We've had to wait six seasons for this. Does that make it sweeter? What a result? We outplayed them by their manager's own admission. What was even more impressive about the victory was the fact that it was achieved without our two best players. That Rafa doesn't have a clue.  


I only got to see the first half of the match live as I was in the airport about to get on a plane. I then had to sweat on the result for an hour and twenty minutes while the plane was in the air. I don't have to tell you that I was overjoyed when I turned on my phone after we landed. The only downside is that I'm not at home to discuss it and slag a few people. I'll have to make do with a beautiful beech in southern France. Tough break for me.


This is the team that I would have played but I didn't think that Rafa would start without Kuyt.
As it happened, Dirk did start, up front with Keane, and had a great match. True he should have scored, definitely once, and maybe twice, but his movement and link up play were very good. He did really well to get his head up and pick out Babel for the winner. Despite the fact that he can do a job on the right, he should be played up front. If he isn't going to get a game there then he should be on the bench and used as an impact sub.


I do feel slightly churlish talking about individuals in what was a superb team performance, but I have to mention monster Masch. He was awesome. He could have done better for the Tevez goal but after that he bossed the midfield alongside Alonso. Once Carrick went off it got even easier for them. Scholes and Anderson were fairly poor as was the Utd passing in general. Vididc getting sent off was the icing on the cake rather than being a direct cause for victory as we had the game won anyway at that stage.


Ryan Babel made a huge impact when he came on.  His nutmeg on Wes Brown was quality. Poor Browny looked like a mug. Liverpool were in control when Babel came off the the bench but he really put the book in and put them to the sword. I hope he does continue to deliver like this against the big teams and make the step to deliver on the vast talent he possesses.


What about young Albert? Riera made a stunning debut. His dribbling skills were sublime. He was a joy to watch and got the Kop going. If he can do this consistently then £5.5m will look like an absolute steal.


Jocky Hansen assess our tactical approach and our potential title challenge for the BBC. "After the international break you don't usually get a match like that, the quality and entertainment was just so high compared to other matches we've seen between the top four." He also says that Rafa's "tactics won at the end of the day." Never let a cliche opportunity pass.


The champions league is upon us once again. Just like last year we're playing Marseille. They stunned us in the first game at Anfield last time out but I hope that we've learned from this and we can put them away in the Velodrome tomorrow night. Losing Nasri and Cisse must have hurt them even though they did buy Ben Arfa.


The Liverpool Daily post suggest that we could be back in for Gaz Baz in Jan.


Soccerlens have a review of the Liverpool youth and reserve team, focusing on those players who are likely to make an impact in the coming seasons. They do manage to leave out Bruna and Pacheco which is a glaring omission on their part. Another Hungarian teen is on the way to the reserves. Poloskei, a 17 year old midfielder, will join on a season long loan from MTK in Budapest.


Pepe reveals that when he returns to Spain in the future he would like to play for Atletico. Thankfully, that won't happen any time soon. He also says that he recommended the Villareal winger Cazorla to the staff. Xabi's agent has hinted that he could move on in January.  Does that mean that we'll make another effort to sign Barry?

It's time to take stock, a stock take if you will. It was a mixed season. In one way we made progress in the league by finishing with a points total of 76, just 11 points behind the winners. This is well up on what we had last year and but for a bit of luck, some bad decisions and results like the brum draw where we didn't care, we could have been a lot closer to Utd. Utd won the league with 75 points in 1997. On the downside, we dropped a league placing from third to fourth, with Arsenal overtaking us. We had a good run in Europe and could have made the final. But injuries cost us domestically and in the champions league. As usual we had a bad spell, this time it was in Jan rather than our traditional November slump.

The defence performed well in Dagger's absence. Sami rolled back the years and Carra was great in Europe but not as good overall as he has been. Skrtel came in and did superbly. Insua made another impressive end of season cameo. More of that kind of thing.

In midfield the Monster Masch was monstrous. I wouldn't swap him for any midfielder. He is the best in the business at what he does. The solidity of our spine owes a lot to Javier. Himself and Xabi formed a solid base for Stevie to break from. This worked superbly well in the second half of the season and I expect us to continue in this formation next year.

