!

FS: you’ve got to stop listening to talk sport! I used to listen but I had to call it a day, absolute crap, I’d be shouting at the radio. I@d have phoned in but you know they’d never let you tell the truth and I like the fact most Scousers treat it with the contempt they deserve.

What can I say Kenny lad… I even wear shoes and clothes 2 sizes to small for me….

Taking the fuckers off of a night is the only relief I get in life!

Well the El Hadji Duiof thing arrives in the papers as former Liverpool and Sunderland player, etc, ect, well he isn’t former anything he’s a current fucking Blackburn player. Shows how good Fat Sams team are the media would rather talk about who his players were with than where they are. Fucking wankers.

Fantastic blog Gerry, some very good points made and bits that gave me quite a chuckle.

Regarding the anti Liverpool media. I pay it no notice now. I avoid Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports because morons like Charlie Nicholas and Paul Merson talk absolute shite. I avoid the half time analysis when I’m watching Liverpool play. I actually turn the channel over, give it about 15 mins and turn it back. I listened to Talk Sport once and that was when I was in a taxi in Liverpool. Ian Wright was on there talking all kinds of garbage. I can tell what type of show it is and I’m not interested.

The only time we’ll get any respect is when we win the league. I’ll be tuning into all the analysis and talk shows then.

The 2 man team bollacks makes me laugh. Let’s see we were the league top scorers last season with 77 goals. Gerrard and Torres scored 30 of them (39%). Man Utd scored 68 goals last season. Rooney and Ronaldo scored 30 of them (44%). Chelsea scored 68 goals. Lampard and Anelka scored 31 of them (46%).
Gerrard and Torres played together only 13 times last season yet we competed for the title right up until the 36th game of a 38 game campaign.

This tells me we rely less on our best players than the chavs and mancs do. Take Rooney out of the manc team and they’d finish 5th in my opinion.

This squad depth nonsense does my head in as well. The squad is the same as last season in terms of numbers. Only difference is we’ve lost Alonso and his replacement isn’t fit. It’s funny that I don’t remember any pundit or journalist waxing lyrical about Alonso last season. When we were called a one or two man team never did I hear Alonso get a mention. I can’t remember us ever called a 3 man team. Xabi didn’t feature in anyone’s player of the year shortlist. Yet now he’s gone it’s curtains for us according to every pundit.

Zonal marking. Every time we concede a goal from a set piece they regurgitate the same kack over and over. As if teams that mark man to man never concede a goal. I remember during a CL game where we played they had Gordon Strachan in the studio. The pundits were talking their usual shit about zonal marking. Strachan said “well, I use zonal marking. It works well when done properly”. Unfortunately he was drowned out by the more vocal ‘experts’ even though he was the only current coach/manager in the room.

I can’t take such ignorance seriously. So I ignore it and just watch the games.

Good comment that LB. One thing I’ve got to say though mate… don’t expect it to change even when we win the league.

I remember winning it season after season and we still got flak and kack. Just the way it is mate.

But excellent post as it is, don’t expect anyone who doesn’t support LFC to listen to that sort of fact…
Ronaldo actually scored over 60% of the Mancs goals for the last two seasons. What do the pundits make of that… Oh well, the goals will just come from somewhere else.

Just the way it is, but like someone pointed out earlier, it’s good… Let’s hope they just keep doubting and doubting and doubting right up until Carra is lifting the trophy.

LB: Well said, I’m exactly the same as you. I haven’t read a paper except for the echo n post online, I just can’t take any more of the absolute crap that’s spouted. it’s pitiful. When it comes to defending you’ve got to make sure you are first to the ball simple as.

It looks like it’s up to us again to wake the rest of the league as regards the dirty mancs. When will they stop playing the name and play the players on the pitch. I bet El Nino, Stevie G and Benny are licking their lips at facing Cokehead and Vidic. Hopefully when we tear them a new one as happened last season some of the brown nosers will grow some balls and go at them. I can’t understand why anyone would have one iota of respect for taggart.

FS: I remember every season the mancs would be favourites to win the title, used to make me chortle. I am so desperate to win the league this year I would be overjoyed to finish off taggart, send him off into the sunset with his tail between his legs and his red nose at bursting point. Knocking us off our perch? He’s got a bit to go yet and hopefully we will win league and European cup and put him into an early grave. The man is a disgrace.

Just reading that both Masch (illness) and Benny (leg injury) are left behind for the trip to Fiorentina.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=680534&sec=uefachampionsleague&cc=5901

My two cents worth : I reckon the Saudis would be alot better than the yanks based on the fact that it would nearly be impossible to fcuk up as much as G&H. But I expect this to be played out in the media which might scare them off.

Interesting to see how the team does over the next two months as generally Oct + Nov are our bad months

And yet, this report states Benny Onion’s availability… go figure?

ttp://www.thisisanfield.com/2009/09/28/benayoun-in-squad-for-fiorentina/

was expecting some debate about the investment rumors, but nothing?

Isn’t anyone curious about how half the club is valued at 350 million, when that is what DIC were offering for the whole club, just 12 months ago.

Yanks buy LFC for 270
Refinance for 350
Post for sale at 400 (then 450)
Now apparently half the club is worth 350 ???
(which would value the whole club at 700million?)

None of the loan has been paid off, only interest (from what I’ve read) so basically, they are paying off the total loan, for only a 50% stake???

Surely that doesn’t say too much about the business accumen of the Saudis?

I’m left thinking: WHAT THE FUCK?

Puchong Red #67–After trolling around the internet for a couple of hours this morning and investigating in a couple of LFC forums, I can fill you in on the facts of the Saudi takeover:

1. Gillette is selling his 50% to Saudi Prince Faisal
2. Gillette and Hicks are each selling 25% to Saudi Prince Faisal in order to raise cash to pay down the debt on the club and start proceedings to build the new stadium
3. Gillette is selling his 50% to Saudi Prince Faisal, who is hoping to then strong arm Tom Hicks out of his shares over the next 18-24 months and take full ownership of the club
4. Gillette has already agreed a fee with Saudi Prince Faisal, but under the terms of the ownership agreement Hicks now has 90 days to match that valuation and buy out Gillette’s 50% share; although it appears there’s no way on Earth Hicks can come up with those funds
5. As always happens, no one has a clue what’s going on and this is just another attempt by the English media to get all of our hopes built up once again only to have them smashed, sending us all back into a deep depression as we realize Dumb and Dumber are here for a long, long time.

Having been down this road a time or two since 2007, I guess I’ll stick with option 5 until further notice….

On a less serious note…

What a completely shite performance this weekend… and that lad Torres, a total waste of money… seriously would he get into any other top four team.

And the rest of them are crap… no way this lot are ever gonna win the Prem, they’re just not good enough.
Any of our rivals would have put Hull to the sword with 12 goals or more and the best we could come up with was 6… utter dros, I tell you!

Just reading on the official site that Benny’s in the squad that traveled today, not as I read on ESPN earlier. Good catch there Aitch.

The Liverpool squad: Reina, Cavalieri, Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Aurelio, Insua, Lucas, Spearing, Plessis, Kuyt, Gerrard, Voronin, Torres, Babel, Riera, Benayoun.

http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N165930090928-1428.htm

lvcjmac, I think most of us are going with option 5. Hence no real debate about it, Aitch.

Quick question when aquilani is fit who will drop out when everyone is available?.I think benny has to stay in the team because he offers us guile.and i think we need a natural left sided attacker on the left to give us balance so riera Should stay in.Torres/Gerrard not up for discussion.and mascherano or lucas will do the water carrying.so that means no place for kuyt .and i think Babel should be the 1st attacking sub to replace the front 4.also l think Babel needs to be an integral part of the 1st team because if we can get him playing to his potential it will probably turn us into champions.he can be that good i know kuyt is everyones favourite huffer and puffer and he is good defensively and i really appreciate what he does for the team but it is like having a straight choice between houghton and Barnes back in the day.YNWA

muffin man, i think riera/babel will be the one to lose out. in other words, the left winger. with our current formation, the front 4 (wingers and strikers) pretty much interchange throughout the match. this suits the playing style of gerrard, torres, kuyt, benayoun, and aquilani, but not riera or babel. they are very much defined by position – although i’m not sure what babel’s is : )

that said, i think it will depend on the opposition which way rafa goes with organizing the midfield and attack. in terms of all out attack, i would pick gerrard and lucas in the middle of the park (based on current form lucas over masch) with benayoun on the left, kuyt on the right, torres up top, and aquilani in behind (when fit obviously). that would be a ridiculously dangerous and consistently shifting attacking machine, as all of the players can switch positions comfortably and break down a stubborn defense.

enough from me.
YNWA

Babels best position is right wing in my opinion with his remit to supply Torres he is right footed and l think if you give him simple instructions to get crosses in from the right and to ad lib when the situation presents itself he Would be very effective

Rafaman – problem with post 85 is that the days of playing to one very defined and spacially limited role are fast coming to an end if they haven’t already gone past the sell-by date. I think having a very speedy, powerful, confident and clued in babel would be great but Kuyt does more in an all-round sense then babel, up ’till now, has shown himself capable of doing. I do think he’s best on the right and I also think he’s got more pace than Dirk … but that’s about it really, right now.

