Having just read the TLW match report from the final, and just cos Im bored at work, I thought I might make some points relating to it â“ a majority of which agree with what you said, some of which Ive just been thinking about and wondered what others think:

1) The positive. Jermaine Pennant. I was reading the fanzine the other day â“ the Burning Question â“ and was struck by how many negative opinions there were about him. Granted, the guy may not be the easiest to warm to, but I wonder what the opinion is regarding him in the forum now? Chelsea and AC Milan are the two biggest matches the guys ever faced, and to be honest I thought hed bottle both of them. He excelled in both however, and I think the burning question would be a whole lot different now.

Follow up:

2) Dirk Kuyt â“ Ive not been able to see too many of our away games this year, but from what I can gather, this guys probably inadvertently the biggest reason for our collapse in away form this year. Dont get me wrong, I absolutely love the guy and would gladly keep him at Anfield for many a season to come, but Peter Crouch looked twenty times more threatening in the twenty minutes he was on the pitch in Athens. I usually understand (or agree with) most things Rafa does, but he seems to have lost his hard-on for Crouchamania just as the rest of the world has decided that the Real Liverpudlian hero belongs at this level. Weird.

3) Reno Gattuso. I hate the little bitch. Pitbull? Bulldog? Well its easy to be a Pitbull Bulldog Terrier of a footballer when all you do is sprint round the pitch after the ball and dont bother stopping. Honestly, the amount of times players just releasedthe ball cos they thought he was going to end their careers. And the amount of times he went in late on challenges last Wednesday? Mascherano proved in that game how to do the job properly. And cleanly. Little Italian midget bitch.

4) Steven Gerrard â“ I thought he was piss poor on Wednesday. Granted, I know the guy was playing out of position, but hes probably the best all-round footballer in the world â“ it shouldnt come as a problem to him. His body language doesnt help at all in the Gerrard unhappy at playing out of position headlines that constantly keep cropping up (ever wonder why we dont see the same headlines with Michael Essien â“ probably the best midfielder at Chelsea, yet shunted around while that big planet of human waste gets to take the worst shots in the world for the 15 mins that hes even in a game).

5) The ref â“ yeah, he was dogshit. Crouch doesnt often help himself in penalty box challenges, but even on TV it was obvious hedidnt even touch the guy. The free-kick wasnt a free-kick (Kaka handed Alonso off and then threw himself to the ground â“ similar to Giggs free-kick at Anfield this year), the 3 minutes of injury time was just over two and a half, and without doing anything blatant, the just seemed to break up our play every time we got going. It was as if Claude Makalele was a referee.