Valerenga vs Liverpool

Aquilani was truly special when he came on. I have not been one of his ardent proponents during his time in a red shirt. I will admit; I even hoped he would be sold to Juventus. Not because I believed him to lack quality, but because I believed him to be surplus to our needs.

I am glad that I am not the one that has to pick the starting 11. Aquilani, Meireles, Adam and even Shelvey (who looked good in the match) will all cause selection headaches should they all remain with the club. It's certainly not a bad problem to have. As we all saw against Valerenga, a sub with quality and imagination can completely change the nature of the match.

During the match I couldn't get past the defensive frailties exhibited in the back four. However, with the addition of a left back and possibly a center back I am confident these can be ironed out. This is still essentially the same defense from last season, which looked very good at times under Daglish. I am confident that many of the mistakes can be ironed out in the remaining preseason. The gaping whole at left back was still evident, but, again, there is still time to fix this.

In all, my point is that there are still some good things to take from the match, despite the disappointing result.

Shelvey still requires a little more time coming on as a sub and gaining some experience. He has a very free-role sort of game where he can be spotted all around the park. (Similar to Gerrard in this respect) However, he makes some very careless mistakes. Experience and some more discipline will help though. A good prospect for us.

I think it's worth noting that in the Spring, under Dalglish and Clarke we had one of the best defenses in the PL. Preseason is preseason... let's not make mountains out of molehills.