Can someone please tell me why is Lucas Leiva still wearing the Liverpool jersey?!?!
The Match
I will not be writing a match report on this, because I believe by now, you guys would more or less know what went down the other night. Some Blueshite teenager who goes by the name of Dan Gosling, scored during extra time, which effectively dumped Liverpool out of the FA Cup tournament. It seemed everything went wrong for the Reds from the get-go (Maybe I'm making excuses but hey I gotta rant).
First off, Stevie G pulled a hamstring and had to be taken off early in the first half. Scans came back and Stevie might be out for 21 days, which means he might not be fit to lead us against Real Madrid in the Champions League. Major bummer. Then there's that Brazilian problem child, Leiva. Did anyone see the 2 reckless tackles that got him booked? I mean seriously, it is almost reminiscence of the horrific challenge that got Wigan the penalty. Seems Lucas is good at sticking out his leg...he really needs to work on the timing of his tackles.
Then there's Nando, who looked sluggish and flat-footed most of the time. He'd rather watch the ball, when a year back, he would have chased for it. Perhaps Nando was tired, let's give him that. Xabi needs to practise on his set pieces, and it's funny how Xabi is a master passer, but he can't seem to get accurate shots on goal.
The Departure of Robbie Keane
Republic of Ireland captain, Robbie Keane has now officially become the 3rd Tottenham player to do a U-turn, after Jermaine Defoe and Pascal Chimbonda both returned from a short stint at Portsmouth and Sunderland respectively. 'Arry has already handed Keane the captain band and in a way, I am glad that a true professional like Keane is now back in a club that treats him well, where he gets a starting place in the first XI, where the manager will not snub him after he had scored goals for the team.
Which then brings me to the next point, (Kai brought up in his previous post) Dirk Kuyt is not a 20 goals per season striker (neither is he a proper winger…he’s just a hardworking albino) Rafa mentioned we had attacking options but seriously Babel, Kuyt, N’gog and maybe Pacheco? If Nando is injured or rested, how can that compare to the strike force of Rooney, Berbatov and Tevez? There have been talks that Rafa is planning to dig deep into the Yanks' pockets to bring in Valencia's scoring machine David Villa this summer - a move which I feel is too little too late.