The forwards were a mixed bunch. Babel was superb at times, like his Arsenal cameo, but looked a bit lost at others. A good debut season to build on but I would expect him to deliver on a more consistent basis next year. Kuyt started really badly after the death of his father in the summer. But since Christmas he improved playing the right sided role and scored crucial goals against Arsenal, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Everton. I love Kuyt but I fear we need somebody better in that role if we want to challenge for the title. When he's good, he's great but when he's bad, he's shocking.

Last summer we were blessed with the arrival of El Nino. He came to us form sunny Spain, he got the ball and scored again. And again and again and again. For a fee of £20m he proved an absolute bargain. He broke Ruud Van Nistelroy's record at Utd of scoring the most goals in a debut season with 24 league goals. Amazing. He went onto score 33 goals in all comps. Phenomenal. Give that the kid has just turned 24, there are many years left for him to improve. I think that the stability of coaching under Rafa has helped him improve his game. At Atleti he had a different coach every few months or every season which can't have been fun.

Where do we go from here? With a couple of decent buys this summer we might be able to put a title challenge together. But as long as the boardroom farce continues, I can't see us being focused on getting the right investment in the squad together. Utd and Chelsea have invested massively and we need to do likewise to get our first team and squad up to their level. So if Hicks is still with us in August, which looks likely, it'll probably be another season of third/fourth.

Player of the year: Torres, without doubt. The kid has been astounding. He's changed Liverpool, as you can see here.

Young player of the year: Babel did well for the first team but I'm going to go for Nemeth for the contribution he made to the reserves winning the league. I hope to see him getting a run out for the first team next season. This kid is going to be a star.

Game of the year: The champions league quarter final 4-2 win over Arsenal at Anfield. As dramatic as it gets.

Goal of the year: Fernando v Marseille. Watch and learn.

Best moment of the year: The comeback v Arsenal at Anfield. The ability of the youngsters and reserves to get a draw at the Emirates in the league was impressive. Beating Everton twice was good too.

Worst moment of the year: The Riise o.g. against Chelsea. Other than that I think we'd have made the final for the third time in four years. Thanks for the memories John. The "penalty" that Rob Styles awarded against us in the Chelsea match at Anfield in August was a sickener. The 3-0 loss to Utd at Old Toilet was terrible as was the 1-0 defeat to West Ham at Upton Park.

Signing of the year: Again with the Torres. The future's bright with the kid on board.

Our summer signings have begun and Phillip Degen, a 25 year old swiss right back, will be signing for free on the first of July.

Andreas Dossena of Udinese is being linked with filling the other full back birth. Apparently Capello rates him highly. The fee being talked about is somewhere between £6m-£8m.

Sammy Lee is thrilled to back working at Melwood. I think that he could be one of the most important signings we'll make this summer. Some of the older players were at the club when Sammy left in 2004 and he seems to be well respected. There is no doubt that Pako's departure last autumn cost us in terms of stability and planning.

Tom Hicks has been hit by the credit crunch. Does that mean that he'll be more likely to sell to DIC? Maybe not. I fear that we'll be stuck with this fool for sometime yet.

Sometimes second gear is all you need. It was all we needed against Fulham on Saturday. If ever there was a championship team in waiting, Fulham is it. We were able to rest a god few of the first team and we still got a 2-0 win away from home. But the credit here has to go down to one man: Kasey Keller. I thought he was poor for both goals. Pennant hit a nice strike from distance for the first but Keller could have saved it if he made an effort. Crouch managed to slip the second one between his legs which was nice. There were some notable performers in Lucas, Pennant and the ever fantastic Mascherano, but there wasn't really a whole lot to write home about. You did get the impression that Rafa and some of the players had their minds on other things, notably a date with Chelsea this tuesday.

If Fulham were the appetiser, then their west London rivals are the main course. Given that the first leg is at Anfield, we need to make it count. Chelsea have a superb record at the bridge so we wouldn't want to be heading there looking for a result. the fact that Essien is suspended for tomorrow is a boost as he's a fantastic player. It looks like Gerrard, Lampard and Drogba will all start. I expect Rafa to tell us to try and hit them early as we managed to do against Juve a few years back. We were in a similar situation against Inter and too a 2-0 lead into the second leg. It's going to be tough but the vibes coming out of Chelsea don't sound good which might improve our chances. I think that we'll sneak it by a goal but will have some tense moments. Expect it to be tactical, turgid and tense rather than thrilling like the Arsenal tie.

