The_MC

Toure Sturridge Mignolet

That about sums it up nicely. Good performance from Toure vs Benteke, and Mignolet did well when called upon. Excellent goal for Sturridge too. Considering we're meant to have padded out the squad with the early signings of the transfer window, resorting to putting a left back in midfield and an unfit Joe Allen on to offer more presence is baffling. 3 more points in the bag though and still more than enough time to make a few additions. Luckily the lads had 45 minutes off too so they shouldn't be too knackered for the next game.

The way this is heading I can't see us coming away with 3 points. Poor passing and poor possession at the moment. As the pressure builds, at 1-0, they'll get chances. Need to concentrate on keeping the ball moving and pinning them back when we have possession, otherwise we'll be relying on another late save to keep the win.

Don't think any of the yellow cards shown so far today were correct. Seems the ref is pulling his cards for almost any foul, so the players better be careful. Gerrard needs to pick up his passing in the second half and Aspas needs to get involved more so we can keep possession when they are pressing (especially making himself available when Coutinho is looking for a pass). Decent performance so far but we need to create some real chances as there have been very few apart from the goal.

Stegen is still a Mönchengladbach player. Personally I still expect Reina to be a Barca player by the start of the season but now we have Mignolet in there isn't so much worry as to whether it happens now or later.

He's hardly going to say he's transfer listed him is he? That would throw away any chance we have of getting a decent fee for him. I'd like to think we have the two of them fighting out for the position but in reality it seems highly unlikely. Best case scenario for me is that they're phasing Mignolet in for the first half of the season, learning what he can from Pepe and getting used to the style and players around him, then Reina goes over to Barca in Jan to transition in the same way but with Valdes. Takes the pressure off the players and gives them a chance to settle in rather than getting destroyed by the press as so many new keepers do.

He's been linked as a loan signing hasn't he? Really don't see the point. If he does well then he holds up the development of our current players for a year then goes back to Barca, if he does badly then we simply pay the wages of a Barca youth player for a year then don't want him. Don't see where we win out of it unless it has a clause to make it a permanent deal? Loans only work for small teams who need instant squad players on the cheap in my opinion. I don't think we should be plugging gaps in the squad with short term solutions.

It would be a bad message to send out to the squad too imo (selling Henderson that is): basically you can keep quiet and work hard, get back into the first 11 on form and turn many fans opinions onside but you still get sold. That wouldn't sit well with me. He has the right attitude, is very versatile, and has some real talent there in my opinion. Has certainly done enough to earn another season.

The problem with that is how do you counter attack against a team who don't commit players forward? Some of the teams that come to Anfield sit so deep and only commit a few players into attack at a time. Counter attacks work well against the better teams but when it comes to the likes of Stoke they keep so many back there isn't any space to counter attack into. I'd suggest we're targeting quick players because part of the key to possession based football is player movement, especially when waiting for space to play the 'killer' pass. The players linked also tend to be very versatile in terms of their positions, again suggesting the importance of movement and finding space to find the ball wherever it's available.

Hopefully we won't spend huge amounts on sacking managers and staff, then paying out compensation and signing on fees for new ones like we've done so often in recent years. Would much rather see that money go on improving the squad.

Very good. 6 months of procrastinating, then after 1 week of organised protest in the form of e-mails they get it done. Just goes to show e-mail campaigns aren't a waste of time. One step at a time, hopefully his Knighthood is the next to go.

Good riddence. 40 years too late.

This is taken from our friends over at RAWK, so I thought I'd pull it across to a proper forum for anyone who hasn't yet seen it. I'm sure you'll agree it's completely inappropriate for Bettison to have an Honorary Fellowship from a Liverpool institution. So if anyone has a spare minute to put across their thoughts to the University then get on it. For those who don't have time you can just copy and paste from the article.

