Match Preview: West Brom vs Liverpool

Liverpool return to league action on Saturday hoping to both extend their unbeaten run to five games, and record a win after consecutive 1-1 draws. The Reds slipped to 6th place after last weekend's frustrating draw against Norwich while, if extra motivation were needed, they will also be looking to avenge last season's 2-1 defeat at the Hawthorns.

With all the talk in recent weeks of who needs to start, who deserves to start, and what the priorities should be when it comes to deciding who needs and deserves to start, it seemed like the perfect time for last week's poll to find who Liverpool Offside readers thought was the club's most underrated player.

A Time for Tactics — How Liverpool Will Deploy Against Stoke

Before playing Stoke at Anfield last season, people were just starting to get a hint of how silly it was to question Kenny Dalglish's tactical ability. After Liverpool's 2-0 victory , the critics and cynics were left kowtowing to the King.

David N'gog should complete his protracted £4million move to Bolton Wanderers...

Liverpool Eye Sebastian Coates

Liverpool are eyeing a move for Club Nacional defender Sebastian Coates, according to several sources including the Telegraph and the Mirror . The Reds require reinforcements at the back having agreed a deal to sell Sotirios Kyrgiakos to Wolfsburg earlier this week.

One more player leaves Liverpool while rumours swirl about potential replacements. Plus Aquilani's agent doing what he does best, papers rehashing year old stories, and all the rest of the week's fun as the rumour mills hit top gear again with the window heading to its close...

Sotirios Kyrgiakos

The big Greek defender left for Wolfsburg on a free transfer late on Monday, the player eager to get more playing time than seemed likely at Liverpool and the club happy to get his wages off the books.

One more player leaves Liverpool while rumours swirl about potential replacements. Plus Aquilani's agent doing what he does best, papers rehashing year old stories, and all the rest of the week's fun as the rumour mills hit top gear again with the window heading to its close...

Sotirios Kyrgiakos

The big Greek defender left for Wolfsburg on a free transfer late on Monday, the player eager to get more playing time than seemed likely at Liverpool and the club happy to get his wages off the books.

Liverpool's summer of transfer business continues with the news that VfL Wolfsburg confirmed the signing of Liverpool's Sotirios Kyrgiakos on a two-year deal.

Liverpool have confirmed that defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has left the club and...

Liverpool target Sebastian Coates to replace outgoing Sotirios Kyrgiakos report

Kenny Dalglish will be looking to reinforce his squad at the back after he lets Greek international go to Wolfsburg on a free transfer, reports also suggest interest in Bellamy

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-08-22 23:30:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish targets Uruguayan Sebastian Coates after Sotirios Kyrgiakos's departure

Liverpool are hoping to sign Uruguayan centre-back Sebastian Coates as Kenny Dalglish's sixth signing of the summer.

View the full story here: The Telegraph

A news article on 2011-08-22 20:23:45 from: The Telegraph

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Kyrgiakos Leaves Liverpool

Sotirios Kyrgiakos has left Liverpool to join Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg, the club have confirmed. The Greek is not thought to feature in Kenny Dalglish's plans for the forthcoming campaign and departs Anfield in search of regular first team football.

Wolfsburg complete Sotirios Kyrgiakos signing from Liverpool

32-year-old defender ends his association with the Reds, after 49 appearances and three goals, to move to the Bundesliga and link-up with Felix Magath at the Volkswagen Arena.

View the full story here: Goal

A news article on 2011-08-22 17:21:00 from: Goal

This news item has been reproduced from today's media.

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish is keen to tie up a deal for a commanding centre-back before the end of the transfer window and is set to continue in his vein of signing young English players.
The latest player to be linked with a move to Anfield is Stoke's giant centre-back Ryan Shawcross, who has earned a reputation as one of the toughest defenders in the Premier League.

