TLW

If there was one team I wouldn’t want to play right now, it’s Portsmouth. Yeah, they’re bottom of the table and relegation certainties, but all the troubles they’ve had seems to have galvanised them as a group, and they are playing with no fear at the moment as they literally no longer have anything to lose. They’re the worst side we could come up against, because all the pressure is on us. We wont get any plaudits if we win, as let’s face it we should be beating them. If we don’t win though, all hell will break loose. To read the full article, click here

atk's match report http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/89444-liverpool-res-3-tranmere-res-0-match-report.html

LIVERPOOL RES 3 Tranmere Res 0 Report by Alan Kayll at the Academy Scorer(s) - Lauri Dalla Valle, David Amoo, O.G.Half Time – 1-0 Venue – The Academy Date - Wed Mar 10 2010 Star Man – Jay Spearing Liverpool Reserves finally got some playing time under their belt on a cold but sunny afternoon at the Academy. Ressies boss John McMahon was forced into a late change today with the news that Stephen Darby had agreed a loan move to Swindon Town until May. The deal is expected to be concluded on Friday barring no major injuries to the first team tomorrow night, a delighted Darby left this game midway through the 2nd half to travel down to Swindon to conclude the formalities. The Liverpool squad were also buoyed by the news that Brazilian flop Vita Flora had returned to Brazil after an easily forgettable two year stint at the club. Liverpool were up against a former player in Charlie Barnett who was back in familiar surroundings having grown up at Liverpool's Academy and won two FA Youth cups with the club. It looks as though first team action for Tranmere has boosted his physique. Rovers had intended to field a very strong side for this game, but those plans were dashed by a bug that has hit their camp the last few days. Just before kick off the arrival of a relaxed and smiling Rafael Benitez was a boost for the young lads, who will have been eager to impress the boss. The game was evenly matched early on with both sides looking to get the ball down and play football. The talented Jay Spearing was pulling most of the strings for the reds, and there was a significant moment in the game after 23 minutes when a weak Nikola Saric effort was easily saved by the Rovers keeper on his line. It must have been a huge relief to Rafael Benitez to finally see a Liverpool side have a shot on target after 130 minutes of football. Liverpool were spreading some good balls from right to left with Ayala finding Mavinga on more than one occasion, Mavinga looks a promising player, he has the same build and look of Djimi Traore but thankfully he does not have the same touch as the former European Cup winner. Unlike Djimi, his second touch isn't a tackle. Liverpool deservedly took the lead after 42 mins when good work by Kacaniklic found Amoo. His shot was saved but Della Valle squeezed it in from a very tight angle. The Finn may not be blessed with the greatest pace, but he certainly makes up for it with an eye for a goal and great intelligence. Very good prospect is Dalla Valle. The 2nd half brought a change for Liverpool, as on came Gerardo Bruna for Saric. Bruna has been out for several months through injury, but is back to full fitness now. Within 3 minutes Tranmere were reduced to 10 men when Creswell was sent off for an over the top tackle on the hairband wearing Steven Irwin. David Amoo was pushed into an attacking midfield role behind Dalla Valle, whilst Bruna moved to the right. Amoo was starting to cause Tranmere problems with a series of strong attacking runs into the Rovers box. He got his reward after 70 mins when he struck a side footed shot past the keeper. It was a competitive fixture with plenty of strong challenges going in. A few tough but fair Charlie Barnett tackles left the Mohican sporting Damian Plessis rolling around the surface. As if he hasn't been standing out enough for his stinking performances, he's now drawing more attention to himself with a daft haircut. Liverpool made their second change when Francisco Duran replaced the impressive Mavinga after 73 mins, this prompted Rafael Benitez and backroom staff to leave the Academy for the short journey to Liverpool airport to catch their flight to Lille. The third and final change came in the 77th minute when Nikolaj Kohlert replaced David Amoo. The final goal came courtesy of a Tranmere og when a Dalla Valle snap shot was turned into his own net by the centre half. With three minutes remaining Liverpool should have made it 4-0 when Ayala headed back to Dalla Valle, but he missed from 5 yards out with an open goal in front of him. 3ulWPEZB6Y8 Team: Gulacsi; Irwin,Ayala, Palsson, Mavinga (Duran); Amoo (Kholert), Spearing, Plessis, Kacaniklic; Saric (Bruna), Dalla Valle:

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/89387-weekend-round-up.html

Next one will be out in the week leading up to the manc game.

Seraf, get Emilio down for a game before he heads back home. And has Carlo recovered yet?

