Armchair review.

I can see it being tough to watch this game on TV today. That’s regardless of how the game itself pans out, I’m referring to the crap coming from the mouths of those paid by Sky TV.

Andy Gray has decided that should Liverpool or Arsenal lose today they can kiss goodbye to the league. Kind of “Game over, and I hate saying that,” Istanbul 2005.

Richard Keys has followed the same party line, which is how it comes across. As if a meeting at Sky has taken place saying that’s how they’ll bill this. Actually what they billed this afternoon as is even more cringeworthy – “Grand Slam Sunday”. As well as us playing Chelsea, Arsenal meet Man United. The top four from last season all face each other.

Eventually we are handed over to the match commentators. Alan Smith (the ex-Arsenal player) and Ian Darke (the boxing commentator). I might as well turn the telly off now and go somewhere else for a couple of hours.

I’ll try and get the red button working and switch the commentary off.

Ian Darke has already said something or other about how many times Rafa Benitez has NOT named an unchanged team. Darke is actually worse at commentary than the current John Motson, and that’s saying something.

As expected, the Reds aren’t starting 4-4-2 with Gerrard on the left. This is the team sheet, as set out by Sky…

Reina
Finnan Agger Carragher Warnock
Pennant Alonso Sissoko Gerrard
Bellamy Kuyt

We wouldn’t have expected that to be the case of course, and it soon became clear it wasn’t the case. What we’d call it is fluid – and as soon as I say that then so does the boxing man.

After just four minutes Mike “Man U” Riley has already got a Liverpool player in the book. Most referees see a foul like that after less than five minutes and decide a talking-to will suffice. Not Riley of course.

Ten minutes gone and boxing man talks for what seems like four hours after the “ref” has blown his whistle for a free kick to Liverpool. Yes, a free kick to Liverpool. Pay attention! Twelve minutes gone and Darke is still saying “so very, very close”. Where’s that red button?…

Can’t Sky see how bad some of their team are? Andy Grey, bluenose that he is, doesn’t do too badly, Martin Tyler is OK too, but then it’s harder to find anything of any great quality.

Can’t the FA see how bad some of their referees are? No names mentioned.

Kuyt hits the bar with some power. So unlucky. And Gerrard has now spent the last bit of time over on the left after all.

Kuyt did blast that ball – hurry up Dirk, get a goal soon please, let’s not have another situation like we got last season with Crouch, where we knew he was good, but the press enjoyed having a go…

19 minutes gone, Carragher takes the ball away from Essien without touching Essien. Essien falls to the floor like he’s been sliced in the ankles by a machette. Replay proves it, Alan Smith: “Carragher didn’t get much of the ball there”.

Reina saves the resulting free-kick. Then boxing man and Smith talk about whether he should have been axed after that mistake last week.

“Liverpool couldn’t half do with a win here,” says the boxer boy.

22 mins. Riley misses what Bellamy does to Terry. A little trip. So Smith says “His manager won’t be pleased with him when he sees that.” Where’s that mute button?

24 mins – excellent tackle from Alonso, who’s probably waiting for a chance to deal with Fwankie Lampard. And Bellamy then ruled offside when he wasn’t. Where’s that valium?

Shock! 25 minutes and Riley has written the name of a Chelsea player in his book! I won’t write it down mind, it’s not one that is easily spelled. And another offside against Liverpool.

Shock II! Drogba booked too. About time as well, Riley said he’s already let him off before now. The free kick also results in a goal for the Reds.

Gerrard takes a corner again, next thing we know the ball is in our half. Gerrard’s not the best corner taker we’ve got (Alonso for one is better) so I’d like to see Stevie hovering outside the box at corners instead. That’s because he’s got arguably the best shot in the side.

35 mins. Some fancy work from Kuyt and co, but it didn’t quite work off – as soon as Kuyt has had a bit more time with his team-mates you feel these little things will come off, and to good effect.

I’ve noticed players slipping quite a lot on this pitch today, and then it occurred to me. It was’nt replaced all that long ago. Chelsea kept it a mess until they’d played us and Barcelona. It’s already showing signs of wear and tear!