This is a terribly sad and moving story. Let's hope that Liam is able to see the banners unfurled on the Kop tomorrow.

The Liverpool Echo has a first hand account from a fan who survived Hillsbourgh. It's well worth a read for an insight from somebody who watched the tragedy unfold. The Guardian reprinted David Lacey's Hillsbourgh report from 1989.

This report from the daily mail could offer some insight into why it's all been kicking off in the boardroom. Oliver Kay analyses the Hicks spin in the Times. There is some interesting info about DIC in this article as there is here in the Independent. This story isn't going away anytime soon.

I think that we are getting over the Euro hangovers, at last. This game was the equivalent of two solphadine and a glass of water. Did the job but you wouldn't be over the moon about it. 3-1 is about as good as we could ask for, given the exertions during the week and the fact that Blackburn usually make it hard on us, as they did for 45 mins here. We would have lost or drawn this game a few years back.

Gerrard was probably the best player on the day. He caused the defence no end of problems and scored a lovely goal to make it 20 for him this years. He looked for a few penos in the first half but the ref gave him nothing. I don't think that they were dives, as there was contact. But he did go down easier than he might have, especially for the first shout. I'm not mad on seeing our players do that but it's common practice in the league now from all of the top players like Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba etc. Doesn't make it right but some call it streetwise.

Torres had a quiet match and looked a big tired but he still managed to score his 30th of the season and 20th in the league. An amazing achievement in his first season. Andre Voronin came on and managed to nick one at the death. He's been poor enough after a bright start this year and I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave this summer. We did concede in time added on which didn't matter but I'm sure that it pissed Rafa off. He does like the clean sheets.

Lucas did well, slotting in for the suspended Mascherano, especially in the second half. I'm hoping that he gets some more exposure over the last few league matches so that he has a solid base to build on next year. Xabi had a much better game than his recent form had suggested was possible. If Xabi does leave this summer, which looks likely in my opinion, Then we might see Lucas coming in as the regular partner for Mascherano in the middle. Rafa may also bring in somebody like De La Red or Martinez and rotate them with Lucas. I'll be sad to see Xabi go, if he does, but he hasn't been as good over the past 18mths. Sure he still has time and games to make a contribution between now and the summer.

There was a minutes silence for the 96 as the Hillsbourgh anniversary is on this Tuesday. The players stood and presented a united front in the centre circle. If only the board could do the same.

This is great news. Modric is only 22 and was awesome against England a few months back. I think that he could be incredible in our current system, with Gerrard dropping back or moving to the right.

This is also great news. Hopefully Highdale can make a full recovery ad go on to play for the academy team again.

Henry Winter has a great article on Parry v Hicks, the latest boardroom PR disaster. It's as disappointing as it is tedious. Even the normally silent David Moores has been chipping in with his two cents. It's a shambles. But it's a credit to Rafa and the team that they've managed to get to a euro semi final without letting it bother them, as this article by Brian Reade attests. I'm a big fan of Wenger but his whinging since Tuesday is unedifying.

I saw this on the bbc rumour page and I have to say that it would cheer me up no end if true.

After Diego Maradona has been handing out lavish praise to fellow countryman Javier Mascherano, the Liverpool midfielder is set to invite the Argentine hero to watch him play at troubled Anfield. (Mail on Sunday)

Maradona at Anfield, imagine that. He's a big fan of Monster Masch.

Next up is Fulham away on Sat. I can see Rafa rotating the fuck out of the team for this one. Fulham are fighting for their lives but are shit. Even our B team should be able to win. We only need around 2 more wins to be sure of fourth. If and when that happens, Rafa will rest all his big players and give the kids a run out, as he did last year. While I want us to get as many points as possible and finish as near to the top as possible, I suppose we should look at the bigger picture and focus on the champs league semis and a possible final where we might have an edge if our players are fresher.