LIVERPOOL 2 Blackburn Rovers 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Steven Gerrard, Fernando TorresHalf Time - 2-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 28 February 2010 Star Man – Pepe Reina The feud between Benitez and Allardyce shows no signs of ending, as the pair once again because involved in a war of words after this bad tempered, tight game at Anfield in which the reds just about came away with the three points. Before the game, Allardyce compared Liverpool's current tactics to that of the Bolton side he used to manage. Afterwards Benitez mocked Blackburn's style of play and sarcastically claimed Barcelona plan to model their style on that of Fat Sam. It was a bit of a bizarre weekend really. You have Craig Bellamy passing judgement on another player's off the field conduct and Rafa Benitez taking the piss out of another team for their style of play. The worrying thing is, Bellamy was probably in more of a position to say what he said than Rafa was, and not just because John Terry is an enormous malignant cunt. Allardyce was way off the mark comparing us with his Bolton side. Not so much because we're better to watch than they were, as we probably aren't. But we aren't a physical, dirty side as he suggested. We got six bookings at Man City because the referee was a bad dickhead, not because we were overly physical. The referee in this game was a bad dickhead too, as Blackburn should have had at least two players sent off and several more booked. Instead of commenting on things he knows nothing about, that mashed potato faced twat Allardyce should stick to doing what he knows best, playing alehouse football and rimming Alex Ferguson. That doesn't excuse the shite Rafa came out with after the game though, all that crap about Blackburn's style of play. Not so long ago we got our knickers in a knot when Valdano made some comment about watching shit on a stick in reference to our style of play. He was talking through his hoop of course, as back then we were playing good stuff, with a nice balance between attack and defence. But if he were to make those comments now, would anyone other than the most blinkered, rose tinted spectacle wearing among us be able to seriously put up an argument? Even in this game Blackburn created more than we did. And it wasn't all the result of huge kicks upfield by Robinson looking for the head of centre half Chris Samba either. Do I want to see us playing like Blackburn? Absolutely not. Do I think we are in a position to look down at how they play? Sorry, but I have to say no. We might play the game in a better spirit than they do, and we don't have serial cheat El Hadji Diouf (anymore), but are we more exciting to watch? Nope. We go into games looking to sneak them 1-0. It's a fact, it's there for everyone to see and our captain even admitted it after the Wolves game. What frustrates me the most is that we know that we are better than this, and in flashes we see it. Even in this game, there were a couple of moves we put together that showed what can be achieved if the players are allowed to express themselves and attack. Not least the opening goal, which was great football. Steven Gerrard said prior to the season opener at Spurs that he felt at times last season we played with the handbrake on, and that's why we didn't win the title. He's right, but this season we've not only had the handbrake on, but we've had our wheels clamped too. Every so often you see a little glimmer of hope such as the opening goal on Sunday, but it's quickly snuffed out by the suffocating, controlling brand of 'football' that has dominated all our games for most of the season. The first half of this game wasn't that bad. It wasn't all that good either, but we did play some decent stuff in patches and scored two good goals. Blackburn gave it a good go as well though, and played some decent football of their own. In fact, they were probably the better side in terms of creating chances. It was a fairly entertaining game in comparison to what we have been seeing, but that stopped as soon as we came out for the second half. Whatever was said to the players at half time, it was obvious that it wasn't 'go out there and kill the game off with a couple of quick goals'. The one thing that really stood out for me was that I don't remember either of the two midfield players getting ahead of the forwards at any point after the break. Actually I tell a lie, Gerrard made a forward run when Maxi had a shot saved by Robinson. Apart from that though.... I don't expect it from Lucas, it's not his job, but why was Gerrard sitting for almost the entire second half? I look at the football we played for the first goal, with the skipper starting and finishing a lovely passing move by rampaging into the box and doing what he does so well, and then you look at the way he played in the second half. It's soul destroying, we let them take control of the game and we were being penned back by fucking Blackburn for God's sake. Seriously, there were players in that team I'd never even heard of until this game, yet they were bossing large parts of the game against what was almost a full strength Liverpool. Our starting line up looked actually strong for the first time in ages. Yes, you can question moving Mascherano to full back when he's been playing so well in midfield, and Ryan Babel not starting after his goal in midweek was also slightly contentious. I've said it before, Ryan Babel can fuck right off as far as I'm concerned, but if you're going to start him in a game and he responds with a goal, dropping him for the following game only serves to undermine his already fragile confidence and questionable attitude. It's basically playing into his hands and giving him the excuse to play shit next time he's called upon. Not that he needs an excuse, as he's shown on numerous occasions. He did fuck all when he came on in this game, and I can't say I was surprised. But the team we put out looked strong on paper, and it was good seeing Aurelio in at left back again. Once again though, he picked up a muscle injury and Insua got back in. Aurelio is miles better than Insua, but just like John Arne Riise the Argentinian youngster is reliable and you know he'll nearly always be available for selection. Aurelio just can't be relied on, he's permanently injured and for that reason he should not get a new contract. He's been like this his whole career, which is a shame as he's a fine player, but we need to get shut of him as he's a waste of a wage. Torres was back in the starting line up too, and he showed no signs of ring rust as he was absolutely electric at times in the first half. Some of the little drag backs and pieces of skill he produced to get away from players were simply brilliant, and ultimately he was the difference between three points and