Red in Dublin

Return of the King

2009-06-30T18:29:00.023+01:00

Long live King Kenny! He's coming home to as joyous a reception and will take up a role with the academy and as a global Ambassador on the commercial side, similar to Bobby Charlton at Utd. Good news all round.Paul Anderson is off to Forest for £250000 according to sky sports. Leto is heading off to Greece to join Panathinaikos, rather than Olympiakos. He never really built on his early promise in my so called life and requiem for a dream.

Glen Johnson has signed a 4 year deal. The kids keep coming. The latest signed include Jesus Suso Fernandez. No doubt he'll be the second coming. Another young spaniard en route to L4 is Luis Alberto of Seville, if this is to be believed. If you can read Danish you might learn that we're signing 16 year old Nicolaj Køhlert of Esbjerg. N'Gog has be joined at Anfield by his erstwhile PSG team-mate, defenderChris Mavinga. He also suggests that Alonso will be staying unless he hands in a transfer request or Madrid make us an offer too good to refuse. Messi wants Masch but Rafa says you're not getting him.

I'm not even going to bother giving the Ribery story a mention, just a bookie trying to generate business. If you're expecting discussion about Owen I'm afraid you'll be disappointed. I was completely nonplussed by his move to Utd. The interesting aspect was how quickly the press went from branding him a has been and a laughing stock with his brochure, to it being a master stroke by Slur Alex. Pretty funny. Fergie must have been won over by the glossy paper.

Here's a new book from an Irish author who lives in Liverpool and works for the club. I heard him interviewed on Today FM and I was impressed with his research. Did you know that our first ever manager John McKenna, was Irish? Could be a good christmas present for a fellow Red in Ireland.

That's all for now. If we make a big signing I'll post a comment but otherwise, I'll be back in August with a season preview ahead of the Spurs match. Enjoy the sunshine, or rain if you're in Ireland.

Season review - 86 reasons to be happy

2009-05-25T20:19:00.022+01:00

At the start of the season I predicted a second place finish. How right I was. 86 points, 77 league goals, only 2 defeats and the best goal difference in the table. A record points total of 86 for a second place team in the premiership. This in itself is a reason to be happy. Unfortunately it wasn't enough Utd finished 4 points ahead with 90. The post mortem will say that we drew too many and there is some truth to that. 11 draws in unacceptable and I'm sure we'll improve on that next year. We can point to the refereeing errors like the stoke draw where a legitimate goal was ruled out and bad luck with the amount of times we hit the wood work. But a combination of inaccurate finishing, sloppy defending and injuries to key players cost us at times. If we had've converted three draws into wins or our two defeats to Spurs and Boro into wins then we would've reclaimed the title. If. Too many if's. We didn't do it despite playing some great football and we came up just short. 14 points out of 18 against the top four showed we could take on and beat our competition. Utd won the league despite performing poorly against the top 4. They won it because they were the best flat track bully's. We need to improve our ability to unlock a packed defence. If we do that more constantly then maybe we can go one step higher next year.It's hard to look beyond Gerrard when selecting a player of the season. He scored many amazing goals and was named football writers player of the season. John Giles on Newstalk agreed with the selection of Stevie and said that playing in the hole has brought the best out of him. Torres was good when played but missed too much of the season to be considered. Xabi had a great year, his best with us. The Kop love him and want him to stay here for many years yet. I would have him in second place for the year with Kuyt close behind him taking the bronze medal. I'm a huge fan of the Dutchman but will I had my doubts about him last year. But this season he's proved all of us wrong with his 12 league goals from open play and 8 assists, better than Rooney's return. From a right hand attacking spot that is a superb return and he fully justifies his selection. We can improve on Riera on the left but deadly Dirk will continue to be one of the first names in the team.

El Nino has signed a contract extension. There's been a big shake up with coaching staff. Gary Ablett has been released as have Hughie McAuley and Dave Shannon. Rafa is remoulding the academy and youth structure now that he has more control over the club structure with his new contract.

While there has been bad news off the pitch this week in relation to the accounts with soaring debts and no buyers interested, the guardian today suggest that it won't affect Rafa's budget and he'll still have £20m plus sales. But already he's s seen targets like Barry go to City which he won't be happy with. If it means Xabi is staying then I'm quite satisfied. Other targets could be missed out on like Pranjic who looks destined for Munich, Silva who's talking to Real Madrid and Glen Johnson who Chelsea want to buy, again.

Hertha Berlin didn't manage to secure Champions League football and won't be taking up their offer on Voronin. Javier has denied reports that he's off to FCB. Javi Martinez says he's up for a move to L4, but Atletico Bilbao say we haven't made an approach. Despite what Rafa is saying, the Alonso to Madrid rumours won't go away. If he does leave then maybe his fellow Basque will replace him. Babel has been told he can leave. I don't think it's a great surprise given how he's performed and the amount of time he's received this year. The South American press reckon that we've been everybody to the signing of Brazil u-17 star Zezinho. With a name like that, he's got to be good. Lavezzi is being linked by Setanta with Dossena going the other way. Juventus are also interested in the left back and it seems Rafa is willing to let him leave.

Sami's last minutes a red can be seen here. He'll be missed especially for his towering performance when we mashed the mans 4-1 in old toilet.

Red in Dublin is off on holidays for a few weeks to enjoy the Irish rain. I'll return if and when there's some decent transfer moves to report. In the meantime you can follow my updates on twitter. Keep it red.

Sami signs off as reds slam Spurs

2009-05-18T20:51:00.022+01:00

It's always sad when a legend leaves. So it was for Sami who left Anfield after 10 fantastic years. The friendly Finn made 464 appearances for the Reds and won just about every medal going bar the league. Rafa brought him on here in the dying minutes for Gerrard and he took the captains armband. He even had a header cleared off the line which would have been epic. You could see how much it meant to him when the players hoisted him shoulder high and the emotion of it got to him . I respect his decision to go and play but I hope that he'll return to join the coaching staff when he's finished in Germany.

The game itself almost seemed of secondary importance to Sami's swansong. Torres opened the scoring with a fine header from a Kuyt cross. Deadly Dirk took the second but was helped with a large deflection off Hutton. Yossi rounded off the goals with a cheeky effort. He has such quick feet that players buy his feints and dummies but now that he has a few months of form and confidence behind him, they are coming off and he has become extremely deadly. Keane scored a consolation goal for Spurs and didn't celebrate which was nice to see. It didn't work out for him at Anfield but I don't have any ill feelings towards him. He was the wrong buy but that's not his fault. Maybe if he'd scored more he'd still be here but I doubt it. I think he took away from our best XI rather than added to it.

Gaz Baz continues to be linked with a move to L4 just as consistantly as Alonso is being linked with a return to Spain. Rafa was asked about it post match and said:

"Xabi has three years on his contract and we're really pleased with him. We do not want to sell. He is not for sale. He says he's happy here in Liverpool. He says it to you in every single interview and press conference."

Oliver Kay in the Times reckons that we're going to open formal negotiations with Tevez after the champions league final. Sky are linking Youann Gourcouff who did really well on loan from AC Milan to Boureaux this season. Mascherano says that he would like to be reunited with Tevez. If this report is to be believed, we've had a €20m bid rejected by Napoli. He's a really exciting player and could be credible alternative to Tevez or Silva and might be easier to capture.

I'll put together a season review in the next few days but then it'll be hibernation on the blog for the summer. I may do an occasional post if we have a big signing but you can check out the twitter feed for brief updates.

Baggies burst

2009-05-17T19:36:00.003+01:00

A 2-0 over the baggies marked their demise from the league and an end to our away campaign with just the spurs match to go. West Brom were clearly more "up for it" than we were and started the match at a ferocious pace. Not surprising given they were fighting for their lives. It took us a while to get up so speed but a gift from the home defence allowed Gerrard to pounce and score yet another league goal. It got easier after that. Dirk added the second after a fine pass from Stevie. Dirk has been in superb form this year and this was his 12th goal, equalling his best ever league haul. Even more impressive is the fact that they've all been from open play. Dirka dirka. Lucas put in a good shift in the middle with Xabi starting on the bench. When Javier came off injured the basque took his spot.