Reina looking confident again, good to see none of this knee-jerk stuff from the press and pundits has got to him. He’s one of the reasons Liverpool improved so much in the League last season.

And after 41 minutes Reina is beaten, but there wasn’t much he could have done. Drogba has not been as good for Chelsea as he was before he joined them, but that was a sign of why they paid so much for him. Chelsea 1 Liverpool 0.

Boxing commentator Darke completely misses the fact that Sissoko has been booked, but is saved shortly after by the director. And after 45 minutes Sissoko is judged to have fouled Lampard. A look at the replay shows that Lampard “made the most of it” as commentators like to say, but this pair are saying Sissoko “is fortunate” to still be on.

46.27 – Gerrard shoots at goal when he could have crossed to two Reds. Oh well. 46.54 – half time and Liverpool don’t deserve to be one goal down.

Second half – Smith is slagging Pennant off. Red Button pressed (I was trying to resist). As the button is taking its time to work, Darke is now saying we are out of the race for the league. After 50 minutes of this game.

50 minutes and “Sissoko has gone” screams Darke. “Not a second yellow either” he says. Actually it was Michael Ballack, for stamping on Sissoko. PAY ATTENTION!

52 minutes and Sissoko is still being treated – it was a bad stamp by Ballack. And a rare red card for an opponent when Riley is ref!

58 minutes gone and it’s got all the hallmarks of a boring 30 minutes to come. Aurellio has come on, Liverpool have wasted a corner, Chelsea have just earned one. I didn’t get round to sorting out that red button – as soon as I pressed it we had the sending off and so I got out of it quickly.

60 minutes gone and Rafa is trying to give out instructions, clearly seen on the screen. He looks annoyed. Then Gerrard has another shot at goal that’s easily saved – it’s time he tried passing one today really. And I’m one of his fans!

61 minutes gone and Agger is elbowed in the face by Drogba. “Completely accidental” says the co-commentator with the dodgy accent. Alan Smith is poor and clearly never likely to get a job in football itself now he’s finished playing.

63 minutes gone and some excellent work from Gerrard is completely ignored by boxing boy. He’s going on about something totally irrelevant. He does, after seeing a replay of Drogba elbowing Agger, say “Looked different from that angle didn’t it?” Smith, clearly embarrassed, mumbles something mainly unintelligable about Drogba being too busy concentrating on the ball to be doing anything wrong.

65 minutes and on come Arjen Robben. The cheat.

65 and a half minutes gone and Arjen Robben has his first dive.

It was Sissoko, already booked, who was victim of the disgraceful dive by Robben. He is substituted – wisely – by Benitez before he’s sent off due to another Oscar attempt by Robben. Zenden is his replacement, to cries of “Chelsea reject”. Zenden left Chelsea to join Middlesborough at a time when Chelsea were no more likely to win anything than Boro.

68 minutes gone and Arjen Robben has his second dive. Penalty appeal turned down by Riley, who has shocked me today so far. I can’t see it lasting.

73 minutes and it’s been a bit of “end to end” action, without really any chances coming for either team. Robben managed to get the ball, run with it, then pass it – without diving! Kuyt and Bellamy have been kept very quiet today, but I can’t see Crouch being thrown on would make much difference. As soon as I write that, Kuyt has a header on goal, but it goes wide with him under pressure.

75 minutes and a stat – attempts on goal – Chelsea 3 Liverpool 7, on target 3-4. Then Gerrard is clearly pushed to the ground by Fwankie in the box. Play on says the referee who is reverting back to his normal stance on how to referee games involving Liverpool.

77.30 and on comes Crouchie, in place of Craig Bellamy. A couple of minutes later and Kuyt is pushed over, referee gives Chelsea free kick and Kuyt has a go at the ref. Nice to see the passion from Kuyt.

Ten minutes left and Darke says “They are slow starters, why are they slow starters?” after reading his stats book. Kuyt blazes over the bar from 12 yards. It was one of those where it came to him too high for him to be able to shoot, but he had to have a go.

