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Kopblog – An apology Posted: 23 Dec 2011 01:48 PM PST Dear Kopblog readers, We would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the recent lack of blogs and general contact from Kopblog and us at This Is Anfield. As we are sure you are all aware, Gerry had some health problems earlier this year and the blogging took a back seat for him. He is now struggling to update the blog again, but we can reassure you that we have been in touch with Gerry and he is doing well. He is hoping to return to blogging soon. We hope to have the blog back up and running in one form or another in the new year. Until then, happy christmas to everyone – Matt and Max at thisisanfield.com

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The End of the Beginning Posted: 29 May 2011 10:39 AM PDT I was about to start this blog with "reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated", but on this occasion they actually haven't been too far off the mark. A bit of a health scare among other things has given my presence on Kopblog over the past few months an almost Joe Cole-like invisibility, in fact I’ve made even less appearances than Steven Gerrard! I’ve had other things occupying my mind and have hardly even been online for the past couple of months. But just like King Kenny at Liverpool I’ve managed to turn things around. I’m well on the road to recovery and have also just got myself an extended contract at work, so life is good again! Many thanks to those who sent me some e-mails they were much appreciated. Anyway I just want to brush off the cobwebs now and get back to some serious (ish) blogging, so let’s get on with it. The one bright spark I’ve had over the past few months has been the turnaround in fortunes of my beloved Reds. You talk about a season of two halves, since King Kenny has returned to the Liverpool dugout we’ve made one of the most remarkable comebacks since Lazurus! When I think back now to where we were just 6 months ago with all of the doom and gloom among our players and supporters not to mention the bloody awful football we were playing, I shudder to think where we might have ended up. But thankfully the FSG guys took the necessary action of removing Gandalf the Grey and returning the King to his throne, and the effect was immediate and even beyond what I had hoped for. Considering the position and mood at the club when Dalglish took over I would have considered it an achievement just to come within a mathematical sniff of a European qualifying place but the fact that we actually got ourselves into a position where we were in control of fifth spot with an outside chance of the top four was just amazing. Granted it was a bit of a disappointment that we finished the season with two defeats and ended up finishing in 6th spot but from an overall point of view you’ve got to say that since Kenny returned we’ve gotten more positives than Wayne Rooney at an STD clinic! The pass and move football we are trying to return to, the players coming together as a team, the amazing signings of Suarez and Carroll, the appointment of Steve Clarke and the terrific performances of the young players coming into the team. The list goes on and on, and getting into the specifics of it all will give us plenty to discuss over the close season but for now I’m just going to stick with the overall picture. I was split pretty much 50/50 on the question of us qualifying for the Europa League. On the one hand I thought being in it would give us more games to continue to blood the youngsters and build up their experience and it is also a competition that we could realistically win. But on the other hand a season out of Europe might not be a bad thing for us right now in fact focusing on things domestically without a European distraction might turn out to be just what the doctor ordered. As I’ve already mentioned, things have been great since Kenny returned. The performances have been much improved and we’ve played some really entertaining football at times. Suarez has been superb, the energy of him and Kuyt upfront has been like watching Jedward on Acid! Raul the Merciless has also been terrific in midfield as has the ever improving Lucas. The young players have all been brilliant when called upon, particularly Kelly and Flanagan. Pepe has been solid as ever and I really enjoyed the double hat-trick by Maxi recently, the guy was running around with a smile wider than the Mersey, brilliant stuff! So while it didn’t seem likely at the start of January, I do have some happy memories of the season but the fun is over now and the real work must now begin. When Kenny arrived his task was to turn things round, get the players performing and get the team climbing the table. He certainly achieved all that and more, and has thankfully been given the job on a permanent basis. But he knows and we know, a lot more will be required next season. The honeymoon is over now and this is the end of what will hopefully be the beginning. We’ve got to kick on from here and at the very least be aiming for a return to the top four next season but that is not going to be easy. We finished the season in 6th spot and the five teams that finished ahead of us are all likely to spend heavily over the summer and we can’t afford to do any less. I believe the FSG guys will make cash available, especially considering that beyond the Suarez and Carroll signings we had another £20 to £30 million in unsuccessful bids for other players in January. But no matter how much we have to spend it’s important that we spend it wisely. Obviously quality is important but so is the character of the players we target. Our dressingroom seems to be a happy place at the moment and there’s a good team ethic among the players so we wouldn’t want anyone coming in who might upset the balance. Equally important in terms of generating funds and freeing up space on the wage bill is getting rid of some of the deadwood that is clogging up our squad and we’ve got a lot to ship out. I remember a report of some German side bidding £6 million for Jovanovic in January. So if I take that as his value and add in my estimated value of Konchesky and Poulson, then getting rid of those three would by my reckoning generate a total of £6,000, 003.57p, a fun size Mars bar and a Chicken McNugget! There are also plenty of other players we really need to be rid of. A lot of them have been out on loan but there are others in the current first team squad I’d rather see the back off. Joe Cole has turned out to be a disaster. Granted he’s had a bad run with injuries but