one. It was an open first 45 minutes, and Blackburn clearly hadn't come to shut up shop. They were having a go and getting numbers forward when they attacked. They were also kicking the shit out of Torres whenever possible, and they were helped by some lenient refereeing by Alan Wiley, who had something of a shocker. As bad as he was though, the linesman on the Main Stand side was far, far worse. He genuinely seemed to have no idea what was going on. Rovers were first to threaten, when Samba headed straight at Reina from a left wing corner. Olsson then hit a shot just over the bar from 30 yards, and Pedersen also brought a save out of Reina with a shot from the edge of the box. We had the lions share of possession, but they were far more threatening and should have taken the lead when Lucas dawdled and was caught in possession by Pedersen, who fed Kalinic in the box. He cut back onto his right foot and curled a shot just wide. Should have scored though. We scored with our first decent attack. Gerrard played a one two with Kuyt, then found Yossi on the left and collected a return pass from him to beat Robinson with a left foot shot. There was a small element of luck involved as the skipper didn't take the ball cleanly from Benayoun's pass, but he got a nice bounce that took him past a defender and put him in on goal. Lovely pass and move football though, and it just shows what we are actually capable of. Blackburn almost hit back straight away when Pedersen was denied by a double save by Pepe. Benitez was hugely agitated on the touchline, and spent most of the half arguing with the fourth official. Some of the officiating was terrible, but I can never understand the logic in having a go at the fourth official as he isn't the one making the decisions. What's he gonna do, other than get pissed off and send you to the stands? If he was angry before, he'll probably have been livid when Wiley awarded Rovers a penalty. I thought it was the right decision, although it's always a little harsh when the handball isn't intentional. Benayoun's terrible clearance had put us under pressure, and as Carragher and Agger tried to stop Kalinic, the ball hit Carra's hand as he lay prone on the floor. Not deliberate, but he took the ball away from the Blackburn striker and therefore for me it had to a be pen. I wasn't too bothered anyway, as I was convinced Pepe would save it. He hasn't saved one for ages, and he was due I felt. He probably should have stopped it too, as he looked to have dived over Andrews kick. It was no more than Blackburn deserved in truth, but they found themselves behind again not long after. Lucas played a slide rule pass through to Torres, but Samba got across to make a challenge. The ball only went as far as Maxi, and his pinpoint centre was converted by Torres. I thought Maxi looked quite lively in the first half, and it was his best showing since arriving here in January. He definitely looked more at home on the right of a midfield four than he does on the left in a 4-2-3-1. The first half ended in a flashpoint, as Kalinic took a blatant dive (unpunished by the ref), and Gerrard and Diouf ended up rowing over it. It was getting a bit heated, and even when Wiley took them to one side to calm it down it still continued on all the way to the tunnel after the half time whistle went. You could see the absolute disdain Gerrard has for his former team-mate. You see Torres in that number nine shirt now, and it's difficult to believe that not too long ago that shirt was being filled by the loathesome Diouf. The only Liverpool number nine in history to go through a whole season without a goal. Maybe that's what Stevie was reminding him of. Blackburn had played a fair amount of football in the first half, but just as it seems clear that Benitez's half time instructions centred around not conceding, it's fairly obvious that Allardyce's team talk was all to do with being more direct and a lot more physical. Some of the things that went on in the 2nd half were just ridiculous. There's no way that N'Zonzi should have been allowed to stay on the field after the ludicrous flattening of Lucas. He virtually choke slammed him to the floor right in front of the official. It was so bad that even his own captain absolutely bollocked him for it. Wiley only produced a yellow, unbelievably. There was also a nasty challenge on Mascherano by Kalinic, and substitute Chimbonda somehow escaped a booking when he presented the ball to Maxi and then simply hauled him down as he made his way towards the penalty area. It was as clear a booking as you will see, yet Wiley kept his card in his pocket. The same two players were involved in another incident, when Maxi fouled the Rovers full back who then kicked him in the chest. Right in front of the Main Stand linesman, who again missed it. It was all getting a bit stupid, and tempers were getting frayed, but Blackburn were definitely on top as we more or less stopped attacking and handed them the initiative. We'd had one close call early in the half when some lovely play around the box ended with Maxi's cross-shot almost beating Robinson, who made a flying save to turn the ball around the post. That was a rare moment of quality in an awful half from us though. Blackburn were the side pressing forward and creating chances, and Hoylett wasted a good opening when he shot straight at Reina after good play from pantomime villain Diouf. The best chance they had to draw level was a header from Samba late on that was brilliantly beaten away by Reina and then hacked to safety by Lucas. We shouldn't be under the cosh to teams like Blackburn, we should be wiping the floor with them. For them to come here and create more chances than us, even though we had close to our best team out there (only really Johnson missing), it's just unacceptable, as was that 2nd half performance. Negative, turgid, shite. But we got the three points so I guess that's ok. Let's all poke fun at how Blackburn play, without a fucking hint of irony. We might not play alehouse long ball football, and you don't see us carrying on in the thuggish way some of their players did, but 1970 Brazil we ain't, and we're not in a position to look down our noses at how any other team plays. As a mate said to me this morning, "Gotta laugh at the hypocrisy of Rafa calling anyone for their brand of football when we currently play the worst brand of football in my lifetime." Star man was Reina, which says it all really. Honourable mentions to Torres who was brilliant at times in the first half, and Mascherano who had another good game and would be a class right back if he wasn't already the best midfield destroyer in world football. Team: Reina; Mascherano, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio (Insua); Maxi, Gerrard, Lucas, Benayoun (Babel); Kuyt; Torres (N'Gog):

