Rafa has signed a deal and Stevie issues warning in Europe

It has certainly been a wonderful week to be a Liverpool fan. As King Kenny rightly pointed out, the timing of Rafa penning a new deal cannot come at a better time. The comments from Hicks and Gillet seems to reflect a rare common consensus between the two American owners but how long will that last before they fight again? That's for all of us to guess! Stevie's comments in the aftermath of Manchester United thrashing indicates a growing sense of belief and returning confidence in the team. How can anyone fault him for saying that? It's a fact that massive wins do instill confidence and, with confidence, teams generally play better football. Let's just hope that this is true for the remaining season. Too often we have seen the team drop their standard of play after a string of good results. I guess it's a mental barrier the team must overcome in order to be champion material. 2 European finals in 4 years....that's a record that any team will be envious of in Europe. With Rafa's tactics and the way the team sets up it's play, Liverpool has proven to be a hard nut to crack in Europe. I expect nothing less than a semi final appearance this season. But then again that's not where we hope the team will be this season. It's the league title that we really desire. Imagine doing the double over Chelsea and Man United in a season and still not win the league title! Unbelievable! Maybe the Anfield factor is a reason for the team's lacklustre performances against the lower league teams. Anfield has been unable to regenerate the kind of atmosphere that exists on European nights. Agree that European nights have also been special in the hearts of all Red fans but in order to win the league, we need to do our part to inspire the team to raise their standard of play week in and week out. Rafa's decision to play the Anfield anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone" just before kick off was exactly for this purpose. He had hoped to inspire the players and the crowd before kickoff. However, too often, in recent season, the Anfield crowd had grown silent as the game progresses especially if the score remains goal less at half time. The fact is that players are human beings too and we can't expect them to raise their game weekly in order to produce the kind of performance we saw against Real Madrid and Manchester United. If only Anfield can become the all important 12th man in EVERY game we play, I am sure the players will be inspired to give their 110%. I am not sure if Rafa will be the man to bring us the league title. It's true we have progressed over the last 5 years but I feel we lack one or two players of Torres' quality. Look at Man United's bench. Look at Chelsea's bench. And then look at ours! There are a few players I feel needs to be shipped out. Lucas is one of them. He is ordinary at best and usually atrocious. We need a creative player in the class of David Villa or Frank Ribery or even Fabgregas. Besides Torres, we lack another world class striker. I still believe it was a mistake to sell Keane. Given another season, I am sure he will come good. On the left back position, Aurelio is turning out to be a decent player but Dossena is not the kind of player for us. We need another cover for right back as well. Arbeloa is not doing too badly but should he be injured, we need a proper right back as cover instead of playing Carragher, Mascherano, or worse still, Skrtel. 3 quality players - a striker, a midfielder and a left/right back. And provided Torres, Stevie, Alonso, Kyut, Benayoun, Mascherano, Carragher, Reina remains fit throughout, we have a team of players capable of beating anyone in England and even Europe.