MICHAEL OWEN....JUDAS

Michael Owens crossing of the great divide will sadden many Liverpool fans who once worshipped him.
As a Liverpool supporter i rarely want recent Manchester United signings to do well for the club, but with the signing of Michael Owen it has brought my ill feelings towards a player to an all new high level.

I wish unspeakable bad injuries and bad luck to befall the former Liverpool goal machine, i know its very bad form to wish injury on any player but its honestly how i feel and i honestly believe the little Judas deserves all that i wish upon him.
People will say that he had to take Alex Fergusons offer as his best chance of resurrecting his World cup dream in Fabio Capello`s England, but the truth is he will most likely be a bit part player for the red devils and so he would have been much better served by signing for one of the lower teams in the league that he was talking to when the Man Utd`s offer came in.At a team like Hull he would have played every injury free minute and would have had a chance to really prove if he still has what it takes to cut it at the top level instead of coming on in the 80th minutes to give Rooney and Co a bit of a rest.
When i see the picture of Owen grinning holding the Man Utd scarf above his head and wearing the Manchester red bull rugby league jersey it shows just how low the little fella has fallen from his heyday as an Anfield idol. And some may say that he never really was an Anfield idol as he never really was as close to the fans as his predecessor`s Robbie Fowler or Ian Rush and that is true to a point but he was revered by the Liverpool faithful in the early days, there was many great moments and some great goals, but that was all soured when he forced the then new manager Rafa Benitez to sell him for a knock down price to Real Madrid in 2004 and he has soured that relationship with the Liverpool fans to new depths upon agreeing to join our arch enemies, remember this is not some foreigner like Heinz or Tevez but he is a player who came up through the Liverpool youth set up so he knows exactly what it means to the Liverpool faithful to cross the divide.
But there is one ray of shining light in all this, its a fact that without bad luck Michael Owen would have no luck at all, he left Liverpool for sunny Madrid to play regularly in the Champions League, the very same year that Liverpool lifted the cup on that glorious night in Istanbul in a game that most players can only dream about playing in, plus we can all see where his latest bout of luck has left Newcastle Utd.

So lets all hope that his lucky streak continues with Manchester United, Relegation might be hoping for a little too much though.

BENITEZ ABOUT TO END TO LIVERPOOL TITLE DROUGHT?

As it looks like Rafa Benitez will finally get his man and end the long drawn out transfer saga, Gareth Barry`s arrival will at last turn Liverpool into credible title contenders.

In order to capture Barry`s signiture Benitez has had to be at his most ruthless. Xabi Alonso will have to make way for Barry, he will have to be sold to recoup the money spent on his replacement. It looks like Alonso does not want to go but it would seem it is more to do with the fact that no high profile club have valued him as highly as the Anfield clubs price tag, than the desire the player has to stay and fight for his place. Perhaps these clubs are relishing what many Liverpool supporters have known for a while now, that Alonso is simply overrated. While many supporters still rate him, in my opinion he has not produced the goods for a season or two now, and when he does play Liverpool are not a better team and for those fans who still rate him do you really see him as an integral part of the Liverpool team that will finally bring the the league title back to Liverpool. Even though Benitez will not relish selling his Spanish compatriot, after all it was Benitez who convinced Alonso to join his Liverpool revolution right from the start and now for the good of the team Benitez will make the decision to end Alonso`s Anfield career whether the player himself wants it or not.


