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.

I hate to say I told you so

Yesterday I predicted Jovetic would be a dangerman and one to watch. This prediction proved accurate and the Montanegran took us to pieces. He was brilliant. Yet again we were poor at the back with Skrtel, GloJo and Insua all had nights to forget. In midfield, Lucas and Aurelio didn't provide the shield that Masch gives us away from home. They hit us twice in the first half leaving us with a mountain to climb.

A banner held up by the home fans in the stadium said "Your story to us is a legend", but we couldn't add to that story here. The second half performance was much improved with Yossi and Lucas going close but we couldn't capitalise. That leaves us on 6 points. We should still qualify and can win the group but we've made it a lot harder. This Sunday the reds march onto Stamford Bridge. This is going to be massive. We won there last season but we were much more solid at the back then. We'll need Javier to recover from his knock by then. He's vital for these kind of away games. I worry about Drogba. He's caused us huge problems in the past and could make mincemeat of Carra and Skrtel. Cech's suspension is good news but may not be enough. I think a draw would be the best we can hope for despite El Nino and his magic feet. If Rafa doesn't pick him for the game he might get a smack in the head.Here's the new Adidas featuring Gerrard being picked for an ultimate team by Zidane. The copy is a bit rubbish but the look and animation is cool. Real graphic novel style.

Take a deep breath

Right. Here's a brief summary of the last 10 days while I was in Seville. During that time I went to the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium to watch Seville beat Mallorca 2-0. I was privileged to see the visitors feature Josemi and yes, he's still shit.

First was a West Ham game. I managed to watch this one on Spanish TV. The hammers gave us a tough game for an hour and more poor defending at the back cost us. But a goal from Dirk and two from El Nino got us back on track. His first one was really special.

Next came the Carling cup tie with Leeds, Leeds, Leeds. N'Gog scored to make it 1-0 but it didn't sound like a great match from the reports I read. Needless to say, it wasn't available on tv in Andalusia. Great to see the likes of Spearing getting some time and N'Gog keeps scoring and improving. Great help to have Fabio back in action. We've missed his cultured left foot. Hull City were shot up like fish in a barrel at Anfield on Saturday. Once again, el Crack Torres, put the opposition to the sword. He's in lethal from now after a slow start and he grabbed a hat trick and made Phil "Phil Brown" Brown and his team look awful. Babel grabbed two for himself, one of which he knew eff all about after a Riera shot looped off his foot. He's starting to put a bit of form together and I might have to retract my pronouncement that he's a write off. Gerrard scored a bit of a fluke, but they all count. Lucas has another solid game as Mascherano wasn't fit. There is the point that we don't need him and Lucas in the same team at home, and once Aquilani is fit, we'll line up with one of them alongside the Italian in the middle of the park.

Tonight it's back to the Champions league and we're off to Florence to face the Viola. They're missing Gilardino, which is good, but they'll still have Mutu, Vargas and Jovetic, who I rate highly. He was brilliant when I saw Fiorentina lose to AC Milan in the San Siro in January. It's not a handy group we have but it's still one that we should top. A win tonight would be great as it's probably our second hardest game of the six and would put us well on the way to the second round.

Off the pitch, rumors about of Saudi investors and Hicks and Gillett have released a statement to say that they are looking for investors. I really hope they do succeed and get kicked out of the club but I'm not holding my breath.

Hasta luego.

Humble beginnings

A 1-0 win against limited oposition saw our champions league campaign get off to a dull thud, rather than a bang. Debreceni posed very little threat but were happy to sit deep and frustrate in numbers, which is perfectly acceptable for smaller teams away from home. It was up to us to break them down and we didn't succeed to any great degree. We had some decent enough openings but only converted the one with deadly Dirk poked in a shot after the goalie failed to hold a Nando rasper. Rafa will say that the objective is get qualified as qucikly as possible and top the group. We're on our way to achieving that mission. Agger is back in training but unlikely to feature against West Ham in Upton Park this Saturday. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see the same team or Mascherano in for Riera with Gerrard moving forward and Yossi shifting left. Aurelio needs some more minutes before he's ready to start. We should be able to beat this lot but it's not an easy ground to visit. I predict a narrow win.

It sounds like Purslow and Rafa are getting on well. I suppose the boss is glad that the incompetent Parry is gone. Purslow does seem to be efficent in securing the new sponsorship deal. The problem is that the money he's earning will go towards the Yanks debts, which they've loaded onto the club. Hicks reckons that the stadium will be built - once there is credit available in international markets. We'll see about that. In the meantime, they'll continue fucking the club, it's fans and the residents of Anfield around. Cheers Tom.