Alec – you said it in 84.

Rafamuffin, my take on the line ups are as follows:

Attack-minded team:
Riena
Johnson, Carra, Agger, Aurelio
Kuyt, Aqualani, Masch, Benayuon,
Gerrard
Torres

Defence-minded team:

Reina
Johnson, Carra, Skrtel, Aurelio
Kuyt, Gerrard, Masch, Reira
Benayoun
Torres

Babel is more used as Sub to replace Kuyt. Or to be fieded when Kuyt needs a rest (which is seldom).

FS, don’t listen to the radio if they talk shite. Graeme Souness, ex Liverpool player and captain, and now derided for taking Liverpool down in the 1990s, is also atrocious as a commentator. And very critical of LFC. When I hear him speak, I switch to the Nature channel to calm me down, sooth my boiling nerves.

Aitch, good points. But the Echo did say the 50% will be sold for between STg200-350 million. Even so, G&H will get some profits for their relatively short stint owning LFC. They will likely make more than the extra that David Moores did when he changed from DIC to G&H.

Some interesting stats on top goalscorers. Last years’ top 10 PL Scorers vs last year, vs (this year, after 7 games):

1 Nicolas Anelka Chelsea 19(2009-2010= 2)
2 Cristiano Ronaldo Man Utd 18 (NA)
3 Steven Gerrard Liverpool 16 (3)
4 De Souza Robinho Manchester City 14 (not in top 20 this year)
5 Fernando Torres Liverpool 14 (8)
6 Gabriel Agbonlahor, Aston Villa 12 (4)
7 Darren Bent Tottenham 12 (6)
8 Kevin Davies Bolton 12 (not in top 20)
9 Dirk Kuyt Liverpool 12 (3)
10 Frank Lampard Chelsea 12 (not in top 20)
11 Wayne Rooney Man Utd 12

Sorry, missed Monkey man out:
11. Wayne Rooney Man Utd 12 (6)

Those in the top 10 goalscorers this year not listed above are:

Darren Bent , Sunderland. 6
Drogba, Chelsea , 6 (surprisingly did not make top 20 last year)
Defoe, Spurs: 5
Robbie Keane, Spurs: 5
Louis Saha, Everton: 5
Agbonlahor, Villa: 4
Kenwyne jones, Sunderland : 4

So sorry, Darren Bent was listed twice.

But both he and Kenwyne Jones are sparkling in attack for Sunderland. In such situations, Masch’s presence as DM is an absolute must. Looking forward to seeing that game on 17th Oct.

Knight,

I think masch will be tired after having played very important games for Argentina, and travelling half the globe back. I think Rafa might play Gerrard & Lucas in midfield for the Sunderland game

Looking forward to the game against Florentina tonight. Watching the telly at 2.40am. Yawn! best wishes to Dirk Kuyt to overtake Ian Rush:

http://www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/130702/Kuyt-s-rush-to-match-a-legend-/

Axchoice, You are right. I forgot he will be in Argentina playing before the Sunderland game. In that case agree with you that Lucas will pair up with SG in midfield.

For a moment I thought I am here all alone. Rather scary. Never posted so many notes without someone else popping up with a comment.

Interesting comments from the boss:

Liverpool boss Benitez blasts back at Pennant over Kuyt rap
29.09.09 | tribalfootball.com
READ MORE NEWS ON: Liverpool, EPL, Rafa Benitez
Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has hit back at Real Zaragoza winger Jermaine Pennant after criticism of his players in Sunday’s press.

Pennant labelled Dirk Kuyt a failed forward who is accommodated on the wing because he cost so much.

But the Reds boss replied: “I saw what he had to say, but I don’t intend saying too much about him. (Dirk) Kuyt’s record is there for everyone to see and he doesn’t need me to defend him. You only need to look at the impact he has made to see he is picked on merit and has become an extremely important member of our squad.

“He speaks out on the pitch and doesn’t have to say a single word to justify his place. He is a striker who is as effective on the wing or as second striker, and, as you can see from his record, he scores goals as well as working hard.

“He is the sort of player who would be good for any manager. We signed him then extended his contract because we knew he was an excellent player and outstanding professional. I could put him in central defence and he would be as good as anyone.”

I’ll just say, Jermaine, just efff off, you good for nothing, mediocre player who wasted time so that LFC got no money for his transfer. What a selfish no-gooder.

I’m really liking Kuyt’s contribution. He’s looking better and better. Like you Knight, I hope he breaks Rush’s record (imagine.. Rush!).

Just hope people here can begin to see he is a very good player, and IMO better than Loony (both get very involved in attacking and defending, but Kuyt doesn’t get red cards for nothing!)

I think the boss is right:

Goals mean more than clean sheets – Benitez
28 Sep 2009 – 18:41:00

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez has shrugged off criticism of his side’s defensive lapses ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League clash with Fiorentina and pointed to the positives of a 24-goal haul so far this term.

Benitez, frequently blasted for being overly cautious, finds himself defending a club who have started a season with their best
goals record for more than 100 years.

“We are scoring more goals and are not really worried that we have conceded a few more,” said the Spaniard. “Our aim is to score goals and win matches, keeping clean sheets is a bonus.

“This has been a very good goal-scoring start to the season, I’m told the best for over 100 years at this club. But even if you score goals and also concede, then someone will see the negative of that.

“We can improve in defence, of course, and I would like a lot of goals and none conceded, but that is hard to do if you do try to attack.

“We will try to find the balance but I find it is easier to improve defences because you can work in training on basics, repeating the same things. With strikers it depends more on the quality of the player, that is more difficult.”

How do we stop Adrian Mutu wihout Masch? Possible line-up, if Benayoun and Aurelio are both fit:

Reina
Johnson, Carra, Skrtel, Aurelio
Kuyt, SG, Lucas, Reira
Bebayoun
Torres

Babel to come in for Kuyt after 70 minutes and Voronin for Lucas.

We shall win 3-1.

Play Insua and Aurelio on the left, Jono and Babel on the right, Kuyt and Toro up front.

knight, I think Rafa’s comments in #102 hits the nail on the head on where all this is concerned.

While all these wankers carp on and on about zonal marking, and when that myth is refuted by sheer facts, quickly shifted the goal post to talk about how it’s not working for defending set pieces, yet they totally and completely ignore the bigger picture: We are scoring WAY more than we are conceding. And that is all that matters.

So what if our clean sheet record is worse than last year? If it means a slightly leakier defense in exchange for a massive increase in attacking prowess, I’m all for it.

(For the video game fans here, to use FIFA/PES video game terms, it’s DEF -1, ATK +5

Of course, I’ll still be quite worried if it’s just DEF -1, ATK +2 only.

At the moment, I rate the team at DEF -1, ATK +3)

Now bring on the artists from Florence, and we’ll show them what a true Renaissance is tonight.

Fernando Torres: Great pace, great awareness, power and accuracy from either foot, getting more headed goals now, artistry and skill on the ball, loves Liverpool Football Club. Do you think we got him on the cheap?

Torres is just too good to be true, surely! Nice bloke who loves LFC, and a rather special player to boot. I have my 2nd son on the way, and guess what his middle name will be? I just have to break the news to my wife though…

As for line-up tonight … With no Mascher and with Benny O travelling (tho’ the press here say he’s injured !)

Reina,

Glenda, Carra, Skyrtl, Aurelio,

Kuyt, Lucas, Gerrard, Riera,

Benny O off Nando

That’s my guess

Remember this team sheet?

