Liverpool 3, Newcastle 0: And some have the nerve to say he isn't world class...

Dear Big Sam,

Up your hole and shut your trap. Once again Rafa showed he was the superior manager.

Cheers,
Every Liverpool Supporter (and probably a few Magpie ones as well)

Once again Steven Gerrard proved his class in a thoroughly dominating display where even a three goal margin of victory doesn't properly tell the tale of the match. It could have been much worse, but it seems Fernando Torres refuses to score a simple goal, which is fine by me. As long as he nets the difficult ones I don't care, but it was a bit comical after awhile.

If there's one negative effect Torres has on the side, it's the long ball. Particularly in the beginning of matches, everyone tries to chuck it down the field and have him chase after it. The problem with that is, aside from it occasionally working which makes it worse, it prevents from 'breaking in the ball' so to speak. Passing around the ball just to keep possession builds confidence and wears down the opposition, but when we start with the long ball and fail to produce, it has the opposite effect. It stagnates controlling the match, which should be our side's first objective instead of a quick, cheap goal. Thankfully we tend to realize this about twenty minutes in to most matches, as we did today, but if we started from the onset, we could be even more assertive throughout.

The man of the match was without a doubt Steven Gerrard. Our captain had a world class free kick goal to start things off and then assisted on the other two. His brilliance just cannot be understated. I wouldn't sell him for £100m and there's no player in the world I'd trade him for. That's six goals in seven matches and probably his most inspiring display of the year. Anybody who watched that match today and still says he's not world class is obviously mental.

I'll do grades eventually, but despite the relatively easy three points, not everyone was on top of their game. Kewell, Arbeloa, and of course, Torres, have had better days, but in the end it didn't matter. I just hope no of them let it affect them in the long run. We'll probably read or hear how rubbish Sissoko was, but though he didn't have his best match he did complete 39 of 42 passes and was second on the side with 7 tackles. Lucas Leiva was superb overall and lead the side with 11 tackles.

It's always a good sign when your club doesn't play their best and sleeps its way through a commanding victory as they did today. I can only imagine the scoreline had we be on our game. It was really good for Kuyt to get the goal even if he had to do basically nothing to get it and whatta ya know? Babel comes on and we score, or well, he scored, as expected. We are now three points behind Man U with a game-in-hand and after today, even the most cynical supporter like myself, sort of believes we have a shot at the title. Next match is Wednesday when Porto comes to Anfield for a crucial Champions League tie. Let's pray we continue our winning ways. Cheers.

Liverpool at Newcastle: Kewell and Lucas to start!

Here's the line-up:
Reina
Arbeloa
Carragher
Hyypia
Finnan
Kewell
Sissoko
Lucas
Gerrard
Kuyt
Torres

Subs:
Itandje
Riise
Crouch
Babel
Mascherano

Love Lucas starting! And with Kewell! And with Sissoko! I guess Agger isn't fit yet. Anyhow, let's hope this is the right ingredients for a winning recipe. Cheers.

By the way, I have about 30 comments I've yet to check because I've been busy, but I'll get to them in due time. I've had to be an uncle for the last few days, sorry.

Liverpool at Newcastle: What will Rafa do?

Finally, the exhibition matches have commenced for a while and we can get back to football that matters. Last year's trip to St. James Park was a comedy of errors played in a virtual swamp and I'm hoping we don't see a repeat of that tomorrow. The good news is that we should have a fully fit Fernando Torres and possibly Daniel Agger as well. I'd be somewhat surprised if Agger started, but then again, Hyppiä played for Finland on Wednesday, so it's not as if the most-likely fatigued Finn would be the better choice here. There's a chance that Benayoun might be available as well as he is recovering from a groin injury, though Xabi is definitely still out.

A lot of our players played either Tuesday or Wednesday in international competition, so I think it's safe to say those who didn't will probably start, which means Carra, Arbeloa, Aurelio, Kewell, Torres, and Sissoko should be out there from the onset tomorrow. I would like to see Lucas start as well, but given it's away from Anfield against a semi-formidable opponent, I doubt he will. The rest of the squad really depends on the fitness of others. I think Kuyt will start up front with Torres, only because he played just the second half in the Netherland's loss to Belarus. From the looks of the result, he along with the rest of the side probably didn't try too hard.

