Be mawkish?

Long, long ago in my earliest days of being a Liverpool fan I remember reading in a sticker album that United were the only team in our history who had beaten us more times, that we’d beaten them. Since that day this has always the one. Losing at Old Trafford I can cope with that. It’s a bitter pill, but one I can swallow. At Anfield it’s a different story and I felt more or less the same as Seb’s previous post going into this match. Why does it always have to be at Lunchtime? We always lose at Lunchtime and it ruins the entire weekend. Well now I know, we know what it feels like to win. I don’t even subscribe to the theory of United being out of sorts, I think we pressured them into the mistakes they made. We earned it.

As Seb says this isn’t the dawn of a new era. It is however, a massive victory. I’m still dubious about how strong our squad really is, but to know that without Gerrard and Torres we can beat the best that’s out there is huge. Psychological it feels like we’ve broken through a glass ceiling. We can believe in those players (by that I mean everyone who isn’t Gerrard and Torres). We can believe in Rafa to beat the big four. Yes I know I’m getting carried away, but we’ve seen, we’ve tasted, we know!

Managers rarely pick out individual performances, but there’s a few I really want to pass comment on. Ryan Babel – I don’t agree that he’s an out and out winger, I’m still not sure what his best position is. He’s a bit of an enigma, and we really need one. If we’re to get anywhere this season Babel becoming our third ‘galatico’ for want of a better word is a must. On the evidence of the last six months he’s improving all the time. I believe he’s now scored in his last three games against the big four despite each time coming off the bench.

The man he replaced, Riera. I really don’t want to get carried away, especially since he made a great start for Man City (likewise against United) and then quickly became anonymous, but he looked impressive. I’m pleasantly surprised by his physique. In the last few seasons signing the likes of Kuyt, Masch and Yossi we’ve looked a bit small and likely to be out-fought across the middle. Riera looks like he can handle himself and provide some much needed spark on the wing too. His stand-out moment was ghosting past Paul Scholes and Wes Brown before laying a great pass off to Robbie Keane in the second half.

Lastly Masch. Since the game at Old Trafford last season when he picked up that infamous red card and the footballing media unfairly, in my opinion, made him a scapegoat for player mistreatment of match officials I think he’s been waiting for this one. It’s easy to understand why he’s so popular. His performances are the embodiment of the football fan. The player you would want to be, full-blooded, tirelessly chasing everything. On Saturday he was absolutely outstanding. In a few years when Carragher and Gerrard’s careers come to an end would many argue if Masch was given the captain’s armband?

The problem is that we didn’t deserve to win the match. Over the two legs Liege were the better team and how we managed to pull this off I will never know. I know it sounds strange complaining when we won but I hate it when this happens, we play shit and still win. Then again if we win the league playing like this then it will make up for having to sit on the edge of our seats for the entire match and then some before we can finally kill a team off!

Keane will come good I am sure of it but I am not confident at all going into our next two league games.

Why can’t it just be about the game?