Taking Sides: Liverpool vs Everton

I actually think Liverpool are quite good, just as I've said before lacking a Cristiano Ronaldo type player. But the midfield really seemed alot stronger than United's today, we were winning the ball constantly.

I only go to the kinds of games that aren't on TV, that you can just turn up for, even sometimes standing, and the prices aren't so much over a tenner. I mostly watch on TV, so lots of games there is a good thing, for me.

No, I don't see anyone but Chelsea winning it this year, and I would rather it was more competitive - but this is the first season I can ever remember being like this. For me there is still plenty to be interested in with the fight for fourth (Liverpool were as obvious a 4th last year, and didn't get there), the fight for other Euro places, the fight against relegation (I was incredibly excited by the last day of the season last time, because of that), plus two Cup competitions.

Yes, the Liverpool - Man U game surprised me. I wouldn't have thought either team can afford to comfortably settle for a point, and they were more concerned about risking that 1 point than in chasing an extra 2. I guess Man U figured that they'd defend with seven men, and rely on the front 3 to make something happen - and there's enough talent there that this would work often (or maybe Ferguson still fancies Scholes to get forward and score, even if no one else does). As you say, Liverpool are strong and solid, but perhaps lack a touch of brilliance up front.

I'm not saying it's glorious and perfect, and although today wasn't so good (the Blackburn-Newcastle game was very bad most of the way through too), yesterday was very enjoyable, especially if you have some fondness for West Ham, as I do.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1573570,00.html

Wow: having been 21 PERCENT ahead, the CDU (Merkel) have come in just 3 SEATS ahead!

I think this is hilarious! What a campaign that represents for the SPD, since Schroder (to me) so inexplicably cast himself up for removal from office c.4 months ago. Really, given the way they started out, it is a pretty dire result for Merkel ... isn't it?

We could easily lose the next three (City & Spurs away, Chelski home). We just have to remember that almost everyone less than 10pts ahead of us is basically rubbish as well.

Astonishing really, the German election.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/4289046.stm

Angie and Gerhard have been holding talks!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,2763,1580426,00.html

One solution floated yesterday was that Mr Schröder could serve under Mrs Merkel as a foreign minister and deputy chancellor

I wouldn't do that, Gerhard.

Perhaps it would be a wrench for him to leave Anfield, though. He would have to listen to his heart, during a long night of telephone calls and single transferrable votes.

I think Liverpool did great to hold unstoppable Chelsea at 0-0. I would be glad were I one of their supporters. Well done, Liverpool!

Everton won in Europe, which was quite good. It is a pity that their European adventure is over, though. But tomorrow, they play Manchester City: they should get a point. I am alarmed to learn, though, that they have only scored one league goal by 1st October.

They 'can't buy a goal'!

Yes, things really are looking up for the Toffees. (Please supply punchline).

Maybe Everton could start running out to this rickety, ramshackle, downhome rootsy cover?

Perhaps privately.

And in less detail.

I still think "Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em" would be appropriate.

I can't remember that tune, PJM. This is a good idea: think up tunes from other TV programmes, that Everton can Run Out to.

...

I know! Edge of Darkness!

They could Walk In to it, at the final whistle.

"The Bobfox, did you realise that 'Johnny Todd' (track 6 on disc 2 of 'A Tree With Roots' is the Z-Cars/Everton song?)
-- Mooro (david.moore9...), May 1st, 2005.

8< snip >8

Mooro - no, I have not noticed that, on the CD!"

I like their 'Folsom Prison Blues'!

I am listening to the CD (II) now, you see. It is 'See You Later Allen Ginsberg'.

After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that
domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took
the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have
custody of him. After two recesses to check legal references and confer with
child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to Everton
Football Club whom the boy firmly believes are incapable of beating anyone.

Everton 1-1 Chelsea

I was impressed by Shearer's belligerent refusal to shake hands and subsequent interview.

- You've played against some great centre-halves in your time, some real bruisers... what was the difference this time?

- Well, he wasn't great, for starters...

Liverpool 2-0 West Ham

Well done, the scouse teams.

(Sorry I didn't see you on Saturday, Pinefox; Ava wasn't happy and we really had to go...)

Fine strikes in an emphatic win. Well done, the Reds!

Villa's Premiership points tally of nine has never before been in single figures after the first 11 matches, but if they held Liverpool they would become the first club ever to register 150 Premier League draws.

It worked!

I do note that Moyes has "not ruled out" buying back Gravesen in January, seeing as we get first refusal at mates' rates or something. No one's ever as good second time around, of course - David Johnson, Andy King, Howard Kendall, Duncan Ferguson...

