I think the above highlights pretty much sum it all up. Liverpool totally dominated their first home game, a stark contrast from the performance on Sunday. Glen Johnson has already shown that he is worth every penny that was spent on him. I mean really, did you see that second goal? Holy shit! Daniel Ayala was nervous, but did well in his starting debut. I cannot imagine the pressure an 18 year old would feel stepping out on the pitch at Anfield with 40,000 screaming fans.
I am not going to back off of from my previous post and say that everything is okay now. Stoke City is not a good club and should not be in the Premier League. We should not have been held goalless by them last season and it was unfortunate that it happened that way. Having the team gel together is a step in the right direction. I am going to remain skeptical about the current formation, but things are looking up. Three points is always nice to have and having four goals and a clean sheet is much better than a loss to Burnley.
Video of Rafa's post match interview HERE at Sky Sports.
Benitez has moved swiftly to add cover to the center backs. In a shock signing, he has secured Sotirios Kyrgiakos from AEK Athens. Kyrgiakos is a 30 year old, Greek international who has had successful stints at Rangers and Eintracht Frankfurt. He's big and mean looking and that is enough for me. The first thing that people are going to say is, "oh, but he's 30!" Who cares? He's a defender with experience and Agger seems to be made of glass.
One final thought. The FA will apparently be writing to Rafa to ask for an explanation on his comments to journalists in his post match interview last Sunday when he said that he knew he could not get a second penalty from that particular referee and at one point had held up his glasses, humorously, to signify that the official needed them. I have a great idea. How about instead of taking action every time a manager from a club answers a question from a journalist, the FA tells journalists to stop asking stupid questions? I am really getting sick of reporters all but saying, "how was the referee?" and then the manager getting into trouble for giving an honest answer. If the FA wants so bad to keep their officials looking good, they should either A) ban that line of questioning from interviews altogether or maybe B) fix the officiating itself so that it will stop being an issue.