Forget Lovren, we've got Kevin Stewart now

It is baffling that the signing of Kevin Stewart is deemed 'news'.  What is more pathetic though is when a blog sensationalizes and exaggerates to trick people into visiting their site by calling Stewart a 'Prem' defender.  He is 20-years-old and has played a grand total of zero Prem minutes.  Unless Rodgers thinks he'll be some sort of late bloomer, what's the point?  Is Ilori and/or Coates, as long as the latter is here, going to get a chance?  We need a player who is going to challenge for a starting spot and Stewart isn't that.

Dejan Lovren, on the other hand, could. The 25-year-old Southampton and Serbian international anchored a very solid Saints defense last season.  In fact, in my overall defense ranking table, the South Coast side finished third, only a point from being tied top with Chelsea and Crystal Palace.  As I have said, I don't think individual defensive stats hold much water, but I do think in the very least, you can find fault and strength. Here are Lovren's stats from last season along with those of Sakho, Skrtel, Agger, and Old Man Toure.

	Lovren	Sakho	Skrtel	Agger	Toure
age	25	24	29	29	34
app(subs)	31	18(1)	36	16(4)	15(5)
mins	2787	1478	3221	1421	1443
goals	2	1	7	2	0
assist	1	0	1	1	2
chances	4	2	7	2	7
npgp90	0.07	0.06	0.2	0.13	0
gcp90	0.1	0.06	0.22	0.19	0.13
ccp90	0.13	0.12	0.2	0.13	0.44
ap90	0.03	0	0.03	0.06	0.13
ccv	0.23	0	0.15	0.46	0.3
pass%	82	92.5	90.8	89.1	86.4
bp%	21.5	22.6	23.7	18.7	20.5
sacc%	15.2	10	53.3	42.8	14.3
shot%	9	10	46.7	28.6	0
tp90	2	1.6	1.4	1.7	2.1
tack %	57.8	71.4	50	55.6	65.1
intp90	2.7	1.6	1.7	1.3	0.9
clrp90	7.7	8.3	11.5	7.2	9.2
dribpp90	0.5	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.4
bsp90	0.3	0.4	1.1	0.5	0.8
adwp90	3.3	2.9	3.6	2.8	2.7
adwon%	61.2	56	70.1	65.2	50.6
TTI90	10.4	5.6	5.2	5	5.8

So what does Lovren do well? Interceptions and aerial duels certainly stand out.  Though it's kind of disconcerting that he's easily taken off the dribble more than the other four, especially Toure.  It questions his pace and quickness.  He also turns over the ball significantly more and he had less touches than Skrtel, so the 'Suarez' factor does not come into play.

Is he worth the reported £20m that it may cost to bring him in? Absolutely not.  If he alone was the reason the Saints defense was so good, yes, but they have/had Schneiderlin, Wanyama, Fonte, Clyne, and Shaw.  None of those five, save Shaw, is worth that much, and that's only because Shaw is 19.  I'd rather us just try and sigh Steven Caulker. 

Toby Alderweireld: A good signing but only at the right price

According to reports, the player in which we are latest linked is Atletico Madrid and Belgium defender, Toby Alderweireld.  The 25-year-old former Ajax player has become frustrated with his lack of playing time at Atletico and is looking to go elsewhere, despite only joining the La Liga champions last summer.  His preferred position is centre back, but has also provided cover at right back for club and country.  Here's how he sizes up statistically against Sakho, Skrtel, Agger, and Old Man Toure:

	Alderweireld	Sakho	Skrtel	Agger	Toure
age	25	24	29	29	old
app(subs)	17(3)	18(1)	36	16(4)	15(5)
mins	1576	1478	3221	1421	1443
goals	1	1	7	2	0
assist	0	0	1	1	2
chances	0	2	7	2	7
npgp90	0.06	0.06	0.2	0.13	0
gcp90	0.06	0.06	0.22	0.19	0.13
ccp90	0	0.12	0.2	0.13	0.44
pass%	81.6	92.5	90.8	89.1	86.4
bp%	24.9	22.6	23.7	18.7	20.5
sacc%	50	10	53.3	42.8	14.3
shot%	12.5	10	46.7	28.6	0
tp90	2.5	1.6	1.4	1.7	2.1
tack %	58.5	71.4	50	55.6	65.1
intp90	1.4	1.6	1.7	1.3	0.9
clrp90	6.1	8.3	11.5	7.2	9.2
dribpp90	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.4
bsp90	0.6	0.4	1.1	0.5	0.8
adwp90	1.7	2.9	3.6	2.8	2.7
adwon%	75	56	70.1	65.2	50.6
TTI90	8.5	5.6	5.2	5	5.8
avg rank	3.44	3.06	2	2.69	3.25

His overall ranking of 3.44 is last among the group, in fact, statistically the only thing that could even be deemed 'impressive' is his aerial duels won percentage. He is comparable in many fields, but do we really want to waste our time with a seemingly average player?  It's hard to use the 'potential argument' for a 25-year-old, that's the United way, but he does impress in this video, especially with his passing:

Alderweireld is valued at around £9m, but that's just too high.  Atletico bought him for £6.16m and being that they appear not to care whether he stays or not, maybe they'll take £7m or £7.5m.  We can throw in Aspas to carry the ball bags as well.  If we can get him for that, I'd say go for it, then at the very least  we'll have coverage at right back.

Pepe Reina or Simon Mignolet?

Since Napoli have admitted they won't be able to pay Pepe Reina to stay, he may be sold to Arsenal at a discount of £5m.  I think most would agree it would be bad business to sell Reina to a competing club like Arsenal, but what if a lesser club like West Brom or even Villa come knocking?  Should Reina be given the chance to be our number 1 again?  Should we try to keep him as a back-up? I don't know about anyone else, but I wasn't exactly blown away by Mignolet last season.  Let's look at the stats, two seasons ago for Reina and last season for Mignolet, league matches only.

	Reina	Mignolet
matches (sub)	31	38
clean sheets	14	10
goals allowed per	1.1	1.32
saves per match	1.35	1.97
saves per goal	1.27	1.7
avg claim success %	89	96
dist. success %	75	69
pass success %	70.8	67.3
aerial duel win %	85.7	83.3
long ball success %	45.8	39

The most important stats here are saves per goal and average claim success percentage, both of which go to Mignolet.  The 7% difference between the two keepers in ACSP is crippling to Reina if he has any aspirations to win his old job back.  It is an indication of what many think of the 31-year-old Spaniard: he takes unnecessary risks and has frequent momentary lapses of reason and concentration.

In his last couple of seasons, Reina appeared to be more interested in trying to create goal scoring opportunities instead of trying to prevent them.  The thing is, he's quite good at contributing to the attack, much more so than Mignolet, but what's the point if you can't do your primary job as a keeper?  I would even argue that Reina had a better defense in front of him than Mignolet does now.

Reina had Jamie Carragher and a healthy Jose Enrique for most of the season.  Though Carra was in his twilight year, he knew his limitations, made few mistakes, and was in command of Liverpool's defense, even when he wasn't on the pitch.  When he was, Carragher rarely went forward as much as Agger, Skrtel, and Sakho tend to.  The thing about Mignolet is that he doesn't take command like a keeper should and if that doesn't change, he should find his way somewhere else soon.

Harry Kewell could return for derby

Well, the vagueness of this article has me rolling my eyes, but apparently the Aussie could be back for our October 20th date at Goodison Park. That would be quite a boost if it's the case.

There's also a chance that Xabi could return for that match as well. I don't think we need either player nor Agger to win at Everton and especially don't want Rafa to rush anyone, which he rarely does anyhow. It's always nice to have a full squad though, particularly when the three players set to return are of that class.

By the way, the Reserves play Man U away on Thursday. I'll be interested to see who's included in that squad. Certainly Leto and Lucas will make their returns to the side and it would be great to see Kewell get a running out, but I won't hold my breathe.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: Man of the Match

Whoa, were my fellow Liverpool fans watching the same match I was? I just checked out the Fan's Man of the Match over at the official site and it had Dirk Kuyt voted first by the fans followed by Sami Hyypia and Mascherano?! Holy shit on a stick! Are you serious? Do I have unrealistic expectations of our Argentine midfielder or were you all drunk? Masche was appalling. I will admit that Hyypia started out just as unimpressive, but got better as the match progressed.