Anyhow, here's my guess:
Reina
Aurelio
Carra
Agger
Arbeloa
Kewell
Sissoko
Mascherano
Gerrard
Kuyt
Torres

Bench:
Martin (or Itandje)
Babel
Lucas
Hyypiä
Finnan

I would love to see Finnan start at right wing, but since Rafa hasn't done that in a long time, I can't see him pulling it out of nowhere and doing it here. I feel Sissoko will be the key, if he plays well, we'll win. If he doesn't it may be the beginning of his exodus. We are lucky to have seven well-rested players and we should definitely need it. St. James Park hasn't been nice to us over the years and I have a feeling that won't end tomorrow, even though I would for our boys to stick to 'Big' Sam Allardyce. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Hicks/Gillett show their true colors & more

What the hell is going on? I'm not really angry about the issue and I can't honestly say I'm surprised, but the recent action of our owners is just witless. Why would they come out with this statement? It makes no sense. Rafa hasn't voiced any complaints to the press concerning transfers, the closest he did was talk about wanting to sign Mascherano permanently and that wasn't even recently.

If that wasn't enough, Tom Hicks made more statements to the Liverpool Echo, which in my opinion is starting to make this sound like an anti-Rafa PR campaign. Here's what he had to say: "After the Champions League final in Athens, Rafa made certain demands of us and we responded to those demands in the summer... We brought in some good players and spent more money than has ever been spent before at this club. We now have some crucial games coming up in The Premier League and the Champions League and we want to see if we can win these games with the players we have. This was the message we gave to Rafa recently and I think during the international break he must have grown a bit frustrated about this. We told him to concentrate on the games coming up and nothing else and I guess he didn’t like that. George and I will be over in mid-December and that is the time to talk about other issues. It is really time for Rafa to quit talking about new players and to coach the players we have."

Let's take a closer look at these words, since Hicks appears to make some distorted allusions. First off, Liverpool "spent more money than has ever been spent before at this club." We only spent a net of £21-25m after you consider the amounts received from transfers. That's nothing compared to what Man U spent and nowhere near the boatloads Abramovich had to payout to make Chelsea competitive. Then he says, "This was the message we gave to Rafa recently and I think during the international break he must have grown a bit frustrated about this." Really? If he was frustrated, why are we hearing it from you? Rafa made no statements in this regard. To say such things is irresponsible and unprofessional. The owners clearly know nothing about football and furthermore, I actually think they believe we supporters aren't smart enough to assess our own club. If they aren't in it for the money, as they claimed when first purchasing the club, then they are the ones that need to shut up and start handing over the transfer money.

It's not like we'll need much anyhow. If we sell Carson and Crouch, that's at least £20m to spend right there. That covers Mascherano's fee and puts a little toward a centre back, hopefully Ezequiel Garay. We could also use another forward, but it's not a dire need with Babel capable of playing up front. If Hicks and Gillett think they can get away with just spending £25m and then blame Rafa for not bringing success to our club, they're sorely mistaken. Give him the players he needs or sell the f**king club! It's not as if he's spending insane amounts. Give him Man U money and we'll win the league, I guarantee it, but until then, they are the ones that need to shut up. Okay, so I did get worked up a little over that after all, but I'm not going to take any bullshit from our owners.

It's looking more and more likely that Hicks and Gillett had no idea what they were getting into when they bought the club. This isn't the Texas Rangers, Montreal Canadiens, Dallas Stars, or NASCAR. Even though Rafa has done phenomenal with the minimal funds provided and is slowly building our youth and development programs, the financial practices of their American sports franchises just won't cut it in the Premiership. There's no chance of parity curbed by a salary cap or luxury tax and it's going to be at least five years until we'll see the fruits of Rafa's youth movement ripen, but there's no guarantee of that either. If we don't see an investment of at least £60m in the next two transfer windows, I wouldn't blame Rafa for walking, and if that happens, there'll be hell to pay.

Speaking of which, in the now famous press conference from earlier today where Rafa said, "I am focusing on coaching and training my team." Thirteen times (!!!) in all, as response to questions other than about the Newcastle match, he also said he would consider the England job if he received an offer. It gave me a bit of much needed comic relief, but in reality, he'll never be offered the position and if so, would never accept. Rafa running England would be a disaster and both parties probably know it. It's not as if he wouldn't be successful, because I'm pretty certain he would, but most of the matches they would win would be utterly tedious 1-0 and ultimately that would be bad for England and the sport itself. I'm sure Rafa was just sending a message to the owners that he could go elsewhere, but they should already know that. Valencia and most La Liga clubs for that matter would love to have Benitez as their boss.

In transfer news, Ryan Flynn has joined Hereford United on one-month loan. He joins fellow LFC teammate Robbie Threlfall at the Edgar Street. Flynn was part of both the 2006 and 2007 FA Youth Cup winning sides. He'll be with the Bulls until the 22nd of December. Cheers.

The worst Liverpool site possibly ever

Well, we've found our winner for Liverpool 'wind-up blog' of the year... and possibly ever. It's clearly a case of someone trying to garner fame by slagging off on popular conceptions and theories because his mother waned him from the nipple prematurely. His lack of empirical evidence and legitimate data to back his raucous claims are clear indications of his inability to write an article as he put it 'rejecting biased media hype and and fawning 'blind-faith' fandom.' What a wanker and that's just one of the reasons I refuse to link him.

