Rafa finally learns how to pronounce ‘dilemma’, some Marseille fans are morons and clearly, we have a goal-scoring crisis

CSD was spot-on when he predicted a narrow score-line for Wednesday’s Matchday 5 encounter with French side, Olympique de Marseille. Nevertheless, this “scary” win qualifies the Reds to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League tournament for the 5th successive year – a perfect record for Benitez. Back from groin injury, Captain Fantastic showed us why he hearts scoring against Marseille with a 23rd minute emphatic header from a Xabi Alonso cross, making him joint top scorer with Barca’s Lionel Messi. Though seriously we should all give thanks to Bakari Koné for hesitating to man-mark Steven Gerrard in the penalty area.

Erik Gerets’ men won at Anfield the last time they visited, so they were probably confident of stealing a victory at our fortress again. Niang, Zubar, Taiwo and pink-lovin’ Ben Arfa came close, but all failed to beat the awesomeness, that is, Pepe Reina.

2nd half was a one-sided affair with the Ligue 1 team surging forward, hoping to level the game to at least guarantee them a UEFA cup placing, ahead of PSV Eindhoven. The introduction of Andrea Dossena to replace injured Fabio Aurelio, exposed the left flank, and the Italian proved he lacks the pace to keep up with feisty Ben Arfa, and was even guilty of making foolish tackles, that could have resulted in a penalty, if not for Portugese ref’s leniency.

Milestones

This game was Benitez’s 66th European game in charge of Liverpool and the win marks his 39th victory, equaling Bob Paisley’s record. Steven Gerrard’s cracker was his 30th goal in Europe.

Marseille fans

So some charitable Marseille fan decided to throw a lighter at Stevie G, while he was about to take a corner kick during the 1st half. That’s not cool. I don’t think Stevie was going for a smoke break either, but anyways, unlike Drogba, MBE was professional about it and chose not to retaliate.

And what’s with that poof holding up an Everton scarf?!?

Again?

News has it that Torres might be suffering from a relapse of the hamstring injury that has been plaguing him. Just when the Gernando partnership was about to take off…*sigh

Other news:
Inter lost to Panathinaikos (imagines puppet Jose going “shuttup Panathinaikos”)
Chelsea’s latest achievement: Frank Lampard sent off for 2 bookable offence. Keep it up people!

Whilst I’d love to tell you that this deal was close to being finalised, the reality of this whole ordeal is that we’re no closer to making Barry an Anfield star now than when we started this whole transfer mess with Aston Villa.

The papers are making the situation sound very bleak, and from the talk going on here in the States, it doesn’t sound like Uncle’s Tom and George are going to throw another £18m at another transfer this summer. I’ll admit that I was more than happy to let Barry stay at Villa after we signed Robbie Keane; however, Rafa has now gotten my hopes back up with the recent talk about adding Barry back to the squad before the start of the season.

A story in the Telegraph this week definitely got me excited. Like many, I wondered where the hell this new found cash flow was coming from. Then I heard about the club trying to peddle Kuyt, among others, to get the cash flow.

Look, I’m all for adding Barry, but unless we find some way to move Alonso before the start of the season, then I see no reason to spend money we don’t have. If G&H don’t want to spend the money, then that’s fine with me. I’ll take Alonso, a player many supporters have thrown off to the side, 9 times out of 10.

Needless to say, the transfer market has had more names and news linking players with clubs this summer than ever before. However, if you wade through all the crap rumours and see who made a move this summer, I think you’d be shocked to see that the market has been quiet. I believe that even without Barry this squad is good enough to contend for the Premier League title.

Barry is a great player, don’t get me wrong. But this whole saga is just turning into a complete mess. I’d rather the club accept the fact that Robbie is our big transfer target this summer and move on. With a big third round tie next week in the Champions League, and Sunderland coming up on the 16th to start the season, I think it’s time we embraced the current squad and forget about Barry. We don’t need this whole transfer mess hanging over our heads with big matches coming up. You saw what that did to the squad last season when G&H added an unnecessary black cloud to the club.

It’s time to get ready for the season and move into the future. Ok, I’ll get off my soapbox now.

* Babel is all but a Red. The thing that worries me is that Babel played the traditional European definition of a winger at Ajax in that he played up front, while you usually can’t get away with that in England where wingers are traditionally midfielders. Rafa might adjust his club for Europe, but I doubt he’ll do so in EPL play. I just don’t foresee him playing three in the middle or three in the back, it’s just too risky to go with less defensive options in English football.

* Benayoun should be a Red by the end of the week. I hope we are going after one more player as well, but happy we’re getting a utility midfielder like Yossi.

* Rafa has challenged some of the more talented youngsters to make the squad. Among them are hat-trick hero Besian Idrizaj, MF Jay Spearing, and Centre Back Jack Hobbs. If we’re not going to sign a centre back this offseason, we might really need Hobbs to step up.

