Liverpool 2, Tottenham 2: the 'game-winner'?

Well, before I get to the actual match, once again Fox Soccer makes themselves look like a bunch of donkeys. Apparently Torres' extra-time header was the 'game-winner'. I wish, but at least it gave me a little chuckle, something I need after that pathetic display.

I don't know where to start. Our whole side played pretty poor and the worse part is if we hadn't been distracted by the stadium intercom announcer, (btw, what was that about?) we would have probably won.

Who played well? No one. Well, maybe Stevie Finnan, but that's it. It was a poor display all-round. Now teams know how to beat us, just keep trying the long ball.

I feel sorry for Reina, without Agger we look pretty pathetic at the back. We need the Dane back as soon as possible and Rafa needs to buy the best centre back as possible in the January transfer window.

Anyhow, I'm pretty disgusted by the whole affair and don't really want to get into it, but our ball movement is shoddy at best. We don't look like a team out there at all. There's no flow whatsoever, it's very disheartening. Maybe it's time Rafa brings in some kids, at least then we have an excuse for being poor.

Liverpool 2, Tottenham 2: the goals

Voronin's put-back.


Torres' 'game-winner'. ha.

Liverpool vs Tottenham: the line-up

And the envelop reads...

Reina
Arbeloa
Carragher
Hyypia
Finnan
Riise
Mascherano
Gerrard
Pennant
Voronin
Torres

Bench:
Itandje
Kuyt
Benayoun
Babel
Lucas

Still no Babel starting and Lucas on the bench. Interesting. As long as there's no Crouch.

Liverpool 1, Wigan 0: Yossi plays, we win

I wonder if we'll hear any nonsense about Yossi not starting today as to why we barely pulled this one off. Probably not, I figure the memory vacuum will take care of all the Rafa rotation bashing. Anyhow, on to the match.

Wigan should be commended for a well-played, well-executed game plan. We were really lucky to come away with three points as they were the better side and missed a couple of relatively easy opportunities in front of the net.

Overall, we were not a top side. We seemed to lack motivation as a whole and were timid about scoring. Wigan stuffed the box when we had the best chances to score and our attempts to do so were characteristic of keystone cops. Our lack of ability to be creative, utilize the whole field, and movement off the ball was quite evident in these cases.

Individually, Yossi stole the show with an absolute class strike. I posted a video of it in an earlier post, but I'm not sure if it's working or not. The Israeli seemed to revitalize our side the minute he stepped onto the pitch, especially Gerrard.

Our defense was surprisingly appalling at times, particularly Hyypia. He talked about how he's never had pace earlier this week, but it's never really hurt his performance. Today it seemed to as Wigan quickly countered set plays which left the heavy-footed Finn well out of position. It forced Carra to make some tackles that frankly could have been called penalties, but were not.

We grinded out the win and I'm happy about that, but better sides would have at least drew us. I know I complained about Pennant not cutting inside enough, but he did it a little too much here and as a team, we failed miserably at using the entire pitch, especially the deep flanks.

Kuyt was simply not fit to wear the shirt. He really needs to dig deep and get more creative. I'm not sure what his issue was today, but he was our worse player by far. Anyhow, I gotta go. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Wigan 0: the goal

Here's Yossi's phenomenal goal from earlier today. The Israeli saved us from another embarassing draw. Cheers.

Liverpool 0, Wigan 0:halftime thoughts

Well, I missed the first ten minutes of the match, but from what I've seen we're dangerous to score, well, at least Torres is. If he doesn't score in the second half or at least set up a goal, I'll be surprised.

As a team we seem to play well in brief stretches, but for the most part look like a bunch of unfocused eight-year-olds waiting for ice cream. Pennant has been the most baffling, at times he looks fantastic, while other times he looks like he's never played the sport. At one point, he had the ball at the top of the box and should have blasted it, instead he laid it off to Riise, who was far over on the left and had defenders in front of him.

Speaking of Pennant, when did he become Wigan's punching bag? Koumas could have probably got a straight red for trying to break his leg on a blatant attempt to do so and towards the end of the half one of the loser Wigan thugs threw a punch at him. It's ridiculous not to expect JP to retaliate when the ref is letting the Lactics get away with assault.