The fact that Utd had wrapped up the league yesterday did make this something of a damp squib. Arsenal took points from them but alas it was too late to matter. This did have the feel of a dead rubber but with Chelsea winning we had to make sure of second and the extra cash that we'll receive for it. Second place gets 30% of champions league revenue while third place only gets 15%. Big difference.

Carra explained that his bust up with Arbeloa was over trying to keep a clean sheet, with the aim of securing yet another golden gloves award for Pepe. Some people might be pissed off with it but it never bothers me seeing players have a go at each other. He shouldn't have raised his hands as he could've been sent off but I've no problem with keeping high standards through fear. Keane used to regularly bollock players at Utd, Gary Neville was on the end of one particularly savage tirade. It's been a great week for Steven Gerrard who was named Footballer of the year, the first Liverpool player to win the award since John Barnes in 1990. Here he is celebrating the 4-1 win at Old Toilet this season. He said in an interview today that he's matured in recent years and it's been obvious this year. He does appear less selfish now. His conversion to an attacking midfielder has helped to make the most of his qualities. John Giles said he was a worthy winner of the award. Much better choice than Giggs who won the PFA award despite barely playing or scoring. His 16 goals and 9 assists are a fantastic return. If only himself and Torres had been able to start a few more games. 13 starts together wasn't nearly enough.

Piet Hamburg is leaving the Academy this summer. This has been expected for a while as he seems to have been Rick Parrys man. He will be succeeded by Jose Segura who previously worked at the Barcelona academy. In other staff related news, Rafa has been praising Sammy lee saying he is close to perfect as a number 2. Is that because he no longer has ambition to be a boss after his failed attempt at Bolton?

Dossena is returning to Italy with Milan the likely venue according to channel 4. David Silva's agent says that there is interest from clubs and there are reports that we've offered £15m for the Valencia winger. Xabi's agent says he's going nowhere which must come as a great relief to us all. I still fear that he might be off if we receive a massive offer from Real Madrid or somebody else. Hope I'm wrong. Cadiz youngster Jesus "Suso" Fernandez is on his way to Anfield for talks according to the Mirror.

How would you feel about going to watch a match in the Carlsberg stadium on Stanley Park? While there might be emotional issues surrounding naming rights, the financial reality of our predicament means that we're going to have to sign up some partner for the stadium. Carlsberg have been decent over the years and wouldn't be a bad choice. Given the international money markets, it's a moot point at the moment.

Irons flattened

2009-05-11T20:01:00.001+01:00

With a start like this, it was a pretty easy game. Gerrard gratefully accepted a through ball from Torres to open the scoring when the game was less than 2 minutes old. He added a second with a penalty after El Nino was taken down in the box. Rob Green did well to save the initial peno but Stevie made sure with the rebound. Babel came on as a sub and made it an emphatic 3-0 from a Kuyt cross. This was only the 12th time this season that both Gerrard and Torres were fit to start in the league. How different would the season have been if these too had been fitter? It was a run of the mill performance without too much fuss. The defence made one or two mistakes but thankfully West Ham weren't up to taking advantage. Lucas slotted in for Xabi who wasn't fit.

The season is winding down and I think we'll keep pushing Utd all the way even if it will ultimately prove fruitless as they don't appear to be dropping any more points. Regardless of the title, I want to see us finishing as close to them as possible by beating West Brom and Spurs. We owe Spurs from the game in London earlier this season where they mugged us in a crazy game. If we win our remaining games we will finish on 86 points which is good enough to win the title more often than not. We've the best goal difference and have scored more goals than everybody else. So much for Rafa being a negative manager. I'm hoping that this is the practice run and we'll go a step further next season to finish on top.Pranjic of Heerenveen is being linked with a summer move by sky sports. Another Eredivise attacker, Luis Suarez of Ajax, could be a Benitez target this summer. He wouldn't be cheap but would be exciting, if a risk. A winger leaving this summer is Gary MacKay-Steven whose contract is expiring and Fulham are sniffing around him. Andrea Dossena reckons he's going nowhere and is adapting to life in England. I expect he could well be sold back to his homeland this summer. Almeria striker Alvaro Negredo has been linked with a move to L4 in recent weeks but the player himself reckons a return to Real Madrid would suit him better. Tevez is on the move and wants to stay in England. Maybe he wants to play beside Javier who's going nowhere. I'm a huge fan but I don't think we can afford him and there is the question of where he fits into our best XI.

This is worth a read and a few emails if you have time.

Legend leaves for Leverkusen

2009-05-04T19:17:00.001+01:00

Auf wiedesein Sami. In our defensive foursome, he was absolutely awesome. One Scandinavian defender signs as another leaves. The circle of life is complete. I'm sad to see Sami leave but I understand that he wants a last hurrah. It would have been hard to see him play against us for another premiership team so I wish him all the best in Germany. On the upside, it's great to see Dagger sign up for years. I was convinced that he was leaving in the summer so well done to Rafa and the staff for convincing him his future is here. Between him and Skrtel we're sorted at centre half for many a year. I expect one of San Jose or Martin Kelly will be promoted next season to cover as the fourth choice centre back.

Did this result put Newcastle down? 3-0 could have been 6-0 as we hit the woodwork three times. Xabi struck the crossbar twice with two fierce shots and Gerrard hit it once. Could have been a landslide. Yossi bagged the first with his knee after a cross from Dirk. It may have been marginally offside but any sense of injustice the Toon army had was soon wiped out when Dirk powered in a diving header from a Gerrard corner. Goals from corners always give me a special feeling, rare as they are. Our dominance continued in the second half but we had to wait until late on the for the third goal. Alonso was taken off after Joey Barton was red carded for a bad challenge on the Basque. Lucas came on and scored his first league goal with a close range header from a free kick from the right hand touch line. I'm happy for the Brazilian as he looked thrilled but it now looks like he could leave for £6m this summer according to the red tops.
We're off to Upton Park next weekend. It should be routine with or without Torres who didn't play yesterday. West Ham are quite safe now so don't have much to play for. I hope that we win all of our games to push Utd the whole way. I don't see Utd dropping the requisite points to make it interesting enough but I want to finish a close second with a small gap to the top. This experience of being in a title challenge to the end will do our players the world of good for next season.

The news that Rafa will have to sell to increase his transfer kitty is not unexpected. The BBC reckon Silva, Villa and Glen Johnson are targets. Javier Saviola is being linked with a free transfer in the summer. Gareth Barry has spoken about a summer move. I think he's quite likely to arrive for less than £10m. Given his performance's this year, I hope that it doesn't mean a Xabi departure. Sources in Italy suggest Juve might be back in for him this summer. Rafa says that Javier is going nowhere. What about Pandev of Lazio? He'd be a cheap option for a summer signing. His teammate Zarate has signed a permanent deal with Lazio so we won't be getting him. AZs Moroccan striker Mounir El Hamdaoui is being linked with us and Arsenal. Negredo of Almeria is a target. Rafa says that Yossi will get a new contract offer. If anybody deserves it then he does as he's been amazing in the last 6 months.

KC KO

2009-04-24T12:53:00.022+01:00

A 3-1 win away from home was a case of job done. But it wasn't done very cleverly in a bad day at the office for most of the team. We were poor in a poor first half. Hull did well to close us down really quickly. Time and again we were caught in possession or had passes blocked by Hull players. Arbeloa and Mascherano were disappointing for the second game running. The whole team looked a bit rattled by the pressure exerted by Caleb Folan et al. But just before half time Javier broke down field and got a free kick when he fell over. It was really harsh on Hull but got worse when Xabi put it away. His initial effort hit the wall but he cracked the rebound into the bottom corner on the volley. Lovely strike, his fourth league goal of the season. I don't really understand how his passing is so sublime but his delivery from frees and corners is often askew. Strange.

The second half started much better than the first. Once Folen lost the plot and got sent off for a kick on Skrtel, things got easier. Dirk got a touch on a Skrtel shot to make it 2-0. Giovani pulled one back for them to make a little more tense. But Kuyt scored again in the 90th minute to put the result beyond doubt. Game over. Dirk now has 10 league goals which is superb given his position and reputation. He might even improve on that over the next few games.

Insua lost his man for the Hull goal but was much better than our other full back Arbeloa who had a really poor game. It's a pity that the spaniard has lost his form in recent games as he's had a good season to date.We can look forward to the Toon army visiting Anfield next Sunday. Shearer and co will be well up for a fight but are short on confidence. It's one that we really should win and we'll need to if we're going to push Utd all the way.

