Has Rafa Benitez lied over the fitness of Alberto Aquilani? Is it fair to label Liverpool's manager a liar over the regularly changing estimates about the Italian's return to fitness? That is the question being considered here.
Let's take a look at the evidence.
AUG 7th 2009: Statement on the official Liverpool FC website:
"Liverpool FC confirmed this evening that Alberto Aquilani has successfully completed a medical and agreed a 5-year contract with the club. Click to continue reading...

After trying his best to engineer a move away from Anfield in the summer, rumours are flying again that Javier Mascherano is on the verge of leaving Liverpool. So where's the problem? Why can't Liverpool just let him leave? There seems to be this idea that Mascherano is somehow irreplaceable and integral to Liverpool's success, but in my view, Liverpool could cope perfectly well without him. Click to continue reading...

For the last few months, this site has attacked Liverpool FC fan's group ‘Spirit if Shankly' for its juvenile, counter-productive approach to ousting Liverpool FC's owners. After raising awareness, putting SOS under public pressure and showing how the majority of fans are against their ‘Yank Liars Out! Click to continue reading...

A few weeks ago I looked at the creative impact of Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney over the last two complete seasons. Torres was streets ahead of Rooney in almost every way, but some people (i.e. Man U fans in denial) argued that it was an unfair comparison as they played in different positions. Well, since Torres and Rooney are both now playing the striker role, I've taken a look at the last 10 games to gauge how things are going this season. Click to continue reading...

With his contract expiring next summer, Fabio Aurelio is free to sign a pre-contract agreement with another other club in January. Rafa Benitez reportedly wants Liverpool to renew Aurelio's contract, but what has the Brazilian actually done in his time at the club to deserve this?
The plain fact is this: Aurelio (aka Mr Glass) is injury prone. Click to continue reading...

According to England manager Fabio Capello, thug-in-a-shirt Wayne Rooney could have the same impact for England that Pele, Johann Cruyff, Michel Platini and Diego Maradona had for their respective countries. In my view, Rooney doesn't even deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as those players. Click to continue reading...

Misfiring striker Andriy Voronin has told of his determination to help Liverpool get this season back on track. Does he have anything to offer or is he a lost cause?
The Ukraine striker has yet to find the back of the net in eight games this season, and to be fair, hasn't even looked remotely like scoring. Click to continue reading...

Whenever it seems like Liverpool are on the verge of making a giant step forward, something always seems to go wrong and the opposite ends up happening. Why is that? ALEX MILLER looks at how history seems to be repeating itself once again.
So here we are then: Mid-November and we are already out of the title race; on the verge of being eliminated from the Champions League and already out of the Carling Cup. Click to continue reading...

As we saw once again against Birmingham on Monday, Glen Johnson's best work this season continues to come when he's playing higher up the field. Should Liverpool capitalise on this and convert him into a permanent right-winger?
In my view, the Birmingham game illustrated once again the occasional defensive lapses to which Johnson is prone; his failure to push out quick enough meant Christian Benitez was onside when he scored the equalising goal. Click to continue reading...

No matter what happens from now until the end of the season, and whether we finish in the top 4 or not, there are a number of recent transfer deals that bother me greatly - signings, sales or missed opportunities that could've improved our squad and afforded us more depth than we currently have.
The deals relevant to last season may even have turned some of those nagging draws in wins, maybe giving us enough points to have snatched the title from Man Ure. Click to continue reading...

If you believe what you hear - and what you saw against Fulham - you'll probably believe the wolves are at the door for Señor Benitez. However, I'll try to put things in perspective without using an array of cringe-worthy Halloween puns.
What happened against Fulham was a disaster, and a game we shouldn't have lost going into. Click to continue reading...

As Anfield, the city of Liverpool, and every Liverpool fan jumped for joy during Sunday's humbling of Man United, one man stood still...emotionless; impassive, and controlled. That man was, of course, Rafa Benitez - the heartbeat and Commander in Chief of everything Liverpool FC.
If one was to spend the whole match against Manchester United watching Rafa, it would be hard to judge the scoreline at the end. Click to continue reading...

Peter Beardsley! The more I watch Benayoun the more I'm convinced that he is the current Liverpool team's version of Beardsley.
Beardsley was an absolutely superb player for Liverpool, and anyone who had the privilege of watching him play during the Dalgish era will know what I'm talking about. Click to continue reading...

Despite the doom and gloom of the last few weeks - and amid the continued misplaced vitriol towards the owners - there are plenty of reasons for Liverpool fans to be positive at the moment.
As many people who visit this regularly will know, I take a critical, realist approach to LFC. Within that approach, I always try and be fair, and there is plenty of evidence for that on the site. Click to continue reading...

Last week I posted what I believed to be Rafa Benitez's 10 biggest transfer blunders. This week, as promised, I take a look at the 10 best signings during the Boss's 5 years in charge. And there have been some absolute corkers!
When you think back to the squad Rafa inherited (Traore, Biscan, et al), it is clear that our squad is now superior in almost every way. Click to continue reading...

Scaremongering about the extent of Liverpool FC's debt under Hicks and Gillett is rife these days, with fans groups and the media alike painting a picture of irreversible gloom and impending financial meltdown. What is the truth of the situation? Do H+G deserve such villification? TAF MCDONALD analyses the reality of Liverpool FC's debt level, and comes up with some surprising results. Click to continue reading...

