Spurs 4-2 Reds: Fringe players can stay on the fringes

What a shambles that was at White Hart Lane tonight.

The weekend was a comfortable and relaxing win and really overdue given the way we've made hard work of most of our games this season. It's been entertaining but how I longed for a game such as West Brom on Saturday night.

Tonight, however, well the less said about it the better. But it probably needs to be said that Diego Cavalieri, Philip Degen and Andrea Dossena have a lot to do to resuce their careers at this club. Granted it was only Cavalieri and Degen's second games for the club but both looked so shaky and almost out of their depth it was embarassing.

Dossena, meanwhile, has been unimpressive all season. Tonight showed him at his very worst. Defensively his awareness was poor and he offered nothing going forward, something we were told he was going to be excellent at.

Degen was much the same but in fairness should have had a penalty in the second half at 4-2 and seemed a bit traumatised after Spurs' keeper Gomes was stretchered off following a collision with the Swiss full back.

Ryan Babel was poor. He didn't show enough to merit a place in the starting line up that some have been calling for. Lucas was our best player, working hard in midfield throughout and playing some good balls that others in the team should have made more of.

None of the youngsters showed much beyond what we already knew about them. They're all very good at reserve team level and distinctly average when they make the step up.

This may change with more games but these are the kind of games they should be shining in. Nabil El Zhar had a few good moments but was in and out of the game. Damien Plessis did well to pull it back to 3-1 but Emiliano Insua was fairly anonymous when he came on and young Stephen Darby didn't have enough time.

David Ngog looked very off the pace and may go the way of other previous French imports unless he starts to show a bit more potential at least.

Torres was off the pace but this was no surprise. His departure at 4-1 was a smart move by Benitez. The game was lost at that stage. No point tiring him out with some big games coming up.

Overall it was shite, but it was only the Carling Cup.

There are more pressing matters ahead but it's not been a good night and there are certain players who are on the fringe of the first team that would want to buck up their ideas if they have ambitions to progress any further at this football club.

Take it on the chin!

The turning point for me when watching the game on Saturday, was when the big mouthed reporter stated that Raffa since joining Liverpool had never lost to a Spurs side!

Thanks for that.

What can you say about these sorts of games, we were the overall better side, the early goal had us set up for another win, but a greasy surface didn't help when Carra put through his own goal and of course the compulsory last and winning goal deep into injury time .

For most of the game we controlled the midfield, not allowing Spurs to get into the game at all, the early part of the second half is when we should have killed them off, we made the chances, hitting the bar at least 3 times and putting some good chances just wide.

In fact I still think even though we got beat it was one of our best performances of the season, especially the way we controlled midfield, which meant the Spurs attack was almost none existent.

Lets face it we are going to face games like this when the best team loses. The real test for me, is how we bounce back. Look at Chelsea, since losing to Liverpool, they have registered 2 wins 3-0 and 5-0. That is a great example of how to deal with a set back.

We have a great opportunity tonight when we host Athletico Madrid in the Champions League. A win (and a good win) not only will secure us a place in the knock out stages it will do wonders for our confidence.

Chelski 0-1 Reds: Setting the marker down

It's hard to put in to words just how monumental yesterday's win was.

There's so much that an be said about it. We've ended Chelsea's seemingly unendable four year unbeaten run in the league at Stamford Bridge, ended their highly impressive unbeaten start to the season and sustained our own unbeaten start.

We are now heading into November top of the pile and looking every inch the title challenging side we've aspired to be for the past eighteen years.

With Man United and now Chelsea already vanquished this season there is genuine belief not only amongst the Anfield faithful but amongst the football world in general that Liverpool are a force to be reckoned with this season.

The fact that both sides were seen off without our talisman FernandoTorres also underlines that Rafa Benitez now has a squad capable of dealing with the rigors of sustaining a title challenge and going for glory in Europe.

Whilst victory at Atletico Madrid in midweek would have made it a perfect week, a draw at a difficult European ground followed by a win at arguably the most difficult ground in Europe four days later shows that we can cope.

It is early days, we are only nine games in but they've been no normal nine games. They've included four comebacks including one of the most impressive you will see all season at mega rich Manchester City and at home to Manchester United without Torres AND Steven Gerrard.

And still you get the feeling that we have not played the kind of football we are capable of. A lot of our victories have been the product of hard work, hassling opponents, being clinical in attack and having belief that we are never beaten.

We have played some lovely, free flowing football at times under Benitez and with a home game against demoralised Portsmouth this Wednesday there is the perfect opportunity to show that we can add flair to an extraordinary will to win that has put us top of the table so far.

We must guard against the kind of complacency that followed the Man United win and saw us held by Stoke City but for the moment we can bask in the glory of having done something extraordinary at the Bridge yesterday. Hopefully it won't be the last extraordinary thing we do this season.

Bigger than Big!

What a game this weekend, with the last 2 unbeaten teams in the Premiership going head to head on a ground that the home side has a no loss record for nearly 4 years.

Both teams have been scoring goals, so only a brave person would predict a 0-0 scoreline, while I admit it has been left to this man to score the all important winners in the last couple of games, goals having been arriving from all positions.

Last week Chelsea fielded a weakened side and still won 5-0 away from home while Liverpool left it very late again to snatch a 3-2 home win against Wigan. Clearly missing Torres will be a massive blow, but let's not forget we beat Manure with both him and Captain Stevie missing.

