Anfield Red

Whilst there are many out there currently calling for Benitez’s head after last night’s humbling defeat to Lyon, you should know there are still some out there that are willing to give Rafa the benefit of the doubt. One of them is a legend in his own right.

Ian Rush told Sky Sports News that four consecutive defeats don’t equal a sacking, and that the manager should be allowed to continue walking the sidelines for the foreseeable future:

“Liverpool is a special club, the supporters are special and I think the time is not right now,” he told Sky Sports News.

“I think it’s the time to get behind the manager and the players as well.

“I’m sure the suporters will do on Sunday. Then it’s up to the players to respond.”

Liverpool welcome bitter rivals Manchester United to Anfield on Sunday, and Rush is urging a positive response to the current situation from both players and fans at the weekend.

“The manager can only pick a team and it’s up to the players to respond on the pitch against Manchester United, because there will be a good atmosphere against Manchester United.

“Okay, we lost against Lyon and maybe the atmosphere was not quite what was expected. But, again, they can still qualify for the second phase of the Champions League.

“We’ve got to get behing everyone and that, to me, is what makes Liverpool so special a club.

“You go 1-0 up and you expect to go on and win the game. But I think the second goal was vital. We needed that second goal because things looked a little bit flat.

“But saying that, they’re still in the competition and I think it’s no good being negative now. I think you’ve got to be positive and get on to the game against Manchester United.”

I’m sure you lot have a response to Ian’s comments. Leave those remarks in the comments section below.

After Liverpool lost to Lyon 2-1 last night at Anfield; what do you think went wrong?

Do you think it was the formation, the players, the lack of atmosphere, the injury to Gerrard or was it a combination of all of these things that cost Liverpool the win?

When we have Gerrard and Torres fit, the 4-2-3-1 works wonders in some matches, however when one or both of them are missing I can’t help but wonder why there is no change in tactics? Babel could have come on in place of Gerrard and we could have gone 4-4-2 with either Babel and Ngog or Ngog and Kuyt, rather than sticking with the same formation that obviously wasn’t working too well?

One of the main talking points of any defeat is always Lucas and how he does nothing to shape a game. People say he had a solid match, or how his passing stats are so high, yet when does he do anything other than a simple 4/5 yard pass to Mascherano or our full backs (the majority of the time whn they have a player on their backs). Having read Tim Vickery singing the praises of Lucas by saying:

Fernando Torres scored a hat trick as Liverpool battered Hull 6-1 at Anfield today.

Torres got 3, Gerrard got 1 and Babel got 2; although he knew nothing about his second goal after it bounced off his heel and went in (watch below)

Torres opened the scoring after 12 minutes, after Riera put a low cross in he created space for himself and shot across the keeper with his left foot. Hull equalised through Giovanni a few minutes later, somehow finding himself unmarked to smash the ball past Reina.

Torres then took it upon himself to give Liverpool the win, his 2nd goal coming after ripping the keeper and a defender to tap the ball in, and to complete his hat trick; Benayoun sent him through and again he took on a defender and put the ball in.

Babel scored a tap in from Kuyt’s cross, and also got this lucky goal:

The best goal came from Gerrard though; but who knows if he meant to cross it or score a contender for goal of the month:

Liverpool – Hull City – Funny home videos are a click away

Revenge is a dish best served cold, and this weekend’s match against Hull at Anfield should bring the perfect opportunity for the Reds to give get rid of the memories of last season’s 2-2 draw.

With the exception of Pompey who sit at the bottom without a point to their name, Hull City currently sit in the relegation zone based on goal differential. It has been far from a storybook start for the club who had aspirations of European football in a couple years time.

If anything, it looks like Hull will have a hell of a time just trying to beat the drop. As in years past, Liverpool have seemed to have issues disposing of lower opponents when it matters. Hopefully they can use last season’s shock draw at home as motivation to continue their great form.