Rafa Benitez has admitted that Fernando Torres is carrying a hernia injury. Given the consequences of aggravating that injury, should Torres be rested against Lyon to avoid a longer-term problem...or should Rafa take a risk and play him anyway?
Yesterday, Benitez had this to say about Torres' injury:
"We know Fernando has a [hernia] problem, and we have to manage it. Click to continue reading...

The moment all Liverpool fans have been waiting for came last night when Alberto Aquilani made his competitive debut for the club. (hurrah!) Here is footage of all the moments in which he was involved during the game.
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Scott the red over at 'The Republik of Mancunia' has kindly taken the time to answer some questions about - amongst other things - where it all went wrong for United at Anfield yesterday.
Jaimie Kanwar: What went wrong for United at Anfield?
Scott the Red: The first problem was the team selection. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool are on a disastrous four-game losing streak in the league at the moment. How does this compare to the club's worst runs over the last 100 years? LFCHISTORY.NET investigates.
Liverpool have not lost 4 games in a row since the 1986-87 season, when Kenny Dalglish was in charge and the Reds finished 2nd. Click to continue reading...

Alberto Aquilani showed a few good touches on his debut against Sunderland reserves last night. Now let's get him in the first team!

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Bill Shankly once said: "A lot of football success is in the mind. You must believe you are the best, and then make sure that you are." Truer words have never been spoken, and every Liverpool player needs to take that philosophy on board before it's too late.
In my "The good, the bad and ugly" article I mentioned that the problem with Liverpool this season is not that they're losing, but how they're losing. Click to continue reading...

As with so many of his compatriots, Rafa Benitez likes nothing more than unwinding over a game of 'mus', a traditional Spanish card game devised in the Basque country, which pits teams of two in a battle of tactics, concentration and collaboration. To the uninformed, mus sounds similar to the sedate, cerebral game of 'bridge'. Click to continue reading...

It really pains me to write this, but it could soon be time for Rafa to step down as our manager. With every passing game this season (no pun intended) it is getting harder to defend him or to see where we as a team are making any progress at all.
The team and just about all of the players seem stale. Click to continue reading...

There has been a lot of discussion recently over the individual merits of Fernando Torres and Wayne Rooney. Both have had great starts to the new season, and both are vitally important to their respective clubs...but who is the better player? It's a tough question to answer objectively, but the following in-depth, objective analysis shows quite clearly that Torres is the more consistently effective performer. Click to continue reading...

Just when it looked like Philipp Degen might actually be injury free for once, something else has (inevitably) popped up to derail his progress. As a result, it seems that the Swiss defender may be back on the sidelines. Again.
Degen started the recent reserve game against Manchester City, but played just 45 minutes before having to be replaced because he was ‘feeling ill'
Ill? Click to continue reading...

Played 11 - Lost 4. It doesn't make for pleasant reading, does it? This is not the first time Liverpool have had such a poor start to the season, and while it is definitely too early to write off the club's title chances, history proves that when the team starts this badly, the season is usually a washout. Click to continue reading...

George Gillett's recent comments have caused quite a stir amongst Liverpool fans, with the media jumping on the bandwagon, gleefully trying to resurrect the ‘Rafa vs. the Owners' spat. There is one thing, however, that I believe many fans are missing about this situation...
The basic crux of the (predictable) media response to the comments has been "Gillett blames Benitez for poor performance' and "Gillett reignites public feud with Benitez". Click to continue reading...

George Gillett's interview with a member of ‘Spirit of Shankly' has been the hot topic of debate this week, but did the alleged interview even take place? I'm not convinced.
Having re-read the transcript a couple of times and considered the context, I have now come to the conclusion that this ‘interview' with George Gillett is either:
a) Completely false
b) Cobbled together from other interviews/statements
I retract points A and B above from the list of possibilities. Click to continue reading...

OPTA's latest statistics have revealed some surprising facts about the effectiveness of two of Liverpool's key midfielders.
According to OPTA, Javier Mascherano is the top passer in the Premiership this season, with 547 completed passes and an accuracy rate of 87%. Chelsea's Michael Essien has the same accuracy rate but has completed a lot less passes. Click to continue reading...

After trying his best to engineer a move away from Anfield in the summer, rumours are flying again that Javier Mascherano wants to leave Liverpool. So where's the problem? Why can't Liverpool just let him leave?! There seems to be this idea that Mascherano is somehow integral to Liverpool's success, but I disagree. Click to continue reading...

After Liverpool's opening day defeat to Spurs, Rafa Benitez shocked the football world with a tasteless, highly offensive gag at the expense of referee Phil Dowd. Football fans, players and managers around the world were outraged by Benitez's heinous conduct, which according to the FA, plunged football into a ‘state of almost irreparable disrepute'. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool fans should hopefully see Alberto Aquilani in a red shirt for the first time at the end of this month, but where will the Italian fit into the team and will he be used effectively?
With three defeats in 8 premiership games already, the pressure is on for Liverpool to start producing premiership winning performances on a more consistent basis. Click to continue reading...

Albert Riera has become the latest victim of Rafa Benitez's regrettable habit of dropping players after they score goals. How long is this damaging trend going to continue?
After being stuck on the bench for most of the season, Riera started the 6-1 thrashing of Hull and had a fantastic game. Click to continue reading...

It's only 8 games into the new league campaign but it's already been a rollercoaster of emotions for Liverpool fans. New Liverpool-Kop writer JODY DANIELS takes a look at the highs and lows of the season so far.
LAST SEASON: 38 Games, 25 Wins, 2 losses, and a club record haul of 86 points, resulting in the tightest English Premier League race for years. Click to continue reading...