even when he has been available he’s been about as much use as a chocolate tea-pot but he’s apparently on mega wages so he might be a hard one to shift. Aquilani is a difficult one. Considering the lack of depth of quality in our squad I thought it was an absolutely crazy decision to send him out on loan for the season, particulalrly as we’d spent most of the previous season getting him fit only for Juventus to reap the rewards of our efforts. From the bits and pieces I’ve seen of him playing for Juve over the season he seems to have done very well for them. I can’t blame the guy for wanting to stay in Italy after the way he’s been treated at Anfield under the previous regime but a part of me thinks a player like him could really flourish under Dalglish so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how this works out. Another one I’d like to see the back of is David Eggnog. I don’t have anything against the lad and I’m sure he’ll go on to have a good career in the game but I just don’t think he is good enough to be playing for Liverpool. If you consider that Suarez, Carroll and Kuyt are our three main strikers and each of them have different qualities then you would want to have a fourth choice striker who might offer something different and be at or near their level but Eggnog is a long way off. There have been times when he’s shown flashes of quality and he has scored a few goals but even a blind squirrel can occasionally find an acorn. He’s also not somebody who can be a game changer coming off the bench. I’ve seen him brought on many times in games and he’s really made no difference, in fact most of the time he looks as if he couldn’t hit his own arse with both hands and a GPS! So I’d definitely get rid of Eggnog if possible. I noticed recently the club have placed an £8 million price tag on him, I don’t know who came up with this price but whoever it was I wish they’d come over and do a valuation on my house! As regards incoming players, I’ve read recent press reports linking us with the likes of Aguero, Mata, Coentrao, in fact just about every player whose surname ends in a vowel! The one common thread in all of these reports is that they are all total bollocks. This is the usual press tactic of firing buckshot in every direction in the hope that they might hit on something and then proudly proclaim “you read it here first”. It may turn out that we end up signing one or two of the players they have us linked with but this would be just a lucky guess on their part. I think we all know enough about Dalglish and Comolli at this stage to realise that they both play their cards very close to their chest and these press guys know as little about their potential transfer targets as we do. A left back, some width and another attacking option is the priority in my opinion, more cover in central midfield and central defence would also be nice if possible. But there are only so many quality players around and there is going to be a lot of competition for signings. We’ve also got the added disadvantage of not being able to offer European football to our targets so Comolli really has his work cut out. I’m still not too sure about this guy but if we get through this summer with some quality signings coming in and some of the squads dead wood going out, he will make a believer of me. Anyway, I’ll leave it there for now and just finish off by saying congratulations to Barca for their very well deserved victory over the mancs in the Champions League final yesterday. They are a great club with a great team and some of the football they play is really quite beautifal at times. In Lional Messi they have beyond a shadow of a doubt the world’s greatest player. I’m glad they won it and I hope they go on and win it again next season, but the season after that may be a different story. Because somethings stirring at Anfield and after we get through knocking the mancs off their perch we might turn our attentions to Barca! Keep the Faith

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Little Red Shoots of Recovery Posted: 10 Mar 2011 07:30 AM PST Our 3-1 destruction of the mancs on Sunday resulted in an epic celebration that left me nursing a hang-over of biblical proportions the next morning, but it was worth it. A great performance, a thoroughly deserved victory, a hat-trick by Deadly Dirk, Nani squealing like a pig, Ferguson struck dumb, a first look at Andy Carroll and The Kop singing Happy Birthday to Kenny, it just doesn't get much better than that! The energy and commitment from our players was terrific, everyone played like a Dirk Kuyt except for Dirk Kuyt who played like a Gary Lineker and Suarez zig zagged through the manc defence as if he was trapped in the crosshairs of Carlos the Jackal! I'm really enjoying the football at the moment, the little Red shoots of recovery and the mini revival we've been having under Dalglish. I've obviously particularly enjoyed our victories over the mancs and the chavs but I'm not getting too carried away because the games we've played between those matches have shown us there is still a long road ahead of us and a lot of work to be done. Firstly I'd like to see King Kenny sorted out with a decent contract as soon as possible. He is clearly the right man to get us back on track and he is a respected figure among supporters and players throughout the game. Getting him signed up to a contract is the number one priority to ensure we have continuity and take a little of the uncertainty away from next season when I think the minimum requirement will surely be a return to the CL places. I believe this will happen but I hope the owners don't drag their heels about it and wait until the summer because announcing a contract for Dalglish would give everyone a huge boost and it would be a shame to waste it at a time when there's no football to be played. Once Kenny is signed up it will be time to sort out the squad. Under Rafa I always felt that with everyone fit we could put out a strong first eleven that could compete with anyone home or away but beyond that our squad was too weak and light on quality to sustain a challenge. These days our overall squad is still too light and even with everyone fully fit, I also have my doubts about our first eleven. Kenny can be at his inspirational best but if he hasn't got the tools to work with, he can't do the job. John Henry recently said that everything they do at the club is designed towards bringing the title back to Anfield but to do that they are going to have to dig deep. By my reckoning we need to bring in at least five first team quality players in