Wolves and Trotters

We went to Molineux last wednesday to face Wolves. It was the first of what I viewed as two winnable games, with Wolves being the easier of the two. How wrong I was. We were shockingly bad. The only positive to be taken from the match was that we didn't lose and Gerrard returned to the first team. Other than that, we showed nothing.

Thankfully we moved on with a 2-0 win over Bolton at Anfield on Saturday. Dirk continued his good goalscoring form after Aquilani set him up with a far post header. Insua had swung in the cross and had a great game overall. I'm happy for Emiliano as he's been below par for a while as have most of the defence. What a difference a Greek makes? Kyrgiakos has come in and stabilised the entire back line. He's a no nonsense type who knows what his job is and sticks to it. Not the most cultured distributor of the ball, but one who get stuck in, wins headers and blocks at vital times. He cleared a ball off the line in the first half which could have changed the complexion of the match.Everton are level with Liverpool and Chelsea on 14 points from 18 according to the premier league form table. I'm happy to have Kyrgiakos in there to combat the aerial threat of Cahill and Fellaini. The defence will have a busy day as I'm sure the toffees will be well up for it, as they always are in the derby. This is another massive game, they all are now for us to finish fourth. A win would set us up nicely for the Arsenal match but I suspect we could be heading for a draw.

Not for the first time in recent years, the Liverpool rumour mill went into overtime and the word in the city was that Rafa was going to resign today. This proved to be rubbish, quelle surprise. The boss dismissed the rumours and said he's committed to the club.

In an odd move, promising German full back Chris Buchtmann has been sold to Fulham for £100k plus future conditional payments. I thought that he was rated highly so this is very strange unless the kid is having problems off the pitch.

We've signed a co-operation deal with Genk in Belgium. This will enable us to sign promising players from South America and Africa and let them develop in Genk, where the work permit laws aren't as strict. Arsenal and Man Utd have similar deals with Beveren and Royal Antwerp. I've always wondered why we didn't do this a few years ago.

The Liverpool Echo says that we've offered a pre contract agreement to Milan Jovanovic of Standard Liege as he's on a free in the summer. In the same paper Dirk talks about his Scouse family and their love of fish and chips. Dirk is one of my favourite players. He sounds like a really decent and down to earth bloke. Former target Nicolas Lodeiro won't be coming to Anfield as he's signed for Ajax. If the hype is to be believed, Martin Jol has pulled off a coup here as this kid is going to be a star.

Just as the transfer window was about to slam shut, it seems we managed to slip one through the gap. If some reports in Greece are to be believed, we've managed to sign Greek full back Vasilis Torosidis on loan from Olympiakos on loan. If everything goes well, this will become a permanent deal in the summer for around €7m. I really wasn't expecting us to do any business today so this comes as a pleasant surprise. As to the player himself and his abilities, I don't have a clue. He's good mates with Kygiakos, if that helps. Then again, it could be speculation which comes to nothing.

How good was that? A 2-0 win over Spurs at Anfield on a rocking Wednesday night was just what the doctor ordered. 'Arry said the Kop in full voice is "the most amazing sight in football". Get in.

We benefitted a lot from the early goal. Great strike from Kuyt after a clever bit of skill from Aquilani. He looked much better last night, playing the Gerrard role. You could say that creates a problem of where to play Gerrard when he returns but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The heart and passion shown against Stoke was upped a notch here. Carra was superb at right back. I know that he's expressed some reservations about playing there but if he played like that every week it wouldn't be a problem. Degen offered an outlet on the right and while he's limited, he did give us a bit of pace and drive which we lacked with Torres and Gerrard out. He was guilty of bottling it when he was put through on Gomes but chose to abdicate responsibility and pass back to Dirk instead.

Kuyt missed a few sitters and it should have been a lot easier in the end than it was. Balls of steel from Dirk to retake the peno and put it in the opposite corner. Spurs did cause a few problems at times but overall we were great value for the win. I really thought they'd give us more of a game given the injuries we had.

We're second in the premier league form guide with 13 points out of 18, only Arsenal ahead of us. Not bad form considering this is supposed to be the worst Liverpool team ever with a cretin of a manager according to the media.It seems that we did make an effort to get Jones on loan from Sunderland but they didn't go for it despite the player being interested. Fair enough.

Tony Barrett in the Times has an excellent piece on George Gillett. There are rumours that his share of the club will be sold soon enough. I really hope it's true this time but we've all heard these rumours before.

Portsmouth and Wolves

The Christmas period started really badly for the reds with a 2-0 loss at Fratton Park. I only saw highlights of this one but we looked rubbish. All of the reports I read said we were dire. Masch getting himself sent off didn't help but we were already 1-0 down at that stage. But after that we didn't really look like we could turn it around. Depressing stuff.

Thankfully we were much improved in our next match on Stephens day. We had to get things back on track at home to Wolves and we did with a 2-0 win over the east midlands team. In the end it looked safe enough but in the first half we hadn't played well and still looked nervous at the back. Once Ward got sent off, it got somewhat easier. The goals both came in the second half. First Gerrard opened the scoring with a bullet header from an Insua cross. It was his fifth of the season, a fairly poor return by his standards. Then Yossi settled our nerves a few minutes later with a close range shot that took a deflection. Pacheco came on for another late cameo. That kid has talent.

Alberto got his first league start and played quite well. He still looked rusty and will continue like that for a while I would imagine. He hit some great passes but gave it away a few times too. He's always positive and tries to play it forward, including those ahead of him in the play. At the moment he looks like a 60 minute player rather than a 90 min one. He should get more stars in the next few weeks with Javier out injured. Now our thoughts turn to Aston Villa in Birmingham tomorrow night. This is going to be really tough. They beat us at Anfield in September without ever looking as convincing as the scoreline suggested. I don't think they've a great midfield but the have a stout defence and a blistering attack which could expose our nervous defenders. If we can assert ourselves in midfield, we can go a long way towards winning the game.

Have a listen to this MP RED interview with big Jan. Molby is an absolute legend.