Momo
Momo, Momo, Momo, Momo
Momo, Momo
Momo, Momo, Momo
Momo

Well, I’m away really early in the morning and I’m busy all day, so I mightn’t be in for a week. Digger if you’re about, I will be in the 11th St Bar for the Chelsea game. I’ve got Conny, the woman who runs the supporters club, to keep me a seat at the bar, slap bang in front of the telly. So, if you fance a pint, just come in and look for the big fat ugly lump sat between the two attractive, but rather loud, girls at the bar.

As for tonight, bit worried about this game but then I’m always like that. But Florentina are doing really well at the moment, so don’t expect a walk in the park. It would be nice to get one though, as it would be ideal if we could get qualified for the next round as quickly as possible and then rest some players and also give the others like Babel a run out.

I think playing European football would be a great help to Babel were it’s a bit slower but more technical. If he – and the likes of Dosenna, Kyriagos – done well in some Euro games, they might carry it over into domestic games. But as for someone get dropped to accomodate anyone, including Babel… that’s a load of tosh!

Earn your place or don’t play – it’s as easy as that. That also goes for Aqualani. But I don’t need to say it, as Rafa won’t just drop someone to accomodate another player – even if Jermaine Pennant likes to use that as an excuse for his own shortcomings.

Having said that, no one will need to be dropped as there’s lots of games to go, and they will all be needed – especially when the fixtures start coming fast and thick. In fact, come December/January and the end of the season, I bet the comments will turn to worry about the thiness of the squad and ranting against H&G because Rafa couldn’t add to it this summer.

In fact, it was only a couple of weeks ago that the main moan in here was the state of our bench – especially compared to the other big teams. So, I wouldn’t go worrying about where they are all going to fit. Count it as a blessing that we have a bit of quality to fall back on, because it won’t be long before we are worried about having not having enough players.

Jermaine will always be a peanut. End of. But good of him though, cos it only seems to heighten what a fantastic player our kuyty is.

Fantastic posts from Gerry and LB, by the way.

For me, employing a man-marking system in defense is (a) a waiver of tactical thinking by the manager (b) a show of total mistrust towards the intelligence of your own playes and (c) a sign that you have players who can only play for Wimbledon (the former dons, I should say). I just have to laugh whenever this is discussed on TV. Like I said 2 years ago, no such discussion even exists on the continent now. Hell, they don’t even discuss it over here in Japan. It ended the moment Arigo Sacchi completed it in the 80s. Any proper team will use zonal marking; full stop. It is just about getting the right players to perform it, and drilling it in until it becomes instinctive (which, Insua seems to have trouble doing right now). If you have thick players who only rely on their height and power, that’s when you have to resort back to the bygone style of man-marking. Dear oh dear, but then again, you can’t expect a lot from these ex-players can you?

Can someone please explain to me the criteria being used in all these “my line-up would be” posts, where you are dropping Insua for Aurellio.

Coz I’m seeing a young lad playing out of his skin, being dropped for an injury prone lad whose form is sketchy at best.

Don’t get me wrong. Like Fabio. The lads got talent. But given his injury record, he should not walk back into the team ahead of a player doing the biz until he’s proven his fitness.

The same goes for Aquilani, when he’s fit. He’s got to wrestle a spot in the team off someone who now occupies that position.

Seems to me we tried to save our strength for the game against Chelsea. It backfired as Fiorentina have their tails up now, and it will take a great effort to wrestle the game from their grasp.

But I’d gladly take a defeat here if we can get a win this Sunday.

Wow, what was that? I know the match against the Chavs is this Sunday, but we have 1 more day’s of rest than the Chavs, for fuck’s sake.

It is just as well it’s a loss early in the Champions League group stage, instead of in the Premier League, or I would have been ballistic. To put it simply, that performance will definitely not be accepted this Sunday.

(Though this will give Rafa a headache for Matchday 3 against Lyon, as the game with the Scum comes right after that. )

I know most of you may disagree but i think the sooner we make Babel 1st choice right winger the better.i like kuyt but i dont think if you base selection on attacking threat he Would be in the team every game.he seems to keep his place based on his defensive attributes which i admire.but we need another player who can make a difference besides the usual suspects Torres/Gerrard/benny and hopefully aquaman.i know some think kuyt compensates for johnson attacking spirit but johnson should not be allowed to be cavalier without a thought to our defensive shape.a defender who attacks well should be a bonus not a minus.we need to play our best attackers in attack and build the team around them.I think if Babel gets a run in the team and starts to accept we are relying on him his confidence will grow and he will mature quicker and it will take the pressure of Gerrard/Torres.liverpool need another match winner and ryan Babel is that man.YNWA

I’m sorry rafamuffin, I gravely disagree with that. I dunno if you were talking specifically about the fiorentina game, but kuyt is in there ahead of bable because he is also much more of a threat going forward as well.

Look at his movements and how he supports the team when he doesn’t have the ball and you will see. Babel has been to me is exactly like what keane was. Always makes the wrong decisions, too hesitant in his play, and then results in trying to get past every single player when a simple pass would have been a better choice. I know he has got talent, but on the basis that the 2 players have shown, kuyt has got to be ahead of babel even in attacking sense. Then of course, you have the important goals to speak of.

It’s what Aitch has written above; you have to earn playing time, and babel clearly hasn’t. It doesn’t matter if you only get 10 minutes to play– it is about what substance you show within that time, and if you have the guts to prove something even in the short playing time given. and do that consistently, until the manager feels he has to use you from the start. That’s what benny did. So should babel. It is simple as that.

im sorry, but to suggest that babel deserves a spot over kuyt in the side is absolute nonsense. end of.

there is a lot to say about this match, but i dont think it was that the players had one eye on chelsea. fiorentina are a very good side and were well up for it, with the crowd behind them. add to that a very unusual central midfield and a defense lacking confidence then we were in for a rough time. they deserved to win, which is disappointing. if we had gotten a better hold of the tempo of play, (which would have been hard given our central midfield’s ability to dictate play), then it would have been a totally different match. as it was, we gave the ball away too cheaply in midfield and allowed them to get in behind our defenders with numbers coming forward.

it was a big gamble to play aurelio in the middle. he did a great job there last year in one match i remember, but it was a big gamble that simply didn’t work out for us. the more conservative approach would have been to drop gerrard back and bring on riera on the left with benayoun in the hole. hindsight is always 20-20, but it seems like a conservative approach would have been better suited for today.

all is not lost, but it’s a disappointing result. all our matches are difficult away in this group stage, in my opinion, but we are going to have to really go for it home and away.

YNWA

I would be worried if we played like that against chelski, but I am sure that won’t happen. I am not too worried about our prospects in the CL– if I remember correctly, chelski and manure were in even dire straits last year, but they still managed to get through.

Its far too early to be getting concerned about this result.
Other than that it does mean we now need a result in the first game against Lyon, as Fiorentina are likely to do to Debrecen what we did to Besiktas.
But I do think the line-up and reverting to 2 holding midfielders was a mistake.

You’d be hard pressed to pick a MOM out of our lot. Poor show all over the park.

But I would take it as no more an indication of what will happen on Sunday, as last Saturday was an indication of what would happen today.

Couple of aspirin, some kip and a few training sessions and roll on the Chavs.

“liverpool need another match winner and ryan Babel is that man.”

That sound you hear is the “diddle-winkle-winkle” from cartoon shows…
…or maybe its the hysterical laughter I just burst into…
…or maybe just the kaboom of my head exploding…

…on the basis of what performance is Ryan Babel “another match winner”??

If only he was!

Well that was a really shoddy performance all round, we looked lethargic, heavy legged and to be honest apart from their two goals there was not that much threat from them. We seemed to wake up a bit in the second half and Lucas and Torres both missed chances that they should have put away.

Aurelleo and Lucas do not mix well in the midfield they are too similar and one paced. We missed Masch for his energy and closing down, they had too much space and time. Gerrard is still out of sorts and I really hope he can get back to his best form soon, the misplaced passes from him and Benny, hell the whole teams passing was shoddy and thank fuck it was this game, which we can sort of afford, that our defensive lapses and lethargy bit us in the arse.

We need a bid improvement for Sunday and hopefully this will be a big wake up call.

Poor game by LFC. All our players were not up to it. Travelling blues? Maybe. But they played far below their potential, every single one of them, Torres and SG included.

I am sure Rafa will give everyone a good rollicking and a kick up the behind, train well before the Chesea match. Chins up guys! They will be without Cech.