There's not exactly a world of difference between these 1-0s and the 0-1s; I think Boro had the best of it and we hung on a bit. Van der Meyde/Beattie combo starting to come good, like Dave Thomas and Bob Latchford.

Peter Crouch finally has a use, I see - wrestling defenders in such a clumsy way it looks like he's the one being fouled. Neat trick. Dalglish used to do something similar with his arse.

Liverpool on verge of record-breaking run

Everton take battling counter-attack point from crumbling Old Trafford, and rise to season's high of 15th

Christmas comes early, for both halves of Merseyside!

PS / somehow it was wrong, wasn't it, on SPoftheYear last night, that George Best was celebrated with 'In My Life'? Should have been something by Them or solo Van, surely; or even the Undertones. But it also made me think: the Beatles always get associated with LFC - but never with EFC. I mean, would a Dixie Dean or Adrian Heath retrospective get 'Hey Bulldog' or 'Across the Universe' played over the top?

'some scent of the old seaport about us'!

And the rest!

Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia, pale and gaunt with the legacy of a 15-hour trek around the globe, had to wade through frenzied crowds of autograph hunters at their hotel here yesterday.

'Legacy'!

Celebrity status for the linchpins of Liverpool's defence is guaranteed these days yet, once the adoring masses had dispersed and the centre-halves could turn their thoughts to breaking one of Liverpool's most impressive records, a sense of proper perspective soon sunk in.

Should the European champions beat Deportivo Saprissa - the Costa Ricans having edged past Sydney FC 1-0 yesterday - on Thursday in their semi-final of the Fifa Club World Championship, then an 11th consecutive clean sheet would set a new club record. Kenny Dalglish's title-winning side of 1987-88 registered 10 successive blanks, though there the comparison with that great team ends. "The thing is, players like Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson won championships and Liverpool around that time had won all those European Cups," said Carragher. "Statistics are nice and it's great to break records, but the main thing is to win the silverware."
Should Liverpool beat the Costa Rican side they will have an opportunity to flourish where their predecessors floundered, against Flamengo and Independiente in 1981 and 1984, by winning the final, which takes place here on Sunday. For the centre-halves, though, it is domestic success which must prove their legacy.

Legacy, again. But also - only today have I learned about those 1980s defeats. It seems that ZICO was heavily involved! Mike, any memories?

It may be 924 minutes since the Merseysiders last conceded, with Rafael Benítez's side currently Chelsea's most coherent challengers in the Premiership after seven straight wins, but the sense remains that this Liverpool side will not rest until a domestic championship has been won for the first time since 1990. "Those past players had won more than we have," said Hyypia, "but we still have time to match them in terms of the silverware we win for this club."

"Those players won titles with the club and that's the aim of everybody here at the moment," added Carragher. "Of course we'd like to beat their record - we've done well even to equal it - but our aim is very much to be as successful as that side in the future. It's about winning games, not just about keeping the clean sheets going. When we were playing Middlesbrough on Saturday, at 0-0 I started thinking it would be great to claim another clean sheet with the record in mind, but I'd have rather we'd won 2-1 than drawn. In the end we got the best of both worlds and it makes me proud to be involved in this defence, but we have to keep progressing."

"at 0-0 I started thinking it would be great to claim another clean sheet": "at 0-0" = during the first minute of the game!

Success in Japan would maintain momentum for the weeks ahead and help to nullify the effects of the 12,000-mile round trip, albeit only psychologically. Steven Gerrard admitted yesterday that there were "slight concerns" that the physical exertions could catch up with the Liverpool squad, although the focus remains on adding the world crown to the European Cup claimed in Istanbul in May. Already, a stodgy start to the current campaign, which saw the Champions League winners languishing in the lower reaches over the first few months of the season, has been forgotten.

"I've not been surprised at the way Rafa's turned things around," offered the chief executive, Rick Parry. "We're very pleased, not surprised. There's a hunger and an ambition within the club which is shared by the supporters, the players, the manager and the board of directors. We're pleased with the way things are going this year and delighted with the way things ended last season, but we're not finished yet. The aim is to go on, win a league title or two and maintain this progress. We've some way still to go, but we're delighted with the job Rafa's done and the way the players have responded this year."

Just one, or two. That'll do.

It made me think, this report, about how things can turn round. European Champions Liverpool seemed in a rut only a few weeks ago; now they seem like real contenders. I am happy for them and their supporters, though not all will be. But it is odd how the mood of all the boardroom million-pound stuff comes down to whether they let in goals or not, during a few games in November and Deccember. The contingency of football, hingeing on the pitch, even when it seems driven by megabuck flows. But perhaps I am wrong.

And made me think of the days when even "working class" men didn't have to support a football team (let alone the middle classes)