82 minutes and Crouch, as ever, is penalised for winning the ball from a cross. Officials need to look at this again and stop falling for it – Crouch is winning the ball fairly but it looks different because of his height. A replay is shown of what should have been a clear penalty for Liverpool after Fat Fwank pushed over the player that jilted him and his club. Alan Smith? “It happened so quickly”. I hope you Arsenal fans are proud to hear your former player become so much of a Chelsea fan.

84 minutes and it seems to be all over now. A complete 100% dive from Robben. No doubt whatsoever that it was a dive. Replay makes sure that any doubters are put right. Alan Smith? “Oh, there wasn’t much in that was there?” I give up. And Robben got the free kick, and a chance to waste a bit more time. Darke is still going on about Liverpool’s season being over.

86 minutes gone and if this does, as now seems likely, turn into a defeat, it’s going to be remembered for the wrong things again. It doesn’t look like Chelsea are down to ten men, they’ve scored a great goal, but the referee is having a bad time spotting things. Chelsea are cheats, but don’t need to be. They aren’t bad enough that they have to cheat.

88 minutes and there is talk from Darke that there will be 5 minutes added on at the end. We’ll see.

Cech fumbles and gets away with it. No stick for him from the commentators – if it had been Reina you know there’d have been plenty of stick.

Liverpool really need to show Chelsea what they can do – they aren’t doing though. The clock is ticking round to 90 minutes – so what will there be for added time?

The board doesn’t work well, but we can see five minutes has been added. And Cech gets a yellow for time wasting – but surely it should result in another minute being added on too!

92 minutes and we’ve not been near their half in the last two. Cech fumbles again when we do get their, but gets praised from boxing man.

92.48 – Crouch heads at goal, but it goes straight to Cech, who this time doesn’t fumble.

93.20 and we are passing it backwards, then out of play. I am not going to write what I am saying at this point.

94 minutes and Drogba takes forever to walk off the pitch for the substition. Be interesting to see if the ref does add any of this on.

95 minutes up.

Cech gets the ball, and the referee is still playing on. But that’s it. 96 minutes played and we’ve lost.

Did we deserve to lose? No. Did we deserve to win? No. Is our season over? No – but we’ve got to work harder now to win the league this season.

Today’s referee for the match at Stamford Bridge between Chelsea and Liverpool is Mike Riley.

I can guarantee that most Reds reading that let out a groan. Those that didn’t let out a groan probably heard the news elsewhere earlier on in the week, so they had already groaned.

I’m sure he doesn’t really hate Liverpool – he just gives that impression. He gets a lot of decisions right, but often seems inconsistent. Benefit of the doubt means benefit of our opposition. He’ll play to the letter of the law if it hurts us, but he’ll use common sense if it will benefit our opposition.

My biggest memory of him was when we lost at Old Trafford a few years back in a game I try hard to forget. Hyypia was sent off after about six minutes, United got and scored a penalty, Gerard Houllier lost the plot by making a defensive substitution. Mike Riley can’t be blamed for the odd choices made by Houllier, but the whole game was refereed as if Mike Riley had a United shirt on under his referee’s top.

Graham Poll, fresh from making a show of himself in the World Cup this summer was handed a high-profile derby last week and hardly redeemed himself.

I doubt Riley is a hater of LFC, but it will be interesting to see how he copes with a high-profile game, because he’s never really been very good at any of ours in the past.

Last season’s fixture at the Bridge between these sides saw Pepe Reina sent off. Arjen Robben, cheat that he so clearly is, was touched lightly by Pepe Reina and went flying as if he’d been actually been hit, not just touched. Looking back now and that act saw the last few pundits blind to what Chelsea are really all about open their eyes. We lost the game, we probably would have done anyway, but Chelsea lost that last little bit of support from any neutrals.

I hate cheats, I’m sure most of us do, and we don’t want to see them get away with it. That includes anyone in a Red shirt cheating – I’d rather lose than win cheating.

Can Mike Riley deal with cheats? We’ll see today, but I really hope he can deal with the fact that both sides need to be treated equally.