Hate to put it out there but played three decent teams so far and lost to the three of them

Babels performance was a complete waste of a substitution. He looked like a spent force from the minute he arrived, very sad, another wasted talent. When we most needed him he looked awful today. I feel sad for the lad, he’s just not good enough for LFC. (maybe it’s the top level not just LFC).
.
Benny was ordinary today, made a huge difference to our play. Lucas to many free kicks. Kuyt gave his all and even when totally fucked was better than Babel. Johnson has been out of form for a few weeks. Maybe he hasn’t played this many games in a row before.

I’ll change the Johnson out of form to out of sorts.

On Saturday, I said that the defence had regressed back to performances last seen during the final days of our previous 2 managers, last night’s Laurel and Hardy performance proves my point perfectly.Lucas was invisible, Skrtl and Carra play too close together.There was no linkage between defence,midfield and attack.We have lost games against all the decent sides that we faced-Atletico, Espanyol,Villa etc.Guillem Balague gave a frank account of the Reds performance on rte.ie/morningireland.

yes we played poorly. yes we lost. its not the end of the world. its one match in the group stage of the CL.

i can’t believe how much negative publicity is being put out there in the press cause of this match. its everywhere…

one game, we move on. its not the end of our season. you can’t win every game you play. was there this much coverage when the mancs lost to burnley??? and we lost to fiorentina, a very good side.

some people are suggesting that the chelsea game sunday and the lyon match are make or breaks for our season…come on!!!!! lunacy!

i’m actually more concerned about the stoke match in between those two. chelsea away is always a hard fixture, very very hard…but you know if we don’t win it they’ll be saying our season is over. i’m seriously considering not reading, watching, or listening to any more sports journalism. i already put the commentary and half time talks on mute most of the time. it’s gotten out of control

Alec@#129 – agree with you on the negative publicity
but surely you can see that when we come up against good teams we are struggling to perform

There all just one game but they all add up

I only caught the last half an hour last night and we looked alright. Apparently we were piss poor in the first half. Rafa said it was the worse first half we have played in Europe under his management. It is a bit of a worry that we’ve played 3 decent teams this season and lost all 3. If we get a tonking on Sunday I’ll be seriously vexed.

LB – We only looked good because fiorentina did what all italian teams do they sat back and defended their lead – only decent chance we had was lucas’s header- fiorentina looked the more likley to score on the counter

All in all terrible performance

Jeez the knee jerkers are beginning.

Ok An Linn, what point are you exactly making?
What is the point of just slagging off the team?

If they play another game when nothing went right for us and all went right for them,even the German referee seemed to be on their side,then I will be worried,but every team has these games.
I must admit that when Lucas or Voronin have the ball then I do worry for something almost always goes wrong,their goalscoring attempts are woeful.
Roll on Chelski and I hope the Reds do a “Wigan” on them
PS.I wonder if Hyde will add for then we will have JackHill and Hyde. Sounds almost Jack The Ripper-like.
Sorry folks,the joke is pathetic -almost like the Red’s display against Fiorentina in the first half.

An Linn#130, Liverpool were abysmal last night, but not because Fiorentina were better than them, but because for some unknown reason, the players chose to play at less than 50% of their ability. Their minds are just dizzying off somewhere.

It’s all to do with mentality.

As long as the players play with that mentality like last night, they would struggle against the Hulls and Stokes, let alone the Fiorentinas, Villas and Spurs.

@Akka#133 – Its not knee jerking when it already a month in to the season. but you asked so ill answer, this is just on last nights performance mind you.

1. No width – kuyt and benny tried to cut in too often making us play too much through the middle

2. midfield – aurelio was out of hs depth, lucas should be only played in cm with an experienced midfielder as he’s not the type of player to grab the game by the scruff of the neck,

3. defense – dont know if its that theres no cover in front or what but another shoddy performance I think all will agree

4. I think Rafa’s a great manager but why doesn’t he change the formation when its obvious its not working – after twenty minutes he should have dropped gerrard back and moved aurelio to the right with benny or kuyt playing off torres

By the by I’m not slagging off the team I was just pointing out that so far we have come up against three decent enough teams and have been caught out on each ocassion

@KR#135 Agreed on liverpool not being at the races but i noticed that in the second half fiorentina were just happy to put 10 men behind the ball and hit us on the counter

Funnily enough I think the lads might get us a result on Sunday – Rafa’s no mug and I think with masch back that might give us some much needed cover in front of the back four

An Linh@137, Fiorentina were already 2-0 up, and with them being Italian (please excuse the stereotype), they’re more than happy to soak up the pressure in the 2nd half and watch us suffer a setback which was completely of our own making.

You think they would be parking the bus all the time if the team pulled their socks up from the first whistle in the 1st half?

I really pray to Fowler down in Queensland that Aquaman is as good as Rafa rates him.

At the moment, Rafa has to make do with “stop-gap” formations, that requires Gerrard to sit back with either Masch or Lucas (cannot be both, they just don’t seem compatible together in that area, for some reason), and Gerrard couldn’t come up more often.

Yep thats what I was saying – we weren’t necessarily better in the second half it just that fiorentina didn’t harry us so much so that gave us more time with our passing,

Hopefully last nights performance was just that we didn’t really turn up, happens to every team and i’d rather have it happen now than in the later stages

Indeed you are not kneejerking An Linn. Your sin was to dare to call a spade a spade i.e ‘all in all a terrible performance’. Well put me in the fast-becoming-redundant-bracket-of-kneejerkers too because it was a fucken terrible performance from top to bottom. Rafa included. Hell Rafa even said as much himself after the game. Is he a kneejerker too Akka? Naaah, course not, sacrilegious Digger! Welcome aboard An Linn, you make perfectly legitimate relevant points especially in 136, dont mind the superfans!

Disappointing yesterday, but all is not lost in the group. You’ll get a stinker every now and then, and Lucas and Fabio was a bad gamble by Rafa.

Need to win our remaining two home games, grab a draw at Lyon, and find a way to win at Debrecan. That would give us 13 points, which will see us through.

We’ve got a tough stretch coming up in October. This stretch will have a big impact on the rest of our season. I’m not sure if Aqualani will be a help in any of them just yet.

04 Oct Chelsea……A…League
17 Oct Sunderland…A…League
20 Oct Lyon………H…CL
25 Oct ManUre…….H…League
28 Oct Arsenal……A…Carling Cup
31 Oct Fulham…….A…League
04 Nov Lyon………A…CL

The Lyon game at Anfield is a tricky one. We have to grab all three points to keep our hopes alive in the CL, and it’s sandwiched between Sunderland (which will be a tough trip away) and the Mancs.

I can see the Carling Cup being sacrificed yet again for the good of the two main competitions.

That was a shitty blow last night,however it may be just the kick up the arse we need for sunday and with masch back hopefully we’ll do ok. On last night we were terrible in the first half however im surprised no ones mentioned the ref he didnt do us any favours. For starters the second goal came from a foul we should have had 10seconds before and he was blowing up for high feet when they were 50/50 balls an legs a stomach height. Granted it wasn’t the refs fault but i would have fancied us to get a draw being just one down. Ah well chin up men we win on sunday things will be looking tasty!!!

I think last night showed the unfortunate limitations of our midfield – adequate against the likes of Hull, Burnley etc but yesterday we were completely over-run in that first half no control or leadership in the middle of the park. We badly need Mascherano to get his head out of his arse, quit his pining for Barcelona and get down to playing proper football for the next 7 months! At the end of the season we can look at the Barca situation again but he needs to grow up. Liverpool practically resurrected his career so it would be nice (though unexpected) if he showed some loyalty in return. Lucas, again doesnt do much wrong but he just doesnt do enough right either!

And we need to put an end to this “Babel ahead of Dirk on the right hand side” talk – nonsense!

Judas off injured at Old Toilet, 19 minutes in.

Apparently he didn’t train yesterday because he was not 100% and Whiskey Nose decided to play him any way.

I know it’s wrong to take great joy from the misfortunes of other, but sometimes it just feels good.

