Taking Sides: Liverpool vs Everton

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)

Only the earlier of the two - Liverpool losing on a yellow, barren pitch in a match played in the middle of the night British time. I have stronger memories of Liverpool beating Keegan's Hamburg 6-0 in the Super Cup a few years earlier...but not, strangely, of whether KK played in the Anfield leg.

I must try harder to recall these Liverpool defeats.

No, do tell.

Riise's medal sold on eBay says The Sun. Apparently they have footage of Riise and a friend kissing the medal and saying they'll sell it on eBay.

eBay confirmed it was a genuine 2005 Champions League Winners Medal.

Liverpool rubbish Riise Champions League medal sale reports says Tribalfootball.

Item here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Liverpool-Champions-League-Winners-Medal_W0QQitemZ8731695585QQcategoryZ68295QQtcZphotoQQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Went for £1500.

http://i9.ebayimg.com/02/i/05/8e/ec/03_1_b.JPG

A Liverpool-supporting friend has seen the video and it is as described in the article. He thinks it looks like they're just having a laugh, but that it all looks a bit too suspicious to write it off as such, particularly in light of the size of alleged gambling debts incurred by a certain ginger Norwegian.

Tacky-looking thing, isn't it? The ribbon in particular makes me want to barf.

This bit confuses me, in relation to the Chumps League final in Istanbul:

"Even before the story was out properly they had diagnosed me and decided I had quit," he added.

"Do people know I was the number one penalty taker on the pitch that night in Istanbul?

"So why would I want to walk off in a game when I had a real chance of getting on the scoresheet?"

Eh? Doesn't that only make sense if Liverpool intended to play for penalties FROM THE KICK-OFF? Although I suppose if that is your strategy then going 1-0 down (as the score was when Kewell left the pitch) might put a dent in your plans.

It's odd, though, that anyone would think that any player would choose not to play in the biggest match in European football. I don't really understand that theory.

He's not blown it with me, but he's certainly on probation. I do want him to succeed in a Liverpool shirt, but I'm not sure what chance he'll get.

Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta:
"The defeat by Bolton should never have been anything like 4-0, we were really disappointed and sad."

Sick but not stumbling-about-in-a-daze sick. Defeat was expected and the manner of it was close to anticipated too. There have quite a few 3-1s over the years where we've looked, for a 15-20min spell at least, to be likely to get something from the game but by the end seem comprehensively beaten (Anfield 10/00, Goodison 9/01...Christ, there's loads...Goodison 3/82, Anfield late '81...curse my memory).

There's usually a "turning-point" or somesuch hindsight-enriched moment of relative inconsequence that bitter Blues obsess over - this time it was the disallowed Beattie header. It was significant only in the sense that 1-2 with 8-10min to go to the break would've been a lot tastier than 1-2 with 3-5min to half-time, especially in the light of what happened on 46:14.

At 0-2, there was that queasy feeling that we hadn't really been inferior in any department other than finishing yet, from here, we could very quickly be four or five down and no one would be terribly surprised. The Everton response was admirable if, in a footballing sense, fairly half-arsed.

We're just not very good and we need van der Meyde back very quickly. Liverpool are superb defensively but Gerrard remains the only attacking player who genuinely scares me when he's on the ball.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/4701024.stm

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Gerrard must be thinking again about moving on

Steve Bierley at the JJB Stadium
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian

As much as it was possible to admire just about everything Steven Gerrard attempted against Wigan Athletic, even if hardly anything quite came off as he would have wished, the overriding feeling was one of watching an increasingly unfulfilled player. The winning of the European Cup persuaded him to stay at Anfield, but since then the progress of the squad under Rafael Benítez has slowed to a snail's pace, with the return of Robbie Fowler a potentially alarming retrograde step for management and club alike.

[etc]

seems harsh to describe Fowler's return as retrograde. i doubt Rafa has plans for him beyond throwing him on now and then when other people are crocked (as they frequently are).

"Diddums" is my considered response to this. Everton, as I never tire of telling people, played 63 games in 84-85 (winning 45 of them and scoring 126 goals, fact fans) with a vastly smaller squad and only really started to show fatigue in May (Cup final defeat, lost three of last four league games). The great Liverpool teams of the period also didn't wither mid-season under a similar avalanche of fixtures.

I don't think Rafa's lot are, either (more's the pity). Recent form might suggest a swift end to their Cup campaigns in the next week or two and a loosening grip on 3rd spot. Ain't gonna happen. They're flattering to deceive - getting my hopes up.

It's true, you never tire of it - it must be because of your meticulous pre-season - the way you start off in late June on exercises involving telling different people about individual games for no more than 5 minutes, then work up gradually by 5 minutes a week with a different statistic added unpredictably to keep things fresh. It's at this stage, amid the dirty keyboards and clogged threads of February, that that training really pays dividends in posts like the one above. Ray.

For example, i've seen reports that modern players have much less time on the ball, so they must control and pass in the same thought process. I thought of this watching the 1979 ECWC final between Barca and Dusseldorf, and it was, well, shocking. It was the moment where you realise that football has moved on. I knew, for example, that the era of matthews and finney was one I couldn't relate to, but I left in the respectful category instead.

Seeing this match, I realised that it was close enough to the football I knew to mean I couldn't write it off as part of the olden days, but couldn't escape the fact that it was a bit bobbins.

Taking this together - if players today have less time on the ball, have less opportunity to decide what to do, then modern football time is compressed, and so simple comparison to back in the day aren't appropriate at all are they?

< / pissed on train home>

However, Liverpool revealed on their website that a deal has now been finalised, subject to a medical.

Paletta, who turns 20 on Wednesday, helped Argentina win the Under-20 World Cup in 2005.

He has made 33 appearances for Banfield and scored five goals.

Paletta's arrival will further boost Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez's defensive options following the recent acquisitions of Daniel Agger and Jan Kromkamp.