If you want someone who ignores other's opinions and in fact, mocks the status quo, look no further than here. I consistently mock mass media released articles for their ignorant zealotry and purposely shut out the rest of the world when watching Liverpool matches, just so my opinion isn't persuaded by outside influence. I doubt this plonker even watches matches and his 'data' is primitive at best if not made-up. The difference between me and him is that I do the actual work and am able to write a critical article without spouting half-truths riddled with overbearing arrogance to justify my opinion. This lad clearly has a severe case of cognizant dissonance to go with his Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

Let's take a gander at the front page of his site so I can prove my point. His first article is 'Croatia debacle proves one thing: Steven Gerrard is NOT world class.' If that's not a good laugh, I don't know what is. His opening sentence? 'Steven Gerrard’s abject ability as a Captain was exposed once again as England suffered ignominious defeat to Croatia.' Well, if that doesn't prove that this guy spends more time during a match looking in a mirror than he does actually watching a match, I don't know what does. He clearly isn't a Liverpool fan. Gerrard worked his ass off in the Croatia match, but got little help from his teammates, which is essentially the problem for England, they don't play as a team. Gerrard was covered in mud by the end of the first half, anybody notice how Frank Lampard looked? Anybody notice that Frank Lampard was even playing? It's hard to inspire a bunch of prima donnas who are more worried about how they look then if they'll win or not. Furthermore, who cares? It's England, not Liverpool, and I could care less if Gerrard ever put on a Three Lions shirt again.

To say Gerrard is not a leader is all the evidence I need that this idiot doesn't watch Liverpool matches and is not a LFC supporter. Where to begin? Let's see, what about March 31, 2001? Man U? Ring a bell? Probably not. September 15, 2001? Everton at Goodison? Just to give this guy a backlog of matches so he can learn something, here's a list:
October 16, 2001 at Dynamo Kiev, European Cup
February 3, 2003 vs Manchester United, League Cup Final, Cardiff
April 21, 2003 vs Charlton, Premiership
December 8, 2004 vs Olympiakos, Champions League
May 3, 2005 vs Chelsea, Champions League
April 29, 2005 vs Aston Villa, Premiership
May 25, 2005 vs AC Milan, Champions League Final, Istanbul
May 13, 2006 vs West Ham, FA Cup Final, Cardiff
April 18, 2007 vs Middlesborough, Premiership
This is just a few that stick out, rarely was there a better nor more inspirational and influential player when Gerrard was on the field between the beginning of the Premiership season in 2003 up until our last match versus Fulham. Go get a copy of each of these matches, son, and then make your cretinous claims. If match performances don't make a player world class, what does? He painted himself in a corner on that one.

This paragraph is a perfect example of this guy's inept understanding of football:
'Truly world class players deliver not only in their domestic league but on the INTERNATIONAL stage. Any player who does not deliver in the big tournaments cannot be considered world class. There are of course exceptions to this, such as George Best, who never got to play in a major tournament, but players like him are a special case. The whole idea of ‘world class ability’ needs to be redefined, and in my view, achievement on the international stage should be the main criterion.'

Name one 'world class player' who's proven himself on the international stage? Zidane? Uh, no, Zidane sort of had a bunch of other great players, most of them not French I might add, playing along side of him. In fact, this moron's inability to recognize Claude Makélélé as the most important 'French' player of the last dozen years proves he's a plonker. Don't believe me? How many cups and trophies did Zidane win after Makélélé left Real Madrid? Try zero, zilch, none and he did nothing in France without him either. This guy wouldn't know world class if it stabbed him in the chest. He has the nerve to call out Gerrard for lacking football intelligence, but he clearly hasn't a clue about the sport. Just because Stevie-G didn't take a dozen shots or score a hat-trick, doesn't mean anything. He's a box-to-box midfielder, not an attacking one. If you need dazzling displays than think about this, Steven Gerrard is the only English league-based player ever in the history of the game to score in a domestic league cup final, a domestic cup final, an UEFA cup final, and a Champions League final.

Every single other player on your list had other world class players playing with them. Ronaldinho and Pele each had about half a dozen world class players playing with them at one time or another, but they never have carried a side by themselves. Maradona? I seem to recall a player named Passarella, among others. It is Argentina after all. Cruyff had the van de Kerkhof brothers, Platini had Trésor & Papin, Beckenbauer had almost as many great players as the Brazilians and Argentinians in Sepp Maier, Gerd Müller, Berti Vogts, and Uli Hoeneß among others, and Puskás was part of the legendary Golden Team. Gerrard can't do it on his own and England has nobody in his class with either the ability nor desire to help him, which is just another reason I don't care if he plays for England. Maybe Rooney when healthy, but as long as he plays for Man U, a hangnail is legitimate enough of an injury to prevent him from playing for England. John Terry is great, but legitimate injuries have kept him scarce. Beckham is at least three years past and no one else has even the potential to reach that level. Michael Owen stopped caring when he started hanging out with the wrong crowd.

