Amidst all the Winter Olympics excitement it’s hard to remember that the rest of the world is getting on with things, including the Football fixture list, so I was pleased to see that Liverpool got a solid result against Unirea in the Europa League moving them into the quarter-finals. I didn’t see the game but trust they played well enough to go through. And congratulations to Steven Gerrard who in scoring the 33rd European goal of his career tonight became the all-time highest goal scorer in Europe from Britain. Onwards and upwards and with the Olympics ending on Sunday I can get back into the Football swing of things just in time for the run in where I hope Liverpool can win this trophy and perhaps shock me to my core and finish forth in the League.

Just a few days ago on his TalkSport radio station, pundit and ex-Liverpool forward Stan Collymore suggested that he had heard from some sources that both Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carrigher had lost faith in manager Rafa Bentiez. Now you can say what you want about Collymore, but I listen to his show a lot and while he tries to be controversial, he is generally a good pundit, he is serious about what he talks about and you certainly don’t get the impression he makes crap up for the fun of it. He also has the connections in the game that when he says ’source’ you know there might be something to it.

So, could the Liverpool players really be starting to lose faith in their manager?

The run of results, the form and the way the heads have been going down – even from their captain – suggests all is not well. The team is more talented than their league position suggests so something isn’t right. The minute the players lose faith in a manager is the minute the manager either needs to walk, or be pushed, though I think we all know the pushing is not going to come as quickly as some of us might hope.

Four wins in 17 matches is quite unacceptable for Liverpool regardless of whether you think they have a devine right to compete for the title every year. They host Wolves in their next game on boxing day and anything short of a win will cause further dismay amongst fans and see the team slide further down the table.

Liverpool will be without Mascherano who is suspended for three games and it’ll see the mysterious Alberto Aqualani draw into the line-up. It’ll be his first Premier League start since moving to the team in the summer for a blinding twenty million pounds. It’s nothing against Aqualani who did what I would do, but the signing of an injured player who once fit has still not found a way into the team has left a lot of fans questioning the validity of the signing considering the team is so weak up front. Here is hoping this weekend the Italian can prove his place.

But it’s Gerrard that I’ll be watching. Rafa today called him out publicly saying that they talked about his performances needing to improve. Has Gerrard’s head gone down? His performances have not dropped away thatmuch I don’t feel – there is only so much a player can do on his own – or with Torres if you count him in as the only other capable game winner in the line-up.

The Christmas season is a vital one for Liverpool and not for the reasons we might have hoped it would be at the start of the season. Many fans, myself included believed the festive period would be a run of games that would keep them in the title race, but right now they just needs wins to stay in touch with the Champions League places.

There was an article on the Guardian website today were author Paul Doyle picks his best six players of the decade. It made for interesting reading and most of the players deserve to be in there and it was nice to see a goalie get some recognition but I was surprised to see Frank Lampard’s name at four. Really? I don’t think so. He might make the best six players in the Premier League of the last decade, never mind the world. Steven Gerrard would be the likely choice to make that six out of England, but it’s only an opinion and below I’ll give mine.

1. Ronaldinho. Over the course of the ten years of this decade he was the best player for the longest period of time. While his play might have fallen off in the last couple of seasons there was a time when he was the best by a stretch. He burst onto the scene early in the decade, won a World Cup in 2002 and was a hero at Barcelona.

2. Ronaldo. The real Ronaldo that is or the fat one as some might say. An immensely gifted footballer, maybe the most talented player since Maradona with a goal scoring record unmatched at the top level both for club and country. He won the World Cup in 2002 and owned the tournament and then in 2006 when everyone said he was too fat he still scored the goals. He has fallen away since that 2006 tournament but is still scoring in South America, but them first six years of the decade he was superb.

3. Lionel Messi. He has broken onto the scene over the last third of the decade but his play in that period alone warrants his place on the list. Great skill and maybe the closest Argentina have had to someone they can call ‘The next Maradona’. He has won nearly every domestic honor in the game already and all that remains is the World Cup and he’s still so very young and only going to get better.

