You wait around for ages to knock some Mancs out of a cup..

After the fun and games on Wednesday it's now the turn of the other, darker side of Manchester to try their luck at Anfield.

Jamie Carragher - Voice of the Nation

It would be fair to say that there's a little bit of an edge to this game.. just a little.The whole Suarez affair has left this tie perilously close to something of a precipice - suppose it would do everyone good to take a step back, but that's not going to happen any time soon. Patrice Evra it is fair to say has not endeared himself to Liverpool fans of late. Not that he was among our favourite individuals about the place, but there is a general perception that he is a liar, liar and there have been rumours that his pants are indeed on fire.

There are echoes of the previous FA Cup tie between the two at Anfield in 2006 when everyone's favourite manc gobshite did little to endear to himself to us after running the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the away end at Old Trafford.

I've never been to a game before where one person was targeted so much before, the noise every time Neville touched the ball was.. well, a bit noisy. Now that the Anti-Carragher has retired Evra has quite handily filled the void.

I do also think that the FA are quite happy that they didn't give Suarez an 6 game ban as the game tomorrow would have been his first game back, which would have been - well a little bit mental.

Liverpool do have their work cut out tomorrow. Following the match on Wednesday I suspect that Liverpool will be a little less prepared for this match in particular compared to Man Utd, who have spent their week putting their feet up and watching us running about knocking out City.

Luis Suarez won't be taking part tomorrow and sadly neither will Wes Brown

It is also fair to say that we benefited in a similar way in the first leg of the semi with City as they had just played in the 3rd round against Man Utd, with 10 men for most of that game. You have to deal with these things though, that's the point of having  a squad.

Changes will have to be made, for example it is difficult to see Bellamy playing much part tomorrow following his efforts on Wednesday.

So it will be the turn of Andy Carroll to step up. Frankly it would be about time. I thought that he might kick on after scoring at Goodison earlier in the season. You would have thought that would have done wonders for his confidence, which seemed to be his problem. It may actually be his fitness level that is the problem, or maybe he just doesn't give a shit. I don't know, but whatever it is he needs to sort it out sharpish and tomorrow would be the perfect place to start.

I have my reservations about tomorrow.. largely because of the efforts on Wednesday. And also because I am generally quite pessimistic when it comes to predicting our games. In fact it is usually a good sign. It's when I start to confident (like last Saturday at Bolton) that the wheels tend to come off.

We shall see. Liverpool's home form anyway has been less than spectacular with draws becoming something of a speciality. So I suppose the smart money would be on the replay when we can get them back at their gaff and by that time we'll have a certain Mr Suarez back for the trip to Manchester - now won't that be fun.

The day after the night before.. Reds back at Wembley.

Well we managed it... only just, but only just is just enough. That sounds a bit weird but it actually that does make sense without me particularly meaning it. Never mind.

The media delight in telling us that that this will be Liverpool's first Wembley appearance in 16 years (whilst neglecting to mention that we would have been there 11 times since had they not knocked the old one down.)  But why let fact get in the way of a good statistic that makes us look shite.

We are set up for the game that Craig Bellamy would have picked for himself to make his Wembley debut, which in itself is a little bit strange as you would have thought he'd have played there by now, but apparently not. I suppose for the bulk of his career before they knocked it down he was at Norwich, so maybe not so surprising.

He picked up a suspension from the Euro's qualifier against England a few months ago, but I suspect in hindsight this is a more fitting game for him.

Bellamy was outstanding last night, and although I now have a (small) wound on my leg courtesy of his goal last night from landing on the seat in front of me, I think on balance I'll forgive him that.

I was surprised really, how little Man City showed last night. Yes they went in front twice, but on the balance of play Liverpool were more dominant and created more - you only have to consider that Joe Hart was their man of the match to give you an idea of how the game went.

The penalty that we got was - let's say -  a bit of a home decision, but after seeing the replays that you could see that it took a big deflection of Micah Richards' leg first, but if you go into challenges waving your arms around then that's a risk you take. It is summed up best by the conversation Dalglish had after the game :

Reporter: "What did you think of the penalty decision?"

Dalglish: "What do you mean?"

Reporter :"The handball"

Dalglish : "Exactly."

He does tend to be more entertaining than either of a previous 2 managers when it comes to the post match interviews - Rafa, because he wasn't too confident with his English and Hodgson, because he was a dick.

I was also surprised at the lack of impact that Aguero made after coming on (at half time)- comparable with the impact of Andy Carroll's performance last night (with 2 mins to go).

We face up to Cardiff at the end of February, but it would be a mistake to think the the job is done. Liverpool  are 5/1 on to win it, but the last time we played lower league opposition in a final (2001 League Cup vs Birmingham) was not exactly easy. And you just have to look at last year when Birmingham (again) were supposed to roll over and die against Arsenal - and rather hilariously didn't.

