Red in Dublin

4-0 and all's well. Goal number 1, a right footed half volley from a Kuyt cross. Goal 2 was a looped header over Green with Kuyt the provider again. Goal 3 was a close ranged effort coolly slotted past the keeper after Riise flicked the ball on. The boy done well. And to think, that he had a bug which caused him to miss training this week. Rafa said that he was unlikely to play. Gerrard wrapped it up with a strong run from midfield and a powerful finish to make it 4-0. Job done.

Babel did alright and had a few shots on target. But compared to the the Bolton match he was average. His touch let him down on a few occasions. Kuyt did well and got two assists. He may not be the long term solution for us on the right but can cross the ball with both feet and has done a good job there over the last half dozen games. Skrtel was great at the back alongside Carra. His pace and passing give us what we've been missing since Agger's injury. He made one superb run from defence where he beat a couple of players. I was hoping that he would take on the shot but he misplaced a pass to the right instead. I thought that it would be a copy of Agger's first goal for the club. A polished performance all around.

It's a slog on the tyne at the moment. Poor Kevin Keegen isn't proving to be the second coming so far. It's a great opportunity for us to put three points between us and Everton who are now in fourth. Newcastle still have some decent players but are thoroughly devoid of confidence at the minute. Let's hope that we can capitalise on it this Saturday afternoon.

The DIC/Gillett/Hicks saga drags on and on. DIC are in negotiations with Gillett to buy his half. I'm hoping that this will happen but there's no concrete news as yet. I'm sure that you're as bored with this as I am and want a solution asap.

And win the champions league. Wouldn't that be hilarious? I think David Moyes would explode with bitterness. It'd be worth it to see the look on his face. The sky camera could go live to his gaff as we pick up the champions league trophy. I'm fantasising of course, but isn't that what the internet is about?

Great game last night. I really enjoyed it. It was the best that we've played in a long time. We were the better team by far, even before Matrix got himself sent off. I thought that Inter looked nervous from the off and got worse when a man down. But we played well all over. t was a team effort. Defence didn't have a huge amount to do but did it well when called upon. Aurelio and Finnan especially overlapped well to join the attack. Aurelio could do with improving his crossing and set pieces were dire but he's not on his own there. Masch, Lucas and Stevie were class in the middle. I don't think that there is a better player of his type than Mascherano. He is boss.

Dirk and Babel did well supporting Torres. Dirk had his best game this season. His touch was much improved and he took his goal well. I'm hoping that this will help him and his confidence. He's had a really hard time in his private life over the last few months and I don't think that it's helped his game. But he never hides and gives his all even when he's playing poorly. His long term future may lie elsewhere but I'll always have a soft spot for him.

Babel, like most games this season mixed the sublime with the stupid. He has great skill, pace and power but isn't making the most of it yet. If he can improve his decision making and develop his vision he will be superb. But we'll have to be patient with him for now. El Nino did well and was very unlucky to see Cesar knock his effort around the post when he was clean through. Pity.

The second leg won't be easy but we've given ourselves a great chance. Inter will be without Matrix who is suspended and Cordoba who is very unlikely to recover in time. They will be a lot more confident at home, I would imagine, but if things don't go their way early then the crowd may get on their backs. Should be a great night in three weeks time.

It's time to butter our premiership bread with a spread of Boro on Saturday. We really should be beating the likes of Boro at home. The press talk this week is that Rafa is going to cut down the rotation for the rest of the season. It'll be interesting to see what team he picks.

Ballague in the Times has a good interview with El Nino. He does seem to have a habit of getting interviews with top people in the game.

The DIC rumours won't go away. The latest wildfire on the forums this week is that the deal is all but done for them to buy from the Yanks. I do think that it will happen eventually but it could be a long time off yet. I have no insider knowledge but am not counting any chickens until I see the Sheikh or Al Ansari in Anfield.

And so ends the FA cup dream for another year. Have to say that a) I didn't see the match and b) I'm not that put out. Domestic cups are fine if you win them but never a disaster when you lose in my book. We should have won this easily and created loads of chances according to Le Tisier who watched it on sky. We didn't and they got lucky. Many of them played the game's of their lives. Fairplay Barnsley.  Magic, romance, giantkillers etc. As one R Keane said of the history and traditions of the cup, "all of it was bollocks. The Premiership and the Champions League were the only trophies we were concerned about."

