God bows out

Anfield's last game of the season was a bit of a party. It wasn't the most amazing game but there were two goals from us and it wasn't a defeat, unlike our last few league games. Plus there is the small bonus that it means we stay ahead of Arsenal and finish third.

The big news of the match that it was Robbie's last hurrah at Anfield. Rafa subbed him off with a minute of normal time remaining which enabled Robbie to get a standing ovation from the fans. Unfortunately it meant that he couldn't score the penalty we were awarded a minute later. Harry put it away for his first goal of the season. Robbie is a red legend of the highest order but everyone can see that he can't cut it at this level anymore. I'm going to do a separate blog entry about him over the next week or two.



So out with the old and in with the new. The new in this case is Lucas. This is one to get excited about. He's the Brazilian under twenty captain, a central midfielder and was voted player of the year in Brazil last season. This deal seems to be agreed and he'll join us in July after the copa Libertadores. The fee is rumoured to be around £5m or so. Rafa has said that he tried to compete for top class young signings like Denilson and Walcott at Arsenal but was financially unable. Hopefully this means that the Hicks and Gillett investment is starting to pay off.



We're also being linked with Alexandre Pato. "The Duck" is an eighteen year old Brazilian striker and is being tipped for greatness. I would be surprised if this happens but we are interested in him apparently. Check out the mad skillz.

With Athens not far away, it reminded me of this quote from Cruyff. "There's not one club in Europe with an anthem like You'll Never Walk Alone. There's not one club in the world so united with the fans. I sat there watching the Liverpool fans and they sent shivers down my spine. A mass of 40,000 people became one force behind their team. That's something not many teams have. For that I admire Liverpool more than anything." Dutch legend Johan Cruyff after Istanbul. Only eight days to go. Good video on the chelsea match using an audio montage from radio merseyside.

I was in Barcelona at the weekend and we visited Camp Nou for the Barcelona v Betis game. Good match even though it finished 1-1. Barca scored early and played some great stuff in the first half and could have easily been 2-0 or 3-0 at half time. But Betis came back into it and scored in the last few minutes. The locals got restless and the white hankies/sheets of newspaper came out which added to the entertainment. I hope that Barcelona can turn it around but it's not looking good considering their form and Madrid are now top of the league.

Cottage capitulation

Fairplay Fulham. We had a lot of chances but as has happened so often this season away from home, we failed to convert them. Fulham kept at it and managed to take their chance when Clint Dempsey scored in the second half. As with the Portsmouth match last week, we played the B team and there weren't able to make their dominence count. Belllamy had a good few chances where he was through on Niemi but couldn't finish them. The feeling now seems to be that Craig will be on his way in the summer. I don't know for definite but it does look like he'll go if we can buy a top class replacement. He's done well for us at times and we should get a good price for him but I do wonder if he's consistent enough for us at this level and he does have his off the field issues.

Chalton visit Anfield on Sunday in what is now a meaningless game as they've been relegated. We won't be killing ourselves but we've a good home record this season so it'll be good not to lose that. Dudek is looking to start this match as it'll be his last at Anfield. He's out of contract this summer and wants a chance to say goodbye to the fans. Dudek will always be a Liverpool legend for his heroics in Istanbul but he's looked increasingly erratic whenever he's come into the team since then and he's on a significant wage so I'm not unhappy to see him leave. It'll be interesting to see what happens with Carson next season.

Perfect weekend

We win 3-0, Utd lose and Everton lose. Add in the fact that Arsenal drew at home with Portsmouth and it doesn't get any better than that. We've moved a point clear in third and I expect us to stay there give that we've a handy enough run over Christmas. Our next five league matches are Watford (H), Blackburn (A), Spurs (A), Bolton (H) and Watford (A). I think that we should be able to get 11+ points from that. As I've said before, the league is well gone but the closer that we finish to Utd & Chelsea the better.

Good to see Bellamy score again. His confidence seems to be back now and he looks a lot happier with his game. Himself and Kuyt are forming an effective partnership. Bar rotation it'll take some performances by Crouch or Robbie to repace them. The defence had another fairly easy day out. In our last three games we've scored 11 and conceded none. Long may it continue.

And so to the Champions league draw. Barca is the hardest draw that we could have gotten really. They are the one team that I wanted to avoid when it was made. But the more that I think about it the more excited I get. I relaly can wait for Feb to roll around. It's a mouth watering clash. I think that it suits us to be underdogs as we demonstrated against Juve, Chelsea and Milan two years ago. Obviously Barca are favourites, and rightly so as they are the best team in Europe. But the fact that we have the second leg at Anfield is a major boost. Momo is back then so I can see us going for a 0-0 in Camp Nou and take them back home with it all in our hands. Bring it on. For a Barca fan's perspective have a look at what TQ has to say about it here.

I expect to see a fair bit of rotation for the Arsenal match on Tuesday. Since we're at home and Arsenal aren't in great form I would expect us to win. If we lose I won't be that put out. Nice to win the carling/worthington/league cup but never a disaster to be beaten.