Ballotelli business better than Man United & Falcao

I will probably never be happy that Mario Balotelli is part of our club.  Three years from now, if he's still a productive member of the squad, I'll eat my words, but his track record speaks for itself.  He grows tired of his manager, the staff, his teammates, club officials, the press and the supporters and starts acting out in the third year.  It happened at Inter, it happened at City, and most recently, it happened at Milan, where they got rid of him before he became a cancer.  If he breaks the cycle, great, but don't hold your breathe.  Let's not wait like City did, if he starts costing us matches by his behavior either on or off the pitch, I hope whomever in charge, hopefully Rodgers, puts him in the reserves dungeon and throws away the key until he can be shipped off elsewhere.  Madrid will probably come knocking by then anyhow.

No matter how it plays out though, £17.6m to sign Balotelli is a much better deal than acquiring Falcao on a year-long loan for £6.7m plus £10m salary and an option to buy him at the end of the season for an additional £40m.  Super Mario is basically a younger, faster, stronger, and more skilled verison of Falcao.  If anyone complains, like myself, that all Ballotelli can do is score goals, well, Falcao can only score less.  Plus the Italian can physically impose himself on the opposition and worry their defence to no end, creating space for teammates.  I don't see the 177cm (5'10"), 72kg (160lb) Colombian with no Premier League experience having much presence, wait until they play Stoke.

Their career club league stats are quite comparable:

	npg90	ap90	gc90	cc90	ccv	pass%	sacc%	shot%	sdr90	tti90	gopd
Balotelli	0.47	0.14	0.77	1.33	0.1	0.757	0.382	0.121	2.14	14.6	-0.46
Falcao	0.57	0.08	0.75	0.90	0.05	0.797	0.492	0.305	0.79	11.21	0.06

First things first, Falcao is four-and-a-half years older than Super Mario.  Which means he's probably at his peak and won't improve much more, not to mention he'll have to make the adjustments for the English game.  Quick, name a 28-year-old South American and/or La Liga player who came to the Premier League and made a significant impact? Don't even try to say Valencia, he's been in the league for eight years now.  The closest is probably Coloccini, but he was 26 when he signed with Newcastle and he's a defender.  Maybe Falcao will make history, but I doubt it.

Mario is a better team player and that says mountains, since we all know what kind of a 'team player' he is.  The thing is, Balotelli has the ability to be a great asset to the club as a whole, while I don't think Falcao has the capacity to do so, because if he did, he would have already done so with Porto or Atletico or Monaco.  He has never been a significant 'defending forward' and forget about setting up others on goal.  When Balotelli cares and tries, which honestly, this is his last chance to do so before he becomes a true pariah, he is eons better than his Colombian counterpart.

In the end, it won't matter though.  If Falcao scores goals and does nothing else, even have the worst efficiency in the league, the Mangoloids won't care.  I honestly think the EPL is too physical for him and can see an injury-riddled season where he gets sent packing back to Monaco in the end.

(Oh and just a quick point because I can see it coming, 16 of Falcao's last 63 league goals since joining La Liga have been penalties compared to 15 of 55 for Balotelli, so save that rubbish for your pub trash bin banter.)

Liverpool 4, Porto 1: player ratings

Reina 5
Well he couldn't do much about the superb header goal that got past him, but what was up with that goal kick? Ugh. For the most part though there was very little else to complain about.

Arbeloa 4
Second subpar performance in a row, maybe he needs a match off? Clumsily threw away the ball a couple of times early on and was supposedly marking Lopez when the latter scored against us. Other than that, he did a decent job defensively, but was inexistent on attack. When he's the fastest of the back four, he really needs to pay more attention to where everyone is, our players and the opposition.

Carragher 6
Not a great performance by any means, but gets extra points for roughing up a Porto player early in the match and then acting as if he didn't do anything. Anti-diving, priceless.

Hyppiä 6.5
Another solid performance from the Finn. He was a defensive stalwart, earned the penalty for Gerrard, and was unlucky not to score one himself with a cheeky little deflection. Daniel Agger? Who's he?

Steve Finnan 5
What started out as a shaky performance from Finney ended up being okay. At times, he appeared shocked to find himself unmarked so deep in Porto territory with the ball.

Ryan Babel 6
Not a bad showing, just needs to shoot the ball more often... just not too much? He did have one opportunity where he found himself near the top of the box and really no one around nor in front of him, but instead of thumpin' it, he tried a pass. It was a bit baffling.

