Great result on Saturday! I have a friend who is a Blackburn supporter and I have always made fun of him and ask him, “Why do you support Blackburn of all teams?” So this weekend I had even more reason to make fun of him. In truth, it was a game we should have won on paper but I know trips to Ewood Park are tricky at times so we had to be extra careful. With all the other teams around us having easy games this weekend, we just had to win and win we did.
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Yet again, another frustrating game for the Reds. A game one would have expected us to win but as been the case for most parts of this season, we have failed to find the back on the net against teams who come out to defend against us at Anfield. With Torres back in the starting lineup I thought that we would find the cutting edge no matter if Fulham defended with all they had. I was shocked when I saw the teams walk out onto the pitch and I saw that Lucas was starting and Alonso was on the bench.
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On paper, you would expect Liverpool to get 3 points in the game tomorrow against Fulham at Anfield but I believe there is no such thing as an easy game in the Premiership anymore. But with that said, I still expect us to win. My only concern is that Fulham may come to Anfield and defend for 90 minutes and frustrate us. We have seen many teams come to Anfield and do that this season and at times we have been left short and failed to get the breakthrough. But against Fulham we have a certain Fernando Torres expected to make his long awaited comeback into the starting lineup.
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Great result for Liverpool. Going into the game yesterday, I was a bit concerned as it is never easy to go to Bolton and come back with 3 points. But we did the job and you could not have asked for a better result although we should have buried Bolton after all the chances we created. We bossed the first 45 minutes as if we were the home team as Bolton did not threaten us at all. We should have been 3-0 up at the break and then taken the foot off the pedal in the second and just enjoyed the game. But the longer the game went at 1-0, I feared that we would be in for a repeat of the Spurs game where we dominated for large periods but were not able to get the killer second goal and subsequently we got punished.
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Another relegation contender down, how many more to go?

With this year’s Premier League table packed together tighter than our midfield defense, I find myself wondering just how many sides are going to come to Anfield without so much as an inkling of going for all three points.

Here we had WBA, a team known for playing football the right way.  To be fair, they gave it an effort for the first 5 minutes while we remained content to spar with them and see just what kind of a threat they had to offer.  Following that opening spell though we completely bossed the match.  Other than a few defensive miscues they never got so much as a sniff.

Again, even in a more offensive 4-4-2 I found myself in awe of just how dominant we are in the center of the pitch.  Moving Gerrard back into his natural position allows him to showcase his defensive prowess as well as get forward into attack.  One of the things that makes our captain one of the best players in the world is his rounded set of skills.  Think back on some of his miraculous challenges, not to mention some of the more heinous ones.  He is a player that possesses a real competitive nature, and I think getting back and dirty when we don’t have the ball gets him into the flow of the game much more effectively as well as giving him more space for his devastating forward runs.  With that said, our opposition had zero intentions of trying to penetrate the middle of the pitch.  Gerrard and Mascherano forced everything wide as usual, keeping WBA penned in the wide areas with little support.

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We have lost our first game of the season. I am finding it hard to write this post this morning. I was so upset after the game last night that I just needed to go and get a drink and try forget about the game. But reality kicked in this morning and I realised that we actually lost! I guess this is all part of football, you win some and you loose some but there are times, like yesterday, when you should not have lost the game!
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It wasn’t pretty but it is 3 points. I can easily say, “This is what Champions are made of. Winning games when they are not playing well.” But honestly, I feel this line is getting old. A game like this, we should have won by atleast two goals and not have to sit at the edge of our seats in the closing minutes as Portsmouth attacked us seeking an equaliser.

To start off with, I was a bit surprised with the starting eleven Rafa sent out. He made four changes to the side that started against Chelsea. I expected one or two changes but not four. Rafa opted to start with Reina in goal, Aurelio continuing at left back, Arbeloa on the right, Carragher and Sami coming in for Agger. I can only assume that Agger was being rested and it was wise to put in Hyypia who was able to handle any threat Crouch possessed in the air. Riera was dropped and in came Babel on the left. Lucas replaced Mascherano in the middle. Alonso continued and Pennant came in on the right. Gerrard started just behind Kuyt.
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What a game! What a result! I am floating on cloud nine right now and I do not think I will be coming back down to earth anytime soon! We have broken Chelsea’s 86 home win record and how sweet it was. I think what makes it feel even better is that we totally out played them in their own back yard which no one has been able to do for almost 4 years now. I know we should not be getting too carried away at this stage but I feel we have the makings of going on to win the title this season.
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How I wish I was on Merseyside tonight as we now have the bragging rights! It always feels good to get one over the Toffees and I firmly believe now after todays game that we have the best two teams on Merseyside as Shanks said, “Liverpool and Liverpool Reserves”. I seriously think that our reserve team could beat the Everton team that we played against today. The Everton defence was in 6’s and 7’s and no wonder they are conceding so many goals.

The first half was not great at all as neither teams failed to make much of an impression. The half time highlights package was very short as there really was not much to show. But the longer the second half went, I knew we just had to score as Everton have a poor defence this season. We were piling on the pressure and at times it looked like we were the home team with all the possession and attacking play we had. Finally the deadlock was broken by a well taken goal by Torres after Keane had whipped in a great cross. It was great to see the Keane-Torres combination actually getting a goal. Read the rest of this entry »

Once again as we have come to expect we have witnessed another fine performance by the men in black over the weekend. The standard of football and the EPL itself is being touted as the best league in the world but can somebody explain why we seem to have the worst officials.

A ref assistant and the main mad man in the middle somehow award a goal that wasn’t even on target never mind over the line, some other so called referee assistant rules out Gerrards 100th goal for Liverpool for some other unknown reason and then we see Mike Riley making a complete fool out of himself yesterday and had his yellow card out more times than Wayne Rooney’s wallet in a Manchester city centre knocking shop.

It seems to me now that on many occasions it is not the performance of the players on the park that determine where the points are going to go but something that the managers can’t plan for, the performance of the officials. Some people say that this is all part of the game but sorry that’s bull. In todays cut-throat world that is management in the EPL i think they should come to expect their professional players to be appointed professional assistants. The ref who sent off JT got suspended from the EPL by the FA. Where are the guys going that gave this weeks goal that never was - down the salt mines in Siberia?.

It seems to me that the EPL needs a shake up and all the old guard refs that we are all sick of seeing making silly mistakes and ruining games need replaced by some fresh young blood who hopefully understand todays modern game. English refs could become a worldwide joke if they are not already after the so called “top” English ref didn’t know that 2 yellows equals red so gave out three instead.

Once again I will quote Shankly who understood this problem long before now and he said -

“The trouble with referees is that they know the rules, but they do not know the game”.