The site's picks were Jamie Carragher first followed by Hyypia and then Kuyt. There's just no way I put Kuyt behind Hyypia since it was mostly the latter's fault that they got the penalty. And what about Finney? Kudos for giving credit to one of our unsunge heroes in Carra, but I'd put Finnan above Hyypia as well.

In fact, if I had to rate our players in order from best to worst it would go something like this:

1. Kuyt
1. Carra

Kuyt is my Man of the Match, but I can't put Carragher very far behind him as he was in his inspirational form. The never-say-die Dutchman was relentless and per usual did what ever he was asked when he moved over to the right after Pennant was sent off. Carra was tremendous in keeping Porto and the ball away from the box.

3. Finnan

Another quiet, flawless performance. I'm going to start calling him the ghost because not only does he haunt our opponents, but no one ever seems to notice him.

4. Torres

El Nino did what El Nino was brought on to do, create space for Gerrard and worry the hell out of our opponent's defenses. He sent them scrambling mad on a couple of occasions.

5. Babel

It would have been nice if someone would have gotten open when he had the ball deep down in Porto territory.

6. Reina

Made a great save, but made questionable decisions in the box and on the ball, especially early on.

6. Hyypia

Almost made up for the penalty with his clearance and got better as the match wore on.

8. Gerrard

Was apparently hanging out with Harry Kewell.

9. Arbeloa

Looked tired and made some poor decisions after he was beat. His positioning was questionable as well.

10. Mascherano

His legal issues must be affecting him or he was having flashbacks of the Copa final when he heard the Porto players speaking in Portuguese.

11. Pennant

Thought his name was Ashley Cole again.

I'm not going to bother with the subs. Saturday can't come soon enough. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: the goal

Great team work. Torres won the foul, Finnan took the kick, Hyypia got the header assist, and Kuyt headed it home. It's Kuyt's third CL goal this season and fourth for his career. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Reaction to yesterday's match

Before I begin to criticize other's reactions to the match, let me make it clear that with our horrid performance and the fact that it was away, we really had no right taking a point yesterday. If it weren't for the performances of Carra, Kuyt, and Finnan, we probably wouldn't have. Babel and Torres weren't bad either, but other than those five, those were some of the worst efforts I have ever witnessed from our side.

I was especially disappointed in Mascherano and Pennant. I have stood up for JP countless times and yesterday he really let me down. He was nowhere near his form from last year. Maybe he isn't mature or secure enough to work in the rotation environment that any big club is going to utilize when going for multiple cups. I'm not going to bother to psycho-analyze the kid, but seriously, JP, get your shit together or ask for a transfer. With Benayoun on the bench, Kewell on his way back, Babel as versatile as he is, and Leto collecting Reserves caps, you should be worried about keeping your spot. As for Masche, I just think he had a bad outing and I don't expect one as poor ever again. On to the muck.

Some people think that certain individual efforts aren't to blame, especially Pennant and Reina. I don't know where that guy heard or read that people were blaming Reina and Pennant. If it wasn't for Reina, we would have lost 2-1 easy. His passing at times was a bit suspect and I'm not sure why Porto didn't just run over to Babel every time Pepe was about to attempt a goal kick, but as the game progressed, Reina's decisions got better. As for Pennant, he was appalling and I blame Rafa for leaving him in too long more than anything.

The same bloke who is hearing voices in his head also wonders why Liverpool are 'scared of the football'. That whole post is just preposterous. Scared to pass to each other? Are you having a laugh? Our passing was just off, particularly Masche's, that's it. Making a mountain out of mole hill, especially away in Europe is a bit ridiculous. And by the way, though I did predict the line-up accurately, Agger would replace Hyypia in our best XI. That's not an excuse though, for a man his age, Hyypia's form has been wholly impressive so far this season, but that was his least mentionable match so far.

