The blogs are in, and the strong opinions are out. What do you think? Who is the sportsperson of the Noughties? Not happy with the options? Write your own sporting tribute and let me know. I can almost taste the adrenaline in my mouth. Delicious.

Amidst rumors of lack of camaraderie in the Liverpool dressing room and noises of Everton and Liverpool having a stadium share in the future, Liverpool are being presented yet another opportunity to get their season back on the proverbial track with this fiercely contested Merseyside derby, this weekend.

The reds have been offered this opportunity only too often this season and they have blown it because of a combination of plain bad luck, lack of the dynamic duo, Gerrard and Torres and general featherbrained behavior when faced by dead ball situations.

Liverpool need to win the usually boisterous derby at Goodison park by a 2 or 3 goal margin if they are to allay any fears among the fans of slipping away the Leeds Utd way (exaggeration!).

Anyway, here is what the team may look like:

Reina (GK), Johnson (RB), Carragher (CB), Agger (CB), Insua (LB), Benayoun (RM/SR), Mascheranho (CDM), Leiva (CDM)/Aquilani(CDM/CM), Babel (LM), Gerrard(AMC/CF), Kuyt (SC).

Key: GK: Goalie, RB: Right Back, CB: center back, LB: Left back, RM: Right midfield, SR: Striker-Right, CDM: Central defensive midfield, LM: Left midfield, AMC: Attacking mid field, CF: center forward, SC: Striker-central.

Liverpool crashed out of the Champions League last night despite winning their match against Debrecen in the Hungarian capital.French international David Ngog’s first half strike put the Reds ahead of Debrecen in the must-win group-stage match. Liverpool, who won the Champions League in 2005 and were runners-up two years ago, needed to not only win their match but also needed Lyon to beat Fiorentina order to reach the Final 16 for the knock-out stages of the competition.

Unfortunately for the Reds, Fiorentina beat Lyon 1-0 in their match in Tuscany, ensuring that Fiorentina progressed at Liverpool’s expense. This is the first time in six years that Liverpool has failed to make it past the group stages of the European competition. Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was left ruing the late goals conceded by his team against Lyon. They had been beaten 2-1 by the French champions at Anfield before drawing 1-1 at the Stade Gerland.

“It was our own fault in the end, the late goals we have conceded along the way have cost us,” said Benitez. “We have been so good in the last few years that maybe people think it is easy to qualify in all competitions. You have to be disappointed. We knew we had to win and we did. We can’t change what happened in the other match, but at least we did our job. If you look at the games, two late goals made a massive difference.”

Liverpool is expected to suffer a budgetary shortfall of about £2.4m for this season as a consequence of their group exit and this could be made worse if they continue their run of bad form in the Premier League and  fail to finish in the top four, adding another £10m loss. This would have a significant impact on the asking price of £100m for a 25% stake in Liverpool, which the owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett are looking to sell.

Rafael Benitez, however, played down the financial aspect of failing to progress to the knock-out stage.”

“You have a budget at the beginning of the season and it assumes that we have qualified for the group stages of the Champions League. We did this. Two or three more games maybe, in terms of money, won’t make such a big difference. The main thing for us is to finish in the top four and to be in the Champions League group stages again next year”, said the Liverpool manager.

Liverpool managing director Christian Purslow, insisted that Liverpool could withstand the financial impact of the early elimiation and added that Rafael Benitez’s position as Liverpool manager will not be undermined by Champions League exit.

Christian Purslow said, “This will have no bearing on Rafa whatsoever. He signed a new five-year deal four months ago and in those terms he is four months into a five-year journey. You don’t deviate from long‑term plans for people and the way to take the club to the next level because of two late goals against Lyon, and that’s what it boils down to.”

Liverpool will now be playing in the newly formed Europa League with the likes of Valencia, Benfica and neighbours Everton.

Liverpool plays crucial Merseyside derby match at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Sunday.

Steven Gerrard has admitted he is disappointed about getting knocked out of the Champions League Group stage, but insists Liverpool should move on and try and win the Europa League. Here is what he said:

“The disappointing thing was having to rely on other teams going into tonight,” said Gerrard.

“We’ve played fantastically well tonight and deserved the three points, so it’s disappointing that we won’t progress in the Champions League.

