Anyone else fed up with this rubbish?

Unless you seen the Manchester United, Liverpool game on Saturday you would never have known a game took place. There was little to no mention of the result afterwards or any talk of the performance by either team. Not even the referee got a look-in this week. No, unless you seen the game take place you would have assumed that both teams turned up at Old Trafford, lined up for a handshake and then went home again.

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Anytime Liverpool take on Manchester United in a game it can go one of three ways for me. If it’s a draw you feel somewhat let down that nothing was resolved and it leaves both sets of fans delving deep into the suitcase of excuses as to why their team deserved to win it but didn’t or how the referee prevented them hammering the other. If it’s a a defeat you know your Facebook page is going to light up with abuse from friends out to remind you of your teams real status as a result of that game. It’s best often to sign off from the world for a few days, find something else to watch for a while and pretend it never really happened. But, if it’s a win, then your weekend is made and you can spend whatever free time you have ensuring those same friends are on the sharp end of your delight.

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This is how it looked the last time Liverpool made it to Wembley

The last time Liverpool played a game at Wembley it was May 1996. John Barnes, Jamie Redknapp, Steve McManaman and Robbie Fowler were in the lineup and those cream suits were the butt of jokes for a generation. That was the F.A. Cup Final against Manchester United and although the club have been back to Cup Final’s since then, those finals were at the Mellenium Stadium in Cardiff while the new Wembley was being built. Indeed, since the new Wembley opened it’s doors in 2007, an amazing 60 different teams have played there without Liverpool having made an appearance. Last night’s 2-2 draw with Manchester City resulting in a 3-2 aggregate victory ensured that they would finally make their new Wembley debut’s.

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Balotelli’s latest moment of madness (the ref definitely didn’t see it!)

Another weekend of big matches in the English football calendar and another Monday morning where the football doesn’t make the headlines. Or so it would seem if you picked up a paper or flicked open an English based website to see the face of Manchester City’s bad boy striker, Mario Balotelli staring back at you thanks to his latest run-in with indiscipline. But in this case the incident did have a big impact on the game itself, and it was certainly a relief for it to be something other than the brandishing of fake cards by players, or indeed managers. Balotelli’s stamp on the face of Spurs midfielder Scott Parker — “Scott has a lovely cut on his head,” said his manager, Harry Redknapp — should have seen the City player sent off. As it turned out the referee missed it, Balotelli stayed on, won a penalty and stepped up to convert it and win the game for City. Cue the outrage from Redknapp.

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After a string of poor performances by Liverpool, the pitchforks are out and the torches are being lit. Questions are being asked in some media circles about the purchases made by manager Kenny Dalglish with most of the attention being poured on and almost daily basis via some article or another, onto the shoulders of £35-million man, Andy Carroll. Despite the fact that no player sets his own fee, the likes of Carroll has been joined by Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson as players being hailed as ‘transfer busts’ by the club. Rightly neither of the three have panned out, but for each of them there has been a Luis Enrique, Charlie Adam, Craig Bellamy and Luis Suarez; not to mention the money brought in by the sale of Fernando Torres.

Under Kenny Dalglish’s tenure let’s take a look at his purchases, sales and analyse them by the player age, position, the price paid, whether I’d make the deal again and a reason to be positive about that player going forward.

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Tomorrow afternoon the media will bill the afternoon’s games between Arsenal v Manchester United and Manchester City v Tottenham Hotspur as “Revenge Sunday” as both London based sides look to avenge thumping defeats by the two Manchester sides on the same day early this season. United beat Arsenal at home on August 28th 8-2 while City went down to North London and put 5 past Spurs who managed just 1 in reply.

In today’s Times iPad edition there was an article about how teams in the past have responded to a thumping defeat by an opponent in their next game against that team:  Read more»