Could Rafa be interested in signing Man Utd loanee Carlos Tevez? Rafa refused to comment on him when asked in Fridays press conference. Fergie reckons he wants him to stay but we'll see. I think he'll leave Utd but I don't see us signing him, Madrid would be more likely. He'd be a nice addition to our team but we need somebody to compete for the Riera and Kuyt spots, not Gerrard and Torres positions. O'Neil seems to be preparing to let Barry leave this summer. Expect a cut price bid from Rafa given the fact his contract is up in 2010.

Lauri Della Valle scored 2 more goals as the junior reds beat Birmingham 3-1 second leg to seal a place in the FA youth cup final. Alex Kacaniklic scored the other to give an aggregate score of 6-1. They'll face Arsenal to win it.

Jack Hobbs who was part of the 2006 FA youth cup winning team, has sealed a permanent deal with Leicester. The young defender has helped them gain promotion from League one to the championship. I hope he does well in the future.

Done four?

2009-04-22T21:43:00.013+01:00

3 defensive lapses cost us against Arsenal on Tuesday. May have even cost us the title, admittedly it was a long shot to begin with. 4-4 may have been good to watch but the result was sickening. We had it in our hands at 2-1 up but we threw it away and had to chase the game when 3-2 and 4-3 down. In the end we paid the price for our poor defending and got one point where three were required and would have been deserved.

We dominated Arsenal for much of the match but we gifted them goals that they didn't deserve. Mascherano, Aurelio and Arbeloa all made bad mistakes which led to Arshavin goals. Fairplay to the lad who took his chances but other than that had a poor enough game if such a thing is possible.

Dirk set up our first two goals for Torres and then Yossi. El Nino scored another and Yossi got the equaliser in injury time. This was the Israeli's best ever performance for the Reds. He revelled in the number 10 role usually occupied by Gerrard. I fear his absence much less with Yossi in this form. He showed great courage to throw his head into the mix for his first goal. A brave player who gives everything.Well done to the Everton fans who showed some merseyside solidarity with the 96 at the FA cup semi final against Utd on Sunday. I was happy to see them win and will be cheering them against Chelsea in the final. Let's hope that these kind of gestures will thaw the atmosphere in the Merseyside derbies which had become poisonous in recent years.

Gerrard is unlikely to be fit for the Hull City match on Saturday according to Rafa. His abductor muscle is still problematic. Yossi will deputise. I think we should be able to win this one despite what motivational miracles Phil Brown might try to pull. Utd don't play until Sunday but Spurs are safe now so I can't see them presenting too many problems for Slur and company.

The guardian are reporting that we could See a King Kenny comeback this summer slotting into a youth development role. Great news if it happens. Sammy Lee is in favour as is Alan Hansen. The King himself is desperate to help the club he loves in anyway he can.

It's great to see that the kids have one foot in the FA youth cup final after a 3-0 first leg win against Birmingham. Della Valle grabbed two goals and David Amoo got the other from right midfield. I expect we'll see quite a few of this team make first team appearances over the next few years.

Rafa's comments should be reassuring to Xabi and ensure that there isn't any repeat of last summers shenanigans. I'd be gutted if Xabi left. We know that Tores will leave us one day. I hope that day is far far away and I had assumed it would be to return to Atletico. But El Nino says he would like to try Serie A before Spain. Not what I expected but let's hope it's the distant future.

Alvaro Negredo of Almeria is being linked to Anfield by Setanta. The 23 year old striker has had a great season and has scored 17 goals. Sky sports reckon that we could be in for Mauro Zarate as Lazio only have 2 weeks left to take up their option on him. His agent says that there's been interest from two English clubs. He's a quality player who did well at Birmingham on loan but he'd cost a lot and I'm not sure where he'd fit into the team. If we bought him it could be the Robbie Keane scenario again where he's too good for the bench but no clear place in the team. The Daily Mirror reckon we're going to bid for Roque Santa Cruz of Blackburn this summer. He wants to leave but I can't see us competing with city in an auction for him as it would be too expensive.

A bridge too four

2009-04-14T15:20:00.029+01:00

The pride of the Liverpool was evident last night. 4-4, an epic European contest. They said that there was no way we could go to London and score three. We went one better and scored four. We led 2-0 at half time but inevitable we left gaps at the back and Chelsea punished us. At 2-0 and 4-3 up, we were one goal from being ahead on aggregate but it wasn't to be. Despite it all, even deep into injury time, we never gave up. The spirit and desire of this team and this club is unmatched.

If we had Mascherano in the first leg and Gerrard in the second would the tie have turned out differently? Possibly but we'll never know. Stevie wasn't risked and watched from the stands. In his absence, Lucas did a decent job at the apex of the midfield where the captain normally plays. He put in a good shift and scored a goal thanks to an Essien deflection but Xabi stepped up as the main man on the night. He was awesome. I'm a huge fan of the basque schemer and this was up there as one of his best displays ever. I hope that Rafa never again considers selling him. Dirk was full of heart and running as we expect in European games. He took his goal well and has a habit of scoring important goals in this competition. Aurelio was another who recovered well from the first leg and his free kick goal was superb.

Drogba caused more problems as he did in the first leg. His diving and rolling around was as distasteful as ever. Anelka caused problems down the right and helped set Drogba up when he got a lucky touch off Pepe's glove. I wouldn't fault the keeper on it, it was just a freak deflection after the Ivorian had done very well.So now we can "concentrate on the league". Scant consolation but maybe the need to rotate will be lessened and we'll see our first choice team every match from now until May. Next Tuesday will be a vital league showdown with Arsenal at Anfield. The gunners will have a big say in the eventual destination of the title as they have to play us, Chelsea and Utd before the end of the season. They're in decent form at the moment but have a few defensive problems with Gallas, Clichy and Almunia injured. I fancy us to win it especially if the captain returns from injury.

Tony Evans in the TImes has a moving piece on going back to Hillsbourgh on the 20th anniversary. As I've said before on here, Evans is one of the few hacks that I respect when it comes to writing about LFC. You can hear him most weeks on the Game podcast from the Times.

The guardian rumour mill is linking us with another move for Javi Martinez at Bilbao. Could that mean that Lucas or Xabi are on their way this summer? Maybe he's being lined up as an alternative if moves for Gaz Baz fail again. I think the Englishman is a much likelier signing, mainly due to his nationality and his price. Another player linked is Wesley Sneijder who Real Madrid are willing to sell and David Silva who Valencia have to sell. Guillem Ballague reckons that we're interested in both of them but Real want Alonso and are using Sneijder as bait. I'd like to see us sign the Dutchman but not at Xabi's expense.

Babel says that he's not happy with sitting on the bench. Fair enough, but when he's played this year he's been fairly average. He's a prime candidate to be sold this summer from what I can see. We should be able to get a decent price for him as he's a young and talented player but I don't see him realising his potential with us.

Normal service has been resumed

2009-04-11T11:31:00.010+01:00

In the run up to the match, Stevie spoke about his personal loss on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsbourgh disaster. is 10 year old cousin Jon-Paul Gilhooley was the youngest victim that day. You can make a contribution to the Hillsbourgh families support fund by buying this single. Steven Warnock laid the wreath in front of the kop before the minute's silence which was a nice touch from Blackburn.Blackburn had planned to keep it tight and frustrate us to get a scoreless draw. Fat Sam tired to take a leaf out of Jose's tactical notebook by playing Samba, a defender, in the striking position. As it happened they didn't legislate for El Nino who did this after 5 mins which put us on our way to a 4-0 win. Van Basten would be proud of that one. Goal of the season for me. He added a second with a towering header from an Alonso free kick. He was taken off before the end to rest him for the champions league. He could have had a few more but it was a great performance from Fernando who made light of the absence of Gerrard through injury.