“You get what you deserve in this competition and the two late goals we conceded against Lyon have been crucial. But it’s gone now – it’s in the past and we’ve got to move on.

“We’re in the Europa League and we’ll go and try to win it.

“Tonight’s performance was encouraging and we can build on that. We’ve got a lot of players coming back from injury so hopefully it’s onwards and upwards from here.”

Click on the thumbnails to see full size (Bấm vào hình nhỏ để xem hình lớn):

Liverpool’s Champions League progress will be curtailed this season as they will not progress to the knock-out round this season. Despite securing a 1-0 win away at Hungary, a similar score line in Fiorentina’s favor.

Debrecen’s fate was written in stone even before the start of this match and Liverpool’s after the 90th minute. A 4th minute goal that David Ngog scored in Kung-fu style decided the game for Liverpool. Steven Gerrard played 90 minutes of the game with the help of a painkiller administered before the game.

There were hardly any positives to be gathered for Liverpool from this match. Although the scoreline suggests a good clinical performance, Liverpool did have the knickers in a twist a few times in the match and only Debrecen’s lack of class and predatory instinct kept the scoreline in the favor of the reds.

Liverpool will look to end their hollow Champions League season with a Pyrrhic victory at in their next match against Fiorentina.

NOTE: Aquilani made an appearance, although brief in the 90th minute to Replace Gerrard.

There’s a lot at stake for Liverpool today. Unfortunately, it’s not entirely up to the reds to progress as there are various permutations that need to click else the reds might find themselves in the Europa league (no offence!) come 2010. Below are the various permutations and the effect that they would have for Liverpool:

Liverpool win + Fiorentina win = Liverpool out of the CL.

Liverpool win + Lyon win = Liverpool need to beat Fiorentina to progress in CL.

Liverpool win + Lyon/Fiorentina draw = Liverpool need to beat Fiorentina by three goals or more to progress in CL.

Liverpool lose = Liverpool out of the CL.

Liverpool draw = Liverpool out of the CL.

Here’s hoping that Liverpool and Lyon pull out wins this Tuesday! YNWA.

]]> http://news.xfm951.com/2009/11/24/gerrard-bullish-as-reds-face-last-chance/ Tue, 24 Nov 2009 16:09:29 +0000 Gwemi$h http://news.xfm951.com/2009/11/24/gerrard-bullish-as-reds-face-last-chance/ http://mrichsports.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/captain-fantastic-still-has-hopes-for-liverpool/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:08:32 +0000 mrichsports http://mrichsports.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/captain-fantastic-still-has-hopes-for-liverpool/

The Liverpool skipper has been dealing with a groin injury for over a month, but now will lead the Reds revival.

“It’s been a frustrating few weeks” Gerrard said. “It’s been a strange month because as soon as I was fit we had the international break. I’ve been dying to play and can’t wait to get going again.

That can all start Tuesday, when Liverpool travels to Debrecen in a must win Champions league tie. If Lyon can get a result against Fiorentina, then when Fiorentina visits Anfield on December 9th, it’ll be for a place in the Knockout stages of the Champions league. Gerrard stated the mood in the camp hasn’t dropped. “The mood in the camp is really good. We know our position in the table isn’t good enough. But we have faith in our ability. We know we can put things right.”

As for the Premier League, LFC currently sit 5 points out of the 4th spot, which is held by Spurs. Many of matches still to be played, and Gerrard knows there is time to improve position.

Staying fit for Captain Fantastic could lead Liverpool back in the right direction, and surely keep the Liverpool hopes afloat.

Wspaniały David nie odpuszcza. Już zapowiada walkę o miejsce w samolocie lecącym w czerwcu 2010 do Afryki. Uda mu się, nie ze względu na formę, ale na status i przeszłość z selekcjonerem Fabio Capello. Ten raz odsunął go od składu w Realu Madryt w sezonie 2006/07, ale gdy zaczął mu się palić grunt pod nogami musiał się odrobinę upokorzyć i gwizdnąć z powrotem na Beckhama.

David objawia się także w pojedynku ze Stevenem Gerrardem. Gdy Zidane dalej szuka graczy do swojej jedenastki, obaj Angole rywalizują w… zobaczcie sami.