I was more pissed off about the FA youth cup defeat to Sunderland last week. We'd fought back a couple of times after being 2-0  and 3-2 down. It finished 3-3 to take it to extra time. But Waghorn, who's played senior games, scored 2 to complete his hat trick and make it 5-3. It's a pity but the achievement of this team in winning the comp two years in a row is a testament to the work Rafa, McAuley, Heighway and others have done.  The good news is that the current vintage are almost all young enough to play again next season.  Hopefully we'll see some of them make the breakthrough to the senior team in a few years.

Inter loom large on the horizon.  This is going to be really tough. Mancini is a good coach who's been given money, never in short supply at Inter, but crucuially, he's also been given time. They have some fantastic players on their books like Zlatan, Stankovic, Crespo and Cambiasso. The tussle between him and Monster Masch should be one to watch.  If we can keep a clean sheet at Anfield then we're in with a decent chance.  Torres should be back to full fitness now so I'm hoping we can knick a goal or two.  On paper they have the better talent but we've the european experience and Rafa is the master of two legged ties.  A good result here would do a lot to raise morale.  If we lose I fear it may go nuclear.

Chris Bascombe had an <a href="http://notw.typepad.com/sport/2008/02/hicks-and-gille.html">article</a> about DIC in the NOTW yesterday. Anfield road.com have some good analysis of the article <a href="http://www.anfieldroad.com/news/200802172857/report-hicks-softening-where-dic-concerned.html/">here</a>.

I made my annual pilgrimage to Anfield on Saturday. It was absolutely freezing and I was with my dad so I didn't hang around for the protest afterwards. But I made sure not to spend any cash while I was inside. Better one DIC than two and all that.
Back to matters on the pitch. If I were Sven I would say "first half bad, second half better". Thankfully I'm not Sven and I still have my hair. But it was indeed a case of a poor 45 mins. We struggled to create a genuine chance. While we had the vast majority of possession, we didn't do much with it. But it was a win, three points, three goals and a much needed shot in the arm ahead of the Chelsea.

In the second half, Finnan came on for Aurelio who wasn't good at all. Even though Finnan was playing left back, he added a different dimension to our attacking play. But it was Carra, rampaging forward from the right back bearth who set up the first goal. He's played there in the past but not much since Rafa arrived. Rafa said that he wanted to have some good height at the back to counter Jones and co. It seemed to work as they didn't get too many headed chances.

Skrtel impressed me on his first league start. I know that he was a bit shaky in the cup but that was his first game in a few months since the Russian league needed. He looked a lot fitter and composed on Saturday. He looks to be quite fast and is a big lad. His passing was good but he did put a few astray in the second half. We've lacked good passers from defence so I'm hoping that he can help us in bringing the ball out of defence, like Agger does.

Lucas started on the left side of midfield, tucking in to support Javier and Gerrard. I think that Aurelio was supposed to provide the width, coming forward from fullback. But it didn't work for either player. Lucas has looked great in recent matches but looked out of place on Sat. We tried it, but it didn't work so I'm hoping that we don't see him there again. Yossi did well when he came on there in the second half.

Mascherano was superb yet again. I would go as far to say that he's been our best midfielder this season. He's a winner and a leader. If Gerrard or Carra aren't playing then he should be our captain. He's hoping to have a permanent deal sealed this week. I hope so too.
Crouch had a good match. He linked well with El Nino. He scored the first with a header and flicked on for Torres goal. He nearly scored with a scissors kick. I think that he did more than enough to warrant a start on Sunday. Torres did well with his finish. He now has 12 in the league. It would be great if he could get 20 for the season but he's done really well regardless. He wasn't at his best on Sat, or in recent games for that matter. But he still was sharp enough to take on his man and beat the keeper. Pennant had a decent match and put the left back under pressure. Gerrard struck a peno for the third to wrap it up. Could have been more but 3-0 is acceptable given how badly we've been doing recently.

Keane was pissed off with Rob Styles and felt they should have had a peno with the scores are 2-0. Style robbed us of 2 points against Chelsea earlier in the season with an imaginary penalty so maybe Keane has a point and Styles was trying to even things up. Rafa, unlike Keane, was happy with the result. Boss.

We face a daunting trip to Stamford Bridge this weekend. Finnan says he's ready. Chelsea haven't lost at home since Ranieri was the manager. The fact that Lampard, Drogba, Terry and Essien are out or away is good news. Given that, we should be able to get something from this but we're not in great form so I reckon the best we can get is a draw. I fear Joe Cole and his fluky deflected goals. They got the rub of the green with their Ref invented goal earlier in the season. Maybe we are due some of that back. I would gladly take an imaginary peno if it gave us the three points.