We had numerous other chances and could have been 4 or 5 up at half time. We got a bit sloppy in the second half but made some subs and got two late goals to put a smarter gloss on the scoreline. Agger, who came in for Skrtel, struck with a trademark long range strike. I'm a huge fan of the dane, even though this wasn't his best performance. He says he wants to stay in L4 but I think he'll leave this summer. Then David N'Gog came on and headed in from a yard out after Lucas headed back across the goal from a corner. Nice move and good confidence booster for the french teenager.Tuesday night will be do or die. We need to win by three clear goals to win the tie which is a really tall ask. They did concede three second half goals to Bolton today but that was after they had scored 4 in the first half. A big difference from the first leg will be the return of the suspended Mascherano who was superb today against Blackburn. John Terry will miss the game but Carvalho returns from injury which is a pity as he's a better defender than the English captain. I hope we can win it to keep our momentum going but I fear it's too tall an order.

Anfield gets the blues

2009-04-07T11:27:00.015+01:00

While it may not be palatable, we need to admit that we were beaten by a much better team last night. We may have beaten them twice in the league this season but we faced a different Chelsea in the champions league. They were really hungry and capitalised on the fact that many of our players played poorly. We got the early lead after some great build up play and a superb ball from Kuyt to Arbeloa who set up El Nino for a first time finish. We should have pushed on but Chelsea started to control the midfield and the match.

The defence had a collective nightmare. Pepe wasn't bad and Arbeloa was good in the first half. But Drogba caused all manner of problems to Carragher and Skrtel. Aurelio had as bad a game as he's ever had for us. It was uncharacteristic. The defending for the corners was pathetic.

Babel and Dossena offered nothing when they came on. Lucas has shown in recent times that he can fill in admirably in midfield but against the Chelsea midfield he looked off the pace and out of his depth. We badly missed Mascherano. His presence at the bridge will give us a sliver of hope in the return leg. But we'll need to score three away goals which is a very tall order even if Terry can't play. It would a comeback of Istanbul proportions if we managed it.And after all of that, it now looks as if Gerrard has a groin problem and may not be able to face Blackburn on Saturday morning. While Essien did a superb marking job on him, he wasn't as free moving as he normally is. Blackburn being a big Sam team won't be a pushover despite their league position. I'm hoping that Yossi will be fit enough to start if Stevie can't make it. He's been in very good form recently and deserves a start.

Rafa says that he's not interested in signing Simon Kjaer from Palermo. The 20 year old defender is target to replace Agger according to some reports. Kuba at Dortmund, is another target who we've been tracking for a while. His club are trying to tie him down to a long term deal, which will stave off our pursuit of him.

All bar one

2009-04-05T12:02:00.000+01:00

It was one of those nights. We dominated inferior opposition and created loads of chances. We even hit the woodwork four times. But not matter what we did the ball refused to go into the net. We looked destined for yet another disappointing draw but Yossi wasn't having it. Coming on as a sub he stamped his mark on the game deep into injury time, drifting in from the right to fire past Swartzer and send reds worldwide bouncing. The commentary in that clip is quite special. Yossi to the rescue. Yossi got injured while away with Israel. I doubt Rafa was too impressed with that but maybe he'll forgive him after this.

Rafa made three changes beforehand by bringing in Insua at left back, Lucas in the middle and Dossena on the left wing. All three did well. Insua is going to be some player and between him and Aurelio we're well set in what was once a problem position. Dossena was a potent threat going forward on the left while he was freed from defensive labours in this position. This could be a better role for him as he has been shown up defensively at full back. I still don't know if he has a future at the club beyond the summer but he will contribute during the run in.

It would have been a grand miscarriage of justice if Fulham had managed to hold out for a draw. They were beaten all ends up by us. Swartzer made some good saves to keep them in it and the width of the woodwork thwarted Xabi, Torres and Dossena twice. But we got our just deserts in the end. Now we have to hope that Villa can do us a favour today.Chelsea. Yes that's right, Chelsea. Yet again. I'm sure we'd prefer to have the second leg at Anfield as we saw in the tie last season. Hidink has them well organised and it won't be easy. I find these games interesting rather than exciting but I think I'm the only one there.
Stevie G gave us a good start to the weekend by signing a 2 year contract extension. The backroom staff have all followed Rafa's lead and signed contract extensions. Not to be outdone, Dirk agreed a two year extension. Let's hope that Dagger jumps on the bandwagon.

Del Bosque is impressed with Xabi's beard. Maybe we should all grow beards.

Rafa has denied any interest in Valencia attacker David Silva. Valencia are broke and are selling their stars to balance the books this summer. Could Arda Turn of Galatasary be a target this summer? He's a fan going by this interview. He's fast, tricky, plays wide and has performed well against us in the champions league. Sounds ideal. The BBC gossip column has us linked with Eto'o for £18m. While he is a class player, I don't see where he'd fit into our current formation. I'm not really into paying that much for a squad player or playing him out of position. Maybe we'd change formation? They also say that Hertha Berlin have agreed a £4m deal for Voronin. They should have the cash as they'll almost definitely finish in one of the champions league spots. Not bad for a player that we picked up for free. Agger isn't in any hurry to sign an extension. I had hoped that Rafa's new contract would have given him some encouragement but alas it doesn't seem to be happening. I fear he's off in the summer and maybe Albiol will be his replacement.

Here's a good sky compilation of footage and player interviews after the win at the theatre of prawns. Worth a full screen viewing.

The new deal

2009-03-18T15:15:00.005Z

Rafa has signed on until 2014. Long live the Rafalution. He's the best man for the job and is improving us every year that he's at Anfield. Some people will say they were won round in the last 2 weeks but there was never any doubt for me. Rafa is boss.

5-0 was a flattering score, for Aston Villa. If only we were more clinical, we could have achieved double figures. This was a really dominant performance from what I saw. I missed the game live but watched extended highlights. Great to see us thrash teams again. Villa were competitive up to a point and Pepe made some great saves but collapsed after the second goal. Riera's was the pick of the bunch but Dirk showed good striking instincts and technique for his. The captain stepped up to show how it's done with his first ever premiership hat trick. Well in Stevie lad.

I'm hoping that Villa will recover over the international break as they play Utd in their next match. It was joyous to see Utd lose the match and their discipline against Fulham. That coupled with Chelsea losing has put us in a great position in the table. 1 point off the top with a better goal difference is much better than we could have dreamed two weeks ago. We still need Utd to slip up again but if other teams like Villa, Arsenal and others can take points from them then we're in with a shout. We need to maintain our own from though. If we draw against Fulham on Saturday week then it's all been for naught. We have the belief but we need to show it in every game from here to the end of May. I still think that we'll probably come up short but I was wrong before. Agger could well be back fit by then which is a massive boost. I'm hoping the kid signs a new deal now that the boss is on board.

Gerrard sounds happy with his position at the club and his current form certainly reflects that. He should start contract talks on an extension in the summer.

Martin Samuel has a piece in the Mail praising Dirk. There is a lot to be said for his versatility and lack of ego.

Theatre of dreams finally lives up to its name

2009-03-15T03:08:00.030Z

Sir Bobby Charlton, Wayne Rooney, Mick Hucknall, Roy Keane, Eamonn Holmes, Lady Ronaldo, Eric Cantona, Gary Neville. Alex Ferguson. are you listening? Alex Ferguson, your boys took a hell of a beating.Here are the facts.
Fact no. 1: Liverpool scored 4.
Fact no. 2: Utd scored 1.
Fact no. 3: Liverpool have taken 6 points from Utd and 13 out of 16 against top 4 opposition.
Fact no. 4: The ref sent off Vidic and gave us a penalty. Yes, at Old Toilet. Wonders will never cease. Maybe Rafa's so called rant about ref's at Old Toilet had an effect.
Fact no. 5: Torres is the best striker in the league.
Fact no. 6: Utd will still win the league.
The last is a most sobering thought. While Saturday was superb, it would take a catastrophic defeat for Utd to drop more than 7 points and us to take maximum points from now on. It's a big ask, too big. I can't see the teams that they will play taking too many points from them. We'll run them close but I fear it will be an ultimately futile chase.

But for now, let's bask in the glory of this. I had the interesting experience of watching the match in a bar in downtown Seoul with my mate Eoin. He pointed out to me that the Korean viewers voted Park Ji Sung man of the match. When we went a goal down, I feared for the worst. I wasn't convinced about the peno but you see them given. Don't think it was stonewall but wasn't up in arms about it. But we managed to get our shit together once Vidic decided to show why he should be player of the year. He shat his pants once Torres left him for dead and beat Edwin VDS at the far post. Beautiful. Where would we now be if he'd been fit all year? Nearer the summit if not top.