Probably the best sponsorship deal in the world?

That's more like it. 4-0 at home and a job well done. After a nervy opening 20 mins we settled down and Yossi hit the opener after a pass in from the right by GloJo. The Israeli was on top form and completed his hat trick in the second half. He cut the Burnley defence to pieces time and again with his running between the lines.

Gerrard had a crucial role to play especially in the third goal. He was unlucky not to score himself when he beat the keeper but hit the post. Himself and lucas formed a tasty midfield partnership in Mascherano absence. Food for thought given that Javier is unlikely to stay beyond this summer.

Dirk scored the other, his second of the season. It will be great if he could repeat his feat of last season is getting 12 league goals from midfield. It's great to see players other than Torres and Gerrard getting goals for when our two match winners have off days. I'm hoping that Aquilani will bag himself a few when he gets going. He remains 2-3 weeks away from fitness.The defence held firm for the second time this season and Rafa says those calling time on Carra are premature. Tony Cascarino in the Times suggests that Carragher is the source of our early season defensive frailties. Skrtel came back in place of Kyrgiakos and I expect those two to be the first choice for the season baring injury. Agger will have a hard time displacing one of them. Aurelio and Insua will be an interesting battle for the left back spot as the season progresses. Insua has done well but Rafa's a big fan of the Brazilian and he gives us an option with free kicks.

West Ham were beaten yesterday and will want to bounce back against us in the late kick off on Saturday. Zola has them well organised and playing some nice stuff but we've a bit of confidence back now and we should be able to win it. This is the type of game that we might have drawn last year so I'd like to see us show we're different now and go for the three points.

Is seems we'll be saying goodbye to Carlsberg and hello to Standard Chartered as our £80m record equaling sponsorship deal was agreed this week. I did quite like the fact that we've had Carlsberg for many years but financial reality means we need to go for a more lucrative option. It could well mean more money for the Americans but that may mean less taken from Rafa's budget.

Pepe was asked if we could win the title and replied "I think so but there are other teams that are very capable of winning it", which is a fair enough assessment. It's going to be very tough. Rafa has tried to clarify Reina's comments.

Can I direct your eyes here? Top class from the Off the Ball team, Eoin and Ken. Cohen is a despicable human being. Great to know that he's off the air.

I'm disappointed but not surprised to read that Crewe are going to report us for tapping up one of their talented youths. 15 year old Max Clayton could head to Anfield but it might come at a high price. We've previous in this regard with Ziege a few years ago. I know that this happens a lot but I never like to see young players poached from their clubs for a small fee ala Macheda, Fabregas, Flamini and now Kakuta. Another young lad, Michael Ngoo has signed from Southend. 101greatgoals has a good feature on our Finnish boy wonder Lauri Delle Valle.

It was great to see that justice was done in the Michael Shields case as he was given a pardon. Better late than never but it'll be hard for the poor fella to rebuild his life after so long in jail for a crime he didn't commit. He wrote a piece in the Observer today which is worth a read.

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.

WTF?

It's my fault. I have to hold my hold my hand up and accept responsibility for the 3-1 defeat to Villa. I had Johnson, Gerrard and Torres in my fantasy football team. You'd think I'd learn after all these years. When I have Liverpool players in my team, we play shit. You'll pleased to know that I"m going to revert to my usual tactic of not picking any LFC players and loading up with Rooney, Rio and the lads.

Here's a surprisingly balanced report from Football 365 on the result. We created a load of chances in the first 20 minutes but didn't take them. We went behind to a freaky deflected goal and were chasing it after that. That suited Villa who sat back and hit us with pace on the counter. In fairness to them, they did quite well in that kind of game where the onus was on us. Quite a few of our players had off games. Gerrard and Torres both had poor games, El Nino not helped by receiving some elbows to the head. But it was a shitty performance once we went behind. I'm always wary when we play teams who haven't won in ages. They often turn it around against us, ala spurs last season.

Bolton on Saturday gives a chance for revenge. I know it's very early early but we can't afford to slip to far behind and trying to catch up every week. We should batter Bolton but they are the kind of physical team that often causes us problems. If we score first we could batter them like the Stoke game. If we go a long time without scoring then we might start to fret like we did last night.

Babel had want to watch it according to Rafa. He's running out of last chances. His display against Spurs was so pitiful that I'd happily see him leave this summer. Aurelio is back in training. He'll have a job getting his place back from Insua.

Hungarian kid Nemeth is on his way to AEK Athens on loan for a season. It'll do him well to get some first team football on a regular basis. He looks a good finisher but could bulk up a bit as he's not blessed with pace.

