Liverpool 4 - 1 Cheating Bastards

“If we play to our best, then we will make Liverpool fans cry at Anfield. They will weep with despair.

“We know that a win, or even a draw, will put us into the next round. We should have beaten them in the first game at our stadium, but they were lucky to get a draw."

“I am tired about the rumours that link me with the big English clubs. I do not need to demonstrate my quality in these matches. Quaresma is always Quaresma.”


Take that
A thrashing. Nice meeting you and we hope to see you again.

Liverpool 0 - 0 Birmingham

Sacking of Rafa cries
Yes, but he cannot beat Portsmouth and Birmingham - so sack him! This doesn't make cow sense.

Before he came we were struggle to beat the likes of Celtic, Basel and Galatasaray. Now we are beating the likes of Juventus, Milan and Barcelona, year in year out. If you ask me, I'll rather keep a manager who has already proven to find a successful formula in one area, and wait for him to find the other successful formulas like in youth grooming and of course winning the local league.

Currently we have a mini crisis. Some say our dip in form is due to Pako's departure. Some relate it to Gerrard's bad form. Some attributed it to Rafa's tactical ignorance.

No EPL title this season
We might not be able to win the EPL this season, judging by what we saw. Against Portsmouth it was telling. The players did not look half arse to lose the top spot in the league. The mentality of being champions is still not there yet, a problem which plague Liverpool for many years now. They are still contented being pretenders.

What is the root of the problem?
Rafa's man management?
Rafa's tactical awareness?
Gerrard being sub-standard captain?
Players' mentality?
Quality of players?
Fate, gods' will?
The EPL is just one big rigged show like WWE?

Take your pick

Porto 1 - 1 Liverpool

Liverpool played ugly. Liverpool was beaten statistically and aesthetically. Liverpool was woeful.
Yes yes yes.

But which is the worse result, Chelsea drew 1-1 against Rosenborg at home or Liverpool snitching 1 point playing in a ground which no English team had won, by giving one of the worse performance under Rafa Benitez ever?

Ungracious fan? No way. There are plenty to cheer about.
Yes we played rubbish but we were denied a penalty and that could have gotten all 3 points.
We played almost an entire half with 10 men.
Our captain was almost non-existent in leadership and performance.
Yes we played rubbish in their ground but considering all of the above, they couldn't beat us.

Portsmouth 1 - 1 Liverpool

It was a draw game.
There was nothing to wow about the game except for the brilliance of Pepe Reina the God of Penalties, who upped his reputation yet again by saving a penalty kick. (well undeserved as usual of course, no less)

The highlights of the game however, belong to our hero, a local Liverpool 'fan' gave his profound views on:

Happiness
"..every team play their regular starting strong 11 but only liverpool resting key player... I hope the manager is happy now that Arsenal is top of table..."

Contradiction
"why can't he just play the strong 11 all the times? this aint derby or sunderland, i hate to say it but liverpool right now is a 1 man Gerrard team..."

Religion
"you know what ? why not you go worship him(Rafa Benitez)... I'm not gonna waste my time on you..."

History
".. its so hard for liverpool to win an away game under RB, the old liverpool under GH got no problem winning away matches and cups glory... "

The Manager
"Why not sell Gerrard & riise away too since they wasn't needed ??? I'm sick of this manager and I'm not having any of him..."

Statistics
"yes GH era there was alot of winning in away matches"

EQ
"hey you let your bulldog mouth overload that puppy dog mouth of yours ? yeah keep talking alright... "

Source

Result: Liverpool 6 - 0 Derby County

Shit happens.
We would be top of the table regardless of what happens later or the next day if not for the Robbing Incident

Well, life isn't perfect but it doesn't stop me from bringing this up until we win the league.

I feel for the Derby fans as 6-0 is not a nice result to bring home, even though they are facing an on form Liverpool now and I salute them for surrendering their 3 points in support of Liverpool's Quest to bring no.19 back this season.

Thank you Derby, I love you. Don't feel sad and just let it all out against Chelsea, Man United and Arsenal.

Most Singapore Reds are ranting about the scoreline, how well we played, no Carra and Gerrard and no One(two)-Man Team, what studs Pennant, Mascherano and Torres are. I saw a different game.

