Red in Dublin

The sky generation might say "easy, easy" but I won't. But it was fairly handy in the end. 5-0 makes the garden look a lot rosier this morning.

A Stevie G hat trick was added to an opener from Ryan Babel and a header from Sami. Babel had a good game and hit the post early in the match with a fine curling shot. But he was the go to guy just before half time when el Nino played him in on the right. Ryan unleashed a superb shot which left their keeper with no chance. That made the second half a lot easier. Stevie got on the end of a Crouchie header across the 6 yard box to head into the bottom corner. His second was a side footed finish. But his third was the pick of the bunch, a long curling shot from the edge of the area. Fantastic. After a spate of draws, I was happy to see us get a win and some goals, albeit against poor opposition. It was good to see Babel and Pennant do well on the wings. More of that kind of thing.

It now means that we'll be facing Havant and Waterlooville in the next round. Fair enough. Should be a great night for them at Anfield, with the magic of the cup etc etc. Get ready for loads of David against Goliath guff in the press.

It was Jamie Carragher's 500th game for Liverpool last night. He received a guard of honour at the start of the match which was well deserved. He's been a fantastic servant for the club over many years. He may not have been up to his incredibly high standards this season, but Agger's injury has left him a little more exposed. I hope that Jamie will form a decent partnership with teenage mutant ninja Skrtel when he's match fit. Carra still has a few years left in the tank and could well end up on the coaching staff when he finishes.

Our next match is Aston Villa on Monday night. This is going to be tough. They are in decent form and Young and Gabby Agbonlahor look dangerous on the wings. I would worry about what they might do to Riise if he plays. We've had far too many draws recently, especially at home so it'd be great to get a win against a good team like Villa.

Guillem Ballague of sky sports and the times has a good piece on the Hicks and Klinsman debacle. There is a lot of speculation that Hicks and Gillett will not get their refinancing deal which will leave them open to a takeover from DIC or somebody else. It's a case of wait and see, I suppose. I fear that they will not sell and will sack Rafa in the summer despite what we achieve or win this season.

This might say that Lauri Della Valle has signed for Liverpool but I need to brush up on my Norwegian to be sure. I've heard talk about this kid on the forums for the last few months. Apparently he's the greatest talent to come out of Finland since Jari Olavi Litmanen. A friend of mine has had Finnish colleagues raving raving about him. He was at Inter last year but didn't settle. Hopefully Sami will make him feel at home here.

Yanks out, Dubai in.

Whoops. That was a bit of a slip up. I have to say that I was quite confident going into this one and was expecting it to be a handy 3 points. A 3-1 defeat wasn't in the script.

It would be easy to moan about the ref giving a peno for a foul outside the box, not giving us any for our two penalty claims and the fact that we hit the post twice. It could have been different. But I think Reading played well and a draw would have been a fair result. We've played a lot better recently but on Saturday we didn't deserve to win. Nice goal by Stevie though.

The fact that both Utd and Arsenal have lost matches in the last week make this loss slightly easier to handle. Next weekend sees Utd visit Anfield and Arsenal play Chelsea. Que rubbish from Sky telling us that whoever loses these "title deciders" will be out of the race. Showdown/Grandslam/Ragnarock/ Sunday will be worth looking at.

Luckily, we only have to wait until tomorrow night for a chance to get our shit together. The Marseille match was huge but is even bigger now. A draw will be enough for Marseille but we need to win unless Besiktas beat Porto away, which isn't going to happen. I expect us to go for it from the off. If we lose it the calls for Rafa's head will surface again. Gillett should be at the match which is good to hear. Keep an eye on Nasri if he plays as we've been linked with him a few times.

Talk on Wednesday.

Whisper it softly, but Liverpool are on the march. Another good victory, another four goals and another clean sheet. We had two efforts cleared off the line which could have increased the margin. No doubt we'll be told that Bolton are rubbish, but didn't they beat Utd 1-0 last week? We're picking up wins and playing well. It couldn't really get any better at the moment, unless Fulham could beat Utd tonight.

Hyypia opened the scoring after a Gerrard free kick. Sami is doing fantastically well in recent games. I really feared for him when we were going through our bad patch. But since then the international break he's looked much better and not as past it as I'd feared. It now sounds like Dagger won't be back this side of Christmas. While we'll miss him, Sami's resurgence alongside the impressive cameo from Jack Hobbs yesterday when Carra came off, makes me less worried than I was a few weeks back.

It could have been different if Anelka had of put away a chance when he had an open goal in front of him. Carra had run into Reina and taken him out of it. Anelka was clean through and only had to slot it in to level the match to 1-1 but he put it wide. I don't know how the hell he managed it but I was thankful. Maybe he's still a red at heart.