Lucas and co visit Dublin this week to play in Croker. I would have liked to have gone to this one but my bank manager advised against it what with my visit to Anfield for the Sunderland match last weekend and a trip to Paris for the Rugby this weekend. Two sporting trips per week is my limit now.

There was a hint of some good news on the investment front over the weekend. The Echo had a story saying that DIC could join up with Gillett to buy out Hicks. Wait and see. I don't expect anything to happen soon with this.

Let's give Chelsea the blues.

While the media might have us believe that the greatest upset of all time was close yesterday, I don't know if the result was ever really in doubt. I heard some of the match on the radio and saw highlights today. While they gave us problems in the first half, I think that we were always going to crush them in the end, and rightly so considering our relative positions. But fair play to them for putting it up to us for 45 mins. Some of the fringe players who had a chance to impress didn't do themselves many favours which is a bit disappointing. Lucas had a good match form what I saw and scored a cracking goal. If Momo does move, I hope and expect to see him play a bit more. He looks to have a good future ahead of him. Yossi got his second hat trick of the season. He seems to be filling the Garcia role of drifting inside and scoring. I don't know if he'll ever be a nailed on starter but he's a very useful player to have in the squad. Always good to see Crouch score, even if it was offside. Pennant put in some nice crosses from the right but Crouch and later Kuyt didn't really make the most of them. Skrtel made his first start and had a nervous first half but made some nice passes and improved in the second. You can read a full match report form Dave Usher of TLW here.


After the distraction of the cup it's back to the "bread and butter" of the league. The cheeky chappies, the 'appy 'ammers are our opponents on Wednesday night. It's clear that we're in shit form at the moment and it's not the easiest ground to travel to. Given that, I wouldn't be surprised to see us draw yet again. Our away form has been better than our home form so maybe we can break our drawing streak but I wouldn't bet against the points being shared.

Tom Hicks was on the excellent BBC Sportsweek programme on radio 5 live. He was saying that the club and his shares aren't for sale. Gillett is notable from his absence this week when the announcement about the refinancing deal and the 71000 seater stadium. The Daily Telegraph reckon that the DIC deal is still on the cards. Duncan Castles in the Obeserver has similar observations about the lads from Dubai. Christ Bascombe in the NOTW says that Parry and Moores could be in danger of being removed from the board by the Americans. Foster Gillett has cleared his desk and left Liverpool to return to the states which may be significant. Some of the reports during the week said that Mascherano would now be signed to show the faith that Hicks has in Rafa. Pablo Aimar was also linked in some papers. AImar is a genius and one of my favourite players but he's 28 now and has been injured a bit in the last few years. He's currently out for the next two months so I'd say that this link is just press speculation.

I'm going to Anfield next weekend for the Sunderland match and I don't have any tickets as yet. I know it's a long shot but if anybody reading this has two spares, I'm more than happy to take them off your hands. Any help greatly appreciated.

Well it finished 2-2 but you won't see a more one-sided match. We battered them for 70 mins and then they scored 2 goals, the second of which was a flukey deflected OG. But it's been a recurring theme this year that we dominate teams, but don't turn our chances and domination into goals. We need more top class players to do so. Kuyt had a great first half but was dire in the second. Yossi did well for his goal and had a decent match. We were so in control at the start of the second half that it seemed a question of how many would we win by. But then the defence seemed to go to sleep and Harewood hooked one in after the ball was headed back across goal. It really shouldn't have been allowed to happen and I'd imagine that Rafa went apeshit when he saw it. The second goal was a freak occurrence when a shot rebounded off Aurelio and went in past Pepe. The team were in shock for a minute but then stepped it up again. Skrtel came on for the injured Arbeloa and did well enough. Crouchie came on and put himself about. He did well to finish from a cough angle, through a crowd of players. Well done big man. He obviously had his nachos.

Javier Mascherano was immense last night. Stevie had something of a quiet night but El Jefe made up for it and was the driving force in midfield. At times it looked like Villa couldn't get past him, no matter what they did. He is absolute quality and was always available. We really need to buy this guy in the summer. But given the current board situation, I wouldn't hold out too much hope.

The mighty Havant and Waterlooville visit Anfield on Saturday. My pulse is definitely not racing. Hope we see some of the kids getting a run out. This would be one to watch with the sound down to avoid the endless cliches of magic of the cups, David v Goliath, Giantkillers etc.

The boardroom saga rumbles on. Dion Fanning had a fantastic article on it in the Sunday Indo. Talk over the weekend suggested DIC are about to launch a bid for somewhere in the region for £350-500m. But then Hicks said that he doesn't want to sell his shares. This may mean that Gillett will decide the future of the club. Al Ansari, the CEO of DIC is a lifelong Liverpool fan and often attends games at Anfield which is a good sign, I suppose.