As for the rest of the side, Kuyt and Gerrard are invisible, though no one has played bad. I don't think Stevie-G is fully fit yet, but with Xabi out and the inexperienced Lucas as the only real option, there's little choice. I guess we could play Sissoko, but that would almost guarantee a draw.

Anyhow, second half is about to start. I think we can win this, but I won't get my hopes up. We really need a Riise belter.

Liverpool vs Wigan: the line-up

Here it is:
Reina
Aurelio
Hyypia
Carragher
Arbeloa
Riise
Mascherano
Gerrard
Pennant
Kuyt
Torres

Subs:
Itandje
Benayoun
Sissoko
Finnan
Voronin

Once again, Rafa isn't messing around. I wonder how Voronin feels about the rotation now and really don't care how Crouch feels. I'm thinking Rafa is taking the Ukrainian's age in perspective and since he played well against Toulouse, maybe the gaffer is thinking of holding him for Marseilles. Babel's also getting an extending vacation, I hope he's okay. I do recall him limping off in the last match. I'm just glad I dropped him from my fantasy team. Anyhow, I doubt I'm going to get to see this match, I have company coming into town, but I'll definitely watch it tomorrow and have a report by Monday plus (hopefully) lots of goal clips. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Rafa may sit Torres, Martin to Yeovil?, CNN needs a better fact checker, & more

- Rafa has made sure that everyone knows this is his club when he stated that Torres' performance last night doesn't guarantee him a place at Wigan on Saturday. It might be best to start him on the bench anyhow as we should have a fresh Kuyt and Voronin, both of whom should be looking to redeem themselves after Saturday's subpar performance versus Birmingham.

- It's looking less likely that a rumored loan move for keeper David Martin to Yeovil Town will come to fruition. With last night's shaky performance from Frenchman Charles Itandje, it's understandable that Rafa wants to keep the 21-year-old Reserves keeper around. If Itandje stumbles on his second outing, I fully expect Martin to get his shot. Both Martin and out-on-loan Nikolay Mihaylov gave solid performances in the preseason.

- CNN made a slight and understandable error in this report from yesterday's Sevilla-Espanyol match, unless Luis Garcia was recently loaned out from Atletico to Espanyol. I think I would have heard about it though.

- Coppell claims it's Torres' pace that sets him apart from other players. I would have to agree that El Nino has some speed and quickness, but he's also strong and how can you not deny his uncanny ability to score any which way by foot after the Chelsea goal and the phenomenal second strike yesterday? He's just so unpredictable on the ball.

- Finally, Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt have both been named to Marco Van Bastien's provisional Holland squad for their upcoming Euro qualifier matches in mid-October. The fixtures are just three weeks away. Cheers.

Liverpool vs Reading: the goals

Benayoun's strike


Torres' 1st


Torres 2nd (and best, in my opinion)


Torres 3rd

Liverpool 4, Reading 2

Two things happened early in the second half of this match that allowed Liverpool to play their game. First, we got an early goal on a well-played ball from Leto to Torres who beat Duberry and slotted it into side of the net past Federici. Then I guess the ref got tired of watching Reading turn the beautiful game into a pub brawl and started handing out the yellow cards. It's so odd that players I singled out in the first half, Duberry and Bikey, got cards, because, I mean, they played with such class. Once those two things occurred, Reading could no longer bully our side less they wanted to be reduced to ten.

With them having to allow us more space by not being able to grab a hold of our shirts, all of sudden we became a threat to score nearly every time we brought the ball down. Unfortunately that didn't do anything for our set-piece defense which was frantically horrid. I attest that to two things though, having Itandje make his first team debut and having Arbeloa play for the first time at centre back. The lack of communication on defense was apparent from the start and didn't seem to improve much as the match wore on.

It was because of our set-piece defense that Reading again equalized when a bobbled corner kick fell into John Halls' lap and the defender slammed it through a maze of legs into the back of the net. If either Pepe, Hyypia, or even Agger were in there I doubt it would have ever gotten to Halls as it was complete chaos in the box prior to and during the play. We didn't really seem that bothered by the equalizer, but then Rafa made a great decision anyhow to further tilt the match back in our favor.

Around the 69th minute, Riise came on for Aurelio and immediately made his presence felt. He took the ball down the left, faked out a Reading defender by passing it to himself through the defender's legs, and then dribbled closer to the box until he found a charging Torres to lay it off to. The Spaniard slammed the ball across the box and into the upper right corner of the goal. After that, Reading looked a side lacking confidence.

