So, the Mighty (so far) Reds have played their last game of the first month of the season, and August has been better than most Augusts of late.

5 proper competitive games played, yeilding 4 wins (and a draw with Robbing Styles and his team mates). Good attacking intent has been shown in all games, with 10 goals scored (averaging 2 per game) and, despite injuries and rotation of the defence, only two goals conceded - both from penalties, and both from rather dubious awards, to a bigger or lesser degree).

Particularly refreshing is that, in the 10 goals, we already have 7 different scorers, with the fact that all 4 strikers are already off the mark particularly pleasing in an era of immense media pressure for a non scoring forward. As Rafa loves o tell us, 4 strikers scoring 15 is as good as having a front pair scoring 30 each…
All the new signings have looked impressive so far, Benayoun, Torres and Voronin all being praised by the fans and media, Babel certainly showing he has something about him (not least the way he gets his shots away fantastically quickly and accurately when a chance presents itself), and even Leto and Levia impressing in their limited time on the pitch.

Some of the arrivals from last season have also shown a step up in their game, with Arbeloa and Kuyt both showing improvement in some of the deficencies they had last season.

Even Rafa has appeared to step up his game on all sides, with his handling of the media, his attacking mentality, his more settled premier league team selections, and his use of the squad to good effect.

Indeed, the squad really does look superb, as the performance against Toulouse proved, starting, as we did, without Gerrard, Carragher, Alonso, Kewell, Torres, Voronin, Finnan, Aurelio, Pennant and Levia - it certainly shows how much strength in depth and quality exists at the club now.

All in all, then, a positive month, and a start which, hopefully, we can use as a solid foundation for a good September - a month in which fixtures against Derby, Portsmouth, Birmingham and Wigan give us a chance to continue the good work to date.

Hopefully my September review will see us all celebrating another good month of results, and our sustained title charge!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 at 9:40 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.