LIVERPOOL V CHELSEA , ARE WE GOING TO FACE A CHELSEA BACKLASH

Two of the most sought after managers in European football come head to head on Saturday. Both are under varying degrees of pressure from their board or owner and
this single game could change the face of the premiership in years to come.

The game on Saturday is make or break for Chelsea`s flamboyant manager, a loss to Liverpool Fc may not be the final nail on his coffin but it is one more nail in the lid.

This is a question mark over Chelsea rather than Liverpool, Benitez had his judgement questioned by some quarters following Liverpool`s poor exit in both domestic cups at the hands of Arsenal but a win on Saturday may open up a gateway to second place in the prem.
But i think the board realise what the vast majority of Liverpool fans already know, that Rafa is the right man to lead us forward and even if it is not this season, we are getting better all the time that Rafa is in charge.


On the chelsea side of things things are not so clear, we have massive amounts of rumours, probably most untrue but there is definitely a lot of unrest between Roman and Jose.
The British media has been softening up on Jose in the last couple of days by trying to imply that Roman has been the man picking some of the players that chelsea have bought in the last few seasons.
To me this excuse does not let Jose off the hook, think about it, if Jose bought all these players for overpriced prices that are not good enough to play for the club, that is his bad judgement.... But if he let Roman buy these players then you have to question what does Jose want from football. Any manager worth his salt would walk from a club when the owner went out on his own, buying players for the club, which may be the case. Imagine the Liverpool board telling Bill Shankly that they were handling transfers from now on.....love to be a fly on the wall for that one.

Jose has a great reputation in European football and could walk into a number of top jobs if he did not like what Roman has been doing for the last seasons..so why does he stay.
I think one or two reasons,(1) The money...... (2)its probably one of the easiest managers jobs in world football, you buy all the best players in the world let them play, win titles.. only problem is when things go wrong, you have got so lazy you dont know how to manage anymore.

Also rumours have come out of the bridge that the Chelsea players want to back Jose and make some sort of protest against his sacking, the sad thing for Liverpool is that in reality the only way these players can make a point for their beleaguered manager is on the pitch, so i expect a full on Chelsea assault on Saturday with every Chelsea player giving 110% for their fallen leader. We could not be playing Chelsea at a worse time.
But putting Chelsea`s eagerness to save their manager aside , they are dealing with the most in-form prem team of the moment so this really could be a momentous battle.....But as most pre-envisioned huge games go, there is so much pressure on the players that the games are not so entertaining to the neutral but to every Liverpool and Chelsea fan this could be their game of the season,the pressure is such.

So back to one of my opening comments, that Saturdays game could change the face of the prem for years to come, if Chelsea lose or draw against Liverpool i think they will not win the league so that may mean the end of Jose`s reign in England and as much as i dont like the guy he does make it more interesting and would be missed just for the his entertainment value.
Going to be an incredible battle on Saturday and even though i expect a fully fired up Chelsea team, Anfield is a daunting place now for all visiting teams and i expect Liverpool to be 3 points nearer to Chelsea on Sunday.

