Simply unacceptable.

Sometimes I would like to crawl into Rafa's head and find out what he is thinking, and last night that urge magnified itself a million fold as our boss made a stream of tactical errors that really confused me, and seemingly every other Liverpool fan.

Forget the fact we could/should have scored at least five goals and concentrate on the fact that the substitutions that were made were both poorly timed and ineffective.

Actually, yes, and the facts prove this. Dirk Kuyt is, for all intents and purposes, undroppable. And what have Liverpool gained this season as a result of Rafa Benitez's favouritism? ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.
I'm sorry to belabour this point but favouritism is on the things that I despise the most in football.

Fernando Torres - what a player. Here is his superb hat-trick from today's game at Anfield.
First goal
Second goal
Third goal
Two great assists from Yossi Benayoun too. As I've argued for ages - start Benayoun and he will invariably score or create goals.

If you're a regular here - you know we sometimes cover topics that are a bit less mainstream - focusing on peace matches in the Middle East, model bar Rafaeli's love for footie, Israeli - Palestinian conflicts, and a whole lot of Yossi Benayoun.
I look at football through a lens that may be a bit different from the way others look at football - because I've seen the potential of "peace matches" on the ground level, and I've met with organizers first hand who (naively or not) truly believe that organized sport and common experiences on a football field can bring kids closer together off the field - even where their ideologies - political or religious makeups - may often be kilometers apart.

Liverpool have recently been linked with Borussia Dortmund winger Jakub Blaszczykowski. Is he the solution to the club's right wing problem? Take a look at the video footage of him in action and decide for yourself.
I have to say, I'm not entirely convinced.
Positives
1.

The season is coming to a close, and although clinching the premiership crown remains a possibility, it seems more likely that we will end the season empty handed once again. Despite this, Eoin Sheridan believes that the club should think twice about splshing the cash and warns against signing a raft of new players.

According to Sky Sports, Rafa Benitez plans on talking to striker Yossi Benayoun about a new deal with the club. Benitez told The Independent,

"I think if he is happy, then he will be okay here ... We've had no real approaches for him .

Rooney kicks Tevez out of the starting lineup, and out of Manchester
Fan favorite Carlos Tevez said today that he will not play for Manchester United next season and has accused the club of showing him a lack of respect.
Like many others, I have followed Tevez since World Cup 2006 - when he burst onto the international scene and displayed a fearless, always moving, if not always graceful, battling style.

1: IBRACADABRA


2: IBRACADABRA

3: IBRACADABRA

4: IBRACADABRA


5: IBRACADABRA

6: BENAYOUN(C)

7: IBRACADABRA

8: IBRACADABRA

9: IBRACADABRA


10: IBRACADABRA


11: IBRACADABRA


12: IBRACADABRA


13: IBRACADABRA


14: IBRACADABRA


15: IBRACADABRA
I'm too excited not to post this just one more time.

Her or Yossi Benayoun?
Swacked from The Offside Rules.

Liverpool see off defending champions Manchester United 2-0 in Anfield to snap a 4 matches losing streak. The men from Anfield have not lost four successive games since 1987. Fernando Torres was on hand to put away an astute pass by Yossi Benayoun on the 65th minute. Substitute David Ngog sealed the crucial 2-0 victory for under-pressure Benitez with an injury time goal.

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.

Arch rivals do battle over La Liga star!

Valencia's Spanish international David Silva is apparently at the centre of Manchester United's next transfer bid.

Reports in the Manchester Evening News claim the midfielder, who has been a long-term target for Sir Alex Ferguson, is set to be subject to a bid from United.

I'm back ladies and gentlefolk. There have been some cock-ups over the past few days with Aamir's posts and I have been unable to correct anything because I've had no access. Apologies for that.

By the way, thanks Aamir for filling in over the past few days.

Now, onto the main story this week; we scored another three goals to secure our passage through to the Champions League group stages Eduardo has become somewhat of a hate figure in the press (see the headline) for diving to win a penalty.

If Liverpool are to improve on their runners-up spot in the Premier League, they will need to sign at least one player of proven quality this summer.
Valencia's David Silva could be a player that makes a big difference for The Reds, if they were to splash out on the 23-year-old.
The Spain international is able to play anywhere in attack, which means that Rafa Benitez could slot him into either the wide right, wide left, or the second striker position.

