Belief - A powerful weapon

In the build up to the second leg of Liverpool's original Champions League semi final clash with Chelsea in May 2005, Rafa Benitez was virtually harassed by some journalist about Jose Mourinho.

Repeatedly asked to say just how great Mourinho was in the hope that it might prompt a headline of "Benitez praises genius of Jose" the boss stayed cool in his answers until he delivered the killer blow "Yes but tomorrow, he will lose" And so he did. Luis Garcia sent the ball over the line and far far away and the rest, as we know, is history.

Belief got us to Istanbul, belief got us to Athens and we will need that same belief to make it to Moscow.

Benitez's former assistant Pako Ayesteran later said of that original Chelsea tie that he and the coaching team including Benitez had utterly convinced the players that they could not be beaten by Chelsea again following defeat to the Blues in the Carling Cup Final in February of that year. And so it was.

Benitez will no doubt be working off the same principle again this time around.

Our record against Chelsea has been gradually improving if not greatly so in recent seasons. We have been the superior team at Anfield in both our meetings this season with only poor referring in the league and woeful bad luck last Tuesday preventing us from winning both games.

At Stamford Bridge, a weakened side was only seen off by a strong Chelsea when Frank Lampard's shot took a wicked deflection in the Carling Cup in December. And in the league meeting in January, we could well have snatched victory and were, as we've been reminded of in recent days, Fernando Torres-less.

That won't be the case tomorrow. With Torres in the side, as we have seen so often this season, anything is possible.

And undoubtedly we have belief. You need only read the words of Benitez in the build up to this game: "We will score. We will win and we will get to the final," he says confidently.

Strong words. They'll need a strong performance to back them up in West London tomorrow night where a progression to the final would undoubtedly be one of Benitez's finest achievements as manager of this club.

Our brand spanking new home kit...

I have to say I like it. An improvement on the current one which is also pretty nice but there's less white and more red on this one which is always good.

Surprised that the goalkeeper's kit is all black. A bit of a change from traditional green or yellow but at the same time not many people are looking to buy the goalie's kit save for those who fancy themselves as Pepe Reina in Sunday League or young kids (I have a ridiculous amount of goalkeeper's shirts from the mid nineties which were all a bit naff at the time and even more so now)

The players all love it. Surprise, surprise.

But there's been lots of message board talk about a possible boycott of the new club attire in an effort to hit Hicks and Gillett where it hurts. I doubt whether this can really be effective or not but it remains to be seen. Bottom line is that the continued success of the club will lead to more shirt sales as we gain more "fans" just like after Istanbul when sales of club merchandise went through the roof and the club and Reebok failed to cope.

If we turn things around at Chelsea and then win in Moscow, a boycott of club merchandise is unlikely to be successful or even make any significant impact. But that shouldn't stop those who feel strongly about the whole thing from doing it.

"He talks good English, but is not English." - And he is....

...Philip Degen, on a free transfer, the first of "four or five" signings expected this summer as the future of Rafa Benitez looks more secure following meetings with Tom Hicks and his son at Melwood before and after the Chelsea game.

What we know of Degen is that he is a 25-year-old right full back who has been playing at Borussia Dortmund for the last three years. He previously played for FC Basle, our old Champions League foes, and was part of Switzerland's 2006 World Cup squad making him...Swiss, obviously.

He is said to be attack minded, good at getting up and down the line and all those cliches that usually accompany a description of an attacking full back. He can play right wing and has been known to fill in at left back on occasion.

His arrival on July 1st, when his contract expires at Dortmund, casts further doubts over the future of Steve Finnan who has become increasingly marginalised towards the back end of the season.

It's been strange turn of events really. It's not as if he has been playing badly but he has had a few injuries and at 32 just yesterday, Rafa must feel it's time to freshen that position up.

It's been the Irishman's position for all of the boss' four year tenure and rightly so. He's been a consistently excellent performer but we must move forward. It will be interesting to see if Finnan is retained in the summer as back up or else moved elsewhere. It will be sad to see him go if he does leave.

Meanwhile Fabio Aurelio's season is effectively over after he was ruled out for three weeks with a torn adductor muscle that saw him stretchered off against Chelsea on Tuesday. Sad for the Brazilian who always seems to get injured whenever he finds a bit of form. It means John Arne Riise is likely to play at Chelsea next week in a bid to make amends.

He may play at Birmingham on Saturday but Emiliano Insua could also come into contention with wholesale changes likely to be made in a bid to keep the side fresh for Stamford Bridge.

Reds 1-1 Chelsea: A moment of madness and a mountain to climb

That's not something we are used to. A late equaliser such as that is hard to take in any situation but in a Champions League semi final that changes the entire complexion of the tie completely and an own goal to boot...that's pretty horrendous and very hard to take.

