Time to dream the impossible dream...

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11 games to go and 10 points off fourth.. not very likely is it?

Well, maybe not.. but when you look at it a bit more closely (there's going to be a lot of clutching at straws here) then maybe we're in with a shout.

I'm tempted to say Spurs are already going to be up there with Super Chimp in the form he is at the moment, but when you look at the other contenders.. well, there's a case to be made.

Chelsea are the current occupiers of the fourth spot, but they seem to be a little erratic and Agent Benitez is not being very subtle with his mission so far, so the chances are he might be shown the revolving door sooner rather than later. When you bring in other factors.. mardy fans and mardy players who both seem to hold their legendary manager in contempt, few other competitions left to get in the way, the mystifying Frank Lampard contract problems. They've only picked up 4 points from the last 12.. and some sketchy home form. They also have trips to Old Trafford and Anfield and the visit of Spurs in a tricky run of games, so it's feasible that the wheels may come off at some point.

Arsenal's ship isn't exactly running smoothly either, losing to Blackburn in the Cup and then Bayern Munich who'll bin them out of Europe in a couple of weeks. In a strange way that might actually help their cause. Teams tend to dip in form when they get knocked out of the Champions League.. but when it's already over by the end of the 1st leg, it gives teams time to get used to the idea, so it for example they get a draw in Germany then confidence rises. However, their first team did get beaten by Bradford, so we'll see how that works out for them.

However, their league form isn't too shabby. it might take a bit of a knock at White Hart Lane this weekend though, and they have Man Utd to play at the Emirates as well.They'll probably be there or thereabouts come the end as they'll pick up enough points to remain in contention.

 Everton - No.

Liverpool have an interesting run of games coming up. Hardest away trip looks like Newcastle on paper, with Chelsea and Spurs to come to Anfield. If we can get up a head of steam, and by we I mean Suarez and Sturridge before we get to those home games then who knows.

If we can take 13 points from next 5 games (Wigan, Southampton and Villa away, Spurs and West Ham at home) then we might be in with a shout. And lets face it, we've not much else to keep us occupied. Our home form has been pretty brutal if you ignore visitors from the West Midlands and we've run out of them. For the record Played 6, Won 6, For 21 Against Nil.

If we can trim it to 5 or 6 points of fourth with 5 or 6 games to go... well it's still unlikely. We're 15/1 to get into the top 4 for a reason.

Possible, not too likely.. maybe another spin in the UEFA Cup, but frankly that would be a little depressing. I don't know about you, but I kind of like seeing us play on a Saturday.. and with a bit of luck Tuesday and Wednesday next season.

Well with a shit load of luck anyway.

The fine line between success & failure

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Guess what kids - it's another - what's gone wrong at Liverpool post. Well it is and it isn't.. I'm just going to start and see what gets churned out at the end.

The last few games have not gone well - that's apparent for all to see. But it could all have been very different  if this new found tendency to switch off in games hadn't raised it's head.

In 4 of the last 5 games we have let our season unravel by conceding two quick goals, which as tendencies go is a a pretty fatal one when it comes to playing games of football.

Oldham was where it started to go wrong. Where the wheels started coming off our season. Now I know the defence got changed around a bit that game, but it also got beaten up as well. To go from 1-1 to 3-1 in the space of a few minutes (either side of half-time) is unforgivable and even more so in an away cup-tie, where the locals will go deservedly bat-shit mental. But Skrtel didn't shower himself in glory and I think this may be where the rot set in.

Then the game at Arsenal, we did actually have the foresight to actually get a couple of goals up before the collapse - but at 2-0 up you have to be closing the game out. I watched that game, initially not expecting too much, but when you get the goal your expectations rise and you suddenly have something to lose. I was nervous until Henderson popped up with the second and then I relaxed because I thought it was game over. The trouble is so did we. 2-2 - a point would have been a decent result at Arsenal, but a point is never a good result from 2-0 up.

The City game.. we played well, better than against Arsenal. We got our noses in front, something not many teams do at City but we couldn't close it out and an individual error (Ferguson short-hand for not my fault) let us down. Same as the City game at Anfield actually. 2-1 up and drop a couple of points due to fuck ups.

Then it in turned to shit.. that's the thing with draws, however respectable they may be. Two defeats in quick succession and we're suddenly talking about no wins in 5 games rather than unbeaten in 4.

West Brom - we controlled, but didn't take our chances. Even missed an admittedly soft penalty, but that was very damaging. We could and should have been looking at moving up into 6th (above Everton) with a win against Swansea tomorrow. But Foster saves the pen, we take our eye off the ball and we are back in 9th.

I saw it - I don't believe it.

That was a vital game.. all the confidence gained from respectable performances away, on the back of a few hammerings of sides at Anfield, has taken a hit. West Brom have been on a downward spiral for a while and personally I made the mistake of actually presuming we were going to batter them. This is usually when the alarm bells start ringing - I am naturally pessimistic when it comes to Liverpool - didn't always used to be that way but these things do have a habit of grinding you down over the years. I thought we'd batter West Brom and head off to Russia full of confidence.

Instead we went scared that the slightest fuck-up will get punished. Now we did well enough, we were controlling the game in the second half without looking too dangerous - although Suarez did miss several chances which is something we don't like to see.

