New Years Day Premiership Fixtures

[Numeric]

Fulham V Chelsea 1 Jan 12:45
Arsenal V West Ham 1 Jan 15:00
Man. United V Birmingham 1 Jan 15:00
Middlesbrough V Everton 1 Jan 15:00
Reading V Portsmouth 1 Jan 15:00
Aston Villa V Tottenham 1 Jan 17:20
Newcastle V Man. City 2 Jan 19:45
Blackburn V Sunderland 2 Jan 20:00
Bolton V Derby 2 Jan 20:00
Liverpool V Wigan 2 Jan 20:00

United will be lookin to bounce back after the weekends disapointment, word is Rooney's gonna be back...

[Insomnia]

West Ham will be on a high but hopefully at home we'll sort them out!

Cant see Man Utd slipping up against B'ham at home so all to play for, for us...

Hopefully Hodgson will get of to a winning start against Chelsea though...

[Insomnia]

Fulham 1 Chelsea 2 FT..

Ballack penalty took the points here...

[Insomnia]

Arsenal 2-0 up against West Ham at half time...

Surely this is 3 points in the bag esp with Man Utd leading also..

[Insomnia]

2-0 full time to Arsenal...

I'll take that, good result to be honest...

Man utd winning at home was never in doubt for me...

[Numeric]

it was a labored performance from United against Birmingham, awesome goal from Tevez with the assist from Cristiano though

i watched Villa vs Spurs, entertaining fare

caught the Arsenal game on football first, good show from the Gunners, Eduardo is lookin rather deadly at the moment...

[Traxx]

Good job liverpool got moved coz i wouldnt of been able to make it. Need to bury wigan.

[french_og]

1-1 vs Wigan, can't believe Benitez played 4-5-1 vs a relegation side.. Whats the point of playing 2 holding midfielders in a game like that. Liverpool should be going out on the attack from the start in games like this and hamering sides but Benitez is so negative.

[Numeric]

Benitez is the comedy king, long may his reign at Anfield continue :lol:

[basslinejunkie]

thats us out the title race.not beating wigan at home is criminal.

[DJ RE:HAB]

Benitez is the comedy king, long may his reign at Anfield continue :lol:

Eh Numeric, Whats your say on Sir stating that Old Trafford had as much passion and noise than that at his funeral.

Not proper fans are they your lot like.

I bet more than half aint even from manchester..

Right about benitez though am starting to join the debate as to whether he is capable of taking us any further as a manager.

I'll give him one more season if not hes gotta get the bullet bigtime.

Mind you i doubt the owners will give him that long... He needs to pull something outta the bag this season. Another title challenge out the window.

Mind you we were out of it by november last season so alas we managed to hang on in there another month... Not Good Enough!

[Numeric]

Eh Numeric, Whats your say on Sir stating that Old Trafford had as much passion and noise than that at his funeral.


dunno what he was on about, it was no quieter than normal :lol:

[Insomnia]

I dont get it with Liverpool this season...

They have a strong sqaud and some real quality players..

I think Torres is awesome....

I think they have really let the fans down in a big way.....

[DJ RE:HAB]

Torres has been class.

I dont remember even henry or drogba scoring as many goals consecutively in there first season as Torres has done.

Hes really proving his worth at the mo, one of the best in the prem for sure.

[Numeric]

Torres is class, Liverpool have a large squad but not a lot of Premiership winning quality

[french_og]

Torres and Gerrard is there only two Match winners but they have a strong enough team to be challenging properly. The problem is Benitez, they will never win the league with him as manager. When playing teams like Wigan there is no need for a out and out defensive midfielder like Mascherano - although he is a brilliant player for his position, they should be playing Alonso and Gerrard in there for these games. Benitez is too Negative. Liverpool have proven at times this season they can domolish the weaker sides like Derby, Sunderland and that Turkish side so don't get why Benitez goes with 4-5-1 at home vs Wigan.

[Microdot]

I dont get it with Liverpool this season...

They have a strong sqaud and some real quality players..

I think Torres is awesome....

I think they have really let the fans down in a big way.....

not really.
if think about it, Utd, Arsenal and the rent boys all have about 5, maybe 6 world class players in their squads.
liverpool have 2, maybe 3.
they just don't have the quality of the big 3.

[DJ RE:HAB]

Some good points there.

I dont think we will win it with benitez at the helm. Fair play to him for were he has got us after the mess houllier left us in. The team and the feeling about the club has totally changed now.

Dont get me wrong i think he's a great manager, and will always been remembered for his achievements at the club but i dont think he will ever grasp the english game properly.

Why so defensive last night, i mean come on why!! Its as if hes trying to get the sack if he is hes doing a good job about it.

Some people say the blame should be at the players doorsteps, but ulitmately hes the one who picks the players and trains the team prior to the game to play/perform a certain way.

The whole spine of liverpool is solid. But we do lack the 4 or more world class 15 - 20 + million plus players that United and Chelsea possess... That does make a big difference.

Torres is a quality buy, Gerrards a beast aswell, but he does my head in, he only ever seems to want to play well when the chips are down and we're in trouble...

I never really did think we had a good chance to win the league, i thought we could challenge the top 2 better, then players are there. But once again Benitez and his madhatter tatics are fecked us up

I would quite happily get rid of him now and bring in mourinho anyday...
At least he knows and understands the english game better.