Mascherano 7 Man of the Match
Yes, I have a biased for defensive midfielders, but it can't be denied that Mascherano played well and exerted his influence. He was the be-all, end-all when it came to shutting down Porto. Consider this, we only held possession roughly 53% of the match, yet controlled nearly 60% of the pitch (territorial advantage). That's ridiculous and all because any time the opposition tried to push forward, our Argentine destroyer would intervene.

Gerrard 6
Two assists and a Kaká special (also known as a penalty). Other than the corners, his passing was a little off and on occasion, not in sync with his teammates. Still, despite not having the best of matches, he was still influential. That's seven goals in eight games by the way. Here's to hoping he sets a personal high this year.

Benayoun 6.5
Yossi was probably our best all-round player in the first half, but he still seemed timid to shoot like most our side. He tendencies to roam the field also caused some clutter. He's not a true winger, so it's hard to expect him to be disciplined and occupy the flanks most the match.

Voronin 5
Didn't contribute much to our side and felt he was well out-of-position on occasion. I've definitely seen him play better.

Torres 5.5
If anyone thinks this is a special performance from Torres than who have you been watching prior to the last two matches? Both goals were great, but he could have easily had another if not more. His first touch, for the most part, was off and his passing was flat. Still, he scored a brace... unbelievable.

Peter Crouch, Harry Kewell 7
Both Crouch and Kewell brought a ton of energy and composure to our side. Kewell made mince meat of the Porto defense and Crouch was steady on the ball, didn't turn it over, and made intelligent passes.

No grade for Kuyt as he barely got on the pitch.

Overall our individual efforts were okay, but as a team, we vastly need to improve our chemistry. Working on anticipating one another's movements and passes would be a good place to start. Set-piece goals are always good though. Cheers.

Liverpool 4, Porto 1: Rafa's belief in our side pays off

The second half began no promising then the first. We were out of sync on attack and failed to gain control of the match, but as the clock wore down, two things became evident. First, we were wearing down the Porto side and second, though our attempts appeared futile, we weren't giving up on pushing forward. Rafa has done this many times before, wear down an opponent then start bringing in re-enforcements on attack, and though it doesn't work every time, tonight Porto were expending an awful lot of energy doing a whole lot of nothing on attack and trying to stifle us on their end.

In the 63rd minute when Kewell came on, things really got going as the Aussie appeared a step ahead of everyone else on the pitch and was clearly on top of his game. He dribbled past Porto players like they weren't even there and then 14 minutes into his introduction, put a cheeky no-look pass through to Torres in the box. Up until this point, the Spaniard had been dreadful with his touches, either holding the ball too long or not reacting quick enough, but this time everything fell into place and with one touch to ready himself, he slammed the ball into the opposite netting of the goal.

From that point on, our attack was relentless. Even when we weren't in possession of the ball, we somehow kept it in their half of the field. About six minutes after the second goal, Fernando Torres earned a free kick about thirty-yards out from goal on a yellow card-earning foul by Milan Stepanov. On the ensuing kick, Steven Gerrard put it right in the middle of the box where Hyppiä and Stepanov waiting to make a play on the ball. Both leaped in the air and though there certainly was a lot of contact, it's not as if Sami helped him put his arm in the way of the ball. For a team that dove as often as Greg Louganis, Porto certainly had a lot of nerve to accuse anyone on our side of cheating. Anyhow, a handball was called, the penalty was awarded, and Gerrard stepped up and calmly sent the Porto keeper the other way, 3-1.

Before Torres got his brace by scoring what was essentially the game-winning goal, Crouch came on for Benayoun. I thought it was an odd substitution since Benayoun appeared to be one of our better players at that point and Crouch is usually useless as a second-half sub, but the England International ended up putting on a superb performance for the short time he was on the pitch. I'm no Crouch fan and in fact, no matter what he does positively for our side, I rarely give him rave reviews, but today he earned it. His passing and dribbling were spot on and to boot, he even got the final goal on a header from a Gerrard cross. If only he could play this well every match.

Ultimately, Rafa saw that our side was good enough to weather even the harshest storm brought about by Porto. Though we were lucky on at least one occasion, for the most part our defense was able to harbor and absorb their pace and trickery. For how sloppily we played all-round, it was quite the result. Let's just hope Rafa is around to lead us to more like it.

