Check the sky for thunderbolts, look under the stairs for Three Witches stirring a giant pot and adding eye of newt and toe of frog and tentatively poke your head around the door at Melwood to see if our better players are rushing to their Porsches with keys at the ready. Liverpool are out of the Champion’s League and life will never be the same again.
The media pointed at our interest payments and giggled behind their hands at the newly formed Europa League (sponsored by Another Shameless Money Making Enterprise PLC) but my own feelings were one of disappointment and, and I refuse to blush at this, a sense of justice. Good. We should be out. We should be out because Liverpool are bloody awful at the moment and no amount of Alonso tears and injuries can disguise that. We are not a good team. Yes, yes, yes, last year etc but that was just that - last year and I want something to be done rather than hand-wringing and caterwauling about ‘you need a bit of luck’ I don’t want excuses. I want a great first eleven to be replaced with a great second eleven when the inevitable injuries occur. Am I asking too much?
Debrecen was a clear case of shooting the horse after the stable has bolted, a Pyrrhic victory at best when coupled with the other game. At least we scored and kept a clean sheet but that’s the thinnest of thin reeds with which to cling to. We now have three on the bounce. Is Rafa experimenting with catenaccio or has he worked out that the Agger/Carra partnership is the best or are we going back to basics, working on things like heading, marking, tackling etc. Hey, it’s progress so I’m not sniping. I’ll just say this. Thank Christ for Pepe.
The Derby was magnificent again. A deflected strike and a last minute rebound with not much in between. They should have taken something from it but it’s hard to feel sympathy when their end was so paranoid that they went ballistic when a throw-in decision went our way. A throw-in! I love a bit of mock outrage. In fact, I had a good shout myself and took up cudgels with the League to complain that their catering didn’t extend to veggie pies. Ah, I suppose it’s not their fault that there were no cheese and onion left. Arsenal have a veggie balti pie which is most toothsome but you’d never get that at Goodison. It’s typical of the big clubs cornering the market on meat free foodstuffs and a further example of the casual favouritism shown towards the big boys by the officials. IfithadnabeenforSayers…
Mascherano’s celebration was both delightful and curious in equal measure. If the papers are to be believed he’ll be sidling up to Xavi and Iniesta in January so the badge pumping was either a show of support or a goodbye. He went berserk when Dossena scored against Madrid too so maybe he prefers Lucas after all. Course, he could be sticking around to determine whether or not Aquilani actually exists. I’ve never been sure. When I see him on the bench I can’t help but think of Banquo’s ghost in reverse. We can all see him but one man can’t.
It’s unlikely that anyone will move during the transfer window. There’s talk of Van Nistelrooy but I doubt it and suspect that it just adds to the counter-argument to Owen’s move. Riise aside, I don’t think I’d be bothered who, if anyone, comes in as long as he’s got boots and leaves Voronin in the dressing room. Ngog is doing well for a kid but we need better than that and the alternatives are comedic rather than useful. Put Dirk or Voronin on and you might as well have me playing.
The Europa Humiliation League should be interesting, giving an exciting opportunity to visit Moldova. We were favourites to win it before we’d even played Debrecen and with good cause as we always win in the Wafer Cup in Germany. With no Chelsea or League distraction we’d be in with a shout. Would Rafa settle for that? Fifth in the League, possibly the FA Cup and the extremely important Europa League? Silverware is silverware and although both Mancs and media made out that 2001 was our tin pot treble it didn’t mean any less to us. The key difference is that we were on the rise then while this time we’re dropping like a stone from our best League season for years to Thursday nights in Salzburg. Maybe he can convince the Americans that the Europa League means more than the CL as it takes six qualifying games to get there.
We’ll see where we are after Arsenal. Defeat there wouldn’t be unexpected but the manner of the performance is key. They’ve been shown up by Chelsea and need to put a few things right and we need to show the world that we can defend a set piece. As always in these big games I’ll take a half of a final score which features Arsenal 0. If we can win that we’ll either go on a run or have Rafa tell us that the squad is good enough after all. See the aftermyth of Man United. Win a big one, be shite for the next five. I blame the Americans. And Sayers