the summer, even more if possible. Players to beef up the first team and the overall squad. In defence we need a good quality left back with attacking qualities that can get down the line and help the attack. Johnson and Kelly are good options on the right side and we've got a good mix of players for the centre, a new face would be nice but other areas are more of a priority for us right now in my opinion. I think our midfield is the area that needs the most work. We need another option for the centre, if not Charlie Adam then a Charlie Adam-type would do nicely. Gerrard should no longer be an automatic choice. At his best he is a huge asset to us but his performance levels have definitely dropped over the last two seasons and he has also been picking a lot of niggley injuries. I wouldn't be as harsh as some people seem to be about our skipper. He is one of our greatest ever players and has pulled our asses out of the fire countless times in the past but he is missing games and not really playing to his level when he is available so we need another option to cover and compete with him. We also have the old chestnut of lack of width. We've been crying out for a proper winger for years and I'm hoping this will finally be addressed in the summer. Suarez and Carroll look as if they would form a good partnership in attack but we need quality in the wide areas to provide them with the ammunition. We need good crosses coming in for Carroll to get on the end of and we also need proper width to stretch defences and create more space for Little Luis to do his thing. One winger would be nice but two would be better and would frighten the life out of most teams if we could attack them down both sides and have Little and Large in the middle, I also think we need another experienced striker in the squad. We've already brought in two big money signings and I think Deadly Dirk will start to be used more in attack then on the right but there are a lot of games and a lot of competitions to play in over the course of a season and we need a better extra option in the squad then David bloody Eggnog! We need someone who could be in the starting line-up or brought on from the bench to change the course of a game. But all that's for the future, tonight we are back in Europa League action against Braga. I have my fingers, toes and everything else crossed that we can go all the way in this competition because the final is in the Aviva Stadium in Dublin this year which is less than a 30 minute journey from my home and I've already got my tickets sorted. To have Liverpool playing a European final in my backyard would be a real once in a lifetime and there's no way I'm going to miss it, but of course we've got to get there first. The next stage of the journey begins tonight away to Braga. I saw a little of them in the last round and this is going to be another tough tie especially as we will be missing a few of our first team. It would be good to see Andy Carroll get some more playing time and Joe Cole getting a run out, but I really don't want to see anymore of the likes of Eggnog and Jovanovic etc. They are about as much use as a one-legged tap dancer and it's now gotten to the stage where I am actually annoyed to see them in a Liverpool shirt. These guys have no future at the club and I'd much rather have some of our young prospects in the side. Anyway, whatever side Kenny puts out I'm hoping we can get out of there with a clean sheet and finish them off at Anfield, my money is on a 1-0 win for The Reds. Hopefully we also won't pick up any more knocks to add to our growing injury list because we've got some big games coming up. On Sunday we've got a tricky game at Sunderland. Our current league position is most likely as high as we can finish this season and we need to protect it. One of the nearest challengers behind us is Sunderland so if we can beat them on Sunday we'll have a nice bit of daylight between us but the Stadium of Shite is a tough place to get a result. Hopefully we can create enough space for Little Luis, Raul the Merciless and Dirk Lineker to do the business and grab us a couple of goals because I've got this one down as a 2-0 win for The Reds. Keep the Faith

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Onwards and Upwards Posted: 10 Feb 2011 08:12 AM PST Well I'm still basking in the glory of our victory over the chavs last weekend. Normally when you are hanging on to a 1-0 lead it can get nervy towards the end as the opposition pile on the pressure but in truth I thought we were comfortable winners and never really looked like conceding. The victory was made all the sweeter by the fact that it was Torres's first game for the chavs since he turned his back on Liverpool and I think we are well rid of him. Now that he's gone any anti-Torres talk seems like sour grapes but I honestly believe we are far better off without him. I was getting fed up with the sideshow when he was here and I'm even more fed up with it now that he's gone. While he was here it seemed that almost all of our games over the past 12 months or so had become part of the Torres circus. Regardless of the result of our games we would hear the same questions over and over again. How did he play? Did he look interested? What was his body language like? Did he look happy? Does he want to leave? Has the real Fernando Torres been abducted by aliens and replaced by a clone with the wrong coloured hair, a face like a slapped arse and a couple of dodgy hamstrings? Ok, that last question was one of mine but the vast change in Torres both as a player and a person since his "supposed" surgery ahead of the World Cup last year is very strange and I don't think we can rule out alien involvement. Alien abduction has long been a problem in football and particularly at Anfield but the authorities refuses to acknowledge it exists and brush it off with lame excuses about loss of form and confidence. I think there is clear evidence to suggest there is a bug-eyed alien behind this but so far David Moyes has denied any involvement! Anyway enough from the parallel universe my mind sometimes drifts into, my point is that the circus that has been following the Torres clone around for the last year or so has been a distraction and taken the limelight off the team. Granted our results over the last year have been pretty poor but there have been some good performances within the team that have been largely ignored due to the spotlight been constantly on Fernando Tortoise. For example, it's good to see Lucas getting a little bit of recognition for his performances since Dalglish took over