LIVERPOOL TAKEOVER VERY CLOSE

Liverpool Football Club today announced that the takeover bid by Dubai Investment Capital was very near to being finalised. The timing of this could be very important for the clubs ability to mount a serious league title challenge for next season.
The squad as it stands today is not a million miles away from being able to give Man utd and Chelsea a run for their money.
Why the timing is so important is because we very badly need some players in some key positions and in reality if we are going to be a threat to the other contenders for the league next season it would be a massive advantage to be able to bring these players in now in the January transfer window.
Liverpool have been a transition club from the day Gerard Houlier took over, right up to the present day Benitez era, we have been playing catch up in all these years to Man utd and Chelsea.
Every year we have had to improve our squad with a lot of players coming in each summer and it has cost us dearly. Each season we have had to get a lot of players to settle in all at once. And it shows in our season stats we are a team that starts the first half of the season badly and finish the second half strongly. Ok this is not our only reason for poor starts, inferior players that our budget forced us to buy had a hand in it.
Next season could be very different, the premiership is the hardest league in the world and probably the hardest to get used to, so if we can our new signings get accustomed to life in the prem this season by the start of next season we should have a very strong team that is capable to get of to a running start.
Defence is very good as Carragher and co have got real stingy in giving goals away, but we still have the problem that has haunted us for the last couple of seasons, putting the ball in the oppositions net.
Even though we have the majority of possession in most games including against the bigger teams we lack the creativity and the natural goal finishing instincts of a young Robbie Fowler at his prime.
Up front Dirk Kuyt is the closest we have to a 20 prem goals a season man, but i think he is having to play a little out of position further back trying to create chances for other players. The Bolton came was a perfect example, he set up the 2 first goals from a position between midfield and the forward line. Kuyt can do this but as he showed in that same game when the game loosened up and we could afford him to go further forward he scored the third and he is deadly once he gets a sniff of a goal. But we also need a striker who is more selfish and is only concerned with putting the ball in the back of the net.
But the main positions we need to fill are the wings, we really need world class quality there, at the moment we have Pennant who can send in an amazing amount of crosses in a game, but sadly most of them bad and he seems very unwilling to cut into the centre and run at defences Gonzalez on the other side seems very lightweight for the prem, but he is going through our normal problem, settling in time. Maybe he will settle in but as the months go on it seems more unlikely.
But the main problem with these 2 players is they really dont offer the attacking creativity that we are lacking. A fit Harry Kewell would be a very interesting prospect but Liverpool cannot afford to gamble on his fitness, so we must buy 2 world class wingers and if we can get them now, next season could be a whole new ballgame for Liverpool Football club.

RAFA WAS RIGHT!

Lets face it the league cup is the ultimate mickey mouse cup, played on a Saturday celebrated by the tabloids on the Sunday and Monday and all but forgotten on the Tuesday
Rafa Benitez has taken a lot of stick over the last week over his team selection, in last Mondays league cup defeat to Arsenal. I was disappointed too when i seen the starting 11, i was disgusted that Steven Gerrard was playing.
The league cup for most, apart from the top teams is still something worth winning, but Arsene Wenger got it right when he started to play his reserves in the league cup and the next season the other top teams followed suite. It is a great competition for the top teams with big squads to blood their younger squad members into first team football. It can also be useful to put players in the shop window that you would not usually risk playing....this has backfired spectacularly for Liverpool in Dudeks case... that was a shocking goalkeeping display
But Rafa got this one nearly right, Gerrard should have been rested but apart from that he was right to rest his main players. We had just played Aresenal on the Saturday and the game, 2 days later takes a lot out of players and because it was the mickey mouse cup why tire out our squad in a cup that even if we we went the whole way does not really mean so much....3 prem points are more valuable.
I have been a little disappointed over the last week not by the media, i expect it from them, but from so called Liverpool supporters that have started to question Rafa`s wisdom. It is right that a football manager is held to account by the supporters of his club but its a bit sad when our own supporters start to criticize Rafa when we have known from the start that he believes in resting his players by either rotating or not wasting energy on a mickey mouse cup and it has brought us success.
Things were different in the good old days when Liverpool were winning the milk cup, but nowadays with the champions league been so demanding and so many games and so much money to play for clubs cannot waste their time and energy and best players on small domestic cups.
Gerrard looked a bit jaded in todays game against Watford, could that be anything to do with last weekends exploits, i just hope he recovers for next weekends chelskis game, because chelski are well rested and so are we thanks to Rafa`s forward thinking.
Rafa was right!

