rubble-rouser

I can't see the point in paying £40-odd quid for a ticket and not getting full value. I've left early twice - once at Stamford Bridge when they got their fourth in the game when Gary Mac missed a pen, and at Reading in the Carling Cup last year when we got our fourth and I needed to get one of them shitty buses from that shitty ground back to the shitty station.

Crap article but a nugget of truth. I feel guilty about not liking Geerrard and I think a lot of fans fall into one of two camps. Either they're a bit dim and he's automatically man of the match (see Official website votes etc) or they're a bit cynical so when he plays at a level way above most of the team some people just won't give him the credit he's due. In 2005 I remember getting wound up before the Olympiakos game when he said we weren't good enought to win it. I seem to remember him having a go at Baros on the telly after he was sent off in the Anfield Derby and that whole season was like we were on trial for him. The club had already bent over backwards to keep him, sacking a dedicated red and real pro - Sami - as captain to massage Gerrard's ego. All of that meant I didn't like him much before the Chelsea flirtation. Add to that the fact that he permanently looks like a miserable bastard and it's easy to see why he's not loved like Carr ior Fowler. Since then ther've been a few times when I've been really pissed off with him - where was he when Macherano went mental at Old Trafford for example? But I reckon now that I'm probably guilty of judging him too harshly at times and by standards that he has set for himself and that aren't applied to other players. It's probably a personality thing. A lot of people have got a lot more in common with someone like Carragher than someone like Gerrard. In short he deserves more slack. It makes me think of Souness coming back as manager. In the run up to his first game I remember my dad saying that, unlikel Dalglish, Souness had been admired but not loved by the Kop partly because of his 'Charlie Bubbles' personality. I remembered seeing Souness play (I was about 7) and score 20-yard screamers and I knew he was at the heart of all our success. I wondered how anyone couldn't love such a phenomenal player and captain. Now I know.

The Nyarko incident defines that excuse for a football club. I remember when I was about 11 some kid telling me Wayne Clarke was better than Rush.

Is there a reason noone's interested in Jermaine Beckford? Always seems to be scoring. I suppose there is the fact that he's called Jermaine - usually a sure sign of a player destined not to fulfill his potential.

But if it was Fulham v Everton or Utd v Anyone it would be 'a glorious advert for the English game' and evidence that 'the Premiership is the most competitive league in the world'. The one game I definitely remember Fabio in centre mid was home v Arsenal in teh league cup ...

Listening to Kerry 'Chelsea FC TV'Dixon try to justify the actions of the Chelsea board over the last 18 months on 5 Live tonight was comedy Gold. Even John Mott-hole was giving him shit. Brilliant.

It is an absolute discgrace. It is a personal attack on the manager way beyond the bounds of anything I've seen before in a national paper. The Setanta stuff that people were up ion arms about yesterday is bland compared to that cup of poisonous bile. First time I've bought the Mirror in ages. Last time ever.

Some of the song suggestions here make my idea of a 'Yossi Benayoun' song to the tune of button moon seem respectable

Songs that do your head in and are sung by small time teams or the small time fans of bigger teams. Anyone singig these should be shot. Any more? 1. The song of the gobshite, "Your support is fucking shit". Generally sung at us when we go quiet for the first time in a game. Started by Chavski, now nearly everyone is at it. 2. "Where's your famous atmosphere?" See Above. 3. "Que Sera Sera" - Just unspeakably crap. No imagination. Defines Spurs. 4. "You're gonna win fuck all" - unbelievably sung by fans of clubs like Everton, Spurs etc. 5. "Harry Redknapp's Blue and White Army" (or whatever colour team he's managing this week). Are we the only team never to have sung a variation on this song? 6. Anything involving the use of a musical instrument. If I can't take a bottle of water into the ground, why are some idiots allowed to take drums and trumpets to the match/ USe yor mouth and your hands for god's sake! 7. That tune/chant you hear at England matches that sounds a bit like Vindaloo. Usually belted out by inbred landlords from the home counties and city traders who are in the BNP. 8. "Stand up if you hate Arsenal/Man U/Tottenham." The Arsenal fans are the worst for this. Even when they're winning and doing well, singing about their crap comedy neighbours is how they serenade their players. No wonder Henry talks us up.