Furthermore, saying players should be judged by their international performances as to whether or not they are world class and then making an exception for George Best makes no sense. How can one say that those Northern Ireland sides that Best played on aren't better than England today? You can't and therefore you're argument becomes null and void. In fact, it just proves my argument that one world class player can only carry a side so far. To prove this guy has no class and just a wind-up ponce, he then goes on to criticize Steven Gerrard's post match comments. Make up your mind you loser, is he a footballer or a pundit?

I could reduce every article he writes to rubbish, but honestly, I have better things to do with my time. This person clearly lacks the intelligence to write 'hard-hitting critical analysis' of anything without using manipulative methods of spin and illogical reason to prove his point instead of having an objective outlook. He deserves all the proper attention of a child kicking and screaming because they aren't getting it in the first place. The humorous aspect is, he's not going against the grain at all, he's just a muppet with the mass media's hand up his ass. Gerrard is constantly ridiculed in the national press and Peter Crouch is consistently praised and Rafa questioned for the forward's scarce use. By the way, I won't be doing a daily today (obviously) because there's shit-all going on. Cheers.

Euro-qualifying: A great day to be a Liverpool fan... well, almost.

I can finally breathe a sigh of relief. With the conclusion of today's matches, a large majority of our players who would normally be representing their countries in next year's Euro Championship, will now be getting the summer off. Like I've said prior, I don't give a rat's ass about international play, especially exhibition tournaments like the Euro and the World Cup. They're great for killing time or for an excuse to binge drink, but for the most part they aren't legitimate competitions anymore and have certainly ceased to matter. Too many questionable calls and duplicitous actions have tainted them far beyond any rational person's belief.

Anyhow, to get to today's matches, four teams, three featuring our players were given glints of hope before having them squashed by the all-mighty hand of reality. John Arne Riise and Norway crushed Malta, 4-1, but occurring at the same time Turkey was hosting Bosnia-Herzegovina in Instanbul. The Norwegians needed the Bosnians to at least manage a draw while they took care of business in Ta' Qali. After going up 2-0 in the first 28 minutes and Turkey appearing to have their problems scoring against Bosnia-Herzegovina, Norway probably started to believe they had luck on their side, but it wasn't meant to be. Villareal scoring machine, Nihat Kahveci, placed a shot in the far side of the net with two-minutes to go in the first half and Ay-Yıldızlılar managed to hold on, 1-0.

Sami Hyypiä and Finland were hoping to travel to Porto today and pull off one of the biggest upsets of qualifying by beating Portugal at the Estádio do Dragão. The only way for the Finns to advance was to win. They were lucky to come away with a 0-0 draw as Portugal unleashed an onslaught of attack on the Finnish side, but came away empty each time. The result eliminates the Huuhkajat from competition and with the summer months off, might allow Hyppiä to come back for one more season.

Then we have the Three Lions. After going down by a pair of comical goals by Croatia, England battled their way back to draw even, the latter goal a magnificent chest-catch and finish by Peter Crouch. It looked as if Gerrard and company might just get it done, but then Sol Campbell forgot he was supposed stop the ball from going towards the goal and conveniently got out of the way of a Mladen Petrić shot, which found itself in the back of the net. Carson hadn't a chance. Euro dreams for England were crushed and Steven Gerrard will finally have a couple of months off to recuperate. I can't say I'm not ecstatic.

Finally we have Spain with Pepe Reina the lone Spanish Red starting in goal. Thanks to a deflected shot from Xavi Hernandez, our Pepe got the win and the clean sheet. Other players who saw action include Andriy Voronin, who was the only goal scorer from our club, and the Dutch duo of Kuyt and Babel. The former came in at the half, while the latter played the full match and collected a yellow card to prove it. So Spain and Holland are the only two teams with our players that advance, which may mean up to six of our players, but it could have been worse.

The goal Andriy Voronin scored for the Ukraine today

Nothing spectacular, but our only player to manage to score today. Oh yeah, there's a commercial before hand? Cheers.

Today's Banter: Pepe seeks to stop Healy, Torres title talk, Rafa outclasses Big Sam, & a tad more

As I alluded to in yesterday's daily, Pepe Reina might be setting himself up for a fall today when he starts in net for his native Spain. The match is meaningless for the Spaniards who have already booked their ticket to the 2008 Euro, but their opponent, Northern Ireland, need to win if they want any chance of advancing. Pepe may be looking to shut down David Healy, the hat-trick hero when Norn Iron beat La Furia Roja 3-2 in Belfast in September of last year, but it doesn't mean his teammates will have the same kind of commitment. I'm still hoping Aragonés plays younger players or ones that will at least care, I don't want Reina to get embarrassed.

