Liverpool 3, Newcastle 0: Player Ratings

Before I get to my ratings for Saturday's match, I'd just like to say that there's absolutely nothing going on with our beloved club. Speculation about the rift between the owners and Rafa has been taken far out of the realm of common sense and given way too much attention. Mostly from wind-up blogs and children still craving attention from their neglectful mother. Who cares? Until something actually happens, I'm not even going to address it's existence. Also, any talk of Xabi Alonso going elsewhere is rubbish. Moving on...

Pepe Reina 5
An average outing for our keeper. I thought he was a bit lucky when Alan Smith knocked it wide and also I wish he'd stop trying the long ball so often. That probably is Rafa's fault though.

Alvaro Arbeloa 4
Was quite sloppy on the ball and just seemed out of it most the match. He didn't take any Newcastle players on nor did he even appear to want to attempt a run at the goal. Like I've said prior, he looks much more comfortable on the right, which brings me to ask where was Aurelio?

Jamie Carragher 6
Carra had to do little if nothing and in fact, seemed excited to get to come up for corners. Still, he was his reliable self.

Sami Hyppiä 7
Was again outstanding. Officially got the assist to Kuyt and even though it was cheeky little deflection, it was really Gerrard who earned it. As Carra has said recently, when Sami plays well, the team plays well. He's probably earned himself another year with the club with his recent run of matches, but Agger still has to get the start when fit. Hopefully Hyypiä won't fall back into a rut when he begins to play less. Hey, maybe Carra can have some games off?

Steve Finnan 6
Other than a wild cross in the first half, he was his same old reliable, efficient self.

Lucas 7.5
What can you say about our little Brazilian wrecking ball? He's never going to get the proper recognition from the press nor pundits, but he's on pace to be a LFC great. His performance here truly showed his footy smarts and almost allows me not worry about losing Mascherano. Almost. He lead the side with 11 tackles while committing just three fouls and also lead us in attempted passes with 63 and completed passes with 59. In fact, he had more completed passes than anyone else on our side had successful ones. Oh, and he got the assist on Gerrard's free kick goal.

Sissoko 6
I don't think most people understand Momo's job out there. He's not there to score goals, make brilliant passes, or even split defenses with runs off the ball. Whenever he does do these things, it's just icing. He's a destroyer and his job is to disrupt the flow of our opponents and he does this very well. The problem is we have Xabi, Masche, and Lucas, who are all pretty good at it as well, plus offer a little bit more. I'm sure it's up to the Malian if he wants to stick around though. Speaking of Mali, he'll be joining his fellow countrymen when the Africa Cup starts up.

Gerrard 7.5 Man of the Match
I'm really tempted to give MotM to Lucas, but our skipper was just brilliant and had he not scored that free kick goal, there's a good chance the match would have ended in a scoreless draw or worse. His assist to Babel was brilliant as well. You can just see the confidence oozing in Stevie-G these days as he's on a roll. That's six goals in seven matches and seven overall. Playing him on the right allows him to roam free and give us inspirational performances like he did Saturday. I hope Rafa continues to play him at that spot even when Pennant comes back.

Harry Kewell 4
Is King Harry timid about thumping away at the ball or what? I don't think this match could have done much for his confidence since he was clearly woeful. Hopefully it won't affect his playing opportunities because he probably needs to play more often and for longer durations if he's to get in sync with the rest of the club. The difference when Ryan Babel came on the pitch was quite evident, we were a better, more fluid side.

Dirk Kuyt 6
The ever efficient Dirk Kuyt: 2 shots, 1 goal, an 84% pass completion rate, and five tackles to boot. He doesn't want your praise, he just wants to do his job.

Fernando Torres 6
A comical performance that I hope he can look back on and laugh. In the end we didn't need the two or three or even four goals he probably should have had, so I hope it doesn't have any effect on future performances. He still worried the living daylights out of the Newcastle defense and also won the foul that gave Gerrard his free kick goal.

Ryan Babel 8
Had he played the entire match, he would have probably run away with the Man-of award. All that happens when he's on the pitch for thirty minutes is we score a goal, this time he was the benefactor of his own influence. Is he the best super-sub in the league? I'm beginning to think so. He's brilliant nonetheless.

Neither Crouch nor Riise did much of anything so I won't bother taking the time to rip their poor, yet time-constrained performances. I will say this though, Riise was particularly dreadful, so much so that I'm beginning to wonder if he's fully fit.

Well, there ya go, feel free to comment back, I have about thirty that I have to go through for past posts, but I hope to get to them sometime today. No daily today since there's nothing new or relevant worth discussing. Cheers.