Pepe interview , twitter updates and some Lucas and Stevie
Pepe Reina admits our Champions League ambitions could rest on four crunch matches over Christmas.
The Reds kick-off their festive fixtures by welcoming Fulham this weekend before a trio of games in seven days against Blackpool, Wolves and Bolton.
With three of those matches to be played at Anfield, our snood-wearing stopper is hoping the nine-point gap to Chelsea in fourth will be significantly reduced by the start of 2011.
"We know it's a critical moment in the season," he told Liverpoolfc.tv. "Every year Christmas time is huge. There are 12 points just around the corner for us. They are tough but winnable games, so it's a time to get ourselves back on track.
"The top four is realistic - that's realistic to talk about now. We have to beat Fulham and let's see how the Christmas period ends, then in January we can see where we're aiming for.
"I'm seeing a lot of desire among the staff and players. The club has a lot of history and we know we haven't been good enough so far this season. We aim and we hope with our daily work to get back to the old days and get higher in the table."
Reina - who is set to make his 200th league appearance for the club this weekend - thinks the football philosophy which proved so fruitful for Roy Hodgson during his time with Saturday's opponents is now starting to be applied successfully at Anfield.
"We have been playing better over the last month," said the 28-year-old. "We are more into the manager's ideas, we're getting into the philosophy.
"It's now about getting the results as well as the performances and also we have to recognise we badly need to improve, especially away from home."
Liverpool are hoping to be able to call upon skipper Steven Gerrard as they look to make it third time lucky on a Saturday tea-time this season following ESPN-screened defeats at Stoke and Newcastle.
"It'd be a massive lift to have him back," said Reina, who has donned the armband in our last two league games while Gerrard and Jamie Carragher nursed hamstring and shoulder injuries respectively.
"He's a key player for us and when he's in the team it's much easier for us. The confidence and the commitment he gives to this club - you have to drag yourself to the level of his passion."
With snow forecast on Merseyside this weekend, several of the 22 players taking to the pitch in L4 are sure to be wearing snoods.
The scarf-like appendages have become popular after warming the necks of stars like Carlos Tevez and Emmanuel Eboué in recent months.
Ever the trendsetter, Reina was wearing his last season - not that the Spaniard is looking to take the credit/blame for the current craze.
"I'm not looking for credit," he said. "It's David Beckham, not me! Sometimes it's so cold, so just to keep yourself warmer it's good to wear." Source
Also up at the mother site: An article with our darling Lucas (might be from "60 minutes..." ?), in which he talks about playing for Brazil and playing with Raul: "We've clicked really well, and become great friends," said Lucas. "It turns out we complement each other. He's a more attacking player but I never feel like I'm left all alone in the centre of the park. The fact that we share a similar culture (and language) is a big help too."
According to @ bensmith_times (journalist for The Times) on twitter, Stevie is back in full training again! "Some bloke called Steven Gerrard returned to full training at #lfc today" Hopefully it's true!
Speaking of twitter, Nathan Eccleston is back on it and he brought Jonjo with him! here at NE39 and here at J_Shelvey respectively. This means that there are six current LFC players on twitter.
(I'm a bit tired of the same old "amazing, flawless, etc" description when it comes to Pepe but it's just so true and apt. And Lucas is a darling simply put. By the way, does anyone know what happened with Konchesky and his...mother? I've seen it mentioned but don't know what actual happened. Or was it just "false alarm"?)