Then on the stroke of half time, we got a really soft peno when Evra took down Gerrard in the area. Stevie promptly dispatched it and we went in ahead at the break. Our domination continued in the second half. Torres was turning and tearing their defence at will. Gerrard was playing between the lines expoloiting the space that Torres made. Kuyt and Riera ably assisted on the wings. Utd had a short period of pressure but their much vaunted attack of Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo did very little. Arbeloa was injured in the warm up so Sami started in the heart of the defence and Carra went to right back. As usual Sami slotted in perfectly.

When Vidic took down a Gerrard who was through on goal, he gave the ref no choice but to send him off. The straight red means he'll miss 2 games. Hs pulled Torres in the box earlier which should have been another penalty but he got away with that one. He's been getting away with that kind of blocking and pulling all season but not this time. The excellent Aurelio swung in a superb free and VDS didn't even make an effort to save it. He is so far past it. Can't understand how people were praising him to high heavens a few weeks back. He's an average keeper behind a good defence, nothing more. Dossena added the icing on the cake with a injury time lob over VDS after a Reina kick out. 2 goals in 2 matches for the italian full back.

Poor Xabi wasn't fit enough to make the squad so javier started alongside Lucas in the midfield. It's high praise for the young Brazilian to say that Xabi wasn't missed. Carrick and Anderson weren't given a minutes peace and made mistake after mistake. They were made to look decidedly average by out south american combo. Mascherano has been immense this week. His will to win is staggering. Richard Williams in the Guardian argues that Mascherano rather than Torres represents Benitez's best signing.Now it's time for Villa. They're in shit form. I fancy us to do them as they're confidence seems to have drained. They have the pace to trouble us, especially if Arbeloa isn't back. But if Gerrard and Torres can continue their present form, who can stop them? Real and Utd couldn't. Can Zat Knight and Carlos Cuellar do better? We'll find out on Sunday afternoon.

Zidane recently labeled Gerrard the best player in the world. Gary Mac agrees so who am I to disagree with the two of them? Johan Cryff reckons that Europe fears us. Despite that, I don't really want to get Barcelona when the champions league draw is made on Friday.

Madrid done four

2009-03-05T09:24:00.027Z

How's that for shit on a stick? How did a negative manager like Rafa manage to beat Real Madrid 4-0? It must be because Liverpool are shit. Couldn't be anything to do with Liverpool being good. Given that Boro beat us 2-0, does that mean they are 6 goals better than Madrid? Probably.

A great performance on a great night. We bullied them from the off. Gerrard superb all night but Torres put them to the sword. He looked as fired up as I've ever seen him. Unstoppable. He gave Cannovaro and Pepe the run around, turning and leaving them for dead at will. As Stevie said, "we were awesome".

It was a brilliant team performance. Only for Cassillas, we could have won by a lot more. He made a string of amazing saves. But he was unable to stop El Nino when Kuyt set him up from the right. Then we got lucky with a peno against Heinze. It was harsh in the extreme but Gerrard made no mistake from the spot. When the second half started we picked up where we left off. Babel fed Gerrard after beating Ramos down the left and the skipper hit a sublime volley. Real gave it a bit more of a go after that. Lucas and young Jay Spearing came on for Torres and Gerrard. Spearing put in an impressive cameo. Then Dossena scored the final goal after coming on as a late sub, his first goal for the reds. Nice one baldy.

I don't think we'll worry about facing anybody in the quarters. Bring them on. We've proved our Euro pedigree over the past few years and nobody will be thrilled about drawing us.So it's the short journey to old toilet on Sat. If we play like we did on Tuesday, we'll give them a good going over. I expect that Utd will be a harder test. They're in decent form. I hope the ref doesn't take the piss like he did in the corresponding match last year. It's going to be tough. I think we'll draw. A win would be great but I think it's beyond us.

Paul Jones in the Times has an article on the disgraceful booing of Lucas at the Sunderland game. It was shameful. Tony Barrett in the Echo has a similar article. Speaking of the young brazilian, he could be on his way to Atletico in the future.

Paul Tomkins on the official site exposes the sky propagated spending myth. Read this if you can handle the truth.

The daily Mail is linking us with a move for Aaron Lennon. He seems to have improved this year and Rafa has been linked with him in the past. He'd give us much needed pace on the flanks but he would cost a fortune due to the english player tax.

Paul Kelso in the mail has a sobering article on the revenue gap that has opened between LFC and the other top four clubs. This is why a new stadium is vital.

Yoss we can!

2009-03-03T09:07:00.019Z

LFC got back on track with a routine 2-0 home win. Sunderland did their best to frustrate and kept it goalless at the break. But Yossi said "I'm not having that" and ran at them until they gave in. I've been so impressed with him since Christmas and he's been head and shoulders ahead of the rest. He caused the black cats no end of problems and even managed to grab a poachers goal when Fulop fumbled a N'Gog effort. He linked up well with Kuyt, Gerrard and N'Gog and is clearly relishing the extra attacking responsibility he's been given with Torres out injured. Can we beat them? Yoss we can.

Sunderland parked the bus looking for a draw, after seeing so many teams stifle us effectively this year. It was up to us to break them down and Yossi took the lead in that department. David, or Charles as Jamie Redknapp likes to call him, scored his first premiership N'Goal for the club and put in an impressive performance. Riera sent over a lovely cross from the left for Gerrard to head back into the danger area and N'Goals finished from 6 yards out. How refreshing to take the lead in a match rather that having to chase a game? I wouldn't say he looked like the second coming but he showed some of the potential that the staff have invested in. He has a nice touch, decent pace and links up well with others. He still looks a bit slight and could do with some work in the gym this summer.

Javier Mascherano was pretty deadly at right back. Sky and Setanta were perplexed by the decision but he's played on the right before for River Plate. He's quick, reads the game superbly and is a great tackler. He made a few marauding runs up field and even hit the side netting with one shot. The next time that we have three right backs injured, Arbeloa, Darby and Degen, we should stick him in there. Maybe he would have been a better option there against Boro.We have a week off until the next Madrid game. I'm hoping that some or all of Torres, Arbeloa will be back fit by that stage. I'm sure that they're undergoing intensive treatment. We do have the away goal lead which is huge but it means nothing unless we keep a clean sheet. Javier had a great match in the first leg and we'll need him to be at his best again here. That's why we'll need Arbeloa fit so Javier can return to his usual post. We're in pole position but it isn't over and we can't take anything for granted.

Raul Albiol is being linked again with the fee being £13m. Arbeloa is yet again being linked with a move back to Spain, with Atletico willing to pay over £7m for him. I think he's improved on last year and has been steady if unspectacular. He's quicker than Finnan but doesn't cross as well. If he does go, I hope we get a top quality replacement in.

Adam Hammill is trying to impress the boss while on loan at Burnley. Seb Leto's loan at Olympiakos could be in trouble after a training ground bust up.

Rick resigns as reds rumbled riverside

2009-02-27T10:08:00.010Z

Liverpool suffered their second league defeat of the season as Boro won 2-0 at the Riverside. Why is it a team who hasn't won in 14 games manages to turn it around against us? The likes of Downing, O'Neil and Wheater looked great but I'm sure they'll be back to their normal level of mediocrity next game. Carragher wasn't up to playing right back so Skrtel had to fill in for the injured Arbeloa. He was uncomfortable in this position and Downing made the most of it. Brad Jones had a great match and made some superb saves. We were the better team for the first 30 mins and then Xabi put the ball into his own net towards the end of the first half. But after that Boro improved and fully deserved their win. We were blunt up front without the injured Torres. Then Gerrard had to come off in the second half and any chance of another comeback went with him.

El Zahr started his first senior match for the club. He put in a few decent performances from the bench early on this year but the young Moroccan offered very little here. Dirk had a poor day up front and missed an open goal. He wasn't the only one and very few of the lads can emerge from this with much credit. A shocking performance. We knew our title challenge was finished after the city draw last week but now it's surely game over. With Chelsea resurgent under Hiddink, we'll have to get our shit together. We've already lost second place and could really do with reclaiming it. Finishing second or third doesn't matter a huge amount but psychologically it might leave us in a better frame of mind regarding next season.