So it's set up.. Bellamy beats his old team, to set up a final against his home-town team.. and considering we should have Suarez back by that time it may prove entertaining, especially if Bellamy doesn't have to do all the running on his own again.

He just needs a better song.... "Craig, Craig, Craig, Craig Bellamy!!" < Needs work.

League Cup Semi - #LFC v #MCFC

Liverpool take on City this evening and sadly going, once again, into the pointy end of the season this is Liverpool's most likely chance to win a trophy this season. Despite having 50% more handles than most other cups around, it is the one at the bottom of the list of priorities at the start of the season.

But we are where we are, and given that we've not actually won anything since 2006, which is a bit too long really - it's not quite 34 years without one, but it's still too long.

Of course, we've got quite a stiff task in front of us before we can entertain such thoughts of winning trophies. Man City have the newly found financial weight that has meant they can almost dismiss this competition as a triviality... maybe that is an exaggeration.

They still want to win as much as they can, that is after all the point of this game - but after our 2 recent games at Eastlands / Etihad sponsored by Abu Dhabi Inc Stadium, given the choice, they would rather have had the results fall the way they did. 3 points and losing the first leg 1-0, rather than 0 points and winning the 1st leg 1-0 for example.

Given our league position I would suggest that actually winning something is more important than 5th or 6th place at present.

Of course, we could unravel completely and City walk away with everything - I suspect that this is something that everyone will have to get used to once City get a taste for winning (stuff with big handles - not just 3 handles).

But there is another possibility - One that I have everything crossed for to become a reality. That is that everything gets turned up to 11 at Anfield tonight. OK - It's not a European semi-final like those we became used to for a while - the money we're facing this time comes from a little south of Russia - but when it comes to the crunch I think we can step up this time.

It will be tricky - Silva should be back for them, a big miss from the 1st leg. A player of considerably more quality than Nigel Reo-Coker who wandered through our defence on Saturday with alarming ease, but maybe we did lose focus on the Bolton game, because we knew that this one was round the corner - Unforgivable, but if that is the case, than we really can't let this one slip.

If we play more like we did in the first quarter of this tie and we defend as well as we did in the second, then we are in with a very good chance of getting to Wembley - which it would be nice to get to before they stop referring to it as the 'New' Wembley (if they haven't already - whoever 'they' are I'm not sure.)

With the next 2 quarters if you like, I'm hoping we can pick them off - keep it tight, concentrate and with a bit of luck they might get a bit stretched and we can pick them off, or we could just steamroller them like we did at the back end of last season, when even Andy Carroll played well - if that happens tomorrow (quite a big IF), then I don't think we'll have too much difficulty. Especially with Savic standing in for Kompany - I can't imagine there are too many Andy Carroll types knocking about in Montenegro, so we'll see how that pans out.

With Cardiff waiting for one of us in the final, with no disrespect to Cardiff, ( I love how they always say that on the TV, just before they stick the boot in) whoever wins tomorrow will think that they have done the hard work - which may be true. But football is rarely that simple. I just hope that come the end of February it'll be us winning something which will provide a catalyst for winning a May trophy - hopefully sooner,  rather than later.

Lionel Messi - Greatest Ever? Probably not.. yet anyway.

What is the internet for if not for having random pub conversations with as many people as possible, but with less in the way of actual beer, or having to go outside for a cig...

In this internet age, where most of the old skool pub arguments are over in seconds following the invention of google, where you can no longer have protracted arguments about actual facts which can be checked in seconds, it is reassuring that there are still questions that you can have arguments about, because there isn't an answer.. only opinions.

In the light of the recent Maradona and Pele row.. which is curious in itself, that they are arguing over whether Lionel Messi is among the greatest  players ever. And lets get this straight, this isn't a random pub conversation.. this is between the two guys that are at the top of that particular tree.. none of your inane Andy Townsend nonsense here.

Actually what started this was (among other things) Pele comparing his record in big tournaments to that of Messi.. "When Messi's scored 1,283 goals like me, when he's won 3 World Cups, we can talk about it." which to be fair he has a point.

Although, if you start to pull at those threads it starts to look less impressive.. well a bit anyway. Pele barely featured in the 1962 World Cup through injury, and playing for Brazil in teams littered with star players (there is still debate in Brazil of whether Garrincha or Pele was their best player), the burden of responsibility is lifted a little.

And when you look at the goals.. In a time when the concept of defending bordered on the Kevin Keegan "sod it, we'll just try and outscore them" school of thought and a lot of the games Pele played were exhibition games around Europe because that's how Brazilian sides funded themselves.

