A tribute to our Spanish contigency sans Luisy.

Well, Jermaine Pennant and Harry Kewell will definitely not be in the line-up, that's for sure. JP was given a rest and Harry Kewell is injured again, shocking, I know. The question is, did Rafa bring any youngsters and if so, is he going to play any of them? Looking at who's not on loan at the moment, I can definitely see Emiliano Insua, Robbie Threlfall, Stephen Darby, Gabriel Paletta, Nabil El Zhar, Lucas Leiva, and possibly even Anthony Le Tallec seeing time here.

Well, I'm hoping he puts out our best XI despite having to go to Toulouse next Wednesday. There are no new nor niggling injuries that I have heard of, so here's who I'm thinking will start and/or possibly play tomorrow.

GK - Pepe Reina - If I was Rafa, I'd play Charles Itandje next Wednesday since he's probably familiar with Toulouse, which makes Pepe a no-brainer here
LB - John Arne Riise - Really no choice here unless Rafa goes completely bonkers and plays Insua, highly doubtful though
CB - Jamie Carragher - If he's fit and rested, Carra will get the call everytime
CB - Daniel Agger - ditto
RB - Steve Finnan - Until one of the kids step up or we sign somebody, I don't think we'll see Arbeloa starting since he can provide cover for all four backs
LM - Harry Kewell - provides much needed EPL road experience
CM - Steven Gerrard - the only time I ever see our skipper not starting is when he's not fit, it's against a much lesser opponent, or it's an irrelevant match
CM - Xabi Alonso - As much as I would like to see Mascherano or even Sissoko start here, I think Rafa will put a lot of importance on this match and Xabi just has more experience than the other two
RM - Jermaine Pennant - He's our starting right winger.

The most obvious thing Rafa will do is start the players who did not participate in mid-week international friendlies which was Carragher, Arbeloa, Pennant, and apparently Sissoko. As far as I know, Momo did not play for Mali against Burkina Faso. I can also seem him playing players who did not play the full matches for their country, which includes Kuyt, Babel, Torres, Alonso, and Finnan.

I doubt I'll get around to doing this tomorrow so I might as well get it out of the way. First and foremost, the Gerrard dilemma. I personally hope he doesn't play, but I'm not Rafa. I kind of think he won't start and will be on the bench just in case. The other question is whether or not Kewell will play. I've been told, through an unreliable source, that there's a chance, but from what else I've read points toward a longer wait for his recovery.

Apparently Ryan Babel is not fond of the 'super sub' label. Sensitive, are we? Well, Mr. Babel, you shouldn't confuse 'super sub' with 'one who is not good enough to start', that clearly does not apply. Unfortunately there are other players who have more experience that play the same positions as you.

* Jimmy Ryan will be joining Shrewsbury Town for a month long loan effective immediately. The 18-year-old, two-time FA Youth Cup winning midfielder could play as early as today as the Shrews get set to take on Colchester United in the opening round of the League Cup. He apparently impressed Shrewsbury boss Gary Peters while on trial during preseason training and their much injury maligned side needs all the help it can get.

Reina
Finnan
Carragher
Hyypia
Arbeloa
Benayoun
Gerrard
Mascherano
Babel
Voronin
Crouch

Subs:

Itandje
Agger
Riise
Torres
Alonso
Kuyt
Sissoko

Good to see Mascherano out there. The only surprise for me is Hyypia over Agger, hopefully that won't hurt us with the lack of pace back there.

Pepe Reina C
Didn't really have to do much. Didn't get bored and have his ADD affect his performance which is always a good thing. It was his first clean sheet of the season, but should have been his third, only this time the ref didn't give a bogus penalty. Funny how that works.

Alvaro Arbeloa B-
He was seemingly all over the place when he was playing left-back, but showed the awareness to be where he needed to be, when needed.

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.

A tribute to the Messi-stopper.

A friend of mine recorded this match for me, so I got to watch it again last night and a few things stood out to me this time than before. First, Jermaine Pennant actually played quite well. I don't know why I thought he played rubbish, maybe it was because he didn't have any of his trademark crazy-legged dribbles down the sideline, but overall, he was good and made some crucial passes.