Steven Gerrard and Barry may be great mates off the field and there is little doubt that their friendship played a part in Barry holding out for a chance to join Liverpool instead of other possible suitors. But Barry`s arrival at Anfield may mean that Gerrard may have to return to the right side of midfield something that he may not be too happy about after getting a taste of his preferred role playing behind Torres in the centre. It would be one of the most talented midfields in the world if Rafa opted something along the lines of Ryan Babel on the left Barry and Mascherano in the centre and Gerrard on the right and i think that in a lot of the big games he may opt for something like this, but i do not think that Gerrard will be saying goodbye to central midfield for good.
Benitez`s signings this summer could be a viewed as a masterstroke in years to come. In signing Robbie Keane and Barry, Benitez has not just signed a striker and a central midfielder he has bought himself a huge amount of options in shuffling his playing pack around. Keane will normally play behind Torres but when the Spanish striker is rested, Keane can play up front with Gerrard behind him or Keane on the right when Gerrard is needed elsewhere. With Barry he will mainly play in central midfield but he can easily fill in on the left where Gerrard has had to do on a number of occasions and showed that out left is one position that the Liverpool skipper cannot really play and his talent was wasted there so hopefully Barry`s arrival puts an end to that madness.
People may say that Benitez has always had plenty of options in team selection and the amount of rotation he has done proves them right, but the difference now is that he can exchange top quality players for top quality, but also in the big games injuries permitting he can field the strongest starting eleven that Liverpool Football Club have had in many many years.

All the top teams will of course be strengthening this summer and of the top four Liverpool had the most ground to make up, but when Barry finally signs, Benitez will have got all his summer wishes granted and i believe he will have taken Liverpool a huge step forward and maybe just maybe he has done enough to finally end the title drought on Merseyside.

THE REFEREE`S SAVIOUR, SIR ALEX FERGUSON

Sir Alex Ferguson is back to his very best ahead of the Man Utd clash on Sunday. He has been shocked recently how badly referee`s are been treated. This is due mainly to Ashley Coles total disrespect in the recent game against Spurs.

Ole red nose said "The haranguing of referees is ridiculous, we know that," he said."We are talking about introducing this into the grass-roots level, respect for the referee. It is absolutely correct."

Wow it sounds like he really cares about referee`s and the respect they should be shown, and as we all know he has always kept his own players on a very tight leash and made sure that at all time they showed nothing but 100% respect for the officials decision`s and that contesting that final decision was futile and only served to smear his beloved club`s reputation. Why cant everybody just follow his clubs lead, surly all match officials would have a much easier life.





























































































Yep, you tell em Sir Alex that that sort of behavior is totally unacceptable, because the fact that other teams are now doing exactly what you have sent your cronies out to do for years it is now a suddenly a big no no , but as normal you like the majority of fans that follow your club will somehow find a way to justify your teams actions over the years and chastise the teams that follow in similar paths nowadays.
Nothing quiet like Man Utd double standards.

WHY RAFA THE ROTATOR MUST STAY

Rafa Benitez has his fair share of critics,and no manager has ever given the Liverpool faithful so many `What the f*** is he doing´ moments, but despite this he is still the right man to lead Liverpool in that ever elusive hunt for the League Title.

Rafa Benitez has had a roller coaster of a season with the lows sadly outnumbering the highs, he has at times had Liverpool supporters pulling hair from their heads wondering why certain players have been rested and at some of his rather strange substitutional decisions. We cannot be 100% sure that if he had not rested some of our better players early on in the season would the points tally be different, but Torres would have put much more fear into the so called lesser teams than Voronin or even the ever hard working but totally enept ability to find the back of the net player, that is Dirk Kuyt.

Looking now at the table shows that if we had won two or three of our eleven drawn games that we would still be right amongst the challengers for the title. But also if Torres had played all the early games would he have been as settled as he is now when we had the very bad run in January.

These are all if`s and but`s, but i think most will agree that Benitez`s decisions have cost the club some very valuable points. Some may say that Liverpools recent great form has been in some way due to Benitez`s resting of players early in the season, but to them i would say that the points dropped earlier in the season are as valuable as the points we are winning now, and it seems a bad gamble risking our season so early on.

So taking all this into account it would be quiet reasonable for the Liverpool faithful to be calling for the Spaniards head by now, but it is not so, on the contrary as shown in the very public, very un Liverpool like battle between the American owners and Benitez, the fans made it very clear that they overwhelmingly came down on the side of Benitez. I think this is because that despite his mistakes most fans relise that he is a top class manager as he often proves with his exploits in Europe and that given time and resources he will bring the title back to Liverpool.

