El Nino raids Villa

The 1-0 win over Villa was so badly needed. We played well and were the better team but an injury time winner always makes the victory even sweeter. It didn't go down well in the sky studio. Keys and Gray were sick that we hadn't read the script and had the temerity to win a match. The cheek of us.

Villa had some chances but our margin of victory should have been greater. Dirk had a nailed on peno refused in the first half. I'd love to know why the ref refused to give it. Dirk had another mediocre game. He's been off form for a long time now. Aquilani started again and was good in the first half but faded in the second. It'll be a while before he delivers two good halves. He's neat first time passes really seem to work well with Yossi and Stevie. Lucas had another good game. He shines more when Masch is out.

Check out the FT9 site for an understated reaction to our late winner. Take it handy lads. El Nino is the quickest Liverpool player to score 50 league goals. He's also the fourth fastest player to 50 premiership goals. BUt the difference with Torres is that he doesn't take Penalties. Here are his 50 goals.GloJo suffered a tear to his medial ligament which means he's looking at an extended period on the sidelines. This is pretty shit for him as he's been great for us until recent weeks when his form dropped. I hope that young Kelly is fit enough to get a few games in his absence. Niether of the right back alternatives, Carra or Degen, fill me with huge amounts to confidence.

It's the "magic of the cup" on Saturday with a trip to Reading. I expect a fairly strong team but the likes of Pepe, Dirk, Insua, Torres and Gerrard can expect a rest. Maybe we'll see our wunderkind Daniel "Paches" Pacheco get a start? If not he's likely to come on at some stage. It'll be interesting to see who starts at right back. As it's a cup game, it could be Darby or Degen. The cup has more importance than usual this year since we're out fo the champions league. As usual, it'd be great to win it, but I'm not going to cry if we get knocked out. Finishing in the top four is much more important for our future.

Dossena could be on his way to Atletico Madrid according to Sky Sports. Palace forward Victor Moses is also being linked with a move. We've held talks with him according to the Star. The Liverpool Echo says that we're quite close on a loan deal for Maxi Rodriguez. He's a really good player and would give us a quality option on the right hand side. He links well with Nando from their time together at Atletico.

Purslow reckons work on the new stadium will begin in April 2010. A likely story. Here's HKS talking about the new stadium design.

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.

The aftermath

Just when I thought we were out, they pull us back in. Crap. That was not what we needed. To break it down:

• Kelly was brilliant at right back. Fantastic performance from the teenager and we disimproved when he came off injured. A star of the future.
• Agger looked better in the middle but still a bit rusty. How we've missed him bringing the ball out of defence. He's the one we can trust not to hoof it, losing possession. Far too much of that from Skrtel and Carra at the moment.
• Pepe was in superb form again, as he has been all season despite a ropey defence in front of him. His saves in the lead up to the equaliser were fantastic but there was only so much he could do before one of them went in. He needed a dig out by one of the defenders.
• N'Gog started well enough but faded badly in the second half. He's improving but he's not really ready to step into the Torres breach just yet.

It now looks like we'll need to win our remaining games to qualify from the group and may need to beat Fiorintina by more than 2-0. Big ask to be honest but we've completed similar escape acts before.

So now it's the Mancs on Sunday. Bad timing. It looks like GloJo will be back but it's still touch and go on Torres and Gerrard. I don't fancy our chances without them. The team is short of confidence at the minute and we need our totems back. We've had such shit luck with injuries this year. International football has a lot to answer for here.

This article by Paul Tomkins should be required reading for all Reds. It details his four hour chat with Rafa at Melwood. Amazing stuff but I'd love to read the off the record version.

Those at Prenton Park for Liverpool's reserve match v Sunderland on Tuesday were treated to some crazy skills from Alberto Aquilani, no less. It was great for him to get a run out and I suspect he may get some game time in the carling cup match v Arsenal next week. But the problem for Alberto is that the expectations for him are increasing as our results get worse. If he's not Pirlo, Del Piero and Totti all rolled into one, he'll be declared a flop.

B team bonus

Abert Riera declared that he wanted us to finish the group stage in style. While he may have been disappointed with the first half, we certainly delivered in the second half, not least Riera himself who hit a stunning strike from distance. A 3-1 win away from home in the Champions League is always an achievement. When it's done without most of your first team regulars, that makes it even more impressive. The win made sure of top spot in the group on 14 points, which in theory should give us an easier draw on Friday 19th, but in reality the only bonus is the certainty that we play our second leg match at Anfield in the next round.

Robbie says he's going nowhere in Jan. I don't think that he was ever going to move, it was just paper talk. He was one of the notable performers last night in the second half and his through ball for N'Gog was sublime as was another where he set Lucas. He could have had a few goals if Babel and N'Gog had supplied him with the ball when he was in good positions. He came under some fire for his moaning over not receiving the ball but many premiership players do the same thing such as Gerrard now and Cantona in his day.

Lucas said that he wanted to repay the faith that Rafa has shown in him. The boss said that the Brazilian's performance was outstanding, as was that of N'Gog. Dossena built on his good showing against West Ham with another convincing performance at left full. Now we are starting to see some of the form that made him the Italian left back and Rafa pay £7m for him. Some of his crossing and attacking runs were fantastic.

It was great to see the Scouse kids getting a run out towards the end. I'm sure all of the academy players were looking on with pride when they saw their erstwhile team mates Darby, Kelly and Spearing, play in the worlds biggest club competition. I'm sure that Rafa will give them a chance in the FA cup if he feels it's worth the risk.Hull city represent tough test at Anfield this Saturday afternoon. We've seen too many teams park the bus and succeed in frustrating a scoreless draw out of us. We can't let this happen again. Fortunately, I don't think that Hull will pack their defence to the same degree which should leave gaps for us to exploit. Their ambition to do to us what they did to Arsenal could be their undoing. I expect the big guns who were rested v PSV, like Gerrard, Alonso and Kuyt, will come back for this league match, fitness permitting.

It sounds like Babel was so desperate for some more game minutes that he asked his agent to organise a loan back to his first club of Ajax. It was unsuccessful. One player who could be on his way to Holland could be Jordy Brower of the reserve team. Utrecht officials have mentioned him as a possible transfer target in Jan. I don't think that there would be too many tears shed if he were to return to his homeland as it would give the likes of Ince, Della Valle and others a chance to get a look in with the reserves.

Press reports suggest that contract talks between Rafa and the board have gone well and he'll sign a new 5 year deal in the next few days. This will be the most important signing of the season by far when it happens. Fingers crossed.

On the subject of new contracts, Galliani of AC Milan is denying comments attributed to him recently saying that he wanted to buy Danny Boy Agger. I really hope that Parry gets the finger out and signs him up to a new contract asap. This kid is a star and will be one of the best defenders in Europe in years to come. It will be a disgrace if we let him go on the cheap.

Ian Rush looks back on the career of Sami and declares him a red legend. It takes one to know one but I don't think that there would be any argument about Hyypia. Not bad for £2.5m almost 10 years ago.

Matt Hughes in the Times has a ridiculous piece on Rafa's transfers. There's so much wrong with this article that I don't know where to start. Journos have it easy, getting paid money to write shite like that. Hilarious.