By Owen Thomas, Liverpool fan, 9th March 2003
Can Liverpool win the UEFA Cup? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room

Its been a while since my column, and if you're thinking that the main reason behind this is due to the dismal performances we've been having of late, you'd be absolutely right! I just plain ran out of optimism and couldn't continue to forsee an improvement in the season when things looked so bleak. But now we're back! As all of you should know by now, we are the Worthington Cup winners - yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

The final against Manchester United was by far our greatest and most convincing performance of the season and showed that we can work together as a team and defeat even Man U - a team who lie 2nd in Premiership and should've been able to put up a better fight than they did.

I sat with anticipation before the match wearing my lucky number 10 shirt on and by the end of it was jumping up and down with joy, shouting gleefully at the tv. Gerrard's cracking strike to score the opening goal was tainted with a little luck from the foot of Beckham but you still can't take it away from him. Hamann's brilliant efforts to regain possession of the ball and pass onto Owen who scored superbly was thrilling to watch. And how could i not mention the absolutely stunning performance of Jerzy Dudek - he was fantastic in goal and obviously a great asset to the team. The way he performed in this match must have given him a huge confidence boost, and the fans confidence in him must be fully restored.

The team really played like a team should and their efforts paid off. I really could go on and on about the match and how we could've scored even more goals but i would guess that most of you would've seen the match for yourselves or heard about it in the news and know how great it was. Instead i'm going to look ahead to what we can get out of the remainder of the season.

Defeat in the FA Cup means that we are now able to concentrate on the UEFA Cup and the Premiership. Our victory over Auxerre in the UEFA Cup now means that we face Celtic in the quarter-finals on March 13. They've been doing pretty well but i think with our current form victory is ours. I even truely believe that we can go on to win this competition. There are no reasons why not and with the determination of the team to get the most out of the rest of the season, nothing can stop us.

In the Premiership the target is to get back into the top four and gain a Champions league place. With our current points total of 43 its not impossible to do so, Newcastle United currently lie 3rd with 55 points but with a game in hand we can achieve this goal. If at the end of the season we manage to achieve these targets, i don't think anyone can say we've had a poor season. Yes our Premiership title hopes were lost with an appalling record run of losses, and defeats to the hands of teams such as Crystal Palace, but to win 2 cups and finished 4th in the Premiership would be, this season, a dream come true.

Owen Thomas
 
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By Owen Thomas, Liverpool fan, 12th January 2002
Can Liverpool still win the Premiership? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room

Well its been a while since my last column and things at the Liverpool camp are not looking great. More 'hopeful' than anything else. Six matches have gone past and the statistics show that we've been doing better, i.e. not losing as often, but still not performing as should be.

We've progressed in the Worthington Cup after beating Aston Villa 4-3, and in the FA Cup after a 1-0 win over Manchester City. In the Premiership we've recorded three draws and one loss. Considering two of the draws were Everton and Arsenal who lie above us in table, the result could've been a lot worse. So at least we can say things are better than they had been. Better, but not great. We now lie 7th in the table with 34 points. Even Southampton (no disrespect) are above us - yes only by 1 point, but every single point counts and could mean the difference between winning and coming second at the end of the day.

We are now 14 points behind the leaders Arsenal and have lost grasp of our title hopes. All our hopes and dreams at the beginning of the season have been dashed. Our aims and goals have changed and now with only a minuscule chance of taking the title i think we need to concentrate on getting back to form and putting ourselves back in the top 3. We must fight hard, pull our socks up and really push to make it happen.

Acts such as the one Steven Gerrard decided to pull against Everton do not help our cause either. In my opinion he blatantly and deliberately made that two-footed tackle on Gary Naysmith and should be punished for it. You
can see from the action replay that he lost touch with the ball and wasn't going to regain possession, then put both his feet in front to stamp on Naysmith. The pain on Naysmiths face and in his voice told it all. Even though
Gerrard is an important part of the squad, a three match ban is deserved.

Next we play Sheffield United in the Worthington Cup. In this and in the FA Cup, in which Crystal Palace have been draw to play us next, i think we could find success. Things have gone relatively well and i hope they
stay that way.

Then in the Premiership on Saturday we face Aston Villa at Anfield. In our last meeting Liverpool won 1-0 with a convincing show (i was there in the crowd) and i think again we should do well and come away with 3 points. This will give our confidence and place in the table a huge boost and hopefully be the start of winning times again.

