Spanish clubs interested in El Jefecito: Not really much here, but apparently some Spanish clubs are interested in Masch. Seems like he’s happy at Anfield, I’m hoping there’s nothing in the statement, “then we’ll see what happens.”

Insua back with the squad: I think we’re all happy he’s back, his form was top notch before he left for the U-20s in South America. Not great that he was sent off in their last match, but he’s not injured. A little concerned about this picture, though. He looks too much like another dimunitive Argentinean in the Premier League, who is on his way to your nightmares.

Van der Vaart making shit up: I don’t remember any Liverpool coaches/players talking about having anything other than a healthy respect for Real Madrid. It’ll be a challenge, no doubt, as their form has improved since Juanderful took over, but “frightening” might be a bit of a stretch. Placing an imprint of your ass on the bench apparently makes you supremely bold…or gives you flower-wilting gas.

And finally, we can melodramatically remember better days in the FA Cup.

Have a great weekend all, and roll on next Sunday.

First of all, we played like crap. That’s no secret. The defense wasn’t there and if Reina wasn’t an acrobat, it would have probably have been 6-0. Mascherano was given a second yellow and sent off when he asked why Torres had been booked. Ryan Babel has confirmed that is what happened as he overheard what Javier was saying to the ref. I’m sure with his thick Argentinean accent “Why was Torres booked?” came out as “That’s bullshit cocksucker!” It’s all in the regional dialect.

I’d bitch about him being sent off, actually I will because it was harsh. Then again, he shouldn’t have been talking to the ref in the first place and definitely not when he was already carrying a yellow. It’s still a crap call by the ref though. Now, I don’t think for a minute that the 10 man team is what lost the game, it looked like it was over before it began, but it’s quite a travesty for him to miss three games over that.

Pepe Reina is away with Spain, and after last month’s appearance in the friendly with Greece, there is a possibility he may start for the Spaniards. Spain are away to Iceland today and host Latvia on Wednesday. Those two games should bring Spain six points, but you never know, as they have messed it up in the past. I hope they do, as my very own Northern Ireland sit a point ahead of the Spanish today, and any slip-ups would be very helpful.
Our back-up goalkeepers, Charles Itandje and David Martin, were either too old for the U-21s (Itandje) or out of contention for now (Martin). Scott Carson (loaned out to Aston Villa) is however in the England squad for the home games against Israel and Russia. He was a dark horse to take the jersey for the matches, until McLaren restored his blind faith in Paul Robinson.

Steve Finnan was to be on duty with Ireland until he got injured. Jamie Carragher is injured, but Steve McLaren appears to have recognised his decision to quit international football. Daniel Agger’s talent has not gone unnoticed (ed-uhuh, naturally), and he is set to be the Danes’ number one defender for the match away to Sweden today. However, confidence is low in the Danish camp, after the 4-0 loss to Ireland last month. John Arne Riise, as usual, is in the Norwegian squad and should play for them today in Chisinau and next week against Greece in Oslo. Four points from those games against Moldova and Greece would do the Norwegians nicely. Alvaro Arbeloa has been left out of the Spain squad, good news for us, I can’t see why with the form he’s in. Sami Hyypia is also a certain starter for Finland’s matches against Serbia and Poland.

Harry Kewell still ain’t fit enough for the Aussie squad. Steven Gerrard is going to threaten serious harm to his toe by playing Israel today. This could put him out of the Liverpool side for weeks. However, we can always hope that this story is true and that he won’t need painkillers. Yossi Benayoun will play against England for Israel today. Xabi Alonso has been called up for Spain, and Aragones has stated he may be in line for a rare start against Iceland. Jermaine Pennant, whilst he should be in the England squad (albeit not playing as I have said), he isn’t and so gains valuable resting time. Ryan Babel may well start Holland’s vital games at home to Bulgaria and away to Albania on the back of his excellent form. Unfortunately, Javier Mascherano has had to travel thousands of miles for a friendly against Australia. This ludicrous match means that he is unlikely to play next weekend for the Reds, even if the Tuesday kick-off is slightly more advantageous for the European players. Sebastien Leto has thankfully been left out. Lucas Leiva has also been left out of the Brazil squad, despite his appearance in the squad for last month’s Algeria friendly. This is good for us, as we don’t really want him to suffer jetlag as a result of the trip to the USA.