The questions do have to be asked though: Who chooses referees? Do they look at how those refs have performed in matches involving those sides before? Do they care?

Dave Maddock’s review of Saturday’s best-forgotten defeat at Goodison is headlined “KICKED IN THE LONG BALLS“, with a sub-heading of “Rafa: We can’t defend against Route One (PSST.. LET’S HOPE YOUR EURO RIVALS PSV EINDHOVEN AREN’T LISTENING..)”

That’s a valid point – surely it’s best not to say what it was that unnerved your side. Rafa has spoken like this before, for example pointing out after defeat by Bolton that we couldn’t handle their “physical” approach to the game (he meant “being kicked off the park like they were playing a Sunday league team” of course but had to hold back). Now Everton have got the better of us with their version of playing to win regardless of how pretty it looks, and Rafa says we can’t manage against teams that hoof the ball all the time.

It’s not totally true of course – we’ve managed to hold on against teams using the long-ball tactic before. For example, every time we’ve beaten Chelsea under that Portuguese bloke we’ve had to face that tactic for the last 20 minutes or so. Even though they’ve sold Huth, they’ll still be looking to Hoof it on Sunday should we be ahead towards the end. It’s about time we beat them in the league too.

When Rafa speaks you need to listen not only to what he says but also to what he doesn’t say. He’s not saying that Liverpool can’t deal with the long ball game, more that they wouldn’t deal with it on Saturday. As a result he wants them to get working on it again. “Early in the game they sent up one or two long balls and we were scared. “We were too nice and you can’t be too nice in games like these. You can’t be scared, you have to go out there and be strong when other teams play long balls.”

Sounds like a few players will be getting long explanations of where they went wrong, at some point this week, if they’ve not done so already. If you work in a factory that makes medicine balls*, don’t be surprised if a Mr Ayesteran appears this week to order two dozen.

In fact the tough Spaniard who is so important to Rafa is likely to work hard on getting those players right mentally for games against the likes of Everton – because Rafa wants the attitude problems sorting: “You have to win the first ball and then you have to win the second ball as well. It is about attitude. It takes time to work on tactical things, but you can change your attitude in one minute if you really want to.”

Attitude is as important in a player as any instinctive skill – and Rafa is determined only to have players involved at the club if their attitude is right.

Liverpool’s players reported back for pre-season in dribs and drabs, and their involvement in pre-season friendlies varied too, depending on how much they’d been involved in the World Cup. Then no sooner had the season started (well, in between the Charity Shield and the first league game) than the players were off with their national sides for friendlies. Two league games were played, then it was off for more international work as the opening Euro2008 qualifiers were played. Now there’s a whole month before the next round of qualifiers, and hopefully a month where Rafa can work on tactics and Pako can work on attitude. Rafa said after Saturday: “We haven’t looked strong defensively this season but then we haven’t had time to work much together because of the internationals.”

What’s also mildly worrying is that he’s not exactly had any more time to work on those players between the derby and this fixture tomorrow. They played Saturday, trained to some extent the day after, flew to Holland today, play tomorrow. No doubt PSV have had similar problems with their players ahead of tomorrow’s game, but it’s something that does need to be looked at.

On the other hand it’s a good sign of how much success we’ve had if we are having these issues. Whilst LFC are trying to make the best of having little time to prepare for a European game, Everton haven’t even got a game.

I’d rather be a Red!

* I’ve no idea if medicine balls are made in factories or if indeed they even grow on trees. I just know that they are heavy and it would make a football seem much less scary to any players with a phobia for a leather footy if they were bombarded with medicine balls.

I know it’s an old joke, but it’s always worth repeating it during the run-up to a derby. In fact it cropped up in the Echo this week, no doubt resulting in numerous letters of complaint from Everton fans to the Echo’s office. The joke goes that Tim Cahill was asked if he felt the derby match was important: “It’s our Champions League Final,” replies the Aussie with the odd goal celebration. Then a Red shouts back: “Fine – tell him it’s our Simod Cup Final!”