Apparently both teams will be missing their respective captains as well as other key players, but this being at Anfield and Liverpool being clearly the superior squad, the Reds should win this one and advance to the group stages of the Champions' League. With that being said though, stranger things have happened. Anyhow, on to the squad.

In goal, probably Reina, though I suspect Itandje will get a start at some point before League Cup or FA Cup ties start.

Wow, after the first leg, I don't think anyone could have predicted such an entertaining first half. It hasn't exactly been good football, but with both sides missing key players, that should be expected. The ebb and flow at times though, has been heart-stopping.

The most impressive aspect is how we've seemed to figure out our attack so quickly.

I'm not sure whether I should try to watch this match again, the final score almost says it all though it could have been worse for the French side. Toulouse sort of dug their own grave from the get-go by coming out with all guns blazing. That's not how you're going to beat Liverpool, even a weakened squad, all it's gonna do is wear yourself out and that's exactly what happened.

Broken record alert: Stevie-G and Carra are out for this one. God I hope this means Gerrard sits out the England qualifying matches. Come on, Stevie, let Limp foot Lampard get some playing time. Moving on, I first expect to see all those who weren't featured against Toulouse on Tuesday start, which means Torres and Voronin up front, Xabi & Pennant in the respective midfield positions, and Finnan at right-back.

(First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Brian and I used to do the Liverpool blog over at the Offside. I have taken over this blog from my brother and will be posting here frequently, especially in-depth coverage on game days. Feel free to leave any comments, particularly negative ones, I love haters. Cheers.)
- It appears that Steve McClown will get what he wants when a not fully fit Gerrard is expected to take the pitch for England next Saturday in their Euro-qualifying match with Israel at New Wembley.

I've been quite surprised to read on other blogs and elsewhere, that it's time Alvaro Arbeloa get regular starts over Steve Finnan at right back. I'm even more shocked when I read that some think Finnan is past it and should be sold in the January transfer window. I strongly disagree. First off, when did Steve Finnan become known for his pace?

A tribute to our Spanish contigency sans Luisy.

Well, I finally got to watch this match again and despite pausing it on multiple occasions due to tedium and letting my cloud like attention span float through the sky of the internets, I finally finished it. What's more amazing is that I didn't fall asleep, though when actually watching I tried to focus on other things going on on the field: movement, spacing, etc, to keep me entertained.

Congrats to Momo Sissoko who scored his first career goal for Liverpool today. Maybe now this will give him the confidence to be more consistent.

The ref has allowed Sunderland to pretty much get away with murder as they have pushed and prodded their way to making this match competitive. It seems to have gone against them though as they looked quite tired towards the end of the second half and we probably should have added another on a Pennant cross to Torres, but El Nino didn't get quite enough on it and Gordon was able to recover in time before the ball trickled past the line.

Same old story, different result. The final tally in this match should have been much, much worse as our finishing looked a lot like it did last year, horrid. If we play this away against a decent squad at their place, forget it. We'd be lucky to get away with a scoreless draw.

Torres, even though he put in a man of the match performance, should have at least had one goal if not two, and I would really like to know what Voronin was thinking near the end when he had a two-on-one with Torres and a Sunderland defender and he tried to pass it to El Nino through the defender.

Leto to start!!! Now I'm freakin' pumped for a match I was otherwise dreading. If Leto plays as well as he did in the preseason, this should be a hella fun match to watch. The kid has the ability to wreak havoc on opposing defenses almost at will. Lucas Leiva will also be on the bench in a true show of the kind of depth our squad contains.

Here's the line-up:
Reina
Riise
Hyypia
Agger
Arbeloa
Leto
Sissoko
Mascherano
Benayoun
Kuyt
Crouch

Subs:
Itandje
Finnan
Torres
Alonso
Pennant
Babel
Lucas

I hope Mascherano will be on attack and Sissoko will sit back, but it really depends if Momo is tired or not.