Chelsea JUST beat that cypriot side 1-0 … and the EXPERTS say Cheslea are GOOD at such scrappy wins..its business done …

WTF …

Wen Liverpool does it, its Bad times for them … but wen Others do it, they are BEST at such scrappy wins and its the business done …BULLSHIT ………

And surprise surprise …. There’s Absolutely NO mention of Owen going out injured in teh EXPERT comments …

these things just piss me off …

Poor performance last night, Aurelio was dropped in at the deep end which
with hindsight i would have give him 20 mins at LB rather than CDM and
played Riera and moved Benny in and Gerrard back. The fact he played
out of position goes to show how far Insua has come.
Kuyt or Babel i’d always play Kuyt first because he tires defenders with his
workrate and that is when Babel is at his best,when the defence is knackered
because that extra half yard of pace he has becomes a yard.
Chav tactics on Sunday Dropba back’s into Carra to win free kicks
John Teary kick f*ck off Nando and charge at Pepe elbows first and try injure
both of them .
The rest will be doing the surround/ intimidate the ref for every single decision
And when we beat them the Media will say it’s because Chech wasn’t playing
and we got lucky

YNWA

! No home league games at all in October ? Could be a tough month indeed. I only saw the second half last night and it was a bit difficult to figure how we could be 2 down. We outplayed them created a few half chances and really should have scored.
Be that as it may I got a little freaked at some of Skrtyl’s lapses and I have to say I am a bit concerned about the defense going to the Creche this weekend.
Drogba’s allround game has frankly been the difference between the 2 teams on many occasions and Anelka CAN be very good and quick to boot. I think Jamie’s gonna have to be exceptional and everyone’s gonna have to be really focused around him.
Just watched highlights of Chelsea vs Apoel ? now and was interested to see them attacking corners. 5 big guys and no drogba, all attacking the ball.

It’s gonna take a big controlled focused effort and Stevie needs to show up big time as he frequently does in the big games, he’s been patchy all season, let’s hope it’s his day.

My feeling is that were gonna need to score one way or another, I can’t see a clean sheet at this stage. But hey Digger we have been scoring !!! We have not once yet really played well now is the time to do it. We play well I can see us with 3 points, we don’t and we get beat this time.

I see I missed the relatively minor October home league game against that little team from Manchester.

No Digger its caled Knee Jerk when you just read “We were shit, rafa was shit, kuyt was shit, babel would have won it, benny was cack” and thats it.

Fair play to An Linn in #136 for expanding on his view. However you mentioned putting Aurellio on the right, are you sure? considering he hasnt played there, considering he has a left peg.

I have a friend, who is apparently a red. After our first game and loss to tottenham he gave me the old:
“we are shit, rafa isnt good enough, we cant win the EPL with Rafa, the player are crap, how does kuyt get a run in the team etc”

After every subsequent game we have lost I got:
“I told you so, remember, I said we would lose, and we are, we are shit, blah blah blah”

Reminds me of a few people in this blog *cough* digger *cough*

Think you must have been reading a different forum Akka. Cant for the life of me find these posts that state ‘we were shit, Rafa was shit, Kuyt was shit…’ etc. I read a lot of posts that agreed with what Rafa said though, funny that eh? As for post 153, I dunno what to say to you mate, what age are you mate 12?! Is that supposed to be a dig at me?! Ah fuck it, whatever blows your hair back mate, ‘The National Parks’ is on PBS, cant be bothered. Good night and good luck….

gerry, time for a new blog plse. cos each time i come in to kopblog i see the opening para “Well it’s certainly been a good week” … i go WTF????

Mr Jack Hill, Howdy mate. Great post there on Jackhill and Hyde. Cheers!

Digger, Every team, no matter how good will be beaten by clubs normally lower then them. But it is how the teams pick themselves up that counts. I think we should look at the negatives and start to correct things. Aurelio looked out of place in CM as replacement of the absent Masch. Maybe he is not fit to play there.

Having said that i think the first half in Florence we were miserable. At least we woke up in the second half, but it was too late.

Lets put things into perspective, yes our performance against Spurs was very average, yet we could have salvaged a draw, Villa we just did not take our chances, but where far from outplayed. Against the Ities we really did not show up in the first half, where much better in the second and could have salvaged a draw. The misses by Torres (in his vain of form that was a sitter from Babels cross) and Lucas should have buries the header. Their goals where soft. Insua should have stepped up and played them off sides and the second was sloppy but give credit where credit is due.

Yes I did not like Aurelleo in the midfield with Lucas, it lacked bite but it did not stop us from dominating in the second half. We missed Gerrards urgency and Benny, Kuyt, Johnson where very wasteful and gave away possession very easily. With Gerrad lackluster, Torres was isolated and did not get into the game.

The so called adequate midfield against inferior sides with us winning 4-0 and 6-1 is a tad unfair seeing that one of those sides beat the Mancs. It is very easy to say after a bad day at the office that this and that does not work and this and that was wrong. Let’s rather say that these things happen and move on I expect a big improvement against Chelsea and think Masch in the midfield against stronger teams is a must, however he was sick. His energy and disruptive influence plays a big role in breaking up any momentum. Aquaman will soon be fit so we will have more options in the midfield soon. Keep the Faith

Hello guys,

I am posting after a long time now and am not “kneejerking”.

Obviously everything is not going well in the team. I wouldn’t blame any one player but the whole squad. This squad has proven that it can beat the top sides of Europe and win trophies and cups with class.

All I am saying is that their is no consistency in the performances of the team. One week the same people beat the hell out of a very good club and the next they lose or draw to a weaker one(not referring to last week’s performance but as an example). One week, one player is performing like the best player in the world and the next he’s invisible on the pitch. Consistency is the key to success.

Fortunately, nothing is lost as of yet, but we need to learn from our mistakes. I am happy that we lost in a Champions League fixture and not a Premier League match. I don’t give a heck to the CL unless we are there in the race for PL.

I want the team to win the upcoming fixture against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. I know it will be very difficult for the team after losing to Fiorentina in the mid-week, and that too going away to London against a top side in Europe. But what are top teams for? To prove that they can do the impossible! And I surely believe in the team and it’s players and obviously Rafa.

Cheers!

@akka – Yep meant left – looks like the missus was right(or was she left) I dont know my left from right, she also says I get confused by bright lights but that another story altogether

Agree with the posters on the babel/kuyt debate though kuyt over babel every time,

@dougle#151 thats ok apparantly they’re not even from Manchester

Looks like the Saudis are having 2nd thoughts. Well who wouldn’t with these Americans’ track record…

ttp://www.sportspromedia.com/notes_and_insights/_a/liverpool_saudi_prince_put_off_by_club_debt_and_issues_between_owners/?utm_source=Syndication+Websites&utm_campaign=Syndication+Websites&utm_medium=syndication_websites

ttp://www.thisisanfield.com/2009/10/01/saudi-group-put-off-by-liverpools-debts/

Surely without looking at the due diligence, Liverpool’s debts have been pretty public so I have no idea why it has taken this long for them to come out with this.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that they are trying to do a bit of hard bargaining and will end up investing money in the club, not just pay off the debts of the American duo.

Hopefully we will improve significantly against Chelsea after the disappointing loss midweek.

Yeah, the Leauge cup game at Arsenal could well see Rafa fielding a similar team to the one that started in the previous round at Leeds, as it is just 3 days after the titanic meeting with the Mancs and 3 days before a Leauge match at Fulham.

Rafa will consider the six available points in those 2 games as a higher priority than the next round of the Leauge cup. Arsenal will probably do the same.

The defeat in Florence could turn out to be a blessing in disgiuse, especially ahead of the trip to Chelsea. We will be well up for this game and very determined to get back to winning ways.

Nobody likes losing any game, but in the CL we have 4 more group games to put things right so no panic necessary. If we win our next 3 Prem games we will be top of the Leauge. Could there be any greater incentive?

I don’t think we’ll keep a clean sheet at Chelsea, but the last time we played on that ground we scored four goals.

Chelsea 2 Reds 3

Comments from Aurelio on Rafa’s outburst at half-time in Florence.

Rafa rage revealed
Last Updated: Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:35

Fabio Aurelio has revealed that Rafa Benitez flew into a rage following the disastrous first half showing against Fiorentina.

Aurelio played in a midfield role on Tuesday but was helpless as striker Stevan Jovetic netted twice in the first half, revealed that Benitez was as angry as he has ever seen him at half time in the game.

He told the Post: “I think that was the most annoyed we have seen the manager.

“But we all were. We all felt like that after the first half and I think that’s why you saw a better performance in the second.

“But we didn’t need harsh words at half-time – we all knew that we were not playing well and that we had to be much better.

