Game got away from us

I felt we had a pretty solid first half, kept the ball well, although the one up front didn't work against 2 very experienced centre backs, with Del Horno and Gallas handling things on the flanks.

A mistake from Traore against Dogba who really played for the penalty, you could see him just lean into the challenge, then he did his pretend hobbling around the pitch and was miraculously better, after Lampard slotted away the penalty under an unlucky Reina.

Yet again we had to rely on a midfielder to score to bring us level, but it was a brilliant strike by Stevie G.

Their 2nd goal was well worked for Duff, after a nice piece of skill by Dogba which totally caught out the hapless Hyypia.

I have a feeling that Rafa will try and off load Cisse in Jan, he just doesn't seem to want to use him, maybe we would have been better off paying stupid money for Owen, at least he would play close enough to Crouch to cause some problems. You can't really blame Crouch he is just doing the job he has been asked to do. Morientes wouldn't have made much of a differnce out there if he had been fit.

I am still holding out some hope that Kewell will offer some of the much needed creativity we need, and not the type that Garcia can produce at the expense of losing so much possession.

Their 3rd came about from us losing our defensive shape, and I think that Cole should have been ruled offside, Reina was out and their was just one defender between him and our goal.

Rafa decided to try and chase the game, and our defence imploded setting up a simple chance for Geremi and 4-1.

We were worth a 2-1 loss on the day, the score line didn't tell the whole story, but a world clbutt right midfielder is not the answer to our problems. You could see Hyypia was well off the pace, and 2 games in a week seem beyond him, so he needs a replacement or backup. We really need a world clbutt striker, and it is probably too late to sell Cisse to Houllier now that he is cup tied for the CL.

We will have a huge fight to try and gain 4th place, and expect another 30 point or more gap to the eventual champions.

Tre...