but the truth is the lad has been playing his heart out and has been our most consistent performer for the last two years. There have been other players as well who have put in good performances in some games that have gone unnoticed due to the media circus surrounding Torres. I've also got a pain in my ass hearing a lot of the crap that has gone on since he left. First he said Chelsea are a bigger club, then he said that actually Liverpool are a bigger club and now he's saying that Liverpool are a bigger club but Chelsea have been a bigger club over the last 10 years, or something like that. He's also now said that he had lost his enthusiasm at Liverpool. This is a guy who was earning £110k a week at Anfield and had the adoration of Liverpool fans worldwide and yet he claims to have lost his motivation? He also claims his move was for sporting reasons and nothing to do with money, so clearly the chavs making him their highest paid player on £175k a week is just an accounting error! I don't know what he is looking to achieve with all of this crap he is spouting to the media but whatever it is, it's not working. Torres's actions have spoken louder than his words and those actions show that he is nothing but a traitor, a two-faced liar and just another petulant and greedy footballer. That's not just sour grapes from a Liverpool fan, I think most neutrals are also coming around to this point of view. So at this stage I'm sick of hearing about bloody Torres. As far as I'm concerned the matter is closed and if he wants to sell his soul and sign for a team with an average age that's increasing faster than the State of Florida, that's very much his loss and we will continue onwards and upwards without him. Of far greater importance then Fernando Footnote is the way the team is playing and we are playing some great stuff at the moment. Kenny has the team playing as a team and they all seem to be enjoying their football which has made a huge difference to our performances and it's terrific to watch. All of the players are playing their part. In defence, I thought it was a strange decision to move Glen Johnson to left back but I don't think he's ever played better for us and Kelly is playing some great stuff on the right, and with four clean sheets in our last four games our centre backs are also looking solid. In midfield, Lucas is doing his best Ronnie Whelan impression, Gerrard is slowly getting back to his best and Raul the Merciless is playing some great stuff and just can't stop scoring. In attack, Kuyt has been moved back to our forward line and it seems to have given him a new lease of life. Deadly Dirk may not have scored recently but he's reminded us what it's like to have a forward who constantly harries defenders, actually knows how to hold the ball up and has the ability to pass the ball to somebody in the same coloured shirt. I'm also looking forward to seeing Suarez. He looked very good when he came on against Stoke and it will be interesting to see what he can do when he plays from the start. All this and Andy Carroll still to come, life is good! Whether we can keep this run going and claw our way a bit further up the table remains to be seen but at least we can now see some progress being made with the side and a style of play that we can develop and build on for next season. I'm really enjoying the football we are playing and I'm looking forward to our games with an enthusiasm I haven't known in years. Next up we've got Wigan at Anfield on Saturday. They are not having the best of times at the moment but they are one of those sides that is capable of springing a surprise if you give them half a chance. They will provide us with a different type of challenge but if we continue the form we've been showing lately I can't see anything but a home win. I think Kenny might revert back to 4-4-2 and play Suarez and Kuyt upfront for this one and I'll put my money on a 3-0 Reds win. Keep the Faith

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The Future’s Bright, The Future’s Red! Posted: 02 Feb 2011 03:26 PM PST What an amazing deadline day it turned out to be for us on Monday. Under G &H, past transfer windows seemed to be all about who was leaving and how much money could be raised for interest payments because they certainly didn't give Rafa much cash to bring anybody in but on Monday we were in the thick of things and it was real edge of the seat stuff that had a little bit of everything and kept us guessing right up to the last minute. First off I think you've got to say that the FSG guys really came through for us with two big money signings and attempts to further strengthen the squad with bids for Adam, Richards and Young turned down. While it's true that our net outlay was only £1.8 million it's still good to see that the money from our sales was ploughed straight back into the team and besides this the £22.8 million for Suarez was spent before anybody knew about the Torres situation. Owners need to earn the trust of supporters and it's even more difficult at our club given our past experiences but I think those guys took a big step forward in that regard and I'm feeling confident that they will make more funds available in the summer. I can't say I'm thrilled about all the events of the transfer window but overall I've got to say I'm feeling pretty good about how things turned out for us, which is a long way from where I expected us to be a few days ago. Last Friday I was as confused as a blind lesbian in a fish market! In the early part of the day I was delighted to hear we had agreed a fee for Luis Suarez and just as I was getting excited about our new strike partnership, I was stunned with the news that Torres had handed in a transfer request and I felt like someone who had found a fiver and then lost a tenner! But after mulling it over for awhile I found that I was actually more bothered by the timing of it then the fact that Torres was leaving. I was concerned about whether we would have enough time to get in a replacement, I wasn't overly concerned about us being able to cope without Torres because, let’s be honest, with the exception of four or five games we've been coping without him for almost a year now. Obviously, it's annoying to see him go back on his word about not signing for another English club by signing for the chavs and then hearing his stomach churning words proclaiming the chavs a bigger club than Liverpool and all of that other crap but we got £50 million and ultimately I believe we will be better off without him. Torres is high maintenance and with us now having positive new owners, a