4. Steven Gerrard. (I’m a Liverpool fan and I’m biased, I never denied that so Stevie goes in here, like it or lump it). Liverpool have been far from a great team this decade. A good one, but not great. Steven Gerrard proves there is not quite such a thing as a one man team as Liverpool have never surrounded him with enough talent to win a league title, but in single games when someone has been needed to dig deep and to pull out a big result, Stevie G has come through so often for his club. Would Liverpool have won the Champions League with anyone else on this list in his place? Doubtful. He is a heart and sole player, a leader a player who can play forward and defense and a player who can tackle hard and score big goals. Two European medals, two F.A. Cup medals and a League Cup medal this decade and desperate to add a league medal to that list.

5. Cristiano Ronaldo. He broke onto the scene through the second half of the decade and went from a player who could do step overs really well into a complete attacking player who could score, head and dive – all attributes of the modern pro. He helped United win titles and a Champions League before moving for mega money to his boyhood team were he continues to impress. That one year were he seemed to score in every single game for United, making the Premier League look easy, was the stand out season to date in an impressive career.

6. Thierry Henry. The French cheat or the Arsenal wizard? Unfortunately he might be remembered forever more for his infamous handball because it came on the back end of his career rather than before his glorious years at Arsenal. While his handball annoyed me it was one moment in one season out of ten years so it shouldn’t be factored in that much. In his years at Arsenal under Wenger he was turned from an awkward winger from his years at Juventus to a speedy striker who scored goals for fun. Arsenal played football around him the right way and they put the ball on his foot to tap in at times, but on other occasions he scored brilliant goals. Regularly scoring close to and once right on the incredible thirty Premier League goals mark he was part of the Arsenal team that went through a Premier League season unbeaten.

I listen to Stan Collymore nearly every day on TalkSport while in work and he is usually good for a debate and is usually getting wound up about something. He has done well for himself since leaving football as a pundit though sometimes he does come up with some very strange ideas – the 25 team no relegation Premier League being one – but sometimes he says things that – as a Liverpool fan make you angry – but when you rationalize, make a little sense. His latest rant has been directed at the captain of his former club: Liverpool’s Steven Gerrard and Stan believes Stevie G needs to leave Liverpool in order to win the Premier League.

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The Ballon d’Or was awarded yesterday to Lionel Messi of Spain and deservedly so as I mentioned in a post yesterday, but now that I have had a look at the full list of voting I have to question the position of some players on the list. Below is the list and then my thoughts… Read More»

I like to think I’m not a hypocrite, at least not intentionally so when I know fine rightly that I would be ordering in a hit-squad on Didier Drogba had he dived against us like N’Gog did against Birmingham tonight, then I can hardly make excuses for the little French runt. “Maybe it was not a penalty,” said Rafael Benítez who with that comment put himself forward for the stating-the-obvious comment of the year award. Liverpool dominated from start to finish but dominance aside that was a poor result from Liverpool all things considered. A real shame that N’Gog had to ‘do a Drogba’ in order to gain us a point that at the very least we deserved, but we couldn’t take our chances for the win and the terrible form statistically continues. Johnson was superb going forward, though weak on the first goal against and other than the dive N’Gog impressed as well. While it was a disaster to see Benayoun and Riera limp off injured it was good to see Gerrard back as well as Aqualani.

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That is what Saturday’s are all about. Wake up around 8.30 a.m. Request regular text updates on the biggest individual game in the Premier League calendar because it isn’t on free to air T.V. here. Spend the morning loading a moving van while reading pleasant text after pleasant text.

I was moving into my new home and what a better moving gift by the Might Red’s than a 4-1 destruction of the League Champions elect. I think United had only conceded 4 times at home all season until Liverpool scoring machine rolled into town. After pulling apart Real Madrid mid-week Liverpool kept their tempo up and stuck four past a United defence that has had praise heaped on it all season.

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