Baby – Week 12

Did an ultrasound and capture a picture of our baby at12 weeks.

Doc said that he/she was growing well and he/she was very active and kicking around. Not only that, the camera also caught him/her flipping here and there and kicking (very much like the mummy -.-).

We are glad that he/she was growing healthy and i cannot wait for him/her to arrive.

LFC Roundup

LFC  1-2 Barnsley

Thank god that i didn’t watch this match.. I would have puked blood but i heard from others that LFC didn’t take their chances AGAIN !

LFC 2-0 Inter Milan

Well, seems that CL is our aim this season. I hope that Rafa and the team can win and shut the critics up

LFC 3-2 Boro

Excellent hat-trick by Torres. He is THE buy of the season. I hope that Rafa can get a better left midfielder to supply the ammo that he needs.

Happy Valentine’s Day

Dear Wifey,

Happy Valentine’s Day

Aiya, you know me lah.. I am not romantic and i absolutely hate Valentine’s day bcos it is super duper commercialized. But anyway, i want to take this chance to thank you for

1) loving me,

2) moving on with me after all the shit that i have given you,

3) all the sacrifices that you made for me,

4) putting the baby first before yourself.. even if you are coughing like crazy

and i find that this song is very nice so i find the lyrics and pasted it up.

Song for you

I’ve looked for love in stranger places
but never found someone like you
someone whose smile
makes me feel i’ve been holding back
and now there’s nothing I can’t do

cause this is real, and this is good
it warms the inside just like it should
but most of all
most of all, it’s built to last
it’s built to last

all of our friends
saw from the start
so why didn’t we believe it too?
now look, where we are
you’re in my heart now
and there’s no escaping it for you

cause this is real, and this is good
it warms the inside just like it should
but most of all
most of all, it’s built to last

walking on the hills at night
with those fireworks and candlelight
you and i were made to get love right

cause this is real, and this is good
it warms the inside just like it should
but most of all
most of all, it’s built to last

cause you are the sun in my universe
consider the best when we felt the worst
and most of all, most of all
most of all, most of all,
most of all. most of all
it’s built to last

We are built to last !

Baby – Week 10

Has been a tiring week for Wifey. She fell sick, having a bad cough and had a fever last night. Funny thing is that Wifey doesn’t fall sick so easily but this time, she got a bad cough after eating 2 “gams”, McDONALDS(she get cravings for nuggets) and drinking coke.

She saw the doc and the doc’s logic was that the baby will take more of the mom’s antibodies so the mummy is more prone to falling sick. I must go and buy vitamin C for Wifey to eat so that she can build up more antibodies and become healthier.

I just read this somewhere and it is very true

Your job is to hit the target that is the size of a pea moving at the speed of light from 2 miles away, so you got the easy job, she has to create life.

Hence, the mummy must be pampered like a queen !!!!

Chelsea 0 – 0 LFC

Argh.. What a frustrating night.

Could have won the game if Crouch was more prolific. I wonder if Torres was on the field, would we have won the game? I really believe that we would have ..

I have to comment on our new defender.

So far, he has been really good. He never, ever found himself stretching to intercept a pass or make a tackle. Skrtel anticipates where the ball was going, and would mop it up and pass it to a red shirt. I was very impressed when he’s gone into a heavy, sliding tackle against Alex, won the ball cleanly and kept it at his feet.

This has been a better performance all around and i hope that Rafa plays this formation (4-2-3-1) more often. It seemed to get the best out of every player including Kuyt *gasp*. I think the other reason is that we managed to play with a high line(with Skrtel and Carra) and it allowed the midfield to be more compact and thus, the defence managed to cut out launching the ball toward Crouch.

Anyway, rant time !

I don’t understand most people’s fascination with 4-4-2 formation. Nowadays, modern teams don’t exactly play with two out and out wingers anymore.. Man U has Ronaldo and Giggs cutting in while Evra and Neville will bomb forward.. Same for Arsenal with Rosicky and Helb cutting in while Clichy bombing forward. Same for Barca…

And that is the main reason why Rafa was so insistent on buying Mascherano and having so many CMs and i believe Rafa will move SG out to the flanks once he gets his fullbacks.

I believe SG’s best position is out on the right / left flank where he is free to bomb forward and cut into the box. Let Lucas, Alonso, Masc do the retrieval of the ball and passing. SG should just bomb forward, attack the ball and set up chances. That is what he is great at. If he ever wants to be the best player in the world, he needs to move past the CM role and move towards a AM role. The recent best players in the world were Ronaldinho, Zidane, Kaka and their roles are all similiar. They start off on the flank but they drift in to dictate play and create havoc. Once they drift in, the full-backs will bomb foward and provide the width.