Fernando Torres has made some interesting points lately. Most notably how our side has yet to play our best yet are only six points off the pace of league leaders Arsenal. He also claims that there is a 'winning mentality' ever present in the LFC locker room before matches. The problem with our side is that we may have a winning attitude at the offset, but as matches wear on and goals aren't produced, we begin to doubt ourselves instead of believing that as long as their is time on the clock, we'll still get it done. Finally, Torres gets a little cocky and says “From what I have seen so far in England we do not have anything to fear from any of our opponents for the title." That may be true, but there's no need to give our opponents more motivation to beat us.

In anticipation of our clash at St. James Park on Saturday, Tommy Smith at the Echo has taken a few stabs at 'Big' Sam Allardyce. It's not as if the Newcastle boss doesn't deserve it, he feels as if he has the right to criticize Rafa Benitez despite lacking the silverware to do so. As Smith mentions, the only accomplishment of Allardyce worth any sort of recognition was keeping Bolton up for six seasons and reaching the UEFA Cup once. 'Big' Sam would get a lot more respect from others if he learned to keep his mouth shut. In fact, I'd go even as far as to say he'd make a better manager for England than Steve McClaren.

Two of our players saw action yesterday. On-loan Robbie Threlfall helped Hereford United upset Leeds 1-0 in first round FA Cup action. The left back, who turns 20 on Sunday, started and played the entire match. Meanwhile, Javier Mascherano and Argentina suffered their first loss of World Cup qualifying to Colombia in Bogota. Carlos Tevez conveniently received a red card in the 25th minute and despite going up 1-0 on a brilliant strike from Lionel Messi, the Albicelestes failed to hold on, eventually succumbing 2-1. Cheers.

The genius of Rafa shines through Ryan Babel

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been tediously mulling over data during the international break, the extent of which might deem me certifiably insane. Basically I'm trying to create a 'performance database' for each and every player on our squad in an attempt to quantify as many determinants as possible to figure out what would be their optimal situation to provide maximum performance. I would probably go as far as including elements such as what they ate and at what time on match days if I could get a hold of such data, but as for now, I'm going to stick with basic corporeal information.

Though I've barely built a foundation hardly worthy of drawing any thorough conclusions, today I decided to attempt to assess Rafa's seemingly erratic use of Ryan Babel. When you take a young, inexperienced player with immense talent like Babel, it's usually best to slowly ease him into a new competitive environment as intense and grueling as the Premiership. Rafa has appeared to have done an astounding job, delicately and almost nonchalantly allowing the young Dutchman to familiarize himself with new challenges on his own. Statistically, the results have been more than just positive, they've been extraordinary.

Most sides would probably start Babel and play him as much as possible, but Rafa has the convenience of a deep squad with many players who can occupy the left flank and forward positions. Such comfort afforded our gaffer to use Babel in advantageous situations where he's most likely to utilize his talents to produce positive results and increase his confidence. The 20-year-old has only played in 16 of our 20 matches for a total of 809 minutes by way of 7 starts and 9 substitution appearances. That breaks down to roughly 50 minutes per tie, which is important when computing his contribution per a full appearance in comparison to the team's overall average output.

The data speaks for itself, when Babel is on, we appear to be a better attacking side. As a squad our standard performance consists of 2 goals with 15.3 shots, 6.5 on-goal. Our possession percentage, passing rate, and territorial advantage is 55.7%, 76.8%, and 50.6% respectively. With Babel on the pitch, all those numbers increase, some significantly. Our goals per match average increases to 2.46 on 7.9 shots-on and 17.14 attempts overall. As for the percentage stats, possession swells to 58.2%, passing rate ups to 77.9%, and territorial advantage increases to 51.1%. We average a goal every 36.8 minutes he plays. It's pretty clear that the winger/forward is quite the catalyst in our offensive forays.

Where it gets even more interesting is on defense. Babel clearly isn't much of a contributor at the other end of the pitch, but in using the 'best defense is a good offense' logic, the most telling stat that he positively effects our defensive output is the fact that, as a side, our goals against per match decreases from 0.65 to 0.53 when he's on. Taking in consideration that the obvious circumstances of statistics such as possession percentage and territorial advantage increasing for our side results in a decrease for the opposition and that a total of only 5 goals have been scored against us when Babel is playing, he's arguably just as valuable as any of our defenders.

As our season wears on, I don't expect Babel's role to change. He'll get the occasional start, particularly when cup matches come around, but for the most part I expect him to maintain his super sub status. Just because our team is a better attacking side when he's on the pitch, doesn't mean we should keep him on as much as possible. The genius of Rafa is knowing when and where to use certain players to best help the club. He's proven it with Steven Gerrard, Steve Finnan, John Arne Riise, Alvaro Arbeloa, Fernando Torres, even Craig Bellamy in the past, and now he's affirming it with Babel.