At the risk of us getting a mailbox full of spiteful responses from the Blue side of Merseyside I’ll say this – it may be a joke, but it’s very close to the truth. Liverpool’s aim by the end of the season, if they get their wish, is to drop as few points as possible and to end up winning the league. They don’t want to lose to anyone, Everton are just another club they don’t want to lose to. If someone gave a Liverpool fan a choice of who they’d beat this season then of course Everton would be on that list, but put aside the emotions of the derby and Everton are just another side capable of causing an upset.

Even Rafa thinks that way: “If you ask me whether I prefer to win a derby match or win trophies I will always say win a trophy which is the most important thing, but if we can win a derby and a trophy then it makes it better.”

That’s not to say he doesn’t want us to win today: “I like to win the derby because it makes our supporters happy and you can see them smiling in the town. The derby is a very important game for us and I know how special it is for the supporters.”

A win for Everton today would see demands for an open-top bus tour to commemorate putting one over the Reds, but in reality Everton do have very little else to celebrate each season. Their joy at qualification for the Champions League and their achievement at finishing fourth saw them bring out all kinds of souvenirs, mainly going on about “Champions League – you’re having a laugh!” Then, when they found themselves knocked out of Europe, twice in the same season, as quickly as was possible, they realised they’d been a bit hasty in their celebrations.

I’d hate to be a blue.

How much is Champions League qualification worth? Figures vary depending on what you take into account and who you believe, but £12m is one figure I can think of.

I can also think of what I’d do with that figure but that’s something to think about another day.

Another thing I heard last night, according to the commentary on the TV, was that Sami Hyypia is now second in the list of appearances made for the club in the European Cup. The only player standing in front of him now is Phil Neal. Or Phillip Neal as some commentators used to call him in an extremely annoying way. According to LFCHistory.net he’s made 51 appearances in the Champions League. Clearly he’s got that many appearances under his belt thanks in a big way to the new format of the competition. Thanks to last night’s qualifier win, we’re now guaranteed six games, regardless of how well we do. £2m a game if the figure I used is as accurate as I vaguely recall it being.

Lots of money coming in, but the cost is that we lost more players through injury. Steve Warnock was given a chance at left-back in the absence of John Arne Riise, and he soon left the field to join Riise and Carra as twisted ankle victims. The medical staff at Melwood are going to be busy though – with the injury to Momo Sissoko reportedly keeping him out for at least two weeks. No disrespect to Warnock, but that’s going to be a big loss if he doesn’t come back soon.
Last season’s defeat against Benfica in the first leg away from home saw us start our exit from the competition. It was also the night Momo damaged his eye. We didn’t look the same team any more with him missing. He does so much for the team, we’ll miss him again, without any doubt.

One game that stands out for me last season in terms of Momo’s performances is the FA Cup final. He was hurting, and hurting bad – but he just kept going. Steven Gerrard got a goal we’ll never forget to take us into extra time, but without Momo’s determination we might not have survived extra time. The injury means Momo can’t face that day’s opponent’s this weekend at Anfield – and how glad will they be.

Talk is he’ll be back for the derby on September 9th – I just hope he’s fully fit when he comes back. Everton really don’t like our Momo, especially seeing as he snubbed them last summer when David Moyes let it slip he’d nearly signed him. Always brings a smile to my face that one…

I wrote a piece earlier about Kuyt not arriving in time for the Community Shield today, and comparing today’s clash with Chelsea with the 1977 Charity Shield match with United. That day saw the arrival, for me at least, of the player that would soon become “King” Kenny.

Watching the game today from home, from the safety of my living room, perhaps it’s a bit hypocritical to comment on the empty seats, but I’m going to anyway. According to Sky, both sides were allocated 25,000 tickets, and Liverpool sold all theirs. Chelsea, and I find this shocking, sold only 13,000.

That Chelsea’s supporters would show some apathy towards this fixture doesn’t surprise me too much, but to show it in such numbers says a lot about a side that have been raised artificially to their current levels of wealth. And wealth isn’t a problem for most Chelsea fans either, so that’s not an excuse, and they’ve certainly not got as far to travel.

