Same score, different game

The BBC had a look back at another FA cup tie between the Blues and Reds. In 1986 it was the toffees who lost out as King Kenny and co went on to clinch the double. This time the score was 1-1 in what was an absorbing cup tie, from a red perspective.

It was like a training ground exercise of attack v defence. Everton offered practically nothing going forward but still managed to score a set piece goal against us, again. We really need to tighten up on that aspect. Once more it was lil' TIMMY! Cahill who did the damage. He managed to flick the ball on and Lescott applied the final touch which confounded Pepe. On the plus side it was a much improved performance from Monday. I could watch this stunning peice of skill by El Nino for the Gerrard goal over and over again. He is a god among men. Dossena had a good game, rampaging down the left flank. In fairness to him, it was his best performance for us, but that's not saying much, and he didn't have to deal with much when defending. Everton were engaged in blatent time wasting, well before half time. It was heartening to see us break down such a packed defence with 11 behind the ball, but unfortunately, we only did so once. On the down side, we didn't kill them off and will have to do it all again in a few weeks time. Neither Dirk nor Babel offered much, despite seeing much of the ball.

Could Robbie be on his way out of Anfield less than 6 months after he joined? The Irish Indo links him with a move to Man City for £20m. 'Arry was also declaring that he would like to have Robbie back at Spurs. There appears to have been a bit of a bust up when Rafa left him out of the squad at the weekend. It's hard to know what the story is here. I'm sure there's more to it than meets the eye but it doesn't look good for his long term future in L4.The italian media suggest that Ranieri at Juve is interested in Deadly Dirk. I can't see Rafa selling him as he's always one of the first names on the team sheets. I like Dirk but we can do better. Somebody like Yohan Gourcuff or Jeremy Menez would give us much greater penetration on the right flank. I would be inclined to keep Dirk for what he brings to the squad and he's great for tough away matches but adds less against the obstinate small teams at Anfield. Last weekend I was in Milan and visited the San Siro to see AC Milan beat Fiorentina 1-0. Given the controversy over the proposed sale of Kaka to Man City, there was an incredible atmosphere. We saw numerous banners and heard explosions and almost 70k chanting in unison. It was louder than any other sporting experience I've had by quite a bit. It was also quite a bit louder than any visit I've made to Anfield. Now, I've only been to one champions league match at Anfield, this year against Marseille, but it was a fairly sedate atmosphere. The Milanese people I met asked me about Anfield and the atmosphere and how it compared but I had to admit that the San Siro had beaten it hands down.

There is another youth feature on "A Liverpool thing". This time Vincent Weijl, the dutch winger comes under focus. Jordy Brouwer has gone on loan to Waalwijk for the rest of the season. From what I've read about the former Ajax striker playing for the reserves, I hope he doesn't return. Two more young strikers, Nemeth and Lindfield have left on loan. It will be interesting to see if Nemeth can make an impact at Blackpool in the championship given how highly he's rated.

Takeover talk has started again. This time it's the Kuwaiti billionaire Nasser Al-Kharafi who's talking to Hicks and Gillett. They want £550 million for the club. But towards the end of the week, this deal was said to have died a death.I wonder if this is just talk to try and get Dubai into a bidding war? The Guardian suggest that Sheikh Maktoum is still interested, at the right price. I hope that he drives a hard bargain in the summer and takes over from Hicks and Gillett.

It seems that the thieving scousers stereotype is a little outdated. Bad news for manchester.

Finally, some news to report.

Just like the renegade master, I'm back once again.

Andrea Dossena is thrilled to be signing for us. He declares that we're a great team and who am I to argue. I think that he'll do well this year. Capello rates him highly apparently. Riise is thrilled to be signing for Roma. While he should be remembered for this and this and this, he'll probably be remembered for this.

While one player has arrived, it looks like another is rapidly nearing the exit door. Xabi will be taking his raking passes and Mark Walburg looks to Turin by the looks and sounds of it. It seems more and more likely that we'll be exchanging basque pintxos for birmingham curry in the near future. I'll be sad to see Xabi leave and will moments like this and this. I think that Barry is a bit overpriced at over £15m, but that's the english player tax striking again. He does seem to link up well with Gerrard as we've seen for England. I'm hoping that what we lose in Xabi's long range passing, we'll gain in increased physicality, pace, set pieces and goal threat from Barry. I would expect that he'll play a little higher up the pitch than Xabi did, somewhere between Javier and Stevie, rather than sitting beside Javier. Charles Itandje looks to be on his way out with 26 year old Brazilian keeper Cavalieri replacing him.

Some media reports have linked us with a big purchase like Quaresma, Ribery, Silva and Villa. It sounds like they will all be on the move this summer, with the possible exception of Ribery. To be honest, I can't see Rafa having the cash to compete for a signature of this magnitude. Any of them would be superb and would improve our attacking play enormously. Ballague suggests that we haven't made contact with Valencia for Villa and that he'll probably end up at Real, Chelsea or FCB. He goes onto say that Rafa isn't interested in a striker while we still have Crouch, but for how long will that remain the case? Reports today suggest that Crouch will be on his way to Portsmouth on Monday for £10-11m. Given that he's only got a year left on his contract, I think that it's a good price for him. I'll miss him but he wants to play every week and he's not going to get that here with El Nino ahead of him. Thanks for the memories rampaging super spider. How about Crespo on a free to replace him? Ballague also has a great interview with El Nino which you can read here. Check out this footage of the artist as a young Nino.



This is Anfield have a great article on Nemeth. It'd be great to see him get a chance from the bench this season. He looks quality.

Speaking of the youngsters, it seems that we've signed a few more. Vincent Weijl is a 17 year old dutch striker who's arrived from AZ Alkmaar and Nikola Saric, 17 from Denmark, was signed ahead of Barcelona and Spurs apparently. A german kid called Buchtmann has signed from dortmund. He plays left back or left midfield according to setanta.

Rafa's also been adding to the backroom staff. Mauricio Pellegrino will be joining us from valencia where he was doing some coaching. He played a minor role for us in 05 on the road to Istanbul. While his performances were mediocre at best, it did enable Sami to get a rest and make sure that he was able to perform heroics alongside JC. This appointment coupled with the addition of Sammy Lee recently should help to fill the Pako sized hole that we had this year.

Hicks says that a shared stadium isn't back on the table. I am inclined to believe him in this regard even though he has a history of half truths and broken promises since he stepped through the Shankly gates.

Updates will continue to be sparse but if there are major moves, i.e. Barry, then I might put a post together. Otherwise it's the skeleton crew until the friendlies get underway.