It's the black cats at anfield this Tuesday and a good chance for some of the poor performers to get their act together and show some pride. What we really need is an early goal. All too often this year we've been unable to convert our dominance and chances into goals, which gives the opposition hope if they keep us goalless until half time. This makes the Anfield faithful lose faith and their unease gets to the players. Let's hope we score a hat full in the first half to avoid this all too familiar scenario.

Tony Barrett in the echo revealed that Parry is leaving in the summer, which is great news for Rafa and the club. I was originally a fan of Parry but he's been a disaster in recent times. He was one of the major reason the yanks succeeded, we're poor commercially, ticket office is a joke, he's messed up loads of transfers through sloth and ineptitude (Walcott, Vidic, Alves etc), the list goes on and on. But with him leaving, it will mean that Hicks has a free reign to do what he wants at board level. This worries me. Hopefully he'll be forced to sell before he gets a chance to inflict any more damage.

The Brazilian media are linking us with a summer move for Olympiakos striker Diogo. He's a player that Arsenal, Chelsea and us have tried to sign in the past. He's only 21 and has done well in Greece since his move there. But whether he'd be able to make the step up to the premier league is a different story. Let the trail by youtube commence.

Rafa raids Real

2009-02-24T09:00:00.022Z

Liverpool only won because Real are in fact shit, according to the pundits. Despite the fact that they were on a superb winning and goal scoring run, beating all comers, it only took Liverpool 90 mins at the Santiago Bernabéu to expose them as the muck that they are. Poor Andy Gray was inconsolable on Sky after the match.

The talk beforehand had Gerrard to start. As it happened, he only made the final few mins. Torres took a knock in the first few mins and didn't really get into the game afterwards. It was down to the supporting cast to make the headlines.

Yossi won it 1-0 for us with a header from a superb Aurelio free. The Israeli has really come into his own in the last few months and was superb last night. Playing in behind a lone striker really suits him more than playing wide. Man of the match for me but there were others who ran him close.

Dirk had another huge Champions League showing. All of the defence did well and restricted Real to a few chances. Pepe did well when called upon. Xabi and Javier were brilliant. Xabi tried one of his trademark efforts from his own half. Iker managed to scramble back and turn it over.

It was a huge result to get the away goal and keep a clean sheet. I do fancy or chances to go through and I fancy our chances against any team in Europe. I think that we have an aura and reputation that scares the opposition. They know that Rafa is the master of the two legged tie. Our reputation precedes us and works for us the way it does for Utd in the premiership.It's off to the Riverside on Saturday afternoon. They are never easy opposition for us and are one of those teams that we struggle against. I fear that we may be looking at another draw what with Torres out injured. At least Gerrard will be back to start then.

Ben Blackmore on the Setanta site posts a top article on Rafa. Contrast that with this shit. Matthew Sayed in the Times has an article praising the contribution of Gerrard. According to him, it's all down to Gerrard and Rafa has had nothing to do with our trophy haul since his arrival. What bollocks?

Transfer fiction writers Tribal football are linking us with a move for Raul Albiol in the summer. He's a young player who'd be an addition as he can play in defence or midfield but it raises more fears of an Agger departure. Kerrison revealed that he rejected a few moves to Europe. Was one of them from us?

Anfield Road.com have a great article on why it's best not to believe everything that you read in the press. That's been emphasised this week with all of the Rafa to quit rumours amid talk of bookies suspending betting. The boss quashed all of that rubbish with his post game press conference.

All over bar the shouting

2009-02-10T11:59:00.032Z

The fat lady is warming up and going through her vocal exercise. I would suggest "No distance left to run" by Blur. It's over. We gave it a decent shot but we're out of it now. It would require a Utd collapse and us to win every game for us to win the league. I really can't see that happening. Before the start of the season I predicted a second place finish and a title challenge. I'll take little joy in being proved right if we finish second, but the thought remains that Utd deserve and it and we don't have sufficient quality and depth.

Rafa hasn't conceded defeat, and I wouldn't expect him to while it's mathematically possible. But we needed to win this one and we didn't. Again we played well but couldn't turn possession and chances into goals. There was a goalmouth scramble in the first half where we should have scored. In fairness city were decent in the second half and caused us problems. Dirk did well with his goal to pounce on a chance which fell to him in the box after a Nando mishit. While we got a bit of luck there, it was made up for the fact that Bellamy's shot was going wide only for an Arbeloa deflection. We had Lucas and Javier in the middle and they didn't give the kind of service to Torres that he needs. With Alonso and Gerrard unavailable, we lack the experienced players to come in. Our bench isn't loaded with superb impact subs and the likes of Lucas are only ok. We're not replacing like with like when the squad is tested. Real isn't going to be easy as they've put some great form together recently. They won 6-1 at the weekend. Stevie should be fit for the bench at least which is a huge boost. We'll need him. I'd expect us to get at least a score draw.

Javier doesn't do goal celebrations by half. Here he is at the end of the Chelsea match.
Andrea Dossena has said that he's more settled in Liverpool now. There were rumours earlier in the season that he was having problems off the pitch. But his performances have improved greatly in recent months. If Rafa can coach him how to defend in a 4231 formation then he may have a future with us but I suspect that he may return to Italy in the summer with Insua and Aurelio as the two left backs next year.

Agger isn't happy. He has a back injury which forced him to miss the City game and he hasn't traveled to Madrid. Pepe is happy and doesn't want to go to Atletico despite what his Dad claims.

101 great goals has an article on FCB kid Deulofeu, who's been linked with us recently. No doubt he'll blow us off and go to Arsenal. Kerrison's agent is saying that we've been in touch but he doesn't want to move for the next year. He's a player that we tried to sign before so there could be something in this. The Palmeras president says it's all press talk without foundation. The guardian is linking LFC with a move for Espanyol's teenage midfielder Oscar Sielva. Apparently we can pick him up for around £2m as part of the Riera deal. Another player that Rafa has tried to sign in the past, David Villa, has indicated that he wants to stay in Spain if he leaves Valencia. I doubt we will have the cash to bid for him anyway.

Paul Tomkins on the official site attacks the myth that we are over reliant on Gerrard and Torres. He analysis the stats and shows that Utd are more reliant on their top two, Rooney and Ronaldo, than we are.

Tony Evens in the Times has put together a list of the 50 greatest reds of all time. I'm sure we can all dispute the numbers and order but sure it's an interesting read all the same.

My mate Clive Owen was in town this week and I attended an interview he did at the Dublin Academy. He regaled us with tales of watching the Istanbul Champions League final with Mickey Rourke. He has some quality quotes about the Reds in this Esquire interview. "That's a pure thing, that club. Not really explainable, really. My family endures. They don't understand it." We were a pure club but I feel that the taint of Hicks and Gillett is corrupting us. Save us Clive! Here he is hitting the bottle after the City game.

Rafa rotates his way to the top

2009-02-07T01:44:00.026Z

The knives were out with Rafa's team selection on Saturday where he made 6 changes due to injuries, suspensions and the fact that we'd just come through a grueling 120 mins derby midweek. When we went 2-1 down the knives were poised at the managers back. But two of Rafa's striking subs made decisive contributions against a tired defence. Kuyt and Torres scored to send us back to the top of the table which sent a giant "fuck you" to the begrudges.

A 3-2 victory over Portsmouth had the knockers declaring us lucky. Bullshit. I watched the match in it's entirety and we were way better than them. To read the match reports we were abject until Torres came off the bench. Au contraire, we were really good in the first half, without Torres, Xabi and Dirk, who were on the bench, Lucas who was suspended and Gerrard who was injured. Why are we lucky when we score late goals but it's the mark of champions when Utd do it or Morinho's Chelsea did it?

Yossi was central in this period. He took centre stage as the playmaker and was central to our passing, movement and invention. He was unlucky to hit the side netting in this period. Towards halftime he danced past two defender, leaving them for dead. He was the one who crossed for Torres' header at the death. He's been in good form recently but this was probably his best ever game for us. Playing in the middle definitely enables him to have more of an influence. I thought he was just a squad player but if he keeps up this form then surely he deserves a start ahead of Riera or Kuyt?