P.S. To pierwszy wpis z “David Beckham” w kategoriach. Na blogu o marketingu sportowym… Niebywałe.

I’m sure that there used to be a time when I looked forward to watching Liverpool’s matches – but that seems like a distant memory now.  Anyway, the good news was that Steven Gerrard was back in the starting line up.  The bad news is that Fernando Torres was still missing.  Some might argue that, since Manchester City are the team most likely to push Liverpool for a top-four finish, this was a crunch game.  Given the Reds recent run of form, I’d say that every game is a crunch game.  I wish I was only being hyperbolic about it.

In the opening few minutes, Liverpool looked quite bright, but the game was disrupted by a head injury to Daniel Agger, who had to go off.  A few minutes later Ryan Babel went off with an injury, despite the efforts of Gerrard to get him to run it off, and the Reds had suffered two enforced changes in the first 20 minutes.  The first half never recovered from the two disruptions, despite Liverpool dominating the possession.

The opening minutes of the second half continued to be a dour affair until Martin Skrtel turned in a free kick, on 49 minutes, to score his first ever Liverpool goal.  Sadly, this only seemed to spark City in to life and they inevitably equalised, on 68 minutes, through an Adebayor header.  It was a dismal goal to concede from the Reds point of view; the former Arsenal striker was completely unmarked at a corner – it was worse than schoolboy defending.

Things went from bad to worse when City took the lead with a goal from a possibly offside Stephen Ireland, on 75 minutes.  To be fair, it was an excellent move and good goal.  Just as I was about to hold my head in my hands, Liverpool went straight down the other end and equalised – a sloppy goal scored by Benayoun.  Despite some late pressure from the home side, it ended 2-2.

Another desperately disappointing day for Liverpool.  I feel like I’ll never see them win ever again.  I was going to write a bit more, but the will has left me.

Liverpool certainly started the game with a lot of promise, what with Steven Gerrard in the starting eleven, although (spoiler alert!) he was kept quite all game long. What was quite surprising and could be touted a “medical miracle” that Benayoun and Riera were on the bench after receiving what could only be described a massage with a happy ending as they were massaged back to health with horse placenta of all therapeutic er… fluids?

After quite a positive quarter of an hour for Liverpool, their injury troubles boiled over on the field within the space of 3 or 4 minutes as Agger, on his return match, was taken out on the stretcher as a result of a concussion and similar fate awaited Ryan “rare starter” Babel as he picked up a rather nasty knock on the ankle (bring in the horse placenta!). Kyrgiakos and Benayoun replaced respectively, the injury prone defender, Daniel Agger, and the stay-on-bench prone Ryan Babel. From then on, barring a few weak corners from Liverpool a pot shot at goal by Mascherano and Lucas (what??!??) the half ended in a disappointingly drab note for the Red contingent.

Skrtel Scores but Liverpool draw. www.soccernet.com

The second half looked to begin with the same kind of verve or lack of, as the first half, at least as far as Liverpool were concerned. But of all people, Skrtel had different ideas. A free kick duly taken by Steven Gerrard resulted in a goal by a leg stuck out by none other than Martin Skrtel as the Slovakian defender celebrated his world cup qualification with a goal and a vital one for Liverpool. Liverpool’s first of the game. Skrtel’s first for Liverpool! But the job was far from done as there were 40 more minutes to go.

The heavy shadows that Liverpool had been casting for a good part of the previous two months looked spry again. And Rafa Benitez looked…. as stoic as ever! Turn that frown upside down Rafa!

Manchester City had different ideas as the game progressed and as if to prove Liverpool’s continuing inefficacy from set piece situations, Adebayor had to go and score of a corner in the 69th minute. This squared the match at 1-1 and all Rafa could do was wipe his classes down on his designer purple tie. Liverpool, I am sure, did recognize that a draw was not an option.

With 20 minutes to go, I was having an increasing feeling of deja vu. A feeling that isn’t really nice when associated with Liverpool’s current season given their poor form. This foreboding Deja vu turned to reality with a Stephen Ireland goal with Skrtel switching off for the second time in less than 10 minutes. This did not bode well for Liverpool as they have increasingly found themselves staring down the wrong end of a gun!