Problem is that everyone in England is obsessed with a 4-4-2 formation and their insistence that it is the best “attacking” formation. Man U don’t play with 4-4-2 neither do Arsenal or Chelsea. Why are we still stuck and insisting that 4-4-2 is the best formation? Even Capello has changed England’s style of play..

Baby – Week 9

Week 9 has arrived and everything is ok !! Woo hoo..

Wifey is starting to have cravings and pukish feelings. She told me that she threw up her breakfast on Sat morning after i left for football… Poor Wifey :(

Anyway, Wifey is starting to have cravings and i am the poor soul that has to finish the stuff that she cannot. For e.g. She had craving for McNuggets just after lunch !!! And she only ate like 3 pieces of Nuggets while i finished the rest. NOT THAT I AM COMPLAINING

I am definitely going to grow fat. Time for more exercise !!!!!

LFC 3 – 0 Sunderland

Finally !!! A win !!!!

Goals by Crouch, Torres and Gerard

But my man of the match was Mascherano.

He was truly immense.. *blink* *blink*.. A true captain material..

Why I Support Rafa !

Someone in the forum commented that i have a lot of faith and asked why i support Rafa?

I thought about it and wrote out my reply which come out to be a long one.

What was the real reason for Liverpool’s continuous success over a span of 3 decades?

A very simple answer = Continuity.

Shanks created a philosophy, style of play and the model of a Liverpool player. After he left, it was continued by Fagan, Paisley, Daglish. In those years, there was always a good mix of experienced players to guide the young players and these older players were part of a team that won the EPL many times. Not only that, we had great captains who dragged the team when they are down. Man U’s domination was based on the exact same replica of the great Liverpool sides.

Sad to say, this was lost when Souness came along and destroyed this continuity, it was nightmarish to say the least. I hate to say this but I am 100% sure that if Souness kept the core of Daglish’s team (e.g. Beardsley, Nicol) and continued to nurture & bring in the talents like Fowler, Redknapp, Rob Jones etc, Man U would never have a chance to dominate the 90s.
On hindsight, it was the beginning of the end of an era. Every subsequent manager that we had tore apart the previous manager’s team, brought in new players, ideas and started from Ground Zero.

And we as fans get suckered into the concept that this manager will win the title in 4 – 5 seasons and it is a bloody vicious cycle but still, it happens every time.
Our idea has always been:
First year – Rebuilding, bringing in new players, clear deadwood
Second year – Winning cups, clearing out more deadwood, bringing in players
Third year – Winning more cups, a start of a minor challenge and clearing the remaining deadwood and finally, having his own team
Fourth year – A title challenge MUST start with beautiful, attractive football and there should not be any excuses because it is the manager’s team
Fifth year – Win the title otherwise the manager will be asked by fans to resign.

And in the five years, we cannot have a bad patch. When we’re in a bad patch we always tend to focus and attribute blame ONE person.

It seems that when we win it’s down to a certain player/players, the magnificent backing of the fans, the tactics of the manager etc: the responsibility for the win is shared. When we lose, it’s (normally) one man’s fault: the responsibility for the defeat is never shared around.

The solution of all this is we demand someone else be brought in. Someone else to run the club, someone else to run the team, It’s very easy to think that if Jose Mourinho or anybody else was manager then somehow they’d make it all better, but the world doesn’t work like that. THERE IS NO QUICK FIX. The manager steps down, a new manager comes in and it will start all over again.

Frankly, I am sick of this nonsense and now the cycle is getting shorter but it is leading us nowhere.

History or recent events has shown that to win or to have relative success in the EPL, you must have a stable management team. Man U was helmed by Ferguson for 20+ years, Arsenal was helmed by Wenger for 10+ years. If we take away those 2 tops team, I can name you a few more for proof.

Bolton under Sam Allarydce overachieved ever since they got promoted. How long was at the club? After he left, what happened?

Charlton under Curbishly overachieved ever since they got promoted. How long was he at the club? After he left, what happened?

Newcastle under Robson was doing well, how long was he there for? After he left, what happened?

Fulham under Coleman was doing well. How long was he at the club? After he left, what happened?

Boro under McClaren was doing well. How long was he at the club? After he left, what happened?

Let’s look closer to Liverpool. Everton under Moyes have overachieved ever since he was there. How long has he been at the club?

Now, let’s take a look at the eternal underachievers.
Spurs. How many managers have they have for the past 10 years? Have they gotten any closer to 4th spot?

There are proof all over the place but people just don’t want to see it. They rather believe that grass is always greener at the other side (manager) which is not true.

Now, we have a manager called Rafa whom I find is one of the best managers in his generation. Let’s put aside all the troubles that we have off-the-pitch and look at results.
(I really feel like a naggy old man)

• He won the CL in his first season WITH a team that all of us felt was rubbish.

