Toulouse lose

Yesterdays game was not a classic. As is often the case with the champions league third round, it's a case of get the job done. Given the oppressive heat in the afternoon sun, we weren't over exerting ourselves. Veronin scored just before half time with this 25 yard belter.

Great to see that the Raven is building on his pre season form. It was an efficent rather than an inspired team performance and I'm sure that we'll put them to the sword at Anfield in two weeks time. The only worrying sign was the fact that Gerrard came off injured after an hour. The latest news is that he has a hairline fracture in his toe but he'll be fit for Sunday which is a huge boost.

The Chelsea match this weekend is huge now. Sky will be trying to build it up as a title showdown, which it isn't, but it's important that we learn the lessons of previous seasons and keep pace with the leaders at the start of the season. Too often in recent years, we've started slowly and have had to play catchup. With Utd having dropped 4 points from their first two matches, it's a good oppertunity to put down a marker against one of the other titile contenders. Chelsea seem to have a few injuries at the moment but I wouldn't be surprised if they manage to recover. Expect to see both Terry, Carvalho and Essien line out on Sunday at 4.00.

Have a look at this for a great interview with Torres. You will need access to spanish or a decent translation website. Interestingly they say that the fee was €26.5m or £18m to be paid over three years which is a lot less than was reported in the UK press. It's the kid's Anfield debut on Sunday. Let's hope that he makes it a special one.

We've signed another new keeper. This time he's a seventeen year old Hungarian called Peter Gulacsi. He has been signed on a years loan apparently. With a name like that maybe he should have joined Golden balls at the L.A. Galaxy. Sorry, couldn't resist.

Cometh the hour..

This is what we've been missing. Isn't it great to have the season back? The famine is over and the feast is upon us. Here's hoping that Liverpool are sitting at the top of the table at the end of it.

For those of you that missed it, we ran out to a deserved 2-1 victory at Villa Park on Saturday. There were some great performances, notably Torres and Kuyt who looked great together. I'm very optimistic about their partnership after this. Their vision, movement and link-up play was a joy to behold. I hope that I'm not putting the mockers on them here but I predict a bountiful partnership from the lads. Rafa was delighted with El Nino's performance. Me too Rafa.

Gerrard was superb in the middle alongside Xabi. It was looking like another dissappoiting opening day draw when Stevie stood up and fired in THAT free. Astounding. There is a lot of guff written in the press about him playing in the middle but I think a more important factor here was that he's had the summer off and a full pre-season behind him. I'm sure that he'll play games on the right this season. If he plays like this, it won't matter what position he's playing in.

Riise wasn't great at left midfield but Arbeloa did ok at left back. Finnan was caught out by Young's pace a few times but he might have have had more protection with someone other than Pennant in front of him. Babel looked really good when he came on in the second half. He has that combination of pace, power and control that makes players dangerous. His directness and willingness to run at defenders is something that we haven't seen too much of around Anfield in recent times.

The team flew out to Toulouse today for the champions league qualifier tomorrow. I reckon that this should be fairly straight forward. It's going to be very hot at 3.30 in the afternoon but we should have enough to get at least an away draw if not a win. All I have to do now is figure out a way to get off work early.

Rotterdam review and season preview

Rotterdam review

Our pre-season finished with the port of Rotterdam tournament over the weekend. First of all we played Shanghai Shenhua which we won 2-0. Fernando Torres scored his first for the club with a well taken chip over the keeper when one on one with him. Yossi provided a lovely through ball in the build up. I'm happy to see him score his first goal and enjoyed the manner in which he scored it. Not since Michael Owen have we had a striker who was both quick and good at one-on-ones. Gerrard scored the second goal with an audacious lob. Fine goal from the captain. Leto also got his first run out in this match and played quite well by all accounts. It'll be good to have some competition on the left wing this season.

Our final pre-season game was against Feyenoord on Sunday night. This ended up being a bit tasty and was feistier than our previous friendlies. Drenthe opened the scoring for the Dutch team. Then Kuyt had a legitimate goal disallowed before Gerrard scored again after fine work by Babel. Pepe had to save a penalty after an Arbeloa handball. There were a few handbags thrown at the end of the match. Nice to see the chief put a reducer in on Drenthe. So the match finished 1-1 and Porto won the tournament. Big swing.