The original Evil Dead is great, and I'd go as far as saying it's a classic of the horror genre. The geekiest thing I own is my Evil Dead limited edition book of the dead dvd. The DVD case is a tactile rubber recreation of the book from the film, with artwork on the pages inside. Geeky but I love it. Evil Dead II was basically a higher-budget comic remake of the first, and now presumably the new one is a 'serious' remake of the first. Don't really see the point as the first one was perfect anyway, but then I don't see the point of remakes anyway when the original is already seen as a classic or cult-classic. It had a mix of real horror, gross-out and that level of comedy where you giggle more out of nervousness rather than the slapstick of the 2nd... in fact, I don't think any other horror film has ever found that level of balance between scary and fun so finely as the original.

Haha oh yeah, well it's all Spanish to me. I was thinking of Guillermo del Toro too for some reason, and he's Mexican! Wherever I've seen it, Spanish(-language) films or not, I don't like it (the flashback sum-up technique that is).

Yeah, very good. I don't like the way many Spanish films use a series of flashbacks at the end to sum up what's just happened though. Really lazy and unneccesary technique and a pet hate of mine. The subtitles clashed a bit for me so were difficult to read at times, not sure if it was the BBC signal, the subtitles themselves, or my TV contrast.

Wnter's Bone - Plot: A 17-year old girl living in the US deep South, with an incapacitated mother and two young siblings to care for, attempts to track down her meth-cooking Dad who's put up the family home for bail and is set to miss the court date and therefore render them all homeless. Wow, what a great performance by the young lead actress. Really bleak and moody film, with some seriously intense moments. Unflinching, sombre and an authentic feel of acceptance at desperation rather than overacted panic. Definately recemmended for those who like their films to feel genuine and 'real'.

We made our choice and signed up Rodgers. I fully expect (more hope) the owners to back up their manager and give him time to get it right. I've come to expect less from the fans in recent years though because the attitude of relentlessly criticising players, managers, backroom staff and even club legends is sickeningly more common. Maybe it's always been like this but there hasn't been the internet and media for people highlight it? Maybe we're just becoming impatient as the team struggle? Maybe the idea of respect and unity is lost from the club? The same thing happened with Rafa, with divided opinions looming constantly and the same rhetoric surfacing every time we failed to take 3 points. I hoped we would learn from it and realise that together we are a stronger team, because if there's ever a good example of manager changes failing it's seeing how far we fell since Rafa. Even the unity that Kenny brought on returning didn't last, with people just waiting for us to fail to jump in and and stick the boot in. This isn't meant to sound like a rant and it's not directed at anyone in particular. I just think that although Liverpool is about winning, we're also about a hell of a lot more than that and bit by bit it feels like we're losing the values that made the club what it is and why it means so much. Maybe i'm living in a dreamland. F**k it.

Been looking forward to seeing this film for ages. Have resisted the temptation to find it on the internet and watch in lower quality. Hope it lives up to expectations.

F***ing HATE how Gerrard just can't be arsed sometimes. Didn't win the bouncing ball so he just walks off and lets his man run up the pitch and create another goal. Disgraceful.

Missed the start so just put on bbc sport to see what the score is... 88% possession to Southampton after 18mins, what the holy f**k?

It just goes to show what a bit of hard work and effort does to get the fans onside. I've given him a lot of stick as most fans have, but my main issue was always that he didn't look like he wanted to put the effort in and seemed to hide when we needed him to step up. Excellent display from him yesterday, and perhaps those that said he always needs a season to settle at new clubs were right. Gotta admit I was screaming for him to pass it to Sturridge for the tap in rather than have a pop down the middle with his weak foot though!

Splice (2009) A kind of sci-fi horror with a B-movie feel to it. Really good. Reminded me of The Fly.. Funny, slightly sick, and for once Adrien Brody doesn't come across as a complete d***head (The Pianist excluded as he's great in that). Basically Brody and his Mrs are geneticists splicing together animals in the lab to create new hybrids for medical research. They then splice using human DNA to see what happens. Cue Cronenberg-style monster madness.

Good result. I think everyone knew that today would be a high scoring game. Didn't expect such poor defending and refereeing though. Still, for us to come from behind and grind out a result is a real positive.