It's only Derby, a team lying at the bottom of the table with only 1 point. We're not the first team that gave them a lesson too. What makes us special? We did what we are supposed to do. So save the (embarrassing) gushing until we start winning against the top teams..

Sunderland got Momo-ed

We won 2-0 nil. All thanks to goals from Sissoko and Voronin.
Too bad Sunderland. Bad timing. Our 7000th goal has to belong to Momo Sissoko, nothing less. He is now Liverpool's joint top-scorer in the EPL. Well done.

It was always believed that when Momo finally scores, it will be a cracker. Never a doubt. And so it was!

Look at some reactions to his goal,

"His first goal was never gonna be a tap-in!" - Ben_JP

"Half man, half machine, all Momo." - ThingOnASpring

"Momo scored?! Now I've seen it all" - FinnishFan

See, Sunderland? We were stunned too,

"I must've waited at least 10 seconds to make sure it wasnt side netting and that it was sissoko to score. It still hasnt sunk in." - kkhaku

Results: Aston Villa 1 - 2 Liverpool

match report here

First thing first, we won. Our first opener in 5 seasons and it feels great. It felt like a Cup-tie instead of a league game. Needless to say, I am very pleased with the results. Yes, like I said before we will end up with a total 1002 EPL points instead of 1000.

It was a rare game which I feel the Ref had a good game. The divers were caught and punished. Way to go!

Feyenoord 1 - 1 Liverpool

I wouldn't go on describing the game as reports can be found in plenty in the internet.
My thoughts on this game are mainly on the brawl which took place towards the end of the game.

In the game, Alonso got his face slapped, we got a penalty given against us when the ball hit Arbeloa's face, Babel was brought down at any cost, each time the guys just carry on with minimal fuss.

Meanwhile, Drenthe was showing our guys how to be a pain in the arse. He was over-reacting and inciting our players throughout the game. When he finally hacked down Gerrard mercilessly, received a tackle from Mascherano and the ball booted to his head by Agger, the inevitable brawl broke out.

In the past we'll have Hyypia smiling at the opponents and shrugging injustice off like a gentleman. From now onwards, please, NO MORE MR NICE GUYS. Enough of "We are Liverpool and we don't do this." When we are bullied, we should stand up to the opponents and show them we do not accept these nonsense.

Thank you Feyenoord for waking us up. Watch out Aston Villa!

Shanghai Shenhua 0 - 2 Liverpool

My take on the performance of the players

Martin - Good exposure for the young keeper. Nothing much for him to do.

Leiva - Living up to his sky-high expectations. Very soon, more will be raving about him.

Insua - What a surprise. This 18 year old is confident, calm, tackles well, willing to take on opponents

Hyypia - is Hyypia

Finnan - is Finnan

Paletta - the reason why I wanted Heinze or another CB to join. not impressed to date, room for improvement ...

Leto - A very decent debut, a pleasant surprise. Looks like a good young player with pace, all 1.88 of it. HK (get ready to look handsome on the bench)

Benayoun - looked much sharper. Great incisive pass to set up the goal for Torres. Pennant will have to watch his back.

Momo - Bosses the midfield, wrong, field as usual. Looks comfortable playing with Leiva. Critics who say he cannot pass should watch this game again. His best is yet to come so watch him again and he'll score his first goal for Liverpool this season.

Torres - He's fast! Looking sharper and look nothing like an EPL flop as many touted him to be.
Look at the way he broke the offside trap to score his goal. The last striker who showed a genuine ability to do that for us is Owen.

Torres [1-0] vs Shanghai Shenhua
Uploaded by redhalfofmerseyside

Crouch - I'm worried for Crouch. I hope he get involved soon, the season is starting.

Captain - shows why he is MBE. What a goal, that's the first time I saw him scoring a goal like that.

Gerrard [2-0] vs Shanghai Shenhua
Uploaded by redhalfofmerseyside

Shanghai keeper: Ouch

Babbel - was playing better than previous matches, but game appears to be affected by jeering fans. I believe there are more to come from him.

Arbeloa - Did his job.

Kuyt - works hard and obviously loved by the home fans.

Mascherano - still a monster.

This may not be a tough opposite team but precisely so, I am pleased to see the team doing well, we had to and did the job. Forward to the next game.