Liverpool vs Portsmouth: the line-up

Reina
Finnan
Agger
Carragher
Arbeloa
Pennant
Sissoko
Alonso
Benayoun
Crouch
Voronin

Subs:
Itandje
Hyypia
Torres
Gerrard
Babel

No big surprises except Finnan. Looks awfully familiar though. Cheers.

Liverpool vs Portsmouth: What will Rafa do?

It's baaaccckkkkk!!!! My favorite game trying to predict what Rafa 'the Mad Tinkerer' Benitez will do tomorrow against Pompey. Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments. Anyhow, let's go...

With about half the squad on international duty this past week, Rafa's choices have been somewhat limited to players who didn't play or play much on Wednesday because they aren't part of their country's national team (For now, that includes Pennant & Arbeloa), were injured or retired from international play (Finnan, the former, Carra, the latter), their country didn't have a fixture (Yossi Benayoun), they got a red card and were suspended for the match (Xabi, I'm talkin' 'bout you), or were an early exit or late sub from their teams' matches (Agger, the former, Peter Crouch and Andriy Voronin, the latter). That in turn makes my job of predicting who Rafa will field pretty simple, well, probably not.

Reina in goal as he didn't get to play for Spain because Aragones gets hand jobs from Iker Casillas. Honestly, I don't care, I'd rather have a fresh Pepe than see Spain advance and have the chance at having Torres injured at the Euro next year. My backline has Arbeloa on the right as it looks like Finnan will be a scratch thanks to a knee injury suffered in the Toulouse match at Anfield two-and-a-half weeks ago. Get well soon, Finney, we're gonna need ya. In the middle I have Carra back in action and Danny Agger, unless of course he did break his hand, but I figure we'd see something form the official site by now if he did. Finally, on the left will probably be Riise. Though Aurelio did play 45 minutes earlier this week in a Reserves match, I don't expect him to take the pitch in a first team match for at least another week. No need to rush him.

In midfield on the right will be Jermaine Pennant. Time to step it up lad, if we've ever needed a solid performance from JP, it's here. It the middle, despite Rafa supposedly amusing himself with thoughts of starting Gerrard, will be a well-rested Xabi Alonso and Momo Sissoko. Don't be surprised to see Gerrard on the bench though and he'll probably get into the game at some point in the second, if we're down, probably with at least twenty minutes left. On the left I expect to see Yossi since Babel played the full 90 for Holland on Wednesday, but I certainly hope the new John Barnes will be on the bench. Calling Harry Kewell, Harry Kewell, where are ya?

Up front is the toughest dilemma, using my theory of starting the least tired players, probably means Crouch and Voronin, which I'm fine with. As long as we have Torres or Kuyt available on the bench, just in case. Speaking of the bench, I think we'll see Gerrard, Hyypia, Leto, Torres, and Itandje there. Leto gives us coverage on the wings, though he probably won't see the pitch unless Pennant or Benayoun get hurt. So here's my final guess:

GK - Reina
RB - Arbeloa
CB - Agger
CB - Carra
LB - Riise
RM - Pennant
CM - Momo Sissoko
CM - Xabi Alonso
LM - Benayoun
F - Voronin
F - Crouch

Bench:
Gerrard
Hyypia
Leto or Babel
Torres
Itandje

Cheers and see ya tomorrow.

Liverpool Reserves 2, Crewe Alexandra Reserves 1: the video highlights

Featuring Xabi Alonso, Jermaine Pennant, Yossi Benayoun, Momo Sissoko, Lucas Leiva, and Sebastian Leto among others. Cheers.

Agger breaks hand, could be out up to five weeks

Well, our biggest fears have come to fruition with the loss of Danny Agger for up to five weeks with a broken hand. I guess it could have been worse, it could have been an injury to one of his feet or legs. A thorough evaluation will be done tomorrow and an assessment will be made, but our already thin backline just got a little bit thinner, at least for the Portsmouth tie.