Well, today is the day plenty of Liverpool fans will dread. Frankly, the thought that one of our first-teamers could pick up an injury whilst away on international duty is worrying, but with the sheer number of players away, it is increasingly likely.

Pepe Reina is away with Spain, and after last month's appearance in the friendly with Greece, there is a possibility he may start for the Spaniards.

- 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.

Here it is:
Pepe Reina
Alvaro Arbeloa
Jamie Carragher
Daniel Agger
Steve Finnan
John Arne Riise
Steven Gerrard
Xabi Alonso
Jermaine Pennant
Dirk Kuyt
Fernando Torres

Subs:
Charles Itandje
Sami Hyypia
Andriy Voronin
Ryan Babel
Momo Sissoko

Nothing too shocking except maybe Riise starting at left-mid.

Did you expect me to be optimistic about our 6-0 thrashing of Derby County today? Okay, so I'm a little pleased. Okay, so I have a smile on my face right now that plastic surgery probably couldn't take away. More so because I picked up Xabi and Torres on my Fantasy squads than anything. Anyhow, before I watch it again, and I'll definitely be watching this one again, I'll say Mascherano is the Man of the Match.

- A pretty busy day for knocks and minor bruises on the Liverpool scene, speaking of which, Fernando Torres apparently slightly injured himself in training with Spain today on a challenge from David Abelda. It doesn't appear to be serious, but the 23-year-old striker said that it began to hurt more and more as the day wore on. He is still expected to play for his country in their upcoming Euro-qualifiers against Iceland and Latvia.

(First of all, let me introduce myself. My name is Brian and I used to do the Liverpool blog over at the Offside. I have taken over this blog from my brother and will be posting here frequently, especially in-depth coverage on game days. Feel free to leave any comments, particularly negative ones, I love haters. Cheers.)
- It appears that Steve McClown will get what he wants when a not fully fit Gerrard is expected to take the pitch for England next Saturday in their Euro-qualifying match with Israel at New Wembley.

- 25-year-old Derby County striker/right winger Craig Fagan has been charged by the Football Association with stomping Liverpool defender Alvaro Arbeloa in Saturday's 6-0 massacre of the Rams at Anfield. I watched this match and vividly remember the incident that is being referred to and I have to say, it looked pretty intentional. Fagan did not look off-balance at all and appeared to take a deliberate step on Arbeloa's calf after losing the ball to him out-of-bounds.

Derby County striker Craig Fagan received a four-match ban from the FA today for stamping Alvaro Arbeloa on the calf in Liverpool's 6-0 demolition exhibition of the Rams last Saturday. The punishment was originally only three matches, but an additional match was added due to the 25-year-old's appeal and calling the matter 'frivolous'.
I have seen the incident a few times and personally think that it is without a doubt the correct call.

For the first ten minutes of this match, it appeared we didn't learn anything for the Besitkas match. Immediately we started lobbing the ball forward looking for a cheap goal instead of being patient, working hard, and trying to open up the Fulham defense. Thankfully we appeared to realize this and slowly worked our way back to playing intelligent football.

All appears quiet on the Liverpool front, which is fine by me, but apparently not so for the wind-up bloggers. There's this one site in particular that holds contests for it's 'writers' to see who can attract the most hits. Basically it's who can write the most outrageous title followed-up by the most inane, speculative garbage that any half-witted teenager could author.

Player of the month
This one is tough. Benayoun has made a strong case with the last two matches. His strike against Reading was crucial as it kick started the goal-scoring machine, not to mention it was a beaut. Obviously his cheeky score against Wigan was important as well. If it weren't for the Porto fiasco, Mascherano would be walking away with it and Riise has had his moments, but I think it has to go to Torres.

Player of the month
This one is tough. Benayoun has made a strong case with the last two matches. His strike against Reading was crucial as it kick started the goal-scoring machine, not to mention it was a beaut. Obviously his cheeky score against Wigan was important as well. If it weren't for the Porto fiasco, Mascherano would be walking away with it and Riise has had his moments, but I think it has to go to Torres.