[DJ RE:HAB]

Long before he decided on the inspirational idea of playing one up front against Wigan at home, Rafa had made a series of baffling decisions in seven other games. It's just so frustrating...



Portsmouth 0 Liverpool 0 (September 15)
Having hit Derby for six in their last match - with Fernando Torres scoring twice - Rafa thought it was perfectly sensible to partner Peter Crouch (in his first start of the season) and Andriy Voronin at Portsmouth and leave Steven Gerrard and Torres on the bench in preparation for their Champions League tie with Porto three days later. Funnily enough, this less-than-dangerous strikeforce failed to trouble Sol Campbell and Sylvain Distin, who really are rather good, and only Jose Reina saved them from defeat.




Liverpool 0 Birmingham 0 (September 22)
Not deterred by the failure of a Torres-less Liverpool to break down Portsmouth, Rafa left him on the bench again and paired perennial trier Dirk Kuyt and Voronin in attack. A ten-man Birmingham defence snuffed out the Reds' attack and Benitez once again failed to get the better of master tactician Steve Bruce. That Torres then played in the Carling Cup - and destroyed - Reading a few days later, only made it hurt more.




Liverpool 1 Arsenal 1 (October 28)
After buying Yossi Benayoun and Ryan Babel in the summer to add some much-needed width, Rafa did not have the balls to actually play them in big games. Instead, he opted for a Chelsea-like formation with Stevie G, Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso in a midfield three in an attempt to snuff out Cesc Fabregas. This left Kuyt and Voronin on the flanks - offering a great deal of effort but very little guile. They scored first and tried to hang on. But failed.




Blackburn 0 Liverpool 0 (November 3)
Without the injured Torres, but instead of partnering Kuyt with Crouch (which had proved an effective pairing last season), Rafa pushed Gerrard up alongside Kuyt - leaving a less-than-creative central midfield partnership of Mascherano and Momo Sissoko - and the result was a ridiculous lack of danger to the Rovers defence until Crouch was finally sent on from the bench with 18 minutes left on the clock. They proceeded to create more chances in 18 minutes than they had in 72 minutes, but the change had come too late.




Reading 3 Liverpool 1 (December 8)
Having spanked Bolton 4-0 the week before using the width of Benayoun, Harry Kewell and Babel, Benitez changed back to the 4-3-3 formation of the Arsenal game and once again it backfired. This time it was a combination of Voronin, Torres and Crouch who lined up as Kuyt was rested ahead of the must-win game against Marseille. Also rested was Sami Hyypia (to be replaced by rookie Jack Hobbs) as Rafa made it clear where the club's priorities lay.




Liverpool 0 Manchester United 1 (December 16)
Manchester United did a classic job on Liverpool as they were happy to give the home side the ball in the knowledge that they had little idea of how to break down the best defence in the Premier League. For some reason, Rafa persisted with Harry Kewell ahead of the impressive Babel and for all of Liverpool's huffing and puffing (including some impressive yapping from the Dutch golden retriever) they could not react to Carlos Tevez's goal. Once again they only really started to crank up the pace at the 73rd-minute stage when Crouch came belatedly from the bench.




Man City 0 Liverpool 0 (December 30)
Yes, City payed in a 4-6-0 formation, but they were helped by Liverpool's refusal to show any real ambition until the final ten minutes. Once again, Kewell played ahead of Babel, and it was only when the Dutchman came off the bench that the Reds began to show any urgency. Once again, just waiting for Stevie G to hit a screamer proved to be a less-than-inspired tactic.




Liverpool 1 Wigan 1 (January 2)
It's a game that Rafa admits that Liverpool 'must win'. So what does he do? Play Torres as a lone striker of course and rely on Gerrard to join him from a three-man midfield that also includes stopper Mascherano, of course. At home to Wigan. Torres does his bit with a goal, Liverpool completely fail to turn the screw and Titus Bramble (of all people) scores an equaliser. Rafa waits until six minutes before the end to throw on Crouch, the freshest member of the Liverpool squad after a three-match ban. We don't even have to tell you that Kewell played.

[Spacehopper]

interesting little read there......quite honestly fed up with talking about benitez, he just doesnt seem to have a clue how to manage in the league, but seems to get it spot on in europe. The Americans will know the league is what the fans want and I think they will be wanting to appoint someone who can do it very soon. Im in two minds about whether i'd want to see him go, i wanna see what players he will bring in if he gets the spending money he's after. He has built a strong team so far and within a few more years when he hopefully will be picking his strongest team, we will have a chance. How many years was Ferguson at United before they won their first title? Probably longer than Benitez has been at liverpool.

[Spacehopper]

theres no excuse for why he played 4-5-1 againts Wigan though......dont think anybody but him could tell you that except him, speeling his normal ''we created chances'' and ''we show character no?'' bollox, but Torres was awesome, everything he did was class last night, Gerrard played well, couple of powerful shots, but if only he had cleared it properly near the end they would have never scored.

[Esox Lucius]

liverpool are not going to win the league under benitez, it's not just because of benitez, apart from the obvious couple of world class players you have, liverpool havent got a squad good enough to sustain a title campaign, your just a little bit better than the average top half table prem team. nothing special.

wheres the millions the yanks promised?

[Spacehopper]

going towards the stadium no doubt......they seem more intersted in that instead of getting the right players