Hopefully Steve Finnan will be available on Saturday, but since he didn't play today for Ireland, who knows? Will Hyypia be available? He probably will, but how effective will he be for a thirty-three-year-old who has played as much as he has recently?

I guess that leaves two options, using Xabi Alonso or Javier Mascherano as centre backs or bringing up one of the kids. It's going to be interesting to see what Rafa does, but I have a feeling that he'll try to field the most experience squad possible.

We should be all right Saturday at Portsmouth

I'm crossing my fingers that our boys on international duty get through the day tomorrow unscathed, but from the looks of the squad that we played against the Crewe Alexandra Reserves today, they might get the day off anyhow.

The starting line-up looked something like this:
GK - David Martin
LB - Fabio Aurelio
CB - Jack Hobbs
CB - Xabi Alonso
RB - Alvaro Arbeloa
LM - Sebastian Leto
CM - Momo Sissoko
CM - Lucas Leiva
RB - Jermaine Pennant
F - Yossi Benayoun
F - Jordy Brouwer

The second half line-up:
GK - David Martin
LB - Robbie Threlfall
CB - Mikael San Jose
CB - Ronald Huth
RB - Stephen Darby
LM - Ray Putterill
CM - Damien Plessis
CM - Jay Spearing
RM - Ryan Flynn
F - Craig Lindfield
F - Dani Pacheco

A couple of things come to mind. First, where is Emiliano Insua? I didn't see him named as part of the Argentina squad, so I'm assuming he's injured. That's not good, I hope it's nothing serious. Second, surprised not to see Carra. If he's expected to play Saturday and he didn't today, maybe that means we'll definitely see Aurelio get the start against Portsmouth. Finally, where's Harry Kewell?

Anyhow, it looks like we'll have a competent line-up on Saturday, though I doubt we'll see Xabi line-up with Carra at centre-back. To help us out, it would be nice to see Spain go up by a couple of goals early and allow Torres to take it easy the rest of the match and be fresh on Saturday. Also, I know I'm asking for the sky to rain dollar bills, but it'd be great if either Babel or Kuyt got the day off against Albania. If we can at least get a rested Torres back, we should be fine at Pompey.

Today's Banter: Gerrard okay, Today's flavor: Pasquale Foggia, Abbey Clancy wants to be Crouch's baby's momma & more

- Despite limping off the field yesterday in the 70th minute of England's 3-0 win over Israel, Stevie-G did not re-aggravate his toe injury. He apparently just had cramps. I guess he boozed a little the night before with the boys. Unfortunately, that means there's a chance he'll play versus Russia on Wednesday much to mine and Gus Hiddink's dismay. Not only was Gerrard okay, but it looks like we escaped yesterday with a still fit side. One day down, one day to go.

- The transfer window may be closed, but that doesn't mean the rumors have to stop. Yesterday we saw the beginning of what looks to be a neverending saga about whether Steven Taylor will be a Liverpool player come January or not. Today the seeds of the Pasquale Foggia beanstalk were planted. I know very little about the 24-year-old other than he's Italian, he plays for Cagliari, and he can play left wing but is pretty versatile. And just to set the record straight, Giovani dos Santo will never be a Liverpool player. Seriously, if you sell papers writing crap like that...

- Abigail Clancy may be pissing off her co-stars on Hell's Kitchen for getting paid almost twice as much as them, but at least the girl has got good intentions when it comes to her boy Crouchy. She has come out and said she wants to have the striker's baby, the problem is though, her boobs have appeared to have shrunk from the heat of her latest Telly reality cooking adventure. Not sure what that has to do with having a baby, but anyhow, she also claims to have turned down a job with a top modeling agency in LA to stay with Peter. Hmmm, maybe his people should call the Galaxy people, a Beckham to Crouch connection would probably give the Los Angeles club a better chance of making the playoffs next season. Finally, Abbey says she attends "all the important games." Glad to see she's there when the cameras are.

