Transfer Talk

Rafa Benitez was recently questioned about Alonso and Mascherano, this is what he said and it makes me nervous…

“We signed them both from different situations. Alonso was coming from Real Sociedad and nobody had really heard much of him outside of Spain, he did well and we renewed his contract because of that.

“Mascherano came from West Ham where he had not been doing well. We brought him here and gave him a good contract, so we are very pleased with them both and that Liverpool has been very good to them.”

Sounds to me like Benitez is clutching at straws to keep these guys and trying to make them feel guilty about even considering a move. I’ll not be surprised if tomorrow morning’s paper has pictures of Mascherano holding a Barcelona shirt and Alonso wearing the white of Real Madrid.

Could be worse I suppose, we could compensate for their loss by signing Michael Owen!

Rotation Rotation Rotation!

Pick a squad, any squad. I wonder which team will stroll out at Anfield tonight? Rafa only knows. Could it be that Benitez plays the same side that failed to turn up on Saturday? Or will he think this is a good opportunity to introduce some untried, new blood from the youth team? I doubt anyone could predict which individuals will take the field and not even Rafa knows how they will perform – what is certain is that if this Liverpool side do not get a result tonight then his own position as team boss must be seriously considered. Can you rotate managers?

Stick At It

OK so my last post was a little bit critical of Rafa Benitez and maybe I jumped on the bandwagon a little too early. Since that post Liverpool have continued their unbeaten run in the league, thrashed Besiktas 8-0 in the Champions League and stuffed FC Porto 4-1 in the same competition. Lets hope they keep that form up throughout the season and that Ryan Babel continues to excel.

On a more depressing note Woodlands FC have not recorded a victory since the beginning of November and our league position is very worrying -we still have to play some top teams and we will have to improve our performances if there is any hope of a respectable league position. Maybe we need to just stick at it and turn the corner like Liverpool seem to have done…

I handed in my MDiv dissertation last week and am absolutely loving the feeling of being free from University and study for the first time since about 2002! Over four years of part-time study have been completed and I can hardly believe it. Sometimes it seems to have flown by but during the last few months it really did seem like I had been on this course forever. The most difficult aspects were the languages and I actually thought at some stages it was going to be impossible. However with a few helpful tips from a variety of people I managed to scrape through -glad that it’s done and pleased that I stuck at it. I’ll get the robes on in July!

Can’t Kuyt Understand?

The mighty Woodlands FC got their second win of the season at Woodburn Playing Fields on Saturday, a well deserved 3-0 victory over Ballyclare North End has resulted in a slightly improved league position. A terrific performance by the whole team secured three vital points and mid table mediocrity for the boys in yellow and blue. Goals came from Stuart Hawthorne (2) and Chris Colgan (1) the latter demonstrated great composure when stepping up to retake a first half penalty, firing the ball right back were it had come from to the great delight of his team mates and the now satisfied referee. The great feeling that came with such a victory was tarnished however by yet another poor result for Liverpool. What I can’t ‘Kuyt’ understand is why Rafa Benitez persists with this squad rotation policy when it is quite obviously not working. Dirk Kuyt runs his socks off all day and may cover every blade of grass but as a striker he needs to strike the ball! On Saturday he found himself in a great striking position and then basically ran into Steven Gerrard because of an unwillingness to strike. Come on Rafa, get a settled team out every week and have a decent crack at the Premiership, players get confidence by playing matches and this uncertainty and lack of confidence is obvious throughout most of the team. I never thought I’d say this but it might not be a bad thing for us to go out of the Champions League tomorrow night because then at least the Premiership games will be taken a little more seriously by Rafa Benitinker!

El Nino

He’s signed for 6 years… He signed for 6 years.. Fernando Torres, he’s signed for 6 years! At long last Liverpool have actually signed a striker that I am excited about. I have not been this optimistic about the season ahead since Sean Dundee put pen to paper at Anfield…. Seriously though, Liverpool have not had a good record in recent years when it comes to signing decent strikers – Collymore, Mellor, Morientes, Cisse, Pongolle, Clough, Baros (and a few others who I have deleted from my memory) simply haven’t delivered the goods. Torres is a different class altogether and hopefully this season we can be genuine title contenders. The Rafaloution continues….