Having said that, in a matter of seconds, Placenta boy Benayoun slide-scored a goal to put Liverpool back in the fray. 2-2! The pitch was on fire, figuratively of course. The sort of fire that Liverpool would like to turn into a regular conflagration ala “Premier League season 2008-2009″, to zing Manchester City.

And minute 81. Whats this??? Cometh the hour, cometh the man??!??! Movement on the bench! Aquilani stirs!!!! Oh, he stirs to move into the tunnel to take a wee. It’s Fabio Aurelio, the other Placenta boy who would be coming on, ostensibly at least. At least, he was stripping down to his strip. With five minutes of regular time to go, Aurelio did come on for Benayoun as the latter had to recharge his placenta cream treatment quota!

The final cast of the die, which has been biased against Liverpool this season, did’t result in any jubilation for either side. Liverpool dropped a further two points. Two points that will prove to be crucial as I think it is quite safe to write Liverpool off now.

After another international break, the Premier League is back in action this weekend. The injured stars of Liverpool will also be back on the pitch this weekend (thank goodness). The injured Reds were: Steven Gerrard, David Ngog, Daniel Agger, Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Albert Riera, Fernando Torres and Yossi Benayoun. Torres is the only one still out, so yay for that international break. Man City is one point up on Liverpool in the table, so it’s a must-win game for Liverpool if they want to work their way back into the top four. The Reds have only won one game since Sept. 26 so they need to start winning now to get things back on track.

Saturday, November 21
Liverpool vs. Manchester City – 7:30 a.m. ET/ESPN2 (Live)
Birmingham vs. Fulham – 8:30 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Burnley vs. Aston Villa – 5 p.m. ET/Setanta (Delayed)
Chelsea vs. Wolves – 9:30 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Hull vs. West Ham – 7 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Sunderland vs. Arsenal – 10 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)
Manchester United vs. Everton – 12:30 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Sunday, November 22
Bolton vs. Blackburn – 8:25 a.m. ET/Setanta (Live)
Tottenham vs. Wigan – 5 p.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Delayed)
Stoke vs. Portsmouth – 11 a.m. ET/Fox Soccer (Live)

Meg: Busy casting a spell on Thierry Henry

Poor old Ireland eh? Thierry Henry’s left hand on Wednesday night put an end to the Green Army’s dream of following their national team to the World Cup, and condemned them to yet another summer of drinking bottles of cider in picturesque countryside taverns that border acres of beautiful apple orchards. Or so Magners would have us believe…

Oh well, at least they can turn their attentions back to the Premier League this weekend, where their most cherished top flight English team will continue their fine unbeaten ru… oh… right… that’s Liverpool isn’t it? Never mind then.

I’m not really doing a very good job at cheering the Irish up, so I’ll get on with my predictions. Same form as usual. Beat me and you win a tenner*.

Birmingham vs Fulham

I was happy to see that I predicted yet another correct outcome involving Liverpool in the last round of Premier League fixtures. I haven’t got anything against Liverpool, but I saw Birmingham going to Anfield, defending for their lives (as they have done all season), and getting something. However, my prediction was probably more based on Liverpool not having a clue this season, and the fact that they still have Lucas in their midfield.

What I didn’t see coming though was The Blues scoring two goals, and Alicia Keys lookalike Cameron Jerome pinging one in from 30 yards. However, I can live with that because Jose Reina didn’t see it coming either, and I guess it was more important for him to be ready for Jerome’s strike than me.

Apart from their dancing badger, there’s not much you can say about Fulham. Whilst I was waiting for my breakfast last Sunday I was given a complimentary paper to read (presumably whilst the pub’s manager attempted to get the Gap year student to stop going for fag breaks and actually cook the full English I had ordered – he failed), and I stumbled across a quote from Roy Hodgson saying that he hoped Fulham fans realise that there is a ceiling on what the club can achieve.

Whilst he is 100% correct about that, it sort of highlights the problem with reviewing them. Yes, they’ll have a game every week. Yes, I’ll have to think of something to say. However with no ambition, there’s no real excitement. Just a freak season once in a while where they’ll either have a relegation dog fight, or they’ll break into the top seven and get a place in a competition that noone cares about, (even if it earns them a few extra quid, offers their fans a few European city breaks).

This season they’ll finish comfortably in mid-table again, which means that their recent success needs to be balanced up with a defeat this weekend. So that’s what I’ve gone for.