No idea what you're talking about, haven't seen any of that game I just know the result because it fucked up one of Gallagher's accumilators. Is it worth watching then? He was shushing the Stoke bench, and his interview pissed me off too. Sorted now, cheers mate.

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/89159-new-feature-weekend-round-up.html

LIVERPOOL U18 0 West Brom u18 0 Report by Dave Usher at the Academy Scorer(s) - Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Liverpool Academy, Kirkby Date - Sat 27 February 2010 Star Man - Chris Oldfield Liverpool's under 18 side were held to a goalless draw by West Brom at the Academy this morning, but it could have been much worse as the Baggies dominated the closing stages of the game and missed some glorious chances to take the three points. Rodolfo Borrell's side played quite well for most of the game, but the visitors finished very strongly and the reds were hanging on at the end. Star striker Laurie Dalla Valle led the line in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Michael Ngoo, Kristzian Adorjan and Tom Ince behind him, Michael Roberts and skipper Connor Coady in midfield and a back four of Andre Wisdom, Steven Sama, Matty McGiveron and Jack Robinson. Chris Oldfield was between the sticks. Liverpool started the game reasonably well, but the first chance fell to West Brom after three minutes when they broke down the left and cut the ball back to the edge of the box, only for the onrushing forward to blaze his shot over the bar. The reds first threatening moment came four minutes later when Ince and Dalla Valle combined to send Adorjan through, but his shot was blocked and went behind for a corner. Dalla Valle then had a decent chance to open the scoring when he latched onto a flick on by Ngoo, but the normally lethal Finn prodded the ball just wide. That was the only decent opening for the reds in the first half, as the rest of the opening 45 minutes was played almost exclusively in midfield with very little happening in either penalty area. West Brom did put another decent chance over the bar a few minutes before half time, but the first half was fairly uneventful on the whole with both defences well in control. The second half was more open, and Chris Oldfield made several fine saves, especially late on. The early part of the half belonged to the reds, but they couldn't find the breakthough despite creating a number of promising situations. Most of them involved Ngoo, who switched flanks with Ince after the break and caused a lot of problems down the left side. He clearly had the beating of the full back, but the ball just wouldn't fall right in the box. Within minutes of the restart Ince had drilled a ball across goal that was collected by Ngoo on the far post. He did well to collect it and evade a defender as well as the keeper, but his cut back was fractionally behind Dalla Valle, who couldn't quite wrap his foot round it enough and it ended up in the arms of the keeper who had been stranded a couple of yards wide of his goal. It was very unfortunate for the reds, but summed up the second half. Numerous times they'd get dangerous balls across the goalmouth, but there always seemed to be a West Brom defender in the way. Their keeper made saves from Ngoo and Ince, but the longer the game went, the better the Baggies became. They made a couple of attacking substitutions, and they certainly made a big difference. The chances also allowed the number nine to get on the ball more, as he started to pull out to the wings and have a big influence on the game. Oldfield made one absolutely stunning save, and several good ones. But he was left helpless a minute from time when the left winger found himself free to cross into the centre, where they had two waiting players. One of the reds defenders (McGiveron perhaps ) made a great block, but the loose ball fell perfectly for the onrushing substitute who put the ball wide of the gaping net. It was a dreadful miss, and it cost West Brom to points as had it gone in there was very little time for the reds to have fashioned an equaliser. A draw was probably fair, but West Brom were the more dangerous of the sides and Oldfield was by far the busier keeper. Rodolfo Borrell's side are having a disappointing season and results have not been particularly good. They are a young group though, and of thos starting line up only Oldfield, Roberts, Ince and Dalla Valle are second years. The rest of the side are first years, and (I think) Robinson i still eligible for the u16s. They should get better, especially given the reports of exciting QPR youngster Raheem Sterling joining the club. Another striker would be nice as there's too much resting on the shoulders of Dalla Valle at the moment. He played well in this game, some of his lay offs and touches were quality, but he didn't get too many chances and there's too much of a burden on him when it comes to goalscoring. Ngoo is one of those big strikers who is a bit of a handful and works hard, but just doesn't score many, and no-one else is finding the net with any consistency either. Star man was Oldfield for me. He did everything he had to do, kept a clean sheet and made one absolutely brilliant low save. Robinson was probably the pick of the outfielders, he was very neat and tidy in possession and defended well when he had to. Conor Coady did quite well too in the centre of midfield. Team: Oldfield; Wisdom, Sama, McGiveron, Robinson; Roberts, Coady; Ngoo, Adorjan (Emilsson), Ince; Dalla Valle:

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/89036-tlw-podcast-3-parts-1-2-feb-2010-a.html

It's Little Sammy that's doing it. I've been deleting them whenever I see them, but I haven't been on every thread.

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/88950-youngster-set-loan-switch.html

LIVERPOOL 1 FC Unirea 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – David NgogHalf Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Thurs 18 February 2010 Star Man – Javier Mascherano I'd been looking forward to this one with all the relish of a trip to the dentists. Fair play to anyone who has managed to get themselves up for this competition, I wish I could, but after getting used to big nights against big teams in the Champions League this was never going to set the pulse racing. It was Thursday night, it was cold, it was raining, it was channel 5, we had extra referees on the field wearing tracky bottoms and just hanging around the edge of the box doing nothing, and I still don't even know the full name of the team we played. To be brutally honest, I had to drag myself to Anfield for this one as I was fearing the worst. Given the way we've been playing, this was never going to be the kind of night where we put the smiles back on people's faces with a great display of attacking football. We just can't do that anymore, we haven't done it for months, we're now a team that stops other sides from playing and who usually struggle when we have to make the running. It's as though we've completely forgotten how to play football. All our games are tight, tense, nervy affairs that are in the balance right up until the end. Doesn't matter if we're up against someone shit, it still follows the same pattern. Close game, not much in it, still up for grabs in the closing stages. That this game followed the same pattern is incredibly depressing, as I don't think I can ever remember seeing a more inept attacking side than Unirea. Seriously, they made Debrecen look like Arsenal. They did ok defensively, but when they had the ball they were so bad that in the end the crowd were actually laughing at them and their attempts to try and go forward. I was staggered at how utterly clueless they were, although I was told after the game that they haven't played for months and are on a winter break. They struggled to beat Northwich Victoria 1-0 in a friendly earlier this week, and are clearly very rusty. At least they have an excuse for their shitness. What's ours? It might have been different had Gerrard's effort in the opening minute gone in. That may have given us a lift and spurred us on to score a few more. Or we may have just retreated into our usual defensive shell as the manager patrols the sidelines frantically squeezing his hands together yelling 'COMPACT! COMPACT!'. We'll never know, as it didn't go in and we ended up toiling away making hard work of it against a keeper who flapped at every cross and a central defensive duo who every time they headed the ball it seemed to go in the completely opposite direction. It was funny watching them, less so watching us. Rangers must be desperately shite to have been beaten 4-1 at home by these chumps. They lined up with a lone striker, who didn't actually look like he had any basic footballing ability whatsoever. He barely touched the ball in 90 minutes, he didn't win anything in the air, didn't hold the ball up, didn't run in behind, or actually DO anything. Skrtel and Agger will never have an easier game, although Skrtel still contrived to commit a couple of completely needless fouls close to our box that fortunately came to nothing. They also had a player who seemed to be man marking Gerrard. At least he was playing just in front of the back four, meaning he was mostly occupying the space that the skipper was usually in. In front of him they had four players who all looked the same. They were like four clones, they looked the same and played the same. Small, stumpy fellas who spent the entire game trying to play one touch passes and generally failing. They still contributed more than Albert Riera though. I'm now considering the possibility that I may actually prefer Babel to Riera, and given the complete lack of regard I have for Babel that speaks volumes about Riera. But he'll probably have a good game in a couple of weeks and that will be enough for some people to say 'Look, told you he's a good player'. That's one of our biggest problems, we have too many players who are just not good enough, but if they produce the odd good performance here and there a lot of people give them the benefit of the doubt as use that as proof of how 'good' they are. We shouldn't judge someone on their good games or their bad games. We should judge them on ALL of their games. Judging Riera based on all of his games, I'd have to say that just like Babel he's a complete waste of money and isn't good enough to be at a club like ours. If he plays really well on Sunday against City (and let's pray that he does) that doesn't change anything. We know he isn't completely shit and that he is capable of producing some good things, but he doesn't do it anywhere near often enough and just like Babel the bad far outweighs the good. This was actually a rare good night for Babel in fairness. He made the kind of impression in this game that we have been looking for from him all season (and most of last season too). He came on and immediately lifted the tempo by injecting pace into the game. Until his arrival, we were completely one paced and pedestrian. He came on, immediately skipped past the full back and put in a cross that Gerrard almost steered in. Every time he got the ball he tried to go at people, and although his success was mixed, at least he troubled them and caused some panic. Pacheco also made a difference when he came on. He replaced Aquilani, who's performance wasn't bad but never rose above ordinary either. I feel for him a bit though, it was always going to be difficult for him settling into a new league, new country, new team, especially as he was injured for his first few months here. What makes things even more difficult is that he hasn't been playing regularly and hasn't been able to find any rhythm. He may or may not be a dud, but it's far too early to tell for me. Unirea had generally not had too much difficulty containing us, but as time ticked away and the substitutes arrived, they looked as though they were starting to hang on a little. Skrtel should have scpored when he put a free header over the bar from a corner, and Aurelio had a 25 yard drive tipped round the post by the keeper. Momentum was starting to build, and with ten minutes left we finally made the breakthrough. Babel's cross found Pacheco on the back post, and his header was turned in from close range by Ngog. I thought Pacheco should have scored himself, and I'm not sure he wasn't trying to do just that as I haven't seen any replays of it yet. No matter, Ngog did what he does well, he sniffed out a goal and spared our blushes. The closing stages of the game saw them go forward looking for an equaliser. They forced a corner and had a few long throws, but they posed virtually no threat. They had one decent opening when the otherwise excellent Mascherano gave the ball away, but the lad got to the edge of the box and then produced a shot so poor that large sections of the crowd just laughed. Like I say, they were shockingly bad, and it's difficult to see any way they can stop us from going through, regardless of how poor we may play in the return leg. The danger is that we will go there and just play out the game and not show much ambition, and we could invite unnecessary pressure on ourselves. If we go out there and look to kill them off early then I don't see how they can hurt us, as they are a very poor side. We've lost to other poor sides this season though, so you can never be too confident. Star man was once again Mascherano, by an absolute mile. Gerrard was ok, Carra and Aurelio weren't bad and I thought Agger played alright too. Finally, what is the point of these extra referees? They didn't have to make a single decision all night, and they're basically just stealing a living. Having said that, if it were possible I'd have swapped either of them with the dickhead who was in charge, as he was just awful. His night was summed up when Mascherano was hacked down on the edge of the box by the dead ball line, and he awarded a corner. Not only did he get that horribly wrong, but it also made a mockery of having the extra official as he didn't call it right either. Total waste of time, and it needs to be scrapped. One shit referee is bad enough, we certainly don't need three of the bastards. Team: Reina; Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Aurelio; Mascherano, Aquilani (Pacheco); Kuyt, Gerrard, Riera (Babel); N'Gog:

