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So it was all about money all along. I'm honestly surprised; I'd been criticising people on other sites who said 'filthy mercenary' and similar.

I'm not sure whether he was ruling out Real or checking them off the list of clubs to be linked with him.

I suppose it's not even a case of Gerrard and Torres being far better than everyone else, it's that there doesn't seem to be a functioning, effective team without either of them. I'm a great believer ion the idea that teams need to have an identity and a stlyle of play and I don't think Liverpool have that without their star players. It's almost as if they don't know how to play without Gerrard and Torres. The same is true of the England national team - what kind of football do they play? Where are the less respected players that stand up to over-achieve when the stars aren't there? United have their Fletchers and O'Sheas that win matches on a regular basis. Liverpool don't seem to have those. As incredibly biased as this might be to say, but Liverpool suffer from not having Yossi Benayoun this season. He's a match-winner that seems to love playing in a team without its bigger fish. Chelsea have a defined style of play that's enough to win matches despite the personnel on the pitch. United are likewise. Does that hold true for Liverpool? I think they often win matches on the basis of the players on the pitch and THAT's the legacy that Rafa left behind. Maybe it's just because he didn't have the personality to supplant the reputation of Liverpool as a football club. Ferguson and Mourinho had that; Liverpool's last couple of managers (at least) don't. N'Gog is a perfectly good player. Joe Cole and Glen Johnson likewise. It's just that they seem to perform for Liverpool on the basis of their skill, not because of what the team brings out of them. When you don't have a style of play that brings more from players than their natural talent, you cannot be a title-winning team.

I've pretty much reversed my position on this over the last year or so. Yes, I really like the 4-2-3-1 system, but it has clearly not been beneficial for Liverpool. It works as a strategy for a match, but it's been a significant factor in halting their progress. If you use the argument 'why would we buy a world class striker to sit on the bench?' you're already acknowledging the problem - that Liverpool are reliant on one injury-prone player. You can't build your team around a system that's far, far weaker when one player is injured. In fact, I think there's more to the problem than just the failure to have a decent second-choice striker. Liverpool seem to have been bereft of decent attackers of ANY kind. Gerrard/Torres aren't just the two best players, they're the only two sufficiently talented attacking players. With the rotating cast of Riera/Morientes/Benayoun as back-up for the star pair, the team's always going to be lacking. This says nothing for the fact that losing Mascherano and Alonso is enough to take any team from title-contenders to also-rans. I actually love Meireles as a player, but I still don't think the squad is anywhere near good enough to compete for Champions League places.

Actually, I like Blackpool a teenie bit because Charlie Adam is a fantasy football god for me this year.

You are a horrible person. They're good for the league, a small stadium full of noise, a team full of attacking intent and players who've mainly been lower league footballers going up against these big wage players, I'd much rather that than watching overpaid shit like Liverpool or defensive long-ball bullshit like Blackburn and Stoke. I probably said the same thing about Hull a couple of years ago, but I ended up hating the club and wanting them to get relegated. It's nice for most of these teams to get their moment in the sun, but it takes quite a lot to make me actually care whether they stay in the Premiership or not.

They aren't really similar offences, though. A better comparison would be Southampton, who were docked points despite the fact that the holding company (and not the club itself) went into administration.

Yeah, the L1 pass - the one-two - is really good for attacking play. If you have the ball with a striker just outside the penalty area use the one-two to make a small lateral pass to the other striker, then play a ball back to the first guy when he's made it past the defender between the two. Should be enough to get a first time shot away or take a touch in the box and finish.

Just concentrate on your first touch and your passing. Don't bother about crossing, through balls or anything like that until you can comfortably move the ball through midfield. The direction of your first touch is one of the most important things in determining whether you can keep possession of the ball. Don't let your eyes wander up the pitch - you'll most often lose the ball because you're so desperate to get up the pitch you play silly passes and try and take that extra run step that fucks you.

In retrospect, the whole New Anfield fiasco probably gave a lot of clues about the nature of their ownership. Surely even the filthiest, most money-grubbing profiteer would be able to see that the best way to make money from LFC is with a new stadium? Arsenal's model in the hands of a less conservative board would be the perfect way to wring money from the club. When it became obvious New Anfield wasn't happening their image went from money-grubbing profiteers to skint money-grubbing profiteers. Never a good thing.

Got the game thigs morning but only had time for a couple of quick matches in the Manager Mode I'm gonna start with. Seems easier to play than the demo, which is god news. Scored 3 goals and conceded none playing on World Class, so doing pretty well. Definitely up for an EWB club if anyone sets one up.

Do commentators even listen to what they're saying?

Oh snap

TAKE THAT, CRUEL SUB-TITLE.

They'd better really fight to try and get the points this season. Presumably whatever happens they'll have the same 17 point deduction Bournemouth and Rotherham got this season when they came out of administration. If they can get the 10 points take off this season they'll be in a much better position.

That's true, but Liverpool still have Tottenham, West Ham away and games against Newcastle and Hull teams fighting for their lives. Even if they get 4 wins and a draw United would need to drop points in 3 games with at least one loss (maybe two depending on goal difference.)

Yeah, the last few games have sucked the competition out of some parts of the league. It's still better than some seasons though - the race for 7th is going to go down to the wire and features some new teams. The relegation battle's a really interesting one as well with only one team really out of it and the possibility of some big names (Newcastle, Pompey and Blackburn) going down.

He's great. I think this came up recently, but when Gerrard or Torres aren't playing he's the most likely to change a game for Liverpool. Maybe this season it might be a killer pass from Alonso, but Benayoun's a different type of player. I think he's found a great niche as a not-quite-first-choice but highly important player. Obviously the lack of impact from Babel probably has something to do with how mock focus he's had.

Yeah, your tactics don't work consistently for 4 or 5 years and then get abruptly 'cracked.' It's just a single result. Yeah, if you keep exactly the same tactics for a long period of time you tend to see a slight drop in performance, but there's never a serious decrease and it never happens over night.

Hmm, after looking at lostpedia I think I was getting a bit muddled up. Apparently it's 'failure to find a constant' that resulted in the rabbits having an aneurysm, not anything else. I'm sure there was mention made of not coming into contact with yourself, but I'm not sure where that came from.

Cracking of tactics doesn't happen, you just hit a bad run of form. Did Aston Villa's tactics get cracked a couple of months ago? Nah, they just lost a bit of momentum. Same with Hull earlier in the season or even United when they lost to Liverpool and Fulham.

I dunno, I must have completely missed that bit of commentary. Feel stupid for not remembering Baptista, I just assumed it would be somewhere back in the distant past and didn't even think about it.

I wonder why we weren't constantly reminded of whoever the last away player was to score 4 goals at Anfield. I don't know, I just thought they'd have mentioned it.

Holy shit! Amazing game, Arshavin has dominated. Football is great

It's crazy. Arshavin's hardly touched the ball apart from the three times he's scored. Good football, though. Liverpool have been dominant but haven't really capitalised and their defending's had a hand in a couple of the goals. EDIT: God, football has been great so far this year.