Being an artificially wealthy club, with a good squad brought in through the Russian’s money, Chelsea fans just aren’t geared up for a run of big games. Clubs like Chelsea normally have a chance of silverware just two or three times in a decade, so their fans just aren’t ready for two consecutive visits to Cardiff for the Charity Shield. Perhaps it’s as well that Liverpool knocked them out of last season’s FA Cup, because instead of complaints about not enough tickets there may have been complaints about far too many.

Some tickets did go on sale to Liverpool fans at the last minute, but this sort of apathy and disenterest should be noted by the FA for future big games. Chelsea have sold half of their allocation, Liverpool probably could have sold double theirs if they’d known in advance there’d be so many available. If Liverpool and Chelsea met in next season’s FA Cup final (wherever that’s going to be held) then Chelsea should get about a third of the allocation to the two clubs, Liverpool getting the other two-thirds.

Whether or not Liverpool win the game remains to be seen for now, but at least the supporters of England’s most successful club know how to turn out and support their team.

My last post was talking about the onset of the World Cup. And what a poor World Cup it was. That’s just my opinion, but nothing really jumped out at me this time. Nothing really happened of note. Looking back now, a few weeks further on and the biggest talking point of the whole tournament was a headbutt.

Now we can get back to real football. Football played with more passion, or at least watched with more passion – by me and most Reds I expect.

We’re still stuck in pre-season at the moment, but it’s always exciting to see some of the new names get some games under their belt, and some of the youngsters get their chances to show their stuff too. Yesterday’s game will be best forgotten for Jack Hobbs, but if you didn’t make mistakes you’d have less to learn from. He’s got all the signs of being something special in time, and a pre-season game played in Liechtenstein is a safe enough place to make mistakes.

Just hope I don’t see Pepe played in that midfield role again in a hurry!

Great. The World Cup has started. The opening ceremony was on yesterday. We decided not to watch it. From the clips we saw on the news later we were right to do so.

Why do they bother? I’ve never understood what the opening (and closing) ceremonies are all about for things like the Olympics. Still, if it keeps some people happy then so be it.

Today was the first game for England. Sky News had a clock counting down to kick off today. They’d already had helicopters following the team as they left their English hotel to catch the flight to Germany. They had reporters and cameras parked outside the German hotel. It is typically over-the-top.

By the end of that game most people watching would have been wishing for a helicopter to take them away. To call it boring would be too kind. The BBC commentators didn’t help much to be honest. Mark Lawrenson was a part of many great nights for Liverpool supporters as a player, but we didn’t have to listen to him speak then.

Our enthusiasm for the World Cup is strangely low this time around. Not sure why, but it’s just not doing it for us. Maybe we’ll feel better once we get to the last group games, when it really does get exciting. Seeing an underdog show the big boys that football is indeed a funny old game will be fun. Seeing an unknown talent emerge will be exciting. It will get better, and by the time it’s over we’ll feel there’s a big hole appeared in our lives. In fact we’ll know we are hooked when the tournament has its first “day off” later on in proceedings. By then we’ll be calling for the introduction of an under-21 tournament to be played alongside the main event just so we don’t get days without games.

And that brings us, loosely, onto our next gripe. Just like there aren’t enough games in the World Cup, there aren’t enough games in Premiership football. The big (usually in more ways than one) boys with all the football power keep telling us there are too many. Nonsense. We used to get 42 league games in a season, that’s now down to 38, the powers-that-be want it cut to 34.

Why? Basically to let them fit more international games in. They aren’t daft – they make a lot of money from internationals, not a penny from domestic fixtures. I’d rather see the World Cup scrapped than lose any more domestic matches. And I’m not the only one, so I suggest those powers-that-be think before they tell the supporters what they want.

It’s been a few weeks since we last posted here, maybe as long ago as a month. Ok, as long ago as a month. We’ve not posted as much on the anfieldroad.com site itself as we’d like to recently for one reason or another, but we’ll try and put that right now.

At least Liverpool won the FA Cup during the time since we last posted, and the goal that forced extra time was later voted goal of the season. A good season ended in a great way for the Reds, the gap on Chelsea down to just nine points and Rafa managing with far from a complete set of players.

