épieur

indeed. Bizarre claim to make in a thread mostly dedicated to how s*** Lucas is.

Momo was spectacular to watch, but as limited a midfielder as you can find. All the nonsense you hear spouted about 'specialist' defensive midfielders like Hamann, Mascherano Makelele and how they can't play ball very well applies 100% to momo. He couldn't pass water with an incontinent bladder. It was great to watch him brutalise midfields when we didn't have the ball, but he badly needed people to help him out whenever the ball came his way. I recall Masch and Momo together in a 4-4-2. And Voronin in front of them. It wasn't pretty.

Where's Wally Christiano? He is somewhere on Nou Camp, along with 100000 others. Can you find him?

What transformation? He was quality under Rafa and sat on the bench under Roy.

Wallace for the Independent knows the score: Kenny does it with such swagger he has the press fawning over him even has he dismisses them. I liked the way Kenny responded to the question of whether Torres was an incentive to win and he said 'I came here to win three points'. That would not have been on the agenda for Roy. He might pray the team could nick it, but he'd go to the Bridge hoping to steal a draw.

"Not again", he thought. "Never again!"

"We signed two fantastic players in Luis Suárez and Andy Carroll and we are looking forward to seeing them play, if they can get in the team." Was Shankly even this good?

He wasn't average last season though. He was one of the few who was consistent in delivering above average performances. He wasn't outstanding either, but I venture the view the most fans simply didn't care to register his improvement last season, because it wasn't in any way spectacular and his performances at the time still weren't good enough to lift the team around him or in any way fill the void from Alonso. We're seeing that now. This was not an overnight transformation though.

I don't think glojo's was a peno. He basically held his ground when Ivanovic weakly and prematurely jumped into his path. Looked to me like the only alternative would be falling over to let Ivanovic through and he shouldn't be doing that either.

Good to see. There was a time when the players around didn't trust him much with the ball. Thing of the past now, he's the one they pass it to when they don't know what to do with it.

So bizarre it's hard to think of this as anything but blind revisionism. Torres is the anti-inzaghi. He scores silky delightful goals, goes on amazing runs and breezes past defenders with terrific combination of acceleration and close control. He takes some incredibly composed touches in crowded spaces to make room for finishes as well, silky ones that makes defender looks secondrate as if he has all the time in the world. Look what you made me write about a chelsea player. Stop it.

according to Raul himself, he did.

I think/hope he is growing into a more skilful version of Hamann. Didi could have days where his decisionmaking on the ball was downright detrimental to play, but his passing was sound and he did have a good engine on him. At his peak circa '02 he covered a lot of ground both defensively and in attack and was really quite immense on his good days. A defensive midfielder who was also capable of dominating teams higher up the pitch. Better than Gerrard for us around that time, imo. Both players are of the 'shackled' type, but Lucas has more to his game with the ball at his feet. I'm hoping as he matures, he'll develop along similar lines but without the negative streak Didi was prone to.

There are a lot of blueprints for how to beat chelsea from this season. It seems they know how to lose in various ways.

Not sure he was amazing but I think he did really well with what he had to work with. He is not the kind of player to bully centrebacks like chelsea, so he was never going to stay in the centre and win battles there. I think he did very well to get in front of the centrebacks to receive passes and provoked his fair share of fouls. And he did well to drag them out of shape when he ran forward with the ball. Excellent setup from him for Aurelio's chance who should have done better with it. We had a lot of joy down their left and Kuyt's work in the interplay down that flank played a big part in that. And that's coming from someone who is not really that impressed by Dirk's workrate and attitude and prefers to evaluate him on what he actually does on the ball.

I still think he has plenty of room for improvement. And I mean that in a purely complimentary sense. He's such a wellrounded player, does all the right things, but his passing is better than what he uses it for, he has a good engine on him when he wants to and he is not going to stop improving defensively until he makes Hamann look naive in midfield in comparison. I actually expect that 3-4 years from now he'll be a top top midfielder who can dominate games in all its aspects.

also, these are the fixture lists for the run-in chelsea: Fulham v Chelsea, 20:00 Chelsea v Man Utd, 19:45 Blackpool v Chelsea, 20:00 Chelsea v Man City, 16:00 Stoke v Chelsea, 15:00 Chelsea v Wigan, 15:00 West Brom v Chelsea, 15:00 Chelsea v West Ham, 15:00 Chelsea v Tottenham, 15:00 Man Utd v Chelsea, 15:00 Chelsea v Newcastle, 15:00 Everton v Chelsea, 16:00 spurs Sunderland v Tottenham, 17:30 Blackpool v Tottenham, 20:00 Wolverhampton v Tottenham, 16:00 Tottenham v West Ham, 12:45 Wigan v Tottenham, 15:00 Tottenham v Stoke, 15:00 Man City v Tottenham, 15:00 Tottenham v West Brom, 15:00 Chelsea v Tottenham, 15:00 Tottenham v Blackpool, 15:00 Liverpool v Tottenham, 15:00 Tottenham v Birmingham, 16:00 us: Liverpool v Wigan, 15:00 West Ham v Liverpool, 13:30 Liverpool v Man Utd, 13:30 Sunderland v Liverpool, 13:30 West Brom v Liverpool, 15:00 Liverpool v Man City, 15:00 Arsenal v Liverpool, 15:00 Liverpool v Birmingham, 15:00 Liverpool v Newcastle, 15:00 Fulham v Liverpool, 15:00 Liverpool v Tottenham, 15:00 Aston Villa v Liverpool, 16:00 Spurs have the easiest run-in, but they will be taking points from each other as well. And we should beat spurs at anfield. We'll need to be outstanding, but it can be done. One bad round for them and will be in touching distance.

kenny is in charge.

this was a defining victory for the team. before this, there was room for doubt about our quality, plenty of room still for nervousness about our ability away from home. The players will come out of this knowing they can beat anyone in the league now and knowing they can win away from home. f*** me, kenny is just getting started.

kenny needed 3 games to accumulate twice as many points away from home as roy could amass in ten games. without a doubt the worst liverpool manager in living memory.

his cumbersome treatment of the ball and hoofing did make him look a bit antiquated when the rest of the team so obviously likes to pass it around under Kenny, but he trivialised that criticism with his defensive display.

A month ago, he was being offered to all and sundry because Roy didn't rate him. Absolutely flabbergasting stuff. Agger is a top of the line defender and our most important player in building from the back.

we need to start entertaining the thought that one ready-made replacement for the class we lost when Alonso and Masch left has stepped up from within our own ranks. This lad is making giant strides at the moment.

what is he saying?