MOURINHO, BETTER THE DEVIL YOU KNOW

An awful lot of speculation in the media in recent days claims that Jose `the special one´ Mourinho may be given the boot from chelski.
At first glance i thought how great this would be, because i do not think there has been a more annoying little twat involved with english football. But if you actually sit back and think about this for a minute Jose has done all the other clubs a huge favour.
He has had endless resources at his fingertips and he has spectacularly wasted an incredible amount of money. Just think back through the last 3 premiership games where he complained about the injuries that were causing his team to drop points, they drew to Reading Fulham and Aston Villa, now chelski had a minimum of 60 million worth of players sitting on the bench for all these games, more money than were spent on the teams and in Readings case there total squad.
So the question has to be asked if you lose one defender to injury and have that amount of money sitting on the bench can you really complain about injuries or should you be questioning the players you have bought for your squad. Last summer they sold Gallas ( huge mistake by his russian master) to get Ashley(i love money) Cole and also sold Robert Huth. Why was Eidur Gudjohnsen sold and why was Damien Duff sold because chelski are surely a lesser team since their departure.
Now any manager worth his salt with the money the special one has had should have been reinforcing his weakest area (defence) even before his russian master sold Gallas, but instead he spent his summer romancing Ballack because Jose seen the german as the final piece in his quest for total world domination....thats worked out pretty good.
So the rest of the premiership are much better off with Jose at the helm.
Consider what would happen if a Wenger or Benitez had been in charge of chelski and had that amount of money to spend...chelski would be miles ahead in the prem and in Europe.
But also remember this, Roman already has Jose`s replacement on his payroll, Guss Hiddink is currently manager of the Russian national team but been bankrolled by Roman Abromovich, so not only is roman`s rubles lining up ready replacements for chelskis players, but the new manager is already waiting in the wings just a plane ride away.
So Jose do us all a big favour and stay just where you are.....

BENITEZ V WENGER

This FA cup game could be very good for all the right reasons, two of the top four big names in English football meeting in the oldest cup competion in the world. But what makes this football occasion a little bit special is the fact that these two teams and supporters have very little animosity towards each other. First of all i think we have finally got over the Michael Thomas goal we even signed the man.
Arsenal are a hard team to hate (manure im with u till u lose supporters, and i am also prone to the odd prawn sandwich) and to the newest kids on the block Chelsea fc (dont really know what football is but my company got a tax deduction on a season ticket for me, but its a bit unruly nothing really like a good game of rugger played with some chums).
But Arsenal have a lot of similarities to Liverpool, both managers are underfunded compared to the 2 top twat teams, ok we still cant fund a Theo Walcott type transfer 5 million rising to 12.5 million on a kid, but both managers are trying to compete with the crazy money of chelski by scouring the globe for the best young talent to have a real chance of building for the future.
Whereas Alex has based his buys on whatever the tabloids say, and the special one took whatever his Russian master bought him, Wenger has been by far the best in the English game for spotting and nurturing talent, but Rafa`s young gun buys should be starting to break into the first team next year and then we can really compare the 2 managers on their talent spotting.
I hope its a good game because the fans deserve it, for too long we have been preoccupied with chelskis money and manure arrogance and ignorance, would be nice to finally after a long time.....enjoy the game of football between 2 great teams with 2 non arrogant non ignorant managers....for once lets just sit back and enjoy the sight of 2 great teams playing football

STEVEN GERRARD MBE

So Steven Gerrard has been given an MBE, this honour has been overdue and is richly deserved for one of the greatest of all sporting achievements.
This honour has been bestowed on our captain because he was involved in and was the main catalyst for one of the greatest comebacks in not just football but in all sporting history. He has been given this as recognition for not just what he did but what the whole team did that night.
On a clear Istanbul night he stood tall and lead his battle weary team out onto that the pitch for the second half, his team had just gone through a footballing lesson from AC Milan in the first half and found themselves 3-0 down at the break.
Most men would just give up at that stage but not Stevie Gerrard, he lead his team like all great leaders do, by example. He tackled he drove forward he rallied his men around him. And he got his just rewards by staging one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history and every sporting fan ( except ac milan and a few bitter jealous manyoo fans) that night witnessed a once in a lifetime sporting event that had everybody on the edge of their seats. Everybody loves the underdog and the great comeback and i wonder how many millions of people Liverpool fans and neutrals cheered and danced in front of their tv sets that wonderful night when Jerzy Dudek saved the penalty that rounded off the perfect fairytale sporting contest.
Now im sure there is going to be some be moaners out there (you know who you are ye little red devils) but surly Steven Gerrard exemplified the British Bulldog mentality that night,the never say never mentality. Some people may say other players at other clubs deserve recognition for what they have achieved but i think most already have, Sir Alex Ferguson for his and his clubs achievements and Sir Clive Woodward for winning the world cup, and im pretty sure people did not expect each player in the rugby squad to be knighted.
We at Liverpool could say why was Stevie only given an MBE and not Knighted but perhaps we are a little more gracious than some people(ye know who ye are).
So in short an MBE is great but we are just happy that so many people were able to witness a historical sporting contest. Thank you Stevie Gerrard, for one night the whole country united to wish Liverpool on and stage the comeback(except for a few, ye know who ye are).
Richly Deserved...

