Only 6 points from a possible 6? Rafa out. That is entirely unacceptable for a club the size of Liverpool. I blame Rafa's rotation and zonal marking. If it wasn't for his bizarre policies then we'd be higher up the table, eh? Oh. Nice one Rafa, I take it all back.
All Joking aside, that was close. Listening to the match on the radio, I feared it was going to be another case of what might have been. When Boro went in front, I expected a draw. When Jamie leveled, I was relieved but didn't think we'd have enough time to nab a winner. How wrong I was. I'm sure that Lawro, in his lancastrian accent, would have said "'ey, 'ang on a minute, we can win this". I should have known that we had an ace in the hole. Stevie decided that one point wasn't enough. The only result he'd settle for was a win. What a man? When the chips are down and somebody needs to step up, invariably he does.
Mike (Manc) Reily is a right wanker, and didn't help the situation at all today. Winning ugly was something distinctly lacking in our armoury last year. We drew 13 matches last year, the joint highest in the top 10. What we needed was to convert some of those 1 points into 3, especially when not playing well. That's what appears different so far this year. A new string to our bow? I know it's early days, too early to be making sweeping statements, but we could have easily drawn that and dropped two points and Sunderland could have been the same. We didn't offer up champagne football but we got the result which I'll take for now. If we keep winning, the performances will come, especially when Mascherano returns.

Between Stevie, Fernando and hopefully Babel and Keane, we have a number of match winners in the side. The first two have won matches so far this season. I expect Babel to be eased in after his sub appearance today and start some matches soon. Keane still looks like he's getting used to us and us to him. Patience is called for and should be given unreservedly. He's proven that he's a quality premiership player over many years. Anybody questioning him is being ridiculously knee-jerk about it. Give him time and hell deliver.
Aurelio did very well when he came on today. Good sub by Rafa. Dossena is settling and improving but I expect there to be healthy competition from Aurelio as long as Aurelio stays fit. Otherwise Insua should be knocking on the door. Right back seems to be Arbeloa's for now with Degan struggling for fitness and Steve Finnan in limbo. Funny that. I thought the Catholic church had decommissioned it a few years ago. I'll be sad to see Finnan go but I fear it's very likely to happen at this stage. Villa and West Ham have been linked.
Liege on Wednesday won't be a walkover but we should be able to handle them at Anfield. They can't be as good as they were at home and we can't be as bad as we were in Belgium. Fingers crossed.
Tony Barrett says that Riera is back on the agenda now that Barry move looks dead in the water. But Sky also suggest that Everton might sneak in ahead of us with a £12m bid for Riera. Balague, being an Espanyol fan, has seen a lot of Riera and rates him highly.He does suggest that he's the type of player who needs an arm around his shoulder so maybe his confidence is a bit fragile. I don't know if that's the kind of player who'd thrive under Rafa who can be stand offish. Barrett also says that Rafa never really considered resigning.
Hughie McAuley is excited by the capture of a young keeper called Deale Chamberlin. He used to play for Villa but has now seen the light.
It sounds like our Danish community could be on rise. To add to Danny Agger (snakes on a dane) and the boy Savic, we've targeted a young midfielder called Mathias Jorgensen.
Riise had some glowing comments about Liverpool ahead of the Norway v Ireland friendly this week. I reckon he's a fan for life which is good to hear. I think that he's a decent chap but just wasn't good enough for us anymore. Despite his faults, many faults, he had some great games for us and played important role in many of the trophies we've won. But it was time for us and him to move on.
Montse speaks. She sounds like a lovely woman. I'd say she has it tough putting up with Rafa's football obsession. It's great to hear a bit more from the man himself about his life and ideas.
Some talk online is linking us to the newest of new Zidanes. Sofiane Feghouli is an 18 year old attacking midfielder and has been lighting it up with Grenoble. Another french kid being linked is Darnel Situ-Buyence at Lens. We'll have to fight off Utd and Portsmouth to land the 17 year old.
Rick and Rafa have kissed and made up according to Tony Barrett. Hopefully that's the end of matters of the pitch for now, but somehow I doubt it. Barrett also tells us that Rafa turned down a £2.5m bid from Stoke for Sami. He's a bit of a legend so I'd like him to get his testimonial.

Gentlemen, start your engines.