Man Utd have shown a bit of class in relation to a fan getting a Hillsbourgh t-shirt printed and are to be commended for it. I would hope that Liverpool would respond similarly if one of our fans got a Munich t-shirt printed. I have no time for those appalling chants and two wrongs never make a right in that regard.

Johnson's magic

It's hard to remember a better debut than Glen Johnson's last night. He scored one goal, was instrumental in others and kept a clean sheet. If he can do that every week, we'll have some player. He himself said it was a perfect night. He was good against Spurs but this was a whole new level. £17m is starting to look cheap. We've found ourselves an English Danny Alves after Rafa failed to buy the Brazilian one when he was at Seville.

4-0 was a decent way to get our Anfield account off to a flying start. Lucas was good in the middle again, El Nino opened the scoring and looked a little sharper. It may take him time to get back to full fitness after a short summer off. Yossi was vastly superior to Babel and should be there every game for now. Himself and Riera will scrap it out for that spot on the left but the Israeli gets my vote for now. Gerrard was pretty deadly and the build up to Kuyt's goal was a great team move, but a sublime touch from Gerrard capped it all. Young Ayala did nothing wrong at the back and kept it simple. It will have done him the world of good to have that clean sheet under his belt.We've a few days off until the Villa match next Monday night. It won't be easy as they've had a mediocre start to their season and will want to show the league that they're still contenders for a European spot. Skrtel should be back in action then, maybe wearing a mask. Riera could be in contention for the left midfield but that would be really hard on Benayoun. I'm expecting our injury crisis to ease in the near future.

Former Rangers defender Kyrgiakos is on his way to L4. I can see this happening as he'll be coming in as a cheap 4th choice centre back who's good in the air. A Sami replacement for those games where the ball is bombarded into the box. We'll need him as Agger had surgery on his back and will be out for 6 weeks. Leaving on loan will be Mikel San Jose who's off to Bilbao on loan for the year. Fair play to you boy.

Tony Barrett in the Times raise the slim possibility of a bid for Van Der Vaart from Real Madrid. He's a player that we've been linked to in the distant past but I can't see us having the cash now. The only way it could happen would be a loan deal with an option to buy next year. He'd give us great cover in the attacking positions. I don't see it happening in reality.

A bad day away from the office

Not quite what I was expecting. If we're going to win the league we need to improve on these kind of results. A 2-1 defeat against Spurs isn't a disgrace but with the other teams at the top winning, it's not ideal to be dropping three points on the opening day. As many have said, you can't win the league in the autumn, but you can lose. Not that I think we have, but I don't want us to spend the season playing catch up and relying on other teams to slip up again.

Obviously it's way too early to press the panic button but we need to get back on track ASAP. How can we change this for the Stoke clash tomorrow night? Hopefully Skrtel is fit to start alongside Jamie after their clash of heads, Rafa will make a late call on his fitness. Carra had a poor enough game by his standards. Young Ayala did nothing wrong but I wouldn't want to see him starting this game. I would expect Yossi to come in for Babel who was quite poor on the left flank as he nearly changed the game when he came on. Riera may have recovered from an ankle injury and could start. Babel was pretty shit. He's running out of last chances and doesn't look like he knows what to do with the ball. Unfortunately, Aquilani won't be ready for a few weeks yet so I suppose the majority of the team will be as it was on Sunday. Being in front of an expectant Anfield should gee up the team. Given that Stoke managed to take two league draws last season, there should be an appetite to exact some sweet revenge from the Potters. It appears the Adam Hammill has signed a permanent deal with Championship club Barnsley. He was highly tipped at one stage but hasn't been able to transform his talent into a first team spot. Another talented teen, Danny Pacheco, has signed a new deal which will keep him at the club until 2012. The former FCB striker did well in pre season and might get a look in during cup games this year. He was impressive last night as a young Liverpool XI beat Bohemians 2-0 in Dublin.

Japanese midfielder Keisuku Honda has been linked by Sky Sports. He's based in Holland with VVV Venlo. Dynamio Kiev defender and Sengalese International Pape Diakhate is a target if you believe this. The man himself is flattered by the link. The Sundays reckoned that Hertha Berlin have made a new £3m bid for Voronin. I think he's fine as a back up player but I'd prefer to see him go and give one of the younsters a go, as they're on lower wages. Tony Barrett in the Times today suggested that we only have around £2m to spend so it does look like Voronin and maybe others will need to be shipped out to provide funds. It seems that Rafa isn't happy with the amount of cash available to him at the moment. At the moment, we're breaking even rather than the boss being given a transfer pot, like in previous years.