On the official site, there are a couple of interesting articles. The first one is Rafa's reflections on the match. He seems somewhat pleased with the result and I for one agree with him. Ten-men for much of the second half when we appeared to be an actual threat to score and going home with a point, is nothing in which to be disappointed. Especially considering they needed a penalty to score on us. I definitely agree that we looked better and better towards the end of the match, but disagree that Torres should have been taken out. Unless El Nino was fatigued or for some other reason requested a sub, he should have been left in. Voronin basically brought the same elements to the match, nothing more and possibly less. Defenses just don't have the same respect for the Ukrainian as they do the Spaniard.

Also on the official site, Carra seems to be defending his buddy and captain, Stevie-G, by calling him the 'best skipper in the world'. No shit, Jamie, but if you are somehow trying to assuage us fans of his performance yesterday, you're wasting your breathe. He may have not been his best, but he did not cost us anything. A top form Gerrard would have probably put the team on his back and garnered us the three points, but yesterday he was merely just a cog in the inefficient machine. I expect better, but it's done and over so there's no point.

Apparently Rafa planned on subbing Pennant right before he was sent off. I was planning on moving to Hollywood and becoming the next Marlon Brando once, but it never happened. I'm so glad the ref saved him the trouble. Seriously, I'm usually not one to criticize Rafa's decisions, but this is the second match in a row that I have issues with his moves or lack thereof. Thankfully he has Birmingham at Anfield next weekend where he could play some of the members of the ladies team and still get the win.

Finally, we have Chris Bascombe's match review from the Echo which per usual was class. He not only blames our boys for a wasted evening, but also the Porto side, who for all accounts should have whipped up on us. I kind of think he fails to give Carra and Finnan the credit they deserve on defense, but they're used to it.

Bascombe also brings up some interesting things that I failed to notice. The first being Pennant's tendencies to dive this year. Last year he was on the brunt end of some bad non-calls and maybe he's been hanging out with Arbeloa too much these days. Seriously, JP, not that you should give a rat's ass, but I'm almost at my wits end with your behavior so far this season. Maybe the loss of Craig Bellamy, a man who probably wouldn't dive if both his legs were broken in half, has had a negative effect on you.

Another observation the Echo writer makes is the lack of Xabi's influence might have been integral. I never thought about it, but he's probably right, though with Xabi's poor attitude lately he could have easily been a card casualty as well. Furthermore, who says Rafa would have put Xabi in, and if he did, he would have probably put him in for Stevie-G instead of Masche, who should have been taken off so he can think about being mentally prepared to play next time. I wonder if all the talk of his potential legal troubles had an effect on him? I hope not. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: simply appalling

Where to begin? Well, first, that was the worse match I've ever seen Mascherano play. From the beginning it looked as if he was somewhere else. I'm not sure it was because he rarely plays for us these days, but his decisions on the ball were atrocious. I was actually surprised to not see him collect a few yellow cards (Yes, a few) with his suspect tackling.

Pennant was also a joke. I have no idea why Benayoun wasn't brought in to start the second half because it looked quite apparent to me that JP was a red card waiting happen. This was easily his worse appearance for us that I've witnessed. He needs to get his head together because if he continues being such a menace, he's really just a waste of space and that's a shame because he's so talented.

Gerrard, Arbeloa, and Hyypia were unimpressive as well.

As a team, we were shocking. Near the end we seemed to get it together and had a couple of near chances, but honestly, I didn't think we were going to score anyway. In the end, Porto were either just as poor or our defense is just that damn good, you can decide because I don't really care.

Positives? I thought Torres did well to worry the defense and forced them to have at least two to three players there, just in case. Kuyt played well also and probably should have gotten the penalty call after being pushed down in the box by a Porto defender, but it was away so we weren't going to get any calls. Babel put in a decent effort also, even if it found him all alone deep in the enemy's territory at most points.

Do I have a right to complain about a 1-1 draw at our most difficult opponent in the group stage's home? Not sure. I think if we played better, we could have pulled off the win, but maybe I'm not giving the Porto defense enough credit.

