mercury

The fact that Rafa had played Gerrard with painkillers, albeit only one game, makes "England" feel justify to do the same vs Isarel. That is, after all, life and death for England and hence very little scope for Gerrard to refuse. To most players, playing for country is both a duty and a dream. European and World Cup are afterall two of if not the most prestigious honours in the football world. I can understand all these. What galling is England has no one but themselves to blame for their desparate situation which pushes everyone, player and team alike to take such a risk! There is also absolutely no such so called duty of Rafa to England. Gerrard has, but not Liverpool or Rafa. That is plain rubbish. Indeed the whole England set up from management to coaching is rubbish. I and my friends used to cheer on England. We grew up with it afterall and love to see our own shine on teh international stage. Now there's nothing but detest.

Yes not to be carried away but the away win at Villa, led by O'Neil, is not to be sniffed at! See Chelsea A very good start in which we played well. Question is, could we keep it up all season and grind out the games when our form dip?

One more little (but important bit): His hair cut is class, not many of our new players got that when they arrive. Arbeloa take note!!

His confidence visibility grew afte the goal and he did everything better. Contrast his play to that of Pennant - a bit unfair of course as he was played out of position, but the point is no doubt he has loads of potential but let's take it easy on him and give him time.

He's not shy to give out a few knocks either Watch his left foot softly ticked the ball past the goalie for his second, that was beautiful. And this Mr Torres is very very strong with skills, acceleration, intelligence and application to go. Am I getting too heady?

haha, beat me to it! Beautiful, isn't it? What's more, we beat the Mancs and Gooners (and actually everyone else ) on goal difference, and all three of Gooners are home wins. Shame we have two weeks of international now, notwithstanding Carra's injury.

same here. The manner of that loss was just too painful. Well, in the 80's, when live broadcast was limited to a few "big" games every season, I used to scoured the Sunday papers for scores. We may sometimes had a few hiccups at the start but by Christmas inevitably we'd have churned out results after results and led the table. Those were the days.....

And the Permiership actually keen / help the negotiation, if I remember the reports correctly. Possibly to cover their blunder for allowing Tevez to play for West Ham last season.

and quite depressing

If we can play Alonso / Gerrard vs Chelsea, albeit at home, the partnership is alright for the majority of games! Maschareno is class though. Horses for courses are wise words. And I figure Alonso would need a rest here and there more than Gerrard, who is incredibly gifted athletically.

Can I have both?

Methinks the strategy was quite different and the line up very positive. Chelsea and Villa away are as hard to crack defensively as it can.

Yes the goal was a beaut. Yes he did get into Terry, good lad, love that innocent / bland look on his face when he did it! Yes he showed a few sublime touches in the game. He's simply class. Early days but I'm as happy as I can be with him. And no, he was no Xabi

One of the worst referee performance i've ever seen

Exactly. He is beautiful to watch (and not just his football )

Belated seconder to this. That determination and desire on Saturday was very good to seet but he defintely will need a year or two to grow into his own.

I was a very bored teen at home and switched on the tv and there it was this amazing match of LFC thumping Villa, champion of previous year methinks, after a goal down. The determination and brilliance took my breath away. Of course I had already heard of Liverpool before. My sister loved Keegan (his curly hair I suppose.....) and there's something from childhood that stuck in memory (you never know what you recalled). Well for me it's this, thankfully: in those very early tv days we got only one highlights show with perhaps one cut, taped match a week. There was a letter accusing the station of never showing LFC. The answer: Liverpool was too good and the match too uncompetitive! So, memory, that very first match and most of all luck (I suppose I could have become a Manc if I tuned on 10+ years late.... ) got me hooked. Ooops by the way I come from Hong Kong.

Aye. It bugs me that "Xabi hides / goes missing" seems to have stuck. Fact is, Xabi never hides. Criticise his physique, form or passing, not that I agree with them, but he never hides. He is one of the few who does step up and is capable of doing so when required.

goals are hardly something we can sniff at with our record in the past two years. did not think he's half bad as being protrayed on here. A very solid player under estimated defensively.

a couple of good points, not entirely unfair. However.... Xabi never never hides. As said, Maschareno can pass. But we can expect a bit more from both next year. Man for man we are inferior - maybe. Manager for manger? I'll concede to Fergusson, much as I dislike him, his record speaks for i, including 1 European Cup in his resume. But not to Mourinho. And you can't take away or add a part of a manager's resume just like that. Rafa does very well in Europe. The league is bread and butter but not everything.

this is a good write up. 20m for Maschareno is not expensive at all but the whole mess is a bit worrying. A case which really test Parry's mettle.

selling crouch would mean we have virtually a completely new forward line. and he does, as Elisha said, contribute his fair share of goals. not one for sale at this point in time.

a nice little run out for the team. Momo's passing was alright.

About the net spend, one point needs to be considered is that we got an exceptional good price for Torres. I was surprised about Babel as he's not straightly a winger, which we yearned for, and prefer a bit more experience - the team is on the young side already. However, I trust people on here that he is outstanding and someone we should go for given the chance.

Think that is a very important word for Rafa. Bar Yossi and Voronin, this seems to be a summer of youth. With our team to be on the young side ( we only have 2 players over 30 including teh new signings!), an older head or two would be good.