WHO WOULD YOU KEEP ?

Dubai International Capital are on the verge of buying Liverpool Football Club and by all accounts we will have a lot more money to buy players but i dont think it will be on the same scale as the chelski madness, but this is Christmas so lets imagine that DIC was another blank checkbook. Who out of our first team players would you keep even if you could buy the very best for all positions from around the globe.
I thought about this and its very hard to say we would sell any players because at Liverpool we back our players so we must remember this is just a Christmas dream and so we try to leave emotion and loyalty for our players out of it....very hard when we got god on our team...so here goes.

Pepe Reina: After his dodgy start to the season a lot of people might say sell, but he is a good keeper and with confidence back i think we should keep... but he needs to be consistent or Buffon or the likes may take his place.

Steve Finnan: Keep, he may be getting on but there is not many better right backs out there.. massively underrated

Jamie Carragher: Keep, dont need to explain anything about this one

Daniel Agger: Keep, this guy is already a great centre back great going forward and will improve

Sami Hyypia: Ok this is the first time i am going to break my own rule and let emotion rule the head, Sami is still good now but he is getting slower but he deserves to get a prem champions title with the club he has served so well.

Gabriel Paletta: Not enough known yet great tackle but makes some crazy decisions worth keeping in squad and see how he develops

John Arne Riise: Keep no doubt one of the very best left backs in the world

Harry Kewell: Love to see him play for us some day but would have to go if we got a world class fit left sided midfielder

Steven Gerrard:.................best footballer on the planet today

Luis Garcia: Scored some important goals for us but disappoints most of the time and sometimes has the tendency to turn you mental...gotta go

Mark Gonzalez: Came with great reputation and expectations, have seen nothing yet to justify that, but there is something about him...loan him out to an english club to toughen him up the we might just see what Rafa is on about

Fabio Aurelio: Bye bye we can buy better cover for Riise

Jermaine Pennant: Starting to show a little promise but on our unlimited budget we can buy a player that is world class so also bye bye

Boudewijn Zenden: Better in the middle but not good enough

Xabi Alonso & Momo Sissoko: I lumped these 2 players in together because after just buying 2 world class wingers and having Gerrard as an automatic starter these 2 players will have to rotate depending on our opposition..Alonso the master of the pass and Momo the ball winner who never gives up who could prove to be Rafa`s best buy ever, he is that good and he has that much potential.

Peter Crouch: Very difficult one because i am a fan of his, great late sub role because nobody playing the game today can change the direction of a game like him but he would have to be in the super sub role.

Craig Bellamy: Another very tough decision even with his great form of late there is better out there so either squad or bye bye

Dirk Kuyt: Going nowhere class act lately finishing a bit off but gives everything in every game set up play even defends a real gem and would make any team

Robbie Fowler: I left this one till last because its the biggest heart leading the head situations he has to stay and he should actually be given a little bit more of a chance but no matter what he should be in the squad that finally lifts the league title....god deserves it just for the passion he has for this club.

Ok so i found it very hard to fire our players but in a short summary i believe the players we have that would make it into any team in the world are Gerrard, Riise, Kuyt and Carragher because only we know how good he is...and in a year or 2 you can add Agger and Sissoko to that list.
Who would you keep?