In the end I look at it this way, we played like crap and still got the point because of a penalty. That's impressive on some levels. Nobody was hurt and now Pennant will be available for more league matches. Mascherano though was wholly disappointing and I hope he never puts in a performance that awful again.

Liverpool vs Porto: the line-up

Here it is:
Reina
Arbeloa
Carragher
Hyypia
Finnan
Babel
Mascherano
Gerrard
Pennant
Kuyt
Torres

Bench:
Itandje
Lucas
Voronin
Benayoun
Aurelio
Agger
Crouch

Looks scarily familiar. Just as a heads up, there's little to no chance I'll be doing a halftime thoughts post because I'll be at the pub. I will be back after the match though. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Agger not injured? Buys a couple of eateries, Carra unveils cash machine, & Finnan fitness fight

- Despite reading several reports saying he had injured his hand, apparently Danny Agger is okay. Supposedly the reason he was taken out in the Latvia match was because he was already booked, but looking at the official report from UEFA, this is not the case. Maybe he was being a bit reckless and out of fear of receiving a card he was substituted, I don't know, I didn't get to see the match.

- Speaking of the 22-year-old defender, apparently he's decided to enter the wonderfully stressful world of restaurant ownership. The Dane has purchased two eateries in Liverpool, one Mexican and the other Italian. I hope he has a partner he can trust because the last thing the club needs is him not fully concentrating on football. Good luck Danny and here's to hoping you don't get a visit from Gordon Ramsey.

- Jamie Carragher was part of a ceremony to open a fee-free ATM in his hometown of Bootle. I'm not sure what part Carra is playing in the matter other than bringing attention to the cause, but kudos to him, even if it is a bit odd.

- Rounding up who'll be available for tomorrow's trip to Portsmouth, it appears more and more likely that Finnan will not. With Agger apparently not injured, that's not much of a blow as first thought as Arbeloa can cover the right. Everyone else who was on international duty including Steven Gerrard will be available, though I don't expect Stevie-G to play. And unless you've been living under a rock, Carra is set to make his return. Cheers.

If Liverpool was an NFL side: The Offense

As I sat around with some friends this past Sunday watching some NFL and patiently awaiting the US-Brazil friendly in Chicago, I got to thinking how Javier Mascherano would make a bad ass American football player, particularly at running back. He seems to have the perfect low-gravity, wide, muscular build with powerful tree trunk like legs to propel him forward while carrying a couple of players with him. I could definitely see him slamming himself kamikaze-style through a wall of over-sized ogres and coming out the other side a la Emmitt Smith to scramble for a few more yards. It's too bad he was born in Argentina.

Then I got to thinking, if Liverpool FC was an American football club, at what positions would our players be best suited. On offense, the most obvious is Steven Gerrard at quarterback. He just has that high-shouldered approach that would allow him to keep a good eye on the entire field and allow him a quick over-the-shoulder release. Not to mention his leadership abilities and his uncanny knack to pull off something special when needed most. He certainly has all the physical attributes, he's quick and fast, though it probably wouldn't hurt for him to put on a few pounds, and at six-foot-one he's tall enough. The only thing he'd need to learn how to do is throw a football, but that probably wouldn't be too hard for someone of his athletic ability.

The biggest problem would be linemen. Of the players who could probably make it at that position due to their strength and toughness, certainly Sami Hyypia and Alvaro Arbeloa could, but both would still need to put on at least 100 pounds to even begin not to get pushed around by the opposition. John Arne Riise could probably make it as a tight end, but I'd rather see him and Jermaine Pennant sharing the backfield with Mascherano. I can just imagine Riise getting the ball, gathering up a head of steam and then barreling through some linebackers who later would have no idea what hit them. As for 'Crazy Legs' Pennant, I can definitely see him being like Warrick Dunn, scampering all over the field, defying tackles with juke moves and a relentless refusal to be taken down. He'd probably be one of our return specialists as well.