The King, the little Prince and the swordsman

Pre season training is nearly over. Any rustiness or sloppiness was swept clean, like this sloppy fecker. It started with a training camp in Switzerland and two friendlies. St Gallen drew 0-0 with Liverpool and then we were defeated 1-0 by Rapid Vienna. Then the asian leg of the tour started with a 1-1 draw against Thailand. Then things started to click into gear against Singapore with a 5-0 win. Kuyt and Nemeth were particularly strong performers. Then came an embaressing 3-0 loss to Espanol and a 2-0 win over Lyn Oslo featuring a goal from Babel. The final pre season game was a 2-1 loss against Atletico Madrid today, a big game for El Nino who hit the post and contrived not to score against his old team. Lucas was the scorer for us.

The second XI also played a few friendlies including a visit to Dunmanway in west Cork. I drove through the village last weekend and they were painting it red in anticipation of the red invasion. One of the worlds biggest teams playing one of the smallest. The match itself featured a free kick from young Danny Pacheco. This Monday will see the reserve squad play against Bohemians in Dalymount Park, Reds in Dublin. Not a 15 min walk from my own house here in the city centre.

The biggest news of the summer is that £30m+add ons Xabi Alonso will be replaced by £16m Alberto Aqulani who passed his medical on Friday. This is huge news. I really like Xabi, and he was probably my favourite red. A gentleman and a midfielder of such poise and technique that he lit up any game he played. He always made it look like he had much more time than everyone else. But now he's gone. He'll be missed but he gave us five great years and he wanted to move back to spain with his family, which is fair enough. He got a sword when he left Atletico, maybe he'll get a pan of scouse when he leaves merseyside? Good luck Xabi, unless you're playing against us.

While the Xabi saga rumbled on Bob Arbeloa was on his way to the bernabeu after a much quicker deal was agreed a fee of £3.5m + clauses for his transfer. I'm sad to see him go but he's only a year left onhis contract and clearly wants to return to Real Madrid. It means there will be opportunities for Degen and young Martin Kelly at right back. So out with the old and in with the new. Bertie Aqulani is setting up shop in L4 and let's hope he brings his girlfriend with him. There is no doubting the talent that this lad possesses. But what is doubtful, is his injury record. He has struggled a bit in recent times and is out at the moment with an ankle problem. But Roma fans seem to think that this is more to do with their training methods and medical staff. I'm hoping that we can get him fit and firing. His playing stats can be a little misleading because Spaletti often preferred Pizzaro to Bertie in recent years.5 Hungarian kids are coming over on trial and could end up joining their compatriots Gulasci Nemeth, Simon etc. Another young recruit is Danish midfield teen Kohlert who'll go into the reserves.

Hicks and Gillett have secured their refinancing deal which will require them to pay off some of their initial loan. While this sounds good on paper, I'm sure that they'll find a way to bill the club for the expense. They're a pair of leeches, sucking the life out of our club.

There is a certain purity and blind optimism to the first game of the season, you can legitimately expect all of the old problems to have sorted themselves out over the summer. It's a clean slate for all and the new recruits will make the difference. This time we'll go the extra yards. This year is our year. Number 19 is coming home.Celebrity red Samuel L Jackson is well up for the season. I'm sure he backs us to go far, maybe even the whole way to ending our 19 year league drought. The guardian season preview thinks we'll do it. I've been fairly cautious over the past few years and never said we'd do it. I correctly predicted second last season but this time I'm going to stick my neck out and say we'll reach the promised land of the league trophy. You can argue that we're weaker with the loss of Xabi and Arbeloa but the addition of Johnson and Aquilani doesn't leave us far off and might make us more attacking and capable of breaking down a packed defence, in time. There will be a bedding in period, for Alberto especially who hasn't had pre season with the team. If we can keep him fit alongside Torres and Gerrard, then we can do it. I know that's a big if but our inability to field our best XI cost us last year. I think we were the best team but Utd won the league as they had a best squad. I think the loss of Lady Ronaldo will be a problem for them as he destroyed teams and pulled goals out of nowhere so often. We we're very close last year, only four points off and I think that his loss will affect them more than our loss of Xabi. Of course, it will need the Americans to keep their noses out of Rafa's business and let him get on with training and coaching his team. Chelsea will be in there too but they'll need adaptation time to Carlo's methods and tactics. Sure we'll find out over the next 9 months, starting with Spurs on Sunday. The league is like a pregnancy. There are many bumps and kicks along the way but you have to wait until the end to find out the result. Here's hoping that it's the second coming of our league domination.