Personally I lean more towards the Maradona camp.. now this is partly due to this being who I grew up watching. the man who pretty much won the World Cup on his own in 1986.. When the star names don't spring so easily to mind.. there was a guy called Brown who I remember because it didn't sound right him playing for Argentina. Jorge Burruchaga who I probably remember for scoring in the final. But these aren't Rivelino or Jairzinho we're talking about here.

Also when you look at Maradona I think his time in Italy stands out..Napoli have won the Scudetto twice in their history (1987 and 1990) and is probably not a coincidence who happened to be on their books at the time.

When you start to look at Messi, his record at club level isn't too shabby.. I remember hearing a stat that in a season and a half he'd scored more La Liga goals than Deportivo La Coruna, at least I think it was them. But, when you look at the team he has round him, then I think it's fair to say he's not exactly dragging the rest of them along with him.. Playing in front of Xavi and Iniesta must make life a little easier, but Messi is the stand out player, but only just.

Personally I would like to throw Zidane into the mix.. winning the World Cup with a side whose main point of attack was Stephane Guivarch was no mean feat.. and just watching Zidane play was one of the reasons why I love football - when it's that good, sometimes all you can do is sit back and enjoy the show.

When it come's to who is the greatest, there is no right answer, (although it's Maradona) but it isn't Messi.. yet.
But let's get this straight.. this lad is 24. He's already won the same amount of European Cups as Manchester United - at time of writing. And while he stays at Barca, he'll keep picking up trophies - along with the Ballon D'Or awards - for the past 3 years on the trot - (and the very fact that he's already playing against Maradona and Pele speaks for itself.)

The crunch will come in 2 years time.. the 2014 World Cup will be his chance to step up. If Argentina win that one (in Brazil) and Messi steps up in a similar fashion to Maradona in 1986 then I think it's fair to say we'll be hearing less from any viagra salesmen about who's the greatest.

Bolton vs Liverpool

Matchday for Liverpool, and it's already started off quite well with Chelsea dropping points at Norwich which you would have probably expected them to win in all fairness - even taking into account the Torres drag factor they should really have had enough to deal with Norwich - but it opens the door to make up some ground on them.

Also, we have Arsenal vs Man Utd tomorrow - which given the 8-2 spanking Arsenal received earlier in the season would suggest the possibility of more points being dropped for the teams we're chasing. Not that I'll be wanting the scum to pick up anything tomorrow, although the squad coming down with rickets would be quite entertaining - if they do take any points off Arsenal then it would do our cause no harm at all.

It is kind of set up for us to take advantage on current form.. Bolton have dipped alarmingly this season, which is something of a surprise as under Owen Coyle they actually started playing actual football - passing the ball to each other and everything.

Maybe they are suffering a kind of second season (under Coyle) syndrome that promoted teams like Ipswich and Reading are examples of. Play quite well in first season, until the more established teams get used to them and figure them out - at which point they get relegated. Blackpool managed this in just the one season last year, which was something of an achievement.

Bolton's home form this season has been appalling - In the last 12 home league games they have lost 10 - although weirdly the one game they did win was 5-0 against Stoke, which does put our result last week into perspective (although this was the Sunday after Stoke had been playing in Israel).

Our away form recently has wobbled a little in the league - 1 win in 4 in the league, but one of those was at Man City, which was rectified in the Carling Cup performance recently. They away form generally this season has been encouraging - 6 wins on the spin earlier this season, which was unheard of in our more recent past as away wins were at something of a premium, especially under Hodgson.

Also, Bolton have recently lost Gary Cahill to Chelsea, which isn't going to help their chances any today.

All this, plus Liverpool's recent record of 6 wins on the trot against Bolton, and you would hope we turn in a performance and get the points required to get in the right frame of mind, for the more than likely stiffer challenge on Wednesday.

But that is getting ahead of ourselves, if we keep focus we should have enough to pick up all 3 points - but you could say that about many of our performances this season where we have not really capitalised (although mainly at home.)

Also, I am quite confident about today, which is usually quite a bad sign - but on the plus side I'm bricking it about Man City on Wednesday so that one should be much easier.

Luis Suarez + Steven Gerrard = Champions League?

Right then, we're getting towards the pointy end and Liverpool's season so far has been distinctly unpointy so far.. that is to say sharp in terms of scoring enough goals to be taken seriously anyway.

I'm not going to bang on about dropping embarrassing points at home, because frankly that would be labouring the point. We're past halfway in the league and although we're the only team in England to remain unbeaten at home in all competitions, that isn't much good if we'd have been better off losing 4 and winning 3 of the 7 we've drawn so far.

Let's look forward and at what needs to happen to get up to where we need to be.

From the title of this blog, you can perhaps see where I am going with this, but it has been frustrating that since Luis Suarez signed for Liverpool, Steven Gerrard has been a virtual spectator though injury and there is a degree of irony in that we get Gerrard back at the same time as we lose Suarez for 8 games.

