And so it begins: An introduction and status report on the club I love

Greetings to all, and welcome to my widdle baby. Most of you know me from my contributions on the outstanding Caught Offside website (www.caughtoffside.com) but perhaps there are several others who've stumbled in here and don't know me at all.

I go by the pseudonym of Aquaman, that most underated of superheroes, and have far too many thoughts and opinions on things to possibly keep them all to myself. I've been a fan of Liverpool for a surprisingly short period of time, but then I am only 25 and live in South Africa so I suppose that's understandable, but my passion and love for the club is unrivaled by most. But you didn't come here to hear about me, you came to hear about LFC, so let's dive right into that.

At the time of writing, Liverpool sit in 6th position on the Barclay's Premier League table with 48 points having played 28 games. We're embroiled in a mighty struggle for forth place and the coveted honour of competing in the UEFA Champion's League. Our rivals for this prestige are:

Tottenham, who sit in the money seat with 49 points and have also played 28 games.

Manchester City, who sit just behind Tottenham in 5th with equal points but an inferior goal difference. Crucially, though, they have played a game less.

And Aston Villa, who sit behind us in 7th with 45 points and TWO games in hand.

Now for the scary news. If Villa and Man City win their games in hand, then we'll be in 7th and 4 points off of the pace.

So, we have a rather sticky situation that we have to pull our way out of. Fortunately I do believe that we have all of the tools and materials we need to emerge with a smile on our face and a shot at ol' Big Ears next season.

For materials we have a squad of brilliant, good and average players.

In the brilliant category there sits Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Pepe Reina and Javier Mascherano. In my personal opinion these four players could be in any starting lineup in the world, and I'm damn proud that they are here in ours.

In the good category we have Jamie Carragher, Yossi Benayoun, Dirk Kuyt, Albert Riera, Glen Johnson, Matirn Skrtel, Daniel Agger, Lucas Leiva, Alberto Aquilani, Maxi Rodriguez, Ryan Babel, Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Emiliano Insua. Some of these have promoted themselves to this category this season (Lucas and Insua for example), and some have fallen from brilliant (Carragher).

Finally we have the average bracket. In here we find Fabio Aurelio, Philipp Degen, David N'Gog, Dani Pachecco, and all the other youngsters.

I should, perhaps, make my standing on youngsters clear here. I believe that until they have become a regular feature in the team they can not truly be judged on their abilities. The adrenalin and emotions that course through them (when featuring in a first team match is a rare occurrence) can easily turn an average player good, or a good player bad. It's not that I think all our youngsters are average, but more that I'm not going to weigh them down with expectations until they've had their fair chance.

These categories will be a regular feature here, and I will constantly be updating who sits where according to their performances. Mascherano is a recent promotion to the brilliant category. Every change will be accompanied by an explanatory article so you can understand my thinking.

So, we've discussed the materials, now we get into the tools.

In our toolshed we have a manager of distinction. He's won La Liga with an unfancied side, twice, he's won the Champion's League with a team that could only manage 5th in their own league, He's won the FA Cup when things were beginning to look sour. Once you heard nothing but praise for his name, but now you are beginning to hear equal amounts of dissatisfaction. He's Rafa Benitez, our Spanish manager.

I'll discuss the finer elements of the enigmatic man at our helm is later posts, but suffice it to say that I believe he is good enough for us for now. There aren't any other managers freely available that I would want in his place, and I wouldn't want to risk it all trying to pull in some of the big names, as it could go horribly badly. So, until a worthy candidate becomes available, I'm happy with Rafa. I believe he does more good than bad for us and he can take us to the premier league title, it just may not be as soon as most would want.

So, Welcome again to my baby blog. I have far too many ideas for what I want to put in here, so it should be a busy time. Keep checking in.