Anfield Talk: Welcome Back to Anfield, Houllier!

Hello everyone!

It was the 16th Premier League game for Liverpool last night and a comfortable win against Aston Villa. The scoreline was 3-0 and scored by Ngog, Babel and Rodriguez.

Aston Villa coach, Gerard Houllier returned for the first time to Anfield since he left the club in May 2004. For those who don't know, Houllier was a Liverpool manager in 1998 until 2004. We won UEFA Cup, FA Cup, UEFA Super Cup, Charity Shield and two League Cup under Houllier's charge. We also finished 2nd in 2001 with 80 points - 3 points above United. Beating Barcelona, AS Roma, Bayern Munich and United at Old Trafford were amongst the highlights of his managerial career with Liverpool. So, this time he came back to Liverpool as a opposite manager.

Treble season. UEFA Cup winner 2001.

Houllier, Thompson and Houllier-appointed captain - Gerrard.

For Liverpool, we had to play without Gerrard, Torres and Carragher. So Ngog and Babel were given a start and they did well. Nice goal-poacher instinct by Ngog gave us a lead. That goal shows us what he can do - natural goal scoring talent. Hopefully he can do more often. Babel later scored after a nice lob ball by Lucas. Babel had a great game, love to see more from him. Sometimes he doesn't use his brain much while playing. He likes to do whatever he wants, that's what makes him a not-so-good player. But if he plays properly and confident, he can be the best player on the field.

All players did well last night. Johnson had a couple of chances. I think Roy Hodgson should seriously consider to convert Johnson as a right midfielder. If Gareth Bale (Tottenham) can be a great flanker, why can't Johnson be one? Anyway, once again, Lucas & Meireles partnership was outstanding. I pick Lucas as man of the match, again. He has been terrific this season. Good to see all the 'Lucas' haters' suddenly turn to be fans of Lucas. Haha. I told you so he is a good player! Hopefully both of them will continue their good form for the rest of the season. Our defenders were great. Managed to shut Villa's attacker for the majority of the game. As for Reina, he was brilliant yet again. He made one outstanding save and initiated an awesome counter-attack (Rodriguez goal).

Ngog dives to score the first goal.

Overall, Liverpool did very well. I really hope that Roy Hodgson can motivate the lads to maintain this kind of performance. I'm not a big fan of commenting opposite team performance, but I feel sorry for Houllier. It wasn't a very good night for him at Anfield. Villa have great players but they didn't perform. I particularly like Ashley Young, Albrighton and Agbonlahor, also, Downing. Wish that Roy could sign at least one of them this January.

So now, Liverpool are in 8th, with 22 points, 8 points are needed to chase Man City in 4th position. Btw, it's only 10 points behind league leader, Arsenal. 10 points, say if we can make 2 months of winning streak, and probably undefeated until end of the season, who knows, we can be a champion! Shooting for the star, err.. right?

Spotted Xabi Alonso at the stand watching the game. We really miss you man!
So, that's it. Thanks for reading. Until next time, YNWA.

p/s: Remembering my post on Liverpool 5-0 win against Villa last year. It was written for my first blog :P

Anfield Talk: More misery for Liverpool

Hi guys

The thing is, I'm tired of seeing Liverpool losing. Spurs couldn't defend, Van Der Vaart & Kaboul were out early in the game, Bale was ran out of steam. For some freakin' reason, Liverpool lost the game! The result was a 2-1 lost to Tottenham.

I don't like to blame anyone, I always see football as a team sport. But this time I know exactly who to blame. First, Torres & Maxi. What the hell they were doing in front of goal. Torres, so called a world class striker had two clear chances. Although he made two delicates tap cum pass, but when in front of the goal, he didn't shoot, he was slow. To be honest, he didn't look like showing any desire to play for Liverpool at all. Maxi also had couple of great chances, which he missed, terribly! Second person I'd like to blame is, Konchesky, our 'first choice' left back. He was goddamn too slow. In fact, he has been very slow and poor all season. Mediocre at his best. Thirdly, obviously, Roy Hodgson. As a manager, he has been uninspiring for the rest of the team, to the fans as well. He openly criticizes our own players, rubbish at press conferences and often makes poor tactical judgement. He must go, immediately, or at the very least this January.