The Champions League draw was made on Friday and we were drawn against Toulouse who finished third in France. I reckon that we should be able to win that handy enough over two legs. I don't know a huge amount about them other than the fact Elmander plays for them and they only just scraped into third place.

Gerrard stated his happiness at having more time in the centre this season, according to Rafa. I think that this is a bit of a media hobby horse and I've no problem with him playing on the right hand side of midfield and I would imagine that we'll still see him play there a lot this season.

Season preview

Every August, I convince myself that this year will be the one where we finally win the league. Where do I start? Where did we finish - third. Where will we finish? Hard to answer. Many experts seem to think it'll be as you were at the top with the same top four as last season. The guardian have us down for third spot. On the other hand, Henry Winter thinks that we'll finish in the top two and that it'll be the three horse race. I would be happy with that as long as we are involved in the title race at the business end of the season. I suspect that Chelsea and Utd are still slightly ahead of us squadwise, but if we could split them and contend the league I'd be impressed.

The defence required the least work and so it was. With the possible addition of Heinze, it's as you were. We performed well defensively last year so there was no need for drastic surgery. Riise is still a weak link sometimes but Heinze might challenge him to improve. There is some speculation that Carson might be on his way out, maybe to Man City or Villa on loan, to be replaced with Charles Itandje from Lens coming in as back up keeper.

In midfield we have improved the flanks which needed a lot of work. Babel, Leto, Benayoun were bought to add to Kewell, who is now back from injury, and an improved Pennant who looked quality after Christmas. I think that this was the one major area of the team that needed addressing. I'm much more confident of our ability to break down stubborn defences with penetration from the wings this year. Lucas came in to challenge the status quo in the middle. The only problem there is that we have too many good players chaasing too few spaces now.

Our attack has evolved. Out went Bellamy and Fowler for Torres and Veronin. As mentioned above, I think that Torres pace and verve will greatly enhance our attack. Veronin looks a clever player in pre-season and I now think that he'll challenge Dirk and Crouchie, rather than just making up the numbers.

Improvements have been made to many areas of the squad by buying some new talent and shipping those who weren't performing and were out of favour. The remaining issues and questions are

1) We've added to the attacking options and quality in the squad but is it enough? Will we score enough goals? We scored a lot less than the rest of the big four. There were many games where we dominated teams and had the majority of possession but we didn't create enough chances and didn't score enough of the chances that we created. We will have to commit more men forward when we are putting pressure on teams to make this work. The additions of Torres should help somewhat with the goalscoring but we need goals from all over the pitch. Our midfield will have to up it's scoring rate as only Gerrard has a proven history of scoring. I would expect Babel, Alonso, Kewell and Benayoun to chip in with a few each. Pennant only scored once last year and could do with working on that part of his game.

2) Can we perform in the head to heads against our rivals? We had the worst record of the top four teams last season. We were mugged in the last minute by Utd. I'm hoping that we can improve on it this season and get some impressive results against the other big teams.

3) Can we improve our away from? Last season Utd scored one more point than us at home, 47 to our 46 points. The difference came on the road. Utd took 42 points compared to our 22. This is where we need to get our act together. I reckon that our new additions will help us to break down packed defences plus the added pace or Torres and Babel will help us to hit teams on the break.

4) Can we start the season brightly? We had a terrible start last season and were realisticly out of the title race by November. We can't let that happen again. We will have a game in hand by week three due to the champions league qualifiers when we play Chelsea. This will give us a chance to state our credentials with an early blow. The fact that Terry and others could be out is a bonus. We need to establish our credentials early as a statement on intent.

So can we win it? Yes. Will we win it? Probably not. I expect us to challenge but in the end I think that Utd will probably win the prize. I hope that I'm wrong and we call in number 19. It all starts against Villa on Saturday. If we win it, people will be saying "it's on". If not then we'll be written off. Check back here every week for updates. Click here for an good article on rotation from Paul Tomkins.

Bring it on.