Another player who performed well on the day was Aurelio. He lined up alongside the superb Javier and Yossi in central midfield of our 3-4-3. A lot of journalists seemed to think that Rafa choose this set up for the laugh, rather than injuries and suspensions. What dopes. The brain trust on Setanta were "baffled". Poor Tim Sherwood was nearly in tears when we won. They clearly hadn't researched Fabio as he's played central midfield for Rafa before at Valencia. He is a superb passer and slotted into the Xabi role seamlessly. He hit the post with a free in the first half and scored from an indirect free in the second. Free kick Fabio is happy with his goal and the result. He should be put on set piece duty from now on.

Agger excelled as the libero of the three central defenders. He frequently ran forward with the ball at his feet and hit some superb balls. He is a star and it'll be a disgrace if we let him slip through our fingers. Parry needs to get him signed up NOW! Dossena and Arbeloa ran the flanks with aggression. Dossena had another good game but both wing backs were let down by their crossing.

Rafa sprung Torres and Dirk from the bench towards the end and both scored. If Fergie did something similar he gets named a genius as in the Champions league final 99. Neither Babel or N'Gog had done a huge amount and Ryan missed a sitter after Dirk crossed from an acute angle. Moments later, Dirk scored from a similar angle when he beat James at his near post. Then El Nino hit the winner to send reds into rapture. Stunning.

We had been lucky to see Nugent score when he should have been flagged offside. Dirk had a legitimate goal ruled offside which was a pity as it would have made the finish less frantic. Pepe didn't cover himself in glory when conceding a free header from Hreidarsson.Now we're looking at an international break and it's the usual case of fingers crossed in hope that we don't lose anymore players to injuries. Then we're looking at the mercurial Man City visiting Anfield. They are starting to get a bit more solid and Given was superb at the weekend. Lucas will be back from suspension then and Torres should be fit to start. Insua should be back from captaining Argentina in the the South American u20 championship too.

Could the Barry pursuit be reopened this summer? O'Neil says he won't stand in his way if they miss out on the champions league. I like Barry but if it means Xabi being sold then I'm dead against it.

Costly defeat

2009-02-03T19:08:00.017Z

Out of the cup, quel dommage. Good goal by Rodwell for the winner but what an appalling match? Both teams were shit but Everton were better once Luas got his second yellow. While I don't really care too much about the FA cup this year, we'll be counting the cost for a while. Firstly our captain came off injured after 15 mins on Wed. He's out for 3 weeks and the gaffa is worried. Luckily, there is an international break in that time so he should be back in time for the Real Madrid game.

Secondly the players had to play 120 mins which won't leave them feeling fresh ahead of the Portsmouth match on Saturday evening. Torres didn't have a great match but is regaining fitness after his lay off so I'm hoping we see the Chelsea Nino, rather than the Everton one. In fairness to Jagielka, he played well and shackled Torres by and large.

Rafa reckons he has enough attacking options without Keane. That may be true while Torres stays fit but if he breaks down then we're screwed. He did hint that the likes of Nemeth and Pacheco may get a look in at some stage. Degen, not for the first time this year, is injured and dare I say it, not for the last time either. I would like to actually have a look at him play some time. If he can't make an appearance by the summer he should get shipped out.

The myth that our full backs "never cross the halfway line" (TM Andy Gray), seems to have become an accepted fact by the masses. Funny how we saw both Aurelio and Arbeloa rampaging down both wings against Chelsea. Aurelio put in the cross for Torres goal and has four assists in the league which compares favorably with any other full back. I'll wager that this figure would be higher if he hadn't been injured for a while.

It's interesting to hear that we failed in a bid to sign Kerrison in Jan. He's a player that we've been linked to in the past but he has a complicated third party ownership contract which made any transfer very difficult. Spurs tried to offer us one of Jenas, Bently or Bale in part exchange for Robbie. Bently would have been useful as an option for the right but he seems to be a complete knobend and I don't know if he would have fit in. Fans and players don't have a very high regard for him. Anybody who rocks the dressing room boat doesn't last long at Anfield i.e. Bellamy.

Xabi says that he's going nowhere for the duration of his contract. So we can look forward to watching the maestro for the next 3 years at least.

It looks like Rafa is trying to rob Barca. The object of his attempted larceny is none other than Gerard Deulofeu, a 14 year old prospect. He too could follow in Pacheco's footsteps. Speaking of the underagers, Ince, Pepper and co beat Chelsea 1-0 in the FA youth cup last night. Let's hope they can repeat the success of Spearing's team a few years back.

Keane kops out

2009-01-31T16:01:00.023Z

Rafa's going anywhere after a 2-0 win over Chelsea at Anfield. Robbie's going somewhere. Spurs to be exact.

But first to the game, and what a game it was. I found it absorbing. Granted I'm biased, but I really enjoy watching the cut and thrust of these games. This was much more one sided than Chelsea games in recent times as they brought nothing to the party bar some superb defending from Alex and Terry to a lesser degree.

We were well on top before Fat Frank was sent off but Chelsea sat back even more when they went a man down. Admittedly, it was a harsh sending off but it was evened up by Bosingwa evading a Red for stamping on Yossi's back right under the linesman nose. Rafa tightened the screw on Chelsea's ten men by taking Javier off for Babel. Alonso had an effort tipped onto the bar by Cech and there were two efforts cleared off the line. Gerrard looked to be in the mood for it but blotted his copybook by diving and getting booked for it.

El Nino showed he's back in form with two strikes in the dying minutes. The first was a near post header where Torres showed his superb movement to get ahead of Alex and get on the end of a fine cross from Fabio on the left. Cech was shit all match and won't have been happy to get beaten at the near post. Yossi caused havoc when he came on and set up the second by getting free of the defence to advance on goal only for Cole to block it into Fernando's path for a tap in.

Pre match, Scolari gave Rafa his backing over the criticism of Fergie and the behavior of Refs at Old Toilet. He was magnanamous post match and admitted "Liverpool were better than us all game".
Nando reckons that Gerrard is better than Lampard. Me too.

Post match Rafa said that Robbie is going nowhere. 24 hours later, he's re signed for Spurs. The fee is £16m up to a potential £19m depending on appearances and success, which is the same fee Liverpool agreed to pay last year. I feel sorry for him as it hasn't worked out but I feel it's the best for both parties that he leave, as he doesn't fit into our best XI. He'll be back to top dog status at Spurs while he was always going to be behind El Nino in the pecking order here. I would have liked to see it work out, but I won't miss the circus that his selection/substitution had become. The questions and media focus it attracted became very tedious. No replacement was brought in but young Nemeth may step up when he comes back from injury. He is on loan but hopefully he can be recalled.

The FA cup continues to distract this midweek with a visit to Goodison. I couldn't care less about it. I wouldn't mind, or be surprised if he rests many of the senior team. It's always nice to beat them but we're in a great position in the league so lets go for it.

The Toon tried to sign Sami. Rafa was unwilling to let him go which is great. He's done well when called upon this year and is included in the champions league squad this time around.

Hopefully Rafa will get his contract sorted with the Yanks in town this week. Lots of the knee jerkers who turned against him over recent weeks will be annoyed to see the boss sign on, but I will be thrilled. He's the man for the job in my view. I don't know if we'll win the league this year, and we probably won't as Utd are deserved favourites. But we're in there giving it our best and I expect we'll keep plugging away until May. If we win in Old toilet then you never know. A fit and firing Torres could make all the difference, especially in those annoying draws against obstinate defences. If he gets injured we're in deep doo-doo.

Lucas laments at Latics late leveler

2009-01-27T13:06:00.015Z

LUCAS! What was he thinking? I was mucho pissed off when he conceded the peno last night. It finished 1-1 because yet again, our inability to score a second goal gives the opposition hope and let's them throw everything at us in the last few minutes, know that a point is there for the taking. We must have no toes left after shooting ourselves in the foot so often.

Yossi did fantastically well to score from such a narrow angle after beating the keeper and had a good game all round. In fact, he could and should have had a second when he made mince meat of the defence but couldn't beat the goalie. I was glad to see him come into the team as Dirk has been at nothing in recent weeks.

