As the final whistle blew at the end of the match against Bolton at the Reebok Stadium, there was a collective sigh from Reds everywhere. On the one hand it was relief at salvaging a point from a match where we had to come from behind twice to get the single point. On the other hand it was a sigh of disappointment at having drawn a game that we should by all accounts have won. What a difference from a year ago when we went into the equivalent fixture after opening the season at Tottenham with a draw, and a win at home against Manchester City.

We had good reason to be optimistic then, as the club had brought in a new manager, completed the signing of the long awaited and much anticipated Djibril Cisse, had dumped a few players (some on loan, such as El Hadji Diouf to Bolton, since made permanent) and had seen a few other significant changes such as the loss of Michael Owen to Real Madrid. For me, it all came crashing down in that third match [against Bolton]. We were away on holiday and had some trouble keeping up with results as we travelled around the Northwest States. The hotel receptionist very kindly allowed me to log on to the internet on their office computer, only to see the result of Bolton 1-0 Liverpool. I don’t know if that was as significant to the club as it was to me, but it seemed that we struggled from that point on. It only got worse with the lack of consistency in both the Premier League and the Champions League, the long list of serious injuries to key players, and I hate to say some questionable officiating at times. But, all that is history now, with the miraculous conclusion in Europe overcoming the disappointing form in the Premiership. There is no way that a club of Liverpool’s stature should lose at Southampton, Crystal Palace, Everton, Manchester City, Bolton, and Middlesbrough, and definitely no way that we should lose both home and away to Birmingham, as well as struggling for a draw at home against Portsmouth, Blackburn, and Tottenham. By the end of the season the conclusion was obvious: Benitez is clearly capable of managing a “European” side, but was a failure domestically.

I for one had a difficult time with that supposedly obvious conclusion. We had lots of legitimate excuses for our poor performances, including the extensive injury list, but was it really so bad? I thought not. It seemed to me that for a first term manager to take us to a fifth place finish in the League, as well as runners up in the League Cup was not a failure domestically in any way. The biggest criticism, and a valid one at that, was that we were a massive 37 points behind the first place finishers. Of course, when those first place finishers were backed by the largest bankroll in the history of the league, giving them the opportunity to buy the championship, then it’s understandable that even second place were 12 points behind them.

As the euphoria of that glorious night in May gradually subsided, I had the feeling that Rafa would use the summer break to address the alleged problems of the previous season and we should see some definite improvement. His first move was to unload a few players (Smicer, Baros, Biscan) all of whom had given good service to the club during the previous few years. With Kirkland on loan to West Brom and Le Tallec out on loan to Sunderland, we were in danger of being seriously short of bodies to field a team. With that in mind, Dudek was granted at least a temporary reprieve even though Reina was already on his way and Carson was waiting patiently in the reserves. Hamann was offered, and accepted, a one year contract (since extended to two years). Peter Crouch was purchased from Southampton, Zenden from Middlesbrough (free transfer), and Sissoko (from under the noses of Everton) from Valencia. But, the critics were quick to point out that these were not the “big name” signings expected of the European Champions. We almost had Figo, we almost had Owen, and we almost had Simao. Almost, but not quite. Is that it then? If it is, then we are in serious trouble. Maybe.

The Premier League season began with a 0–0 draw at Middlesbrough. That was followed with a 1-0 win at home against Sunderland, a 0-0 draw at Tottenham, and a 0-0 draw at home to Man Ure. 4 matches, 1 goal from a midfielder on a set piece (Alonso free kick). Meanwhile in Europe, we were off to a flying start with our opening matches in the qualifying rounds scoring 15, while conceding 3, in 6 matches. Also, in between the Sunderland and Tottenham matches, we had a small matter of the UEFA Super Cup, with a 3-1 result against UEFA Cup holders CSKA Moscow. The Champions League group stages had also begun with a 2-1 win away at Real Betis. So far so good, at least as far as European competition is concerned.

Those successes were followed by a 2-2 draw at Birmingham and a 0-0 draw at home to Chel$ki in the Champions League. Then we faced Chel$ki again, also at home, a few days later in the Premier League. That was a disastrous result with the Reds going down 4-1. So now we have a Premier League campaign starting to take shape with 6 games played, 1 win, 4 draws, 1 loss, 4 goals for, 6 against, for a grand total of 7 points and a goal difference of -2. This is not the stuff that Champions are made of, especially when last year’s champions are running away with it again this year, making their record 8 wins in 8 games, scoring 18 goals, and racking up 24 points.