I feel sorry for poor John Arne. Sure he's been horribly off form for quite some time but no one deserves that even if his judgement in dealing with the goal was very poor. Why crouch down to head away a ball that could easily be booted into touch?

But there's no pointing in going over the what ifs and the maybes. We had some good chances to finish the tie off in the second half and played well at times.

Chelsea weren't any great shakes and that's would should be the starting point in preparing for the second half. They are clearly not the side they were under Jose Mourinho and the newspaper headlines would be a lot different tomorrow were it not for Riise's wayward header.

We've not scored at Stamford Bridge in a long time and not in the two visits this season but as Steven Gerrard wisely pointed out post match, Fernando Torres didn't play in either of those games.

Rafa Benitez was rightly peeved at the performance of referee Konrad Plautz. Chelsea seemed to get every little decision their way and I struggle to think where the four minutes of added on time came from when there were only four substitutions in the whole game.

My friend, ever the conspiracy theorist, reckoned on a grand scheme to avoid the logistical and safety nightmare of a Liverpool v Man U final in Moscow. I wouldn't go that far but undoubtedly a poor refereeing performance contributed somewhat to tonight's result.

In any case, no point dwelling. We played a good game right up until that one fatal moment at the end. There's enough quality and belief in this team to believe we can do the job at Stamford Bridge.

There's been plenty of miracles under Rafa in Europe these past three years and we'd be foolish to write off the chances of another next Wednesday in West London however harder the task has now become.

Fulham 0-2 Reds: Lazy wins and lazy papers

It was nice to be free of the stress that normally accompanies supporting your team when we went to Fulham and won with ease yesterday in a fairly unimportant, end of the season game for Rafa's men.

Nonetheless it was an important win that virtually guarantees fourth place and Champions League football next season. It is matters in that competition which are most pressing at the moment with Chelsea visiting Anfield on Tuesday.

Yesterday's game offered a chance to the likes of Jermaine Pennant and Peter Crouch to stake their claim for starting spots in the upcoming Chelsea games and stake their claim they did with a goal each in a pretty easy win over a tepid Fulham very much resigned to relegation now.

It was good to see Steve Finnan given a run out. I'm not sure what's happened to the Irishman lately as he's not been playing the big games. He was injured for a while but to the best of my knowledge he's been full fit for a while but not been considered. It's a sharp contrast to his standing in the team in previous seasons. Could it be a sign of a change at right back in the summer?

John Arne Riise had a decent game but I still can't see the Norwegian being here next season. Decent after a considerable spell of abject displays just won't cut it. We know Rafa's ruthless and I can't see him being an different with John Arne however long he's been at the club.

Andriy Voronin showed some decent touches but he clearly just doesn't have what it takes in front of goal. As a fourth striker he's fine but you get the feeling we could get something a bit better in the summer.

I look at someone like Florent Sinama Pongolle doing well with Recreativo in Spain and who always did well for us and it's puzzling. I don't know whether Flo Po would have been happy with a fourth choice role at Anfield but he would have offered considerably more than Voronin has.

The papers clearly had little on this weekend so decided to go with a random Steven Gerrard to Chelsea rumour.

How odd that it comes in the week when we play Chelsea in another massive Champions League semi final. If I were one to dabble in conspiracies it's almost as if they are trying to unsettle our captain, who is doubtful for the game in any case, to hand the advantage to Chelsea whose manager Avram Grant was gushing in his praise of the Reds' skipper.

London press with an anti Liverpool agenda? Surely not....

What George said

Our other esteemed owner George Gillett has this evening said he will never sell his shares to Tom Hicks while criticising his continuing PR campaign.

He says some good things about how Hicks' media binge is poorly timed just a few days before our biggest game of the season against Chelsea at Anfield in the Champions League semi finals.

There is an indication that he has the best interests of the club at heart in looking to sell but his support of Parry (The one thing Liverpool fans probably back Hicks on) will not be to everyone's liking.

I find it hard to make my mind up about Gillett. He has stayed largely silent in all of this and that perhaps is what is both good and bad about it all. The silence is a nice reprieve from Hicks' outbursts but it is also infuriating as it allows the club to be dragged down even further with no sign of any resolution.

At the end of the day though Kopites sing "Yanks Out" and not "Yank Out" for a reason.

All Gillett's statement does is underline why this situation is nowhere near a resolution. Sad times.

Deadlock - Why this situation will go on and on

And so more public mud slinging in the name of Liverpool Football Club in the week when we remembered and mourned the loss of 96 fellow fans 19 years ago. And this won't be the last of it either.

Hicks calls Parry's tenure a disaster, Parry remains defiant and where does that leave Liverpool Football Club? At deadlock, complete and utter.

