Results tagged “rafa benitez” from Liverpool Echo - Another Red Letter Day

STRANGE game this one, with Reds fans convinced that we deserved the points and Villa boss Martin O'Neill certain his side were robbed by Torres' late winner.

AND so the gloom deepens.
We traditionally have too much for The Arsenal at Anfield, our power, physicality and high octane tempo often winning out over pretty passing patterns.
But the way we surrendered in the second half, limping through the last 25 minutes without so much as a whimper, was truly alarming.

A LITTLE late this, I know, but reporting duties have kept me chocca of late.
Still, a retrospective look at the Derby, with more time to ponder, is sometimes preferrable to kneejerk reactions to performances, n'est pas?
Or, 'No?'as Rafa would put it.
I digress.
First off, isn't that winning feeling great?
I'd forgotten what three points was...

PHRASES like 'a bad day at the office' were meant for games like this.
In truth, Liverpool never looked like having a real prayer in any stage of this match.
Right from the start we weren't at the same tempo as the Italians and they thoroughly deserved their 2-0 win.

BECOMING easy this playing at home lark isn't it?
Aston Villa aside, our three Premiership games at Anfield have so far finished 4-0, 4-0 and 6-1.
It's widely acknowledged that drawing games at home to mediocre mid-table sides cost us the title last year.
Now, on current evidence, that troublesome Achilles Heel seems to have been well and truly addressed.

£20m down, £10m left.
Liverpool moved quick to replace Xabi Alonso, even if £20m for an injury prone Italian centre midfielder seemed very pricey.
But we've got £10m left over and money in the bank from the sales of Arbeloa, Leto, other peripherals, hopefully Dossena, and maybe one or two others.
So, what's the priorities for everybody?

FINALLY, one of the most protracted transfer sagas that Liverpool have been involved in comes to an end.
Alonso is on the verge of a Madrid for a reported fee of £30. But are Reds fans going to be happy with him departing and the probable arrival of Mr Aquilani?

SO, Xabi has asked for a transfer request. Let's be honest, we knew the lad was going a long time ago, didn't we?

SO, it looks like our Spanish right back is on his way.
Does £3.5-£4 seem like a paltry sum to anyone else?

It's been a colourful old week in the life of Liverpool FC.
If we haven't been talking about dodgy chants on the terraces, it's been the Benitez new deal wrangle or the race at the top of the Premiership.
Crickey. That last one was actually about football.

IT was a bad weekend all round for Liverpool.
Two points dropped against up and under Stoke, largely through a lack of ambition to win a game that should have been perfectly within our grasp.
And Man United swatting aside a limp Chelsea to make it game on for the Premiership league title.

Firstly, apologies for the late posting of this blog. It's been one of those weekends...
Secondly, hats off to the first three points from of a six-game run of MUST win encounters, that could determine if we win the league this season.
West Brom, Bolton, Fulham, West Ham, Blackburn, Hull are the next challengers for the Reds.
And with respect to them all, a team like ours, performing as we are, should be looking at getting 18 points.

THREE wins, one draw since the season started. Only one goal conceded.
Joint top of the league and in the Champions League proper.
Yet it all feels so very depressing.

More talk about potential Reds flankers today
The name of Riera has once again been thrown back into the pot, along with Stuart Downing from Middlesborough.
For many though, it's not exactly setting the pulses racing.

WITH 80 MINUTES on the clock at the Stadium of Light, I might as well have just copy and pasted my blog after the Standard Liege game, posted it under the heading 'Sunderland Game', and nobody would have been any the wiser.
Fortunately, the best striker in the world popped up to spare our ever increasing blushes on Saturday evening.
It's dropped points away at mid-table sides like Sunderland that has prevented us from getting close to Man Utd and Chelsea in recent years.
And I'd go so far to say that Torres's thumping strike was massive, already, in terms of our season.

SO, we've finally sealed our first real heavyweight deal of the summer.
Keane finally put pen to paper at Anfield yesterday, and I for one, am genuinely excited.
Surprisingly, however, some Reds are somewhat ambivalent to the capture.

IF one player splits opinion among Reds fans, it's Xabi Alonso.
After a mediocre season from the Spaniard, speculation has increased about a possible Anfield exit.
For some supporters that would be transfer suicide; to others it would be a sound piece of football business