There are also other reasons why he should remain at the helm at Liverpool, the first is that he is finally learning from his mistakes. He now seems to be rotating less, maybe he has come to the conclusion that the Premiership is not the same as La Liga. At Valencia he rotated his players just as he did here and the formula worked winning La Liga twice in three years, so it is easy to see why he stuck to his rotation policy, but perhaps in Spain he could rest key players against weaker teams and still win, but in England every year the so called weaker teams are getting stronger with improved finances from TV money and foreign owners investments. It must be very difficult to let go of his beloved rotation system that seen his Valencia overcome the big guns of Real Madrid and Barcelona twice.

The third and final reason for backing Benitez is that we all seem to have short memories, before Benitez the truely great players were not interested in joining Liverpool. The very best players like Fernando Torres are wanted by all the big clubs and they will all make big money offers, so these players pick the clubs that they can win medals and develop as players.
And of this i am sure, if Rafa Benitez was not our manager when Torres became available, he would not be a Liverpool player today, and the other players of Torres caliber that Benitez will sign in the future, will simply decide to ply their trades in other footballing Mecca`s in Europe, good players want to play for good managers.

With Rafa Benitez as manager it has been a rollercoaster journey, but he is taking our team in the right direction and not winning the league this year will not be the end of the world, perhaps expectations were too high, we are improving but so are the other top teams so it makes playing catch up just a little harder and takes a little bit longer time.

So maybe we have to learn something from our biggest foes and give Rafa Benitez the time that Man Utd gave Alex Ferguson after his very shaky start. It has not worked out so bad for them, so maybe we can afford to be a little bit more patient with our Spanish enigma.

WHY RAFA MUST GAMBLE

Rafa Benitez has to show his ruthless side, and for the good of the team sell Xabi Alonso and others, it is a gamble as he will leave the team light on cover, but it is a gamble he simply has to take.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the new American owners simply do not have the cash to inject into the club that will give Benitez the same spending power as his counterparts at Manchester United and Chelsea, and to improve his squad and it does need improving to truly compete at the very top, then it looks like he will be forced to sell to bring in the players that are needed.
Some money may be given for new players, but it was clear to see against the game against Man Utd that Liverpool have still got a fair way to overhauling the Champions.
Up front Liverpool have a world class striker in Fernando Torres, but sadly he is the only striker that looks like he could turn a game on his own and that other teams really fear. Crouch if given a decent run of games alongside the Spaniard looks the most likely to form a formidable partnership with Torres, as he also has that eye for goal but maybe more than he can offer is needed to turn Liverpool into genuine title contenders, Ryan Babel could be good up front but for the moment as he develops he seems more like cover for the wings and possibly up front.
Kuyt and Voronin are very similar players, both very hard working and although its great to see strikers tracking back and helping out their teammates, their first priority is to score goals and both these players sadly lack that killer instinct and that confidence that all the great strikers have that allows them to be selfish and go for goal at any opportunity. Players like Kuyt and Voronin can be useful in some games if Benitez feels that more cover is needed for midfield but in most games the strikers should have confidence that the midfield can do their job and should just concentrate on doing their job which is to score goals, its as simple as that. Liverpool do not need two players like this and selling Kuyt is the better option as more money would be recouped from his sale.
Another striker of Torres caliber is required because he cannot catapult Liverpool to the league title on his own and Liverpool are already to reliant on him and if he gets injured points will be lost so another top class striker is needed to really threaten opposition defences and to cover in the event of injury.

