By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 03 October 07.

Despite all the doom and gloom surrounding Liverpool’s recent performances there is still stuff to be positive about and today I was planning to discuss these things. I wanted to write about how things are not as bad as people are claiming and that we are a great team with lots to be happy about. Unfortunately my positive mood was considerably deflated by today’s performance in the home defeat to Marseille in the Champions League. It is now being described by many Reds fans as “the worst Liverpool performance for many years”. This is a result that leaves us trailing Marseille by five points and Porto by three. We still have four more group games to go and therefore a reasonably good chance of going through to the knockout stages but for that to happen things will need to improve considerably and quickly.

Fortunately (yes fortunately) I had to work and was unable to see the game live. I was greatly looking forward to watching a DVD recording of the game at the G Sport after work. That was until I logged onto the internet at work and accidentally saw the result. I couldn’t believe it was true and ended up reading the match report which was depressing reading. I then realised the game had not long ended so I logged onto the Radio Merseyside website to listen to the post match phone in. What I heard was some extreme anger and the most negative slating from Liverpool fans since Houllier’s last season in charge. Most of the criticism was aimed at Momo Sissoko who I’m told was abysmal, although I hear the only player who can walk away with his head up was Pepe Reina. Reina is currently having a great season, which I will discuss later.

The most worrying comments I’m hearing about today’s match concern Steven Gerrard. At one point during the game Jamie Carragher ran eighty yards to shake and remonstrate with our captain trying to gee him up. Unfortunately Stevie didn’t respond with some fire in his belly and just walked away. I hate slagging off any of our players and I still believe that Stevie G is the best midfielder in Europe if not the world. Gerrard carried the team on his back for at least two or three seasons but he hasn’t dominated a game since the F.A. Cup Final in 2006. Remember during the early stages of last season when he didn’t look very interested at times? Since he came back from the England games (still nursing an injury?) he’s not been himself. Clearly nobody can play at a high level constantly for years and years without a slump but Stevie’s current form is a concern. The car accident when he ran that kid over a few days ago must have upset him a great deal. I would have blamed this for today’s performance but I can’t use that as an excuse because of his performances in other recent games. Whatever is bothering him, whether it’s physical or mental I hope he gets it sorted out sooner rather than later.

Rafa has made it perfectly clear that this season we will be focused on winning out nineteenth league title. This has been quite obvious from the first two Champions League games against Porto and Marseille. Granted we weren’t that bad against Porto and an away draw is respectable result, especially considering we were down to ten men for most of the second half. I do still think that Porto were very beatable had we gone for it and not sat back. But if an away draw in Portugal is OK, losing at home to a second rate team that is out of form is unacceptable. I am happy that we are concentrating energies on winning the Premiership but I still don’t think that means we shouldn’t try in Europe. No disrespect to Marseille, but they have been rubbish so far in the French league and we should have wiped the floor with them. This was a chance to go out and shut all the critics up and repeat the first half performance we put on against Marseille boss, Eric Gerets, previous team Galatasaray last year.

As I said at the start of this article, fortunately it’s not all doom and gloom. I was happy with our victory at Wigan on Saturday. I was very pleased to see us grafting and working hard to grind out the victory against a resilient Wigan side. We didn’t play especially well but I was encouraged by the fact that we may have ended up without the three points in this type of fixture last season. Yossi Benayoun has also shown himself to be a shining light in recent weeks. Two superb individual goals in consecutive games were the perfect way to put himself into Rafa’s plans on the right wing. His goal against Reading in the Carling Cup was unbelievable and was the best goal of the night, but was overshadowed by the Torres show. However on Saturday he fully deserved all the plaudits afterwards for a goal that gave me memories of Peter Beardsley in his prime. It wasn’t just the great goal that stood out from Benayoun, it was also his match saving clearance right at the end. It’s clear that Benayoun offers skill and class as well as heart and desire. By the end of the season he may turn out to be much more important than we realised at first.