“We knew we would improve in the second and the manager was not the only one who was annoyed with us at half-time, we were annoyed with ourselves because we know how we played.

“In the second we were a different side and if it had been like that from the start it could have been a different result.

“We can’t think about that now, though, just how we will manage it again if we have the same situation in the future.”

Guys, there seem to be 2 groups here; the ‘super fans’ and the ‘knee-jerkers’. The fact is we are scoring loads of goals, but also leaking some. We are close to the top of the log, and we have the best goal difference – go figure! Yes LB, we have the 6 against Hull to thank for that, and the 4 against Burnley – who beat Manure …but take into consideration Keith’s points (could/should have drwan with Spurs etc) and the fact that we haven’t been firing on all cylinders, I reckon we are allright! I mean, we know we can play better, and take our opposition into consideration: Chel$ki might have a big squad, but they (to me anyway) have looked one-dimensional. Drogba is always a threat, if not scoring, then winning free-kicks on the edge of the area. Anelka is ok, Lampard hasn’t done much has he? And Terry & Carvalho – they look close to retirement, they are so slow. They have been scraping wins. I watched a bit of Manure last night (wife went to bed early…), and I counted 4 mistakes/bloopers by Vidic in about 10 minutes. Giigs is their top player this season, and can you see him lasting the whole season? All they have is Shrek, and maybe Berba – and the rest of their team look rather average. Again, this is my persepctive. Am I being a one-eyed Pool fan, or am I right. Serious, I haven’t seen much that makes me believe we can’t be at the top at the end of the season.
Come on: Keep the Faith, In Rafa We Trust etc etc

Steve,

Everyone here (KK included and nice to see you back) wants our priority to be PL, not CL.

There’s no Cech this weekend and Masch is back in CM (Phew!)and Aurelio to be as left back (spot, corner kicks), so my prediction would be Chelsea 2- Reds 4.

Donal of the Gap, where are you hiding? No comments, my friend?

Hey Knight, Donal is “off foreign” I believe. Saffa (great name by the way, what does it mean ?) I don’t think we’re superfans or particularly kneejerkers here. The sceptics generally make reasoned arguments and at times even end up with the same point as the … aaah … very committed. It’s a good little zone the kop o’blog.

It’s gonna be interesting to say the least on Sunday. IF our confidence (see centre halves) is steady then going forward we can score, no problem, but Gerrard’s gonna have to be tuned in to the game. I’m looking forward to the tactical battle between the 2 managers, as are they I’d say. Twice we’ve crossed paths with Ancelloti (who I like as a character) in 2 euro finals, it’s been 1 to Ancelloti and 1 to Rafa and the Kop. Also, in particular I’m looking forward to Gerrard and Essian, tho’ Essian tends to play somewhat more forward at the moment. Also, last night I watched Cole for Chelsea and he really is like an inside-left forward at the moment. Gonna be fascinating this chess match.

Do you reckon Essien will be man marking Gerrard or will he use Mikel, or anybody for that matter

didn’t see the game last night were Chelsea poor ?although I know from being an Irishman that Cyprus is not an easy place to get a result

Said before have a good feeling about Sunday bring on the plastic flag brigade

I don’t think Gerrard has ever had a good game at Stamford Bridge. If we win I reckon it’ll be because Masch, Benny, Kuyt and Torres had very good games.

I predict we will be having to defend many set pieces and therefore I can’t for the life of me see us keeping a clean sheet. With Drogba, Ballack, Terry, Cavaliho in our box and Lampard putting in the delivery I will be quite anxious watching at home. In fact the control of my sphincter will be severely tested.

Now’s the time for Gerrard to have have a storming game against Chelsea – it’s got to happen sometime, hasn’t it?

You guys seem pretty confident that Masch will play. Has he been passed fit? Last I heard the club were assessing his fitness.

I reckon if he can train by Saturday, he’ll play!

Dougs: yep, Sceptics & Very Commited is probably a better description – sorry. Saffa is just a terms our Antipodean friends call us blokes on the Southern tip of Africa. Also agree fully with LB regarding the set pieces, especially with the Drog falling all over the place in close proximity of our goal area. They are a good outfit in the air, and my sphincter is already playing up as well. That said, Fat Frank hasn’t score for 8 games, Czec won’t be playing, Onion & Nando will run rings around their sentre backs etc. Gotta look for the positives. Should be an interseting tussle with Glenda & Cashley bombing down each others flanks?

Will be very interesting with Glen and Cashley indeed. More so because Chelsea let Glen go and he will definately be out to prove a point. Kuyt will provde cover if he gets caught out going forward and will give chelsea headaches.

The main thing we have to try and do is prevent Torres from being too isolated. So who ever plays behind Torres or even on the wings, needs to support when possible, make those runs. Otherwise nando will just get the shit kicked out of him

Just who chooses the referee for the games? That can be very important-for the refereees have different interpretations of the laws of the game.
They can altered depending on many things but suffice it to say that ManUre seem to get the benefit all the time,Arsenal most,Chelski some, the Reds very little.

You know the one thing I dislike about this forum? (cue howls of derision coming my way) It’s the people here who play to this whole “everyone in the media hates Liverpool” and “refs never favour Liverpool” argument. There really is no evidence to back up either of these statements. I read the Times, Guardian and Independent sports coverage and all I ever see is your typical Top 4 comments i.e. Liverpool and zonal marking (yawn).

Man Utd: how will/can they replace the goals Ronaldo scored and is Owen able to withstand a full season?

Arsenal: Has Wenger lost the plot not signing any top class players and yeah sure they play great football but have they the steel to win the league?

Chelsea: is their squad that little bit too old or are they just a one man team (Drogba)

My point here is the media like bashing all of the top teams. If any of them lose even one game – its a HUGE CRISIS AT “insert club name here”. Liverpool fare no better or worse than the other top teams. Saying there is some kind of Southern bias in the media masks, what I think, is the real issue – that our squad probably and unfortunately just isn’t strong enough this season

As for which referee we get – I can recall, off the top of my head a fair few good decisions that went our way last season – (Lampard being sent off incorrectly in January being one) that helped us get 1 or all three points. I think referees in general are fallible but that their poor decisions tend to even themselves out over the season.

Basically Liverpool fans should stop worrying about what a journalist says about a “lucky Liverpool win” against “poor opposition” or who may or may not be refereeing our next match. The best teams ALWAYS win the league – Utd were the best (only just) last season. No biased journalist or referee had anything to do with it!

Rant over

Well duck and cover Jack… Arthur’s a coming to get you !

I think you are right about Torres Akka and not getting isolated. I don’t think it’s necessarily just the players around him that need to keep contact. I think it’s the whole mentality of the team that needs to be “on” for this game. Simply put whoever controls the game will (probably) win. If Chavski dictate then, given the recent and relevent fragility of our defense I (along with most) cannot see how we’ll keep them out. By the law of averages their big aggressive dead-ball winners will do us and that’s not to mention Drogba who, as mentioned before, has single-handedly beaten us more than I care to remember.

So, for me, we have to take control and dictate possession as much as possible. If we slacken off and drop off either territorily or mentally then we are skewered. If they haven’t got the ball then they can’t score eh. It could also turn their fly-by-night support quite quikly while our own travelling merry men will make their usual racket.

The way Cashley Cole is playing right now himself and Glenda won’t be facing each other at all. Both will be flying past each other going in opposite directions. I reckon Cashley is a big player for Chavs at the moment and it’s a really big tactical and physical battle on the wing. Likewise Boswinga (if he plays, which I think he will). I think Chelsea will target our full backs and we need to do the same. I also think that they will use both Drogba and Anelka to try and outpace us in the channels.

I would play Benny in the hole in this game and play Gerrard with Mascher in the engine room. Dirk and Riera, (who along with Gerrard needs to mentally stay in this game), on the flanks.
I think Benny, as a floater an really be a danger for us and a nuisance to them.

Just caught up in all the comments from the last week or so.Good debate in here as usual lads.

Since i was last in here we beat Debrecen 1-0,WestHam 3-2,Leeds 1-0,Hull 6-1 and lost 2-0 to Fiorentina.

We were on a very impressive run until tuesday night and it was a dissapointing performance especially first half but its not the end of the world.

We have Lyon back to back to put that right in the CL but as far as the Premier league goes we`re on a good run and hopefully it will continue on sunday.

