All the people of Bangkok, it seemed, woke up on Wednesday, threw on their Liverpool jerseys, picked out their Liverpool scarves, and headed with a single-minded determination to the Rajamangala Stadium hours before Liverpool’s match with the Thai national team. I’m pretty sure if I had ventured out while the match was on, the city that always appeared to be on the move would have featured deserted streets, empty cars, restaurants with no business going, and pin-drop silence everywhere except in the immediate vicinity of Carra, Nando, Rafa and Javi. Swine flu may be the latest disease to cause paranoia in Bangkok, but for the moment, it was football fever running rampant. Hand sanitizers and face masks were shoved on by the security personnel at the entrance, and once you dodged that, it was time to find a way to get inside. Even at 4, four hours before kick-off, fans were crowded outside, trying to get in, and many hundreds had already taken their seats and begun the wait. The Kop stand filled up the quickest, with a sea of red with an asssortment of flags, banners and many exhortations requesting Xabi Alonso to continue his career at Anfield. They probably weren’t encouraged by his absence from the teamlist and the bench, but Rafa tried to put an end to the speculation by saying he and Benyoun were injured. It probably didn’t work, and I’m certain the rumours have got another piece of evidence.

I also had a long wait to get past, but looking around me at all the Liverpool love was great. The only thing that I could’ve done without were the two very enthusiastic Thai DJs spinning some terrible electro-techno-hiphop-mishmash excuse for music, over and over again. But those too were forgotten, as a professional opera-like rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone was followed by a few Beatles numbers. Quite a nice backdrop to the warm-up going on on the field below.

The match itself, well, you know it by now 1-1, and two completely different Liverpool teams played both halves (with the exception of Babel, who played a bit of the second half). Babel scored early and threatened a couple more times, but it was the Torres effect that was fascinating to watch. He had just ten minutes to get Liverpool a winner, and man he tried. With his first touch, he tore open the defence and raced away to goal, but missed. He was in the mix again a few more times, and the liveliest on the pitch by far, compared to all who had been on the pitch since the opening whiste. If only he can stay relatively injury-free this season, Torres can easily get another bagful of goals. Babel could do with a bit more consistency, Carra was his usual rock-solid self, and even had a hand in the first of Liverpool’s pre-season goals, the other kids had their sloppy moments, but Insua wasn’t bad. Hopefully Skrtel and El Zhar will pick themselves up soon.

Now all we can do is wait for the real games to begin.

Remember the crazy Rafa who listed out all of Ferguson’s shortcomings in that little tirade which began Liverpool’s decline last season, the one where we let the Premiership get away? Well, watching him in person at Liverpool’s first press conference in Bangkok today got me thinking, in between trying to stifle my laughter so the other journalists wouldn’t stare at me, that he really is quite a funny guy. And the art of dodging questions with well-appreciated witticisms has been mastered pretty damn well too. Move over Mourinho!

Oh yes, it is pre-season, all relaxed, travelling to countries where each step induces a million people scream to out your name in obsessive adulation, spreading the Reds name to faraway lands, and well, you get my drift. When the real business begins, in around a month, that’s when the claws’ll come out, we can be rest assured. The only thing I wish for is that Rafa keeps his marbles, and uses them to flick over our esteemed rivals in England.

On Monday, the talk was all Xabi Alonso and David Villa and when The Title would return to Anfield, all of which the Spaniard dodged with as much skill as is contained in the feet of our silken Basque midfielder. “Of course we’ll talk,” he said, talking about Alonso’s possible move to the sunny shores of Spainish. “We’ll talk about strategy, the match coming up, and all that,” he concluded with a wicked grin. That’s it then, all the information he would volunteer.

The subject of David Villa was dealt with quickly, too, and he won’t be putting on the shirt with the Liverbird anytime soon.

There was Ryan Babel and the heart of LFC, Jamie Carragher, sitting on either side of him at the press conference table, but the questions were all falling into Benitez’s net and he probably felt a bit bad that his players were being ignored. “No questions for the players? They are the ones who will be playing,” he smirked, and laughed, along with everyone in the room.

Carragher spoke in for Stevie, who is in England at his bar brawl hearing, and made all the usual noises about how he would’ve loved to be in Thailand, etc etc, and Babel was thrown a question about the swine flu that’s doing the rounds, and boy, did that faze him. I mean, what’s he supposed to say, should’ve just laughed it off, he needs to learn from Rafa. But maybe he was all happy with the praise the gaffer had just dealt him. “He’ll be more settled now, he is a much stronger player now than he was before.”

All the talk done, questions dealt with, photo-ops done, the players got up to leave. There was this girl who stood behind all the cameramen and stealthily moved to where the players would leave from. She positioned herself just right so Carra would just HAVE to pass by and then thrust her book and pen and said what would probably be the most important words of her life: Can I have your autograph? He didn’t look like the happiest person in the world, but whatever, signed it and moved on. It made her day. Yes, that was me.

