Today's Banter: Paul Anderson saves Swansea again, New stadium gets green light, Benayoun vows to rescue England, & more

There's just too many interesting responses to yesterday's match to include in my daily, so I'll do separate post in a bit.

Once again Paul Anderson was the hero yesterday as his goal with 12 minutes to go in regulation saved the Swans from certain defeat at Millwall. The 19-year-old on-loan winger scored the equalizer to make it 2-2 at the New Den after the Lions had come back from a goal deficit to take the lead. It was Anderson's eighth goal of the season. Interestingly enough, former LFC player, American Zak Whitbread, scored in this match as well. Swansea currently sits fourth on the League One table with a game-in-hand over all three teams ahead of them.

(Edit: I'm now reading reports that it was Darryl Duffy and not Paul Anderson who scored the equalizer. If anyone can confirm this, please do. Anderson did get the assist on the first goal though. At least that's what I read.)

Lost in all the excitement of yesterday's thrashing of Beşiktaş, the Liverpool city planning committee approved the plans for the new stadium. The 60,000 seat, £400m project is set to begin construction next Spring at the Stanley Park site. It is expected to be ready for the start of the 2011 season. For the club to take advantage of expansion options and increase the capacity to 76,000, additional approval would have to be given by the committee. The committee heard from concerned local residents before making their decision and proposed an increase in fines for traffic violations to help control the potential influx of chaos and gridlock.

Yesterday's hat-trick hero and nearly everyone's pick for Man of the Match, Israeli Yossi Benayoun, has vowed to do all he can to help England advance to the 2008 European Championship, when he leads Israel against Russia in an upcoming qualifying match. If Russia wins against the Israelis in Tel-Aviv, they only have lowly Andorra to run-over in their quest to advance and prevent England from doing so. Benayoun, the captain of Israel, wants nothing more than to see teammates Steven Gerrard and Peter Crouch make it to final next summer. I'm going to pretty much hold my tongue on this one, but I will say this, there's really no point in the Three Lions advancing because they have absolutely no chance of winning it.

Burnley boss Steve Cotterill has responded to Rafa claiming that Clarets über-prospect, John Cofie, can be bought for considerably less than the £1m valuation, with a laugh. Cotterill apparently told a crap-shite poor excuse of a piece of paper that: "If they think they can nick him for £250,000 they’ve no chance." Not sure what Rafa was trying to do with his low-balling statement, maybe send out a feeler? But he obviously hit a nerve with the lad's manager.

Finally, it looks like Fulham, our opponent Saturday, will get a boost up front, as on-loan from Crystal Palace, Finnish International Shefki Kuqi looks to make his first full debut for the Cottagers at Anfield. He will more than likely be paired with Clint Dempsey who scored his first career Premiership goal, quite a controversial one I might add, against us last May. I know it was his first goal and I realize it kept Fulham in the Premiership, but they were playing a makeshift B-side that even the saddest of top-flight clubs should have beaten by more than a goal and they celebrated like they just won the Champions League. I hope we crush them. Cheers.

Liverpool vs Beşiktaş: the line-up

Here it is:
Reina
Aurelio
Carragher
Hyypia
Arbeloa
Riise
Mascherano
Gerrard
Benayoun
Voronin
Crouch

Bench:
Martin
Kuyt
Babel
Finnan
Torres
Kewell
Lucas

I guess Kewell is playing the part of the super-sub. No excuses for Crouch today, he either performs or drops in the ranks again. Surprised to see Riise on the pitch after such a horrible match on Saturday, but Rafa rarely sits a player just because of one bad outing. Also, where's Sissoko? Is he sick again?

I think our biggest question will be how Hyypia performs on just three days rest. He didn't really do much running around in the Blackburn match, which I guess is a plus. Hopefully if he starts to falter, Rafa will bring in Finnan for the Finn and move Arbeloa over.

Torres is on the bench, but I doubt he'll play. Cheers.

(Edit: Well, I just noticed that Markus Merk is the head official. Not only that, but the whole officiating team is Germany. You know, sort of like Herbert Fandel...)

Liverpool vs Beşiktaş: What will Rafa do?

Well, it's do or die time, we either win tomorrow or put our Champions League aspirations behind us. I like how Rafa is approaching this match by stating that there is no pressure on himself or the team to advance past the group stage. Whether it's true or not is irrelevant, but a loss at Anfield to Beşiktaş would be embarassing.

With that said, I truly think we'll run rampant tomorrow and win by at least two goals. I think there's a possibility of our side being over-confident going into the match, but with them already beating us once, I don't see how we can underestimate them.

The health of our squad is significantly better when we last met the Turkish club in Istanbul two weeks ago. We have Aurelio, Arbeloa, and Kewell back, with really only a hobbled Pennant missing as Xabi was on the bench, but didn't play. Fernando Torres was in training today, but I can't see Rafa risking further injury to the Spaniard, especially when we have the personnel capable of getting the job done.