Verdict: 2-1

Burnley vs Aston Villa

Burnley are a Championship side punching above their weight in the Premier League. Them’s the fact ladies and gents. If they didn’t have the support of all those blokey-looking women in the home crowd scaring the opposition’s wide players, they’d be relegated already and wiping the tears away with their bingo-wings.

Anyway, they DO have that support, and their home form is why they are still afloat (although if Turf Moor was flooded, the players be able to stay afloat just by grabbing one of the massive buoyancy aids sitting in the stands).

This game therefore should be made all the more interesting by that fact. However, in spite of Villa’s pretty indifferent form of late, I think they’ll win this one easily. The wingers are the reason, and they have two of them in Ashley Young and James Milner who are bang on form right now. If they can avoid the Medusan-like effect of looking directly at the female Burnley fans whilst hugging their touchlines, then I fully expect them to tear The Clarets apart.

Verdict: 1-3

Chelsea vs Wolves

If there was ever a home-win to put your house on, this is it**.

The only way Wolves can win is if they, as previously mooted on Eddies Football Blog, put out a team of real wolves that end up killing and feasting on the entire Chelsea team. However, even if they did that they’d be more than likely to still only get a draw, as I don’t think packs of wolves care much for scoring goals.

Verdict: 3-0

Hull vs West Ham

Last week I must have sent good karma out to Phil Brown with my emotional appeal to keep him in his job at Hull. Not only did they win their game against Stoke, but the man who popped up with the winner may well have inadvertently boosted the Geordie crooner’s transfer budget for the January window.

That’s right; sales of replica shirts with Jan Vennegoor Of Hesselink printed on the back have soared following his injury time strike and, at £1 per letter, that’ll be a nice tidy sum come the end of 2009. Enough to buy Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker from Borussia Monchengladbach perhaps.

It’s a novel approach, but then so is having your half-time team-talk in the middle of the pitch. He’s a pioneer, that Brownie.

By contrast, West Ham ‘ave gone and found themselves a spot of bovva. Tree-trunk legged striker Dean Ashton is expected to retire from football imminently, which is a real shame for the club, the player, and English football in general. The person who will benefit from Ashton’s retirement is World Cup hopeful Carlton Cole, but he must be getting tired of having to do it all on his own.

As a result, The Hammers will have to get Cole to form a partnership with their suggestible Italian Allessandro Diamanti, and will therefore be hoping that the Hull fans don’t all learn the Italian for ‘miss!’ by tomorrow afternoon. Expect an entertaining dogfight though, but obviously without any real dogs (unless a plucky Hammer manages to smuggle his Staffy into the ground, and it ends up getting into a scuffle with Stephen Hunt).

Verdict: 2-2

Liverpool vs Man City

What did I say when I started this whole Premier League predictions thing? Well, I gave you all certain rules to abide by, didn’t I? Certain criteria for aiding you in your conquest, if you will. However, I also said that if you are Mark Lawrenson you must, at all costs, write an indescribably biased prediction in favour of Liverpool.

The Reds go into this weekend with the following form in the last 9 games (in all competitions) – LLLLWLLDD. Despite Gerrard’s return, they are without key striker Fernando Torres, and play a Man City side who have only lost one game in all competitions all season (against Man Utd), and sitting nicely above them in the league. This is why i find the following from ‘Lawro’ the most hilarious piece of biased piffle I have seen in a long time…

“The good news for Liverpool is that it looks like Steven Gerrard has got himself fit, although I’m not sure that Fernando Torres will make this one. Manchester City had four players starting for England last week so it’s not as if they’ve had a rest and that could be a factor.

I think Manchester City now have players capable of taking the game to Liverpool and that might suit the home side as a lot of teams go to Anfield and shut up shop. But this could be an open game and Liverpool will like that. “

So, not only has he turned the potent threat of Man City’s attacking options into an advantage for Liverpool (when, in reality, they will have haunted Jamie Carragher’s dreams this week), but he is also claiming that City’s top-class athletes will need more rest after a game they played 7 bloody days earlier!

This, my friends, is exactly what I was on about. It’s safe to say that I don’t agree with him in the slightest.