- Finally, you'd figure a Spanish newspaper would know the difference between Xavi and Xabi. Apparently not. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Voronin backs Benitez, Steven Taylor in the works?, Rafa loves Rugby? & more

(Sorry for not posting but once yesterday and in advance for being so brief today, but really, there's not much going on and Euro-qualifying is on my mind. Cheers.)

- First up, Voronin has come out in defense of Rafa's rotation policy. Again, it's been proven that Rafa in fact rotates his line-ups just as often as Mourinho and Fergie, but who cares, right. I'm glad to see the Ukrainian striker has had a change in thought though, before joining the team he made some comments about being a starter and not a super sub. Now that he's actually here, he has seen the light despite being used as a super sub at times.

- Apparently Steven Taylor has alerted Rafa Benitez, a long-time admirer of the 21-year-old Newcastle centre back, that he may be interested in a switch to Liverpool as early as this upcoming January transfer window. If we can get a young talent like Taylor to pair for Agger in the future, that would be awesome. According to reports, Newcastle made an 'insulting' contract extension offer to the England U21 captain.

- Rafa Benitez was seen catching a rugby match at Knowsley Road. St. Helens boss Daniel Anderson also revealed that he and Rafa have met before and that he'd been to Liverpool's training facility, Melwood, to talk shop.

- Finally, if you want to catch up with Alan Kennedy and the Legends squad, here is a nice read. Cheers everyone and good luck to Stevie-G, Xabi, El Nino, Pepe Reina, Luis Garcia, John Arne Riise, Daniel Agger, Ryan Babel, Dirk Kuyt, Andriy Voronin, Sami Hyypia, Yossi (not really though, just stay fit), and anyone else I may have forgotten in their international ties. Hope you guys win (except Yossi) , but most of all stay fit.

Today's Banter: Crouch an internet sex god?, Le Tallec snubbed Hearts, Xabi could get rare start, & more

- Apparently Peter Crouch is one sexy bastard. According to this article, the England striker has quite the following on Facebook with a group dubbed 'Peter Crouch is a Sex God'. I don't do Facebook so I can't confirm it, but when asked, here's what Crouch supposedly said: "I've never been classed as that before. I'd certainly like to meet these people. I'm sure they're all very attractive." He'd like to meet them? Uh, Crouchy, I don't think you do.

- Anthony Le Tallec is claiming that Hearts offered him 'crazy money' to play for them instead of returning to his home country of France on loan to Le Mans. Wouldn't surprise me since the owner of Hearts, Vladimir Romanov, is mental and has loads of cash. Le Tallec turned down the deal for 'sporting' reasons, which I'm assuming was because of international ambitions.

- Spanish national team manager Luis Aragones has hinted that Xabi Alonso could get a rare start in his country's upcoming Euro-qualifier versus Iceland on Saturday. Xabi had been reduced to bench status for the past year, ever since the World Cup. Aragones also said that, despite a minor knee injury, he expects Torres to start as well.

- Javier Mascherano has come in support of Rafa's rotation policy despite not playing as much as a World Class midfielder would expect. It seems like he's played more for Argentina lately. Javi is all right with his lack of playing time because he understands that it is a long season, we are going after the quadruple, and the more amount of fresh bodies, the better is our chance of winning. It's not rocket science. Too bad the pundits don't get it.

- Finally in two separate articles that have nothing in common, here's a look at our team's debt issues and an article that mentions a few of our former players who will be attending Rhys Jones' funeral. Cheers.

McEveley: We gave Liverpool too much respect

Scottish International and Derby County left-back, James McEveley, had some interesting words about his side's 6-0 annihilation at Anfield last Saturday. Here's what he had to say:

"I think we gave Liverpool too much respect. We didn't get in their faces, we were standing back in awe of some of the players as opposed to going out and saying, 'It's me against you and you are not going to beat me'."

