Merry Christmas

4 goals against Pompey and we ended their 6 successive wins on the road. I had a very strong feeling before the game that we will win by 2 clear goals (see my previous blog). Once again Fernando Torres proved to be the difference. 14 goals in the season so far. That's an impressive statistic for a debutant in the english game.

One trend I noticed over the last few games is that whenever Yossi Benayoun scores, the team goes on a scoring spree and wins by a big margin. Remember the record-setting game against Besiktas in the Champions League?? 8-0 and Benayoun scored a hat trick in that game. The problem lies in the consistency of the players and the team. There are games where I hardly see Benayoun at all. I said at the beginning of the season that the key to winning our 19th League title lies in our consistency. We have been poor so far. We have not been able to keep our winning streak. It's frustrating when the problem lies with the whole team. There are games where everyone under-performs. From the Captain to the last man ie. losing possession too easily, slack passing, losing concentration, poor link up play, no creativity in the final third etc etc. Do we lack the winning mentality? I think so. How confident are we to come back from 1 or 2 goals down and go on to win a game? We saw that in the team 2 seasons ago. Remeber AC Milan, Olympiakos, Fulham and West Ham? We came back from the 'dead' to win these games. I am not so sure now. After going one goal down against Man U, I never felt like we would equalise. What happened to the "fight till the end" thing? We should have thrown everything at them, played at a much higher pace, opened up the game, played a third striker and put them under pressure. We were at home afterall. Either way, we were losing by a goal. Anyway, it's over. No point crying over it now.

At the moment, Arsenal and Man U looks unstoppable. It will be a real challenge to close the gap. Once again, we need others to drop points. Wouldn't it be better if we depended on ourselves to earn the 3 points week-in and week-out?

Champions League knock out stage - Liverpool vs Inter Milan. I can't even tell you how big this game is gonna be. We have not played them in a while. It's never easy going to Italy to get a result. The key will be in the leg played at home in Anfield. Remember Juventus a few seasons ago? We basically blasted them out into outer space by half time. They never knew what hit them. We need to do that again against the italian giants. They are looking really good in the Serie A, unbeaten so far. That 2-1 derby win against AC Milan certainly got me really worried.

Anyway, we will worry about that game until we come to it in Feb. In the meantime, let's hope we turn our season around from NOW!! The second half of the season will be crucial. If we are gonna win it, we need to go on a long winning streak. We need results against the top 3 teams away from home. It's not over yet.

In the meantime, wishing one and all a Merry Christmas and may the red of Liverpool bless you with a good year ahead.