• He won the FA cup in his second season.

• He got us the highest point tally ever for Liverpool. In the past, 82 pts will win you the title but it is not possible now and got us into another CL final in his third(which we shd have won if we had Torres).

• He got us into the CL knock out round every season.

All this are done with having more limitations than Man U, Chelsea and Arsenal.

• We buy Torres, Man U go out and buy Tevez.

• We got Mascherano ON LOAN, Man U go out and grab Anderson, Hargreaves, Nani.
• Chelsea folked out 15 million on Anelka, we struggled to raise 9 million for Kuyt.
• Arsenal’s young team was brought up by Wenger ever since they were 15-17, we are just starting to bring in the young guns.

Ppl point out that if we play a more “attacking” game, we will win a lot more. I would agree but for the fact that we are super vulnerable to fast attackers bcos Agger is out and Hyppia lacks pace. If you watch the way we play for the past 2 seasons, you would have realized that we play with a very high line to compress the midfield area. With Agger out for god-knows-how-long, we cannot do that and thus reverting back to a more conservative strategy.

In a league, experience for manager and players counts for a lot. Rafa lacks the experience but he is learning. I feel that there are huge improvements and a lot of ppl refuse to see it. They expect us to roll over “smaller” teams like Wigan, Birmingham bcos we are the “bigger” team. Well, this “bigger” team (for so many years) have been losing to “smaller” teams while playing badly. However this season, this “bigger” have been learning and turning the losses into draws while playing badly. How many times have we heard this clichéd statement? A champion wins while playing badly and at the moment, we are not championship material yet but we are getting there. We will turn to draws into wins bcos that is how a team (players + Rafa) learns.

Don’t get me wrong, Rafa has faults too.
• His stubbornness to nuture Kuyt, Sissoko, Kewell through their patches harmed the team but yet, he was lauded when he nutured Crouch through a bad patch too.
• If reports are true about his character and the way that he treats players, his refusal to hire a new Asst manager is harming the team.
• His philosophy in having a big squad doesn’t help the team and he doesn’t believe in throwing players into reserve games to keep their match sharpness or regaining their form. All this shows when they are picked and it shows when they play, they lack a kind of match sharpness.
• His 1 hour announcement of the team before a match doesn’t help too. I know his reasoning and theories behind it but I don’t agree with it. I feel that it should be announced on match day and then it will help the first 11 to visualize how they should play and what they should do.

But is it fair that he is being blamed for 17 years of not getting a title in his 4th season in charge? I personally feel that it is unfair and short-sighted and I will go one step further and guarantee that the next manager won’t be able to win the EPL. He will bide his time, build his own team, in his own philosophy and shape. And teams like Arsenal, Man U will steam ahead and we will be stuck, fighting for 3rd or 4th place every season. I can honestly tell you that Wenger & Ferguson will be laughing their ass off if Rafa goes. They will gloat that Liverpool is starting the cycle all over again. It is to their benefit that there is no continuity or stability in the LFC management team bcos in their minds it is easier to win a 2 horse race than winning a 4 horse race.

Fans are asking for his head because he is PERCEIVED as unable to get us our bread and butter. At times, it boggles my mind how fickle-minded and impatient our fans come over the years. When you take on someone who’s very qualified, has a track record of success, then you back him because chances are that given the right environment that person will come up trumps. AND IT’S ALWAYS A LONG TERM PLAN. The fact that Rafa’s not doing so well at the moment implies not that he’s doing a bad job, but that the situation is such that he can’t do his job as well as we all know he can.

For the people saying its ‘blind support’ id say its your ‘blind ambition’ to win the league for the 19th time that is clouding your vision. I want 19 but I am more concerned with what comes after 19. I want 20,21,22…..not a flash in the pan league win. If you look beyond the first team to the reserves and academy which is in Rafa’s direct control(which is what Arsenal is doing) then you will see a massive improvement. People are talking about putting Nemeth in against Havant, we haven’t had anything like that since Owen & Gerrard. Pacheco, San Jose and Bruna look excellent prospects as well. Pourie, Amoo and Nathan Ecclestone, the hottest youth property in European football, Lauri Dalla Valle

If Rafa goes, most of this will go with him. That is a certainty whether it is because they(players, staff) want to leave or the new manager is making changes. Benitez is building for that sustained success that comes with continuity and it’s no coincidence that the top 2 teams have the longest serving managers.

Do I think that Rafa can win 19th?
Yes. With the right support from everyone and everyone finding the Liverpool way which is to stick together, support one another and get on with the business of football.

“One of the things I keep reminding players is that when you’re lost in a fog, you must stick together. Then you don’t get lost. If there’s a secret about Liverpool, that’s it.” -Bob Paisley