Fernando Torres has shook off a knee problem and should play for Spain. Peter Crouch is banned for the Israel game, but should start against Russia on Wednesday in place of former Red Emile Heskey. Dirk Kuyt may play for Holland, but with the return of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Babel’s fine form and some fitness concerns, that is not definite. Andriy Voronin is likely to start up front for Ukraine against Scotland and the Faroe Islands as their top striker.

P.S. I liked Carra’s coat. Very Back to the Future.

5. We didn’t sign another keeper
Surely six or eight or who knows how many Rafa has in his back pocket isn’t enough for him.

4. Gabriel Paletta was sold
Though happy it happened, I was still a bit surprised when it did. I really thought Rafa was going to hold on to Paletta as long as possible, hoping that the Argentinian would wake up one morning and all of sudden be a Premiership quality centre back.

3. We signed a French midfielder
First, this is surprising because Rafa is not known for his affinity for French players. Sure, Momo is technically French, but he plays internationally for Mali and has learned the ropes under Rafa in Spain and now England. Second, I’m going to guess that Damien Plessis, the kid we signed, didn’t speak with Anthony Le Tallec nor Charles Itandje nor even Djibril Cisse beforehand. Which brings me to my next one.

2. Anthony Le Tallec is still a Liverpool player… for now
There’s still a little over three hours remaining and he can always be sent out on ‘emergency’ loan at anytime, but as of this moment, he’s still a Liverpool player collecting dust in the reserves. Maybe Plessis was brought in to keep him company. Wouldn’t it be ironic that one of our many, many heroes of the 2005 Champions League run would be needed once again to suit up for us this season? He’s without a doubt the most likely to be gone by the time Big Ben (doesn’t) strikes midnight.

1. We didn’t sign a defender
The only thing I can take comfort in is the fact that we have players like Xabi and Mascherano who are intelligent enough football wise and disciplined enough to possibly play centre back and also we’ll have Carragher back after the international break and Aurelio returning not too long after that, but it would have been nice to sign even more insurance.

As for the rest of the squad, joining Xabi in the middle will probably be Mascherano. Though I would not be surprised to see Sissoko or even Lucas. Torres’ effort alone should be able to beat Derby, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rafa do a little experimentation. On the left, I have to think he’ll go with Babel, but, if he’s not transferred by tonight, we might see Harry Kewell. There’s been no official announcement nor report about Kewell’s current state of fitness, but it was around this time all along that he’s suppose to make his return. It would be a huge boost if he did. Also I don’t think we’ll see Benayoun start here despite his inspiring performance on Tuesday, mainly because he played the full ninety on Tuesday and we’ll need him down the road so there’s no need to wear him out. As for possibly starting Riise on the left, it could happen, but I think Rafa is going to have to start being more cautious about how he uses our defenders. Especially until Carra gets back.

On the backline joining Finnan, should be Hyypia and Agger in the middle and Arbeloa on the left. We could possibly see Insua on the left, though I think it’ll really matter who starts at left-mid. If Kewell or Riise start there, it’s somewhat of a possibility. I know Aurelio is due back in around a month, but we really need to start thinking about working in our future starters like Insua and Darby particularly when playing against lesser clubs at Anfield. We can get away with mistakes in these situations.

So here’s who I think Rafa will play:
Reina
Arbeloa
Agger
Hyypia
Finnan
Babel (or Kewell, I hope)
Xabi
Mascherano
Pennant
Voronin
Torres

Bench:
Itandje
Riise
Sissoko
Leiva
Kuyt

That’s not to say we didn’t make mistakes, because we did, but once we felt they were wounded, we pounced on them like a pack of wolves on a limping sheep. I would have to say Hyypia’s goal in the opening minutes of the first half was probably where Toulouse started thinking about waving the white flag, because after that our boys started salivating.

I’m still going to stick with Arbeloa as Man of the Match, though I feel Kuyt will probably get the accolade on the official site. Arbeloa put on a flawless performance and was not only superb defensively, but he was a catalyst a lot of the times on the attack. Kuyt definitely deserves recognition for his two goal and one assist performance. I was especially happy to see him get the first one as he seemed to have the luck of a leper beforehand. It was a nice one-two with Babel, whom he’s appeared to have formed a nice attacking relationship. The second in the 75th minute on a through ball from Benayoun was just icing on the cake.