Now in terms of league games, Suarez only has two to go before he can return and hopefully he won't take too much time to get back up to speed - probably lost a bit of match sharpness, but it's not as if he's been out injured so hopefully he'll hit the ground running.

The prospect of a fully match fit (by that time) Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez tearing it up will give Liverpool  an undoubted added dimension and it will be good to see the two players who we apparently can't function without actually on the same pitch. It's been said repeatedly that we rely too much on Gerrard over the years - which is probably true for a lot of those years - and the same has been said of Suarez. The prospect of them both together and of worrying about which one we should be relying on most should be interesting.

It will also come at a vital point in the season.. Suarez should return against Spurs (h), which is followed by Man Utd (a), Everton (h) and possibly most significantly in terms of finishing 4th Arsenal (h). If we can start to pick up 3 points regularly at home, which we may possibly find easier against stronger opposition then when it gets towards March / April we may be in with a shout - especially if we mange to pick up the League Cup along the way... Man City will probably have something to say about that obviously, but we are in a stronger position than I expected us to be at this stage in that tie - and winning a trophy at Wembley certainly wouldn't do our confidence any harm - although having said that, it didn't really do Birmingham any favours.

There are obviously a lot of if's, but's and maybe's involved in all that lot.. but there always are. But one thing that I am pretty confident of  is that if we do finish up in the Champions League next season it'll be due largely to the efforts Gerrard and Suarez.

Suarez - The Aftermath

Liverpool have had, it has to be said have had an awkward few weeks.. and the past weekend hasn't really helped matters.

Accusations made by Patrice Evra, which have now been conjured into fact by the FA's decision to agree with his word rather than that of Luis Suarez which has made by extension, Luis Suarez and anyone who doubts the word of Patrice Evra also racist.

I'm perhaps going a little over the top here.. and I don't particularly want to get into the details of the Suarez case, but I do find it quite odd that a case that seems to hang on the nuances of the Spanish language - the FA have sided with the guy who speaks French and never actually played in Spain, never mind South America - and also has a history of lying about this kind of thing.

Liverpool's reaction to the Suarez case has been criticized by the media as they decided to support their player.. as by extension if Suarez is found to be racist, then Liverpool FC and now it seems all their fans are all racist. This is clearly gibberish, but it seems to sell newspapers and as we have previously discovered they are not particularly concerned with facts either - even today Kelvin McKenzie was telling the Leveson inquiry that he would quite happily would publish most things without troubling himself too much over whether they were actually true or not... with subsequent sales of the S*n in Liverpool a reasonable argument for maybe not printing any old bullshit that springs to mind.

I'm ranting a little, you may have noticed.

Things took an unexpected turn on Friday in the FA Cup against Oldham with the racial abuse suffered by Tom Adeyemi. I was frankly shocked that this happened and also disgusted. Liverpool have apologised to Adeyemi. The person in question has been arrested and will most likely be banned for life from every ground in the country - and he deserves everything he gets.

Now Liverpool's response to the Suarez case has been blamed for this.. that we are not taking a tough enough stance against racism. Perhaps this is not a coincidence that the first arrest of a Liverpool fan for the past 2 years for racial abuse (I couldn't find the stats for any earlier) comes after this issue has been highlighted. Incidentally Bolton and Blackburn are top of this particular league, I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions.

Maybe it isn't.. you can't be held responsible for every idiot who walks through a turnstile, but you can react accordingly and it looks as though the club will take every step possible in dealing with this, frankly as harshly as possible.

And lets get this straight.. not only is this idiot stupid enough to :
a. hold these opinions in the first place.
b. broadcast them, with a thousand or so witnesses in earshot and surrounded by cameras.
c. at a club that would throw the book at him anyway, but now have even more reason to with all the recent events.

Hopefully this will all be resolved quickly, and it does seem to be progressing at pace.

So with this ratcheting up the media attention directed at Liverpool for the wrong reasons we now have the delightful prospect of the guy who started all this in the first place returning to Anfield in the FA Cup.

I wonder whether Patrice Evra will even play in the 4th round game, and if he does Liverpool fans will again be accused of being racist, because let's get this straight, this is not a man that we are happy with at the moment. It will be similar to the FA Cup game in 2006 when Gary Neville (what is it with Man Utd full backs) was the target of our anger and that was only for running the length of the pitch to celebrate in front of the away fans at Old Trafford a month or so before.. The general perception is the Evra lied to get Suarez banned, coincidentally this is also my perception. The reception Evra receives will be... heated, shall we say.

It will also be heated should he play in France's friendly with Uruguay in August as Suarez's Uruguay team mate Alvaro Pereira suggesting that Evra will require body armour for that possibly not so friendly encounter... again I suspect he may develop a bout of the sniffles for that game and probably the one at Anfield as well.