Cheers

Owen

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By Owen Thomas, Liverpool fan, 18th December 2002
Will Rooney haunt Liverpool on Sunday? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room

Well, what can i say? How can i continue to look to the future in a positive mood and say that everything's going to be alright, it will be ok, we will get through this bad patch and fight on? There has to come a point where you stop being so positive and instead think realistically, that things might not, after all, be ok? Well this point is slowly creeping up on me and i don't like it!

The defeat by Sunderland on Sunday is a massive blow to the already under pressure and demotivated squad. Losing 2-1 to a team who are potential relegation contenders must be hard to take, after all, at the beginning of the season we were one of three teams tipped to take the title. Our season so far has had its ups, but the downs far outweigh these and Sunday was one big downer.

We just did not play well enough. Sunderland fought hard, and even at 1-1 weren't going settle for a draw, but the Red's just didn't play with the cohesion and flow that makes them a match winning team. Yes there were spirited efforts by the likes of Murphy and Baros. And yes, once again Chris Kirkland showed that he has the talent to become an England international someday, but the overall performance as a team was poor. We defended badly, lost possession too often and couldn't make the plays to get the goals.

Lying 5th in the table at this stage of the season behind Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Everton isn't the end of world, there's still time, it's just a case of when we're going to get our arses into gear and play like the team we can be, the team that wins matches with great teamwork and fighting spirit.

Tonight we go to Villa Park for the Worthington Cup Quarter Final. Judging by our recent form many will doubt that we can pull off a win, and who could blame them? Only time will tell.

Then on Sunday we meet our old Merseyside rivals Everton. This will be an interesting match. With Everton 1 point ahead of us in the table and doing rather well, and with the likes of Rooney, this will be a tough match. The Red's must put in a decent performance and get back to winning ways - another defeat will be disastrous. I want to be able to wear my Liverpool shirt in public with pride and without people taking the mick. Lets hope i can soon.

Cheers

Owen

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By Owen Thomas, Liverpool fan, 13th December 2002
Can Liverpool beat Sunderland on Sunday? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room


What is going on?

What is going on? Why the string of losses? Why the lack in performance? Is this seasons title challenge slowly fading away from our grasp? These are just a few of the questions Liverpool fans will be asking themselves after our dismal performance at the weekend against Charlton. Things are looking increasingly bleak for reds and we can only hope that this poor run ends soon. One win out of eight league games is a record we do not want to achieve! One win! This cannot continue if we want to even stay in the top six of the league, let alone win it. We have now been overtaken by both Chelsea and Manchester United, and lie fourth in the table with 31 points with several teams hot on our tails.

As for match, I have to admit I didn't even see it! After hearing the result I was too disappointed and hacked off to even watch the highlights! I do know, however, from the match reports I've read in the newspaper, that our performance was poor to say the least, and that the only good comment to come out of the match was the excellent goalkeeping skills of Chris Kirkland. I think that he should appear a lot more often.

The team just didn't perform as well as it should have. There is a lot of expectation this season for the reds, they are expected to do well based on their performances in the past few seasons (4th, 3rd, 2nd) and there is pressure on them to continue the run and take with them the Premiership trophy. At the moment the expectation is not being met and we are labelled by many as a 'boring team'. Yes some of our performances of late could be described as boring, something is missing, something is not quite right within the team - and until the problem is resolved we will continue to perform below par and not meet our targets. I can't say what is missing, and I'm sure many of you have your own opinion of what is wrong, but at the end of the day its down to Gerard Houllier and his men to sort it out. The question of whether they will sort it out is something we will see with time.

On Wednesday this week we welcome Vitese Arnhem to Anfield for the UEFA Cup match. The reds have a 1-0 lead from the last leg in Holland so lets hope we can continue the trend. And then on Sunday we are off to Sunderland. This is a match we must win - Sunderland are a team we should be able to beat. We are EXPECTED to win. Failure to do so will seriously put doubt in the minds of many Liverpool fans as to whether we can even finish in the top six of the league this season. I dearly hope that my next report will be a positive one in which I can say that maybe, just maybe, a resurgence is upon us.

Cheers

Owen

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By Owen Thomas, Liverpool fan, 3rd December 2002
Liverpool to beat Ipswich & Charlton this week? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room

Well what a match we had on Sunday! Excitement, high drama, tension - an epic battle between two top teams striving to make their way to the top of the premiership.

In the end though, the score didn't tell the whole story. A horrendous mistake by Jerzy Dudek once again means the reds are defeated, another 3 points lost. We have now taken 1 point from a possible 12 - a run of losses we cannot afford to have if we want finish on top at the end of the season and clinch the prize we've been striving towards.