My main concern is defence, with Agger only just returning after a long time away, he has yet to hit the high spots and has been guilty of a couple of blunders which have cost us dearly. Against Wigan he was clearly at fault for the first goal and in midweek against Madrid, where was he when they scored, I couldn't see him?

Otherwise we have only a few niggling injuries that should see the rest of the squad all available.

I don't claim to be the best in the world when predicting scores but I still feel that there will be goals in this game and a likely result of a 2-2 draw feels just about right to me.

Kuyt the unlikely but welcome hero

In a game where we expected Robbie Keane to fill the rather massive void left by Fernando Torres' absence what a pleasure it was to see a striker (or is Dirk Kuyt just a right winger now?) more maligned than the Irishman come up with the goods to save our skins yet again.

Yet I'm sure we all long for a basic 2 or 3 nil home win. Yes, all this drama makes for excitement and it's certainly doing wonders for our confidence whenever we go behind but really we could do without it if we are going to be sustaining a title challenge.

For starters it doesn't do much for our goal difference, which at +7 pales in comparison to Chelsea's which increased further with their 5-0 demolition of Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon.

But all moaning aside it's good for Kuyt to be among the goals again and whilst Keane is still without a league strike the fact he has at least one under his belt in a Liverpool shirt means that monkey is off his back. And as the main man in Torres' enforced absence he should theoretically get more chances.

Albert Riera continues to impress us all and his goal was well taken. A word to for the man on the other side of the pitch, Jermaine Pennant whose chances have been fleeting but whose cross for Kuyt's winner was a peach.

The former Arsenal man was said to have no future at Anfield but injuries meant he got his chance at the weekend and if he gets a few more all he has to do is keep playing like that and maybe Rafa Benitez will change his mind.

Next up is Atletico Madrid, the game rightly and sensibly back at the Vicente Calderon. Despite our form it won't be easy and the temptation for Rafa to rest players ahead of Sunday's big game with Chelsea will be strong. A draw would not be a bad result here considering the 100% start we've had to the group.

It's important to focus on this one and keep all eyes off the Stamford Bridge showdown.

We've had good starts domestically and in Europe. Saturday demonstrated we have a squad to cope with a few key injuries, so let's keep it going.

Blame it on the Boss!

I must first apologize for my tardiness in putting pen to paper over the past few weeks. My Boss seems to have it in for me, judging by the amount of work he has been pushing my way!

However during this time, our beloved team has gone from strength to strength.

I must admit those early games had me a bit nervous, while I acknowledge, that we were getting good results, we were not playing that well. The doubts regarding the partnership between Keane and Torres began to surface, should we have bought Barry, who he have made a difference?

Anyway, its now seems my rears were unwarranted, a good win against Everton, not sure what a bad win is? which followed an outstanding performance against Manure.

I just have a make a comment about "El Nino" I have absolutely no doubt that he will become if he is not already an Anfield legend and is in the same bracket as King Kenny, Owen, Keegan, Rush etc.

Just watching him destroy both Everton and Man. City and it's not just his goal scoring that is so impressive, it is his overall contribution to the team, from defending corners to making space for other players to creating goal scoring opportunities for team mates, he really is a world class player.

Truly outstanding!

Good results in the Champions League, which was followed up by, most probably our best performance, certainly the second half was, when we came back from being 2-0 down to City and scored a very impressive 3-2 win. As this game kicked off at 2.00am here in Aus, it was worth staying up for.

The concerns I had about Keane and Torres have eased but not yet gone away, while it was nice to witness Keane score his first Liverpool goal last week against PSV and celebrate in his normal fashion, I would still like to see him hitting the net on a regular basis in the Premier League.

I suppose and this is based upon our performances to date, did we/do we need Barry? I was never 100% behind Raffas decision to make his choice so visible, however in viewing results so far, I am happy with Villas decision not to let him go.

Read with interest this morning, that the reason for Juventus not buying Alonso was that he was too slow. Sounds good to me! Never wanted him to go anyway.

City 2-3 Reds: A remarkable Sunday afternoon

Following last Saturday's win at Goodison and Tuesday's impressive dismissal of PSV, the media talk of Liverpool being genuine title challengers this season was always going to set us up for a fall and that looked to be the case after 45 minutes today.

But perhaps now we really can believe because another amazing comeback and by far the most impressive this season has underlined just how good Liverpool are at the moment.

It's even more impressive when you consider that it came against the self proclaimed richest club in the world, Manchester City who some said would take our place in the top four. (It turns out to be Hull CIty who are gracing the Champions League places, taking the place of the other Manchester side.)

Granted City have been far from impressive in recent games and are not the finished article but it is still no mean feat to come from 2-0 down away from home in the league and manage to win.

My disillusionment with our first half performance meant I took my time to go and watch the second half thus missing the Zabaleta sending off and Torres's first goal.

But the qualiser from El Nino was quality. For once a perfect corner from Stevie Gerrard and a wonderful glancing header from our number nine. It's fair to say we don't get enough of those.

Skrtel's injury looked pretty bad judging by the pain on his face and we await the verdict.

But even his departure, leaving both sides with ten men, having used all our subs, could not stop Liverpool's relentless second half pressure. And it paid dividends with Kuyt's first league goal in eleven months. It could not have come at a better or later time. Three points in the bag.

Now there will be even more talk of a title challenge but with the international break coming up, we can just savour our position at joint top with Chelsea and look forward to some big games in the winter months.

It's a period that will likely determine whether or not we're in the mix at the back end of the season, as it did last season.

But it's looking good, I have to say, really good.