Is Ryan Babel the new Harry Kewell?

Okay, so maybe that's taking it a little too far, but someone needs to put an APB out for him. The 20-year-old Dutch winger has been conspicuously absent from the pitch in our last three matches although he was on the bench for yesterday's debacle. Maybe he has been hanging out with the invisible Aussie.

Anyhow, we could have probably used his pace and quickness against Marseilles last night. I like Leto, but he's just not ready. I wonder if Babel might have a slightly injury or Rafa may think he's getting burnt out? Maybe he's working on his website? Well, if he doesn't play against Tottenham on Sunday, I'll be surprised.

I'm a bit surprised there's be no rotation rubbish over him. Come on you muppets, you missed out on the Benayoun rotation spew. We spent over £10m for the kid! Seize the day!

Today's Banter: Backlash from our first loss

As you probably would expect, most the news coming out of Anfield is about our 1-0 loss to Marseilles yesterday in Champions League play. What doesn't surprise me is that Rafa is not sharing his true opinion of the match. Why should he? There's no reason to give the English press more fodder to spin.

The only Benitez statement of remote truth that made print was him saying the Besiktas match in three weeks was now a must-win. I don't necessarily agree with him, but I do think it will make things a lot easier. Just as long as he doesn't play Crouch we have a chance.

I definitely disagree with him saying that's the worse home performance we've had since he's taken over. In Europe, maybe, but certainly the Carling Cup match with Arsenal last year comes to mind. Also, I don't think the whole team was bad and I do think singling out one player in particular is absolutely warranted.

Whether intentional or not, Crouch was atrocious yesterday. He played as if he was the star of the team, which he is not, and acted as if he was the only one in red on the field. He played out-of-position nearly the entire match and made a point of disrupting the forward flow of the ball whenever possible. Myself and others have already alluded to him possibly having ulterior motives, but despite that, he's just not good enough for our side. If Rafa doesn't sell him in the January window, maybe it's time to find a new manager as well.

I don't understand why people are so blind to Crouch's ways. He clearly was out of position the entire match. Intentional or not, it was mind-numbing. Is it because Tommy Smyth cajoled over the lanky striker? Listen, Tommy Smyth has his reasons and none of them are for the benefit of the club. The fact that he turned on Gerrard in the first ten minutes, before Gerrard was even able to get many touches on the ball is just laughable.

I usually listen to the sound off when I watch matches, particularly because of the commentators trying to manipulate what's actually happening on the field. The only reason I put up with it yesterday was because I was watching it with others.

Throughout the match Smyth was trying to get the viewers to feel sorry for Crouch by saying he's being mistreated at Liverpool due to Rafa's rotation. Rubbish. Crouch has been part of the side for over two years now, he knows Benitez is going to rotate and has yet to ask for a transfer. In fact, he has made statements in the past year or so saying he wants to remain at the club.

My favorite part is when Smyth appealed not to get on Crouch for his poor performance toward the end of the match because he has worked so hard. As if hard work is commendable if it doesn't accomplish anything. You can train a monkey to wash dishes, but if he keeps breaking them, purposely or not, what's the point? Also, I'd like Smyth to tell me who on our side didn't work hard. It's not as if we didn't want to win. Well, at least most of our players.

Tommy Smyth is either an idiot, which I highly doubt, or he has ulterior motives, of which I refuse to speculate. You either see the forest for the trees or you're just another blind man walking through a busy intersection. All right, I've said enough on the subject, Tottenham can't come quick enough. Cheers.

Analyzing Crouch's duplicitous behavior in the Marseilles match

Accusing someone of throwing a match is very serious and I would never do so unless I believed it beyond a doubt. Crouch's erratic play is beyond just having a bad day once-in-a-while. It's gotten to the point where he has a good day once-in-a-while and that's just simply unacceptable. Why he is still at Liverpool, I refuse to speculate, but after his performance today, no one can question Rafa not wanting to play him. If I was the manager, he'd be relegated to ball boy.

First, let's look what his motive might be. First thing that comes to mind is playing time. It's no secret that Crouch isn't happy with Rafa's rotation especially since it seems that Torres is not necessarily part of it. One may try to argue that he's not playing enough to be the best player he can be. Oh really, than explain the Arsenal match from last year when he had a hat-trick? Due to injury, he hadn't played for us in over a month. Furthermore, explain his success with England. Does he play for the Three Lions week in and week out? No. He just happens to play well when he wants to.

Underlying playing time could very well be the motive of money, for if Crouch would go elsewhere and feature more, that club would probably be required to pay the lanky striker more since his playing time would increase. Not to mention the endorsement deals he would be more likely to get if he was the star striker of the side. I'll quit the motive aspect while I'm ahead and before I get personal, but we all know life is more complex than black and red.

His performance speaks for itself. If you were a striker on Liverpool and you wanted to have the most negative influence on a game, what would you do? You'd stand in the middle of the field and try to distract any ball movement, especially passes between the two best players on the club, Gerrard and Torres. And what did Crouch do today? Exactly that.

Nearly every time he touched the ball, he turned it over or he passed it back. At one point Torres laid off the ball to him and took off down the field. El Nino had tons of space and was wide open and what did Crouch do? He turned around and passed the ball back. Not unbelievable, intentional.

I mentioned in my review of the match that Crouch (and everyone else who's ever watched the grown-up version of Mike Teavee play) knows his physical limitations and knows his role on the field. He's not a distributing forward. He's not good with the ball over three touches. He by no means has any chance whatsoever of dribbling the ball past even the most inept opponent and he's not an idiot, he's complete aware of his faults and weaknesses.

So you can lie to yourself all you want, live in Candyland, eat gold-flavored ice cream and play with your very bestest invisible friend to your sweet little heart's desire, but the people who live in reality know that matches are fixed and players throw matches. Don't believe me? Have fun. Peter Crouch's actions today lead me to believe he threw the match, there's just no other explanation.

Today's Banter: Nasri to miss CL clash, Carra closing in on 500, A battle of who could care less?, & more

- Marseille's Samir Nasri is set to miss his side's Champions League match next week with us due to meningitis-type flu. The 20-year-old attacking midfielder was hospitalized last weekend and has yet to be released. He is expected to require at least a two week convalescence period.

- Jamie Carragher is set to make his 476th appearance for Liverpool tonight against Reading. Impressive as that number is, the record is held by Ian Callaghan at 848. I sincerely doubt the 29-year-old Liverpool icon will be able to challenge that number.

- It seems like neither Coppell nor Rafa really care that much about winning their Carling Cup clash later today. Both seem to be using double-speak type antics to hide it, but it seems quite apparent with who they are looking at selection-wise. Coppell is looking to give Leroy Lita a test-run from injury as well as playing Bobby Convey as a means of practice time. The Reading boss is adamant though that he has no room for Reserves on his roster. Meanwhile Rafa is looking at giving time to some of his actual Reserves in Sebastian Leto and Lucas, though they would most definitely be regulars on a lot of Premiership sides.

- Finally, we have everyone and their mother giving their opinion on Rafa's rotating ways. Phil McNulty at BBC Sport wonders why Rafa went on such a tantrum about not having enough quality on his side after the Champions League final when he doesn't bother to play that quality as much as possible. Lawro thinks that Rafa should play his best players as much as possible now and rest them when needs be later. Finally, Ian Rush defends Rafa by saying that the Spaniard probably thought Kuyt and Voronin would have been able to beat Birmingham and that the movement of those two would open up the congested Blues side of the field.