LIVERPOOL FC, THE PAST AND THE FUTURE

The past year has been a year of up and downs for Liverpool Football Club, we started the the year 2006 as reigning champions of europe, but a bad start to the 2005/06 season put an end to our title aspirations but a fantastic run of results at the end of the season see us climb the table and qualify once again for the champions league.
But that great run of results did more than just ensure a good financial future by getting us into europes top comp, it put real belief that with a few summer signings even on Liverpools tight budget Rafa could work his magic in the transfer market and give us a squad that could finally find Liverpool Fc`s holy grail... to be once again after a long long wait be crowned League Champions.
Its very unlikely that it will happen this year once again our bad start to the season has caused us problems. I think there is 2 reasons for our bad start firstly we were given the worst possible schedule of games by having to play manure chelski arsenal everton and bolton all away from home, just the first 3 teams there make it very hard to get a winning run together.
Secondly if you look at the players we bought in the summer, Pennant sums up our problems, Pennant was brought in to cover the right side where we have had our biggest problems for years and we really needed to spend big there to bring in a player who would actually improve our team, he is not now or will never be a world class player , Rafa may work his magic on him and improve him over time but there is our problem.
Rafa is a master tactician and very good in the transfer market but he really can only do so much with the funds handed to him. Hopefully these will be problems of the past as long as nothing goes wrong in the clubs takeover.
So if i had to summarise the year that was, it was a roller coaster for hopes and dreams expectations were high, so it was disappointing to watch Liverpool struggle at the start of the season but if i can give a prediction i would say the future is looking very bright for the red side of Mersey... as long as we dont fuck this deal up and as long as some of our stupid fans who when we were having a BAD RUN were actually questioning if Rafa was the right man for the job.
Earlier in the post i said it was very unlikely that we could win the title this year and that is true, but if you had asked me 3 weeks ago i would have said it was impossible. So who knows this is football and anything can happen at Christmas...IN RAFA WE TRUST

CHARLTON 0 LIVERPOOL FC 3

Good solid result, the first 20 minutes of this game were probably the best football Liverpool have played so far this season. The early goal seemed to give us great confidence and we were ripping Charlton to shreds and it was amazing that Kuyt did not add to his goal tally.
But back to that first goal....thank god we got rid of Djimi Traore, his high foot tackle on Pennant in the pen area was complete madness and he really should have been sent off it was so dangerous. For the first time today Pennant seems to have grown some balls and took some resposibility and was not afraid to go past a man and was very unlucky not to score so maybe there is some hope for him after all. Gonzalez on the other wing also seems to be settling in but he really should have done better near the end with a free header.
Bellamy deserves a mention because his all round play today was fantastic capped of by a brilliant finish to seal the game, and what can you say about Gerrards goal, only he could keep such a cool head with defenders all around him to place the ball in the far corner of the goal and just leave their goalkeeper watching on as a spectator only able to watch the great man do his magic.......a good days work!

LIVERPOOL FOOTBALL CLUB SOLD ?

Dubai International Capital, the state-owned private equity firm which hopes to purchase Liverpool, has confirmed that it can provide the financial backing to allow the Premiership club to compete more effectively with the likes of Manchester United and Chelsea should it complete its £450m takeover at Anfield.

Please please Mr Parry dont fuck this up, this is Liverpool Fc´s chance to get back to where we belong as one of the top global football teams. This deal has everything that we want and need, clear our debts, new stadium and cash for Rafa in the transfer market. The stadium will on its own ensure a great financial future for the club.
There has been some grumblings about Liverpool Football Club going into foreign hands and some may not like the fact that the new owners happen to be Arabs, but i have no fear of this and i think we will never find better investors than the Maktoum family.
You only have to look at their track record in horse racing with their Godolphin racing international, these guys dont like to lose and have bought and bred the best horses as well as hiring the best jockeys and have an outstanding reputation in that sport.
I dont see them as been another Roman Abramovich they will not throw the money around as stupidly as he has done, but i have no doubt that Rafa will be able to compete with the big boys now in the transfer market and we have seen what he can do with a few measly rubles what can the man do with Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum`s billions.
So please please Mr Moores and Mr Parry please dont fuck this up, this is our chance to put this club back where it belongs.....winning league titles.