Torres goal was the pick of the bunch for me. Gerrard sent an amazing ball forward and the kid latched onto it as he drifted between two defenders. He accelerated and went one on one with big Jussi in the Bolton goal. He deftly chipped the keeper with a sublime finish. It was the type of goal that Owen used to score when he was the one latching onto Gerrard passes. I think that Torres has more to his all round game than Owen and while his finishing isn't quite as clinical yet, I think that he'll go on to be one of our greatest strikers of all time.

Gerrard had a stormer as he did against Newcastle. He set up two goals and scored a peno. He's now scored 8 in 9 games. His combination with Lucas worked well in the centre. We're often told that he doesn't play well in the centre. Not on this evidence. I've no problem with him playing on the right but he's well able to perform majestically in the centre of a 4-4-2.

Babel came on and helped himself to a goal. He showed good strikers instincts to make sure he was on hand to pounce on the rebound from Dirks effort. He is being used as an impact sub by Rafa at the moment. He comes on when his pace and power can stretch a tired opposition. It's working quite well, thank you very much.

It'll be a Royal Rumble when we visit Reading on Saturday. Copell's teams are always well organised and usually do quite well at home. But in the form we're in at the moment, I fancy us to win this one.

One of the members on RAWK posted a translation of an interview with Torres. Anybody who doubted his talent is having those doubts shoved down their throats. His fee of €26m (£18m) now looks like a bargain. The more I read about him off the pitch, the more I like the kid. He's humble and down to earth despite his incredible ability. We have a star on our hands.

Paul Tomkins has a good article on the press reaction to the results so far this season. I tend to go along with what he says even though it might sound a tad paranoid.

Daniel Carvalho, a Brazilian attacker at CSKA Moscow is being linked to us at the moment. His contract is up in 6 months and there is some speculation that he is one of the players that Rafa was trying to get in on a free. Let the trial by youtube commence.

The Rafa getting sacked story seems to have died down a bit now. The Sunday tabloids still reckon that he's a dead man walking. I think that it's blown over for now. Parry was coming under fire from some quarters last week and it doesn't sound like he helped the situation. Foster Gillett's return to Merseyside should help as will the face to face meeting next month. But I still reckon that he'll walk or be let go in the summer. I expect Rafa to have a similar row with the Americans over finance and communication come the end of the season. I hope I'm wrong but I think their relationship has been badly damaged, probably irreparably so.

Last season it took Liverpool until October to get a win away from home. This year we have six points from two away matches already. I think that we played reasonably well here, but more importantly we got the result. This is a game that we would probably have drawn last season, like at Shefield Utd on the opening day. The new additions added to a more attacking attitude will give us a better chance on the road this year.

Momo's first ever goal for the club broke the deadlock and happened to be our 7000th league goal. It's another one of those meaningless stats which them media love to go on about in the buildup to each match. In Gerrard's absence, Momo played his harrassing role to perfection. The mediocre Sunderland midfield tried as they might, but Sissoko snapped at their heals. He may not be as measured in posession as Javier but nobody can hassle the oposition quite like Momo. I really rate the lad and if he can improve his distribution somewhat then he'll b e an amaing player. His goal was awesome after some clever approach work from Voronin and Pennant.

We could have had a few more goals if it hadn't of been for Gordon who was superb in the Sunderland goal. Torres could have had a hat trick against a less inspired keeper. The failure to build on our 1-0 lead despite the chances we had, led to an unessesary dose of nerves in the second half.

Voronin added the winner with three minutes to go. Nobody had said too much about him when he was signed as it was on a free transfer. Now some people think that he should be the first choice partner for Torres. Kuyt and Torres would still be my preference but I think that all of the strikers will get a lot of games give Rafa's preference for roatation.

Overall it was a good result away from Anfield. But it did come at a heavy cost as Carra broke a rib and Sami a broken snot. Hyypia should be ok to play against Toulouse tomorrow night but Carra might be out for a few weeks with his ribs. Lucklily, there is an international break after the Derby County match on Sat which should give him time to recover. The Toulouse match itself should be handy enough. We have the away goal and they didn't look very good in the first leg. I predict a 2-1 win for us.

The official site featured a letter from Luis Garcia last week. He was a great little player for us and I hope that we don't end up missing him too much this season. He was an amazing option to come off the bench or to conjure something out of nothing in european matches. His goal against Juventus in 2005 remains one of my favourite Liverpool goals of all time. He always came across well in interviews too and seems to be a genuine, brave and warm hearted soul. I hope that things go well for him at Atletico. It'd be great if he got the opportunity to return to Anfield with them at some stage.

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 off for a power nap.

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 U21 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.

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. Danielle Padelli is heading back to Italy now that his loan spell has finished. Hopefully that means that Carson won't be seld and will be our reserve this season.

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 can 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.