I also need to give a ton of credit to our fabulous keeper, Pepe Reina and our wonderful defence. I was very worried when Daniel Agger got injured and wondered if Sami Hyypia would cope playing more games than usual. My fears were completely unfounded and Sami has proven he has lost nothing and remains just as solid as he’s always been. In years to come when we look back at the greatest ever signings the club has made, Sami Hyypia has to be among all the great legends who’ve worn the red shirt. Reina seems to be improving all the time. He used to look dodgy with crosses but not any more. There isn’t very much you can say to fault his all round game. This season he has banished the myth that he’s only good at saving penalties. He looks confidant in the area, he’s terrific at saving from close range and his delivery of the ball is first class. Alvaro Arbeloa has also been a revelation too. Until the Marseille game he had played every minute of every game this season and never looked dodgy at all. He was a bit of an unknown quantity when he first arrived at Liverpool but he’s turning out to be one of Rafa’s best signings.

The superb performances from our defence were rewarded with another clean sheet on Saturday at Wigan. This was our fifth shutout in the first seven league games and we still haven’t conceded a goal from open play. The two goals we have conceded have been from penalties against Aston Villa and Chelsea, and we all know that the one against Chelsea should never have stood. This terrific opening from the defence is now officially our best ever since the 1977/78 season. No matter how angry you might be today, please spend a minute thinking about this and I guarantee it will make you feel better about things.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Ste Speed, 30 September 07.

Boyhood Reds fan Danny Murphy was a popular member of the Liverpool side under Gerrard Houllier. He was a player who blew hot and cold at times but could often be relied upon in the big games, especially against Man Utd.

Danny Murphy started his career as a trainee at Crewe Alexandra. He was nurtured into a decent player by the legendary manager Dario Gradi, who over the years has turned many youngsters into great players. Some of these players include, David Platt, Dean Ashton and ex Red Rob Jones. Bruce Grobbelaar was spotted playing for Crewe by Liverpool scouts when he was playing there on loan from the Vancouver Whitecaps.

At the same time as he was impressing with Crewe, Danny was also gaining positive notices for his performances in the England youth team. He played superbly during the 1997 Fifa World Youth Championships (now known as the Under 20 World Cup). Also in the England squad for that tournament were Jamie Carragher and Michael Owen.

After the tournament was over Danny was regarded as one of the most impressive young talents in the game. A number of Premier League clubs began to take notice of him but there was only ever going to be one club he would sign for. In 1997 Roy Evans paid £2 million to bring him to Anfield and make his dreams come true. Unfortunately he had a hard time breaking into the first team at first and near the end of his second season in 1998/99 he was loaned back to Crewe. After playing really well during this loan spell, Liverpool’s new boss Gerard Houllier brought him back and this was when his career for the Reds really took off.

From the following season 1999/2000, Danny began to establish himself a regular place in midfield. He was a talented player who could tackle and pass well, with a big strength being his delivery from dead balls. During this season the fans would often be left totally frustrated with him. When he was on form he would be absolutely amazing and tear opponents apart. However he would also go long periods where his form had gone missing and just when we would be about to give up on him he would do something brilliant and win us back again. This was pretty much the pattern for a lot of Danny’s Liverpool career.

During the 2000/01 season, Danny was often superb and an integral part of the treble winning side. He was injured for the 2001 League Cup Final against Birmingham City but he started and played well in the following two Cup Finals against Arsenal and Deportivo Alaves. It was during this season that Danny started a fantastic run of winning goals against Man Utd at Old Trafford in three 1 – 0 victories for Liverpool.

The first of his winners at Old Trafford came in December 2000. It was a cracking free kick scored after Darren Fletcher had been sent off for bringing down Michael Owen who was clean through on goal. This game was played on my birthday and was a lunchtime kick-off on TV. On this day I had agreed to go on a Christmas shopping trip to Birkenhead with my parents under the agreement that my dad and I would get to watch the match in a pub. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic at the Mersey Tunnel and ended up missing the game. We listened to it on the radio in the car and then saw the goal on a TV in an electronics shop.

His next winner at Old Trafford came in early 2002 as Liverpool were chasing Man Utd and Arsenal for the league title. The game was a bit of an anti-climax and neither team had many chances. It was looking like it would finish 0 – 0 when Steven Gerrard made an absolutely incredible pass that opened up the Man Utd defence. Up popped Danny Murphy to delicately lob Barthez and win us the game. It was a midweek evening game and I remember having a feeling that day it would be our night. Under Gerard Houllier Liverpool seemed to have a knack for not losing to Man Utd and I was nearly always confident we could beat them. The only time I was ever in doubt during the later Houllier years was before the 2003 League Cup Final. I stupidly turned down a ticket for that game as we were in terrible form in the weeks before it. I was excited when we won 2 – 0 but gutted I wasn’t there.