Five interesting stat facts from the season so far

For the past few days I've been mulling over data from the obscure to the obvious for a number of reasons. I really want to get an idea of the contributions each player makes to the whole, who's the most efficient at which position, and most specifically, what players work best with one another. It also reveals some trends that are more than likely coincidental, but interesting nonetheless. Here's five of them:

1. youth + height = win
Though it rarely happens, when Rafa puts out a side that is younger yet taller than the opposition, we win. Four times so far this season it's occurred: Toulouse (2nd leg), Derby County, Cardiff City, and Fulham. Of course this means little considering the opponent and the fact that they were all played at Anfield.

2. Goals are scarce at Anfield?
If you take away Toulouse, Derby, and Besitkas, we've only scored 8 goals in 7 matches at home this season. Not that we've been much better on the road. Take away the Reading match and we've only managed 10 goals in 9 matches away from Anfield.

3. Our most dominating performance of the season was a scoreless draw at home
You read that right, our most dominating performance was the 0-0 draw against Birmingham at Anfield. In that match we had our highest possession percentage at 71.5%, and both our second highest pass success rate (81.9%) and territorial advantage (56.8%). We also had our most corners won at 11. So why didn't we win nor score? Our shooting was piss poor. We had 4 shots on goal the entire match, 3 right in front of the net.

4. Statistically our worst performance was a draw on the road
You know, I didn't think we played that bad at Porto, but the numbers tell a whole different story. In fact, we had no right even taking a point. How bad were we? Try one shot on goal, a single corner kick won, a possession percentage of 43.5%, and a passing rate of 64.2%. All four of those stats were season lows. Pennant's red card didn't help either. The amazing part is that Porto needed a penalty just to get the draw.

5. The Riise factor
This is one of those odd stats where there's much more at play than just one simple movement, but it is sort of eye-opening. In the 5 matches that John Arne Riise has had to move to left-back due to substitution reasons, we've scored 8 goals... in 130 minutes. If Rafa could somehow tap into this trend, we could average more than three goals a match, rather than 2 as we do now. Of course, there are two other factors that play into this that aren't present at the beginning or during an entire match. First, fresh players are brought in to revitalize the attack and second, the opposition has tired out a bit.

These are just some odd bits I've come across so far and I have a ton of more work to do, but I hope to have a better feel for our side when it's all said and done. Expect more interesting tidbits in the near future. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Kuyt burgled, Deco talks dirt?, Gerrard pep talks England, & more

Dirk Kuyt became the fifth Liverpool player in eighteen months to have his home burgled last Thursday while he was away on international duty. Just another reason to quit the national team if you ask me. Anyhow, this of course shows that Merseyside is riddled with crime and a far worse place to live than say Manchester or London, right? Wrong. If anything it shows that at least the criminals are smart enough to know who to target. Just for kicks, check out the 193-page report on crime in the UK and Wales from the Home Office. If you don't want to bother, ponder this: per 10,000 households in Merseyside approximately 0.0352% were burgled between August 2006 and July 2007. Greater Manchester? 0.0518%. London? 0.0422%. In fact, those two areas are worse percentage-wise in every category of crime, but facts don't matter, right? Moving on...

Oh my God, Barça's Deco forgot to mention us as contenders for the Champions League, so he must not think that we have much of a chance. I am so riled up at the moment, I mean, just because we have a slim chance of advancing to the knockout stage, doesn't mean we can't win at all! That Brazilian, uh, I mean Portuguese ponce! This is called 'mocking a shit rag site who has nothing better to do than make things up.' Deco doesn't mention us, big deal.

Gerrard must want some expensive gifts for Christmas. I mean, who are the two England players whose asses you'd kiss to get, say, most likely a Ferrari from as a present for Christmas? It's not Joleon Lescott or Nicky Shorey, I assure you that. Our captain was just full of praise for John Terry and David Beckham in this article.
Stevie-G wants the side to win it for the Chelsea defender and thinks that Beckham is still 'international class.' Those comments are worth at least a bottle or five of Krug Clos du Mesnil.

Robbie Threlfall dreams of playing for Liverpool one day. The soon-to-be 19-year-old local product may be far down the left-back totem pole, but he knows if he works hard and continues to develop, he's got a shot at making the first team. He's currently on-loan at Hereford United where he has started four matches. They play again today in FA Cup action at Leeds. I honestly think the kid's got what it takes to be a first-team contributor in two-to-three years after being impressed by him in the preseason against South China FC.