Now the critics are out in force, with knives (and pencils) sharpened, ready to go in for the kill. Just what is wrong with Rafa? How can he deliver results consistently in Europe but fail to perform in the League? There must be more to the Premier League than meets the eye if it is so difficult to win against Middlesbrough, Birmingham, and Tottenham after beating Juventus, Chel$ki, and AC Milan. Admittedly the styles of play are completely different with the Premier League faster paced and more physical. But surely a good manager would have found a way to adapt to the rigours of the League, as Moron-io had done the previous season and was doing so again, even more impressively, this season. Can we possibly turn things around and at least make the race more respectable? The answer is yes, and perhaps more surprisingly, we had already done so.

If we make a simple game by game comparison from last season to this season, we can see some definite improvement. First of all, replace Southampton, Crystal Palace and Norwich who were relegated last season with newly promoted Wigan, Sunderland, and West Ham. At the time of the Chel$ki disaster, we were actually 3 points ahead of the results from the previous year. That’s not just a case of looking for some positive spin, but a marked improvement when we consider that last season we lost away to Middlesbrough and Birmingham, and lost at home to Man Ure. This season we drew each of those, giving us those 3 valuable points. That may not seem like much, but keep in mind that we were only 3 points out of fourth place last season, with a much better goal difference. Those 3 points could be extremely important come the end of this season.

That’s all well and good, but how have we done since then? In my first quarter report, I used the above comparison to show that we were well ahead of the previous season, and also well ahead in Europe. We went on to finish in first place in our group, ahead of Chel$ki, with only 1 goal conceded in 6 games. By the middle of December we had completed an impressive run of 11 consecutive clean sheets, in three competitions, ending with the 3-0 win over Deportivo Saprissa. This string of results was enough to take us all the way from 13th place to 2nd place, ahead of Man Ure on goal difference, prior to our trip to Japan. Our last goal conceded was way back in October in the loss against Crystal Palace in the League Cup. Our most recent goal conceded in the Premier League was also way back in October in our 2-0 loss to Fulham. That was not a good week for us, but it turned out to be a turning point in the season. Unfortunately we could not beat Sao Paolo and so the World Club Championship remains to be won. (By the way, a lot of commentators mentioned that this is the only major trophy that we have never won. They must be forgetting the European Cup Winners Cup, with our closest approach in 1966, losing in the final to Borussia Dortmund.)

We returned from Japan to face a schedule of 4 matches in 8 days. We started off this series with a 2-0 win at home to Newcastle (with Michael Owen, even though he was totally ineffective against us) and then followed that by, joy of joys, a 3-1 win at Everton. That goal was our first one conceded in the Premier League after 8 consecutive clean sheets. A tough 1-0 win at home to West Brom. and a disappointing 2-2 draw today at Bolton brings us to the mid-point of the Premier League season. 19 played, 19 to go. So far we have the second lowest goals against (11 conceded versus Chel$ki’s 10), have a goal difference of 17 (last year was 11 at season’s end). Much more significantly, if we use the same equivalent game comparison as previously, then we are an incredible 15 points ahead of last season. We are also sitting in third place, 17 points behind the leaders, but with two games in hand. None of the critics would have been ready to predict that back at the beginning of October, following that loss to Chel$ki.

At the mid point of last season’s Premier League campaign, we had 9 wins, 4 draws, and 6 losses, 33 goals for and 20 against (+13), with 5 clean sheets. This season we are sitting on 12 wins, 5 draws and 2 losses, 28 goals for and 11 against (+17), with 14 clean sheets. We may have started slowly, but we have certainly picked up the pace as we begin the second half of the campaign. At the start of this season, I was predicting that we would probably win a trophy (we were competing for six), and finish in the top four in the Premier League. We already have one trophy, and are well established in the top three.