In 2002 Danny was chosen for the World Cup squad in Japan, ironically as a replacement for Steven Gerrard who had pulled out due to injury. In a cruel twist of fate Danny then broke his metatarsel in training and he too was out before the tournament had even started. The following season 2002/03 was Danny’s best individual season for Liverpool as he was voted the fans player of the season. He had a competition with Steven Gerrard that season to see who could score the most goals. This seemed to spur on both players to perform superbly and Danny eventually won the competition with twelve goals to Stevie’s ten.

Amazingly he did it again and scored the winner at Old Trafford in April 2004, this time it came from the penalty spot. At the time Houllier was under immense pressure and this victory calmed down the vultures beginning to circle closer in the media. That season had seen Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen miss a number of penalties and it was a big relief to see Danny Murphy step up to take it. This victory set us on the path to qualification for the Champions League, which we hadn’t been involved in that season. Unfortunately for Houllier it wasn’t enough to keep him his job and he was gone just one month later.

Unfortunately for Danny the winner against Man Utd wasn’t enough for him to stay with the club either as new manager Rafa Benitez decided to sell him. In August 2004 Danny Murphy was sold to Charlton Athletic for £2.5 million. A lot of people at the time considered this a huge mistake and I was one of them. In his autobiography Steven Gerrard talks about his shock at the departure of Danny Murphy. He mentions how during pre-season Rafa was talking Danny up and saying what an intelligent player he was to have in the squad. When Rafa started bringing in unknown Spanish players I was very concerned that we would lose some of the good English players with Danny leaving along with Michael Owen who went to Real Madrid. What made my concern even stronger back then was when Steven Gerrard almost signed for Chelsea, but fortunately he saw sense and stayed. With hindsight one has to wonder if Liverpool would have gone on to win the Champions League the following year had Danny Murphy stayed. Thereason I say this is because it was his replacement Luis Garcia who would score the vital goals to launch us to glory in Europe. Funnily enough Garcia was quite similar to Danny Murphy in that he could also be frustratingly brilliant and awful in consecutive games, whilst also having a knack for scoring in the big games.

Danny had one and a half seasons with Charlton Athletic and he had mixed fortunes. His first season was poor by his previous standards but he improved during his second season which led to his recall to the England squad. In the January transfer window in 2006 he was signed by Tottenham Hotspur for £2 million. He had an unhappy time at Spurs and only played in 22 games over one and a half seasons and on the final day of the transfer window in August 2007 he moved to Fulham for an undisclosed fee.

Danny Murphy will always remain in the hearts of Reds fans everywhere thanks to his commitment and his goals against Man Utd. Even if he had done nothing else in his career but score against Man Utd he would still be fondly remembered, but he added to his legend by also scoring an incredible winner against Everton. He was voted number 62 in the ‘100 Players Who Shook the Kop’.

Video Clips of Danny:

100PWSTK – 62

Free Kick v Man Utd

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

Standings as of 05 October 07.
Pat is moving up in the standings and Mark now has earned his first points of the season!

Rank	Member	Points
1	Dennis	15
2	Pat	12
3	Ste	11
4	Kevin	8
5	Dan	5
6	Mark	3
7	Keith	2
7	Glenn	2
9	Andy	1
9	Luvdeep	1

To enter the members contest see the rules below.

RULES:

• Only open to paid LFC Vancouver Members.
• You list the names of the players you think will start the next LFC match.
• You must submit your list to lfcvancouver [at] gmail.com at least 12 hours before kick-off.
• This contest will include every match that LFC plays this season.
• The member(s) that correctly guess the starting XI will be awarded 5 points.
• At the end of the season the player with the most points will win the prize.
• What is the prize? It is a surprise!
• The standings will be included in each week’s newsletter.

Scoring System:

• 11 Correct picks = 5 points.
• 10 Correct picks = 3 points.
• 9 Correct picks = 1 point.
• 0-8 Correct picks = 0 points.

YNWA/JFT 96,

Andy Neumann