By the way, with Beşiktaş beating Marseille we only need a draw in France from our final group stage match to advance. If we win though and the Turks could somehow get a draw in Porto, we'll win the group and have a chance at a much easier draw for the first knockout round. I was wrong, we need to win or draw and pray Besitkas wins in Porto. Thanks to everyone who commented or emailed me about it. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: halftime thoughts

All even at a goal a piece at the half seems quite fair at this point, though a penalty our way on a handball in the box or if a one-on-one challenge by a Porto player versus Reina had not gone wide, it could very easily be one-up for either side. Either way, we don't appear the better side, but lately a sloppy first half is business as usual.

The goal, a corner from Gerrard to the head of Torres, was a decent set piece, but other than that, our attack has been woeful. In fact, Benayoun seems to be the only player cognizant of what's going on at all times and at the opposite end of the spectrum is Torres, who has either fumbled the first touch or just held on for too long.

Our poor form on attack has well made up for the cheating shenanigans of our opponents. The diving has already become viral and at times, laughable. If they weren't so poor at it and the ref had decided early on not to reward the Portuguese side for their deceptive manners, we could very well looking at a second half sans Mascherano. Hyppiä did collect a card for something, though what I'm not sure.

Porto's pace on attack has been lethal and it worries me to no end that our two centre backs are near geriatric and turtle-like by football standards. If Mascherano hadn't put on such an omnipresent and solid display, we could very easily be down at this point. Lord knows Arbeloa has not been his best. Maybe bringing in Riise for the left, taking off Finnan, who has also put on a disappointing performance, and pushing Arbeloa over to the right would be a good move. The Spaniard just seems to play with more confidence on that side.

For us to win this match, we're going to have to come together as a side and not physically. The clutter in the middle has to stop and though we did a decent job of utilizing most of the pitch, there's definitely room for improvement. If we don't start playing more as a cohesive unit and working off one another's ideas, we can kiss the Champions League goodbye (and don't care what the score in Istanbul is).

Edit: What is with all the non-movement off the ball? There's been an awfully lot of standing around by our side.

Liverpool vs Porto: Crouch on the bench, Aurelio nowhere to be found

Here's the line-up:
Reina
Arbeloa
Carragher
Hyypiä
Finnan
Babel
Mascherano
Gerrard
Benayoun
Voronin
Torres

Bench:
Itandje
Crouch
Kewell
Riise
Sissoko
Lucas
Kuyt

I'm beginning to wander about Aurelio's fitness. He's yet to see action for three weeks now with the international break and two matches since. That's probably part of the reason that Crouch is on the bench since they work best together. Babel starting is a bit baffling as well, his record shows that he's exponentially more the threat as a super-sub, while Crouch is just the opposite. Far from me to question Rafa's tactics, but if it doesn't work out, he's going to have a lot of questions to answer.

Today's Banter: Quaresma wants weeping, Ferreira just wants focus, Lucho laidback, but Kuyt confident

Ricardo Quaresma has volunteered to be the Matías Delgado of today's match. Remember Delgado the Beşiktaş midfielder who proclaimed prior to the 8-0 thrashing his club suffered at the hands of our boys that 'This Liverpool side is vulnerable and not the super team of previous seasons'? Yeah, wasn't so smart, well, Ricardo Quaresma has one-upped the Argentine by declaring that he wants to make us fans cry. His exact words were 'They will weep with despair.' If our boys needed any more motivation, well, there you go. I hope Mascherano personally humbles 'the Q' himself.

Porto manager Jesualdo Ferreira just wants his side to remain focused. Though it would appear that all the current turmoil involving Rafa and the owners would be more of a distraction for our side than his, Ferreira doesn't want his players thinking that we won't be at the top of our game because of it. He needs not look further than Barça in our tie with the Spanish club at Camp Nou last year as proof that controversy sometimes helps a side play better. After all, football is merely just a distraction in itself.

Dragões captain, Lucho González, feels all the pressure is on our side and along with Porto's carefree attitude, could be the right ingredients for an upset. He may be right, but he fails to take in consideration that our club tends to thrive on pressure. Porto also needs to remember that despite a woeful performance from our side when we played them at Estádio do Dragão, they still required a penalty to get the draw. We had one attempt, mind you not just one shot-on, that entire match, and failed to earn a single corner as well.

Dirk Kuyt has nominated himself to be the voice of the rallying cry this time. Talk is cheap, boys, just get it done.

