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.

After these last two games with goals, does anyone else notice that when he scores, he suddenly appears to be a dangerous, unbalanced lunatic? I fear for the spectators in the first couple of rows should Masch ever provide him with an assist - they two of them going nuts on the crowd would be a sight!

Thank you for the great article - nice photographs, too.

Beardsley - He would be ideal for unlocking the parked defenses we see that so frustrate us at times.

If my memory is correct, Carra played in quite a few matches as a holding midfielder before going back into defense, and Gerrard played a few games in defense before resuming play in the midfield. Jamie recently said that it is much harder for a young player today to break into the team, and the starts he and Gerrard had seem to support that - they were pretty good footballers, so Roy or GH put them into the match wherever there was a weak spot, in the knowledge that there wasn't much to lose by doing so. I can't see Rafa doing that this season.

What is the longest distance that you believe you can head a ball? Fifty yards? Perhaps more?

I guess I should clarify on this point. We (and most other teams) would like to do this all the time, and you are correct, this is nothing new. However, practice and theory aren't always closely matched, and if you look back over the past ten years, our practice of this discipline has been rather spotty. This season, however, we are very consistent in this self-discipline. The hoof has almost disappeared - Reina is almost the only person who boots it long out of defense any more.

I once worked with a lawyer in Ecuador who was introduced to me upon meeting him for the very first time as "Beltran Beltran Beltran". VERY hard not to laugh at that point. "So, Beltran, now that we know each other a little better, can I call you Beltran instead, or shall we keep it formal and you remain Beltran?"

Interestingly enough, I am having trouble thinking of the last time any opposition had success against Kuyt and Arbeloa this season. Has any team this year gone down the right (their left) side to attach us successfully? And they have both been involved in quite a few of our goals this season. Very solid contribution. Arebloa seems to play very smoothly, meshing very comprehensively, with the centreback combination of Skrtel and Carra, covering, holding the line, defending as a unit, etc. And this cohesion appears to free up Kuyt to play slightly further up this season, so that he is getting more chances on goal than last year, when he was playing a long ways back, or at least seemed to have fewer opportunities to take a shot or mix into the opposition penalty area. Perhaps the success of Arbeloa behind him frees Kuyt to edge just that tiny bit more forward. What I also enjoy is that if you watch the overlaps this season from either Arbeloa or whomever is on the left, you will see that the corresponding side centerback covers over into the space the overlapping fullback vacates. Subsequently, the other centerback also pulls over, and so does the opposite side fullback. The overlaps thus leave us with effectively a back three, but it is clearly an intentional back three, and if the ball has to come back, we reverse the ball through that combination (covering CB, pulling CB, opposite FB) very quickly to switch the field. Switching the field thus gives the overlapper time to recover his position, and we are once again solid across the back. Rinse. Repeat. Retain possession. It is clearly a drilled response, and the best thing about it? No hoofing. Long may it continue.

OOh, yeah, baby.

Ashamed we didn't give money to Luton? Cheating Luton with the plastic pitch? I hope that they go down painfully.