But Hulk scored a screamer, which you can't really legislate for, but again we switched off and conceded 2 quick goals. We have seen what happens if you start doing on a regular basis. You get what you deserve frankly.

Now the defence has chopped around a bit during these games.. Agger and Skrtel have dipped. Carragher has come in and done, well better than expected considering, but if your defence isn't settled then you can start to have problems. The recent evidence for this is pretty damning.

So where does this leave us going into the Swansea game.

Well there is a likelihood that the squad will be tired, but having said that we went from the away game in Moscow to another respectable draw at Chelsea in November, but we have also played on Monday and Thursday so there is a chance we will start to look a bit tired by the end of it.

The one plus point we do have is that Sturridge is back fit again.. now frankly we should have been able to dispatch West Brom without his help (and he was ineligible in Europe) but we missed him.. almost as if we are some kind of one man team. There's some lazy ass journalism right there... always pisses me off. If they could just decide who the "one man" was we might be able to do something about it.

I did read the take on Spurs one-man team situation in the paper. Rather than criticism the headline went "Is Gareth Bale the new Ronaldo" - Now I don't want to go on about bias in papers but WTF.

Back to more relevant issues. Swansea do have a cup final to look forward to next week and that be helpful to us as although they are playing for places, players who are scared of getting injured or picking up suspensions tend to take their eye off the ball and performances can dip - well put it this way, I fucking hope so, because if they are up for it then we are going to have a very serious fight on our hands.

And we need to start winning again.. If wouldn't have taken much more in each one of those 3 league games to be looking at 9 points rather than 2. And we'd be in 6th looking at moving to within spitting distance of 4th place.. but like I said, it's a fine line.

We just need to make sure we're the right side of it against Swansea.

We all dream of a team of Carragher's

This picture doesn't really need a caption

So that's it then. Jamie Carragher will play his final game for Liverpool this Sunday... his 737th appearance for the club. Pretty special in todays era of agents moving players round just for the sake of their bank balances.

It is also fitting that he leaves Liverpool with the supporters not wanting him to leave.. well stop playing at least. You can be pretty sure he's still going to be around on matchdays, especially now he's working for Sky alongside the anti-Carragher.. although credit where it's due, he has done a good job for Sky despite being "a busy little cunt" at Man Utd.

It is curious that Carragher's  announcement that he would be retiring at the end of the season coincided almost exactly with his return to the first team. Personally I am surprised that he didn't have second thoughts once it seemed that he did have another season left in his legs. Maybe that was the problem, if he was finding it a struggle, although it didn't seem too apparent. Not enough of a problem for Skrtel to get much of a sniff of a game. The fact that he already had something lined up with the move to Sky probably influenced his decision also... I suspect if that wasn't there we'd still be seeing Carra next season. But getting paid a shit-load for sitting about talking about football doesn't seem too taxing does it. Even Andy fucking Townsend gets paid for that despite barely having a basic grasp of the game.

The Carragher Manifesto

My hope is that this isn't the last the Liverpool FC will see of James Lee Duncan Carragher.. and not just sat in the stands with all the other ex-Reds. Or working for the TV with all the other ex-Reds. After reading "The Carragher Manifesto" (I believe it was called something different officially but that's not important) I want that lad in charge of Liverpool Football Club.

Football autobiographies are usually achingly dull, but Carragher's is one of the best one's going which is actually mainly about football. There are interesting ones but they aren't really about football (for example : Tony Adams, Steve Claridge).

But why am I trying to sell you this book, you've probably already read it and if not you're more likely to be interested in what the Anti-Carragher (Rat-Boy, Gary Neville, the devil has many faces) has to say for himself, which he tends to do quite a lot more these days now he's got a job for Sky.

Actually in many ways they are pretty much the same, it's just that they played for different clubs and depending on your allegiance. You either love Jamie Carragher.. or well there's probably something wrong with you if not.

Whatever Jamie Carragher does or says just makes you like him more.. (whilst the exact opposite was true of Neville) whether it was scoring a penalty for Everton at Anfield, or looking at the interviewer as if he had three heads when asked whether he'd consider leaving Liverpool for a bigger club and then telling him "Who's bigger than Liverpool?"

Or on the eve of the 2nd leg of the 2005 Champions League semi-final when on a booking saying that he didn't mind getting booked and missing the final so long "as it mattered".

Or the the story of how Salif Diao confided in him that Everton we're interested in him, but he was worried about the Liverpool fans reaction. "No.. don't worry about that.. you go and sign for Everton." Please for fucks sake go and sign for Everton.

I got stuck in a bit of a loop then... sorry.

To get back to my point.. I want to see Jamie Carragher in charge of Liverpool. He eats, sleeps, and breathes football. He studies the game like not many players do and I believe would make a  great manager - a few years down the line admittedly, but he will one day.

Now this is a bit of a leap, but say 5 years down the line, perhaps more.. hopefully we haven't gone through too many managers by that point, because a high turnover is not a good sign - maybe even with him in as a coach before then. He's practically doing this already - I read that he barks orders at Andre Wisdom whilst on the bench apparently - you can bet that this isn't an isolated incident.

But can you imagine a better person to be in charge for the re-perching of Liverpool?