We have improved defensively with fewer goals conceded and with many more clean sheets. Our winning streak in the Premiership ended at 10, but our unbeaten run is now up to 11. It would have been nice to have made it to 11 consecutive league wins to set a new club record, but that could still be achieved by the end of this season. Of course it was disappointing to have gone out of the League Cup in our first match, and also disappointing to fall short in Japan. But we have improved in the Champions League, finishing first in the group with 3 wins and 3 draws, 6 goals for and only 1 against, with 5 clean sheets.

Several players should be given a special mention here. Reina has shown that he is worthy of the number one ‘keepers spot by consistently performing as well as any ‘keeper we’ve had for more than ten years. The clean sheet record speaks for itself. Crouch and Morientes were heavily criticised early in the season for their lack of goal scoring, but have turned that around recently and look as though they are both ready to score many more. Harry Kewell has happily returned from his injury problems and is showing why he was brought in to the squad in the first place. As Rafa has said, it’s as good as signing a new player. Momo Sissoko impresses every time he plays with his control and hard tackling. This lad will celebrate his 21st birthday later this month, and so should be even better in coming seasons as he matures. What can we say about Steven Gerrard?

He may well have had something to prove after his near departure last summer; if so then he is proving himself worthy of our adoration by playing out of his skin. Jamie Carragher hasn’t had a bad game for as long as I can remember, while Finnan, Riise, Hyypia, Alonso, Garcia, Hamann, Warnock and Cisse all play consistently well. We have strength in depth with players such as Pongolle, Mellor, Traore, and others all available when needed. The options available for Rafa’s team selections are well beyond those of last season. Also in contrast to last season, our only long-term injury concern is Zenden who is likely out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury. Let’s all hope that’s the only one that we have.

For the remainder of this season I’m as optimistic as I’ve been in quite a few years. So many false starts and false hopes in the past; and so many disappointments. I don’t want to get carried away by my own optimism so I’m sticking with my original prediction that Chel$ki will repeat as Premier League champions. Their lead in points is not insurmountable, but not easily surpassed either. I’ll be happy if we are only three or four wins behind first place at the end; say, no more than 15 points behind, which would be a great improvement over last years gap of 37 points. We still have the Champions League to look forward to and even though I’m not expecting to win again this year, I do expect a good run, possibly to the semi-finals. Next week sees the Premier League clubs entering the FA Cup, with our first match at Luton. We were disappointed last year, losing in our first match to Burnley. I have good reasons to believe that we’ll have a much more successful run this year.

The balance of January looks to be fairly quiet with only three league matches to be played (home to Tottenham, away at Man Ure, and home to Birmingham). The excitement for this month is surely in the transfer market with the window now open. We have just completed the swap deal sending Josemi to Villareal in exchange for Dutch International Kromkamp. This is not exactly a “blockbuster deal” but is definitely a good move for both clubs and both players. I’m sure that Kromkamp will prove to be a useful player for the rest of this season as he can provide cover on the right side of defence or midfield.

The latest rumour is that Danish centre back Daniel Agger is set to join for a fee of around £5.5million from Brondby. There was a lot of talk of a player plus cash deal to send Dudek to Benfica to complete a deal for Simao. But with the two clubs set to face each other in round two of the Champions League, I don’t think that it will happen at this time. Stay tuned for more action on the transfer front.

The Rafalution moves onward and upward. We can finally put to rest all of those criticisms of Rafa’s lack of ability in domestic competitions, especially the Premier League. The future is rosy (i.e. Red) and brighter than it has been for many years. I don’t think that we could reasonably expect any more from a manager who is only half way through his second season at the club, but we can definitely be confident that there will be plenty of success to come. It’s often been said that you can’t have your cake and eat it too. I say yes we can, and that we could be putting icing on that cake by winning another trophy by the end of the season. Who would dare to bet against us?

What do you think? Fire us a reply and we'll get it to Keith, and try to put it in next week's newsletter

this is where we'll put little notices and things. Jokes, buy/sell, anything LFC related.

- check out this 'Spyin Kop' feature from RAWK for a funny interview with some Luton Town fans. Did you know about this guy who bought them and had a 'Manager Idol' vote to get a new boss in, but then just picked who he wanted because the other people up for vote didn't want the job? Hilarious. They sound like quite the club over the last few years.

-Why doesn't Everton have a website/supporters club?
--They can't put 3 W's in a row!

send us an email if you have anything to announce, sell, or would just like a rant/rave.