Wilbur

Reina 8 Johnson 9 MOM Carta 5 Ayala 5 Insua 7 Kuyt 8 Masch 7 Lucas 8 Benny 8 Gerrard 8 for that touch for the third goal, but 6 prior to that Torres 7

Vogon and N'gog getting a nice little stretch here.

Wow.

Kuyt had Lucas picked out there, so the defender just about scored an OG. Spanish commentators saying, "Carragher" are giving their throats a workout.

Way to go Kuyt and Johnson!

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Through the 1970's and 1980's, the First Division had strong competition. Many teams could win the title every year, and the rivalries were powerful. Villa and Forest won the European Cup. Everton, Arsenal, Leeds, Derby, Forest all won the league. Once the money from the Premier Leageu began to separate the men from the boys in terms of buying power, the number of teams capable of winning the league dwindled. If you go back to the 1980's, King Kenny assembled an incredible squad to replace Rush when he went to Italy. However, he had trouble figuring out how to continue the trend, and his purchases after 1988-89 weren't very good, and some of the sales at that time and later were bad decisions in retrospect. Souey then dropped the ball altogether. Thus it wasn't necessarily that Ferguson knocked Liverpool "off their perch" per se, as much as Liverpool slid off by themselves. Summary: The "players out" weren't being replaced by equally good "players in", so the Liverpool standards dropped off sharply. Simultaneously, the competition for the top spot withered. Examples: Peter Beardsely-type players go. Jimmy Carter-type players come in. Injuries slow down John Barnes. Don Hutchison comes in. Note: Jimmy and Don are nice guys, they just weren't Peter or John.

Thank you, Andy!

Defenders back off of Agger when he brings the ball up the field. I am happy about that, of course, but it boggles the mind that they fail to close him down. He is obviously a goal threat, as Chelsea and now Blackburn should know, at least. His play strongly reminds me of Hansen. Including, unfortunately, a slight unwillingness to go in for the challenge in the air.

Markus Babbel is to remain as coach of Stuttgart until 2010, the Bundesliga club have announced. The 36-year-old had his contract extended by a year after the German Football Association (DFB) accepted his application to enrol in their next coaching course, which starts this summer... http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id...mp;&cc=5901 It is always pleasing to see Reds go on to managing. Congratulations, Markus, and good luck on the coaching course.

There must have been many, many more traveling Reds in Craven Cottage than the typical allotment, as the spectators' celebration for the score were visible in every stand. I don't imagine that the jumping around and arm waving was the exhibition of FFC supporters.

Yes, it is very good. We have many options, and we are doing things.

Good for Dirk. It is interesting to see two extensions in the week following Rafa's assumption of greater control of the team, and Parry's loss of political power. It will be even more interesting if this trend continues for the next couple of weeks.

Is this a likely destination for someone like Leto?

Lucas seemed to play all these roles well on Saturday.