Barcleys Asia Trophy

Comical Alex reckons that "Tevez is our player". Then he decided to cricise Liverpool for going on as if Heinze is our player. The mind boggles. The leagal eagles have been called in in the Heinze affair. I was bored with this a long ime ago but I reckon it's going to run and run.

Since my last post we've played two matches in the Barcleys Asia Trophy. First of all, we beat South China 3-1 with goals from Riise, Alonso and Agger. That put us through to the final where we lost to Portsmouth on penalties. What a disaster, or not as the case may be.

The big news of the week was the unveiling of the plans for the new stadium. It looks incredible. The official webiste has a new section for the stadium. Opening for business in 2010 with a capacity of 78000 if all goes according to plan.

Next up is a friendly against Shanghai Shenhua on Friday evening followed by Feyenoord on Sunday evening. I expect that as we get nearer the premier league kick off we might see something approaching a first team in advance of the Villa match.

Bremen and Auxerre

Since my last post, we've gone to the Switzerland and won two friendlies. As a wise man once said, in Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock. He mustn't have heard about Milka chocolate.

First up was a 3-2 victory over Werder Bremen. Veronin had an impressive match and scored two goals. He looks like a strong runner who has good vision and will link the play well. Even though he is likely to be fourth choice, he's already a fans favourite and will probably develop into an impact sub. Riise added the other goal from a rocket of a free. Torres got a few minutes at the end of the match.

Auxerre were beaten 2-0 on Fri afternoon. Gerrard scored his first of the season and Dagger got the second when a free was floated into the far post. I only saw highlights of this match but it doesn't sound like it was anything to write home about.


Steve Finnan signed a new deal this week. Great news for him and for us as it means that well have our "Mr. Dependable" for the rest of his career.

There's a good Torres post on this blog. Well worth a read.

The BBC have an article on the Heinze situation. I hope that it gets sorted one way or another shortly. There's little point in dragging it to the courts if it's not going to be resolved before the transfer window closes.

If you're feeling nostalgic and of a certain age then you might enjoy a look at this Dalglish and Rush compilation. It was featured in the guardian during the week. Some amazing goals there from arguably the greatest partnership in English football.

Here's more of the same. Peter 'The Great' Beardsley was my favourite player when I was a young fella. I had Peter Beardsly shin guards. Unfortunately, they didn't make me play like him and I was still crap.

Some of the online rumour mongers reckon that we have our eye on Samir Nasri at Marseille. There is some specualtion that we have secured an option on him for next summer as part of the Cisse deal. I don't have a clue whether there's anything in this or not but it's worth bearing in mind for a years time.

South China FC are our lunchtime opponents tomorrow. I can't tell you anything about them. Our far eastern tour has begun in earnest. I always wonder about the value to the team of these tours but I suppose it's about raising the profile, expanding into new markets and blah blah blah. As you can see, I didn't apply for the job of commercial director.

Crewe cut

Appologies for the terrible pun. I'm tired after a few too many beers last night and I need a coffee to wake me up for tonight.



So we put Crewe away 3-0 with goals from Lee Peltier, Peter Crouch and Ray Puterill. Like as Wrexham last week, Rafa played a different team in each half. Andre "The raven/crow" Veronin was probably the best performer of the first half players. In the second half Xabi Alonso showed that his radar is in perfect working order as his passes were delivered with pinpoint accuracy. It's good to see the youngsters geting a run out alongside the senior players and making a contribution.

Guillem Ballague has a great interview with El Nino in the times. The more I read about this kid, the more I like him.

Here's a bit of advice. Don't ever call Jamie Carragher a bottler. Adrian Durham on Talksport radio found this out the hard way. It's a terrible station full of bulshitters so I'm not going to waste anymore time talking about them.

Hansen and Collins have signed professional contracts with Liverpool. Hansen is a goalie while Collins is 17, Irish and a striker which sounds promising. Call him up now Stan.

LFC TV was launched this week. The good news is that it'll be free if you already get Setanta sports. I don't, but I'm hoping that the content will be available on the official website through the e-season ticket.