Leto failed to put in a memorable performance as he needs to exert himself more on attack if he wants a regular spot at least for cup ties. Babel was a great example as he came more inside instead of sitting out on the flank and pretty much forced them to give him the ball. Leto has to learn to do this and command the ball more as he seemed content with not being much of a gear in the attack engine. Leiva came on as a sub as well and was pretty solid on both ends. He almost scored on a put back right outside the box which would have been almost too magical for the Brazilian wonder kid.

As for the rest of the squad, Hyypia really stepped it up in the second half. I’m sure his class header goal had something to do with it, but he seemed rejuvenated and ran up and down the field like a young fawn after. Everybody else put in solid performances, though Sissoko and Agger started to look a little ragged and hence, were substituted. I’m going to say something here that you may never read again and say Crouch played good as well. There I said it, though he should have probably had at least another goal. The big difference between this performance and past ones was he didn’t hold on to the ball as long as he has in the past. Go figure.

Yossi probably deserves some special recognition as well as his effort was tireless and he assisted on Hyypia’s header goal and Kuyt’s second. For a guy who was said to have complained about lack of playing time, he certainly showed he should be playing more. After today, I’m sure Benitez will at least think about using him more in League play, but there are just so many spots.

The best part about this match is that our defense didn’t have to over exert itself though that didn’t appear to stop Arbeloa, who I suspect might get a rest for Derby County on Saturday. I still think we need to sign either a right or centre back though. We’ll also have Pennant, Alonso, Voronin, Torres, and a relatively fresh Babel, Finnan, and Lucas Leiva, if needs be. Still this was a solid thrashing and should give all our boys even more confidence as we head into the group stages.

The most impressive aspect is how we’ve seemed to figure out our attack so quickly. It’s been concentrated mainly on the right side, through Benayoun and Arbeloa, and after figuring out early on that we need to space out more, our ball movement has been dare I say beautiful? The only thing I think we lack is figuring out what to do once we get down near their box. It seems like neither Sissoko nor Mascherano want to come forward at times and this lack of anchor is quite evident.

If I had to pick a man of the match for the first half, I’d go with Arbeloa. He’s been outstanding bringing the ball up, providing back-up for Benayoun, and being everywhere defensively, even if that means coming across the pitch to stop a potential goal for Toulouse. Mascherano and Sissoko have been solid as well, even if they can’t decided on who should go forward at times.

Up front, Kuyt has been great and should probably have at least one goal to go with his assist to Crouch. Speaking of Crouch, seems like he’s been reading my criticisms of him as he has only touched the ball more than three times on four occasions resulting in only two turnovers so far. He should also have another goal as both Benayoun and Leto have hooked him up with seemingly easy headers, which he botched both times. The goal was grand though.

Leto has had a very up-and-down debut. Early on he showed his class by taking it two defenders, beating them and then seemingly running out of options. Since then it seems the Toulouse defenders have figured him out and have given him space to make mistakes on his own. It also appears that his teammates haven’t really developed much of a trust in him as the ball is primarily being brought up on the right. Hopefully they’ll give him more chances to prove himself in the second.

Agger seems to have captured a little of his lost form as early on he made a stunningly skilled weave through the defense, though I would have liked him to shoot the ball in that situation instead of passing it.

I think what has made this match exciting is how tired our defense seems to be at times and have been caught off guard, but for the most part Toulouse has had little chance to capitalize as we seem to regain our composure at just the right moment. Anyhow, I sort of expect a less exciting second as it looks as if Rafa told everyone to calm down toward the end of the first.

The ref has been a wanker by the way, but what else is new? He must feel sorry for them, because he’s letting them get away with bloody murder.

Here’s the line-up:
Reina
Riise
Hyypia
Agger
Arbeloa
Leto
Sissoko
Mascherano
Benayoun
Kuyt
Crouch

Subs:
Itandje
Finnan
Torres
Alonso
Pennant
Babel
Lucas

I hope Mascherano will be on attack and Sissoko will sit back, but it really depends if Momo is tired or not. Leto and Benayoun will really have to step up on bringing the ball if we are going to score here. Agger needs to also play better than he has recently. I’m hoping we get to see Leiva come in for Sissoko at the half. Anyhow, here’s to at least an entertaining match and to Rafa for finally showing some balls and experimenting a little.