Close-season is the time when we just hate reading the papers. Cricket moves to the back pages. Transfer speculation fills the columns that are devoted to football. The fact this is a World Cup year at least keeps football at a higher profile than say last summer, but it’s just not the same.

Based in England, all our press is interested in is Wayne Rooney’s metatarsal. Or at least they were until the middle of this week. That’s when Crouchamania (as some call it) ran wild. Crouch has been an Anfield hero, some would say cult hero, since becoming a Red just under a year ago. England fans weren’t convinced though, nor were the press. It’s his size you see – people don’t like anything that is different. That’s pretty much why racism has been such a problem in England (and elsewhere) for so long.

This week though, he did something with the England fans that he did very quickly with Reds fans. He won them over. Liverpool fans already knew about his robotic dancing at the Beckham party the previous weekend. Even though most Reds fans wouldn’t even have watched the program on ITV, it soon spread around forums and inevitably these days, You-Tube. So it was no surprise to Liverpool fans when he did that celebration after scoring against Hungary – we were just delighted at the guts on him to do that.

England (the country) went Crouch crazy. Songs have been penned. Videos have been made. Graphics have been drawn. Then he only went and got a hat trick against Jamaica didn’t he? Eriksson said he’ll probably start now for England in the first World Cup match. Let’s hope he also finds a place for Jamie Carragher, who had another good game for England, although like Gerrard earlier in the week, wasn’t in his real position.

With the Crouchamania running wild, and the expected influence of Liverpool’s Spanish trio (Xabi, Luis and Pepe) in the Germany tournament, not to mention Harry Kewell for the Socceroos, we’re hoping for a better close season than normal. To us the World Cup is like a long-running testimonial tournament or series of charity games. It’s great to watch it (sometimes), but it’s not the real thing. That starts in August for us, with the Charidee (Community) Shield  – against the team nobody likes any more, Chelsea. And we’d be pretty pleased if we were fielding the scorer of the winning goal in the World Cup final. Doesn’t matter which one of ours that is, as long as it’s one of ours.

So, for now, maybe the close-season won’t be a bore. Well, not until July anyway.

When we saw this headline Mirror.co.uk – News – REDS GET CRICKET KIT we feared that the Liverpool squad were ready to treat us to another “White Suit” final. Back in 1996 Liverpool faced Manchester United in the final, which was held on the site where this season’s final was meant to be held. Liverpool’s so-called “Spice Boys” turned up at Wembley for the FA Cup final wearing suits that were not quite white. Close enough to white though, and close enough to get ridicule for the team and the club.

That final has to go down as one of the worst final in history. Neither side deserved to win, the game was heading for a replay which might at least have allowed for some entertainment, until an over-rated Frenchman got lucky with a shot. That’s how I saw it, and I’m not changing my mind 10 years later.

The fact neither side deserved to win, that until that point neither side had any control over the game is of course lost in the history of the FA Cup. The scoreline was 1-0. The photos of the cup being presented to the winners don’t feature any Liverpool players. The losers, Liverpool, are only pictured arriving in their white suits, and those suits are blamed for all that went wrong with Liverpool at that time. If Liverpool had turned up in black or dark grey suits they would still have lost the final, but the suits wouldn’t be blamed.

We thought the lesson had been learned. No white suits for Liverpool squads. Any player found buying his own to be given a fine of one-week’s wages and extra press ups. So why all of a sudden are the squad gearing up to be walking around on the pitch pre-game wearing cricket gear? White trousers, whites shirts, white pullovers? Or as near to white as matters. White shoes too? No this can’t be right.

Thankfully, it wasn’t. Cricket is actually the name of a fancy shop in Liverpool. A lot of the player’s wives go there, reportedly. So, we might be safe after all. It’s just a coincidence. At least we hope it is. And although we’ve long since given up hope for him over his hair, we also hope Djibs isn’t in charge of his own wardrobe that day.

Whatever he’s wearing, wherever he might be going as the summer goes on, we’d be very happy indeed if Djibs became the latest Frenchman to score the winner in the FA Cup final