What is clear is that Tom Hicks does not have the money to buy George Gillett's share and does not have the money to build a stadium or finance building of the team. If he thinks he does and can, he is deluded.

But instead of dealing in reality he will play the PR game in a desperate attempt to get the fans he lost long ago back on his side but he won't manage it. He has lied consistently.

Instead of the shovel going in the ground 90 days after he bought the club with Gillett we are here over a year later still waiting.

He said today it should have been built three years ago and that this is Parry's fault. Unless Parry has millions stashed away somewhere is it not the responsbility of the money men to get the stadium up and running? The delay with the stadium was always about the finance. Hicks (and Gillett) said they had it. They lied.

And the lies continue. Having previously denied even the existence of talks with DIC he acknowledged it today while managing to belittle and criticise them all roughly in the same sentence. Ridiculing that "gal" Amanda Staveley who had worked on DIC's behalf and doing all he can to say that it is they who are actually the bad guys.

They may not be the good guys but we all know who the bad guy is in all this - He's the overweight Texan that was on Sky this morning and on the loop all day telling lies and dragging the great name of this football club through the mud.

Rick Parry is far from criticism in all this and would serve the club's best interests commercially by stepping down but the manner in which Hicks has gone about all this is what is most appalling.

An American football coach once said "The superior man blames himself. The inferior man blames others"

The inferior man just has to go but with both sides so set in their ways, this situation will drag on, dragging our great club with it.

Tom Hicks - Top class dickhead

I sat for a while thinking about the title and in the end decided it was best to go with how I felt. I'm sure I'm not alone.

While we continue to go from strength to strength on the pitch it is a real pity that one of our chairmen (although he might as well be the only one) continues to undermine Rafa, the chief executive, the players, the fans and everyone associated with the football club in the week when we are supposed to be remembering our 96 fellow Reds who we lost at Hillsborough.

He brings new meaning to the word despicable. There is lots to assess in this story since Hicks decided last week to let everyone know he had asked for Rick Parry's resignation and then went on to complete assassinate the character of the man through every medium possible.

Now a lot of Liverpool fans have little time for Parry but he does not deserve this public mauling. This is Liverpool Football Club, for christ sake this is a football club in the first place and these things need to be kept in house at any club.

But it appears the Texan can't help himself as he will continue to destroy the CEO in public and undermine the boss by giving an in depth interview to Sky on Wednesday. A day after the Hillsborough anniversary. Thoughtless doesn't even begin to describe this.

And where does this leave Rafa and his side? Well we showed no signs of being adversely affected by all this against Blackburn yesterday in an accomplished performance but it is clear that Benitez is very unhappy with this situation and is only now learning of Parry's involvement in THAT meeting with Jurgen Klinsmann.

Tom Hicks can back Rafa all he likes but if he continues to undermine him like this he will have no manager to back. Rafa will walk. He walked for far less at Valencia. He clearly loves this club and believes he is very close to something special and so do we.

But its like a in any relationship. You may love someone but if they hurt you it is inevitable that you will walk away. And that is what is so worrying about this whole sordid affair.

Reds 4-2 Arsenal: Now there are no doubts.

What an amazing night.

It ranks up there with the very best European nights we've had at Anfield and unlike recent times it had the goals to go alongside the obvious tension and excitement.

Talking to people who were at the game the Kop was shaking from start to finish as the infectious Fernando Torres song took hold and the bouncing never stopped.

On the pitch we came back from a disasterous start to roar into the lead. Torres goal was one fit to win any game of football and my only regret would be that it did not win this one but it was so important nonetheless.

Emanuel Adebayor must have thought he'd buried us but there is no accounting for the sheer ferocity and determination of Liverpool's attack.

Ryan Babel's contribution puts him on a par with David Fairclough when it comes to being a super sub but with time we hope the Dutchman will be much more than that. But undoubtedly his best performances this season have come from the bench.

Arsene Wenger predictably moaned about the penalty but these things happen in football. We've had our fair share of bad decisions this season as well and over the course of the season they often balance out.

It's just often that they balance out in different ways. Arsenal may get a lucky decision in an (increasingly) meaningless league game before the season is out. Whereas, this season at least, we often tend to get done over by refs in league games against the big four but get our fair share of luck in these types of games.

At the end of the day it was a penalty probably about as much as Kuyt's tug on Hleb was last week only this time the referee chose to award it. Such is football.

But I felt on the balance of play we deserved to win tonight anyway. We were much better after Arsenal rattled us in the opening 20 minutes and only an amazing run from Theo Walcott in which our entire midfield and defence fell to pieces resulted in an equaliser Arsenal barely merited on their second half play.

That I thought would be the end of us. Nowhere near as heartbreaking as Michael Thomas in 1989 but not far off given how little was left in the game.