Finally, I feel sorry for Pepe Reina. It looks as if our keeper will be in net for Spain when they face Northern Ireland in Euro qualifying tomorrow. The game is meaningless to the Spaniards so I hope Luis Aragonés plays youngsters who care and are looking to impress their coach for future call-ups. If not, it could be a long day for Pepe as Norn Iron has to win to have any chance of advancing. Of course, with the Green & White Army relying on Latvia to upset Sweden, they might as well not even try either. Cheers.

Weekend Recap: Harry Kewell, Norway falls, Finland wins, Paul Anderson plays, & more

Even though we didn't play this past weekend, we had a ton of players who saw action for country or on-loan club. First off, as I mentioned in my daily, Harry Kewell played the full match for Australia in their Wembley friendly with Nigeria. He appears to have come away unscathed, but I'll believe it when he suits up for us again. By the way, the Aussies won 1-0.

I guess Paul Anderson wasn't subbed off early for injury reasons in his side's 1-0 Football League Trophy victory over Yeovil Town last Tuesday. The 19-year-old winger was replaced in the 50th minute of that match by Thomas Butler. This past Saturday the Swans looked to continue their current unbeaten run of ten matches when they faced Huddersfield. Paul Anderson started and played the full match, but Swansea lost 0-1, costing them a chance to go to the top of the League One table. Their next match is away to Tranmere on Saturday.

Of all the internationals, John Arne Riise probably had the worst weekend. All Norway had to do was draw with visiting Turkey to almost assure themselves a spot in the 2008 Euro, but they failed to do even that. The Norwegians took a 1-0 lead in the 12th minute on a goal by Erik Hagen, but a little under twenty minutes later Newcastle's Emre Belözoğlu equalized. Then in the 59th minute, Villareal's Nihat Kahveci, a player I think Liverpool should inquire about, put the Turks up 2-1 with a clinical finish. That ended up being enough and now Norway will have to rely on the Bosnians to go into Istanbul and get a positive result or else their Euro dreams are over. Riise played the full match, but wasn't much of a factor.

On the other end of the spectrum, Sami Hyppiä and Finland won, just not in the fashion they would have preferred against group doormat Azerbaijan. Playing in Helsinki, it was believed that the Finns would have little trouble with the cellar dwellers, but it wasn't to be. The Azeri took a 1-0 lead on a stunning shot by Makhmud Gurbonov which sent the host side into a frenzy. Upping their play, the Huuhkajat managed to even things up with 11 minutes to go on a cheeky chest-catch and finish by Birmingham's Mikael Forssell. Then seven minutes later former LFC star Jari Litmanen placed a free-kick cross into the box that after bouncing off a head or two found Shefki Kuqi right outside of the net. The recent Fulham addition had powered himself into position and easily headed the ball past the line. The Finns next travel to Portugal on Wednesday, where they have to win to have any chance of advancing.

Javier Mascherano played the full match in Argentina's 3-0 World Cup qualifying match. The win kept the Albicelestes as the only side with a perfect record and to have yet to yield a goal in the CONMEBOL group. They play Colombia tomorrow in Bogotá. I really don't see the point in making Argentina and Brazil qualify. Despite Brazil's recent stumbles, and by stumbles I mean draws since they're still undefeated, both of these countries will easily qualify. I guess they do need to play home matches to raise revenue though.

In other on-loan action, no one managed to score, but a few saw action. On Saturday, Robbie Threlfall played the full ninety for Hereford United who won 3-0 on the road at Stockport, while Craig Lindfield started and played 72 minutes for Notts County in their 0-1 home loss to Macclesfield Town. On Sunday, Lee Peltier played the full match in Yeovil Town's 2-1 victory over Gillingham at Huish Park. Those who didn't play were Godwin Antwi at Hartlepool and Miki Roque at Xerez CD.

In other International matches, Steve Finnan played the entire ninety in Ireland's meaningless 2-2 draw with Wales at Cardiff on Saturday. Andriy Voronin started and played 69 minutes in the Ukraine's 0-2 embarrassing loss at Lithuania. Dirk Kuyt came on at the start of the second while Ryan Babel was subbed on in the 84th minute as the Netherlands clinched a spot in the 2008 Euro with a 1-0 win over Luxembourg in Rotterdam. Finally, as expected, Pepe Reina did not get to play in Spain's 3-0 home victory over Sweden which also booked their ticket to the exhibition tournament next summer. That probably means he'll play Wednesday against Northern Ireland. Great.