Over the past couple of days, the biggest story of Wednesday's slate of international friendlies has quickly shifted from the meaningless matches themselves (which, let's face it, where never a huge story to begin with) to the England versus Holland game scheduled for Wednesday evening at London's Wembley Stadium facing the threat of cancellation due to the imminent collapse of western civilization.

The final week before the Premier League season starts is an easy time for the madness of the transfer window to fade into the background, but with a few notable holes on Liverpool's squad, a couple of long-running sagas, and a handful of players expected to be on their way out any day now, all because the focus is shifting to actual football doesn't mean there aren't things happening in the tawdry world of transfers and transfer rumours.

Liverpool is to offer both Sotirios Kyrgiakos and David Ngog to Bolton Wanderers in exchange for their defender Gary Cahill - according to Footybunker.
The Merseyside club value Ngog at £4.5m, which Bolton boss Owen Coyle is reluctant to pay outright, but the swap deal could prove more enticing.

Kickoff from Anfield at 5:30PM BST/12:30PM EST

Ways to Watch:

Live in the U.S. on Fox Soccer Channel, in the U.K. on ESPN, and online on LFCtv for e-Season subscribers.

MyP2P.eu
StopStream.tv
ATDHEnet.tv
FromSport.com

Liverpool:

Team sheet when it's available.

Kenny Dalglish is working hard to shipped out the deadwoods at Anfield to...

Hull City 3: Brady 21′, Koren 33′, Simpson 58′
Liverpool 0

Let's just get the standard "doesn't mean anything unless someone looks good, then we'll get really excited" proclamations out of the way few conclusions can be made from any preseason match, and after the display today we'll have to hope that the Liverpool we see on August 13th has little in common with the one we saw today.

Liverpool 4: Poulsen 19′, N'Gog 22′, Coady 72′, Carroll 85′
Guangdong 3: Steer 46′, Lin 90′, Hongbo 92′

And so a new season begins. Or at least the road to it does. Certainly without the extended break forced by the European Championships and World Cup in recent years it doesn't feel like as much of a wait as in the past, when half the players would have just now been starting into their short summer breaks following international commitments.

Liverpool is looking to bolster their defensive options this summer with a move for Croatian international, Dejan Lovren. The Reds are keen to bring in a new centre back, with Jamie Carragher reaching the latter stages of his career and the club sees the Lyon man as the natural replacement.
The Lyon centre back has been capped at all levels for the Croatian national team and has shown his potential to play in the Premier League.

Liverpool have been told that they will need to bid £12million if they want to land Birmingham centre-back Scott Dann who is keen to secure a move back to the Premier League.
Dann was one of Birmingham's star performers last season and along with fellow centre-back Roger Johnson was viewed as one of the best hottest properties on the transfer market after the Blues suffered relegation from the Premiership.

Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has earned himself a 12-month contract extension at Anfield.
The former Greece international, 32 next month, originally joined on a two-year deal from AEK Athens at the start of the 2009-10 season.
However, written into that agreement was an option for a further year and Press Association Sport understands Kyrgiakos has qualified for that having played the required number of matches last season.

Liverpool defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has earned himself a 12-month contract extension at Anfield.
The former Greece international, 32 next month, originally joined on a two-year deal from AEK Athens at the start of the 2009-10 season.
However, written into that agreement was an option for a further year and Press Association Sport understands Kyrgiakos has qualified for that having played the required number of matches last season.

Liverpool FC defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has earned himself a 12-month contract...

The Reds look to Enlist new faces at the Back to Help Move the Club Forward.
by Rhydon Atzenhoffer on the Bleacher Report
March 23, 2011
Laurence Griffiths/Getty ImagesIt has been no secret this season that Liverpool have been in desperate need of a quality left back. Roy Hodgson's purchase of Paul Konchesky was quite simply never going to live up to life on Merseyside.

Liverpool head to the Czech Republic to face Sparta Prague.

And let's just get it out of the way "THIS IS SPARTA" is not an acceptable joke anymore. Questionable whether it ever was. Fight the impulse. Okay, we know you did it anyway at some point. Get over it.

