Monday, November 10, 2008

LFC: West Brom roundup and the week ahead

Bullet points for this one. Let's get on with it:

• Gerrard's delivery was just out of this world. The setup for Keane's first was fantastic. Playing it into wide open space for Keane's week foot and seeing the cool, clinical finish was an all-too-rare moment of beauty for the recent days without Torres. Robbie adding the second before halftime killed the game. It has been recounted elsewhere, but I'll chime in, too, that it was good to see West Brom play the game instead of going into the aggressive shell like Stoke did at Anfield. Of course, Stoke took a point home while West Brom got nothing, so maybe it wasn't a wise choice.

• How about Arbeloa at the end there?! Left-footed to the far post was not something I expected out of him – ever. He's come under a lot of heat as being the weak link in Liverpool's possible title push, so I cheer for him harder in the end. I really hope he can stick in there and keep up good work. The goal was a nice reward, even though it was fairly meaningless beyond helping Liverpool scratch one tally back against Chelsea on the vast goal differential right now. I just like to remind everyone that Arbeloa (or "Barbacoa" as he's known around the bar) was a £1.5 million buy from Deportivo two years ago solely to help work over Ronaldinho at the Nou Camp. That was all Benitez got him for, and it worked. Now, the wisdom on continuing to ride him instead of upgrading at right back can be debated, but I'm still on his side.

• Back to White Hart Lane on Wednesday in the Carling Cup. I'm not exactly proud to say it, but I'm fairly indifferent about the result. Getting out of that competition unscathed by injury would not be a negative. Just my opinion. Let Spurs roll, I say, and play Lucas, Plessis, Zhar ... I don't care. Take the Wenger approach and let the kids run. If they win, they win. Doesn't seem to matter much. They need to keep bodies healthy and get ready for winter. The win at Chelsea seems like ages ago, and now it's time to ramp up for the next series of tests. Muddling the fixture list with Carling Cup matches isn't going to ease that longing in the hearts of Liverpool fans right now.

• Away to Bolton this weekend. More work to do boys. Get to it.

1 comment:

Kuba said...

Agreed on the Carling Cup, this is a competition we can leave for the ressies and younger guys to get some first team action. Our first team starters have played an incredible amount of games already, lets give them a bit of a rest.