In other news, former Academy product and brief first-team midfielder, David Thompson, has decided to throw in the towel on his career due to knee injury. The 30-year-old played in 56 total matches for our side between 1996 and 2000, tallying five goals.

Finally, it appears the knee injury that forced Paul Anderson off the pitch yesterday is being assessed as not serious and only 'badly bruised.' The on-loan at Swansea winger is very doubtful for his club's FA Cup venture to Horsham on Friday night, but will most likely be back next Tuesday to face Northampton in League One action. I'll be back later with the starting line-up against Porto. Cheers.

Liverpool vs Porto: What will Rafa do?

Here we go again with one of those matches where everything is on the line. The bad news is we still won't have Agger and Alonso, the good news is Yossi could return, Masche should return, and Finnan will be available despite suffering a knock against Newcastle. Some of the players who Rafa starts tomorrow will be of no surprise. I can't see Benitez not going with Crouch, Gerrard, Mascherano, Carra, Hyypiä, Aurelio, Arbeloa, and of course, Reina. That really only leaves two midfield spots and whom will be paired with Crouch.

On the left there are three options: Harry Kewell, Ryan Babel, and Yossi Benayoun. I think Kewell would be the best to go with here, mainly because he's probably more fit than Yossi and Babel's pace and skill is much more deadly as a late-game sub, especially if a spark is required. That leaves us with the other midfield spot. I'm thinking Gerrard will start on the right, so the question obviously is, who will pair with Mascherano? I think I'd take Lucas over Sissoko only because the Brazilian brings so much more energy and enthusiasm to the pitch as of late.

The other option Rafa has is starting Benayoun on the right with Gerrard paired in the middle with Masche, but I think if he goes with Aurelio and Crouch, and they do their normal Fabio cross to Crouch to head on to a streaking Gerrard or Babel or whomever, the middle of the pitch usually becomes cluttered. It's best to start Gerrard on the right to open up the defense, which brings me to the other forward. The problem with starting Torres is that he's a player who rarely ventures from the penalty box corridor, so even with Kewell/Babel on the left, there would still be a large portion of uncovered pitch on that side. That leaves either Kuyt or Voronin, and since Kuyt played Saturday and Voronin seems to be better on the left as it is, I'm gonna have to go with the Ukrainian.

If we fail to establish a lead by the 60th minute, the obvious move would for Babel to come in for Kewell and Torres for Crouch. This provides us with blistering pace against a hopefully fatigued Porto side. I think it's imperative we keep the ball on the ground as much as possible and slowly breakdown the Porto defense, a swift counter on a long ball mishap is all the recipe for an easy opposition score.

Here's my final guess:
Reina
Aurelio
Carragher
Hyppiä
Arbeloa
Riise
Mascherano
Lucas
Gerrard
Voronin
Crouch

Bench:
Itandje
Leto
Babel
Torres
Finnan
Benayoun
Kewell

I totally forgot about Riise, probably because he's been playing so poorly lately. All the more reason to see him start here. I know that doesn't leave much defensive cover on the bench, but if something were to occur, Arbeloa would just move over to the spot of need and Finnan would be brought on. I have a good feeling about this match, which isn't always a good thing. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Cheers.

Rafa outwits media in pre-Porto match press conference

Despite numerous attempts to get Rafa to 'slip-up' during the pre-Porto match press conference and talk about the ongoing rift he's having with the owners, our manager wouldn't budge. You could tell from the beginning by his playful smirk of a countenance, Benitez was fully prepared to dodge any questions in that regard. The more I think about it though, and after watching it for a second time, the body language of both Rafa and Pepe Reina can almost be described as giddy. It was as if they were ecstatic that instead of concentrating on tomorrow's match, the press was concerned with off-the-pitch diversions. Maybe they are hoping this distracts Porto into thinking our boys won't be focused. It reminds me a bit of the first Barça match from last year. Don't be surprised if a win tomorrow pushes the Rafa/owners conflict down the memory hole.

Overall the press conference was quite entertaining as everyone appeared to be in amicable spirits. You can read the transcript on the official site here (or if you have an e-season ticket, you can watch it there as well). You can also watch a part of it here as well.

One of the many highlights is this exchange:

Journalist: You've won a lot of trophies in your career by being single-minded and doing what you think is best for the club you've represented. Are you ever willing to compromise on that?

Rafa: The best will be to win tomorrow, so I will try to compromise and win tomorrow.

Cheers.