Positive side from the game, Lucas & Raul Meireles were brilliant. Lucas in particular was very solid. Raul did well, his tackling was good, though sometimes his passing was little bit off. Skrtel also was excellent. He was unfortunate to score an own goal after scoring for Liverpool at the other end. His tackling, blocking, heading and anticipation were good. Spurs were lucky to have Carragher injured 5 minutes before the game finished. Kyrgiakos was Carra replacement, and Spurs took advantage on that. Long ball played more than 4 times towards Crouch in the last minutes of the game. One of them assisted Lennon winning goal, helped by the lack of pace of, who else, Konchesky. Spurs didn't play THAT well and they were the lucky bast*rd. Just sayin'.

I've already started to hate Spurs

I don't know how Liverpool going to bounce back anymore. We are so inconsistent. The way I see it, Liverpool need somebody to score goals for us. I've already lost faith on Torres. I don't see determination and desire inside him to play for us anymore, half-hearted at most. He was brilliant only few times this season. Other times, he was average and I have to say this, he was freakin' lazy. Liverpool need to bring a set of top-class, fast paced, magician winger. New goal scoring and effective strikers are also needed. Perhaps, a set of full back also would be good as well. I hope Liverpool will comeback and finish this season in 4th place at the very very least. That's all I have to say. YNWA - always.

Sorry for the angry words and bit dramatic. I'm just too disappointed. Thanks for reading though. See ya next time.

Westlife's 2010 Album: Gravity

Hello readers

I have a great news folks. Or at least for me. The news is, Westlife are back with their latest album! Heyyooo!! Mesti ada yg macam; "eh, ada lagi ke Westlife ni?". Damn right they still exists. Tahun ni dah masuk 12 tahun since, diorang punya 1st appereance which was in 1998. 12 years guys! That's quite an achievement for any artists, let alone for a band. Ok, mungkin yg tak tau, I'm a huge fan of Westlife since I was a kid. Alah, time zaman sekolah rendah dulu. Mana-mana best friends aku mesti tau punya. Hence, yes, I've listened to every Westlife's songs. In fact, I own all their 10 previous albums and have watched all of their tour concerts. So, yeah, I kinda a big fan :)

So, album kali ni namanya Gravity and single pertama mereka bertajuk Safe. Album ni adalah album ke-11 mereka. Seperti album sebelum ni (Where We Are, 2009), Westlife akan tampil dengan imej yg lebih rock & matured. Ok, memang diorang dah matang, tp tu daripada segi umur lah. Matured yg ni bermaksud muzik mereka bukan lagi teen pop macam album-album terawal mereka, tapi muzik kali ni lebih segar dan 'kasar'. Album kali ni adalah hasil kerjasama Westlife dengan producer baru mereka, iaitu John Shanks.

Gravity album cover

Safe. Single album cover.

Bagi yg tak kenal John Shanks ni, dia sebenarnya music producer kat Amerika yg mmg popular. Bak kata orang tu, a living legend la, walaupun beliau tidak memiliki motosikal Lagenda. Antara artis-artis yg pernah di bawah ketiak bimbingan beliau adalah Bon Jovi, Michelle Branch, Miley Cyrus, Hillary Duff, Colbie Caillat, Simpsons sisters (Ashlee & Jesicca), old timer - Rod Sterwart, Enrique Iglesias dan tak lupa, 2 boyband yg terhebat sepanjang zaman selain Westlife - Take That & Backstreet Boys. Ramai kan? Sebenarnya ramai lagi. Kalau lagu pulak yg John Shanks ni produced dan jadi popular adalah Breakaway (Kelly Clarkson), The Climb (Miley Cyrus), Fly (Hillary Duff), Pocketful of Sunshine (Natasha Bedingfield) dan banyak lagi, letih nak taip. Kalau nak tgk full discography John Shanks ni boleh la check kat Wikipedia ataupun laman webnya sendiri. For your information as well, beliau ni antara yg producer yg slalu dapat jd nominee utk anugerah Grammy. Album terbaru Miley Cyrus (Can Be Tamed) juga diterbitkan oleh John Shanks. So, reputasi mamat ni memang hebat kat Amerika sana. Jadi, dah tentulah, bila Westlife umumkan bahawa album Gravity ni adalah sepenuhnya terbitan John Shanks, peminat-peminat Westlife ni tersangatlah excited. Yup, including me, which Westlife's fan wouldn't right? Kalau kat Malaysia, John Shanks ni macam Audi Mok la, kan? Ataupun terbalik? Lebih kurang la :)

Album Gravity ni bakal mengandungi 12 tracks. Mungkin ada yg noticed, Westlife ni terkenal dengan cover songs mereka. So, kali ni, dengar cerita mereka akan menampilkan hanya dua lagu cover sahaja. One of the song that I know is The Reason by Hoobastank. Incidentally, lagu ni adalah salah satu lagu favorite sepanjang zaman aku. Agak menarik la bila Westlife buat cover version, tapi harap-harap tak dijadikan single, sebab orginal version oleh Hoobastank tu memang rock & mantap! Nak dengar samples boleh dengar kat sini.