Once Gerrard came on in the 77th minute, the match was fully in Liverpool's grasp and with four minutes left a Gerrard to Torres pass made it all but official. The England International found the streaking Spanish International with no one left to beat but the keeper, which he did almost effortlessly.

Though not a perfect effort, it was a win on the road with a rotated side. Certainly our inability to utilize the whole field, Crouch reverting back to his ineffective ways, and the Itandje/defense communication issues are things that we need to work on. Also I was disappointed not to see Lucas more involved on the attack, which was one of the reasons why it seemed that Benayoun had free range of the field.

Despite Torres getting the hat-trick, I'm going to have to say Yossi was the Man of the Match. He made some huge plays including our first goal which was crucial because it forced the Reading defense to respect him as much as any other threat. He also had a header clearance in the box late in the match that if he didn't get to, might have allowed Reading to equalize once again. Most importantly he stepped up and took the initiative to run the offense when it looked as if no one else was going to. That kind of leadership is just priceless.

Next up, Wigan on Saturday at the JJB. Hopefully Kuyt will bring his ace form. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Reading 1: halftime thoughts

You know, I understand the home side getting some calls, but this is simply shocking. First off, how Duberry and Bikey don't have cards is a mystery to me. Both have been making reckless tackles, pulling at shirts, and pushing players down left and right. How can the ref expect to maintain control of a match if he's allowing those two mongoloids to play American football while almost every time a Liverpool player runs into a Reading player, they get a foul called on them? If a Reading player gets his leg broken by a Liverpool player in the second half, don't blame the player, blame the ref.

Furthermore, the goal by Convey should not have been allowed. Lita was clearly offside through the obstruction rule as he was in Itandje's way. It is partly Itandje's fault though, since he should have came forward and made a bigger deal out of the obstruction. As for the keeper's performance so far, it's been awfully shaky and I can understand why he hasn't won the confidence of his teammates yet.

By the way, pardon me for wanting a ref to actually know the rules. If a Liverpool player would have obstructed the Reading keeper like that, not only would have the goal been disallowed, but that player would have probably gotten a card. I hope we come out in the second half and be twice as physical as them, I'm so tired of the thug approach teams with lesser talent take toward us, especially since they know for the most part the officials will let it go.

As for our play, we really need to start using the whole field. We barely used the right side and I blame Benayoun for that, though I can understand why he keeps going inside. It seems to me that neither Lucas nor Sissoko want to come up and be the attacking midfielder. I'd definitely would rather see Lucas take the initiative than Sissoko, since Momo is supposed to be a destroying type player. Of course, they may be a tad apprehensive to come forward since for some godforsaken reason Crouch thinks he's a midfielder now.

I don't want to go on an anti-Crouch rant, but for God's sake you overgrown gazelle, play forward and create space. Gees, you would think that he's never played forward before. He needs to be more aware of where he and his teammates are, especially Torres and the central midfielders. If the ball keeps going through Crouch, we might as well just forfeit because if he doesn't pass it back, he loses possession.

By the way, the goal by Benayoun was a thing of beauty. Arguably our best goal this season. I'll post a video of it later hopefully. Anyhow, the second half is about to start. I doubt we'll be able to win this one in regulation though. Cheers.

Liverpool vs Reading: the line-up

Rafa looks to be taking this match quite seriously.

Here's the line-up:
Itandje
Aurelio
Carragher
Arbeloa
Finnan
Leto
Sissoko
Lucas
Benayoun
Crouch
Torres

Subs:
Martin
Gerrard
Riise
Hobbs
Putterill

I'm pretty pumped to see Leto there as well as Lucas and Torres on the same pitch with him. Benayoun and Finnan should have plenty of room to operate on the right with Sebastian stretching the side as well as Crouch and Torres worrying the central defenders. Arbeloa to get a test run at centre is interesting, let's see how he does. His pace might come in handy against Lita.

Suprised not to see Pepe at least on the bench, but David Martin should be able to fill in if something were to happen to Itandje who gets his first start for the side. I hope Putterill gets on as well, I'd like to see what he can do against Premiership quality players. Here's to a fun match. Cheers.

Liverpool vs Reading: What will Rafa do?