Dudek's form of late, it has to be said, has been rather awful in comparison to the match winning performances we were getting a few months back. This time it was a 'school-boy' error, fumbling the ball through both his arms and legs to let Diego Forlan tap the ball into the net for an easy goal. His hands covering his face afterwards told it all. And then, to rub salt into the wound, 3 minutes later Forlan struck again, this time with a fairly unstoppable strike sweeping past Dudeks hands into the back of the net.

Then it was time for the red's to strike back. We managed to get the better possession of the ball and persistence paid off when, in the 82nd minute, John Arne Riise's (personally who i think should've been brought on far sooner) throw in found El Hadji Diouf who held up the ball before feeding it to Sami Hyypia. Hyypia then made a cracking strike to boost the red's confidence with only 8 minutes to go.

This made a visable change to the team - they looked to be on a final assault charge ready to equalise before the final whistle. Two minutes after our first goal the second looked almost certainly on the cards, and but for a outstanding save from Fabien Barthez, we would have equalised from a magnificent shot by Dietmar Hamann.

In the end it wasn't to be. This now leaves a big question mark over Dudek's head and decision time for Gerard Houllier. Dudek's performance over the past few games just hasn't been up to scratch, this now leaves a window open for Liverpool's 21-year-old Chris Kirkland.

It will be a very interesting match on Wednesday when we meet Ipswich in the Worthington Cup clash to see how he performs. Who knows, when we meet Charlton Athletic on December 7th we could see him in the starting line up.

But fear not all you Liverpool fans out there, its not all doom and gloom just yet! With only 16 games played so far we still have 22 games left which will finish in May 2003! Yes we still have games such as Arsenal home and away, Newcastle away and Manchester United away, but with a little shake-up I think we can come back to winning ways.

Just look at Manchester United's poor run a month or two ago and look at them now. Every team has their dips in form and I think its time we came out of ours. We're only 4 points away from Arsenal after all, its not like they're running away with it.

And so to Ipswich on Wednesday for the Worthington Cup, and Charlton Athletic on Saturday. I'm quietly confident that we can do well in both of these games without too much trouble but only time will tell. It will be nice to have some wins to report on! Till next time.

Cheers

Owen

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By Owen Thomas, Liverpool fan, 28th November 2002
Liverpool to beat Man U on Sunday? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room

"Liverpool’s poor run continued on Saturday at Fulham’s Loftus Road with a 3-2 defeat. This now leaves us second in Premiership, 1 point behind Arsenal after their defeat by Southampton.

Two goals just weren’t enough to give us a win after a fairly poor display. Conceding five minutes into the match wasn’t the best of starts, a Dudek mistake giving the home side a 1-0 advantage. Then in the 36th minute a
strike by Fulham’s Davis deflected past Dudek allowing them to go 2 up before half-time.

Liverpool responded well in the second half, a Hamann free-kick from 30-yards giving the reds a lifeline. Unfortunately just when it looked as though we were going to fight back, a third goal from Fulham came. In
the end Baros managed to pull back another goal but it was all too late.

This just finishes off a rather poor month for the Red's. The defeat by Middlesbrough, being knocked out of the Champions League after the Basel draw and then a poor draw against Sunderland see’s us take four points
out of a possible twelve. Our title hopes have had a minor set back but I believe we are now ready to get back to winning ways.

The team is in good shape. Morale is high. All in all there is no reason why we cannot come back to form and top the Premiership once again.

The next match against Manchester United on Sunday promises to be a thrilling epic battle between two top teams. United are in top form at moment and hopefully with the support of the Anfield crowd we can make their run of wins come to an end."

Cheers

Owen

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By David Segar, Liverpool fan, 4th October 2002
Liverpool to beat Chelsea 2-0? - Have your say in the footieNews chat room

We may not have had an ideal start to the season but things are definitely looking up for Liverpool. The draws against Blackburn, Newcastle and Birmingham were very disappointing but it seems we have put our defensive lapse behind us.

With the Man City game it was back to business for Michael with a tremendous hat-trick and overall the performance from the lads was fantastic. Then the Spartak Moscow game on Wednesday was another brilliant display of efficient defending and imperious attacking.  Let the good times roll!

With a tough game with Chelsea at the weekend, the Reds will be looking to give another 110% display to swat aside the London side after their disappointing performance in the UEFA cup.

Prediction Liverpool 2-0 Chelsea.

Cheers for now

Dave!

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Fancy doing what Dave is doing? - We're looking for fans of each club to provide a weekly report on the club they support, be it transfer gossip or a match report.  In return you'll get your name on the site and have the opportunity to promote your own football web site if you have one -Interested? then email your details, the club you support, your web site url and your first report to info@footienews.com and we'll be in touch!

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