Verdict: 1-2

Man Utd vs Everton

This is traditionally a big game, and a game in which Everton I’m sure would want to give a good account of themselves. However, with 11 of their first team players either with knocks or long term injuries, it has turned into a fixture in which David Moyes’ men will just defend in numbers and hope for a point.

With captain Phil Neville absent, a player all too used to winning games at Old Trafford, Everton’s midfield will be outclassed and I can see a United getting three points. Not an easy three points. Or a pretty three points. But three points nonetheless. As Ian Holloway once put it, in gentlemen’s terms, it’ll be like going out and pulling a bird who isn’t the prettiest but, sod it, you’ll still take her home.

Verdict: 2-0

Sunderland vs Arsenal

A really interesting match-up.

Sunderland got mugged last time out against Spurs. Plain and simple. They should have won that game, but for the first time this season they showed their wastefulness in front of goal. They also missed the battering-ram presence of Kenwyne Jones.

If you were to fault Arsenal this season, you could justifiably point a finger at their inability to deal with aerial balls into the box, so they will be relieved to hear that the somersaulting powerhouse is still serving a suspension. However, it is still a weakness that Bruce will target.

That said, Cesc ‘Harry Potter’ Fabregas is in the form of his life, and he will have been rubbing his hands in anticipation after viewing the amount of space that Tom Huddlestone was allowed at White Hart Lane by Sunderland’s midfield. Expect Mackems captain Lorik Cana to return with typical hatchet-man style to remedy that, and make things difficult for the Spaniard (unless, of course, he’s still drunk, and staggering around in his pants somewhere in Algeria).

With Van Persie out for Arsenal, this one is very nicely balanced. I’ll go for a high-scoring draw.

Verdict: 2-2

* N.B. You won’t actually win a tenner. I lied in order to get you involved. I’m sorry. Here’s a tenner to compensat… Balls. I’m at it again. I better stop now before I offer you the keys to my house.

** N.B. If Chelsea don’t win, and you did end up taking my off the cuff remark as actual advice, then you’re an idiot. However, if you need to crash on my sofa for a couple of days whilst you find somewhere new to live, then fine. Just don’t try to sue me. Or drink the beer in my fridge.

Check back tomorrow for my predictions for Sunday’s games (including the weekly 0-0, if you were wondering where it was!)

Fingertips Sport correspondent Ian Shine believes Rafa Benitez should not be the first victim of this season’s Premier League managerial sack race

As Liverpool slip further down the Premier League table and closer to a Champions League exit, rumours that Rafa Benitez will be sacked are inevitably becoming more widespread.

But Liverpool fans on the whole are still behind him – mainly because of his magnificent Champions League win in 2005, runners-up place in 2007 and thrilling FA Cup win in 2006. And even if they look beyond silverware, which they certainly should, Benitez is easily their best manager since Kenny Dalglish left in 1991.

Between Dalglish’s three league triumphs and two FA Cups were the relative ignominies of a League Cup under Roy Evans, an FA Cup under Graeme Souness and a Charity Shield, two League Cups, an FA Cup, European Super Cup and UEFA Cup under Gerard Houllier.

It shows how far Livepool have come under Benitez that the highpoint of Houllier’s reign, his UEFA Cup win, would now be considered scant consolation for Liverpool crashing out of the Champions League.

To use a cliche, Liverpool will be cutting off their nose to spite their face if they are stupid enough to sack Benitez.

Their stuttering start to the season is in no small part down to Xabi Alonso’s move to Real Madrid. Losing one of the best players in the world is going to affect any side. Just look at how Manchester United without Cristiano Ronaldo – yet no one sees Sir Alex Ferguson getting his P45 any time soon.

To compare Benitez to Sir Alex once again, it took Ferguson almost seven years to get his first league title, during which time United twice finished 11th. After a poor start to the 1989-90 season many called for Ferguson’s head, but he went on to win the FA Cup that season, and, to employ another cliche, the rest is history.

Even if Liverpool come fifth in the league and slip out of the Champions League, how many of their fans would be unhappy with a Europa League triumph and/or FA Cup medal come May?

Arsenal have stuck by Arsene Wenger throughout his barren spell and that may well pay dividends this season. Patience is a virtue (sorry, another cliche) and Liverpool need only look to Atletico Madrid, Real Madrid, or closer to home in Middlesbrough to prove that changing managers doesn’t always bring about a change of fortunes.