Ah, these are the fun ones. Not necessarily to watch, though I hope this one is, but definitely fun to pick who Rafa will play. Before I get to that though, let me first offer an idea to any LFC website that has the funding to do so. How about having a 'pick Rafa's side' game? Seriously, I look forward to trying to pick out who Benitez will play more than anything else on my blog. Just a suggestion, anyhow...

For this match, I think the boss is going to try and mix the vets with the kids so to at least ensure that we don't get killed. I'm not so sure Pepe needs a game off since he is hardly called to do much in matches these days anyhow, but I think Itandje needs a start here and there outside of the Reserves. Pepe should grace the bench though.

At left-back, I hope to see Emiliano Insua and I think it's a good possibility, but I'll get to why in a minute. In the middle, it looks quite likely that we'll see Carra paired with Hobbs. Some may think that Carra will get the night off, but there's two reasons I think otherwise. First, he seems to be in great form as he showed with the Birmingham tie, and second, he is Hobbs mentor and what better way to show a student how it's done than by example. Take notes kid, because from what I've seen from you previously, you're gonna need all the advice you can get. On the right, I see Finnan getting the call as he only played the better part of a quarter-hour on Saturday.

At left-mid, I think Aurelio will get the call, which is why I think Insua will play behind him. Fabio provides a bit of defensive insurance on that side, just in case. I could see Riise starting there as well if Aurelio didn't need some pitch time. The only other thing I think Rafa might do is start Aurelio at left back and Leto at left wing, but I look for Leto to start from the bench and if injuries allow, come in the final thirty minutes for one of the left sided players. if he comes in for Insua, then Aurelio will be pushed back.

In central midfield, Sissoko has to get the call and I see Lucas paired with him. I'm hoping the attack runs through Lucas as much as possible because I really want to see what the Brazilian is capable of. I expect Sissoko to have a monster game as he has had a lot of time off. On the right, Yossi has to start. Pennant needs a day off as does Babel.

Up front is the real dilemma. I can definitely see Torres starting up front, but knowing Rafa, I don't think he will because it would look as if the boss is giving into his critics. After his performance on Saturday and playing the full match, I don't see Kuyt up there either. So I guess that leaves Voronin and Crouch. I can't see Crouch not starting here, he definitely needs more pitch time. Babel may get the call, but I don't think Rafa would pair him with Crouch.

So here's my final guess:
Itandje
Insua
Carra
Hobbs
Finnan
Aurelio
Lucas
Sissoko
Benayoun
Voronin
Crouch

Subs:
Reina
Gerrard
Torres
Hyypia
Leto

I'm not sure how many bench players Carling Cups allow, but I'll assume they go by FA rules.

With that line-up and Reading going with Convey and Lita, this could potentially be a fun match to watch. I don't really expect our side to win and honestly, don't care too much either. It's only the Carling Cup after all, but I'm hoping the kids realize that the better they play, the more likely we win, and if we win, that's more playing time for them. Be back later for the line-up, halftime report, and post-match report. Cheers.

Liverpool 0, Birmingham 0: final thoughts

After viewing this match for the second time, with much less emotion involved since I knew the outcome, I have to say that the reason Liverpool did not get the three points is because most of the team, particularly up front, were mentally unprepared for this match while Birmingham seemed quite the opposite.

Kuyt was appalling and Voronin wasn't much better. In fact, I would have to say this is the worse match I have ever seen Kuyt play. He seemed to turn the ball over nearly every time he got possession or he took a bad shot when there was a smarter pass. Voronin appeared to just be waiting for the ball to come to him instead of going after it.

Overall we lacked intensity as a side, save Carra and Mascherano, who more than made up for his poor performance in Portugal last week. You can blame Rafa for not starting Torres all you want, but Kuyt should have been more than capable of getting the job done. If Dirk played for Birmingham he would easily be their best player.

I do have a problem with Rafa's subbing though. I feel as if Torres should have been brought on for Kuyt and if Babel needed to come off for one reason or another, then Finnan could have been brought in, Arbeloa pushed over to the left and Riise pushed up to midfield. Kuyt should have been taken off at the half in my opinion as he had no business wearing the shirt that day.

You can say that Birmingham played solid defense, but the truth is, Kuyt had plenty of opportunity to at least be the catalyst in scoring a goal and he messed up time and time again. His head clearly wasn't in the match.