Torres looked off form and never really got into the game. Despite that, he did manage to put a header onto the post and had a few shots and half chances in the first half. He did nothing in the second and looked knackered again at the end. It may be a while yet before he can contribute 90 mins. Gerrard had a half volley near the end and a free kick before half time that were close. Babel didn't do much but Lucas had a decent match until his moment of madness. There was no need for that penalty to be conceded as the Wigan player wasn't even going towards goal.
Chelsea on Sunday sounds pretty daunting given our inability to score and win a game now. They were wobbly themselves for a while but seemed to have steadied the ship with their last two or three matches. We'll need to see more from El Nino and our Captain than we saw last night. Big game for Javier too, but it's the kind of occasion that he loves and thrives in.

Sky are reporting today that Keane is a Spurs target and they've sounded LFC out over a possible return. I think that any deal could only be in the form of a loan. To be honest, I would be surprised if this happens now. Even though he doesn't fit into our best XI, I doubt Rafa would be willing to let anybody leave the squad at this stage without a suitable replacement. But the Keane experiment has been a failure and I think he should be shipped out in the summer. We could do with a quality match winner for our right hand flank to chip in with goals, threat pace and movement from the right hand side. Dirk has his qualities but doesn't have much in that regard.

More evidence of why Parry must go, courtesy of Anfield Online. We risk losing Agger for a pittance due to procrastination.

Both Gabriele Marcotti in the Times and a Man Utd blog called stretford-end.com examine the zonal marking system we employ and discover that the myth doesn't match the facts. Andy Gray and co could do with reading these articles. Here's an extract.Quite frankly, that Liverpool are poor at defending set pieces has become the biggest falsehood since it was claimed that Chesney Hawkes was the future of music.
The truth is that Liverpool only conceded from two corners all last season, both coming in Premiership games (Chelsea away and Everton at home). In total the Reds faced 137 corners in the league, meaning Benítez's men conceded on just 1.5 per cent of them. Only one team, Chelsea, were able to come even close to that, allowing three goals from 127 (2.4 per cent).n terms of goals conceded from free-kicks delivered into the box, Liverpool also allowed only two in the Premiership all season, again one less than Chelsea. So the Reds conceded one-third fewer league goals than the next-best team when defending set-pieces.

A spate of youngsters have left on loan in the last week and Mikel San Jose is the latest to join them. The 19 year old centre back is going to Atletico Bilbao for the rest of the season. Those who watch the reserves regularly like this kid so it should be a good opportunity for him to prove he has the quality to step up to the next level with the first team in August. The official site have a chat with Spanish kid Daniel Pacheco. He is one of the youngsters who is tipped to make an impact here.

Charles Itanje wants to leave Anfield. I don't think that anybody is going to stand in his way. Cavalieri has looked far superior to the French keeper this season.

Same score, different game

2009-01-21T12:05:00.030Z

The BBC had a look back at another FA cup tie between the Blues and Reds. In 1986 it was the toffees who lost out as King Kenny and co went on to clinch the double. This time the score was 1-1 in what was an absorbing cup tie, from a red perspective.

It was like a training ground exercise of attack v defence. Everton offered practically nothing going forward but still managed to score a set piece goal against us, again. We really need to tighten up on that aspect. Once more it was lil' TIMMY! Cahill who did the damage. He managed to flick the ball on and Lescott applied the final touch which confounded Pepe. On the plus side it was a much improved performance from Monday. I could watch this stunning peice of skill by El Nino for the Gerrard goal over and over again. He is a god among men. Dossena had a good game, rampaging down the left flank. In fairness to him, it was his best performance for us, but that's not saying much, and he didn't have to deal with much when defending. Everton were engaged in blatent time wasting, well before half time. It was heartening to see us break down such a packed defence with 11 behind the ball, but unfortunately, we only did so once. On the down side, we didn't kill them off and will have to do it all again in a few weeks time. Neither Dirk nor Babel offered much, despite seeing much of the ball.

Could Robbie be on his way out of Anfield less than 6 months after he joined? The Irish Indo links him with a move to Man City for £20m. 'Arry was also declaring that he would like to have Robbie back at Spurs. There appears to have been a bit of a bust up when Rafa left him out of the squad at the weekend. It's hard to know what the story is here. I'm sure there's more to it than meets the eye but it doesn't look good for his long term future in L4.The italian media suggest that Ranieri at Juve is interested in Deadly Dirk. I can't see Rafa selling him as he's always one of the first names on the team sheets. I like Dirk but we can do better. Somebody like Yohan Gourcuff or Jeremy Menez would give us much greater penetration on the right flank. I would be inclined to keep Dirk for what he brings to the squad and he's great for tough away matches but adds less against the obstinate small teams at Anfield. Last weekend I was in Milan and visited the San Siro to see AC Milan beat Fiorentina 1-0. Given the controversy over the proposed sale of Kaka to Man City, there was an incredible atmosphere. We saw numerous banners and heard explosions and almost 70k chanting in unison. It was louder than any other sporting experience I've had by quite a bit. It was also quite a bit louder than any visit I've made to Anfield. Now, I've only been to one champions league match at Anfield, this year against Marseille, but it was a fairly sedate atmosphere. The Milanese people I met asked me about Anfield and the atmosphere and how it compared but I had to admit that the San Siro had beaten it hands down.

There is another youth feature on "A Liverpool thing". This time Vincent Weijl, the dutch winger comes under focus. Jordy Brouwer has gone on loan to Waalwijk for the rest of the season. From what I've read about the former Ajax striker playing for the reserves, I hope he doesn't return. Two more young strikers, Nemeth and Lindfield have left on loan. It will be interesting to see if Nemeth can make an impact at Blackpool in the championship given how highly he's rated.

Takeover talk has started again. This time it's the Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser Al-Kharafi who's talking to Hicks and Gillett. They want £550 million for the club. But towards the end of the week, this deal was said to have died a death.I wonder if this is just talk to try and get Dubai into a bidding war? The Guardian suggest that Sheikh Maktoum is still interested, at the right price. I hope that he drives a hard bargain in the summer and takes over from Hicks and Gillett.

It seems that the thieving scousers stereotype is a little outdated. Bad news for manchester.

Second goal syndrome

2009-01-13T09:22:00.016Z

If the premiership games this weekend had ended after 80 mins then we would have been thrilled. As it happened, we had a disastrous weekend. We were leading against the BS at Anfield but let them in with a needless late late free kick that Benayoun conceeded. Lil timmy cahill managed to flick in at the near post. Good finish but a bit of a sucker punch. We'd been the better team and should have battered them. But second goal syndrome struck again when we didn't take our chances and let them back into it due to our slim lead. We don't have any toes left after shooting ourselves in the foot so often.

The captain struck a fantastic long range shot to take the lead which was no less than we deserved. He had a fairly quiet game beyond that. El Nino should have put us in front when he beat took the Everton defence apart but hit the post when he should have hit the back of the net. As well as that, he could have had a peno when Jagielka took him down in the box. He caused lots of problems in the first half but faded badly in the second. But he should benefit from the run out and will be sharper with every game. Riera was good and had a few decent shots. Arbeloa is back soon which is helpful as we don't threaten down the right with Carra. It's Everton again in the cup at the weekend. Rafa may rotate and I have to admit that I find myself not caring too much about this one. It's always nice to beat the BS but I suspect the cup might mean more to them. I am much more focused on the league than the cup.

Oliver Holt in the Mirror has an article backing Rafa over his press conference. What is worrying, is the impasse on Rafa's contract. He rejected the initial contract offer as he wants to bypass Parry in the transfer negotiations and have more say in how we spend our budget but the Americans seem unwilling to acquiesce to his demands.

Ryan reveals all. Will this help? I hope so as he's been fairly poor by and large this season. I fear a summer departure is on the cards.

Quite a few reports have been linking us with a 21 year old centre back at Fluminese called Anderson. Utd are rumoured to be in for him too. But with the Agger situation growing increasingly worrying, some of the press reckon we will give Sami another 12 month deal. Tony Barrett in the Echo has an article which allays the Agger transfer fears somewhat.

The Guardian is linking us with Hibs young full back Paul Hanlon who is on loan at St Johnstone. I fear he may be a bit lightweight for the premiership given these stats.

Pennant looks to be heading to the south coast on loan until the end of the season. Portsmouth say that he wants his free transfer in the summer so they aren't going to be able to sign a long term deal with them. He has no chance of playing for us so we may as well get his wages off the books for now.

At last, some sense on the "mind games" issue. Hindsight is definitely 20-20 vision when it comes to this kind of guff.