Safe dipilih sebagai single pertama mereka utk album ni. Kalau first time dengar lagu ni, korang akan rasa lagu ni macam biasa je, tak lari daripada lagu-lagu Westlife yg lain. Tapi cuba dengar berberapa kali dulu, layan banyak kali, pasti korang juga akan rasa best. Bagi aku, lagu ni boleh dikatakan gabungan antara typical Westlife's song dengan irama rock sedikit sebanyak. Mungkin genre yg paling tepat sekali ialah Power Ballad ataupun Pop Rock. Contoh lagu yg mempunyai genre yg sama; I Don't Want To Miss a Thing (Aerosmith), Wind of Change (Scorpions) dan When You're Gone (Avril Lavigne). Lirik Safe ni jugak boleh dikatakan menarik. Tak seperti love songs Westlife yg lain, lagu ni more like as if you are hoping to save someone. It's like when you see someone crying or in pain, you feel like you want to comfort that person, or in other word to make them feel safe. Boleh dikatakan agak general tema lagu ni dan sesuai untuk semua lapisan umur (macam tgk wayang pulak) :p

Safe official music video

Anyway, this Gravity album looks promising. Tak sabar bila album ni di release kan 14 November tahun ni. Mungkin sampai kat pasaran Malaysia dalam hujung bulan November ataupun awal Disember. Diharap post aku kali ni dapat memberi gambaran sedikit sebanyak dekat korang tentang perkembangan Westlife. Westlife bukanlah lagi teen boyband yang macam dulu. Tak salah rasanya kalau menyokong band macam ni. Lagipun lagu-lagu diorang memang semuanya sedap untuk. Memang band ni dah agak lama ataupun yg macam sesetengah orang cakap, ketinggalan zaman, tapi bagi aku, memang berbaloi kalau follow perkembangan dan sentiasa lagu-lagu terbaru diorang. Tak kisah korang nak cakap atau judge apa, bagi aku Westlife salah satu group yang best & cool.

Westlife perform You Raise Me Up at Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony 2009

One of my favorite Westlife's live performance

That's it guys. I'll be updating you with the full review of the album. Thanks for reading. See ya next time!

p.s: Avril Lavigne's 4th album is coming out and Taylor Swift's Speak Now is just released. Can't wait to hear them all!

Anfield Talk: Liverpool & Torres are back!

Hello readers.


This week must be the greatest week for Liverpool fans all over the world. Yesterday, we beat Chelsea 2-0!!! Woohooo!!! Err..sorry for my over excitement. I just can't help it. It has been a long time since the last time we had this feeling. The feeling of beating  a big, arrogant, full of annoying fans and rich club. Sorry Chelsea fans. I'm not saying all of you, but some of the fans really make me sick. Not to mention the fans from the other red team. Not the team with the cannon, but with the fork. You know what I mean right. They like to mock our club, disrespectful, minding other clubs' businesses and talking nonsense when it comes to football (lack of understanding I suspect). In fact, they keep referring us as 'Liverfool'. Ehhh, that's so lame and very childish lah. Booooriiiiiing. Again, not all of them, only some of them, but sorry to say, in this particular club's case, MOST of them. 


Anyway, let's get serious here. Now, Liverpool are in a hot streak. 4 wins in a row, including the comeback in the Europa League game against Napoli in midweek. The team has performed well recently, and this win against Chelsea really boosts our spirit to chase the top 4 finish in Premier League table. 11 games already played now and we are in 9th spot (15 points, level with 5 other teams) and only 5 points-shy to be leveled with Arsenal and Man City. That's a great improvement since we almost hit rock bottom few weeks ago.


Now let's talk about Liverpool performances in the past few weeks. The wins against Blackburn & Bolton are definitely important for the team. Those two games have lifted team spirit and the team now looks more alive and enthusiastic for the first time this season. Players now look pretty settled, team chemistry & confidence start to grow higher in each game.

