Happy?
Well as usual I'm far from it. Rafa slapped a lot of us in the face at the Reading match with his suicidal substitutions and another extraordinary decision nearly cost us here. By not putting a defender on the bench we had to undergo the risk of a defensive injury and a near sacrifice of two points. I understand Arbeloa was ill but I've yet to hear of Hobbs. In the end Sami, carrying a knock, comes off and we have Riise as a centre back. Now, I've taken up cudgels about Ginger John more times than he's hoofed the ball at me in Block 207 this season but one thing he is not is a centre back. I can't blame him for the goal in the same way as I can't blame Voronin and Kuyt for their poor wing play as it's an area of the pitch that they shouldn't be responsible for. As it turns out Jewell put on Earnshaw, a tricky player, and we were undone. Gerrard made the game ours but for me it was just another extraordinary Rafa decision. Why take the risk? Did he really need Leiva and Mash on the bench? I'm flummoxed by that. Rafa told us afterwards that in three months time people were going to be talking about the points and not the performance which may be true but for me it was just another item on the stubborn list. I've been called many things for expressing these doubts but my chief concern is that if no one tells him that he's been doing a lot of silly things lately he'll just carry on.
Of course, we're only half way through the season and we have the potential to be six points off the top but with Arsenal, United and Chelsea away to come and given our far from impressive record in these games it's still an uphill struggle. If we need a 94th minute winner to beat a team that have only just gone past a League goal tally we knocked up against them in an hour at Anfield earlier this season, we really will be up against it.
Another big game looms on Sunday. City away isn't going to be easy but we should have enough to see them off. They've come on leaps and bounds this season so it'll be interesting to see how they perform against us. I'd think they'd love a point and I'm not too sure we wouldn't let them have it. We shall see.
Happy New Year all.