Although Keane might not be the ideal signing that we really need right now in LFC, but at 28 years old and with lots of experience from Premier League, he will be a huge asset for us next season!

Photo courtesy of Mirror.co.uk.

Should be interesting to see! Now Rafa, get a winger!

Now why would this being anything special… Well the fact of me going to exchange to Bratislava and the fact that Vienna is like 60km away got me thinking of a small road trip :P
Sure getting a ticket to the games is hard, but I can imagine the atmosphere! Should be awesome :P

So now I’m waiting for next Sunday to see the Euro2008 group draw to see what teams are playing in Austria’s group. I’m hoping for Sweden (pot 2), Spain (pot 3) and France (pot 4).

Eller vad säger ni grabbar?! ;) (Or what do say you, guys?! in swedish)

*applauses here*

So, in order to stop the mind-blowing attacking play Portugal is able to provide, we need to stop the attacks mainly coming from the sides. The likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Nani and Quaresma are extremely dangerous and will surely provide troubles to our backlines. Usually Finland has played Kallio and Pasanen as full-backs, but in this case I might give Kallio a boot in the ass. He’s tall, but his agility is nowhere near the likes of the Portuguese names mentioned earlier. Their technique and ability to challenge a defender is world class and in every way a threat to any defender in the world. So in order to have any chances tomorrow, our defenders need to stay focused! Tihinen and Hyypiä will most likely be playing in the central defense and are less likely to fail against the likes of Hugo Almeida, who admittedly is a strong guy and a good goalscorer. But I believe Tihinen or Hyypiä here are able to provide such strong marking that he should be lucky to get more than 2 attempts on goal.

Midfield is of course the center of attention. Deco, Maniche on the Portuguese side and Tainio, Litmanen and Väyrynen (I think Finland will come with 4-5-1 tactic tomorrow). Apparently Eremenko Jr is still sidelined due to that streetfight attack in Moskov past week and broke his nose. So he’s not playing. I am sure Tainio is able to provide such raging defensive play as well as attacking support that not many in the world can. Väyrynen has been a bit down lately due to lack of chances in PSV line-up, but I assume we will be using this versatile midfielder tomorrow or at least I hope Roy Hodgson sees what I see in him. And of course we have Litmanen though I doubt he will be playing for more than 45mins so assuming this is the case, Finland will go with 4-4-2 since we really need to win this game and to win a game, at least one goals is required.

As for the wingers, we’ve been relying on Daniel Sjölund the past games which has been good. I wrote earlier on this blog about the generation that should step in for Nurmela and Kolkka. Now Sjölund has been placed on the left side and Kolkka has been playing on the right side. This has been good and it finally seems that Kolkka is enhancing his performances. So I will go with these guys tomorrow.

As for the attack. I’d strongly recommend going with Kuqi and Forssell and leave Johansson out of the squad. Well some people know about my “appreciation” towards JJ and to tell you the truth, he sucks. Not di*k… well I don’t know. But he’s not worthy of the Finland National Team squad.

Finally, expected Finland line-up for tomorrow:

Jääskeläinen
Pasanen – Tihinen -  Hyypiä – Kallio
Kolkka – Tainio – Väyrynen – Sjölund
Kuqi – Forssell

So Liverpool 11st eleven today:

Reina
Finnan – Carragher – Hyypiä – Riise
Gerrard – Mascherano – Alonso
Kuyt                                  Voronin
Torres

It didn’t look too good for me, but surely some might like it. Yet just after 8 mins we got a reason to celebrate as Gerrard took a cannon freekick shot from the edge of the box, Hleb moved away just enough and the ball found its way in the back of the net! 1-0 to L’pool.

The whole match was quite nice to watch, but the Finnish commentator on Canal+ sounded more like an Arsenal every now and then criticising Liverpool’s actions and defending Arsenal’s good acting skills.

Just around 40mins, Torres got a knock and even though being sort of out of the game the whole 1st half, it wasn’t too pleasing to watch him being substituted for the 2nd half. Peter Crouch marched in and from that point on the tactic was clear – play it long to Crouch’s head. I don’t support this as I know Crouch’s a good player with his feet as well so unless trying to get a freekick after Crouch is fouled outside the box… this is pretty useless.

Around 80th minute, Hleb had the ball in 20 metres, played it through past Carragher to Fabregas who nicked it past Reina quite easily and the game was 1-1. Disappointment was huge! I felt I just had been raped by a group of squarrels… not saying that I know what it’s like though.

So a 1-1 draw… In the end it doesn’t feel that bad as we were the clear underdogs in this match and considering the past few matches’ form, it’s ok to get a draw against someone who’s been winning the past 7-8 games in a row. But yet… It’s always disappointing to lose a 1-0 lead :(

Rafa is rumoured to let the player go and apparently he’s got £20 million reserved for new transfers in January which would mean that if Crouch goes, a new signing comes in.

As for the strikers… Now with Torres arriving this past summer, I don’t think we need a really big name striker just now. I myself am very disappointed in Kuyt, but I hope to be wrong and he would get his game going soon. Voronin has been a pleasant surprise as when Crouch has been a slight disappointment.

Rafa is set to make a bid for Bilbao’s Amorebieta in January. This 1,90cm tall defender might be a good signing. Somehow reminds me of Agger. Young and tall :)

Get Quaresma, damn it! :(

We started with the following 1st eleven:
Reina
Finnan – Carragher – Hyypiä – Arbeloa
Pennant – Alonso – Sissoko – Babel
Voronin – Torres

With the subs being Itadje, Agger, Mascherano, Riise and Kuyt. So pretty decent squad on the pitch again.

Game started with bad news when Murphy collided with Hyypiä with Sami hitting his nose on Murphy’s shoulder. Plenty of blood started floating from his nose and he was substituted eventually 10 minutes later. He got a fracture in his nosebone now, but I hope it doesn’t keep him away for too long as Carra got a hit on his rib and had to be taken off the pitch. Arbeloa took his place in the middle and Riise was put on the
left side.

We got the game going with Sissoko’s shot from 20 meters from Voronin’s pass. Great shot in low corner left no chance to Gordon who played very good today. Another goal was created after Pennant and Babel played well together on the right side with Babel passing the ball in the middle to Torres who passed it on to Voronin who shot the ball to lower right corner.

So a great 0-2 victory for Liverpool and we got 7 points from our 3 games so far. Man City lost to Arsenal today with Fabregas’ goal around the 80th minute.
Chelsea also won against Portsmouth with Lampard’s goal.

Now tomorrow we will have Man Utd versus Tottenham at Old Trafford which
should be a thriller, but don’t forget the Middlesbrough – Newcastle
game either!

Joonas Kolkka, Jonatan Johansson and Mika Nurmela. 32, 32 and 35 year olds…

Propably the most over-rated players in the Finnish national team. These guys have been forming the base for our team for years now and I honestly think it’s time for a change. We have plenty of young players to replace these guys such as Tomi Petrescu, Mikko Manninen and Daniel Sjölund. I just don’t see why even Hodgson is rotating these players in the squad instead of giving our youngsters some valuable experience.

Nurmela and Kolkka are pretty much the same. The played around Europe for years. They both play the same way, at least close. They both hug the sideline, are not versatile enough and tend to be inconsistent. Johansson used to be really good while he was playing in Glasgow Rangers. But now he just sucks balls. His finishing is pathetic, technique…I don’t know if he has any. His game vision is okay at times, but usually he’s the one blowing up the chance for a decent attack.

So Hodgson… Time for a change?