Well we were sweating over the fitness of our two key men, obviously one has recovered quicker than Rafa thought and the doubful Gerrard isn't fit enough to start today. I've been told the team is as follows: Reina, Johnson, Agger, Carragher, Insua, Kuyt, Benayoun, Lucas, Mascherano, Aurelio, Torres.

An injury-time goal from Yossi Benayoun gave Liverpool a 1-0 win at Fulham and took them to the top of the Premier League.

english premier league, EPL, fulham vs liverpool

Much to the delight of Liverpool fans, Daniel Agger, Alberto Aquilani and Fabio Aurelio will all be ready to start soon, and while we all know what positions Agger and Aquilani will play upon their return, Aurelio's position and influence on the team is more of a mystery. New Liverpool-Kop writer Bikram Rana takes a look at how the infludential Brazilian will fit into the team.

2:45pm on espn2. Chelsea lead 1-3 on aggregate.
Knockout Rounds:
Liverpool: 4-0 Real (h); 1-0 Real (a)
Chelsea: 2-2 Juve (a); 1-0 Juve (h)
Group Stage:
Liverpool: 3-1 PSV (a); 1-0 Marseille (h); 1-1 Atletico (h); 1-1 Atletico (a); 3-1 PSV (h); 2-1 Marseille (a)
Chelsea: 2-1 Cluj (h); 1-1 Bordeaux (a); 1-3 Roma (a); 1-0 Roma (h); 0-0 Cluj (a); 4-0 Bordeaux (h)
Last 3 matches:
Liverpool: 4-0 Blackburn (h); 1-3 Chelsea (h); 1-0 Fulham (a)
Chelsea: 4-3 Bolton (h); 3-1 Liverpool (a); 2-0 Newcastle (a)
Goalscorers (Europe):
Liverpool: Gerrard 7; Kuyt, Torres 2; Dossena, Babel, Benayoun, Ngog, Riera 1
Chelsea: Drogba 4; Anelka, Ivanovic, Terry 2; J Cole, Essien, Kalou, Lampard, Malouda 1
Referee: Luis Medina Cantalejo (SPA)
Guess at a squad
--------------Reina
----Skrtel Carragher Agger
Arbeloa------------------Aurelio
----Mascherano---Alonso
Kuyt-----------------------Babel
--------------Torres
All the news today, whether it's BBC or the official site, suggests Gerrard will be fit to start.

THAT was breathless stuff and will definitely go down as the best Premiership game of the season and one of the best Premiership games of all time. There is so much to say, so much to analysis and as always, I'll try to do so in this article and in tomorrow's post-match thoughts.

With Arsenal leading Liverpool at half time, that didn't last long.

Liverpool: Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Agger, San Jose, Babel, Mascherano, Lucas, Benayoun, Voronin, Ngog.

Substitutes: Johnson, Plessis, Torres, Riera, Pacheco, Dossena, Gulacsi, Insua, Alonso, Kelly, Arbeloa, Kuyt, Reina, Spearing, Nemeth.

Out of town for the weekend - but didn't miss much on the footie front other than a few surprising World Cup qualifying results. Let's take a look at some of the news coming out of the international break as it pertains to the Premier League:

• Israel crashed out of World Cup qualifying despite dominating their match against Latvia.

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.

He may not be a fantasy footie option, but he sure is a Liverpool crowd pleaser. Yossi Benayoun did it again today, popping up in injury time to secure a vital 1-0 win for Liverpool to take them top of the table (for the time being) in the Premier League.
Benayoun's form for his country, Israel, has unfortunately not equalled his recent club form - but Israeli football fans are sure proud of their "Israeli Diamond" nonetheless.

United have fixture adavantage, says Arsenal boss Wenger
Full Article

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger insists fixture compilers have given Manchester United the edge ahead of the Champions League semi-final.

Arsenal face Liverpool at Anfield tonight before entertaining Middlesbrough on Sunday – just two days before the semi-final first leg against United at Old Trafford.

Flying back to LAX yesterday, I had a layover in Chicago. I got off the plane and walked into the United Airlines terminal - and was immediately surrounded by hundreds of travelers wearing those goofy respiratory masks. I mean, hundreds. Women and men, young and old, all pretending to be surgeons.

• Mandatory monthly Benayoun posting. Yossi re-ups with Liverpool until 2013. Israeli press reports say he is now 3rd highest paid player at Anfield. Big ups. If he can start 30 EPL games this season - he will be a bargain fantasy premier league midfielder acquisition in the 7.5m - 8.5m range.