ANYONE WANNA BUY LIVERPOOL ?

This supposed deal to buy Liverpool Football Club is once again grabbing the headlines, dont get me wrong i know the only way for Liverpool to seriously challenge in the premiership is with new money but it just seems a little desperate with Rick Parry flying off to Dubai like a cheap salesman peddling his wares.
I cannot understand why it is so hard to get investors for a club like Liverpool Fc, it is one of the few football clubs in the world that is a true global brand and with a worldwide following of fans, so why so hard to get investors.
When the Kraft family were interested what actually put them off buying in, maybe Parry is not the right man for selling the true potential of Liverpool fc or are his hands been tied by the chairman David Moores.
One thing is for sure they are making a very difficult job of selling Liverpool Fc and losing time while chelski and manure go further and further ahead on and off the pitch.....wake up lads, the future of this club is in your hands!

WIGAN 0-4 LIVERPOOL

Bellamy is back with a bang, it was only Wigan but an away win is what was needed and hopefully will kick start our season.
A lot of work is still needed to be done to win a champions league spot for next season and in reality that is our highest hope right now. But as long as we back Rafa anything is possible.

RAFA OUT?

I have had enough of this `Rafa out´ comments from some supposed Liverpool Football Club`s supporters. This is not the Liverpool way, we have a tradition of backing our under fire managers and Rafa has improved this team.
Rafa`s biggest mistake was winning the champions league for us, instantly the league was expected next, but we have to look at the squad he took over they were mostly below par players.
Ok we are going through a bad run away from home but thats exactly what it is ....a bad run.
Give the man that gave us probably the most memorable night in this clubs history a decent chance to show what he can do and im talking about a long time, longer than a bad start to a season.
IN RAFA WE TRUST!

LIVERPOOL 1 MAN CITY 0

A hard days work Man city were good today and we were below par, but i thought the three man defence of Agger Hyypia and Caragher was very good and the way forward for this club in the future. Agger stood out not only great in defence but a real menace going forward but Sami`s brilliant long ball to garcia deserved a goal and shows the finn is far from finished.
Apart from that it was an ordinary performance but today we can blame injuries to the squad. Stevie took his goal well but it was Kuyt`s never say die attitude and tackle that gave our captain his chance.
A well needed result but when we start doing it away from home i will start celebrating

LIVERPOOL 2 READING 0

Easy day at the office as we seem to be getting our form back, it was great to keep a clean sheet. Dirk Kuyt looks settled already and he really looks like the top goal scorer we have been missing in recent seasons and whats even better is Rafa seems to think he does not need to be rotated and rested so much, with him on the pitch i always have the feeling that he is going to score.
Rafa`s selection dilemma was highlighted again yesterday when he left Momo out, Gerrard was allowed to play in the centre and he ran the game from start to finnish. But we dont want to leave Momo or Alonso out but Gerrard is much more influential in the middle. I really wish we would try 3-5-2 it is a risk defence wise, but with a midfield like that we would be camped in the oppositions half all day.
One other thing about yesterday, i thought Zendon was very good and it was by far his best game for us so far, and its good because watching Gonzalez yesterday it is going to take a long time for him to get used of the prem if he ever does.
A good days work we just have to keep up that level of football and commitment now every week home and away.

IN RAFA WE TRUST

ANGRY Rafael Benitez last night hit back at his Anfield boardroom sniper when he said that criticism of the club should be kept private.
The Liverpool boss was shocked by the attack on him by an unnamed director in yesterday's Mirror, who questioned his leadership and transfer dealings after defeat at Manchester United effectively ended their title challenge.

One of the greatest things about Liverpool Football Club has always been how the clubs board members have backed our managers through thick and thin, but this boardroom member has ended all that and he should have had the balls to say this openly and not hide behind anonymity.
Rafael Benitez inherited probably the worst squad of players to ever pull the famous red jersey on and has won the champions league and fa cup in his first 2 years and i think there is no doubt the squad is much improved and he has also brought in players to the youth set-up from all over europe to help secure the clubs future success.
Now i have been critical of some of Rafa`s decisions in the past but he is pushing the club in the right direction........he is the right man for the job!!!
This board member has to be identified and kicked of the board straight away because he does not have the good of the club in mind.

