transfer window shuts, now it's time to breathe a little easier without all the insane rumours flying around.

personally, i think the signings this summer has been conservative, we opted for experienced players or foreign players with enough track records, but as expected no major signing that thrills fans and club. no one to blame but ourselves, now we suffer from the tight budget after losing out on an UCL place last season.

our signings have hardly got anyone's head turned, perhaps apart from joe cole who was somewhat a surprise player. at the moment transfers have been more like direct replacements: cole for benayoun, konchesky for insua, meireles for aquilani, poulsen for masch, jones for diego. we have more players leaving than coming, and it's sad enough that our wallet is so tight that we can't even secure a signing without selling our own player first.

i can understand that we may not have any transfer kitty this summer, but we clearly made a profit and if the cash received is not made available to bolster the squad, then i guess everyone would've noticed how bad our club's situation is in now. top four is like miles away, the current squad is mediocre at best, we'll have to wait till the end of this season to judge RH, but again, personally i haven't been convinced from the day he signed the dotted lines. for me, RH is clearly chosen because he can work things out without needing a big budget (and he won't be complaining), exactly what the club's owners are looking for.

poor preseason, great game against arsenal before going back down for the next two games against city and wba. it's as though we're back to our yo-yo and inconsistent days of roy evans.

as bad as it sounds on paper, i don't think masch is doing anything wrong. he was supposed to leave last season and delayed the move for a year, we see this coming.

a year ago i don't think anyone expected us to slump down to 7th, RB to leave, RH to takeover with no transfer kitty. we could have won the league and masch may have still made up his mind to leave. i don't think RH realize the decision made by the argentinian before he came, perhaps that led to the misunderstanding between the two men now.

anyway, the player has left and RH has got a replacement, hopefully masch will continue to flourish wherever he goes. we don't see many players playing with passion as compared to monster masch, when he's on the pitch, he's contributed 100% every single time and i hold no grudges.

this may sound redundant, but since alonso left, there isn't any players who can take control of the midfield and stamp their authority. gerrard can do that, but at the same time he can't be the one dominating midfield and creating chances while being at the receiving end himself.

lucas is not a versatile player, he's good without the ball. can't do much when he receives it. and now poulsen looks like he's a player with the same quality. masch, before he left, is also a defensive midfielder who excels in winning tackles rather than spotting opportunistic passes.

aquilani last season was more like a player with good feet and composure, but he too lacked the vision and ability to carve chances from nothing. and a bit too flimsy to play in the middle anyway.

benayoun was good with dribbles and runs, but is also not the type with good vision and strong passing ability.

in all the matches so far, we are losing the midfield battle and normally we'll see us gaining some possession when gerrard drops back, but when that happens most of the time torres will be isolated up front because lucas and poulsen aren't daring enough to dart into the box.

up until today we haven't seen the team gel and play in a formation we're accustomed to. i'd like to see how the team plays with gerrard sitting back in front of the back four winning tackles and spraying passes, cole taking over gerrard's attacking midfield role and meireles running from box to box.

i didn't manage to catch the first half and watched only 40 minutes of the second, but from that short duration the team played so much better than the previous 4-5 games. kudos for the great scoreline, and good to see fringe players showing what it means to be wearing a liverpool red.

didn't see what happened in the first half as reported by soccernet, but midway through the second spearing was bringing the ball forward in the middle and when he saw no teammates making any good run he yelled furiously at far more experienced teammates, not afraid of letting them know a piece of his mind. this is what i enjoyed watching. gerrard and carra used to do that every match, but i like the fact that spearing is by no means a better player but he dared to scream at players when they're not doing enough for the team, regardless of their age or how long they've been in the squad.

same with kelly. he may not be as sound as spearing, but i thoroughly enjoyed watching him chasing down opposition players down the flank, and the occasional galloping up the field a la carra-esque, not beautiful yes, but plenty of passion there.

meireles and cole were probably the difference in midfield today, both have got good feet and touches, solid passing and alert. steau may be weak but these two are in the middle of all good works throughout the match.

solid display from ngog again, at the moment he looked much better than a half-fit torres, and definitely not the same ngog we saw last season. much better control and touch, smart flicks and ambitious, still lose possession easily at times but major improvement in all departments after the summer break.

didn't see much of babel other than 3 intercepted passes in 2 minutes in the 2nd half. he has so much potential and yet it's frustrating to watch him taking the wrong options almost every other time. reminds me of garcia, exciting and agonizing to watch, but garcia surprises us more often with wondergoals and mazy runs.

the fringe players have upped the standards. how will the first team react this weekend? with displays like this players like spearing and kelly could walk into the first 11 and the senior players could not complain.

i don't mind him screwing up as long as he cleans up his mess. and this occasion he did a pretty good clean-up job, hahaha...

still, when lucas came in he seemed to be in a lighthearted mode, which is something we rarely see in the first team deployed through this early season matches. today the players looked like they're enjoying the intensity of the match, and drilling hard to impress. they moved the ball faster, more accurately, and most importantly, with intent. players drift into good positions off the ball, and those who didn't would receive a good wake-up call from the young spearing. players are running to open up space and good options.

i wonder, if one of these days spearing gets to start in the team with the likes of torres, gerrard and carra, would spearing dare to rip them apart like how he did this morning?