Erm, has the season started yet? It's just that I seem to remember Rafa getting rid of a load of the 'garbage' at Anfield in the summer and buying some decent looking players, a couple of players with proven Premiership experience and some players we had been closing in on for a couple of seasons.
So why have we started as poorly as we did last year.
Blackburn last weekend was (apart from a 30 minute spell in the second half) woeful. The mid-week game against Bordeaux was a shocked - how we escaped with three points was beyond me. Let's not even start on Bolton the week before. Maybe it's just teams with names beginning with 'B'.
Either way our Premiership performance is abysmal. Comparing our season with last season shows that we are one point better off than this time last year (after 8 games) but this time last year we won our next 10 games on the spin. Can you see us doing that now? Oh and Man Utd are up next, who are sitting 8 points ahead of us.
I can't decide what's gone wrong at Anfield. The squad rotation system has come in for a lot of stick, but Rafa used it well to win the Champions League and he used it well last season to record our highest Premiership points total and win the FA Cup.
The plain fact is that the players have not performed. Bellamy and Pennant have failed to set the Anfield faithful alight, and last season's midfield dynamo's Gerrard and Alonso have been mediocre. The defence and the keeper have looked shaky - a case of them all unsettling each other.
We were unfortunate early on, a number of games we should have got something out of such as the Chelsea away game when better finishing on the day would have given us three points.
Rafa has been complaining about the International breaks - they bored me rigid anyway. Now we have a spell without them, and Rafa should use this time to mould his side and try to find his best eleven. Of course players can be rotated but players don't need to be involved just because they have an expensive price tag or massive salary. If the reds perform well the core nucleus of that team needs to play again, and again.
Craig Bellamy is a case in point. He seems to be an ever present in the side, but I haven't seen him play one game. Peter Crouch was left out after scoring two goals against Galatasaray.
Rotation can work, but it needs to be used more effectively.
Old Trafford on Sunday. I expect to see the season begin for us Liverpool fans - if it doesn't - at least we still have the European Cup.
Dave Needham
Deputy Editor
www.anfield-online.co.uk
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20th October 2006 