European football returns for Liverpool after what seems like an eternity, and it's at a great time.

Divide the pitch into three equal zones: offensive, defensive, and midfield. Divide each zone into a further six sectors, three across the pitch and two deep. Zone one is the left back sat in defence, and counting right and up the pitch zone eighteen contains the opponent's corner flag as attacked down the right wing.

Everton vs Blackpool Goodison Park, Everton- 5th February 2011 Final score:- Everton vs Blackpool 5-3 ( Louis Saha four goals, Jermaine Beckford/Alex Baptiste, Jason Puncheon, Charlie Adam) A four goal show from Louis Saha gives Everton a 5-3 win in a eight goal thriller at Goodison Park vs Blackpool.

Liverpool head to London to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Before you get into this, there's the possibility that a Roundtable feature might go up on the main Offside page last week they kicked it off with the Asian Cup final between Australia and Japan, and it's basically a way to connect the bloggers from the different sites in the build-up to matches of some consequence.

Everything is connected. Everything is related. The system works because it is the perfect system for the opponent and the players are effective in their roles, not because any one player grabs the game by the scruff of the neck and carries the team to victory.

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In defense, three central defenders comprehensively negate Stoke's solitary target.

Liverpool get a terrific team performance and beat Stoke 2-0.

Well that felt good, didn't it?

We knew coming in that Liverpool were going to have to put in an all-around performance today, seeing as Stoke are one of the more challenging and relentless sides in the Premier League.

Liverpool face Fulham in the second of the two rearranged fixtures.

We can probably all agree that this is a slightly better time for Liverpool to be facing...anyone, yes?

You Hodgsonphiles will likely miss the romance inherent when a former manager faces his old club the admiring gazes exchanged prior to the opening whistle, the friendly pats on the back when they encounter one another, the loving cheers from the former supporters, and the rapture everyone experiences when they're watching two teams compete to see whose centerbacks can kick the ball furthest.

Off to the West Midlands for Liverpool to face Mick McCarthy's Wolves.

After a flurry of matches to end 2010 and start 2011, six days without a match has seemed like an eternity.

It certainly hasn't been helped by the continuous dry hump that the Luis Suarez saga has become I'm appreciative of the the calculated approach Damien Comolli and the owners have been taking, not so much of the constant coverage of absolutely nothing happening other than everyone having an exclusive report about absolutely nothing happening.

Everton visit Anfield for the 215th Merseyside derby.

And, for what seems like the 215th time this season, Liverpool are tasked with rebounding from a difficult result.

Obviously things are different now Kenny Dalglish is in charge, most of the squad is available and on full fitness, and the atmosphere around the club is much more positive.

Blackpool vs Liverpool 12th January, 2011 Bloomfield Road, Blackpool 19.45 UK kick off This Blackpool vs Liverpool game is actually a rearranged Boxing Day fixture. It is also Kenny Dalglish's first league game in charge of Liverpool in over 20 years. Blackpool, for the record, beat Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield a few months ago.

Liverpool head to Bloomfield Road looking for away win number two.

Fortuitous that the whole undersoil heating debacle pushed this one back, yes?

Doesn't make tomorrow's task any easier, of course, but at least there's a bit of optimism and feel-good factor for Liverpool heading into yet another away match.

Speeding up the reflections so they're done by 2012. Motivation.

With the fixtures piling up as the month gets going, recapping the year gone by is going to get a bit accelerated. Today we'll take a look at the early summer months, which weren't short on action despite the fact that the 2009-2010 campaign had been over for weeks.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger will make enquiries into signing Liverpool defender Daniel Agger who appears unhappy at not being guaranteed first team football. The Danish international spoke out about the club's style of play under Roy Hodgson and in doing so appeared to anger the veteran manager and now the former Brondby man, back from injury, has stated that he will look for a move if he is not a regular in the Anfield starting eleven.