I wonder if we can make it to Saturday without any more shots across the boardroom? Somehow I doubt it. Talk then.

What odds on Tuesday night being another 1-1 to complete the hat trick of score draw score lines? This one started slowly. We played well enough in the first half and created some good chances. Crouch made a few for himself and others before putting away just before half time. We had to soak up some pressure in the second half but Bendtner was able to rise above the defence and head home from a free just before the hour mark. Pennant had stupidly given away a needless free and was subbed soon after. I think that he's been fairly poor this year and I wouldn't be surprised or sad to see him leave in the summer. Finnan came back in defence and did well as did Arbeloa on the other side.

Rafa's got to be the happier manager after that. He made 8 changes beforehand, with only Pepe, Carra and Skrtel surviving the cull and we still managed to get a draw away from home. Wenger made less changes so won't have as fresh a team on Tuesday night. Some of the players, like Fabregas looked tired both midweek and in this match. This should help us on Tue, especially were it to go to extra time. Wenger didn't look happy at all on the sidelines.At one point, it looked like he was so frustrated that his head might explode. I hope it's the same situation at Anfield.

Rafa and I agree that it was an impressive debut from the boy Plessis. The Guardian match report gave him the mana of the match award. Maybe Plessis is why Rafa was willing to let Momo leave at Christmas.

Souness was full of praise for Crouch after the match. Eamonn Dunphy interviewed Souness on his RTE Radio 1 programme last week. I have more time for him after hearing it.

In our defensive foursome, he's absolutely awesome. Sami signed a new deal this week which is good news. I think that his displays this season have merited his one year extension. At times he was our best defender despite his advancing years. I hope that he joins the coaching staff when he hangs up his boots. He has a lot of knowledge that he could pass onto the kids. Red legend.

David Fairclough was on Today FM radio here in Ireland confirming what I'd heard before about the Mascherano deal. He said that the £17m transfer fee quoted is a red herring as deal includes wages over the duration of the contract. This tallies with info I've read on forums. Good news.

This report says that Arsenal and us are battling it out again but the target this time is Ricardo Quaresma of Porto. He may be available to £5m if they are convicted of match fixing. Could be what we need for the right sided attacking role.

Various papers are saying that we have a deal agreed to buy Rafinha from Shalke for £6m. I think that this has a good chance of going through. He looked good form what little I saw of the barca champions league match last week.

I don't know about you, but I had a great time last night. There is something about midweek champions league matches that gets the adrenaline going. And what a match it was? It was standing room only in my local and there was a superb atmosphere. I'm glad the match didn't go on another 5 mins as I don't think that my nerves could have taken it.

It finished 1-1 and we've got to be happy with that. The guardian say that it was an occasion that the premier league could be proud of. While we rode our luck at times, we played with the experience we've built up over the last few ties. Rafa knows how to win these games. I hope he can finish the job next Wed night.


Kuyt gets loads of stick, from reds as well as opposition fans. I have to say that I love him. I know that he's limited and isn't really good enough to be starting every match for us. He will more than likely lose his first team place this summer when a quality replacement is brought in. But last night he was a hero. Put your hands up for Dirk Kuyt. He was my man of the match and Rafa agrees. He played a clever game and knew when to go forward and support the attack and when to track back and help Carra. He was immense. He hasn't scored many this year but I doubt he'll ever score a more vital goal than he did last night. He did superbly well to ghost in from the right and get in front of the defender to knock it home. He was lucky not to concede a penalty but he's had poor luck most of this season so maybe it's evening itself out now. Red legend.

Sami and Skrtel did well by and large but had a few hairy moments like when Van Persie got between them. There was a bit of a mix up for the goal as both seemed to leave it for the other. They, and Rafa, won't be happy with that. Carra was great as we expect him to be in Europe. One of his best games of an inconsistent season so far. He may not offer a huge amount on the attack from full back, but he's worth his weight in gold for his goals saving tackles, blocks and interceptions.

Monster Masch was awesome, as we've come to expect. He was everywhere and Fabregas didn't exert the kind of influence that he usually does. It's such a pity that he won't be able to play the league match on Sat. Gerrard was fantastic too. His run for the goal was inspired. He surged from deep and exchanged passes with Torres before attacking the defence and slaloming past first Eboue and then Kolo Toure. He made it look so easy that the defenders must have felt foolish. His cross was perfect for Kuyt to muscle in and prod home. A strikers goal from somebody who's rarely a striker these days.