Keeper, once again, is a no-brainer, so joining Pepe on defense I think will be Aurelio on the left, Carra and Hyypia in the middle, and Arbeloa on the right. There is a possibility of Arbeloa playing centre back since it's only been a couple of days since Sami played last, but I'm not sure how confident Rafa is with the Spaniard playing there. Furthermore that would leave Finnan, who also needs his rest, to play on the right.

The midfield is probably the toughest to guess. Kewell seems to be the best option on the left with Babel starting the two previous matches there. In the middle I would probably play Mascherano and Lucas, but then again, my name's not Rafa Benitez. Who knows what he'll do there, we could see any combination of Masche, Lucas, Momo, or Gerrard. I personally would rather see Gerrard on the right, so he won't have to run himself silly.

Up front I'll assume Voronin will be back, so he'll definitely get the nod and I can't see Rafa starting Kuyt here, so Crouch will partner the Ukrainian. I really hope Crouch continues his promising form from the Blackburn match, but I won't be shocked if he returns to his useless ways.

Anyhow, here's my final guess:
Reina
Aurelio
Carra
Hyypia
Arbeloa
Kewell
Mascherano
Sissoko
Gerrard
Crouch
Voronin

Bench:
Martin
Lucas
Finnan
Kuyt
Benayoun
Babel
Riise

In the end I decided to go with Sissoko paired with Mascherano in the middle because I foresee Aurelio going forward a lot and we'll need the extra defensive coverage just in case. I really expect us to come out with all guns blazing here. A relentless onslaught for ninety minutes would do wonders for our confidence. If we don't have a goal by the sixtieth minute, I fully expect Rafa to bring on Lucas for either Sissoko or Mascherano and give the Brazilian full freedom of the pitch.

Today's Banter: Kewell may have to wait?, Chelsea drawn in Carling Cup, Ashley Young would welcome Crouch, & more

Well, this is disappointing news. Apparently Harry Kewell is not in-line to start today at Blackburn and may not even play nonetheless. Rafa has said that he will be extra cautious in integrating the Aussie into the first-team. This may be a ploy by Benitez, but I doubt it. To be honest, King Harry looked oddly spent within minutes of taking the field against Cardiff on Wednesday. I was hoping he'd start today, but now it looks as if our home tie with Beşiktaş is a more realistic opportunity for him.

With all eight teams remaining in the Carling Cup being top flight sides, it looks as if the competition will actually have a little meaning this year. Even more so for us or Chelsea as we have drawn one another for the quarterfinals. I have mixed feelings about this to tell you the truth. On the one hand, I'm glad we get to play the Blues as no matter the Cup, when it's do or die between us, the intensity is so thick you could cut it with a tree branch. On the other hand, do we really need another tough fixture? I guess Rafa could have sat Gerrard on Wednesday to lessen the chance of our advancement, but he didn't. I doubt now he's shooting himself or anything, but I'm betting he hoped we'd be playing West Ham instead.

Ashley Young wants Peter Crouch to become a Villain. So do I. You know what would piss me off? If Crouch went to Aston Villa and actually played up front like he should instead of trying to be a midfielder. Every time I see him out of position it reminds of that part in Zoolander when Mugatu goes on his rant about Derek Zoolander only having one pose. "Can't anyone see that he's a forward and not a midfielder?! He's playing out-of-position! He's a forward! Doesn't anybody else ever notice this?! I feel like I'm taking crazy pills!"

Finally, with all our metatarsal injuries this year, Rafa is calling on the boot companies to develop a more reasonable cleat with less studs. You know, I really don't understand why there isn't a more protective boot especially on the top side where most injuries occur when one player's cleat collides with the top of another's foot. Anyhow, also in that article is a mention of Itandje being injured. Not major, but a concern nonetheless. Cheers, I'll be back with line-up analysis about an hour before the match.

The official site is celebrating Halloween a little early

Two things on the front page of the official site, Liverpoolfc.tv, are giving me the chills. First, Pepe Reina looks like a cold-blooded vampire who's spotted a fresh drink of blood. Seriously, he's got crazy eyes. Also, if you click on the related article, 'Pepe proud to equal record', he thanks everyone in the defense for helping him achieve the clean sheet record except Jamie Carragher! Probably just a typo.

The other thing that's a bit creepy is the pictures of Beşiktaş J.K.'s stadium accommodations for visiting fans. They look like a seating section for an insane asylum with high white fences that drastically intrude the view of the pitch. There's just no way in hades that I would go to that match and sit in that cage. I understand other Turkey clubs (ha, no pun intended) visiting and their fans causing problems, but that just won't happen with our supporters. You'd think they'd have movable fencing or something of the sort for such occasions so they don't look like a country of barbarians.