Yet more misery

Just when I thought our luck might turn, we hammered Birmingham but only came away with a point from our 2-2 draw at home. The team was still patched up, Torres didn't make the bench but Aquilani and Gerrard did.

Just because it finished 2-2 with us getting a dodgy peno doesn't mean we got lucky. We destroyed them. Gerrard hitting the post and Riera and Yossi coming off injured wasn't lucky. Stats here. Johnson tore them to pieces down the right again and again. Hart made some good saves and our finishing could have been better. If Torres or a fit Gerrard had played it would have been a landslide.

N'Gog took his goal well but spurned a few other chances. I think he's rapidly developing into a good player. His touch is still inconsistant but his holding up of the ball, movement, awareness and strength have come on greatly. A steal at £1.5m. Somebody said he has the best goals per minutes in the league but I don't know if that's right. I do feel that N'Gog was theatrical in going down and don't approve of it but this kind of thing happens all the time, it's nothing new. Why was there an outcry this week but not so much when Rooney or Ronaldo did it over the last few years? I don't remember Keith Hackett coming out and commenting on those dives.

Man CIty visit Anfield in the first game after the International break. The phrase "must win" is overused but every game we play now is going to be one. The fact that City will be vying with us for a champions league spot makes it even more important. They, like us, are not in great form and neither team is defending well. I think it could come down to which team has a better day in defence. Carra coming in for Skrtel might help us to tighten up at the back.

Tony Barrett in the Times lists 5 areas in which Rafa can help the team to get out of our current slump.The latest injury news isn't good either. Both Yossi and Riera have done their hamstrings and are looking at the best part of a month on the sidelines.

The daily mail reckon we're in for Krasic, the CSKA right winger who impressed against Utd at Old Toilet last week. Another winger, Adam Johnson of Boro, is being linked with a £7m move in January. Given his nationality and age, I think he'd be decent at that price. But I severly doubt we'll be spending £7m on him or anybody else when the window opens. Dossena wants out according to this.

If you're interested in the transfer fees and record of the Boss, have a read of this. It details all of the ins and outs and comes to a net fee of £83m since his arrival. If you divide that by 6, with this being his sixth season, it comes to £13.8 per season. The worrying side of it is that his net spend in 08/09 was £2.5m and this season it's just £10k.

Paul Tomkins employs logic in his defence of Benitez, a much underused tool when it comes to Football writing these days. Here's a great quote:

Apparently Benítez doesn't buy well under £10m, but Reina, Agger, Benayoun, Kuyt, Skrtel, Riera, Insua, Crouch, Garcia, Sissoko, Lucas, Aurelio and Arbeloa all cost less than that amount.

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.

Deflated

I didn't think we would do well here given the injuries and team we put out. However, I didn't expect us to beaten by a fucking balloon. In fairness, we played shit and deserved to be beaten regardless of the beach ball.

A 1-0 loss was disappointing but not entirely unexpected given the spine of our team was ripped out by international football. I considered backing Sunderland but didn't get around to it. Rafa went 3 5 2 and it was good to see Agger back even if he did look a bit rusty. Spearing and Lucas in midfield didn't really work. The Brazilian wasn't 100% after returning from South America the night before the game. It was a tough match for Spearing to make his league debut in and it didn't really go that well for him. Hopefully he'll learn from this and improve. Rafa wants him to become our new midfield anchor. They are big boots for the small man to fill. Next up we face Lyon in Anfield on Tuesday. Pjanic will be the dangerman, so I hope he doesn't have the impact that Jovetic did a few weeks back. I'm hoping that we'll have our players back for this one. Lyon are a good side and we'll need to win this one if we want to get out of the group. A loss here would send the knee jerkers and phone in shows into panic mode. They're not far away from that now.

Jamie Carragher has admitted that he's not happy with his own form. He hasn't been at his best this year but neither has Skrtel. Now that Agger is back, I can see him putting the two of them under pressure.

Didi Hamann is back at Liverpool, coaching the youths at the Academy with Frank McParland. I wonder if he is giving them betting tips and teaching them how to get away with a sneaky smoke?

Here's Nemeth in action against the Italian U20 team, doing well and scoring two goals. Hungary were knocked out in the end but it will have done the kid well to score and compete at this level.

Yossi's agent says he's happy at Anfield and isn't interested in a move to Man City. I would hate to see him leave after the past year he's had. He's one of our most dangerous players these days and who we look to after Gerrard and Torres.

Check out Paul Tomkins blog, the Tomkins Times. The Cascarino article is great.

The Mirror reckon we're after Vasco de Gama striker Nilton in January. I'd be surprised as it doesn't seem like Rafa has any cash to spend. Chris Bascombe paints a grim picture of the state of affairs in the NOTW.

The guardian interviewed Riera in their small talk section. He seems like a decent sort. Bit surprised he doesn't pay for his music often given the amount of money he earns.

Building bridges

It may sound hard to believe but we played pretty well in our 2-0 defeat in Stamford Bridge. I thought it was really even until we conceded the first goal. After that we over committed numbers forward and were caught on the break. To be honest, I thought our defence played really well bar the slip up at the end for the second goal. The midfield punched their own weight but neither Dirk not Riera gave great service to Gerrard and Torres, neither of whom had much impact. But our performance level was much the same as it was last season, the difference being that this time we didn't get the result. I wasn't too disheartened afterwards, just a bit pissed off that we have to wait two weeks to get things back on track.Ahead of the match, El Nino had an interview in the Guardian where he opens up on fatherhood and how he loves living on Merseyside. Sure the city is lucky to have him.

Carra says we're facing into a massive week after the international break, and he for one is ready. We face Sunderland away first up followed by Lyon and Man Utd at Anfield. Let's remember that Sunderland drew at Old Toilet, and only missed out on a victory by a cruel deflection off Anto Ferdinand's leg. This will not be easy and our defence will have to be on top of their game to deal with Bent playing as good as he ever has. Himself and Jones are a real handful. On the plus side, we might have a fit again Daniel Agger in the squad as he came through a reserve match last week. Aquilani is progressing well but is still about two weeks away for fitness.

Paul Tomkins doesn't pull any punches in his slating of Tony Cascarino and his ilk. Give's 'em what for.

Ian Ayre has some positive spin on the new shirt sponsorship deal on the BBC site. It sounds like they've done well on the commercial side, the downside being that the money will probably end up in the pockets of George and Tom, despite their protestations. You can read the full transcript of Gillett's interview with SOS here.

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.