Away to France

After the disappointment in EPL, The Mighty Reds travel to France facing Bordeuax in the Champion League. Facing Smicer's team never been easy. Worst still the Reds would be without their most influencial player, Steven Gerrard. With minor hamstring injury, Gerrard had been left at home to recover to face Man Utd this coming weekend. Also on injury list are Fowler & Agger. Though Sissoko & Kuyt are with the team they might not play any parts in the game as they are not fully fit.

Taking over in midfield should be by Bolo Zenden partnering Alonso. Gonzales should get his chances on the left with Aurelio covering on the left back. On the right, Pennant should keep his place even though I would love to see Garcia replacing him.

Bellamy & Crouch would be our main men upfront. Bellamy should maintain his good form by scoring some goals for us. I wonder if Crouch would score some as well. Finnan, Hyypia, Carra & Reina as usual would the back bone of the team.

With the team not performing well, Rafa had urged the established players to buck up rather than blaming the new recruits. He mentioned the back four with their outstanding records last season did not perform well this season. Does he mean Hyypia, Carragher, Finnan & even Riise responsibled for the poor form? His reluctant to put the blame on Reina amused me, seriously. Look, we are talking about the goal keeper who keep 27 clean sheet over 50 games last season but only 3 clean sheet over last 13 games. I believed is a team effort, the problem never lies on the back four alone. Poor defending came from poor midfield as well. If we looked through our teams during 70's or 80's, defending start even from the strikers upfront, even Rush admitted that they were asked to defend & never let the oppenents cross their half.

If Rafa wants the team to perform better, I think it's time for him to be sure of his first eleven. He is a good coach & a good tactician. He brought us thropies & always believed he'll win us the premiership. In fact he can be a legend & put himself at the level of Paisley & Shankly. The only things that sometime bother me is his prefences towards Spainards. Seem like Alonso, Reina & Garcia always his favourates.

Anyway, just hope the team play well enough to top the table to advance to the next round. Hope that Rafa won't play defensive for a draw. Even though a draw is a good result, winning is always better.