new manager who has us playing a more entertaining brand of new/old football and an exciting new young strike partnership, I believe he is baggage we can do without. He didn't appreciate what he had at Liverpool and now he can get stuffed. He has moved from a club with a rich history to a club with a rich owner but a footballer's career is a relatively short one and one day when the money is in the bank, the champagne bubbles have gone flat and the glimmering medals have lost their lustre, I think he will look back at his decisions and his conduct over the last year with a lot of regret. As far as Liverpool's history is concerned he has gone from being a headline to a footnote and he won't fare much better with the plastic flag waving chav fans either, as the vast majority of them think that Osgood, Harris, Hutchinson and Dixon are a firm of solicitors! I honestly think our dressing room will now be a happier place without him but I did get a little worried when I heard that the deal almost fell through at the last minute, apparently John Terry couldn't agree personal terms with Torres's girlfriend! Anyway Nando you enjoy yourself there and we'll look forward to seeing you real soon. On a much more positive note, I'm excited about our new strike partnership of Suarez and Carroll. I felt a little sorry for Suarez, because his signing was totally over-shadowed by the Torres situation but perhaps it might be a good thing that he avoided the limelight. I remember him playing for Uruguay at the World Cup and he looked like a very good player, when he used his feet! I never saw him playing for Ajax but his stats are very impressive even for the Dutch league and some people who's opinions I have a lot of respect for, including Dalglish, say he is a very exciting talent and that's good enough for me. I must admit I didn't see the Andy Carroll signing coming, but it was a very pleasant surprise. At 22, the guy certainly fits the profile the club is aiming for in terms of being in terms of being an exciting young talent. While he is still raw, he is a big powerful lad who is good in the air and good on the ground, scores a good range of goals, has a lot of assists and from what I've seen of him he has plenty of energy and gives it everything he has every time he plays. In short he has everything you could want in a young striker and all he needs now is to build his experience and continue to develop. Fortunately for him and for us, he will now be developing his game under the guidance of Kenny Dalglish. It took a record breaking £35 million transfer fee for us to sign Carroll but that's not the players fault. I just want to see him do his stuff on the pitch and I'll let the accountants worry about the price tag. The fact that Suarez and Carroll are coming in at the same time might actually help them both. If only one of them signed for a big fee they would have to endure all the pressure that it can bring but with both of them there the burden is halved. Unfortunately we won't be seeing Carroll in action for a couple of weeks due to his thigh injury but I believe we've got the clearance through in time for Little Luis to play in our game against Stoke tonight so it will be interesting to get a first look at him. I don't like playing against Stoke. They play to their strengths and I don't have a problem with that but it's very boring to watch. All this long ball stuff, playing for throw-ins and the constant delay's while there guy wipes the ball down with a towel and the big wind up to the throw-in just does my head in because it stops the game from flowing which is of course the idea but I don't like to watch it. It will be interesting to see how Dalglish will set us up to deal with them and hopefully we can impose our game on them. Anyway, I'm feeling positive at the moment so I'll put my money on a 2-0 win for The Reds and hopefully Suarez can nick one of them to make it a perfect evening. Overall I feel good about the way things are going for us on and off the pitch at the moment. I think a lot of the work being done at the moment won't fully pay off until next season but you can see we've started to make real progress since King Kenny took over. I expect we'll lose a game or two here and there but if we keep working away and can stay around the Europa League places, do a bit more strengthening in the summer in defence and in the wide areas, we'll be in great shape for the next campaign. The future's bright, the future's Red! Keep the Faith

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Dalglish – Master of the Game Posted: 25 Jan 2011 06:00 PM PST Super performance and a great result for The Reds over Wolves at the weekend. The return of Dalglish has been quite literally like a second coming and on another biblical note, if we were to go back in time a couple of weeks and believed the spin we were hearing from our then manager Roy Hodgson and his media cronies, then surely what we are now witnessing is the greatest return from the dead since Lazarus! But we all knew we were being fed a phony line by those clowns and the football we have played in the short time since Kenny's return has exposed the myths that those guys were peddling and left them all with a lot of egg on their faces. Anyone who thought that managers were becoming less important in the modern game should have a good look at what's going on at Liverpool these days and think again. Hodgson often bemoaned the fact that we had inherited a poor squad of players which must have done wonders for the confidence in our dressing room. One of the reasons he put forward for our poor performances was that the squad wasn't his, which conveniently overlooked the fact that when we lost against the likes of Newcastle and Blackburn etc, they had recently appointed managers in charge with squads that could hardly be considered their own and yet they seemed to have little trouble it making the best of things and getting a performance from their team. It's hard to believe that Kenny is dealing with the same group of players. Unlike Hodgson, he hasn't yet had the opportunity to make any signings but he is making the best of the squad he has and, publicly at least, telling the players they are good enough and they just need to believe in themselves. Compared to the confidence sapping statements of the previous manager, this must be like music to the ears of our players and I think we can see the effect it is having on the performances. Another old chestnut from Hodgson and his cronies that we heard endlessly during his six months in charge was that he needed more time to get his ideas