Arsenal 1 LIVERPOOL 0 Report by Mark Ingram at the Emirates Scorer(s) – Half Time - 0-0 Venue - The Emirates Stadium Date - Wed 10 February 2010 Star Man – So there I was last week, full of positivity with my private message to Mr Usher; ‘Don’t worry Dave, mate, have a week off, I’ll do the Arsenal report if you like?’ I said, with not a hint of suspicion when he metaphorically ripped my arm off with his ‘all yours mate’ reply. But now it makes sense. How do you write about a performance like that at the Emirates without venting your spleen at the money you’ve wasted and the shite you’ve had to sit through? This isn’t going to be easy, but I’ll try not to descend into the depths of negativity that I was wallowing in on the way home last night. No surprises with the team selection at all. Aquilani’s withdrawal gave Benitez the perfect excuse to go with his comfort zone formation of two holding midfielders, with Gerrard behind N’Gog, Kuyt on the right, Maxi on the left and Carragher at right back. He’s never going to go balls out away at Arsenal and it was pretty clear that he wanted a draw or, at best, a set piece smash and grab type win. The first half was as non-descript as I could have possibly imagined, A couple of half chances for either side but nothing to get the adrenalin going, and certainly nothing to give the crowd an excuse to make a noise. Even the predictable ‘Hoof’ noise they come out with began at a very diluted level and petered out to nothing by half time. Arsenal fans aren’t in my top three most hated rivals but they are pretty gutless as a bunch if we’re honest here. They have this ridiculous idea that because they play such lovely football that they deserve the right to win everything and the bleatings of genuine injustice when they get bullied out of a game is never far away. This gutlessness is also reflected by the time-keeping of their home fans in my opinion; there were tons of empty seats all over the ground at kick off, with people ambling in when it suited them throughout the first half. I don’t know whether having a significantly larger stadium means that you’ll inevitably get a larger batch of part-timers with season tickets who don’t feel the need to get there for kick off, or worse still would rather not brave the cold and watch it at home on sky? I’m just finding it hard to imagine that for a big home game like this our fans would behave the same, should we ever have a 70K stadium. Maybe we’ll never know? The only noticeable chances of the first half fell to that useless cheating Danish cart horse Bendtner who sliced over horribly when he should have made Reina work. What a tit this guy is. He later dived when up against his countryman and got rightfully booked which says it all about him really. At the other end the only things of note I can remember were disappointing efforts from Maxi Rodruiguez who seemed to sky every chance he got and was on the receiving end of a fair few frustrated expletives. I’m finding it very difficult to get excited about Maxi at the moment. I know its early days but so far I can’t remember him doing anything good since he’s got here. He’s not very quick, he doesn’t seem to be a particularly intelligent footballer, he wastes a lot of possession, doesn’t display a great deal of skill, his shooting has so far been as bad as mine, so what are his strengths and what are we supposed to expect from him? He was responsible for one of the best ever world cup goals so it’s definitely worth biding our time, but as it stands he been very underwhelming in my opinion, and he was our worst performer on the night. I can’t remember much else happening in the first half, in fact had I not had my brother there outlining the comedy qualities of a good tromboning, I’d have probably nodded off. The second half was immediately more interesting at both ends, with N’Gog being put through by a great ball from Gerrard of the like we’ve not seen in a while, only to be denied by a superb bit of defending from Gallas. Immediately the ball was down the other and Rosicky really should have done better than he did when through on goal. The big moment for me was when Carragher went off because the organisation of the back four was then left to the less vocal Skrtel and Agger. They were both doing well, to be fair, but the place just isn’t as organised when Carra’s not there. Coupled with that was the introduction of Degen who may be alright going forward but he’s the polar opposite of Carra in terms of defending. This is when I started to think we’d get found out. And found out we got pretty soon afterwards, and it was Insua who got dragged out of position leaving Rosicky to find the head of Sammy Davis Junior in the middle with an inch perfect cross. 1-0 to the Arsenal. Benitez responded by bringing on Babel for Lucas straight away, dropping Gerrard deeper to dictate more of the play and it worked to an extent, although Gerrard just didn’t seem to have enough quality support around him to make things work. He hit one of the balls of the season from our own half out wide to Degan on the wing only for the Swiss to completely balls it up and end up on the floor. Gerrard was visibly upset by this as well as with other examples of his team mates’ simply not being anywhere near his wavelength meaning that moves were being broken down and possession lost. Babel looked as lively as I’ve seen him when he came on and put everything he had into a shot from thirty yards out in the last ten minutes which was well saved by Alumnia. Depressingly though, this was the first save of note from him in the whole match. As the game came to an end a final roll of the dice involved a very soft free kick being won by Kuyt, some irritating petulance from Fabregas, followed by a blatant handball right in front of the referee by the same player. Quite how Webb didn’t see that I’ll never know, although I thought he was more outside of the box than in, so another free kick should have been awarded. It was not to be though and, to be fair; I can’t stand here and claim we deserved something out of the match because that’s simply not the case. Benitez would have been happy with a 0-0, and when your ambitions are limited to that you can’t really complain when you lose 1-0. It was a frustrating result and a disappointing waste of money for the away fans considering the lack of ambition on show. Star man was impossible to award, as everyone had an average game at best. Skrtel would have got it had it remained goalless as I thought he and Agger did well keeping Nasri, Arseshaving and Bendtner at bay for the most part of the game. Skrtel’s showing more composure of late which hopefully means he’s settling back in. It’s also good to see the ball not being continually hoofed over the midfield (a la Carragher) by the centre halves so these two do represent a reason to be hopeful for the future. Gerrard might have got it had his corners not been so unbelievably rubbish and had he not resorted to some pretty desperate diving which I’m finding harder to ignore by the day. It tears me apart when he does this. He’s arguably the best footballer I’ve ever seen live and he’s one of my favourite players ever, but great footballers don’t dive in my opinion. I’ve always been very quick to chastise Drogba and Ronaldo, who are the world’s worst cheats, and I pointed out Bendtner’s exploits above, so I’m not about to claim that what he’s doing is any different. One thing that doesn’t help him is that he’s simply not very good at it. Ronaldo’s got it down to an art form but Gerrard just doesn’t quite have the natural diving ability to pull it off convincingly. It’s diving, it’s cheating and it needs to stop Stevie lad, you’re better than that. I’m not going to award a Star Man in protest this time round, no one was good enough, and it just wouldn’t seem right. A bit of a rest until the City game now which is a six pointer which ever way you look at it, I’d suggest that he’s going to need to show more ambition there, because that’s a must win. I’ll also be very interested to see how he treats the Europa League match in between. Team: Reina; Carragher (Degen), Skrtel, Agger, Insua; Lucas (Babel), Mascherano; Kuyt, Gerrard, Maxi; Ngog:

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/88635-arsenal-1-liverpool-0-match-reaction.html

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/88610-arsenal-v-liverpool-match-preview.html

*contemplates posting Scouse Missionary's email and ip*

Yeah I'd missed one of them in the template on the footy forum, thats why it was still showing up. I've removed it now though.

LIVERPOOL 1 Everton 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Dirk KuytHalf Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 6 February 2010 Star Man – Jamie Carragher When Sotirios Kyrgiakos reluctantly made his way from the field after being red carded, it was clearly going to be a major turning point in the game. So it proved, but not in the way most would have expected. Being reduced to ten men immediately put us onto the back foot, and put the onus of attack onto the blues. Perennially used to being the underdog, they never looked comfortable in the role of 'favourites' and this was pretty comfortable for us in the end. The sending off actually hurt them more than us. Finding themselves with a man advantage completely threw Everton. We retreated into two banks of four with just N'Gog up front, and the blues didn't have the first idea on how to break us down. They had to tear up their gameplan, and you could almost see them thinking "Shit, what the fuck do we do now?" Screech left the field injured after his clash with the Greek, and even though his replacement Mikel Arteta is a vastly superior footballer, the blues had lost their tallest player and were now resembling the Smurfs. Osman, Arteta, Pienaar, Baines, Cahill, Donavan..... All that was missing was Papa Smurf Abel Xavier. It was all very predictable and easy for us to deal with. Distin was the only one with any kind of height, and that would ultimately cost them as they conceded from a set piece. Being a man down, we understandably posed only a limited attacking threat ourselves and it wasn't a great spectacle. We were very comfortable in defence though and Reina only had to make one save of note. We're getting by on hard work, battling and organisation at the moment, and very little else. In a Merseyside derby, that's often all you need. It's usually a game for the Dirk Kuyt's of this world rather than the Albert Riera's. It's rarely a game for the purists, and you can usually guarantee a red card or two as it can often spill over. There were two dismissals in this one, but there should have been three, and the one straight red that was given was probably just about the lesser of the three evils. Before seeing any replays of it, my initial reaction was that the Greek was going to be in trouble as you simply can't go in for tackles with both feet together like that. I don't think he was trying to hurt anyone, I think he was trying to protect himself from what he thought was going to be a strong challenge from Fellaini. It didn't look good though and he was always going to see red for it. I was also wondering about Fellaini's part in it though, as it seemed to me that he'd gone right over the ball and Kygiakos' obvious pain seemed to confirm it. That was how I saw it at the time, and a few text messages confirmed it. Both should have saw red, not just our player. The snidey Fellaini's participation in the game was over anyway, but Everton shouldn't have been allowed to send on a replacement as he should have suffered the same fate as theGreek. The texts also stated that neither challenge was as bad as the one from Pienaar just before it. I hadn't seen that at all, there's a big post that completely blocked my view of that incident and all I saw was Mascherano on the floor holding his shin. It was only later that night I saw the challenge. Quite how the referee could see that and award anything other than a red card is mystifying. Seriously, that's about as bad a challenge as you're likely to see anywhere, but he stayed on the field. Ridiculous. He should be made to explain himself, as he clearly had a perfect view of it. Carragher went into the book seconds later for going through the back of Pienaar, and initially I couldn't understand why he'd dived in like that. It just seemed like a stupid, reckless tackle and a needless booking. Having now seen the challenge on Mascherano, it seems likely that Carra was just taking some retribution. He was well fired up this one, and set the tone for our performance by clattering Pienaar in the opening seconds. It was a perfectly fair challenge, but the winger was shaken up by it and it got the crowd going. Carra was immense all afternoon. It was a war of attrition, with both sides flying into tackles and not much in the way of goalmouth action. I wouldn't say the sending off helped us, but I don't think it did us any harm either. The way we've been playing lately, it may have suited us in a way to be able to just sit back and battle it out. With eleven men there was more onus on us to attack them and that's not our strength at the moment. Going down to ten gave us no choice but to be 'compact' and to keep the game tight. We would have done that anyway, but the crowd wouldn't have liked it. With us being down to ten men, the fans expectations changed, and grinding it out became not just acceptable, but necessary. We did it really well, and Everton just couldn't get anywhere near our goal as we fought and scrapped for every ball and showed a great desire to get the job done. The only time Everton came close to hurting us was when Cahill headed against the bar. Aside from that, our defence did a great job of protecting Reina. The sending off didn't cause a problem for our backline, as Carragher slotted in seamlessly alongside Agger, and Mascherano performed admirably at right back. I did think we might miss Mascherano's tenacity in the middle, but we really didn't as Lucas put in a proper shift and really got stuck in alongside Gerrard. If we'd have had Torres available, even with ten men I think we'd have been able to take the game to them and cause them problems. I'm not knocking N'Gog, he played well and worked very hard, but Torres even on his own could still have ripped them apart. N'Gog did a good job for the team, and his performance looked even better after he went off and we saw the abomination that is Ryan Babel in his place. Once again, he was just fucking shit. For the first couple of minutes he ran around a bit, then he lost interest. Didn't close them down, didn't hold the ball up, didn't run the channels.... everything that N'Gog did (or at least tried to do), Babel didn't. I can understand why Rafa felt putting him on was the right thing to do, but once again Babel let him down and showed that whatever faith Benitez has left in him is completely misplaced. He's just dreadful, and he was the only player who let us down as everyone else gave their all for the side. The frustrating thing is, the game was perfectly set up for Babel to wreak havoc. He had fresh legs, they were pushing forward and there were gaps to exploit. He's just shit though, and I'd rather we used Amoo in that situation now than this brain dead, lazy waste of a shirt. When Everton threw on Anichebe and Yakubu, we stood up to it really well and aside from one snapshot from Yakubu they didn't trouble us. Everton really didn't seem to be able to handle the expectation suddenly thrust on them when they were handed a one man advantage, and sending on the two big lumps was a final act of desperation. Anichebe's only contribution to the game was to kick off when Gerrard went through Pienaar. Gerrard was booked, even though he won the ball and it was his follow through that caught the Everton player. It was good to see Agger get straight in there to have a pop at Anichebe when it went off though. It had been a bad tempered game from start to finish, and it was no surprise when Pienaar finally got the red card he'd been virtually begging for all afternoon in stoppage time. It was a bit of a nothing challenge, but he knew what he was doing and clearly jumped into Gerrard. The skipper may have made a bit of a meal of it, but you can see on the replay his head get jolted backwards as Pienaar's shoulder caught him. It was probably just about worthy of a yellow, but even if it wasn't that little twat has no right to complain given the shithouse lunge he'd done on Mascherano earlier. This was a gutsy, battling performance from our boys, and it must be pretty demoralising for the blues that even when we are playing the worst football we've played in years, even without Fernando Torres, and even reduced to ten men from an early stage in the game, they STILL lost to us. Moyes' record against us in the league is appalling, and he's somehow managed to lose to us twice this season even though we've hardly created anything in the two games. There were a number of heroes out there for us in this game. Kuyt's monumental effort was rewarded with the winning goal (very well taken it was too), Lucas did a great job protecting his defence, Mascherano was excellent and Agger and Carragher were faultless. Chosing one from that group is difficult, but I'll go with Carragher, just edging out Dirk. Team: Reina; Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Agger, Insua; Lucas, Mascherano; Kuyt (Skrtel), Gerrard, Maxi (Aurelio); N'Gog (Babel):

Ok, you can access it here, and there's a link on the right hand side of the page to subscribe through itunes, and that works. Itunes wasn't picking up the feed from this end, so I've put the podcasts on podomatic and they feed it through to itunes now.

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/news/88473-liverpool-v-everton-match-preview.html

Not showing on itunes for me yet either. Although for some reason only part one of the last one is on, part 2 isn't there anymore. The rss feed is working ok, so the problem is with itunes not checking the feed I think.

http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/podcasts/88454-tlw-podcast-2-feb-2010-a.html Doesn't seem to be showing up on itunes yet, don't know how long it takes them to detect new submissions, but you can listen to it on the above link for now anyway.