Good post 174 a lot of thing i have wanted to say but anticipated getting slated well done art

Arthor and Rafamuffin.

The media do Slate LFC and Rafa especially.Watch an episode of that Sunday supplement on Sly sports on a sunday morning and you will see.Listen to Talksport on a daily basis.Listen to Andy Gray go sing his favourite Zonal marking tune whenever he does his last word.

So its not a scouse paranoia thing.Its been going on for years as FS said.The mancs were always regarded as the biggest club in the world by the british media because they were the first English club to win the European Cup.

Despite us winning it four times in eight seasons between `77 and `84 plus multipal championships LFC never got the deserved respect at the time.

Even our amazing feat of the `84 treble under Joe Fagan goes mostly unoticed outside out own fans.

The older guys like FS,Aitch and Keith could elaberate more and better but to say we get the same treatment as everybody else is wrong.

Arthur If you can’t see the bias in the media you should have gone to
specsavers they do hearing aids as well.
As for the Refs not been bias that surely has to be a joke
Obvious case is Rob Stiles and his 5 figure sum to do the Russian Gangsters
driveway before the mystical pen he gave them at Anfield,Then giving Essien
2 yellows but not sending him off in a different game.
David Gill is one of the bosses of the Refs and also a Director at the Old Toilet
The more money the Scum makes the more he makes,a bit of a conflict of
interests dont you think.
Overall the ref bias is institutional as far as the Mancs are concerned
and more of a pay per play at Chelski.
Last years CL at the Bridge 1st half 9 free kicks to 8 free kicks in their favour
2nd half 16 free kicks to 5 free kicks in their favour, strange that considering
we have one of the best disciplinary records and they have one of the worse.
i mean you watched the match right did you not think the ref had a bit of a
Jack hill & Hyde performance
YNWA

PS Arthur If the best team always win the PL why did we beat them 2 times
last season .If you want to see how we could have had 4 more points watch
the Stoke and the W.Ham games again and you’ll see how the Refs decided
who won it last year.
YNWA

I think Arthur P has either blue or red/white glasses to colour his perception of things.

‘the ref had a bit of a jack hill and hyde performance’ Rome you hoor you had me in stitches! For what its worth though I think Arthur has a point. The shock and indignation thats continually shown in here over talk sport, sly, newspaper articles etc always brings a smile to my face. Its very simple; change the channel, dont buy that paper anymore. The way I see it is just be a little more Jay z about it – ‘dirt off my shoulder’ baby. But the refs Arthur? Come on bud, they are 100% on the mancs payroll.

One example Id like to bring up for Arthur/Rafamuffin/burgerman/or whoever it is.

Following our 6-1 destruction of Hull:
Rafa gave an interview and the second question asked was about how frail our defence was and how this is causing us headaches. Rafa mentioned the 6 goals and the question ended there.

Hey Knight

I’m still here bro reading all the comments and I think you are filling our combined quota all by yourself!!

Nothing much to say that hasn’t been said really
Disappointed about the Ford Cortina result
We were outplayed both in the dressing room and on the pitch I’m afraid.

There were times in the 1st half that reminded me of when Rafa’s Valencia came to Anfield (and Jugovitch looks a dead ringer for Aimar) but we have to play them again in our house so we’ll have the chance to make up for it.

Chelsea is a big one I just hope we start with the high tempo that say us beat them and the manks twice last season,really go at them from the start and put them on the back burners from the off (enough fotty cliches in that sentence?). If we do that we will win.

Enjoying the comments lads keep it up

What about the ‘Super knee-jerker supporters?’

I was at a comedy gig last week in Seoul and an Aussie comedian told the joke

‘Whats the difference between an Irish funeral and an Irish wedding?’

………..one less drunk!

I talked to the guy after wards and he said that he made up that joke ………..I said did you fuck unless you have benjamin buttons disease and are actually as old as the (Jack) Hills!

Over and out

Oi, wot’s with this Jackhill and hyde thing going on LoL!! Never am I biased towards anything blue!!

But Arthur P, I don’t know which articles you are reading mate, but the fact that Rafa gets constantly slated is enough proof that there is an agenda against us.

Or may be you live in a different part of the world. It’s funny I should say this because I was watching footy on my cable the other day, and the channel had conducted the following survey the previous week over the internet:

“Which of the premiership team managers would you want as your boss?”

The result was something like
1. Arsene Wenger 77%
2. Gianfranco Zola 10%
3. Rafa Benitez 5%

and nowhere in the top 6 was fungusface ever to be seen. At the end of the day, everyone knows the mugger is one nasty old git!!!

Chelsea get spanked like a teenage girl in a schoolgirl outfit at a batchelor party by Wigan.

2 goals conceded from set pieces, by completely unmarked Wogan players.
A 3rd set piece won by an unmarked Wigan player who twats the ball goalward only for Cech to make a remarkable point blank save.
And a 4th set piece won by an unmarked Wigan player who sends the header just wide.

NOT ONE SINGLE inquest as to how poor the defending was for any one of those incidents.

Hull score one goal in a 6-1 route and the inquest regarding our poor implementation of zonal marking didn’t stop until we were 3-1 up and even after that it got mentioned several times.

No bias? Please lads behave!

And if you can’t see the obvious bias from some referees, then there simply isn’t any point discussing it.

Great to hear from you doanl. Say hi to the Misses.

Done Knight she sends her regards

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2009/10/02/ryan-babel-s-world-cup-fear-spared-him-on-liverpool-fc-latest-92534-24833654/2/

Good on Babel for his honesty I hope it works out well for everyone

Im heading home for christmas

Any chance of getting 2 tickets for the Liverpool Spurs game on January 9th Fatty

I’d love to have another trip to Anfield

Anyway I’d appreciate it if you’d look into it

Slainte

Over and out

Can’t comment too much on the Sly Sports bias against the Reds, but the SuperSport presenters are definetly one-eyed, and huge critics of zonal marking. The only one who talks sense is Terry Paine – he has to be neutral as he is a Saints supporter (say no more, he doesn’t have a choicedoes he?). I had a few drinks with Gary Bailey couple of years back (my missus took him for pilates), and he is a good enough bloke. But hell, is he a one-eyed Manc supporter or what. End of the day, can you blame him? 1/2 bottle of Jamieson’s didn’t change his stance either. And last year my brother bumped into Brucey Grobbelaar in a pub in Durban. Same thing, totally pro Liverpool, and couldn’t say a bad word about his ex club. So we can’t really expect these guys to start slating or critisizing their ‘team’ on TV (especially if they played for them), even though they get paid to be neutral? Saying this, it doesn’t explain why Sean Dundee is very critical of the Reds…maybe it’s his lack of the grey matter? For you guys in the UK, this also doesn’t explain why Andy Gray is such a prick – he doesn’t have an excuse, as don’t your other presenters (except Merson?) Oh well, here’s hoping Drogba will pull a hammy 10 mins into the game…worried about his ability to ‘win’ free kicks in dangerous areas. Here’s hoping we have a decent ref.

Donal, FS is away in the US, so he can’t comment here unless he can get his hands on a computer. I think he will be back 7 Oct or so. Any request for tickets will have to wait till then. I know coz I am waiting for him to return. Heh heh.

Here’s something about LFC fans to cheer about:

http://soccerlens.com/fan-loyalty-in-rafa-we-trust/35214/

Thanks Knight

If you want anti-liverpool bias listen to Giles and Dunphy on RTE 2 – its never a good performance from liverpool its always the other team were shite

Sorry to mislead with that statement. The article is far from good news in itself.
Here is THE good news:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/leagues/premierleague/liverpool/6253551/Liverpools-Fernando-Torres-Id-never-play-for-Manchester-United.html

A comment by Guillem Ballague on Aqualani:

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opinion/columnists/guillem-balague/Alberto-Aquilani-won-t-be-rushed-back-but-he-will-be-worth-the-wait-for-Liverpool-article177243.html

A very short comment from GB.Difficult to see the Reds coming away with a point on Sunday.If Masher and Lucas both play, a 2-0 loss seems probable.With SG, Babel and Dosser in the midfield and 2 playing up front a win is possible.It’s important that Torro gets plenty of support(unlike Tuesday).Selling Sissoko for a similar amount that Lucas cost, was bad business.

found this in a chelsea fan site. read it for a laugh (and smell their fear):

How Liverpool Can Be Beaten.
Chelsea entertain Liverpool this Sunday on the back of two rather insipid performances.