Eight friendlies, no defeats, not a bad pre-season I would say. Last night, Liverpool played their final pre-season game at home against Lazio. It looked like the game would end in a scoreless draw until Andriy Voronin smashed home a late winner in the 90th minute to give Liverpool the win. Yet again Voronin was the man to come up with the goal. That was his third goal in pre-season. If one did not know Liverpool well and just looked at the statistics from pre-season, they would be wondering why Liverpool would want to sell a player like Voronin and think that he is a prolific goal scorer, but most of us know how Voronin just did not seem to cut it in the Premiership last season. If he stays on at Anfield this season, let us hope he can carry this pre-season form for the duration of the season. Read the rest of this entry »

The final game of pre-season. So far so good, now it is just time to wrap it all up against the Italian side Lazio at Anfield. It will be a great game tomorrow, largely due to the fact that we will be playing our ‘first’ home game of the season. It may only be a friendly but any game for Liverpool at Anfield is special. More so for the new boys signed this summer who will be getting their first run out at Anfield.

Of particular interest will be Robbie Keane. He has been looking forward to this day for a long time now and how fitting it would be if he also gets to score his first goal tomorrow in front of The Kop. I am sure he will bring out the cartwheel celebration if that is the case! I certainly hope Rafa starts with Keane and Torres again upfront as they need as many games together as possible before the big kick off against Sunderland in the Premiership. Read the rest of this entry »

Just a few quick notes about today’s friendly:

1. Robbie Keane showed the kind of vision we are expecting out of him with his backwards flick onto Alonso for his beautiful curling opener. I think perhaps Xabi is quite eager to show he belongs at Liverpool and only good could come of that.

2. David Ngog, who is this guy? Another quality finish, and again showing decent touch on the ball. I think we may have a steal on our hands if he can keep his composure in the league as well as he has thus far. Only being 19 though, he has a good ways to go yet in terms of development, so score one for Rafa and the scouts.

3. Not to be negative Nancy, but we certainly can use some tightening up at the back in terms of concentration and positioning. Usually the pillar of our defense, the most likely guilty party throughout the match was Carra. I think he is having to cope with having lost a step, and needs to turn to Big Sami’s book of Anticipation. Let Agger or Skrtel do the running and provide that last line of defense that he always has. I have no worries about Jamie though, he’ll have it right for the beginning of the campaign.

I had to bicker about something, but four more goals in a sea of Red in Norway was an impressive display nonetheless. Thanks to all the supporters up there for showing our boys such a fine reception. Hopefully we can all now begin to enjoy a run to the title together.

Up next : Lazio @ Anfield

We are getting towards the business end of pre-season now as Liverpool take on Valerenga. The Reds are in Norway to prepare for their match tomorrow night against the Norwegian team. This is our second last pre-season game as we take on Lazio and that will be it as far as pre-season is concerned. Just 180 more minutes left for Rafa to tinker around his team and get some combinations going together with upping the players fitness.

Liverpool have always had a great following in Norway and should attract a sell out crowd for the game. I remember a time we had quite a few Norwegian players in the team. The likes of Heggem, Bjornebye, Leonhardsen and Kvarme who I thought was one of the worst defenders to ever play for Liverpool. Valerenga should not provide too much of a challenge to us but it will be a good work out for the Reds. Judging by Saturdays win over Rangers, it looks like the players are starting to get into the swing of things. Read the rest of this entry »

Well in the past few days there have been a lot of discussions in the media about our supposed “gun-shy” strikers. I just have to ask; if two strikers totaling 50+ goals between them and a small group of others scoring 10+ each themselves is indeed “gun-shy” then was anyone successful scoring last season? I mean seriously, I’m glad I’m not drinking whatever they’ve gotten into, because it’s left them quite daft.

Today found our anemic offense up in Scotland for a showdown with Rangers at Ibrox. A storied club with tremendous support, not to mention last season’s UEFA Cup runners-up this figured to be a stern test for us. It’s no secret that Scottish sides usually run a pretty tight ship at the back, and so I had figured on a 1-0.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tomorrow Liverpool travel to Glasgow to take on Rangers in another pre-season game. After Liverpool only managed to draw against Villarreal in midweek, I am sure the Reds will be out to look for a victory tomorrow and also score a couple of goals. Hopefully we will see new signing Robbie Keane partnered upfront with Fernando Torres for the first time. I am sure the two will get to play atleast 45 minutes together as we are dying to see how this new combination is going to shape out. Do not expect them to ‘click’ straight away, it is going to take a bit of time and lots of hours on the training ground for this partnership to work well. Read the rest of this entry »

I hope this run of draws in pre-season is not a sign on things to come when the real action starts on 16 August. Tonights result against Villarreal was Liverpool’s third draw in a row in pre-season. A bit worrying was that we failed to score but on the other hand we did not concede any. The night seemed to be more about debuts than anything else. Firstly, Liverpool were debuting the new grey kit which just brings back memories from 1990 when we wore a very similar looking kit sponsored by Candy. We were an awesome team then and I hope this grey kit brings us the success we had back then. Read the rest of this entry »

Tonight Liverpool take on Villarreal in a pre-season game in Spain. This will be the first pre-season game where Rafa will have a full compliment of players to choose from now that the Spanish contingent is back in training after winning the European Championship. Krisztian Nemeth is also back after playing for Hungary in the European Championships for Under 19’s.

Pepe Reina has however left the team in Spain and gone back to England to be with his wife who is expecting their second child. Depending on the events, the Liverpool goalkeeper may still rejoin his teammates and take part in tonights friendly, which has been organised as part of the deal which saw Reina leave Villarreal for Liverpool two years ago. It would be a shame if Reina misses out on a game which was meant for him. Read the rest of this entry »