LIVERPOOL 2 Bolton 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Dirk Kuyt, Kevin Davies O.G.Half Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 30 January 2010 Star Man – Steven Gerrard After the depressing display against Wolves in midweek it was important that we showed a more positive approach to this game, and I'd say we did. It wasn't a great performance by any means, there were still plenty of things to be concerned about if you looked hard enough, but overall it was definitely better and for the first time in several weeks I felt we played some attractive football. Only in flashes, but it was definitely an improvement. There appeared to be a slight change in the system, and it looked to be more of a 442 than the usual 4231. Gerrard started on the right, but ended the game in his usual role in the centre playing just off the frontman. He played well in both positions, and he was unlucky not to score at least once. Only a couple of good saves by the scruffy twat between the posts for Bolton denied him the goal his performance warranted. I fucking hate that Bolton keeper. Every year he comes here, and every year we applaud him to his goal. And every year he blanks us. Fucking ungrateful tramp, tuck your fucking shirt in and comb your hair. Mind you, fashion clearly isn't high on the agenda at Bolton, you only have to look at Owen Coyle strutting his stuff on the sidelines in matching grey shorts and socks (pulled up to the knee no less) with his shiny white trainers. It was the football managerial equivalent of the embarrassing dad on holiday in his white socks and sandals. Just a big no no, someone needs to have a word with him and tell him how daft he looks. Roll your socks down, Owen, you look like a tit. Dress sense apart, I quite like Coyle. I think he's made a bad career move by swapping Burnley for Bolton, but on the whole he's a decent manager and a fairly likeable fella from what I've seen. Apparently he's already changed Bolton's style in the short time he's been there. My mate's missus is a Bolton fan, and she reckons since Coyle came in there's been a noticeable change in their approach. Their players now actually take a touch before they knock it long to Kevin Davies. Her words not mine. The route one approach was never going to trouble us too much, as one thing Kyrgiakos can deal with is the aerial stuff. He's very strong in that department, and is proving to be useful when we're up against sides who like to hit a big frontman. Someone said to me last week "he's like Erik Meijer, only at the back". True that. He's limited, but he's wholehearted and gives everything he has. He had another solid game, including a goal saving clearance when the score was 0-0. Had he not been in the right place at the right time who knows how this game would have turned out. Bolton were well in this game in the first half, they gave as good as they got and were a little unfortunate to go in a goal behind. As well as the chance that was cleared off the line, they also had a penalty appeal when the same player (don't know his name, the Korean lad in the bright yellow 'twat boots') took a dive as Aquilani ran across him. It wasn't a penalty, but with Steve Bennett your heart is always in your mouth. Thankfully he called it right, for once. Bolton did give us some nervous moments though in that opening 45 minutes. They did virtually nothing in the second half though, and we could have added more than just the one flukey goal we got. There had been nothing flukey about our first goal though, it was nice football and a very well worked goal at the Kop end. Insua was released down the left, and whipped over a cross to the back post that was met by the soaring Aquilani who nodded it back across the six yard box for Kuyt to bundle the ball in. The leap from Aquilani was very impressive, but it was about the only thing of note he did in the 1st half. He struggled badly, misplacing several routine passes and getting caught in possession on several occasions. It must be difficult for him, given how he's not played much and clearly doesn't yet have his manager's full confidence, but I thought he showed good character in this game and kept going. He worked hard and made a few tackles, and he improved in the 2nd half. It wasn't enough to spare him the hook though, as Lucas predictably got the nod to replace him. It was funny actually, as my arl fella said at half time; "Wonder how long it will be til he brings Lucas on?" I replied; "65 minutes, do you even need to ask?" It was 65 minutes and 7 seconds when Lucas ran onto the field to replace the dejected looking Italian. It was obvious it was going to happen, but personally I felt Aquilani should probably have been left on to play through it. He had improved from the first half, and the only way he's going to get better is by playing. I suspect he'll be back on the bench next week when we play Everton, and this must be a really frustrating time for him. I felt sorry for him yesterday. As much as we looked comfortable dealing with whatever Bolton were throwing at us, (which wasn't actually much, especially after the Korean lad ran out of steam), you can never feel totally relaxed at 1-0 and we needed that second goal. It arrived in fortunate circumstances when a shot from Insua that looked headed for the corner flag struck the foot of Davies and wrongfooted the vagrant in goal to make the game safe. DJ George announced Insua as the goalscorer, much to the amusement of the crowd. One of the easiest decisions the 'dubious goals panel' will have to make. That's if it even gets that far, which it shouldn't. Insua had a good game going forward, but I thought he looked very vulnerable going the other way. That Korean ran him ragged a couple of times, and he's been struggling against anyone who's run at him with pace recently. But in terms of his attacking, he did well and put some quality crosses in. In fact, the frequency that our full backs went forward was probably the most encouraging aspect of the performance for me. Carragher and Insua both went forward at every opportunity, which isn't always the case. I thought in brief spells we played some nice, attractive football, and there was one little passage of play late in the second half where we moved the ball around very quickly with some nice one touch passing that brought a big cheer from the crowd. It's sad in a way, as not so long ago it would have just brought a ripple of applause, as it was fairly commonplace. We've been starved of that kind of attractive, one touch stuff of late though, and it got a much bigger reaction than it ought to really. Given how the second half went, 2-0 was the least we deserved. We had a few good openings, and there were occasions when it just didn't fall right for us in the box. N'Gog missed an absolute sitter, Maxi was inches away from converting a cross on the back post, and as I said Gerrard could have had a couple. It's a pity we didn't get a couple more goals, as maybe we need something like that to get us going again. A big win might have boosted everyone's confidence ahead of the derby game. But the main thing was the three points, and although the performance wasn't anything to get too excited about, I did think there was an improvement on what we have seen of late. Star man for me was Gerrard, with honourable mentions to Mascherano, Carragher and the Greek. Team: Reina; Carragher, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Insua; Gerrard, Aquilani (Lucas), Mascherano, Riera (Maxi Rodriguez); Kuyt, N'Gog (Babel):