That's quite a revisionist's excuse since I think most people who watched that match would think different. In fact, I'd be hard pressed not to say that McEveley's side were quite physical and challenged us on every goal save Xabi's first one which was without a doubt a fluke. The rest of the goals were clear indications of our superior size, speed, and football instincts. If they had tried to be more physical, we would have just used our prevailing pace and skill to administer a similar beat-down, probably allowing them to pick up some cards and run themselves ragged in the process.

If Derby County's idea of too much respect is cleat stomping on one of our players while they are down, what are they going to do next? Wear brass knuckles and punch opponents in their Charlie Browns? I'm just glad we were on the winning side of this match as I have a feeling the Rams won't make the same mistakes, that is trying to play with a better squad instead of trying to dictate the pace of the match, when they go to Stamford Bridge or Old Trafford.

Spanish Reds Wallpaper

A tribute to our Spanish contigency sans Luisy.

The Xabi Warhol

I'm really proud of this one. It took a lot of work. I'm thinking about doing a whole series.

Xabi Alonso Wallpapers

yellow:


white:


click to open -> right click -> set as desktop background. Cheers!

Momo Sissoko: the great Rafa experiment

If you saw today's preseason match with Portsmouth and you didn't notice Momo Sissoko's tremendous performance, perhaps you should have your eyes checked. What was even more impressive is that he was being used 'out of position'. Or was he?

It seems that this preseason, Rafa has been pushing Momo forward when he's paired with Xabi, with Alonso playing back as the holding midfielder. At first, it didn't seem to be working. Momo just didn't seem comfortable there, which is understandable being he's not used to playing that far forward, but he's quickly adapting and becoming more of a force on the attack.

This is a great idea by Rafa to make Mali midfielder more diverse. He's already proved he can be the dominate man in the middle, but now it seems he's getting better at being more of a box-to-box midfielder as well. His dribbling, passing, and overall decisions on the ball seem to improve by the game, and the only thing he needs to do to complete the process is to learn how to shoot. I mean, I know he knows how to shoot, but it's the when that most never figure out.

You can definitely tell he's learning a lot from his peers. For example, today he made a Xabi-esque pass, belting a spot on 35-yarder to an on-the-go Pennant which was nothing less than stunning. My jaw dropped when I saw it and all I could think about was, I'm glad we didn't sell him. Before you know it, he's going to pull a rabbit out of a hat and start playing the flanks. Now that would be impressive.

I have to admit it though, I had given up on Sissoko by the end of last season, but I'm man enough to admit I was wrong. A fully fit Momo is a scary prospect, a confident one will strike terror in our opponents hearts and minds. Potentially, we've got a legend in the making on our hands, let's just hope he stays healthy enough to get to that level.

Benayoun on board

It looks as if it's official. Yossi Benayoun is now a member of the Liverpool Football Club. If he's beaten out Ryan Babel as the second signing of the off-season has yet to be determined, but it appears so.

I think he's a great pick up. He's creative, versatile, and has proven he can take the beatings of the Premiership doing so the last two seasons at West Ham. What kind of playing time he'll get though might be less up to him and more up to the performances and health of his competition in the midfield.

The Hammers primarily used him on the right, but I doubt he'll be able to take that spot from Jermaine Pennant. JP was dazzling at times last year and put in a good performance in Liverpool's opening pre-season match with Wrexham. On the left, if all goes as planned, Kewell and Ryan Babel will be splitting time. Though Benayoun has a chance to play at that spot, the competition will be fierce as King Harry will try to redeem himself of two years in the physio room and Babel will looking to prove his transfer worth. Save unforeseen consequences which would put Gerrard and Alonso out, chances of him playing in the middle are scarce.

In regards to injury, he might become invaluable, but it's pretty certain that he'll get plenty of pitch if he can carry the team past the early stages of domestic cups. Whatever happens, at least now we have added depth and quality to our side.