I’ll predict a 3-1 win with Torres and Gerrard both getting on the scoresheet. I know, picking Gerrard and Torres to bag goals is really going out on a limb!

Also, make sure you join us this weekend for AnfieldRed’s LIVE BLOG of the Liverpool/Hull City match. We’ll getting things going about 5-10 minutes prior to kickoff at 15:00.

Just finished watching Liverpool’s match against Thailand that kicked off their Asian Tour. The match included some fairly decent football from Ryan Babel, a player I think we all believe needs to up his level this season after being unimpressive in his first two seasons. The goal came in the sixth minute off a great through ball from Carra to Babel, who just slotted it home with ease. From there it looked like an up and down match with the rust still very evident.

Thailand’s Panupong Sutee equalised in the 72nd minute with a great 1-2 that caught the back line on their heels. The second half, like the first, had some bright spots – but most of the play appeared to be in slow motion, which I guess could be attributed to the humidity.

Not much else to say other than that we’re still without a win in three pre-season matches. It’s nothing to get concerned about at the moment, but it does make you wonder about our youngsters on the squad. Also, rumours were swirling regarding Alonso not being on the bench for the match. Please note that there has been NOTHING to report as of right now.

Some people have been claiming he’s already on to Madrid to sign for the club. I haven’t heard anything of the sort at the present time.

Discuss the match as you please in the comment area below…

Finally some real football! Whilst I wasn’t able to listen to the whole match yesterday on .tv, I was able to catch most of the second half of a boring 0-0 against St. Gallen draw that, to be honest, didn’t shock me that much. Rafa played loads of reserve and fringe players in an effort to give them some first team football — albeit in a pre-season seeting — whilst Masch, Dossena and others have yet to return to training.

I’m not going to go into great detail because to be honest, I don’t think a report on a pre-season friendly is worth much. There was a lot of rust on the players, and from I did see, we didn’t really gel on the pitch. But what else is new in the rest match of the season!

If there’s one thing I did want to comment on, it would be the superb play of Glen Johnson. I know many of us were slagging on Johnson, wondering aloud if we paid too much for the right-back. Well after watching him play on the LEFT side of the pitch — he was filling the hole left by Aurelio — and almost scoring within minutes of walking on as a second half sub, I think we all need to shut our yaps and let the lad do his thing. He’s pure class. End of story.

His work rate was first class, and from what I could see, he’s going to be a real help to Liverpool’s back line. I’ve said in the past that Rafa’s preferred lineup requires a right- and left-back with pace and a nose for the goal. Johnson brings both of those.

Once Aurelio returns (hopefully sooner than later) I really believe we’ll be able to push up and throw opponents into a pace they otherwise wouldn’t be accustomed to. Most of the Premier League prefers a slower pace; I think Rafa will up the tempo and blow the doors off most of the squads this year. Expect big things from Glen.

OK, simple question: How many goals do you expect us to score today against St. Gallen? I know it’s our first pre-season match of the campaign, but at the same time, I do expect us to come out and put on a show for the Swiss fans in attendance. Give me a final score of 3-0.

Also, do you expect to see many of the first time players in the starting XI today?

Javier Mascherano wants a pay rise because he creates chances for Michael Owen, according to the Daily Mirror.

Today’s article from the Mirror was lazy journalism at it’s best, a copy and paste job of 3 articles combined into one pile of mumbo-jumbo:

“Liverpool finally completed the £17million capture of Glen Johnson from Portsmouth last night.

But the massive deal – which will earn the England full-back around £4m a year – could force Liverpool to TREBLE Javier Mascherano’s wages to keep him.

Mirror Sport understands that the root of the Argentine’s unhappiness at Anfield is the fact that he is paid considerably less than the majority of the ability to set up chances for the former England star.

The 29-year-old scored 30 in 65 starts on Tyneside and cost Newcastle £41million in wages and transfer fee. He was dropped by boss Alan Shearer for the club’s relegation showdown at Aston Villa and has scored once this year.”