NESV Board Members visited Anfield

Torres netted the winner against Blackburn. Liverpool won 2-1

Maxi late winner. Bolton 0 - 1 Liverpool

Gerrard came to the rescue with 15 minutes hattrick against Napoli.
3-1 the final score

Yesterday performance I must say, was awesome! We got ourselves early goal, thanks to the brilliant combination between our strikers in that game. Great vision by Kuyt to set up Torres who wouldn't miss that kind of chance. I personally felt little anxious with the way he handle the loft ball from Kuyt, but didn't he control it so well, did he? Brilliant first touch and without any delay he side footed the ball into the net. The ball took little bounce though, but it was a great goal. The second one even better. Torres did exactly what he capable of. Fine control with the ball and delicate finish. Torres was terrific in this game. He chased the ball, closed Chelsea's players down - very often, showed some aggressiveness, he was at his best during the game.

Torres 1st goal. Terry was all over him!

For the whole team, they were terrific as well. Konchesky's defending as expected was little bit suspect. Some of the Chelsea's clear chances came from the right flank crosses. Means that Konchesky didn't handle his opponents very well, but I guess he was fine. Thankfully, the introduction of Bosingwa who replaced Ivanovic didn't give any damage to our defense and Maxi did his job helping Konchesky at the back. Both of our centre-back (Carragher & Skrtel) were solid. They read the game well and were very tough to crack. Martin Kelly, I like this guy, he does so well every time he play. For 90 minutes, he was great, with the help of Carragher beside him, he managed to stop Chelsea's movement from the left. Though he let Malouda & Drogba ran past him few times, he did great, considering that this was a big game, he learns.

Torres curled the ball into the net for the 2nd goal

Gerrard as usual, worked very hard. Involved in every aspect of the game, fantastic captain. Meireles and Maxi did their job even though  they may not looked comfortable in their positions. Being a central midfielder, both players tend to make runs toward the centre instead of opening wide, dribbling and crossing the ball - we can see that in every game. I guess it's in their nature as a playmaker, so I can't say anything more.  Now, how about Lucas Leiva?. I've posted about how do I rate this guy as a player. So you must know that I'm one the Liverpool fans out there who appreciate Lucas ability. He has received tons of criticisms throughout his career at Liverpool. Lots of Liverpool fans esp here in Malaysia like to banish and moan about his performances. But yesterday, he was a monster. He worked so hard and was tenacious during the game. He passed, tackled and closed down so well. He anticipated every movements made by 3 Chelsea's central midfielder. Suffice to say that Gerrard-Lucas won the battle versus Mikel-Zhirkov-Ramires. 


Reina also did well. Managed to make couple of important saves. One of them was brilliant/lucky point blank save and the other one was a fine dive stopping Anelka's shot. Ona and all have done their job very well. We performed well, were tireless and determined. Our work ethics, attitude and discipline have won us 3 points and let's hope the momentum keeps going. YNWA.


My ratings (out of 10):
Reina 7.5, Kelly 7, Carragher 8, Skrtel 8 , Konchesky 6, Meireles 7, Lucas 8, Gerrard 8.5, Maxi 7, Kuyt 7, Torres 9.


I don't give a damn about Chelsea's players. lol. But I give a few. Terry 7. Anelka 6, Ramires 6 and Drogba 5 (2 complete passes & 1 shot off target, what can I say more?).

"'Galah panjang' anyone? You'll never play it alone." lol

p.s: I like to call Liverpool as 'we' cause me and all the supporters are part of the team. Don't you feel that way too toward your team?


*All pictures are complete ripped off from liverpoolfc.tv and other sites. I don't own the pictures. 

Inception

Hello guys.

Last Friday, I went to the cinema and watched two movies. Yes, you read it right. The first movie that I saw was Ong Bak 3 and later that midnight I watched Inception. Watching two movies on the same day probably wasn't a good idea and it wasting money. And yet, I did it. Actually, I wanted to watch Inception, and only Inception. But there were so many freakin' people on that day! Inception was fully booked. That was a bummer. So I had to watch other movie since I and two other friends were already lining up to buy tickets. It took us 20 minutes to get the tickets and the only movie that we found interesting to watch other than Inception was Ong Bak 3.