Who could replace Benitez and do anywhere near as good a job with a far from brilliant Liverpool squad?

Some names being mentioned are Steve McClaren, Luiz Felipe Scolari, Frank Rijkaard, Gareth Southgate and Jose Mourinho, all of whom have either done badly in the Premier League, have never worked in England or have no reason to want to move to Liverpool.

If Benitez goes Torres might follow, along with Reina and even Gerrard. Torres threatened to go if Benitez was fired in 2007, saying: “Benitez is not just another manager. He created a team and put his faith in players that owe him a lot.” There’s no reason to believe his opinion has changed, and if he, Reina or Gerrard were to leave then Liverpool really would be in trouble.

For all the latest sports news and views check out Fingertips.net

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard is confident of facing Manchester City on Saturday following a nagging groin injury.
He said:
“I’m feeling a lot better now. I’m looking forward to the weekend. There’s no mental hurdle to cross.

Is Liverpool capable of go back and fight for winning the Premier League with Gerrard?
We will see!

The newsroom is awash with who the greatest sporting legend (or whatever else contrived wording can be mustered) of the noughties might be.

Now, I am in now way a sports encyclopedia like my good friend, Alfie, and so no names nor selection of useless facts spring/sprung/sprand to mind, and in such a state, I was about to post a picture of John Barnes and end the debate but then I realised the whole ‘noughties’ thing might not fly.

Sadly, I know that whoever I select for this coveted title will not be chosen with much firm evidence or convincing argument behind them, and so my choice is fairly futile. So much so that I am going to throw three names into the ring just to create debate/humiliation.

1. Steven Gerrard.

2. Jonny Wilkinson.

3. This bloke.

My choices reflect my opinion that a) this topic is very subjective and no one will ever agree, hence Gerrard, b) as much as men are legends their actions at individual times will be remembered more, hence Wilkinson, and c) no matter how legendary sportsmen are, people getting hit in the face is better.

I’ll crawl back into my hole.

Adidas heeft een nieuwe voetbalschoen ontwikkelt, de Predator_X. Voor de commercial werd geen tijd, geld en moeite gespaard. Zelfs Zinedine Zidane heeft even zijn voetbalpensioen gelaten voor wat het is om mee te werken aan dit spotje.

Achter de schermen:

Het resultaat:

Click on the thumbnails to see full size (Bấm vào hình nhỏ để xem hình lớn):

At least it wasn’t a loss?

I promised myself that I was going to be a ‘bad fan’ tonight and avoid the match at all costs.  But, with the kick-off rapidly approaching, I found myself looking for an internet stream.   Sadly, I easily found one.

The first half sums up Liverpool’s season in a nutshell – they completely outplayed Birmingham but, inexplicably, came in behind.  Ngog scored first (13 minutes), for the Reds, and everything was looking good.   Then I lost the stream for a few minutes and when I got it back the score was 1-1 (Benitez, 26 minutes).  Brilliant.  Liverpool then battered Birmingham until the 47th minute of the half when Cameron Jerome lashed in a long range effort to put the Blues ahead.  How very depressing.

The second half continued the Liverpool barrage, but it was only with a dodgy penalty in the 70th minute that they were able to draw level.  Ngog made a great run in to the box but then went down with no contact made on him, and a penalty was incorrectly given.  Gerrard stepped up and coolly slotted it home.  It’s worth noting that Gerrard started the game on the bench and came on, for an injured Riera, in the first half.  He could be considered half-fit, at best.

It was all Liverpool for the next 20 minutes but a winner looked increasingly unlikely and the match finished 2-2.

I don’t really know how I’m supposed to feel about the match.  It was a game completely dominated by the Reds, but in the end we were only able to scrape a draw by means of a dive and a wrongly given penalty.  On 76 minutes, the TV coverage gave the incredible statistic of the number of completed passes for each team: Birmingham 92 – Liverpool 421.  This can often be misleading as a team can have lots of possession but not look dangerous, but Liverpool had plenty of good attacking play.  To be honest, I feel a bit baffled.

Where do Liverpool go from here?  I’m honestly not sure.

