Liverpool were absolutely magnificent in their two victories over Christmas.
I haven’t seen a Liverpool side pass the ball as well as that since the team I played in back in the late 80s.
We were great against Bolton and the performance at Newcastle was the best I’ve seen for years.
Forget how poor Newcastle were, we were excellent and the thing that really impressed me was how creative we were.
We carved out so many opportunities and Newcastle just couldn’t handle us.
I’ve given Yossi Benayoun and Lucas a bit of stick this season but they deserve praise for the way they performed.
Benayoun looked very comfortable on the right and for the first time I saw why Rafa Benitez decided to pay £6million to bring Lucas to Anfield.
Lucas got a lot of space against Newcastle and that helped him but it was by far the Brazilian’s best game in a Liverpool shirt and he looked a real player.
I just hope he uses that as a springboard and consistently produces performances like that.
I saw a poll this week voted Jamie Carragher the best defender in the Premier League, Steven Gerrard the best midfielder and Fernando Torres the best striker.
That speaks volumes for how strong the spine of this Liverpool team is.
It was a great end to 2008 and there’s good reason to be optimistic about 2009.
Team selection will be very interesting and Rafa has some difficult decisions to make.
Obviously the Premier League and the Champions League are more important, but if we were to go out of Europe and lose our way in the league, we need to have the FA Cup on the back-burner.
Last season we were trophy-less and we don’t want that to happen again.
You would like to think the squad is strong enough to enable Rafa to make four or five changes but still ensure we get through.
It’s vital he gets the right balance between giving players a rest but avoiding an upset as we don’t want a repeat of what happened against Burnley or Barnsley.
Those players who get the nod have to be prepared for a scrap.
I haven’t seen a Liverpool side pass the ball as well as that since the team I played in back in the late 80s.
We were great against Bolton and the performance at Newcastle was the best I’ve seen for years.
Forget how poor Newcastle were, we were excellent and the thing that really impressed me was how creative we were.
We carved out so many opportunities and Newcastle just couldn’t handle us.
I’ve given Yossi Benayoun and Lucas a bit of stick this season but they deserve praise for the way they performed.
Benayoun looked very comfortable on the right and for the first time I saw why Rafa Benitez decided to pay £6million to bring Lucas to Anfield.
Lucas got a lot of space against Newcastle and that helped him but it was by far the Brazilian’s best game in a Liverpool shirt and he looked a real player.
I just hope he uses that as a springboard and consistently produces performances like that.
I saw a poll this week voted Jamie Carragher the best defender in the Premier League, Steven Gerrard the best midfielder and Fernando Torres the best striker.
That speaks volumes for how strong the spine of this Liverpool team is.
It was a great end to 2008 and there’s good reason to be optimistic about 2009.
Team selection will be very interesting and Rafa has some difficult decisions to make.
Obviously the Premier League and the Champions League are more important, but if we were to go out of Europe and lose our way in the league, we need to have the FA Cup on the back-burner.
Last season we were trophy-less and we don’t want that to happen again.
You would like to think the squad is strong enough to enable Rafa to make four or five changes but still ensure we get through.
It’s vital he gets the right balance between giving players a rest but avoiding an upset as we don’t want a repeat of what happened against Burnley or Barnsley.
Those players who get the nod have to be prepared for a scrap.
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