Liverpool proved they are not ready to be replaced in the top flight elite by Manchester City just yet as Yossi Benayoun's equaliser secured a draw at Anfield.
The mega-rich men from Eastlands arrived on Merseyside intent on proving they were top four material but they found a Liverpool side in defiant mood despite more injury problems. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez praised his side's character after they fought back for a 2-2 draw with Manchester City.
Yossi Benayoun's goal earned Liverpool a draw after goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Stephen Ireland cancelled out Martin Skrtel's opener for the home side.
The draw means Liverpool have only won once in their last ten games in all competitions, but Benitez was happy with the attitude of his players. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez insisted his side will finish in the Champions League places following their 2-2 home draw with Manchester City.
The Reds have lost five and drawn two of their opening 13 Premier League matches and are now 13 points adrift of Premier League leaders Chelsea.
But a defiant Benitez said: "When we have all our players coming back I am confident we will start winning games. Click to continue reading...

Congratulations to Slovenia, a pair of bad managers, strange cures and daylight robbery all feature in this week's good, the bad and the ugly. Vocabulary support can be found for the words in bold at the foot of the post.

Good

It's been a good week for Uruguay, Algeria, Portugal, Greece, France, New Zealand and Slovenia as they all booked their places in next year's World Cup finals with play-off victories over the past few days.

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Rafa Benitez has named his starting 11 to face Man City at Anfield today, with Glen Johnson not making the bench. There is however; a rare start for Ryan Babel. The team in full is : Reina, Skrtel, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel, Ngog. Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, El Zhar, Aurelio, Riera, Benayoun, Kyrgiakos. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benitez acknowledges that Liverpool's clash with Manchester City on Saturday is 'make or break' to their hopes of ensuring Champions League football next season.
The stakes are very high for boss Benitez, who has sent four players - Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera, Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio - to Belgrade this week for unorthodox placenta cell treatment on their injuries. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez has hailed the clinic that has got four of his top men fit for Saturday's crunch Premier League encounter with Manchester City.
Benitez defended the use of a controversial Serbian clinic to get Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera all fit. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool clash with Manchester City this weekend and Rafael Benitez will be hoping the international break will have given his side the opportunity to turn their recent shoddy form around.
Roaming right-back Glen Johnson, according to Benitez, has received the experimental placenta massage that Arsenal striker Robin van Persie elected to try following the injury he sustained while representing Netherlands. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool were handed a massive boost when four players made a rapid return from injury to be available for tomorrow's game against Man City.
Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurielio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera were all sent to a physiotherapist, Marin Kovacevic, in Belgrade.
There they were given an unusual and highly unorthodox treatment of a cream made from Horse placenta combined with wave-treatment. Click to continue reading...

Great news, all Liverpool fans! Injury treatment in Serbia has reaped handsome rewards and the injured are now fighting fit!
Albert Riera, Yossi Benayoun, Fabio Aurelio, Steven Gerrard, David Ngog and Glen Johnson are all declared fit and ready to take on draw specialists, Manchester City. Click to continue reading...

Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio have become the latest Liverpool players to visit radical therapist Mariana Kovacevic in an attempt to end their injury problems.
Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun flew to Belgrade earlier this week to see Kovacevic, who has become famous for treating sportsmen with the liquid from horse placenta. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool defender Martin Kelly has revealed that his role model at Anfield is right-back Glen Johnson.
The 19-year-old deputised for Johnson in last month's defeat to Lyon and his similarities to the England international were noted by many observers.
"He's a great player - England's first-choice right-back. Click to continue reading...

Rafael Benitez has strongly defended his managerial style as questions are being asked about him following Liverpool's current run of one win out of nine.
He said in Champions Magazine: "You cannot win trophies if you are cautious. I have won titles not because I am cautious, but because I have a clear idea of what to do. Click to continue reading...

Rafa Benitez gave a bizarre interview to the Times yesterday, and Liverpool fans should be worried that the pressure may be getting the better of their leader. When a manager spends time talking about the support he is getting from the management, threatening to quit, and talking about the legacy he wants to leave behind, he sounds less like a manager worried about this weekend's game against Man City and more like a man who wants to put this whole mess behind him.

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Some uplifting news for the Liverpudlians. Stevie G is ready to rock n' roll against City this weekend. Will Liverpool join the list of clubs that have stuck it to City?

Personally, I think Liverpool played well against Birmingham - they faltered familiarly on set pieces but overall they were a number of positives.

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It is hard to see England overcome Brazil even if they were at full strength with Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Rio Ferdinand, John Terry, and Glen Johnson given how the Brazilians moved with ease around the pitch. Meanwhile, the English attack was barely able to make a dent.

Fabio Capello probably knows by now that Brazil is the team to beat.

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Jamie Carragher insists the mood remains positive at Melwood following the latest spate of injuries to hit the treatment room.
Daniel Agger, Glen Johnson and Fabio Aurelio all withdrew from international duty this week with minor knocks, but Carragher is hopeful his team-mates will be ready to face Manchester City next weekend. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool FC boss Rafa Benitez believes there are only minor issues to address with his faltering side and has urged his players to start their season afresh after the international break.
The Reds have already lost five Premier League matches - three more than during the whole of the previous campaign - and critics have already written off their title hopes. Click to continue reading...