Martin Samuel had a good piece in the Times ahead of the champions league match. It goes into how close the team is to mounting a sustained challenge on both fronts. Well worth a read. Richard Williams in the Guardian has an article on the contrasting performances on Fabregas and Gerrard.

Saturday is going to be like "deja vu all over again". I think that Rafa will rest and rotate a few of the players. I wouldn't be surprised to see Crouch start and Torres rested. He looked knackered towards the end last night. I predicted a league loss and a euro win over two legs. I'd take that now. We are good enough to get a result on Saturday but I feel Arsenal are going to want it more given they're still after the league. I'd be happy with another draw.

If you're feeling down after the Utd defeat then have a look at this. It tells the real story of what happened at Old Trafford. I wasn't too confident going into this unlike previous years, and thought that a draw was the best that we might have gotten. I thought that we looked nervous and a lot of our big players didn't perform. We probably would have been beaten anyway as Utd were the better team on the day but once we had 10 men it was a question of by how many.

My feelings on the sending off are that Bennett was a disgrace all match and was as blatant a homer as you're likely to see. That said, Javier should have stayed away from him after he had received the first booking and not risked getting a second. I can understand his fury as Torres booking was a disgrace given the kicking he was receiving. But Mascherano should have been mature, calm and professional enough to know that by getting involved and getting a second yellow he let the team down. Whatever slim chance we had went at that point. Rafa says that Masch knows he made a mistake. By not leaving the field he faces the prospect of an extended ban. But I think that if it had been Rooney, Terry, Neville or Ferdinand in the same situation they wouldn't have been sent off. How often have we seen them crowd and abuse the ref? Terry even stopped the ref from taking out his yellow card this season. Ferdinand was trying to talk the ref into booking our players on Sunday. Rooney berates refs every match he plays. How come they don't get sent off? There is an an awful lot of leverage allowed for England players. Gerrard can be guilty of it too, especially at Anfield but by and large I don't think that we crowd and abuse the ref en mass like some of our rivals. Maybe we should as it didn't seem to do Keane at Utd any harm.

David Pleat makes the point that it was long balls over the top which caused us problems. Rooney targeted Carragher knowing that he had the beating of him with pace and trickery. Carragher was poor and could have given away a peno for a challenge on Rooney. The ease at which the defence was being torn apart had a knock on effect on Pepe who missed some punches which was costly. His distribution, which is normally superb was poor on Sunday too. But I can't remember the last time he's had a poor game for us and he did make some super saves which prevented us from losing 5 or 6 nil.

According to Sky Sports Torres is unlikely to play for Spain tomorrow which is great news. Unfortunately, it means that he's a doubt for the derby. We're definitely going to need him against a very up for it Everton. They are in poor enough form having taken 1 point from 6 but they always raise their game for the derby. Given we've a superior goal difference and 2 more points, a draw mightn't be too bad a result. But if Torres is fit and the fact that they're missing a few players, we really should be able to win at home.

The BBC gossip page yesterday said that we will bid £12m for David Bentley in the summer. I think that it's a position that we have to look at in the summer as Dirk is only a stop gap there. Bentley is decent but I think that we can do better for a £12-15m winger. He'd give us a lot in terms of set pieces, crossing and goals but he doesn't have the pace that we need out wide. Another player linked to us on the forums is Gareth Barry of Aston Villa. I think that he's another good player but again we can do better. If we're buying him for left back then I think that he'd be an improvement. I hope that he's not being bought because Xabi wants to go back to Spain. It looks like David Villa wants to leave Valencia in the summer and we're one of the clubs being linked with him. I know that Rafa tried to sign him when he was still at Zaragosa and he is a top quality player. But I don't know if he would fit into our current 4-2-3-1 system. I think that we could spend the large amount of money that he would cost, on more pressing needs.

Everyone's favourite saga continues to rumble on and on and on. This article suggests Hicks is in financial trouble and DIC could reap the rewards. Let's hope it's accurate.