Our Champions League scenario

I just wanted to clear this up since there seems to be a misunderstanding of what it will take for us to advance. First off, our destiny is basically in our own hands. If we win out, we advance, it's (almost) that simple.

The only way we don't advance by winning out is if Marseilles has a greater goal differential in the overall group and we beat the French side by the exact score of 1-0. For that to matter though, l'OM will have to beat Beşiktaş by at least ten goals, given we defeat Porto by only a goal. The reason the fourth tie-breaker of group goal differential would come into play is because we both would have beaten each other on opposing grounds by the score of 1-0, thus eliminating the head-to-head and away goals tie-breakers.

Get it? Got it? Good.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: Man of the Match

Whoa, were my fellow Liverpool fans watching the same match I was? I just checked out the Fan's Man of the Match over at the official site and it had Dirk Kuyt voted first by the fans followed by Sami Hyypia and Mascherano?! Holy shit on a stick! Are you serious? Do I have unrealistic expectations of our Argentine midfielder or were you all drunk? Masche was appalling. I will admit that Hyypia started out just as unimpressive, but got better as the match progressed.

The site's picks were Jamie Carragher first followed by Hyypia and then Kuyt. There's just no way I put Kuyt behind Hyypia since it was mostly the latter's fault that they got the penalty. And what about Finney? Kudos for giving credit to one of our unsunge heroes in Carra, but I'd put Finnan above Hyypia as well.

In fact, if I had to rate our players in order from best to worst it would go something like this:

1. Kuyt
1. Carra

Kuyt is my Man of the Match, but I can't put Carragher very far behind him as he was in his inspirational form. The never-say-die Dutchman was relentless and per usual did what ever he was asked when he moved over to the right after Pennant was sent off. Carra was tremendous in keeping Porto and the ball away from the box.

3. Finnan

Another quiet, flawless performance. I'm going to start calling him the ghost because not only does he haunt our opponents, but no one ever seems to notice him.

4. Torres

El Nino did what El Nino was brought on to do, create space for Gerrard and worry the hell out of our opponent's defenses. He sent them scrambling mad on a couple of occasions.

5. Babel

It would have been nice if someone would have gotten open when he had the ball deep down in Porto territory.

6. Reina

Made a great save, but made questionable decisions in the box and on the ball, especially early on.

6. Hyypia

Almost made up for the penalty with his clearance and got better as the match wore on.

8. Gerrard

Was apparently hanging out with Harry Kewell.

9. Arbeloa

Looked tired and made some poor decisions after he was beat. His positioning was questionable as well.

10. Mascherano

His legal issues must be affecting him or he was having flashbacks of the Copa final when he heard the Porto players speaking in Portuguese.

11. Pennant

Thought his name was Ashley Cole again.

I'm not going to bother with the subs. Saturday can't come soon enough. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: the goal

Great team work. Torres won the foul, Finnan took the kick, Hyypia got the header assist, and Kuyt headed it home. It's Kuyt's third CL goal this season and fourth for his career. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Reaction to yesterday's match

Before I begin to criticize other's reactions to the match, let me make it clear that with our horrid performance and the fact that it was away, we really had no right taking a point yesterday. If it weren't for the performances of Carra, Kuyt, and Finnan, we probably wouldn't have. Babel and Torres weren't bad either, but other than those five, those were some of the worst efforts I have ever witnessed from our side.

I was especially disappointed in Mascherano and Pennant. I have stood up for JP countless times and yesterday he really let me down. He was nowhere near his form from last year. Maybe he isn't mature or secure enough to work in the rotation environment that any big club is going to utilize when going for multiple cups. I'm not going to bother to psycho-analyze the kid, but seriously, JP, get your shit together or ask for a transfer. With Benayoun on the bench, Kewell on his way back, Babel as versatile as he is, and Leto collecting Reserves caps, you should be worried about keeping your spot. As for Masche, I just think he had a bad outing and I don't expect one as poor ever again. On to the muck.

Some people think that certain individual efforts aren't to blame, especially Pennant and Reina. I don't know where that guy heard or read that people were blaming Reina and Pennant. If it wasn't for Reina, we would have lost 2-1 easy. His passing at times was a bit suspect and I'm not sure why Porto didn't just run over to Babel every time Pepe was about to attempt a goal kick, but as the game progressed, Reina's decisions got better. As for Pennant, he was appalling and I blame Rafa for leaving him in too long more than anything.