Must be something there, and he was OK tonight. Both bookings were justifiable ordinarily but not when you see the ref chatting up all of their players in the first half each time they assaulted one of ours. For hs second Yellow Lucas had to make a tackle and wasn't quite good enough (unlike Mascherano, Didi and similar players) to do it cleanly or do it on the sly. He'd been put in the shit by a mis-placed pass. Before that he was probably our best midfielder on the night. Alonso and Riera produced the few moments of quality of the night but both gave the ball away far too much. This was Alonso's big chance to run a midfield in a big game without Gerrard or Mascherano and he blew it. By the way, why do thes ebitter cunts get under Torres' skin so much? He always seems to lose his rag against them.

We were no worse tomight than they were in both recent Anfield games. Why can we never play badly/poorly and win against these twats and the Mancs? We play them off the park and draw and 'we can't break them down'; we play with 10 men for an hour, relatively untroubled, and cause we create little we're shit. I suppose it sums up the difference between our expectations and theirs. We played witha lot of heart tonitght. My worry is that this was basically our strongest 14/15 players involved - with the exceptiojn of Riera same squad as were playing at this stage last year, minus Crouch and Pennant. We could have done with some admittedly average fresh legs of that sort tonight. Have we become a selling club? For ITV (who couldn't even show the goal) and that twunt Beglin to say Jagielka was better than Carra or Skrtel tonight makes no sense. Why does Beglin of all people seem to prefer the blue shite over us these days? That snapping sound is etched in my memory. Has his been wiped? Footage of their shit fans being bitter and shit takes me back to 1991 - sat in the Panini 'family' stand listening to dads racially abusing Barfnes in fromt of their ten year olds. Hope the fuckers get shat on by Villa. Moyes is definitely positioning himself as Fergie's successor - in cuntishness if nothing else. His 'dignity' doesn't extent to telling his players not to assault ours. Cunts. That is all.

Also, Gabriel Marcotti is a twat

We will get screwed on any deal because his contract is runing down, so no club will pay top dollar when he will be able to go on a free soon. I reckon Agger is one of Rafa's best signings. With him and Skrtel at the club we have a class pair of centre backs with different styles that complement one another for the next 5 years. With Carra that gives us 3 top-class cental defenders with Sami filling in as and when. Sami is having a good year, but we can't be confident that he'll be capable of performing at the top level in a year's time. We need cover, and we would be unlikley to be able to buy a player of Agger's class and ability for the difference in his wages over the years of his new contract. So either we buy an unproven (i.e. potentially crap) defender for a few million, or a journeyman or we end up with Arbeloa or one of the kids as cover for JC, Skrtel and Sami. Agger also gives us a lot more on the ball than any of our other established defenders. We play better football and have an extra attacking option when he plays. It makes sense to listen to his 'demands' - as someone pointed out, if he really is asdking for 80, that probably means he'll settle for 70-odd.

So if we miss out by, say, one point, we should sack him? Irrespective of whether we win the Euopean Cup or the FA Cup? No matter what the circumstances? And sacked by who? Do you think Parry has the authority and judgment to sack him and bring someone else in? Tom & George? This is Liverpool Football Club. We do not sack managers on a whim. We are much bigger and better than that. In reality, Rafa will probably get another year unless we go out of both cup competitions before the semis and finish more than 10 points off the pace, and so he should.

You're on fire, Marshall. True.

The manager can't be blamed for this result. Everyone is getting on Lucas' back - and he was poor - but Mascherano was just as bad. Riera looked capable of hurting them but didn't look up for it. In terms of the league, if it's a draw tomorrow the only difference from this time on Friday will be that Arsenal and Villa will be back in with an outside chance. If either of the late Gerrard efforts had gone in off teh post, half of the twats on here would be saying that was proof that we were gonna be champions - playing badly and winning. The fact that they didn't doesn't mean we won't. The fact is that we were never going to be capable of winning the league this year with 90+ points - at best we can get 86-87 points. Of course we need to get as many points as possible from every game, but the games against our rivals are extra imprtant this year. United and Chelsea are both capable (still) if winning the league with 93-95 points - we are not there yet, but in a scrap we might just win it by a point or two with 85, 86 or 87. We need to win our big games. That doesn't mean games like today aren't important.

Jeez. Upleasant though it may be, there are worse things than losing a derby at home. We're a bit spoiled in that it's been nearly 10 years since it happened. It hurts like fuck when it does, but the idea that you'd rather sacrifice the points because you don't want to see an extra few thousand blues celebrating at our place is small-time thinking. Of course we want to win both, but the fact that the shite would probably get a bigger kick out of a cup win rather than a league win shows what their expectations are. I'd rather win in the league and go out of the cup than draw both and have a replay.

Arbeloa or Carragher Left Back when Aurelio not available? Does anyone know if the other lot are releasing their Brazilian kids for this half-arsed tournament?

Viduka. Carew.