And we're off. To a sluggish start, it must be said. But this was never going to be an easy match and we got three points away from home against a much improved Sunderland. I can see them troubling other big teams at the stadium of light this year. We were poor enough in the first half but were much improved when Xabi came on for Plessis and created some good chances. First game of the season is all about result. 3 points, job done.
That man Nando did it again. His "difficult second season" hasn't started too badly. "If only he could do it away from Anfield" was the incredibly begrudging moan coming from some quarters last season. 24 league goals in his first season wasn't enough for some people. Too many times in recent years we've drawn games when we should have won. But when you have world class talent like el nino in your squad, anything is possible. He used his alchemical skills to turn a leaden one point into a golden three. He could have had another one when Keane blocked his shot. Their chemistry will improve given more time together. I don't think Nando looks at top form and may be a bit rusty over the next few weeks. If he can score goals like that while he's rusty, we can look forward to some more magic when he's back to his best.
Here's an interview with Nando and Setanta man of the match Xabi Alonso. I really hope that we don't sell Alonso. He played well when he came on at half time. There are games where he doesn't have as big an impact as he should but they're rare. He adds so much vision and composure to the team that I think he's almost always worth his place. His effort from inside his own half yesterday showed the genius that he possesses again. Besides all that, he seems to be an absolute gentleman. Please don't sell him Rafa. Chris Bascombe reckons he wants out.
Tony Barrett in the echo has an interesting analysis of the season, focusing on matters off the pitch. Let's hope boardroom wrangling don't adversely effect our season, wishful thinking, I'm afraid. Balague reckons that Rafa nearly quit over the Barry saga when the yanks pulled out of paying the £18m. But then Rafa rang Balague to say he's not quitting. I like Balague but I don't reckon he knows quite as much as he lets on to know. Some of his predictions are way off.
The Daily Mail is linking us to Valero of Real Mallorca. We've been linked to him before, as far as I remember. Tony Mowbray of West Brom is also after him so we've no chance, clearly.
Check out Digger Barnes at the top of the pile. When he does his thing the crowd go bananas.
What do we expect from the rest of the season, starting with Middlesbrough visiting Anfield on Saturday? We should beat Boro at home. Boro aren't a bad side, as Spurs found out yesterday. I'm hoping the Keane can score on his home debut. It'd be a great way for him to settle in. If we get a peno, he should take it.
While I don't think we would have been out of the title race had we lost yesterday, I don't think we're favourites or guaranteed to nab no.19 because we beat the mackems. It's easy to react with a knee jerk after a good/bad result. I'll try to resist and keep the tiller on a happy medium. I really expect a title challenge. Unfortunately I fear it'll be an unsuccessful one. I predicted 2nd last year and am going to make the same prediction this time around. Many fans would be happy us to see us in the mix up at around Easter time. I would hope that we can push all the way but I think one of Utd or Chelsea will beat us to the prize. As I've said before, I don't see us winning under the Americans. Rafa feels this is his best squad ever and I'm inclined to agree. With the addition of Keane, we now have three match winners. This should help a lot against packed defenses as they'll have to try and mark, Gerrard, Torres and Keane. Plus Babel could step it up and maybe become a fourth match winner. I think we're very well stocked in defence with Agger back, Dossena slotting in at left back and the sale of an error prone Riise. Midfield has loads of quality options and is as strong as any in the league. We're well stocked up front too. The only area that we're weak in is wide attackers. I don't say wingers, as we don't play with wingers. Kuyt did well at times on the right and Babel did the same on the left last year but neither delivered consistently. This is an area in which Rafa may try to strengthen over the next few weeks. Gerrard may play on the right in some games, and is very effective there, as we've seen in previous seasons.
It's great to have football back. How did we manage over the past few weeks since the euros ended? The drought is over, let's enjoy the deluge over the next 9 months.

The answer is yes. An unremarkable match was lit up by the brilliance of our number 9. 3-2. Job done. There have been many days when we deserved more than we got but failed due to bad finishing. Here, we finished well without playing well. Boro might feel that they could have gotten a draw but the finishing of the kid proved the difference.

Torres helped himself to three and could have ad four only for a superb save from Swartzer in the second half. The Boro defence were semi sucidal in their back passing and indecision. I think that the pressure and presence of El Nino caused them to panic and make errors. Arca headed back towards his keeper for Torres to latch onto and score his first. His second was a beautiful shot from distance after good work from Babel and Aurelio. Pick of the bunch. For his third, he closed in on a through ball from Kuyt. The keeper and defender managed to collide and Fernando took full advantage to finish them off. That's 15 in the league for the season. I'm sure it would have been more if he hadn't missed a few games with injury. Where are those who were saying in August that he was over rated and we'd overpaid at £18m?

Our defence has had better games. I don't think that Arbeloa does as good a job at centre half as he does at full back. As a result our defensive line wasn't as sharp as usual. But Carra is back for the next match so we should be back to our usual solidity. Masherano did his usual stirling work in the middle. He's fast becoming my favourite Liverpool player. Babel did a decent job and set Kuyt up for a good chance in the first half. He seems to be benefiting from getting a run of starts. Gerrard was ok but hit a lovely free which Swartzer could only knock onto the post. With the race for fourth as close as it is, the points are more important than the performance at the moment. If we play badly and win for the rest of the season, I won't be complaining.

It's a short trip to the Reebok on Sunday. Bolton are doing ok, bar a 4-1 hammering today, and had a good result in the Uefa cup during the week. I thought Megson would be shit and take them down but they look like they might survive due to the teams below them being worse than them. So we'll have to go there and be up for it. These are the kind of games that we've been drawing and losing this year. I predict a draw.

It appears that there was some drama after the match yesterday. Tom Hicks son walked into the Sandon pub and was met with a hot reaction from the Reds inside. There seems to be some debate over what actually happened but I don't think that he was met with open arms. Can't say that I'm surprised. He was badly advised if he expected otherwise.

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.