Middlesbrough at Anfield: Will Suso start? Will Ayala score? Or will Jones get the clean sheet against his former club?

Liverpool has met Middlesbrough six times in League Cup history splitting those meetings 3-0-3.  Four of those matches were at Anfield with the home side winning three, the only loss being their first cup meeting in November 1974, a 4th round 1-0 defeat.  The last date at Anfield in what was then known as the Carling Cup was November 10th, 2004, with LFC winning 2-0 behind a late match brace from Neil Mellor.  They were his first goals in front of the Kop.  Liverpool is 42-17-14 all-time versus Middlesbrough on Merseyside, outscoring the River Tees club 157 to 70.  The last time the Reds lost at home to Boro was March 6th, 1976, a 1st division affair 38 years ago.

Middlesbrough currently sit 5th on the Championship table with 15 points from 8 matches.  They are lead by former Real Madrid and Tottenham defender, Jonathan Woodgate, though he is injured once again and will miss the match tomorrow.  Their leading goal scorer so far this season is former Sunderland midfielder, Grant Leadbitter, who has six, while 24-year-old striker, Kike, signed from Real Murcia during the summer transfer window, is second with four.

They also feature former Liverpool centre back, Danny Ayala, who signed from Norwich City last January after completing an emergency loan spell at the Boro.  Ayala only played five matches for LFC and after spending loan spells at Hull and Derby, was sold to Norwich in the summer of 2011. Middlesbrough are managed by Spaniard Aitor Karanka, who oddly enough was on three Champions League winning sides at Real Madrid, though never a major contributor. The useless fact of the day is no player on the current Middlesbrough roster has ever scored against Liverpool, hopefully that trend continues.

There's a good chance that Brad Jones will get the start over Mignolet, who clearly needs a rest.  We actually signed the Aussie keeper from Middlesbrough in August 2010 for £2.3m.  He has never faced his former club and has a 1-1-1 record for Liverpool in League Cup matches, including a 3-1 loss at Anfield in 2012 to Swansea.  The starting line-up for that match was Jones, Coates, Carragher, Jack Robinson, Joe Cole, Assaidi, Henderson, Downing, Allen, Shelvey, and Samed Yesil.  With Henderson and Allen seemingly unavailable for the match due to injury, Jones is the only player from that side who could be chosen.

As for the potential line-up, I am pretty confident that among available players, Gerrard, Balotelli, Lovren, Moreno, Sterling, and probably Skrtel will be sat.  I wouldn't be surprised to see any of those save Gerrard and Lovren on the bench though.  I'm hoping Rodgers tinkers, especially with the lunch time match versus Everton on Saturday.  Would love to see a line-up of Jones, Enrique, Sakho, Toure, Johnson (Manquillo if not injured), Lucas, Rossiter, Markovic, Suso, Lallana, and Lambert.  Maybe Rodgers will go a little bonkers and include some of the teenagers like Sinclair and Ojo, Stewart is a good possibility for the bench as well.

Does this match really matter?  Though I'd hate to lose to Boro at home, with how thin our squad is at the moment, another fixture is more trouble than it's worth.  If only we could sell the fixture to United since they clearly need more matches.  I just want to see an entertaining match with free flowing football and no thuggery.

Jay Rodriguez for £19m?! I must be taking crazy pills.

Jay Rodriguez isn't worth £1.9m, yet alone 19! That is absurd.  There just can't be any truth to Rodgers being interested in him.  If so, somebody needs to set his head right, because that's certifiable. Are these stats worthy of a £19m attacking midfielder/winger/forward?

Southampton 2013-14

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.53	0.63	0.7	0.11	14.3
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
76.6	49	31.7	14.9	12.9
gap90	gsp90	gop90	tgop	gopd90
1.37	1.51	0.14	0.21	-0.07

Southampton 2012-13

npgp90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.25	0.45	0.74	0.21	27.8
pass%	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
73.8	-	36	6.7	14.4
gap90	gsp90	gop90	tgop	gopd90
1.61	1.2	-0.41	-0.29	0.12

I'll save you the trouble and say 'Hell no!' Rodriguez is not good enough to wear the Liverpool shirt.  It's bad enough we grossly overpaid for his former teammate, but he shouldn't even be in the picture.  Whomever says we should buy him, should be committed, immediately.

Not a single stat above could be deemed 'outstanding'.  He does have great chances created value numbers, but that's mainly due to lack of created chances more than anything.  He had a total of 38 for the past two seasons combined.  For perspective, Glen Johnson had 74 over the same span.

Rodriguez is clearly poor on the ball.  His turnover rate and passing percentages are dismal.  He did see slight improvement from one season to the next, but he'll be 25 by the end of the month.  His performance curve can't go too much higher.

