steverands.com

What to make of the new Anfield?

The official Liverpool FC site has today posted a video about the new Anfield stadium design. Be aware that the majority of this video is just talking heads stuff: the stadium fly-by simulation only kicks-in around the five-and-a-half-minute mark.

To be honest, I’m still not sure what to make of it. Call me a traditionalist, but I kind of preferred the old design from before the Gillett and Hicks takeover. Sure, the new plans are bold and certainly different, but my worry would be how well the design would age. Are we going to be looking at the stadium in twenty or even ten years and saying “what were they thinking”? Will it be viewed as a bit of an eyesore, an embarrassment even?

(And pity those fans on the new Kop come a sunny day, with that enormous glass window behind them!)

Still, the really important thing is what happens on the pitch. We’ve made a solid if unspectacular start to the season, but the real work starts on Sunday against Chelsea. I hope Gerrard is actually fit enough to play despite his foot problem; if not, we could be asking for trouble in more ways than one. Also, it would be nice if Evie could manage to stay awake during this match after sleeping through the entire Villa game last weekend.

My heart, my heart!

Well done to the Reds for winning the FA Cup on Saturday. It was probably a great match to watch if you were a neutral, but it wasn’t good for my health, that’s for certain! What is it about us and cup finals in recent years? We sure like to make life hard for ourselves. That’s the third final we’ve won after extra time and penalties since 2001.

Credit must go to the Hammers for putting us under pressure and taking advantage of our mistakes, although I don’t agree with those saying that they deserved to win the game. Sure, they were well-organised and certainly caused us problems, but let’s be clear: they profited from an own-goal, a goalkeeping howler and a fluke scored as the result of a mishit cross. Other than that, I don’t remember them having too many efforts on target.

Thank God for Stevie Gerrard, that’s all I can say. The man was immense. His second goal in particular was one of the best I’ve seen him score, and saved us when we looked dead and buried. Alan Hansen was right when he said the best signing we made at the start of the season was getting Gerrard to reject Chelsea’s advances. Let’s just hope he has the same sort of impact in the World Cup.

Just one more thing: I wonder who our fifth penalty taker was going to be?

Three is the magic number

In the end, victory over Portsmouth wasn’t enough to clinch second for The Reds, thanks to Charlton’s capitulation at Old Trafford. So third place it is then. Definite improvement since last season, and we’re certainly more consistent. If only we hadn’t had that spell at the turn of the year when our strikers couldn’t find the back of the net, we’d have finished above United for sure.

Anyway, there’s still the FA Cup Final to look forward to this weekend. We’ll probably be the favourites against West Ham, which always adds a bit of pressure, but if we play as we can then we shouldn’t have a problem. Alonso’s injury is a bit of a worry though, I just hope it clears-up by Saturday.

And great news to hear that Robbie Fowler’s been offered a one-year contract. He’s certainly earnt it. ‘God’ was probably my favourite Liverpool player of the ’90s; it was a pleasure to see him come through the ranks. He scored some fantastic goals: that thunderbolt past Schmeichel in Cantona’s comeback game; his 20-yarder in the FA Cup semi against Villa where he turned and left Steve Staunton for dead; the fourth goal against Alavés that we all thought would be enough to win the 2001 UEFA Cup (in normal time). Ah, happy days!