The funny thing is, if we were Man United, we would have won this by at least a goal. Case in point, as the first half was coming to a close, Carra made a brilliant pass to Kuyt in the box who controlled and turned to shoot. Just as he was about to do so though, the ref blew the whistle to end the half. Apparently only Man U gets extra time to score the goal they need.

Also, Torres should have had a penalty late in the game. After being set-up by a nice pass from Pennant, he faked out Queudrue in the box and the Frenchman not only clearly obstructs El Nino's forward movement, but also grabs his shirt to prevent him from continuing play. If Saha's dive was a penalty, then there's no question that that was one as well.

Some other points, Babel wasn't at his best, but he by no means cost us the match. He needs to work on his corners a little bit though. Speaking of set plays, the few we got, we were abominable, except for maybe the last corner where Gerrard found Crouch's head with a perfect pass, though the latter couldn't finish the job.

Defensively, Arbeloa had his second lackluster performance in a row and I think it's time he get a game off. If he starts against Reading tomorrow, I'll be surprised. Riise seemed to lose steam as the match wore on, but I wouldn't characterize his performance as anything less than average. Carra and Hyypia were adequate if anything.

As for our skipper, I've seen him play better, but for the most part he just faded in and out of the match. I'm hoping the week off gets him back into preseason form. If he was so fatigued though, I wonder why Rafa just didn't let him and Mascherano switch up and make Stevie-G the holding midfielder?

Birmingham said they were going to focus on Pennant and most the first half they did. It allowed Babel more space, but the Dutchman still preferred to go inside instead of out, which sort of took away the space he would have provided had he gone wide. I can't really complain about Pennant's performance as he was hounded throughout the day and when they finally let up, he became more of a threat and created a few chances for us.

My man of the match is Mascherano, though I've seen him play much better. In fact, with Hyypia and Carra sitting so far back the entire match, Masche certainly could have gotten more involved on the attack. He did towards the end, but it was too little too late. He was tackling was on point per usual and he was without a doubt a menace to the Blues the entirety of the match.

I guess Birmingham does deserve some credit for executing their game plan, but in truth, it was just a poor, insipid performance by Kuyt and Voronin that cost us. Maybe if Babel stayed to the left more, Dirk and Andriy would have had more room to operate, but what's done is done and all we can hope is that he learns from it.

Reading next and I'm think why Carra and Hyypia were basically planters was because we'll probably need them to do the same tomorrow at the Mad Stad. I'll have my 'What will Rafa do?' up soon. Cheers.

Liverpool 0, Birmingham 0: embarassing

Well, it looks like our old haunt of not being able to finish has returned. Kuyt couldn't kick the ball into the stands if he wanted to. All his tireless effort seem to just get him tired and I hate dogging on the kid, but gees, I feel like I'm watching Toronto FC out there at times.

This is the third straight match that I've disagreed with Rafa's selection. Torres should have started. What? Is he saving him for Reading and the Carling Cup? Rubbish. I have no problems with his tinkering, but for Christ sake, if you're going to do it have the guts to do something different.

Do you want to know why we are such a dreary side? It's because Rafa is afraid to really mix things up. Play a different formation, play Babel up front, put Voronin on the left, do something. The only critics who would be against it are old men living in an old world and they can go piss off.

Nobody is buying that we are any different from last year nor the year before because we aren't. We've reverted back to the old ways despite the new faces. Nobody eats stale bread because they know it's stale. They just leave it on the table to be thrown away.

I'm fully convinced we lost the league today and the only bright spot was we didn't give away a penalty. Ugh. Okay, let me calm down. I'll be back later.

Liverpool vs Birmingham: the line-up

Here it be:
Reina
Riise
Carra
Hyypia
Arbeloa
Babel
Mascherano
Gerrard
Pennant
Voronin
Kuyt

Subs:
Itandje
Finnan
Crouch
Torres
Sissoko

Interesting having Mascherano in there. I thought for sure he'd be given the day off to think about his performance against Porto. I guess Sissoko will play Tuesday. Kuyt and Voronin is interesting as well. I know they've played together, but I believe this is the first time they've started alongside one another in a match that counts. Rafa means business today. Here's to Pennant wreaking havoc. Cheers.

Oh, yeah, also Robbie Fowler has a brace so far for Cardiff today.