Bad news. Our list of the fallen is now about as long as Peter Crouch's leg. The BBC so kindly tells us that we're missing Rio Ferdinand, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole, David James, Theo Walcott, Emile Heskey, David Beckham, Aaron Lennon, Carlton Cole, John Terry, Frank Lampard, and Glen Johnson.

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(Davy expects African sides to edge traditional Latin and Continental powers, but fancies England for the Cup. Below he discusses the likely England squad, highlighting what he expects to be the historic contribution of England's black players.)
To be King in Africa, a useful prerequisite is to be a Black Prince.

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Plenty of people have mourned the departure of Xabi Alonso.
He was a great player but hopefully Alberto Aquilani having made his home debut now will start to fill that gap.
But the two players I think we should have kept are Sami Hyypia and Alvaro Arbeloa.
Ok, it's possibly with hindsight but we're missing a dominant centre half – as evidenced by Birmingham's equaliser – and Sami is I'm told playing his socks off for Bayer Leverkusen, who are top of the Bundesliga. Click to continue reading...

Liverpool have been dealt yet a further injury blow after it emerged that Fabio Aurelio has been cut from the Brazil squad because of his calf injury.
Reds boss Rafa Benitez has also announced that Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera could be out for at least three weeks with hamstring injuries, adding to a lengthening injury list which includes star players Fernando Torres and captain Steven Gerrard. Click to continue reading...

Define Irony : A bunch of football players missing Internationals for an injury they got introduced in the previous Internationals.

So finally we get to watch some International action. And boy, don't I love it. England versus Brazil yeah. Does it get better than this.

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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...

We all had the news yesterday that Jose Bosingwa has had to undergo knee surgery back in Portugal and will now be out for upto three months of the season. He joins Ashley Cole on the injury list. The statement from Chelsea (short and sweet) yesterday read:
"Chelsea Football Club can confirm that Jose Bosingwa underwent arthroscopic surgery on his left knee this week. Click to continue reading...

Prior to England's friendly against Brazil on Saturday I have been thinking about one possible tactical option available to Fabio Capello as he plans England's World Cup strategy.

There is no doubt that Capello has done a great job of taking an underachieving group of players and turning them into an effective team.

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While I normally hate the dreaded 'International Break',for once, I am glad it is upon us.Liverpool have an injury list as long as your arm and this break of almost two weeks has come at just the right time for us.Obviously, Fernando Torres is the main concern with that Hernia problem as there seems to be no quick fix with that type of complaint. Click to continue reading...

The international break means that Rafael Benítez has ten days to work out what is going wrong for his underperforming team.
Eleven points behind Chelsea in the Barclays Premier League and facing elimination from the Champions League, the Liverpool manager has a lot on his plate. The Times has identified five things he must do to get their season back on track. Click to continue reading...

When Liverpool paid Portsmouth £18m for Glen Johnson more than a few eyebrows were raised and plenty of those raised were from us Reds fans. The more Johnson plays for Liverpool though the more you can see that he is becoming worth every penny that we paid for him as he adds a whole new dimension to the Reds side. Click to continue reading...

Glen Johnson has pulled out of the England squad to face Brazil on Saturday in Doha after picking up a slight injury in Liverpool's 2-2 draw against Birmingham City at Anfield on Monday night.
The 25-year-old played the full 90 minutes of the Premier League game before joining up with his England team-mates, where he underwent a routine recovery session while the rest of the squad trained at London Colney. Click to continue reading...

How will Fabio cope?

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Luke Young has announced his retirement from international football after rejecting the chance to replace Glen Johnson in the England squad for this weekend's game with Brazil.

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Fabio Capello had a quandary this morning when Glen Johnson pulled out of his squad to face the Brazilians. He thought he would give Luke Young a quick phone-call and tell him to go get his kit and boots. Nobody says no to an England call up (unless you are Jamie Boo-Hoo Carragher) However the Villain [. Click to continue reading...

What's been in Butt's Brain over the past few days...

• Benni McCarthy says he has no future at Blackburn under Sam Allardyce. Pompey seem to be in the running for the South African superstar - he would join compatriot Aaron Mokoena at Fratton Park if the move goes through in January [Times Live]

• Only a few days left for you to participate in our World Cup prediction contest and win some great free soccer gear from Soccer Pro [Butt Buddies WC Contest] and [Soccer Pro]

• Liverpool's injury woes continue.

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All the stuff being covered outside the unfriendly confines of the award winning Dirty Tackle...

'80s Totti needs to be real. [ONTD]

Florentino Perez is already making excuses for this season. [FourFourTwo]

Iker Casillas is a matchmaker. [Kickette]

Newcastle fans are trying to buy their club to avoid further embarrassment.

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Glen Johnson believes Liverpool must stick together to bring an 'awful' sequence of results to an end.
The Reds had to come from 2-1 down to hold Birmingham to a draw on Monday night in a match at Anfield they were firm favourites to win.
Rafa Benitez's men have picked up just one victory in their last nine matches in all competitions, while they remain 11 points adrift of Premier League leaders Chelsea and are in danger of being knocked out of the UEFA Champions League. Click to continue reading...