Oh yeah, then there was that insignificant friendly between England and Austria in Vienna. England won, Crouch scored, and Owen got hurt. Sounds like the typical Three Lions match. Steven Gerrard only played the first half as he and his English teammates prepare for Croatia on Wednesday. I could care less if they advance or not. Knowing my luck though, they'll lose and then replace Austria when the host country pulls out of the competition. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Kewell survives Nigeria, No interest in Javi Martínez, West Ham want Hobbs? & more

Probably the best news to come out of the weekend was Harry Kewell playing the full match for Australia. The 29-year-old started on the wing for the Socceroos as they beat Nigeria 1-0 at Wembley. Interim manager Rob Baan hopes this helps Kewell get more time and play more often for us. Obviously he's not too familiar with the ways of Rafa.

I don't know where the rumors of our interest in Athletic Bilbao central midfielder Javi Martínez emanated from, but they've been rubbished by Rafa Benitez. I thought it was a bit strange that we were going after the 19-year-old with the amount of players we already have at that position. This pretty much scratches any chance of a move for Momo in the January window, something I'm against anyhow.

There's a little disinformation in this article regarding West Ham's interest in obtaining Jack Hobbs on loan in January. He actually has made his first team debut. In fact, I believe he's played three matches overall for us, one start and two subs, but that aside, I think it'd be a great idea to let him go to the Hammers on a six month loan. He might actually get some pitch time there and if he's as good as everyone says, they won't include an option to make it permanent. I've yet to be impressed by the lad myself, but it's not like he's really had a chance to 'settle in' with the first team.

Finally, in other transfer news it's been reported here that the £17m quoted as the transfer fee for Javier Mascherano may also include his salary over five years. Not sure how that'll work out and it sort of makes little sense, but I hope he's not getting screwed over by MSI and Kia Joorabchian. In that same article is another reference to Racing Santander centre back Ezequiel Garay, who I have to believe is our top target in January. Cheers.

Today's Banter: One part wind-up, two parts wind-down, & 44/100% certifiable

All appears quiet on the Liverpool front, which is fine by me, but apparently not so for the wind-up bloggers. There's this one site in particular that holds contests for it's 'writers' to see who can attract the most hits. Basically it's who can write the most outrageous title followed-up by the most inane, speculative garbage that any half-witted teenager could author. One of these 'articles' is about how Steven Gerrard doesn't deserve a starting spot on a fully fit Liverpool squad. Yes, they are that feeble-minded.

Another 'article' attempts to blame Liverpool and more specifically Rafa for the supposed stunted development of Momo Sissoko. He didn't have to sign that contract extension this past summer and furthermore he's had two major injuries in his first two seasons with us, but let's leave facts to the thinkers. For this bullocks to stop, please make an effort to ignore these imbeciles. Don't click on their articles and definitely don't comment. It'd be nice if they dropped dead, but that would be asking way too much, so ignoring them is the best way to go about. They don't write such rubbish for the good of anyone but themselves. Moving on...

According to this article, Mascherano is close to signing a five year, £17m contract. Well, this is news to me. I know his transfer fee is around that amount, which we obviously have to pay first, but I didn't know we've already negotiated a contract with him. Of course, this is the first article I've read that's mention such notions, so someone might just have their facts wrong, intentional or not. Another part of that article I've yet to hear is Mascherano 'insisted he would leave Anfield unless a deal was finalised within a month.' Really? Hmmm....

Tony Barrett of the Liverpool Echo has written a short but sweet article praising Alvaro Arbeloa. He basically just reiterates a lot of what's already been said of the Spaniard by myself and other bloggers. One thing I slightly disagree with is how he thinks that Arbeloa is better on the left. To me, he appears more comfortable on the right and gets more involved on attack when he's over there. I chalk it up to him having more confidence on that side to get back on defense. Barrett even goes as far as to compare Arbeloa with Stevie Nicol.

Speaking of which, Nicol's New England Revolution face the Houston Dynamo in the MLS Cup final today in a repeat of last year's match-up. The Revolution have already won the US Cup this season and will be looking to complete the double in Washington, DC, where the match is being held. As painful as it is for me to watch MLS, I'll probably take in this one. Nothing really better to do, actually.

Finally, I can't end my daily without mentioning an article or post by a questionably mental Man U or Chelsea fan. That would be unforgivable. Today we have a Chelsea supporter from the ever reputable site Vital Chelsea. If you've ever visited that veritable armpit of the world wide web, you'd know that it's one of the more dim-witted sites around. The most humorous aspect is that it's supposed to be a place for Chelsea fans to write about their own side, but most of their articles are usually about Liverpool. I guess when you don't have much of a history nor brain cells, you get short on subjects. Anyhow, this clown starts off writing about how a reporter from the Echo chastises Michael Essien for not apologizing for a vicious yellow card-earning tackle on Leon Osman last Sunday and then ends up talking about Didi Hamann and Dirk Kuyt. What?! Oh, because the paper is in Liverpool. Brilliant. Yeah, Evertonians and Liverpool fans are one in the same, just like Chelsea supporters are the same as Fulham fans. I mean, Chelsea is in Fulham after all. Cheers.