Seriously, Rodgers, Rodriguez? I'm hoping he was mis-heard and really said Ricardo Rodriguez.  If not, we need to find where the real Rodgers is being held and get rid of his reptilian humanoid doppelganger sent by Malcolm Glazer from his invisible spaceship.  This hyperreality is making me lose my mind.

You have to feel for Iago Aspas

The wide-eyed Spaniard has become the butt of many jokes, the top clown in the circus of mockery, and the subject of a very amusing twitter account.  I previously wrote about how the former Celta de Vigo star showed little promise for his £7.7m transfer fee, but let's see what that got us:

goals	0	npgp90	0	pass%	75.4	gap90	0.47
assist	1	gcp90	0.23	bp%	58.1	gsp90	1.41
chances	8	ccp90	1.86	sacc%	50	gop90	0.94
		ap90	0.23	shot%	0
		ccv	12.4	TTI90	14.4

Surprisingly, Aspas has a decent chance created per 90 average of 1.86 and chance created value of 12.4.  Unfortunately that's about it, his piss poor passing, abysmal turnover rate, and goals-on-pitch difference of 0.94 aren't worth  £770,000.

It started out so promising though.  He scored 4 goals in the preseason, including one in his first match, a curling beaut of a strike from outside of the box against Preston.  In our opening fixture versus Stoke at Anfield, he assisted on what would be the game-winning goal.  Then he did little else save his only official goal as a Liverpool player, when Oldham came to Anfield for their FA Cup tie in January.

You have to wonder what Rodgers has in store for Aspas.  I would hope he's planning to sell him, apparently Sevilla will take him on the cheap.  At this point getting anything back for him would be a plus,  £7.7m is awfully expensive for a mascot.

Anfield Banter awards for September

Player of the month

This one is tough. Benayoun has made a strong case with the last two matches. His strike against Reading was crucial as it kick started the goal-scoring machine, not to mention it was a beaut. Obviously his cheeky score against Wigan was important as well. If it weren't for the Porto fiasco, Mascherano would be walking away with it and Riise has had his moments, but I think it has to go to Torres. He does so much on the pitch even if he hadn't scored at all the whole month, he'd still be a candidate for this accolade.

Goal of the month

There's really only three candidates here: Babel versus Derby, Yossi versus Reading, and Yossi versus Wigan. I'd have to give it to Yossi versus Wigan only because of it's importance. All three goals showed plenty of skill.

Assist of the month

Riise to Torres versus Reading was the first to come to mind, so it's got to be that one. Gerrard's through ball to Torres in the Reading match was nice as well.

Unsung hero of the month

Arbeloa, easy. He's played every minute of every match at three different positions. Though some of his performances have been subpar, we have yet to yield a goal from open play, so he's got to be doing something right.

Today's Banter: Nasri?, Benayoun content being super sub, Eccleston comes through, & more

- According to this article, we're going to make a £10m bid for French superstar Samir Nasri. Bullocks. I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice to have him, but first off, he primarily plays central midfield and we're kind of loaded in that department. He is versatile enough to play the wings as well, but unless he's going to be content sharing time there, he won't approve the transfer. Finally, if he's as good as advertised, I kind of doubt £10m will be enough to snag him. French players are usually bargains (unless Houllier is the buyer), but that sounds a bit low. Unfortunately, we won't get a look at the 20-year-old when Marseilles come to Anfield on Wednesday as he is convalescing from flu-like symptoms.

- Yossi Benayoun, the only player who felt like scoring for us on Saturday, has proclaimed that he's content being a super sub. It's good to see Yossi have a change of heart from his early season tantrum about not getting enough playing time. He really shows class in that article and its a real testament to our side to have such quality in depth. He should be our starter on the right come Wednesday, that is if Harry Kewell isn't miraculously back from injury and Babel is available.

- Nathan Eccleston lead the way with a brace as the Academy beat Stoke City 3-2. Joe Kennedy scored the other goal. The kids now sit at 3-2 for the season though still have -1 goal difference. Their next match is Saturday when they travel to Blackburn.

- After bagging the next Lionel Messi in 16-year-old Gerardo Bruna, we're apparently tracking Irish Starlet James McCarthy and may make an offer for him at the end of the season. The 16-year-old Hamilton Accies midfielder is the youngest ever scorer for his club and has attracted attention from seemingly every club on the planet.

- Finally, Djibril Cisse can't wait for Wednesday when he makes his return to Anfield in a Marseilles shirt. The 26-year-old French striker said he was on the phone with Stevie-G the moment he found out about the draw. He also said some nice (and true) things about our captain like calling him the best midfielder in the world. Bolo Zenden also plays for Marseilles. Hopefully he'll give the average Anfield performance and be more of a burden to his own side. Cheers.

Robbie Fowler to return!!

Wow, great job rigging the draw whoever did. Not only do we get a relatively easy opponent for our fourth round Carling Cup tie, but 'God' gets to return to Anfield. This match could be played on All Hallows' Eve as well.