City stalemate and euro knockout

Right. Brief synopsis. I saw very little of the 2-2 drawat home with City. By all accounts it was a fair result in a boring match. Nice to see us score from a set piece but painfully predictable to see us concede from one. Skrtel let himself down again here. Also very predictable were two more injuries, to Agger and then Babel. What the hell is going on with our physios and training? Every player should be on a strict diet of horse placenta.

Last night saw us crash out of Europe despite a 1-0 win away to Debrecen. Ngog continued his fine scoring form. But again we failed to convert our dominance into more goals and let inferior opposition back into the game. For once, we managed to hold onto a clean sheet thanks to some great defending and saves from Pepe. Alas it was all for naught as Lyon lost in Florence to consign us to third spot and the Europa league. So we'll have Thursday and Sunday games to look forward to for as long as we stay in Europe. I hope we go for it and win it. The 2001 Uefa cup victory was a great game and a huge victory for that team.

It's the derby with the Blueshite on Sunday and we can look forward to a rousing atmosphere. Use your own cliche about the form book going out the window in a derby but it's probably for the best here as both teams are in shit form. They, like us, have injuries to contend with but I still feel we should be good enough to win. We'll need the defence to try and build on last nights clean sheet and concentrate on set pieces. It's going to be war.

Norman Hubbard at ESPN has a great article examining the facts about Rafa's reign. The Times has a downloadable pdf which you can keep and refer to whenever spending and signings come up.

19 year old Defender Daniel Ayala has signed a new deal. You can watch him and the rest of the reserves in action here during a recent 4-1 win over Hull city reserves. Good performance by Daniel "Patches" Pacheco.

According to reports in Spain, Cadiz prodigy Suso, will sign for us in January. The deal could eventually cost us almost a million euro if he becomes a first team regular. 15 year old Luton Town prospect Dave Moli will soon sign for the reds. Here's a good piece on Della Valle. The Finnish Wayne Rooney? Martin Kelly has spoken about his healthy rivalry with Daniel Ayala.

The Daily Mirror reckon that we've had enquiries about Lucas but have turned them down as they don't meet our asking price of £14m. With Mascherano's long term future at the club in doubt, I don't see us selling the Brazilian anytime soon. Dossena's agent says that he hopes we let him go in Jan. Eitrecht Frankfurt are interested in signing Voronin in January according to the Echo.

Dutch winger Eliahas been linked with a move from the Bundesliga. He's a talent and might be what we thought we were getting when we bought RyBabbs.

Miracle required

1-1 was a sickener after playing so well. Babel made the breakthrough with a stunning goal but was let down by some madness at the back with 20 seconds remaining. If only we defended slightly better, we would have gotten the win we deserved. Now it's out of our hands.

Claude Puel, the Lyon manager says that they'll try to beat Fiorentina, and win the group. I would like to take him at his word but I fear that the fact they're qualified will lessen their teamsheet and need to win in Tuscany and I wouldn't blame them either were that to happen. So even if we win our next two group matches we will probably face elimination unless Lyon take a point or 3 in Italy, and we will have a few moments of defensive lapses to blame. If we had been slightly more switched on in either of the Lyon games, to get a draw in the first or win in the second then our fate would still be in our own hands. A draw in their match coupled with us winning in Hungary would leave us needing a 3 goal margin win in Italy.

But before all of that, we've got to beat Brum at home on Saturday. Physio room says that we might have Skrtel and Dossena back. We need all of the men we can get what with injuries and suspensions. Degen and Carragher are suspended so it could well be Ste Darby at right back unless GloJo does his best Lazarus impression, although the latest injury update from Rafa is more positive. Torres should make it but Gerrard won't. Could Aqulani make an appearance? Possibly off the bench.

Humble beginnings

A 1-0 win against limited oposition saw our champions league campaign get off to a dull thud, rather than a bang. Debreceni posed very little threat but were happy to sit deep and frustrate in numbers, which is perfectly acceptable for smaller teams away from home. It was up to us to break them down and we didn't succeed to any great degree. We had some decent enough openings but only converted the one with deadly Dirk poked in a shot after the goalie failed to hold a Nando rasper. Rafa will say that the objective is get qualified as qucikly as possible and top the group. We're on our way to achieving that mission. Agger is back in training but unlikely to feature against West Ham in Upton Park this Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the same team or Mascherano in for Riera with Gerrard moving forward and Yossi shifting left. Aurelio needs some more minutes before he's ready to start. We should be able to beat this lot but it's not an easy ground to visit. I predict a narrow win.

It sounds like Purslow and Rafa are getting on well. I suppose the boss is glad that the incompetent Parry is gone. Purslow does seem to be efficent in securing the new sponsorship deal. The problem is that the money he's earning will go towards the Yanks debts, which they've loaded onto the club. Hicks reckons that the stadium will be built - once there is credit available in international markets. We'll see about that. In the meantime, they'll continue fucking the club, it's fans and the residents of Anfield around. Cheers Tom.

Back on track?

Does a 3-2 away win get everything back on track? In a way yes. It was important that we went into the international break of the back of a win. As is often the case, we didn't do this the easy way, falling behind twice to scrappy goals. But Glo Jo got the first to leave us level at half time. After conceding early in the second half, we went on the rampage, which became easier once Davis was sent off for a second yellow. El Nino scored after a superb lay off from Dirk and Gerrard added the winner with a few minutes to go. We battered them second half and could have added a few more as Gerrard hit the bar and Torres had an effort cleared off the line. Some fairly measured analysis here from Le Tisier on Sky Sports.

I wouldn't say it's all full steam ahead but it's a definite improvement on the Spurs and Villa matches. But the defence is a real cause for concern at the minute. If we don't get our act together we'll win eff all this year. Kyrgiakos made his debut and did ok. He's clearly good in the air but was sloppy in possession a few times. Carra hasn't been helped with trying to organise a defence with 2 new players and an inexperienced one in Insua. I'm hoping that Aurelio and Skrtel will be back for the next match against Burnely on Sat 12th.

Now that they seem to be over their giant killing spree, it should represent a good opportunity for us at home. They play a fairly open game which should leave space for our stars to exploit. Johnson can continue his fine form and make the right flank of the pitch his own. He's been nothing short of a revelation so far. Long may it continue.The draw for the Champions League group stages was made on Thursday. We're in a group with Lyon, Fiorentina and Debreceni of Hungary. Is Hungary a country? Lyon will be tough enough but we should be good enough to top the group.

Paul Tomkins has a good article on the need for patience. He compares the treatment that different premier league managers receive for the same behaviour. Well worth reading.

Looks like Andrea is going nowhere. Earlier in the summer it looked like he might have gone to Napoli or Juve but at this stage he seems set to stay. Similarly I don't see us selling anybody else as there would be no benifit to doing so. Itandje is off to Kavala fc on loan. Even if Rafa were to get a good offer for him or Babel, he's unlikely to get the money to reinvest. Thanks very much Chris Purslow, Tom and George. A fine bunch of pricks.