* Expect Gerrard, Carra, Crouch, Alonso, and the debut of Andriy Voronin in Saturday’s preseason friendly with Crewe Alexandra. I’m really curious to see how the Ukrainian striker fits in. I suspect we’ll start a poor man’s first team in the first half and bring squad potentials in the second. Will Martin Hansen get a second chance?

* Finally, a plethora of former players have come out to back Carra’s exit from International play including Jamie Redknapp, Ian Rush, and Tommy Smyth. Adrian Durham is an idiot and McClown, well, anyone who thinks Wes Brown is in the same class as Carra needs a mental evaluation. Cheers.

As I’ve said previously, Chris Bascombe was the most unintentionally hilarious and most seriously entertaining and informative part of 100 Players Who Shook The Kop when it aired on the team’s official Web site. Well, The Liverpool Offside’s favorite central defender and Liverpool Echo writer collide in this column kicking off ‘Carra Week’ at liverpoolfc.tv.

Bask in all things Carragher, friends. Smell the humble, hard-working determination of Bootle. And, above all, treasure the commitment to the Kop, Liverpool Football Club and an acceptance of serious work as a path to success. The sumbitch’s leg was knackered beyond use in Istanbul but he fought off Milan’s charge at the end, ensuring Dudek would have his chance to save from Shevchenko …

… then we took our trophy home

“That said, Benitez will recognise it’s the trip to the Emirates, not the last four games, which will truly determine if his side has turned the corner into an open road or a cul-de-sac.”

I had hoped to get more pre-Arsenal hype in so far this week, but work during a massive election week in the U.S. has kept me away from LFC stuff. However, we’re ready for more e-season ticket audio commentary here in Milwaukee today as the Reds are away to Birmingham, and then, with the mid-term elections dispatched, I hope to bring more anti-Wenger, anti-Fabregas and anti-Arsenal venom into this here Internet space. Forgive me, Gunners fans, but it’s entirely personal.

See that logo over there? That’s some sort of symbol for rotation, which some popular thought held could have replaced the LFC crest on Rafa Benitez’s left breast whenever he donned a Liverpool shirt.

Well, on a day when Liverpool Football Club engaged in some quite literal housecleaning of its problems, Benitez ate the same breakfast, wore the same socks, hit all the same traffic lights or did something identical to his match-day routine from Saturday because he didn’t change his lineup for the Champions League tie with Bordeaux at all from the 11 he put on the pitch Saturday against Villa.

The result? A 3-nil win, the return of a rampaging Steven Gerrard and qualification for the knockout rounds of Europe’s premier competition.

The question was posed here before of how many times Kuyt and Crouch have featured up front for Liverpool this season. Someone mentioned they both started against Galatasaray, but I don’t think so (I’m a bit rushed right now to “hit the Google key” on that one). It seems to be an effective partnership, though.

Benitez seemed to favor Kuyt/Bellamy up front earlier this year, but I can’t imagine him going back to that just yet. The last two matches have been too inspiring to a team badly needing a boost.

Besides, I’m more concerned with the symbolic “fuh-goo” gesture Benitez threw his critics yesterday, basically killing off the silly rotation policy arguments on the day his most vocal critic within the organization was forced to resign a 21-year post on the team’s board. The Kop hailed his presence, the same 11 as Saturday rolled an admittedly weak Bordeaux side, and the captain broke his 2006-07 season duck while instigating attacks throughout the match.

Given the situation Liverpool finds itself in this year, little more could be asked of from the day. Now, take care of Reading, get through the necessary evil against Birmingham in the League Cup and prepare for Arsenal on the 12th.

(UPDATE: Well, soccernet.com says Crouch started against Galatasaray, so yeah, he’s had some experience with Kuyt in a strike partnership. For what it’s worth, Agger, Aurelio and Pennant started for Liverpool that day, so what Rafa showed yesterday has not been used before to rampaging success in Europe.)

This man is Chris Bascombe, and he covers LFC for the Liverpool Echo. As it is attempted to explain here, the guy strikes me as an OK dude, to borrow a sloppy American colloquialism. His stuff I’ve read from the Echo seems pretty level-headed to boot.

Bascombe reported about the insane slagging of Rafa Benitez by a Liverpool board member and has discovered there’s been an anonymous apology from said member. If I was anonymously slammed in news media that stretched worldwide, I’m not sure I’d find much comfort in receiving an anonymous apology. How could I be sure the slammer and the apologizer were one and the same? Sometimes I think too hard.

Anyway, I think Bascombe should get his own regular feature on the team Web site, but only if he appears in every video segment exactly as he did in “100 Players Who Shook The Kop,” leaning to one side of his couch, clad in broken-in sweatshirt and talking rapidly with very little excitement about Anfield legends, news of the day, classic shirt designs and what-have-you.