Recently by Tommy Smith

I THINK Sotirios Kyrgiakos will have a key role to play in Saturday's derby.

I'll be honest, when I first saw the big Greek defender play I wasn't impressed. I didn't think he was good enough for a club of Liverpool's stature but he's made me reassess.

Over the past four games he has been excellent. He gets stuck in and is very strong in the air.

HARD as it is to take positives from the Wolves game, I guess there were one or two.

You can't dispute it was really disappointing not to get the three points after the Spurs victory. But at least we did not lose, kept a clean sheet and saw Steven Gerrard coming back.

My old mate Jimmy Case, co-commenting on BBC Radio Merseyside, seemed to be doing his best to look on the bright side. But it did all sound a bit flat.

THE Tom Hicks Junior episode has led to Liverpool Football Club once again airing its dirty linen in public.

He was only on the board of directors by virtue of his father owning half the club, and I don't think his standing down will make any difference.

Quite simply, it wasn't a good idea for someone in his position to behave as he did.

THERE'S only one thing you can really say about Liverpool's performance down at Reading at the weekend in the third round of the FA Cup.

We got away with an all too frequent off day - and survived.

I suppose that's more than Manchester United fans can say after being beaten at home by Leeds and maybe for that we should be grateful.

TONIGHT really is the ideal game for Alberto Aquilani. But it's certainly not the ideal game for Liverpool FC.

I can't remember a European match at Anfield which was effectively meaningless. But this one is and it's so frustrating.

The Italian though, will quite rightly see it differently and after sitting on the bench for so long he'll be bursting to get out there.