Benayoun and Babel have now come aboard the good ship LFC. I think that Benayoun will replace Garcia in the squad but Babel is one to ge excited about. The Babel fee is an initial £8m which could rise to £11m depending on appearences and trophies. I would imagine that he'll play on the left wing or as the left striker if we play a 4-3-3. Van Basten says that he can become the new Henry if he continues to improve. Let's hope he's right.

David Amoo, a 17 year old striker has signed from Millwall. Apparently he is exceptionaly fast and used to run the 100m for London schools.

Gabriel Mitio, a one time target, has gone to Barca so we can take him off the list. Hicks said that we will sign one more player. The consensus appears to be that it'll be Heinze but the only way I can see that happening is if he buys himself out of his contract.

Werder Bremen are the next team to be crushed under the might of the unstoppable red machine in a match on Tuesday night. I wouldn't be surprised if we see more of a structure to the team this time, with less than 22 players getting a run out.

I'm going for a power nap.

So long, farewell

Cisse and Bellamy have left the building for a combined fee of over £16m according to Chris Bascombe in the Liverpool echo. Not bad business as far as I'm concerned. When you add in the money from Gonzalez, Garcia, Pongolle, Rafa has some change left over after the Torres deal.



Where will he spend it? Well he said that that a winger was the next priority and he wants two players in total. News of Ryan Babel came to light online on Sat and has hit the main media today. Sky have confirmed that we've lodged a bid with Ajax. I must admit that I've only seen highlights of this lad bar the u-21 final last month which I watched in full. Ryan really impressed me that night with his pace, strength and intelligence. He scored one but could have had a hat trick and well deserved his man of the match award. I think that he could do a good job for us on the left wing where we're lacking options since the departures of Zenden, Gonzalez and Garcia. Arsenal have been after him for a long time so I wouldn't expect them to give up on him without a fight.

The pre season kicked off for Liverpool on Saturday with a 3-2 win over Wrexham. It was mainly two teams of youngsters over each half, with a few exceptions like Momo, Finnan and Pennant. Jermaine had a superb first half and set up three goals for Bes Idrizaj. Pennant looks like he's going to continue the good form that he showed after Christmas last year. I hope to see him float a few crosses onto Fernando's head over the next few months. Idrizaj is a player who's been at the club for a few years but hasn't had much first team exposure. He took his goals well on Sat and looks a game sort. He's only 19 and has time on his side but I would imagine that he'll go on loan again this season, maybe back to Luton where he spent 3 months last year. Adam Hammill also got a run out and looks a lively winger. He's been talked up for the past few years and did well on loan in Scotland last year. But he's still young and learning and I expect that he, like Idrizaj, will go on loan rather than spend the year in the reserves.

Crewe are up next on Saturday and we may see some of the senior stars getting a run out, including the soon to be ex-England player, Jamie Carragher. Good lad Carra.

Auf wiedersehen, adieu.

"El Nino" stays in the picture

It's official. There's a new kid in town and his name is Fernando. Rafa has sent out the call and "Towers" has answered. I haven't posted a blog entry in a while as I was awaiting some concrete news. It's arrived with a bang, not disimilar to the sound of castanets being snapped.

I'm very excited about our new number 9. Fergie has been chasing him for years so I'd imagine he's pissed off that he spunked £53m of his summer budget already. Jose and Chelsea held talks with his agent last summer. Both Ballague and Hunter have reported the fee as being £20m rather than the £26.5m being quoted in the press. The Echo also quotes the fee at £20m and says he took a pay cut which is a good sign.

Luis Garcia is heading in the other direction for a fee of around £4.5m. I'm sorry to see little Luis go but he wanted to return home and he's only got a year left on his contract. He's off to Spain to drink Sangria, as the song says. Here's my favourite of his many goals which came against Juve. Watch out for the mad music on that clip.

Cisse appears to have gone to Marseille on a permanent deal. This isn't much of a surprise but we still haven't got any confirmation of the price. I'm sure it won't be what we would have hoped had he not broken his leg twice.

Momo has signed a new deal at Anfield. I thought that there was a chance that he'd leave given the signing of Lucas from Gremio. Does this mean that Stevie is going to be playing mainly on the right this year?