In central midfield Liverpool are blessed with three world class players in Gerrard, Mascherano and Alonso. They also have Sissoko and the young Brazilian Lucas who many predict will be in that world class bracket sooner rather than later.
Gerrard has cemented his central berth so the other four players are fighting it out to play alongside him and although cover is needed, Liverpool have invested far too much of their resource's in this position when the money could be used for strenghtening other positions which would benefit the teams progress much more. Money is needed to permanently sign Mascherano, Xabi Alonso should be sold to pay for this. Alonso is a great player with vision and incisive passing he is one of the very best, but Mascherano is better for the team, his non-stop snapping at the heels and break up of play takes pressure off the defence and allows Gerrard to attack more. Lucas and for now Sissoko will have to be enough cover.
It would be great to keep all these great players, but the simple truth is Liverpool cannot afford to.
Whatever money the owners put in, if any, and the funds raised by the sales of any other players should be spent on a long term, first class partner for Torres up front and the money from Alonso`s sale should be used to secure the long term future of Mascherano at the club. Other players such as Riise and even Crouch should be considered for sale if we need to raise the money for a second world class striker, it is that crucial to the further development of the team. Two top strikers will convert a lot more of the possession that Liverpool get into points and also make the opposing teams think more about defending the Liverpool threat taking pressure off the Liverpool defence.

Liverpool need to take a gamble, they may leave themselves light in cover in some positions but its a gamble that they need to take because at the moment the current squad is just short of what is required to make a serious title challenge and Benitez should concentrate on getting his first eleven right and then think about building cover for them.

Its a risk but its something that has to be done unless a huge amount of cash is released by the American owners, or Liverpool will once again at the end of the season be at best a top four team and that is simply not good enough for Liverpool football club.

IN RAFA WE STILL TRUST

Liverpool fans were brought back to earth by Man Utd`s victory at Anfield, but many fans, myself included were expecting too much too early from a team still being rebuilt after nearly two decades of neglect.
Much has been said recently about Rafa Benitez`s future at Liverpool, but let me lay my cards on the table now, i believe if we let the canny Spaniard leave Anfield for any reason it will set us back another two decades in our hunt for that ever elusive Premiership title.
I have not agreed with a lot of his decisions, i believe he over-rotates our players ,and as good as Dirk Kuyt is and we always hear how hard working he is, most of his hard work is defensive although we have the most formidable central midfield in not just England but in Europe so why does one of our strikers spend so much time and energy following players all the way to our penalty box and then leaving Torres all alone up front when the break does come, please have a little more faith in our defence. Torres works hard and defends from the front but he knows that his main job is to score goals and anything else is just a bonus for the team but defending from the front seems to be Kuyt`s main occupation, Crouch has his problems but he realises that his first priority is goals and he really should be playing more.Rafa does need to be more adventurous because our defence is good and we will score more goals than we concede.
Some of Rafa`s signings have been questionable, but he has always showed his ruthless side and quickly got rid of his mistake signatures at the first opportunity.
But what Rafa does give us is a clear plan. He has swelled the youth ranks from the finest that could be found from all over Europe and beyond, building up the most enviable list of young talent that can be found in England, which also signals that, given his choice he is in this for the long haul.

Despite the recent loss to the fiercest enemy of all Man Utd, Liverpool under Benitez are heading in the right direction and are improving all the time under his stewardship and will only get better and better when the new players signed in the summer get more settled. Football changed the day Roman injected his Rubles into the game, now there are no quick fixes to winning the Premiership, Liverpool are basically outgunned by the financial muscle of Chelsea and Man Utd so we have to follow Arsenals`s blueprint for success in buying young players and letting them come through the ranks and then spending our money on top quality to get a blend of players that makes us true competitors once again.
For a team to win the Prem for a consistent period of time a winning mentality is built up in that squad and as players get older that mentality is passed on to the younger players so at the beginning of the season they actually believe that they will win the league and only by some mishap they wont. Man utd have that mentality, Liverpool were their fore bearers, but when Graham Souness sold the spine of the Liverpool team, he also sold that winning mentality and we have never been able to recover it.