But the comeback was swift and devastating and was the mark of a side who don't rely on luck but on quality players, the supporters and a remarkable will to win.

And that is what makes this very unique football club so great. As one banner in the stands said tonight - "Scousers Rule The World" We do tonight and hopefully it won't be for the last time this season.

Arsenal 1-1 Reds - Part Two

Two very different line ups but an almost identical game and an identical scoreline. We played better today than we did on Wednesday if I'm honest. In fact our first half lead was deserved but on the balance of play with Arsenal dominating most of the second half this seemed a fair result.

I've lost patience with Andriy Voronin. He has been out for a while and is only just returning to the team but dear god he missed a sitter today and in general looks off the pace and really just not up to the task at the very highest level. He missed sitters like this earlier in the season as well.

We should cut are losses (as much as he needs to cut his hair) and get rid at the end of the season. He cost us nothing so we'll hopefully make a few bob on him but the word on the street is that he's settled in to the city and has bought a house in the area. Houses are sold just as easily as they're bought but this would suggest that he's been told he has a future at the club. But why?

Anyway back to the game and great to see young Damien Plessis get a run out. I've watched the French youngster for the reserves a couple of times and he looks good in the tackle and composed with his passing.

This was all in evidence today and he definitely didn't let the magnitude of the game get to him at all. The performances of him and Emiliano Insua towards the back end of last season has offered us the first taste of Rafa's worldwide recruitment policy and it's looking pretty good so far without going overboard.

Peter Crouch needs to take every opportunity he can get to prove his worth and did so today with a good performance and an excellent goal.

Indeed most who played today needed to take their opportunities given that our team has been so settled of late and so it was good to see Steve Finnan slot effortlessly back into full back and Lucas Leiva give another good account of himself in centre midfield.

The result, whilst a good one for us and definitely not what Arsenal needed, should have little bearing on Tuesdays match and it's outcome given that the two sides will be changed, it's a different stadium, a different atmosphere (a lot louder for starters!) and there is a lot more at stake.

Arsenal 1-1 Reds

It was a typical European performance with a good result that sets things up nicely for next week's return at Anfield.

First of all, I was appalled to hear of Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys' apparent intimation of some sort of helping hand from the referee when he revealed that last night's Dutch referee Pieter Vink lives just 5km from Dirk Kuyt's home town village.

And so apparently this might have influenced him when Kuyt put his arm round Alexandr Hleb in the box with Hungarian falling theatrically to the floor and Arsenal fans and players and Andy Gray demanding a penalty.

Jesus fucking wept, what a bloody non conspiracy theory! And yet some of the national papers felt obliged to report it today. It only heightens my own view that certain sections of the media and particularly Sky seem to have it in for us.

My own view on it is that Kuyt did get a hold of Hleb but it was the kind of incident that could have gone either way and in this case Mr Vink who, as Arsene Wenger commented afterwards, was was just a few yards away from the incident decided there was not enough in it to warrant a spot kick. It was not the "stonewaller" some have been saying it was today, some in the media that is. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway enough ranting against the fourth estate. It was indeed a typical European performance from us. We had the kind of solidity that has been the bedrock of our excellent record in this competition under Benitez.

Martin Skrtel has now undoubtedly proved to have been an excellent discovery from Benitez as he marshalled the backline with some excellent tackling through the game. Praise too for Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher who doesn't always look comfortable at full back but always does a job.

Kuyt was man of the match for me. A great opportunist goal after great work from Gerrard and overall he did the stuff he's good at throughout the 90 minutes. Holding the ball up when going forward and putting in the effort when defending.

All the talk is of the possession Arsenal had throughout the second half and there's no doubt they were the better team but all the passing in the world is of little use when you can muster little in terms of attempts on goal. Only Theo Walcott's run and strike early in the second half and Cesc Fabregas' goalward bound toe poke that was bizarrely cleared off the line by his own team mate Nicklas Bendtner (See video and funny music below!) caused us to skip a heart beat.



The second leg will be a nerve wrecking affair and my only real worry is that Arsenal are capable of scoring anywhere as we saw in Milan last month. They also bossed us in the league game at Anfield earlier in the season. This game is perfect for them. They are under pressure, the home team are expected to advance but they excell in these situations.

We must not make the mistake of thinking the tie is over and have to go at them from the off but that can be hard even with all the best intentions. Subconsciously we may be inclined to sit back but that's a dangerous ploy against such a good team. We have to play the game as if we need to win it.

Elsewhere today Javier Mascherano, who I thought had a quiet game last night, was handed a two game league ban and a 15k fine by the men in suits at FA.

Already plenty has been said about this but it's good to hear that the club are considering an appeal based on a lack of consistency.

Mascherano is receiving the punishment that should have been handed out to Ashley Cole and that really is what's all wrong about this unsavory affair.