It looks like we've failed with a £400000 bid to sign an 18 year old Croatian player called Vida. He's decided to stay in Croatia and play for his club rather than sit on the bench with us. Fair enough. Sure he might change his mind in a year or two.

Of interest to Irish reds is the news that Steve Finnan is to retire from International duty. I suppose that it's good news for Liverpool as he won't be going away during international breaks and will get more rest. It is definitely bad news for Ireland though.

There were rumours that Leto and El Zhar might be on their way to Racing Santander for the rest of the season. It now appears that they will both be staying here. It's hard to know if either has a future with us in the first team. Probably not.

Let's get DICed.

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.

I hate Boro. They are a sad, small time club who play stupid music when their team (occasionally) score. This makes it even more galling when they manage to hold us to a draw. I've nothing against Southgate but I don't think he's doing a great job. He'll be happy enough with how he did against us.

I didn't get to see the match yesterday but saw highlights. From what I saw and read, we were fairly lethargic until we scored and we launched a late barrage. But it's another case of too little, too late. We should have been at them from the off, rather than giving them the impetus to get a goal in front and have them trying to hit us on the break. The goal wasn't great from a defensive point of view and looks like it should have been dealt with.

But yet again that kid Torres gets us out of jail. He decided that he wasn't going to take being beaten by a rabble like Boro and ran at them before unleashing an unstoppable shot. That's 11 league goals already. There is some talk that we are too easy to stop offensively as our goal threat lies only in Gerrard and el Nino. There is some truth in that but I'm hoping that Babel will start to add to the threat. He went close a few times yesterday. But it is a point that we do need to spread not only the goals, but also the attacking threat around a bit more.

Rafa says that he's going to pick his strongest team against Luton on Tuesday night. I was hoping to see the likes of Insua and maybe Nemeth get a run out but I would imagine that Rafa is trying to get back to winning ways first. As I've said before, the domestic cups are nice competitions to win but don't matter much if you lose.

It now looks as if Momo will not be going to Juve. But the same article from Sky Sports has quotes from Mancini at Inter who seem to be interested in him too. I like Momo but he hasn't been the same since his injury and I would be in favour of letting him go if we get a good price.


Rafa has signed Martin Skrtel from Zenit St Petersberg. He is big, strong, young and quick according to Rafa. These are qualities that we could definitely do with in our defense. The fee has been debated and it's either £4m or £6.5m depending on who you listen to. I don't think that we'll be doing any more purchases this month but we may see Momo leave.

There has been some speculation in the observer and some other papers today that Hicks and Gillett are having problems refinancing their debt and they may sell up. DIC from Dubai, who failed to buy the club last year, are rumoured to be interested in buying them out. The DIC rumours have been bubbling under on the forums for the last few months so it's nothing new. I'm not going to say too much about the boardroom wranglings because, frankly it bores me.

Let's twat the hatters.

I wasn't in a very festive mood on Sunday after the match. Again it was a case of us playing quite well and having most of the possession. But Utd got the first goal and their defense did really well in the second half. They did have to clear off the line and Tores and Babel put the ball narrowly wide but overall, they coped with us quite well. While it was an exciting game, it wasn't amazing football and both teams made a lot of unforced errors.

The press seem to think that our title challenge is now over. I wouldn't concede defeat this early but it's not looking good. Taking two points from our three matches at home against the other contenders isn't good enough. I don't see us getting too many points in the reverse fixtures, with the possible exception of Chelsea at the bridge. While it's possible that we could go on a fantastic run for the rest of the season, I would be surprised if both Arsenal and Utd will drop sufficient points while we don't drop any more. I can see us closing the gap but not overtaking both teams. Having Agger and Alonso soon back will be a great boost as we've missed them all season.

Our thoughts now turn to Chelsea away in the cup tomorrow. Given that both teams suffered a defeat on Sunday, they'll want to win this but it is the Carling cup which is bottom of the priorities. I expect that it will be a case of half and half between first teamers and reserves. I can't say that I'm too excited either way. I'll be happy enough if we win but it's no disaster to lose this one.

It now looks like we will be getting a new stadium, but not the one that was unveiled during the summer. I think that this is quite an embarrassing climbdown. If we still get a 70000 stadium at a cheaper price then it won't be too bad but I reckon it's going to be an identikit bowl rather than the unique design that we were shown only a few months back. On the upside, Rafa had a meeting with the board on Sunday evening and it went well by all accounts. I know expect him to get a few quid for a defender in Jan.

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.