BORDEAUX 0-1 LIVERPOOL FC

Great result but we are not firing on all cylinders yet, we were lucky to beat a bad team, and that is not good enough for Liverpool Football Club.
On sunday we face our biggest enemies in a must win game, not only to revive our season but to fuck theirs up, with Momo Kuyt and Gerrard back there is hope.
The biggest plus in the Bordeaux game was the clean sheet and if Carragher and co can do the same on sunday we will win because Kuyt is that good.
It will be the turning point of the season.........yes this game is that important.
On a sad note i have to speak about the player i thought in the summer was going to be our best signing for years..Mark Gonzalez, dont get me wrong i still think there is hope for him its still very early and maybe my expectations were too high, but he was very bad last night he was constantly outdone for pace and did not seem to have anything else to offer apart from knocking the ball down the wing and then losing it, nothing would give me greater pleasure than been proved wrong but at the moment all i can think is something that goes against one of my earlier posts...........please get well soon Harry Kewel, we need you now!

LIVERPOOL 1 BLACKBURN 1

Another bad day at the office, and this time we cannot blame Rafa`s tactics or selection even though i thought taking Pennant off was crazy, he looked the most likely to open up their defence.
But our problems seem much deeper than Rafa`s tactics or team selection, we seem to have lost the `every loose ball is a battle to win´ team spirit that we had last season. Sloppy defending once again let us down, and i think its time we looked on Sami as a last choice and looked more at Agger and Paletta.
But the most worrying thing about todays game was our reaction after they scored, we did not react at all, it was the same slow tempo instead of hunting for the equalizer. And to be totally honest we were lucky to get even 1 point from the game after they somehow missed an empty goal near the end.
People may say dont panic its so early in the season, but we need to turn our form around right now just to get a champions league spot, and those pre-season dreams of winning the title....just not back going backwards and finishing worse than last year would be an achievement right now because of our current form!

LIVERPOOL 3 GALATASARAY 2

What a game what a night, it was the perfect example of shock and awe, this game was done and dusted when Crouch scored the brilliant third goal, even though they had their moments when it was 3-2 we never really looked like losing the game.
The best thing about this game is it gives Rafa the the problem of who does he pick up front for the next game, Crouch looked world class and Kuyt is a must pick but Bellamy despite not scoring has been playing good football and there is also the matter of God chomping at the bit to get a game, its a managers dream.
Pennant last night was fantastic and he really should be getting more playing time and im sure he will when we figure out how to fit him in.
I am a fan of the 3-5-2 but i dont think it suits our squad, i would hate to leave Finnan or Risse-Aurelio out of the team. This is where Rafa has his toughest decision, trying to fit all our great players into a starting 11, as i said before a managers dream............

LIVERPOOL 3 TOTTENHAM 0

Great result but it could have been so very different if Jenas did not do the near impossible when he missed with the open goal at his mercy.
But Liverpool Football Club deserved all 3 points today and it seems our top players are coming good at last Alonso is continuing to come back to his best while Gerrards set up play for the first goal was world class, once again Kuyt looked like he would score every time he was within a 10 yard radius of the ball and i loved the way he took his goal really giving it a lash into the back net and even as the final whistle went he was screaming at the ref to award a penalty, the boy just does not give up.
Riise and Gonzalez on the left looked good and i dont think its just an accident that speedy has finally started a prem game as soon as Riise has recovered, maybe Rafa sees speedy and Aurelio as too inexperienced or lightweight to play together just now.
But 2 goals from our left sided players is good, speedy seems to have the habit of being in the right place at the right time while Riise is just Riise and he is one of only a handful of players in the world who can score goals like that, massive power and the ability to keep the ball 1 yard of the ground all the way to the back of the net.
A good days work but now its just a case of doing it week in week out.