Article link

If someone can shine any light on what “the majority of the ability to set up chances” means i’d love to hear it.

As dusk falls on the Stadio Olimpico tonight turning the famed Italian Stadium into a football work of art, Manchester United and Barcelona supporters will converge in droves to Rome’s masterpiece for a clash between two of the great titans in Europe.

Whilst it’s a shame that Liverpool weren’t able to make it back to Rome 15 years later, we’ll always be able to recall that wonderful night back on the 25th of May 1984 where our Reds turned Rome into their playground with a monumental win against an AS Roma side that had the advantage of playing in their own stadium in front of a crowd that was beyond partisan.

But on one special night with the cards stacked firmly against us, we managed to turn the footballing world upside down by claiming our second European cup in the city where our love affair with Ol’ Big Ears began.

A crowd of 51,000, 20,000 from Liverpool, packed the Stadio Olimpico for the highly anticipated battle. Liverpool came into the match with a third consecutive league crown under their belts, as well as a League Cup that gave the club the opportunity for a rare treble.

After Paisley stepped away from the game in 1983, former assistant Joe Fagan was given the reigns to one of the great clubs in European football. In his first season with the club he managed to keep Liverpool’s success abroad at the same level, defeating Dinamo Bucharest, Benfica, Atletico Bilbao, and Odense to reach the final in Rome.

AS Roma, who made the final with a more than controversial victory over Dundee United (the ref of the match admitted to taking a bribe years later), had the entire city behind them. But not even cheating and a home stadium advantage could stand in the way of Liverpool’s destiny that night.

Phil Neal opened the scoring for Liverpool in the fourteenth minute after the Roma keeper bobbled a Craig Johnston cross to give the Reds a precious lead. From there Roma poured the pressure on Liverpool, breaking through finally right before halftime with a header from Pruzzo to level the match. From that point on the match was a stalemate with both sides seemingly unable to break the others’ defence.

Not even extra time could settle the match as both sides went to penalties to decide a champion.

Steve Nicol gave Roma hope from the start as he blazed one over. Agostino Di Bartolomei and Phil Neal both scored the level the score at 1-1 before Bruno Conti allowed Liverpool a ray of hope when he fired his kick over the bar. Souness and Rush made it 3-2 before Bruce Grobbelaar did his famed spaghetti legs to psyche out Francesco Graziani. The tactic worked as Graziani fired over the bar. From there Alan Kennedy (who scored the winning goal for Liverpool in the 1981 European Cup) smashed home his penalty to send Liverpool supporters into raptures.

Champagne seemed to flow from heaven as Liverpool enjoyed their success; for Roma supporters, it was all about drinking their sorrows away in the hopes of forgetting the shocking result.

The whole of Merseyside and supporters around the world drank that night with the exception of one man. Bob Paisely, who had since retired, sat quietly in a corner taking in their entire scene. When asked why he wasn’t drinking, Paisley responded, “I’m not having a drink because I want to savour every moment,” he said.
“The Pope and I are two of the few sober people in Rome tonight!”

Whilst Sir Alex Ferguson could possibly match Paisley with a record three European crowns tonight, nobody should ever dispute who the better team was between the two. What was once a team game has now turned into a squad game where players are rotated on a very consistent basis. United have used 36 players in 64 matches this season compared to Liverpool’s 15 during their treble run of 1984. To compare Ferguson’s side to Liverpool’s 1984 side would be unfair.

It’s for that reason alone that Liverpool’s 1984 triumph in Rome should viewed as one of the great victories in football history. Whilst watching the game tonight, remember that fateful night in the Italian city where the Reds beat the odds once again and walked away Champions of Europe.

Didn’t see the game today but want to see the goals? Look no further, as there are links provided to both Stevie Gerrard’s and Dirk Kuyt’s goals against West Brom!

Gerrard and Kuyt got the goals; here are the links:

Gerrard makes it 1-0

Dirk scores the 2nd