Ancelotti`s team hasn`t been playing too well this past week since that wonderful 3-0 thrashing of Tottenham at Stamford Bridge. So I think I know how to defeat Liverpool with this plan to stop them from playing their best football!

The team will line up like this:

Hilario – Bosingwa-JT-Carvalho-A.Cole – Essien-Lampard-Malouda-Deco – Anelka-Drogba

Lampard is not best as an attacking midfielder. Lampard is a central midfielder who works best in a deep position and then running from that position to score goals. Liverpool have Javier Mascherano who is one of the best defensive midfielders in the game today. Good enough to possibly nullify Lampard. If he succeeds then the supply line to the strikers is lost and we will find it hard to score.

Rafa expects Lampard to be there so we replace him with Deco. Deco is a true attacking midfielder who will thrive in that position. Furthermore it will make Mascherano`s job harder as he now has to mark a completely different player in Deco. I suggest going for Malouda on the left and pushing Lampard to the right. Glen Johnson has improved tremendously in his time at Portsmouth but he still hasn`t learnt to defend.

A good winger could give him trouble for the entire duration of the match. It will also push him back into his half and prevent him from getting into dangerous positions. Malouda is the man to torment him. He may not be the fastest winger but he can cause problems for Johnson. He can link up with Ashley Cole on the left to keep Johnson quiet. With Glen Johnson quiet, Liverpool will have lost one flank to attack down.

Yossi Bennayoun is probably someone I think could do a lot of damage to the team if he is allowed to run free. Whichever flank he is deployed both the fullback and the midfielder must track back to help him or risk letting him provide assists for Gerrard and Torres or worse, score. If he is allowed to do so we will lose.

Now for Gerrard and Torres! If we can mark out Gerrard, we can break their partnership and effectively stop Torres from scoring any goals if Gerrard is taken out. Essien is the man for this. He is our most versatile midfielder, able to play in almost in any outfield position asked to. Centre back, winger, right back…he has probably played in most of the positions you can think of.

Essien effectively marked Gerrard out of the game at Anfield where Chelsea won 3-1. If Liverpool line up in 4-2-3-1, Essien can mark out him easily. It will be harder at 4-4-2 but still possible if Gerrard makes his forward runs.

Torres is probably the best striker in the league right now and his pace means John Terry will not be able to mark effectively. Terry should probably mark out Kuyt, a striker so brilliant he plays on the right wing. Carvalho will mark him as he has the pace needed to keep the man quiet. Now for us to score, we have what must have been like forever to put them together.

Step forward, Drogba and Anelka. Jamie Carragher isn`t what he used to be. Not that ever I rated him highly, he is good but below our JT in terms of skill. He is now in decline and Skrtel isn`t that good either. Daniel Agger seemed to be on the cusp of greatness sometime ago but injuries have sent seem crashing back to level 1.

If Drogba can torment him like all the other times he has played against him, then he can create space for Anelka to run into and score. Drogba is probably going to be our player of the season if he continues his current form he will be our player of the year. If we win the EPL and Champions League or either one, he might actually win the World Player of the Year award.

Well I hope Ancelotti comes up something to beat Liverpool or else we might be in a wee bit of a crisis.

Burgerman Selling Sissoko for a similar amount that Lucas cost, was bad business.
Sissoko cost 5 million sold for 11 million
Lucas cost 6 million so thats like a free player
pretty good business if you ask me
YNWA

If, burgerman, you worry about lucas’ passing, then I would worry even more with Momo’s. He gave away the ball as soon as he so brilliantly dispossed the opponent! A loveable character, and dead funny to watch on another day, but his passing was just pure shite, and made peanut look like alonso.

My choice would be:
/////////Reina
Aurelio//Carra//Skrtel//Johnson
////////Masch
//////////////Gerrard
Kuyt////Benny//////Riera
///////Torres

Babel hopefully would be a good impact sub for us, although not as a striker. I actually am looking forward to see how Ngog fares in games like this.

On paper, I just can’t fail to see how this team can’t win against chelsea. I dunno why we have to be so pessimistic. I am actually quite looking forward to it.

sorry, that was dispossessed

and sorry, meant to say, “I just fail to see how this team can’t wing against chelsea.”

It must be the sleepless nights….

Alright lads.

I`m not sure if Ancellotti will have Essien coming back to do a man marking job on Gerrard.Even though he did a good job of this last year in the CL semi-final it was a different then as they were out to secure a first leg result away from home.

This time around its a league game that they will be looking to win so will Ancellotti sacrifice Essien`s forward runs just to stop Gerrard.

Even doing this dosen`t gaurentee that he WILL stop Gerrard.Last year Gerrard wasn`t right on the night so thats why Essien did a job on him.

I think I didn’t fare too badly at all!!

I’m not gonna get into a “I’m right and you’re all wrong” argument but my whole point was – who gives a shit if you believe the media has an anti-Liverpool bias? Tell me: lets say a journalist slags off Rafa or slags off a goal we conceded due to zonal marking – how does that affect the Liverpool players or their next result?? It doesn’t in ANY WAY affect it. If Liverpool aren’t winning games or are conceding more goals than they usually do (which is the case) it has fuck all to do with the media’s perception of LFC. Saying Rafa gets a harder time in the press than Ferguson is not really something you can quantify and besides lets be honest, Ferguson’s record is so good – can he really be slagged all that much?

Now to briefly counter my critics:

Aitch: I watched Hansen and Lawrenson completely slag off Cech and Chelsea’s defending in general after the Wigan defeat on MOTD.

An Linn: Dunphy and Giles in my mind are anti Man Utd as much as they are anti Liverpool. Some of the stuff Dunphy would say about Ronaldo was just ridiculous

Rome77: Yes we did beat Man Utd twice last year, so what? still doesn’t meant we were better than them over the 38 game season. And please – where did Man Utd have refereeing advantage last season to win the league? I hate Utd but you have to give credit where credit is due. They were able to beat the Wigan, Hull and Fulhams…we couldn’t unfortunately – we have to move on and live with it. But I would like an example of when a referee was biased towards them any more than say when the ref sent off Lampard against us.

2 wknds ago Arthur. It was ‘lets do the time warp again’. I know you’re on about last yr but I’ve been watching the collusion btwn the refs and taggart for 20yrs and every yr it gets more blatant and disgusting. And as for the excuses….’bellamys celebration took 55secs’…. bullshit. I just cant wait for the day it all comes out in a Panaroma special. It has to, it just has to. How much longer can it go on? Did you read the Guardian article Fatty posted on the Old Trafford time warp? It wasnt news to me.

How about when Spurs were spanking them and they were given a pen that wasn’t a pen… followed by 3 free kicks… which then turned the tide.

That’s just one example… there are many others.

Look at Rooney’s dive for a pen this season.
Look at 7 minutes of extra time… 2 points gifted from the Ref.
Behave Arthur.

Given the torment that Drogba has caused us recently especially in the air I would put Hercules on him and batter him on the ground and the air.

Arthur I remember 07/08 season when Shrek was about 5 yards offside and
crossed the ball resulting in a goal it gave them a win and a extra 2 pts.
The same day Dropba scored for the Chavs only to be ruled offside you may
remember Maureen throwing his laptop in disgust because he was clearly on
and he knew he’d been f*cked out of 2 pts.
Then the last day of the season Scum V Wigan 2 clear penalties for Wigan but
not awarded result another title this time at the Chavs expense
So that the last 2 years league titles awarded by the Refs and you can’t see
any bias.
I bet you believe Neal Armstrong walked on the moon and it was made of
cheese, or Lee Harvey Oswald shot JFK with a BB gun all by himself.
YNWA

I don’t have a clue what to expect for Sunday.

Our inability to keep a clean sheet has really taken away a lot of my confidence. I just picture conceding a corner/free kick and watching all these mammoth bodies (Terry, Ivanovich, Carvalho, Ballack, Essien) battering us with an aerial assault. They did it to us at Anfield in the first CL leg last spring, and we are looking even more fragile in defense today.

I think we’ll grab a goal, but I don’t know if we can grab the three points we’re all hoping for. We won this fixture last season, so we’ll need three points to keep pace with last season.

Fingers crossed, I’ll be doing my part to root the boys on from across the pond.

PS Arthur that picture you have on your Avatar who is it?

Thats Rafa by the time the media are finihed with him Rome,he`ll be gone away to nothing!