Liverpool 2, Middlesbrough 2: Weed the garden, Rodgers

Honestly, I don't know where to begin with this one.  I fought sleep and death from boredom throughout the match that could have been a 'how not to play football' instruction video and I wouldn't be able to tell the difference.  I felt like I was having a flashback from a childhood zoo trip where I had to search aimlessly at an exhibit for 15 minutes hopelessly hoping to catch a glimpse of a rare giant elephant shrew.

Liverpool played beyond poor and it was frankly embarassing.  We needed penalties to defeat a side that had no right to be on the same pitch as we were and once again, the same issues we have been dealing with recently, surfaced again.  Unfortunately, we can now add another as well, 'movement off the ball'.  The endless vertical back-and-forth passing and everyone standing around, waiting their turn to touch the magic football was dreadful.   There was only one decent example of movement off the ball, when Enrique broke forward to start the series of events leading to the second goal.

I'll just come out and say it, Rickie Lambert was a bad buy.  He has either lost a step since last season or the whole damn world has sped up a notch.  It's not just his pace that is lacking, but his quickness as well.  Everytime he gets the ball it's like he's standing in a tar puddle, not to mention the Elephant man's bones could predict where his next pass attempt is going.  It's time to wave the white flag, give Lambert a bunk in the Reserves' house, and let him play out his contract there.  He can title his autobiography, 'I got to play 136 minutes for Liverpool and my beard is better for it.'

Another player I have a big problem with is Lallana.  Man of the match?! Are you kidding me?  Was that halo of Anglo-Saxon Britishness glowing so bright above his head that no one noticed all he did was dance around the pitch like Cristiano Travolta and then throw the ball away?  If 'Out of Bounds' was a player on our side, he completed three amazing, perfect passes to him.  All the rest, save the 'no look' back heel were painfully obvious and lead to nothing.

A look at the statistics further shows Lallana's showmanship.  He turned over the ball 17 times, was 3 of 16 on cross attempts, and had no chances created.  Outstanding!  Markovic was apparently 'terrible' despite the fact his stats are very similar to the 'Chosen One' (14 turnovers, 0 for 1 crosses, also no chances created).  The only thing that baffled me about Markovic was his inability to shoot the ball, he was like a deer in highlights every time he got a chance to thump it.  Sterling shows this at times as well, maybe Rodgers has put the fear of God in them regarding bad shots and the 19-year-old and the 20-year-old are traumatized.  Oh yeah, Sterling gets the excuse of being 19, but Markovic is too old for that, right?

Speaking of youngsters, it was quite clear that Rodgers gave Suso a 'shoot away' speech when he took the pitch and the Spaniard took it to heart, taking 4 shots in 22 minutes.  Despite spending less time on the pitch than any other LFC player, he had the most shots and tied Sterling with the team lead with two shots-on-goal.  It also seemed to really open up the match.  Wonder what would have happened if Lazar and Sterling had done so in the first half.

We're going to improve, right?  I mean this match was a step forward? I don't think so.  We played Middlesbrough at Anfield for Christ's sake and still had trouble marking players, still had trouble communicating on defence, still couldn't create space, and were still more predictable than Augustus Gloop near a chocolate river.  These are issues that have gotten worse in each of the four matches.  Rodgers is the gardener and needs to weed it out or else suffer the consequences of sub-par production.

Liverpool may throttle Boro

From the looks of it, a win by Liverpool is likely though a convincing one is in doubt.  A trusted source has told me that there is a lot of money on Middlesbrough to win, which usually means a lot of people will lose money.  Whether by wind or wonder, the house usually wins.  The North Yorkshire club is also dominating final score and 'will qualify' wagering, meaning if it goes into extra time or pens.

Another reason LFC may win convincingly is the shear amount of firepower in midfield that Rodgers has decided to unleash upon Boro at Anfield today.  Sterling and Markovic have the weaponry to tear the Championship sides to threads and leave a few morsels of poaching for Lambert.  Oh, Lalllana is playing as well, but seeing his first two mediocre performances against more legitimate sides, a 'fantastic' performance for him would be pretentious and lead one to believe that maybe he belongs in second-tier football.

I'm sort of disappointed, but also surprised at Rodgers' selections.  Suso deserves a chance and if he could show a commanding performance against the 5th place Teesside club, it may be a stepping stone for time against more formidable opponents.  I think he'll get to see the pitch at some point today though, hopefully more than just a cameo.

The surprise is that Mignolet is starting, but maybe that's our gaffer's way of punishing the Belgian for his recent sub-par performances.  Also no Sinclair? I thought for sure he'd he get a spot on the bench, but apparently Welsh defender Jordan Williams gets the call.  Could be a tactical move who knows? Well, match starts soon, come on you Reds.

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.

Alexis Sanchez & Arsenal: A match made in delusional heaven

Whether this Goal article has even an ounce of truth to it, it is still amusing.  In it, apparently Alexis Sanchez claims he chose Arsenal because 'With [Mesut] Ozil in the squad Arsenal were [close] to winning the league title. I hope I can make a contribution so we can win as many titles as possible.' Now that's comedy at it's finest.  He must not be aware that the Gooners finished fourth last season.

He also says about Wenger, 'I was told that he is a manager you can learn a lot with. He wants to achieve great things in football and that helped me make the decision to sign for Arsenal.' Wenger was great, 10 or so years ago, but he's well past it now.  Just ask Bendtner or Chamakh how great a teacher he is.

The sad thing is, Arsenal supporters think he will actually be able to improve their club.  If he's so great why did Barcelona want to off-load him? Do you think it may be because he was part of their epic down slide last season when they won not a single trophy for the first time in six seasons? In fact, in the three seasons he was with Barca, they won a total of six honours.  For most clubs, that would be impressive, but Barca averaged a full trophy more the three seasons before including winning two Champions Leagues and La Liga every season.  They won no Cl and only one La Liga title with Sanchez.

I guess that makes them a perfect fit.  On one hand you have a club that won it's first major trophy in nine years last season, almost finished third in the league, and have Mesut Ozil, and on the other you have a player who is okay with his team not performing up to par of their previous seasons' title and cup-winning standards.  If all goes as plans, the Gunners will finish fifth and make the League Cup final.