By Eric Beard
You do know this is the same guy most of you have been in awe of all year, right?
It's hard to find many cases more explicitly capturing the fickle nature of the neutral football
fan (and journalist) than the double-standard that is placed upon Lionel Messi when he's wearing
blue and red in Barcelona and when he's wearing blue and white in Buenos Aires.
Kenny Dalglish has admitted that Steven Gerrard could be forced to undergo surgery in order to cure
his groin problem, with reports suggesting the Liverpool captain could miss much of what remains of
the season.
Gerrard did not travel with Liverpool for their Europa League tie against Braga on Thursday evening
as he continues to struggle with the injury, which has afflicted him for a month but did not
prevent him from playing in the 3-1 win over Manchester United on Sunday.
In the friendly against Manchester United we saw David Estrada finally replace James Riley. The
original plan seems to have been that Riley would get rested by Brad Evans, but the aggravation of
Evans' injury meant that he wasn't able to go long enough. With Seattle firmly entrenched in three
tournaments it doesn't matter that Riley is one of the fittest players on the team, they will need
someone to back him up, and there are only interesting options with no one a lock.