over to the players, another lame excuse that we've seen exposed since Dalglish took over. After barely a week in charge and a couple of training sessions it was evident that Kenny was having no trouble getting his ideas over to the players. There were a lot of positives for us to take from our 1-0 cup defeat at the Theatre of Prawns, even more in our 2-1 defeat at Blackpool, our first half display against our wee neighbours was some of the best football we've played for a very long time and this culminated in our terrific performance in demolishing Wolves at the weekend which stands in stark contrast to our dreadful display when they beat us at Anfield just a few weeks ago. I know Hodgson is gone now and I wish him well because I genuinely think he did what might be considered his best in a job where he was clearly out of his depth but I just find it slightly annoying that I am still seeing little suggestions in the media here and there that he was unfairly treated and wasn't given a proper chance. The job of a Liverpool manager these days seems to be three-pronged if you want to be successful, you've got to manage the players, you've got to manage the supporters and you've got to manage the media. In my opinion Rafa Benitez succeeded at two out of three of these but it was his poor relationship with the media more so than the 7th place finish that ultimately led to his undoing and you only have to remember back to Martin Broughton's response to some angered Liverpool fans who confronted him about Rafa's dismissal when he told them "clearly the media don't agree with you." , but that's another blog! Roy Hodgson had plenty of friends in the media but alienated himself from the players and the supporters with his stupid comments and incredibly dull and boring tactics. But in Dalglish I believe we have a man who is a master of the game, the supporters idolize him, the players are inspired by him and he is brilliant at dealing with the media, as could be seen in the awesome way he dealt with the question about transfers on Sly Sports after the match on Saturday, which was an absolute classic in my opinion. He is very comfortable dealing with the media and actually seems to use it as a tool to reinforce his messages and instill confidence to the players and the supporters. Ok, so I know that it's still early days but I'm delighted that he's here and I think he's done a brilliant job so far and made a great choice in bringing in Steve Clarke to work alongside him. I don't think any of us would argue that our squad is strong enough at the moment but it is certainly strong enough for us to be doing much better then we were doing under Hodgson. Winning the league or perhaps even finishing in the top four might have always been beyond us but I think we should have been certainly good enough to be around the top six. Thankfully we seem to be moving in the right direction now that Dalglish is in charge and we are playing some good football which the players seem to be enjoying and so am I. Just before Christmas is the time when I usually start to make my plans to get over for a few games, but this year I didn't bother. These are hard times for us all and I wasn't about to waste any of my hard earned cash travelling over to watch Liverpool playing Hodgson's style of shite football. But what a difference there's been since Kenny arrived. Now I'm looking forward to our games again and I want to get over to as many as I can. The attendance figures were dropping dramatically under Roy (understandably in my opinion) but I bet they'll be getting back to normal again soon and that's sure to please the NESV guys. I think Kenny and Co will milk every drop they can get from the current players but while performances are improving we still badly need some reinforcements. Our NESV owners did well in moving fairly quickly in removing Hodgson and appointing Dalglish but this January window is another test for them ahead of the even bigger test to come in the summer and these are also big tests for Damian Comolli. How much money the owners will put in and whether Comolli can secure the signings the manager wants is the big question that will be occupying our minds for the rest of this month. There have been interesting names linked with us including a vampire and a member of the Adams Family but our valuations seem a long way off and whether these things can be resolved in the next week remains to be seen. But if we come out of yet another transfer window and once again haven't signed some decent attacking support for Torres I will be very disappointed. Obviously we want to strengthen the side for the remainder of this season but even more importantly we need to integrate some new faces into the team in preparation for next season when a return to the top four will surely be a minimum expectation. Anyway, I'm happy to say we've got a game on Wednesday against Fulham at Anfield and I'm looking forward to it as I am all of our games since Kenny's return. Our form has been getting better with each game and with Gerrard returning from suspension and desperate to play, we should be even stronger. There are no easy games home or away in the Premiership anymore and Fulham will be a stubborn opponent for us but I can't see past a Liverpool win and I'll put my money on a goal for each of the new faces I expect to see at the club by the end of this window, so a 3-0 Reds win and the Legend continues! Keep the Faith

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The Battle of the Pools! Posted: 12 Jan 2011 09:10 AM PST Well it seems like Christmas came late for us this year but seeing King Kenny back on his throne again has me about as happy as an Australian umbrella salesman! It was a bit surreal seeing Dalglish in the dugout for our game at the Theatre of Illusions at the weekend but I couldn't wipe the smile off my face. Even Howard Webb's impressive impression of Mike Reilly didn't spoil my mood, in fact it only enhanced it even more. Kenny had literally only just arrived to take over the team but already you could see the difference his presence made. Given our fragile state going into the game and then to suffer the injustice of conceding a non-penalty after less than a minute might well have triggered a collapse but Dalglish is in charge now and we just don't deal in self-pity anymore. I was impressed with the way the team played their way back into the game after the early set-back and we started to look like the better team before we suffered another body blow with the Gerrard sending off. I thought the skipper deserved to go after his unnecessarily