Given time Rafa will accomplish that `WE WILL WIN´thinking into the Liverpool camp but he needs time, he is at an disadvantage because of the other clubs financial clout, but he has not held up his hands and said that its too much of an uphill battle, instead he has staked his reputation on transforming every level at the club, starting with the youth to provide a decent chance of producing our own gems and maybe just maybe by buying a few of the best and mixing them with our own prospects we may just get that winning mentality back again, and once again bring the league back home but it will not be easy and patience is needed, but without patience we may just lose the one man that can go against all the odds and money that the other clubs have and lose the chance to once again put Liverpool Football Club at the pinnacle of English football.

EVERTON 1 LIVERPOOL 2

The Merseyside Derby has as normal with a little help from man in black created enough controversy, to keep the banter going between the red and blue of the city until their next meeting and ensures that the fierce rivalry between these two old clubs will continue.

As always with football and even more so in tight derby battles luck has a part to play and both teams had the good and bad type today. Liverpool probably deserved to get the result as they created more chances and were handed a bombshell of bad luck when the usually so reliable Sami Hyypia skewed the ball into his own net, but Everton will feel let down by some very dubious decisions by the referee, Mark Clattenburg.
When Hibbert was sent off for fouling Gerrard for the first penalty it was clear that the referee was about to show the yellow card, even though i believe it deserved to be a red it was not good to see that a quick word from Gerrard could change the ref`s mind so easily and award a red, it had too much resemblance of the old days when it was a weekly event to see Roy Keane and his snarling Manchester United teammates bullying referee`s into submitting to their demands.
The Kuyt tackle could easily have been a red card and the Carragher pull down on Lescott in the dying moments would normally have resulted in a penalty. Everton fans will complain about the injustice like Liverpool did after the Chelsea debacle earlier in the season and both claims are valid but as everyone know`s luck has a major part to play in all sport and especially in the world of football, that lags behind the rest of sport by not introducing video technology that would solve nearly all of the injustices that happen every week in all the top leagues in Europe, so maybe we should not be blaming the refs, but instead ask why the overpaid people that run football do not actually do their jobs and bring technology into top flight football.

Benitez took one of the gambles of his Liverpool career by taking off Gerrard with 20 minutes to go, it paid off when Lucas took the decisive shot that Phil Neville saved with an outstretched arm with reactions that any goalkeeper in the world would be happy with, but if Liverpool had not won yesterdays game serious questions would once again be asked of Benitez`s team selection and substitutions. Yesterday Benitez started with Sissoko and Masherano in the middle and Gerrard on the wing and it was only when Gerrard in the second half started to play a more central role did he look anywhere near his best, and he actually for the first time in a long time was starting to have a major influence on the game even though his final ball and finishing were still miles away from what Liverpool fans have come to expect from their talisman.

The gamble paid off and maybe just maybe it may have the desired effect on Gerrard and as he said himself in his autobiography, he hates being taken off during a game and see`s it as a personal attack on himself, and this being the Merseyside Derby the feeling will have been ten-fold. Maybe this may shake him out of his current bad form because nothing else seems to be working, and despite all Liverpools big money big name signings, Liverpool still need an in-form Steven Gerrard to truly compete for that ever elusive Premiership crown.
Fair play to Benitez after the game he could easily have said that he took Gerrard off to rest him for the midweek game, but his honest answer was directed as much at Gerrard as it was to the media, he said "In this game, sometimes you need to play with the brain and we were playing with heart. We needed to keep the ball and pass the ball." which he was in no doubt referring to Gerrard, and now we must just wait and see how the Liverpool captain reacts to this new pressure from his manager.

As for the Liverpool display as a whole it is still nowhere near the standards that are needed to bring the title back to Merseyside, but as in all Derbies, it is not a normal game and it is hard to judge a teams form on a derby performance because both sides are fired up, but the important thing for Liverpool is that they take this confidence from the win, build on it and pray that their captain is returning to form and that their manager has realised that there is such a thing as over-rotation and Liverpool should be playing their best team and let the weaker teams adjust to Liverpool`s style of play instead of vice-versa and then maybe just maybe we will start to see the best of this exciting bunch of players that Benitez has assembled.