The youth recruitment drive shows no sign of letting up and time soon. The latest Spanish (could be Basque) starlet on his way to L4 is Mikel San Jose. He's 18, a centre back and has signed from Atletico Bilbao.

Dani Pacheco is also on his way out of Iberia. Barcelona have lost quite a few young players to the premiership over the years. Now we've poached one for ourselves. Pacheco is a 16 year old striker who is nicknamed the killer. He is half Czech and half Catalan, a Czechalan if you will.

Bulgarian midfielder Mihail Alexandrov will be winging his way here from CSKA Sofia in the near future. I can't say that I know too much about him but he's 18 and another "one for the future".

There is considerable talk that Gabriel Heinze is going to leave Utd for Liverpool. I thought he was a superb player until his injury but hasn't been the same since. He would be more reliable than Riise at left back but I don't think he'd offer us the same going forward. Either way, I can't see Slur Alex letting this happen unless Heinze buys himself out of his contract.

Mañana.

Sign on

The news that we're getting all of our main players tied down to new contracts is very satisfying. Carra and Stevie signed last week, while Pepe and Xabi both signed extensions this week. It's heartening in so far as there was a lot of speculation that Xabi might leave for one of Barca/Real. It's clear that the management want the core of the team all tied down to long term deals so that we can build from a stable and reliable base.

Fordies has an good post on Rafa and Parry. I don't know who this guy is or if he's reliable but it always makes for interesting reading.

Ribery going to Bayern Munchen for £17m is potentially good news. It means that Marseille should have enough money to play for Cisse now. I think that the fee originly agreed was around £8.5m but Diouf at Marseille won't pay that much. I hope that we can get something approaching it. There was also some talk that Bolton are interested but I'd be surprised if that happens.

The Malouda deal is still kicking about. It seems that we now have competition from Chelsea and Arsenal. I don't know if Arsenal can compete financially but they do have the Wenger factor which make a difference with French players.

Eto'o looks to be staying at Barca, from his recent comments. Milan and us are interested but if he wants to stay there, then it's unlikely to happen.

Is Thierry saying "get Rafa to sign me, Stevie"? For those who've been pinning their hopes on a thunderbolt signing from Arsenal, think again. This rumour has been knocking around the forums for around six months and it's still rubbish as far as I'm concerned. As I've said before, I've no inside track but it's an illogical deal. Why would Arsenal sell Henry, their best player, to a rival, weakening themselves and strengthening the rival? I wouldn't be surprised if he does leave the Emirates but I don't think it'll be for Anfield. There's more chance of me being recruited by the Pussy Cat Dolls than there is of Thierry bring his Va Va Voom to L4.

Big bucks?

The new away kit was released today. I can't say that I'm overly impressed with it. The last white kit was much better.

Some interesting transfer rumours here. If these are to be believed then we're going to break the bank for Simao/Malouda, Tevez, Alves and Milito. I have to say that I can't see us spending that much money. I don't have any sort of inside info or source, just what I read on the net and that leads me to believe that we'll spend cash this summer but not £70m. Chris Bascombe in the Liverpool Echo today says that Sami is staying at the club. If Hyypia is staying then maybe that makes a move for Milito less likely. Bascombe is pretty reliable for getting the inside line from Anfield. He reckons that Tevez will be too expensive at £30m. I too doubt that Rafa would be willing to spend that much on one player.

The news that Rafa has been reassured after talks with the chairmen is satisfying. They seem quick off the mark to get in contact with Rafa when needed.

Our continued interest in young European talent shows no sign of finishing. This week we've signed Alexander Kacaniklic. He's a fifteen year old midfielder from Sweden and he impressed the staff after a twelve day trial in February.

Jerzey Dudek is set to leave the club shortly as he's out of contract. While it is definitely time for him to go, with Scott Carson waiting in the wings, he will be missed. He will be a legend for what he achieved in Istanbul, but has tarnished his reputation somewhat with a string of poor displays since then, notably the Carling and FA cup this season. But the character of the man can never be in doubt. Here he is at the end of the match in Athens, comforting a distraught Reina. I hope Jerzey goes on to do a good job elsewhere and has a happy twilight to his career.