Let me review Inception first. Inception is literally the best movie I've ever seen this year. Ok, I haven't watched many movies on cinema this year. In fact, I missed some of blockbusters like Iron Man 2, Clash of the Titans, Eclipse and some other more. But I can promise you that Inception is the most thrilling and exciting movie you'd ever seen this year (provided that you understood the movie). Inception is directed by Christoper Nolan and he was the man that produced Batman The Dark Night (one of my favorite movies). It's a sci-fi thriller, and I really enjoy this type of movies (Minority Report & Paycheck are some of examples). This movie is about this man named Cobb (potrayed by Leonardo Dicaprio), who leads his team to steal secrets from within shared dream. And you'll learn later that these guys, can go deeper in their dream, which means, they can dream further while they are dreaming. Sounds exciting right? So I'm gonna stop right there, and the rest you can watch yourself because I don't want to spoil anything. But here's my advise, don't miss the first 20 minutes of the movie. In fact, don't miss any scenes. You need to carefully listen to the dialogs and watch every details in this movie in order to fully understand and enjoy it. Inception got very high scores in IMDB (9.3/10) and Rotten Tomatoes (86%) - two the most reliable movies databases, which I 'm not surprise. I don't easily rate high for any movies and coincidently, Nolan's The Dark Night being the last movie I highly rated. But since I like Inception so much, I give it 5 stars out of 5.

Theatrical Poster 

I'm not going to say anymore and try to convince you that this is a great movie, you go watch and judge it yourself. Because, I don't think that everyone going to enjoy this movie as much as I did. Some people don't like serious and complicated stuff. They probably would like simple, light, funny and romantic movies. Some people don't. So really, it's up to you. In case you read this entry months after the movie was released on cinema, do yourself a favor, download, buy DVD or something, just watch this movie. You won't regret it.

For Ong Bak 3... apart from some great sound effect, it was boring and waste of money. Horrible storyline and drag fighting scenes. Don't watch this movie, period. 1.5 stars ouf of 5. I'd rather watch Twilight twice!

p.s: Can't wait for The Adjustment Bureau!

Thanks for reading and do visit my blog again. I see you next time. Ciao!

Hate Rain, Love War

Hi guys.

Have you guys had a day where you wanted to go somewhere or do some outdoor activities and you had planned everything perfectly. Then, you grabbed your things, got ready to go... and suddenly, rain came down, heavily! Have you experienced something like that? I have, in fact, many times. I just hate it. I don't know, it gets on my nerve if I had to change my plan suddenly. It really annoys me, especially when I ride my bike and the rain starts to come down. I bet you guys hate it too right? But what can you expect from our weather here in Malaysia. One minute the skies are clear and your day can't get any better. The next minute, big dark clouds come out and your plan to watch the latest movie in cinema is over. You just can't trust the weather.

"Well, let's get some teh tarik then"

Aside from hating the weather, I have something to share with you guys. Do you guys read books? No, not your reference books for study, but books like novel, non-fiction, autobiography or any paperback books. I do sometimes read them. I'm not an avid reader, but let me tell you, reading book is fun! Especially when you read something that you really like. For example, right now, I read this World War 2 history book. I know, reading that kind of book seems nerd,  'poyo' or anything, but I don't care. It's good to know and learn something, right? I like history, especially WW2 history. So, at the moment, I read this particular book, The Second World War: A Short History by R.A.C Parker. I've read 1/4 of it and I'll try to finish it by the end of this month - I'm not a fast reader, really slow. You can check out the book here if you like.

So, tell me guys, what are the books that you have read or currently reading? Share with me, tell me which one do you think is the best. Share it in the comment section below. So that's it! Thanks for reading, I see you guys next time. Ciao!

Hello and Welcome!

Hi everybody! Welcome to my blog.

Well first of all, thanks for opening and reading my blog. This is actually the second time I create a blog, I did a blog last year and it didn't turn out so well, so I had to delete it. But now I'm ready to start blogging again! Feel like so much to share.

Basically, I'll write anything that I'd find interesting to share and talk about. There's no specific theme or objective for my blog. I'll try my best to make this blog as entertaining as possible. Doesn't matter who you are, feel free to drop any comments or interact with me.

You can check out my Facebook profile, YouTube account and my photos on Photobucket site. The links are on the bar at the top of the page. You can also follow me on twitter and add me on My Space. 

Once again, thank you and welcome. Have fun!