Derby Aftermath

Woke up at around 340am, turned on the telly (81) and saw WHU vs Wigan..WTF...has astro fucked up again? After koreking taik mata a bit and channel-surfed further more baru la nampak the info at 82 - 3:55am (L) Liverpool vs Everton from Goodison Park, Liverpool (or something like that). Fuh..lega...tak sia2 'terjaga'...after all, during that short nap (started from the end of CSI:Miami) I actually dreamt of oversleeping, and woke up 5 minutes to the end to the score of Liv 7 - Everton 1!..punya la gelabah! I cannot possibly imagine missing THAT kind of game!!!

Then proceeded to the usual charity work, did some wake-up calls to a few usual suspects. So if anybody wants to be in my wake-up call list, kena inform awal2 lah..and this is applicable to midweek, early morning games only.

How did I approach this match? As always, with caution. Although I am a big fan, I am not a very optimistic one. Eventhough the team nowadays seems to have a bit more 'oomph' to it, it is still too early, in my opinion, to say that the team won't drop points in 'easy' games, like how Manyoo will always overrun 'lesser teams' during their reign. And I can still remember clearly the sakit hati of lompat pagar malam2 & tebalkan muka menyebok kat Cybereena to watch live matches with the help of Eddie and Sam, only to see them lose at home to WATFORD!! And Everton definitly cannot be considered as a 'lesser team', eventhough they seems to be having a bad crisis right now. As they always say, in derby matches, 'form book is thrown out of the window' (how cliche). Having said that, I believe that Benitez has had more preparation for this game as compared to last year. In came Warnock, Sissoko and Cisse for extra 'steel' to the team. I don't think the lighweight Luis Garcia and Morientes has what it takes for this match, particularly at goodison. And I guess, based on the result, Benitez's decision was spot on.

Whats next? What I don't like with this kind of run is, it builds up hope. And optimistism. And confidence. Only to be brought down to earth, sooner or later. The only thing of concern is whether it is a slow bump, or a 25,000 ft free-fall like those aircrafts in 'Air Crash Investigations'. And I definitely don't like it when people start to talk of Liverpool as 'title contenders', or 'champions in the making' or things like that. This things seems to be killing us. I prefer us to be the underdogs, just like the run to the CL last year, when people only talk of us as champions only AFTER we have actually won it. Look at what happened in Yokohama. From what I read and understood, prior to the final, or in fact even prior to the competition itself, people have been talking about how Liverpool is the favourite, how Liverpool will finally win it at 3rd attempt, blah blah...only to lose it at the end.

Maybe we need Crouch to stop scoring again. At the start of the run, the only thing that ppl talk about is how long will it takes before Crouch finally score. And that actually 'hides' our good run; and gave the team a bit freedom from the media, away from the spotlight. There were none of this '9-game cleansheet record', or 'the best run since king kenny's reign', or 'performances worthy of champions'. All they talk about is 'Crouch could not score', 'Bad in the air for a big man', etc. etc. This sorts of give the other member of the team to concentrate and focus more on the job on hand. Hence the good run. (now I am thinking like Mourinho).

If they can keep up this form, I would be very happy enough. I guess its all down to Benitez. He seems to be able to grasp what does it take to succeed domestically, after european success last term. Let's hope he can carry on doing what he is doing now, and the team can react accordingly to him. And not to lose the plot like GH.