Liverpool drew with Birmingham City today, 2-2.  By all accounts, they were lucky to get the draw as Steven Gerrard scored the equalizer on a dubious penalty.  It’s definitely a game the Reds should have won (at home!).  On a somewhat positive note, Alberto Aquilani saw his first action at Anfield.  Also, Gerrard and Glen Johnson returned from injury. On a sour note, other than the draw, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera picked up injuries.  Apparently, the hamstring muscle seriously hates Liverpool as manager Rafa Benitez fears that both Benayoun and Riera tore theirs.

The international break definitely comes at a good time for Liverpool since it seems as if half the squad is injured.  The two week layoff will do the team good so long as no one picks up any knocks on international duty.

Here is David Ngog’s blatant penalty dive against Birmingham.  Noted diving gadfly Steven Gerrard converted the penalty, rather than sportingly kicking it out of play.  Liverpool escaped with a 2-2 draw at home.

The Reds are in disarray.  They have now won just one of nine in all competitions.  Steven Gerrard unable to run was better than any of his replacements.  Luckily, Tottenham, Aston Villa and Manchester City have not taken full advantage.

Some would spell Liverpool’s doom, but they’re one good result away from fourth, and the international break should allow Gerrard and Torres to heal.  The Premier League top four could use some spice, but I don’t see other teams mounting a challenge this season.

The Reds need a miracle to:

• finish in the top four of the Premier League.  Despite Chelsea’s chippy 1-0 win over Manchester United, both teams look poised to stay in the top four (likely top two).  Arsenal has also surprised people this season; the Gunners are playing really good football.  At this rate, it’s going to be some sort of miracle if the Reds even finish in the top seven – yay Europa League!
• keep Torres and Gerrard healthy the rest of the season.  Torres leads the league in goals, but the Gernando partnership hasn’t had much chance to flourish as both players have struggled with injury, much like last season.  This year however, the team is even more reliant on them to carry the load.  The two stars aren’t the only ones having injury issues though; Glen Johnson missed a couple games as well.  Albert Riera hasn’t been 100% either.
• advance to the knockout stage in Champions League play.  Liverpool won its opening group game against Debrecen, but have only taken one point out of the next three.  They are no longer in control of their own fate, which is a very scary and undesirable place to be.  Group leader Lyon has already booked a spot in the next round, while Fiorentina only needs to win once to advance.
• beat Birmingham City.  I can’t believe I just had to write that.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas, and Chelsea captain John Terry of the English Premier League are among the donors for the charity auction to help benefit both the Willow Foundation and the Steve Bernard Foundation.  They can be bid for on Ebay:   http://www.looktothestars.org/news/3345-champions-league-armbands-raise-charity-cash

Further to my post “Why Rafa Must Win on Wednesday”, it is now Thursday and Rafa’s Reds left Lyon with only a point. That leaves Liverpool with only 4 points after 4 games. Once again, they are averaging a point a game. Liverpool love a late comeback, however, so you can’t completely rule them out of the knockout phase, but it isn’t looking bright at all. Steven Gerrard has only played 25 minutes in the last month and looks as if he may be facing a session under the knife of a surgeon in order to get back out on the pitch. Fernando Torres has been fighting through pain in order to play and will likely also face a surgeon’s scalpel in order to regain his full fitness.

Yesterday’s game was full of excitement, but if I had to describe it in one word, I’d have to choose cruel. Both Lyon and Liverpool attacked all night, and all sorts of chances were created on both ends. Hugo Lloris, Lyon’s goalkeeper, was by far my man of the match. He spent a majority of the night keeping his team in the game with point blank saves and was left completely stranded when Ryan Babel dropped a 25 yard bomb in the 82nd minute. Babel’s effort looked to secure a crucial three points for the Liverpudlians – their celebrations blatantly showed how important of a goal it was.

All they had to do was hold on for 8 minutes. Don’t concede, pack it in. Grind out the win and head back to England with the much needed victory. They couldn’t do it, though. In the 90th minute Lisandro Lopez, Lyon’s Argentine striker, finished off an impressive attack that meant the spoils would be shared. The table now looks like this:

Lyon                 10pts
Fiorentina        9pts
Liverpool          4pts
Debrecen          0pts

‘Pool’s fate is no longer in their hands, but one thing is for sure -They need to win their final two games and hope pray that Fiorentina lose both.