Liverpool will not be signing Valencia winger David Silva this summer, despite reputed interest from Manchester United, that is the view of Spanish based journalist Guillem Balague.
Reports in this morning's Daily Mail suggests Manchester United and Liverpool are ready to go head-to-head for the Spanish international, with the former expected to make a bid for the player later this week, however esteemed Spanish journalist Guillem Balague believes this is not the case.

Is this their year? If they can keep their starting XI healthy, it sure looks like it could be. However, they've already lost Alonso to Madrid and his replacement, Aquilani, is injured for the next month or two. Their senior central defenders are all doubtful for the start of the season as are, most importatntly, Gerrard and Torres.

Yossi Benayoun was superb in his 20 minute cameo against Spurs yesterday and looked like the only Liverpool player on the pitch who was capable of creating anything. After his excellent contribution last season, Benayoun should be starting every game but he continues to be ignored by Rafa Benitez.
I really can't understand why Benayoun didn't start at White Hart Lane; he really came into his own last season and the momentum he built up should have been allowed to continue.

Didn't see this coming!

Barcelona director of football Txiki Begiristain has said that the Blaugrana might not make any further signings this summer, but 27-year-old Liverpool winger Albert Riera is now a target, according to Sport.

Barca coach Pep Guardiola has said that he wants to make further additions to his squad, but it appears that Begiristain will make the final call.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos mjohnson, akes his League debut for Liverpool this afternoon at the Reebok stadium against Bolton Wanderers.
Signed from AEK Athens for £1.5 million, the defensive hard man will be looking to shore up a Liverpool defence which has leaked too many goals early on in the season.

With Liverpool's well documented financial woes causing major problems, has every avenue of revenue generation been explored and implemented by the club? David Clarke doesn't think so.
It could just be my age, but I know that throughout my time as a football fan, I have always dreamed of playing for Liverpool and pulling on one of the club's prestigious shirts, like the number ‘7', ‘9' or'10'.

Chelsea v Liverpool Preview: Head To Head Player Stats - originally posted on Soccerlens.com

Ahead of this weekend's FA Cup final between Chelsea and Liverpool, Castrol EDGE performance data compares some of the teams' key players.

On Saturday, two of the Premier League's top goalkeepers will be going head to head, with very little between them this season in terms of performance.

One of the highlights of last season was Liverpool's briliant double over Chelsea. Despite the club's poor overall record at Stamford Bridge - and a frustrating inability to beat the better teams so far this season - today's game is eminently winnable...but only if the formation and tactics are right, and that means aces in their place.

Liverpool make big changes to their team to face Lyon inthe Champions League tonight at Anfield Liverpool Team: Reina, Kelly, Insua, Agger, Carragher, Mascherano, Lucas, Gerrard, Kuyt, Benayoun, Ngog. Subs: Cavalieri, Voronin, Aurelio, Babel, Skrtel, Spearing, Plessis.

"Au revoir Cantona and Man United... come back when you've won 18" read the banner at Anfield all those years ago. Back then it appeared laughable that this rejuvenated United team, under the guidance of Alex Ferguson, could even dream of going on to win eighteen titles. But if we were ever to win eighteen, they certainly would have added another ten or twenty league titles to their collection.

Todays Liverpool team to face Manchester United at Anfield! Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Insua, Carragher, Agger, Mascherano, Lucas, Aurelio, Benayoun, Kuyt, Torres. Subs: Cavalieri, Voronin, Babel, Ngog, Spearing, Degen, Skrtel.

While it's not the biggest upset of the season, the "magic of the FA Cup" has struck Liverpool down once again. Okay, so maybe this was against a cross-town Premiership rival at Goodison Park. But still - Liverpool should have won this game, and Rafa Benitez knows it. The signs of a Liverpool loss were there early on, as captain Steven Gerrard suffered from an injury in the 16th minute and had to be taken off.

No Torres, Xabi, Riera, nor Kuyt to start. Strangeways here we come... again. Torres being worn and Xabi being knocked are understandable... somewhat, but the absences of Kuyt and Riera are a bit baffling. Cahill and Arteta as well as a plethora of others played today for Everton?
Anyways, with that said, I like when Benitez gambles, as long as it works, but today's line-up is severely defensive-minded.