Anfield Banter Awards for November

My player of the month was Sami Hyppiä. I'm so glad I disabled comments because I can only imagine the garbage spewing from the mouths of those who have their own opinion. If you are one of those who know better, than I have a suggestion, start your own blog. Anyhow, here's the rest of the awards.

Unsung hero of the month
Well, I sort of shot myself in the foot on this one by naming Hyppiä as player of. Let me see, Carragher is certainly a candidate, as is Yossi, who seems no matter how well he plays gets little recognition, but I'm going to have to go with Javier Mascherano. The Argentine was instrumental in shutting down our opposition in the four matches he played and improved drastically from our previous matches with Beşiktaş and Porto. Not to mention he had to go to South America and back to play two matches for his home country.

Bench player of the month
Easy, Ryan Babel. In his three appearances as a sub, he scored three goals, utilizing his skill and pace to punish our opponents. Funny enough, he failed to net in his two starts. For now, Babel clearly is best suited coming on in the 60th minute.

Goal of the month
We scored 17 goals in five matches this past month, so there's plenty to choose from. I think I've got it down to five though. From the Beşiktaş match, Babel's first goal where he cleverly deflected a ball from Benayoun off the inside of his foot and Gerrard's nasty swerving blast in the box after receiving a cheeky back heel from Voronin, Gerrard's nasty free kick in the Newcastle tie, and finally both goals by Torres in the Porto match. The thing is, all of these goals have one thing in common, they were all team efforts, so I'll let you to decide for yourself. If I had a gun to my head though, I'd take Babel's first goal against Beşiktaş, only because it was a great announcement of the kind of talent the young Dutch forward possesses.

Assist of the month
Again, some great ones to choose from: Benayoun to Babel and Voronin to Gerrard against Beşiktaş, Kewell to Torres against Porto, and three corners from Gerrard to various players. I'm gonna have to go with the back heel by Voronin to a streaking Gerrard though, the whole play was just a thing of beauty.

On-loan player of the month
Hey, it's not Paul Anderson this time, even though the Swansea winger had another great month, playing in seven matches and scoring twice. No, this month's award goes to Danny Guthrie, who played in all but 16 minutes for Bolton while helping them go unbeaten for the month. Yes, you read that right, Bolton didn't lose in five matches in November, going 1-4-0. Only one win, but it was against Man U. Guthrie has proven a solid contributor to the side which makes me wonder what his future holds, our midfield is already cluttered as it is.

That's it for today... probably, but I'll be back tomorrow with my daily and a 'What will Rafa do?' for the Bolton match. Godspeed.

AB Awards for October

October was a month to forget record-wise. We played a half-dozen matches, winning a pair (@Everton, Cardiff City), drawing a pair (Tottenham, Arsenal), and amazingly losing both our Champions League ties (Marseilles, @Beşiktaş). Injuries devastated us with no less than 8 regulars missing matches and causing others to have to play when they would be rested otherwise. Not to mention, if you include his ties for England, Steven Gerrard had to play in no less than eight matches last month, six in an eighteen day period. The most amazing stat is that after getting seven shutouts in the first two months of play, we failed to blank a single opponent in October. If that doesn't tell you how much we miss Daniel Agger, I don't know what does. Anyhow, on to the awards.

Player of the Month
The only real candidates for this accolade in my opinion are Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, and Steve Finnan. Carragher gave it his all in every match and looked utterly spent by the end of most of them and Finnan was consistent as ever, but with the amount of matches he's played, showing the integrity to work his way back to class form, and ending the month scoring his third goal in as many games, Gerrard, to me, is the most deserving.

Unsung hero of the month
This one is between the two players that just never seem to get the proper credit they deserve, probably because they are always business as usual and leave the glitz and glamor at home. If you don't know which two players I'm talking about, it's Jamie Carragher and Steve Finnan. With Arbeloa injured, Finney was asked to play a lot more than his 31-year-old body can probably handle, especially when you add his appearances for Ireland, but the Irishman never seemed to miss a beat and was his normal reliable self. Unfortunately he has a teammate named Carra who had the responsibility of making up for a subpar Hyypia. Hopefully Agger will return in due time.

Bench player of the month
Lucas, hands down. His effort against Everton won him this award alone.

Goal of the Month
I have this down to three: Torres versus Tottenham, Nabil El Zhar versus Cardiff, and Gerrard versus Arsenal. The first goal was a brilliant header finish to equalize and save us a point, but I have to give Steve Finnan partial credit for getting the assist. The second is just brilliant especially considering it was Nabil's first in a Liverpool kit. The award goes to Gerrard versus Arsenal, though because it was a classic Stevie-G effort and allowed me to breathe a little easier.

Assist of the Month
Though Benayoun's effort yesterday is worth a mention, only one assist came to mind: Finnan's assist to Torres to get the equalizer versus Tottenham.

Player-out-on-loan Award
Few candidates for this one as most of our boys seem to either be having it tough getting playing time or are fighting fitness. The only two that come to mind are Paul Anderson at Swansea and Danny Guthrie at Bolton. Though Guthrie either played or was on the bench for all six Wanderers' matches last month, Paul Anderson has to get the nod. The 19-year-old winger featured in all of the Swans matches in October, scoring three goals and helping them to a 5-0 record. He is looking more and more like the real deal, but a spell in the Championship next season should be the next step. Cheers.