heavy challenge on Michael Carrick. It was really very annoying because it was so needless, I mean why bother tackling Carrick anyway? The guy is crap so why not just let him have the ball, it's not as if he's going to do anything with it and the chances are he will most likely give it back to you! So it was a stupid decision by Gerrard that means we will have to do without him for 3 games which is the last thing the new gaffer would have wanted. But even with 10 men against 12 (including Webb) the team battled on and with a bit of luck might have grabbed an equalizer but it wasn't to be. I thought Kenny did well from the bench and , unlike some managers I could mention, brought on fresh legs when it was early enough to possibly make a difference. So the Dalglish era mark 2 began with a defeat but it was a loss we could take a lot of positives from. I'm actually not too bothered about being out of the cup this season because our priority right now is to focus on the league and getting as many wins as we can to put ourselves in the best position possible and build on that in the next campaign. We already have the welcome distraction of the Europa League, I don't think we have enough about us at the moment to cope with a cup run as well. Needless to say I'm delighted to see Dalglish back. To be honest, I had reached a stage where I was rapidly losing interest in the team and not really looking forward to any of our games anymore. Everything seemed so bleak and depressing, a bit like an episode of Eastenders! I just didn't want to think about and I for damn sure didn't want to write about it. But now King Kenny has returned and suddenly I'm buzzing again, I'm looking forward to the games ahead and I've even started to plan a couple of trips over to cheer the lads on, something I wouldn't have bothered wasting my money on up to recently. If Kenny can lift the players half as much as he's lifted me we'll really be going places! Anyway outside of all the romance there's also a lot of work to be done and it all starts with our game at Blackpool tonight. I've got a ton of respect for Ian Holloway and his team, they've done amazingly well since being promoted to the Premiership and it's going to be tough for us to get out of there with a result. They deservedly beat us at Anfield but we've got to try to do the same to them this evening because 3 points, particularly away from home, would be a huge boost and will help to keep the Kenny feel-good factor going awhile longer. I'm fascinated to see what Dalglish will do with the team tonight. If the past is anything to go by we can expect to see a lot more attacking so it will be interesting to see how he'll use the players at his disposal, which players he'll select and if any of our youngsters will get a look in, with Pacheco being particularly impressive for the reserves in front of the boss last night. Obviously not having Gerrard available will limit his options but we'll just have to wait and see how he handles it. The team will be well motivated that's for sure, Dalglish is a master at that just as he is of the media but our squad is limited in terms of quality so he's going to have his work cut out to make the whole greater than the sum of it's parts. It's obviously still very early but we just might get a little glimpse of the direction he wants to go with the team, in tonight's game. Anyway I've got a long drive ahead of me to make it home in time for the game so I'm going to keep this one short and sweet and sign off now because I want to save the rest for the Merseyside derby at the weekend. So my prediction for tonight in the battle of the "Pools" is the same score line as the Anfield game only this time the points will go to The Reds with a 2-1 win and at least one of our goals being scored by Torres. Keep the Faith

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A New Year, An Old Story! Posted: 31 Dec 2010 08:50 AM PST "It was the best of times and it was the worst of times." That famous opening line from Charles Dickens, A Tale of two Cities was beaten into me at school and as we approach the end of another frustrating year it has popped into my mind as a very good description of what we Liverpool fans have had to endure in 2010. It is the best of times in terms of it being a year that saw us finally get rid of Hicks and Gillett, the club's two former parasitic owners who were bleeding the club dry and pushing us towards extinction, but it is also the worst of times in terms of what we have seen on the pitch over these past 12 months. The year began with Rafa's failed attempts to turn around a poor, injury-ravaged start to the previous campaign and the media with perhaps the assistance of one or two of our own players ensured that he would never see another one so we had to say goodbye to the man who made us believe again. There then followed an "extensive" worldwide search of Fulham to find his successor and once again the media with perhaps the assistance of one or two of our own players more than played their part in saddling us with Roy Hodgson. Under normal circumstances there is usually at least a little bit of excitement among supporters when a new manager comes in but Hodgson's arrival at Anfield was greeted with almost universal indifference among Liverpool supporters. The media tried to talk the guy up with their usual mix of spin and bullshit but we've taken so much crap from the media over the years, most of us have become totally immune from their influence and developed minds of our own. I'm not sure what options the club had at the time but no matter what they were, it's really hard to think of a more mundane appointment than Roy Hodgson. Perhaps, with the ownership situation and courtroom battles ahead, they felt Hodgson would be a safe pair of hands to steady the ship while things were sorted out in the boardroom but whatever the reasons, it's turned out to be an absolute disaster and undoubtedly the worst managerial appointment in the history of the club. I think we all realised from the beginning that this guy didn't have the credentials to manage the club but we tried to support him and hoped that maybe he would rise to the occasion. However it quickly became apparent that he was totally out of his depth and about as trustworthy as an Irish banker. Last night's 1-0 home defeat against bottom club Wolves was the latest in an increasingly long line of embarrassments since he took charge of the side and a perfect example of the mind-numbingly dull tactics and complete stupidity that have become all too familiar to us over the past six months. I