The same bloke who is hearing voices in his head also wonders why Liverpool are 'scared of the football'. That whole post is just preposterous. Scared to pass to each other? Are you having a laugh? Our passing was just off, particularly Masche's, that's it. Making a mountain out of mole hill, especially away in Europe is a bit ridiculous. And by the way, though I did predict the line-up accurately, Agger would replace Hyypia in our best XI. That's not an excuse though, for a man his age, Hyypia's form has been wholly impressive so far this season, but that was his least mentionable match so far.

On the official site, there are a couple of interesting articles. The first one is Rafa's reflections on the match. He seems somewhat pleased with the result and I for one agree with him. Ten-men for much of the second half when we appeared to be an actual threat to score and going home with a point, is nothing in which to be disappointed. Especially considering they needed a penalty to score on us. I definitely agree that we looked better and better towards the end of the match, but disagree that Torres should have been taken out. Unless El Nino was fatigued or for some other reason requested a sub, he should have been left in. Voronin basically brought the same elements to the match, nothing more and possibly less. Defenses just don't have the same respect for the Ukrainian as they do the Spaniard.

Also on the official site, Carra seems to be defending his buddy and captain, Stevie-G, by calling him the 'best skipper in the world'. No shit, Jamie, but if you are somehow trying to assuage us fans of his performance yesterday, you're wasting your breathe. He may have not been his best, but he did not cost us anything. A top form Gerrard would have probably put the team on his back and garnered us the three points, but yesterday he was merely just a cog in the inefficient machine. I expect better, but it's done and over so there's no point.

Apparently Rafa planned on subbing Pennant right before he was sent off. I was planning on moving to Hollywood and becoming the next Marlon Brando once, but it never happened. I'm so glad the ref saved him the trouble. Seriously, I'm usually not one to criticize Rafa's decisions, but this is the second match in a row that I have issues with his moves or lack thereof. Thankfully he has Birmingham at Anfield next weekend where he could play some of the members of the ladies team and still get the win.

Finally, we have Chris Bascombe's match review from the Echo which per usual was class. He not only blames our boys for a wasted evening, but also the Porto side, who for all accounts should have whipped up on us. I kind of think he fails to give Carra and Finnan the credit they deserve on defense, but they're used to it.

Bascombe also brings up some interesting things that I failed to notice. The first being Pennant's tendencies to dive this year. Last year he was on the brunt end of some bad non-calls and maybe he's been hanging out with Arbeloa too much these days. Seriously, JP, not that you should give a rat's ass, but I'm almost at my wits end with your behavior so far this season. Maybe the loss of Craig Bellamy, a man who probably wouldn't dive if both his legs were broken in half, has had a negative effect on you.

Another observation the Echo writer makes is the lack of Xabi's influence might have been integral. I never thought about it, but he's probably right, though with Xabi's poor attitude lately he could have easily been a card casualty as well. Furthermore, who says Rafa would have put Xabi in, and if he did, he would have probably put him in for Stevie-G instead of Masche, who should have been taken off so he can think about being mentally prepared to play next time. I wonder if all the talk of his potential legal troubles had an effect on him? I hope not. Cheers.

Liverpool 1, Porto 1: simply appalling

Where to begin? Well, first, that was the worse match I've ever seen Mascherano play. From the beginning it looked as if he was somewhere else. I'm not sure it was because he rarely plays for us these days, but his decisions on the ball were atrocious. I was actually surprised to not see him collect a few yellow cards (Yes, a few) with his suspect tackling.

Pennant was also a joke. I have no idea why Benayoun wasn't brought in to start the second half because it looked quite apparent to me that JP was a red card waiting happen. This was easily his worse appearance for us that I've witnessed. He needs to get his head together because if he continues being such a menace, he's really just a waste of space and that's a shame because he's so talented.

Gerrard, Arbeloa, and Hyypia were unimpressive as well.

As a team, we were shocking. Near the end we seemed to get it together and had a couple of near chances, but honestly, I didn't think we were going to score anyway. In the end, Porto were either just as poor or our defense is just that damn good, you can decide because I don't really care.

Positives? I thought Torres did well to worry the defense and forced them to have at least two to three players there, just in case. Kuyt played well also and probably should have gotten the penalty call after being pushed down in the box by a Porto defender, but it was away so we weren't going to get any calls. Babel put in a decent effort also, even if it found him all alone deep in the enemy's territory at most points.