As for the receiving core, we'd be loaded with Momo Sissoko, Ryan Babel, Yossi Benayoun and of course, Peter Crouch, though I think Crouchy would probably get broken in half on the first decent hit. Pepe Reina would be our starting tight end after he put on about eighty pounds. Yossi and Crouch would be the possession receivers, while Momo and Babel would be flankers. I could also see Dirk Kuyt and Andriy Voronin as split ends or playing some sort of possession receiver roles due to their lack of speed. That leaves Torres, who'd probably be in the backfield, though I'm not sure how he'd fit in with the other three back there.

As for the rest of the team, Harry Kewell seems to have the mentality of the back-up quarterback. Though he may lack in size, he's definitely got the athletic ability and tends to come up with special plays from time to time. Of course he'd have to stay healthy first. For some reason, I see Jamie Carragher as a kicker. I don't mean that as an insult by any means, as I can see him kicking the ball off then going full speed at the opposition trying to take out as many blockers as possible on his way to dragging down the returner. Then we have Danny Agger, with whom I have no idea what to do with. With his height, he could probably play as receiver or tight end, but I just sort of see him sitting on the bench. I don't why, maybe he's just too much of a footballer to me.

If I ever get this bored again, I'll do the defense or somebody can shoot me. Whatever you deem appropriate. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Carra officially set to return, Traore talking junk, Abigail gets the axe, & more

- Well, at least we'll have Carra. With the Agger injury and Hyypia coming off two full matches in five days, it was unclear what we were going to do for centre backs come Saturday, but it looks like Jamie Carragher will definitely start. I assume that Arbeloa will be there along with him. As for the full backs, it would be great if Aurelio was declared fit and ready, but I doubt it, and I haven't heard anything in regards to Finnan's condition. I'll assume it'll be Riise on the left though and who knows, maybe Stephen Darby on the right? That would be interesting.

- Djimi Traore, quite possibly one of the worst players ever to win a Champions League medal, is talking a little smack about his former club with whom he won that medal, Liverpool. The Portsmouth back thinks his side will win on Saturday because they won't give the Reds much respect and the long travel south will make them tired. What? Are they walking? That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard, but then again, this is Traore we're talking about. It's only about 250 miles by car and our boys will most likely be flying. Anyhow, the linked article which is from a Portsmouth fan site mentions that Portsmouth has won three of the last five games between the two clubs, but then mentions that one of the wins was against a weak Liverpool side as we were on the march in the Champions League last year and the other was on penalty kicks this past summer in a meaningless preseason tournament final. So against full LFC sides, they've won one of the last three. Luckily for them though, they probably won't meet a first team squad on Saturday.

- Peter Crouch's girlfriend, the sort of attractive Abigail Clancy (pictured above), has gotten the axe from Hell's Kitchen, the reality cooking show she's been a part of recently. She apparently will now use her new-found cooking skills to fatten up her boy.

- Rafa, who was named 33rd on the top 50 managers of all-time by the Times Online, has once again expressed the unfairness of our schedule. For the second consecutive time we have to play a lunch fixture following an international break. I can sort of understand his complaining with not having a lot of preparation time on the day of the game and some players being out of sorts with the earlier than usual start, but come on, it's only a couple of hours. I do think they should play a large majority of the matches following an international break on Sunday though as it would allow players an extra day rest and probably increase the quality of their play and the matches in general. Of course, that would just mean less time to prepare for the Champions League match in the middle of the upcoming week. By the way, Paisley and Shankly were 6th and 5th respectively on that list though both should have been ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson for obvious reasons.

- It's been revealed that Dirk Kuyt's schoolboy German lessons have paid off in helping Andriy Voronin adjust to Liverpool life. Though a bit rusty and sometimes unsure of what he was saying, Kuyt has been instrumental in helping the Ukrainian communicate with his coach and teammates. Kuyt also praised Voronin for his work rate and as one of the players he used to admire in his Bundesliga watching days. Being involved in the international scene so long, I'm sort of surprised Voronin doesn't speak English or even Dutch.

- Finally, just because you play for LFC and are named Jamie Carragher doesn't mean you get special treatment. Even if that means getting bumped to the front of a book signing line for a book in which you are featured. As was the case for Here We Go Gathering Cups In May, a book about LFC's seven European trophy runs. Carra had to wait in a line that wrapped around the bookstore just like everyone else.