don't have any coaching badges, I was a boy scout for two years and never even got a poxy merit badge, but Shankly once said "football is a simple game over complicated by idiots", and I don't think there has ever been a better description of football so it's the way I've always tried to view the game as a fan. Take the situation with Steven Gerrard last night. While he was out injured we had Meireles and Lucas developing an understanding and doing well in the centre of midfield. We also had Maxi doing well on the left side and Kuyt getting stuck in on the right. Maybe not a brilliant midfield but it had balance and it looked like it would get better if allowed to develop over a few games. But then Gerrard becomes available again and Hodgson throws him into the side like a hand grenade! He played him in the centre of midfield, moved Meireles to the right, Kuyt to the left and dropped Maxi. The result was chaos that totally unbalanced the side. Kuyt kept coming inside which meant we had no width on the left except for Konchesky, which definitely meant we had no width on the left! Gerrard and Meireles seemed to be switching positions throughout the game and at times seemed confused about where they were supposed to be playing and Lucas was left back peddling trying to plug the gaps as best he could. Surely it would have been far simpler and more sensible to leave the midfield in place and let Gerrard take Eggnog's place instead of disrupting half the side to accommodate him. There are times when you can blame players for not performing but our problems on Wednesday and in many of our other games this season have, in my opinion, been mainly caused by bad management or at the very least bad judgement by the manager. If the team is set up correctly and doesn't perform then you can perhaps look at the players but when the team is poorly set up, as it was on Wednesday and in other games, then you've got to look at the manager. Hopefully we will be active in the forthcoming transfer window but bringing in new players will not compensate for having a manager who is about as much use as a chocolate teapot clearly isn't up to the job either on or off the pitch. Much has been made of the crowd reaction on Wednesday the chants for "Dalglish" and "Hodgson for England" etc. I've never heard the Kop chanting such things towards our own manager before but on the other hand I don't think I have ever seen such an inept display by a Liverpool team at Anfield before either so I think the crowd were perfectly right to vent their frustration and Hodgson only has himself to blame. Afterwards he made the situation even worse by hitting out at the crowd and has since tried to row back from his comments but it's too late for that, I think he burned his bridges with the fans a long time ago and I have no sympathy for him. His comments after the game were all over the net and in the media but his condescending remarks towards Liverpool supporters, known as the most knowledgeable fans in the game, go back much further than that. As I recall, he referred to the fans protest against Hicks and Gillett "a distraction" and in various other interviews he has said that Liverpool fans expect the side to win every single game or it's a disaster, he's also said on a number of occasions that we have unrealistic expectations and recently said that we are expecting someone to come in with a magic wand etc. Comments such as these make it sound as if he regards us as a bunch of kneejerk morons who don't know our football and our opinions are unimportant. It makes you wonder if this guy has ever even met a Liverpool fan. Like football supporters of all clubs we do have a kneejerk section of fans but 90% of us are pretty far-minded and most certainly do know our football. For the record, I don't expect the team to win every single game but I do expect us to win most and at least put in a decent performance in the ones that we lose. My expectations are that a team that finished second two seasons ago and 7th last season with a crippling injury list for most of the campaign should at least be capable of challenging for a top four position with a largely fully fit squad and not be sitting three points off the relegation zone, I don't think that's unreasonable! And I don't expect a manager to arrive with a magic wand but I would like a man in charge who knows what he's doing, respects the fans and can take the club forward playing a decent brand of football because we certainly haven't got that at the moment! So my number one wish for 2011 is that we get a new manager in as soon as possible. Hodgson might make it at a smaller club but he knows as much about being a Liverpool manager as a hedgehog knows about crossing the road and if he was a dog he would have been taken out behind the barn and put out of his misery a long time ago! As for who should come in, I don't really know. The romantic in me would like to see King Kenny back in charge until at least the end of the season but he's probably been out of the game too long. I don't think a Rafa return would be on the cards either. I doubt he'd be happy working with Comolli and his relationship with some of the players might make it difficult. One of his big problems last season was that there were too many personalities in our dressing room, and most of them belonged to Steven Gerrard! So maybe a fresh start with somebody new would be best for all concerned. There have been a few interesting names mentioned but one man I would hate to see in charge is Moaning O'Neill. He is another media darling who will be sure to be pushed forward by his press buddies if the position becomes available but I think he would be just as bad as Hodgson. Ironically the only British manager I would have any interest in seeing taking over at Anfield would be Owen Coyle, the manager of our next opponents Bolton. I think he is doing a great job at Bolton and if we were looking for a bright young footballing manager, he would certainly be an interesting choice, although I think it's more likely we would go for someone a bit more established such as the much touted Rijkaard. But I suppose its pointless speculating about it until the NESV guys bite the bullet and get rid of this waster Hodgson before he does even more damage. Anyway I'm off now to celebrate the New Year with my old friend Stella so a Happy New Year to you all and I suggest you go out tonight and consume large quantities of alcohol because I've just looked at our upcoming fixtures and I think we're all going to need it! Keep the Faith

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