Do I have a right to complain about a 1-1 draw at our most difficult opponent in the group stage's home? Not sure. I think if we played better, we could have pulled off the win, but maybe I'm not giving the Porto defense enough credit.

In the end I look at it this way, we played like crap and still got the point because of a penalty. That's impressive on some levels. Nobody was hurt and now Pennant will be available for more league matches. Mascherano though was wholly disappointing and I hope he never puts in a performance that awful again.

Liverpool vs Porto: the line-up

Here it is:
Reina
Arbeloa
Carragher
Hyypia
Finnan
Babel
Mascherano
Gerrard
Pennant
Kuyt
Torres

Bench:
Itandje
Lucas
Voronin
Benayoun
Aurelio
Agger
Crouch

Looks scarily familiar. Just as a heads up, there's little to no chance I'll be doing a halftime thoughts post because I'll be at the pub. I will be back after the match though. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Allardyce calls Rafa 'lucky', Love for Arbeloa & Pennant, Porto smack talk begins, & more

- Sam Allardyce, who's Newcastle side lost to Derby 0-1 yesterday, the same Derby County we dismantled 6-0 a few weeks back, has stated that Rafa is 'very lucky' to still be employed with LFC and the only reason he is so, is because of our Champions League showings. Other than the obvious that Big Sam needs to worry about his own job and his own side, the Magpies manager appears to be showing signs of amnesia. He says, and I quote, 'Being a foreigner, Rafa doesn't understand it's supposed to be Premier League first and Champions League second.' Really, Sammy? I didn't know that Arsene Wenger and Jose Mourinho were suddenly British.

- Football365.com has named Alvaro Arbeloa and Jermaine Pennant to their EPL side so far this season. Though I agree with the former, the latter is a bit odd of a selection. Pennant's performance so far this season is neither as impressive nor consistent as his November-on form from last season. One glaring omission from the team is Pepe Reina who has yet to allow a goal from open play. The Spaniard does get a nod, but Brad Friedel? Come on.

- Porto captain Lucho Gonzalez and boss Jesualdo Ferreira have made their feelings about today's match heard. The 26-year-old Argentine has made it clear that his side is ready and capable to beat Liverpool, while their manager thinks that Ricardo Quaresma will be instrumental in beating the English side that has not impressed him. Apparently Ferreira sent his assistants Rui Barros and Joao Pinto to scout LFC at the Pompey match. Hopefully, that's how they think we normally play.

- Supposedly Crouch is set to move to Portsmouth in the January transfer window. No... please... don't... if only it were true.

- Finally, Rafa gives Pepe some love. Cheers, I'll be back for the Porto line-up.

Liverpool vs Porto: What will Rafa do?

This should be pretty easy considering who Rafa didn't start on Saturday at Pompey. The more I think about it, the more shocked I am that he started what is usually our European front in Voronin and Crouch. I understand that Torres and Kuyt probably needed the rest, but it sort of undermines the goal of the league. Anyhow, that's Rafa the Gaffa for ya.

Speaking of the Spanish mastermind, he has announced our Champions League intentions of qualifying for the knockout stages as quickly as possible and then turning our focus back to the Premiership. What better way to prove that aspiration then beating our toughest group stage opponent in their house. I don't see it happening and think we'll come away with a 1-1 or 0-0 draw, but you never know.

Up front we'll probably see Kuyt and Torres. In the midfield on the right, Jermaine Pennant, Gerrard and Mascherano in the middle, and Ryan Babel on the left. There is a possibility of seeing Babel start on the right and Fabio Aurelio making his first start of the year on the left, but I'm not sure how fit the Brazilian is. With Riise injured, the backline will probably have Arbeloa on the left, Hyypia and Carragher anchoring the middle, and Finnan on the right. Pepe in goal.

On the bench I expect to find Itandje, Aurelio, Agger, Xabi, Lucas, Voronin, and Benayoun. Harry Kewell, calling Harry Kewell, where are ya?

So here's my final answer:
Reina
Finnan
Hyypia
Carragher
Arbeloa
Pennant
Mascherano
Gerrard
Babel
Kuyt
Torres

Subs:
Itandje
Agger
Xabi
Voronin
Benayoun
Lucas
Aurelio

I was debating with myself whether or not Pennant would start on the right, but now that I just realized that's probably why Rafa took him out so early in the Portsmouth match I'm more confident he'll get the nod here. Cheers.