All summer and during the transfer window, a major headache for Hodgson was the left back position. We had been linked with virtually every left back who plays the game today and in the end we have Fabio Aurelio who re-signed for us in the summer after being released by Benitez and now Hodgson raided his old club Fulham and bought in Paul Konchesky.

So my question to the fans today is: Who do you think should be our first choice left back? let us not forget that Hodgson has started off the season with Agger at left back but he does not look comfortable at all in the position, one just has to look at how he struggled against Manchester City.

I am a huge fan of Aurelio, who can forget that freekick against Man Utd? But besides that freekick, when Aurelio is fit he is a very decent left back. The only problem is his fitness. We will be lucky if he is fit enough for 50% of the games this season.

Now with Konchesky, we have a player who has experience playing in the Premier League. He is solid in defence and looks decent going forward. It will be interesting to see how he fairs in a team with more quality players around him than he had at Fulham.

Talking to my fellow OurKop.com bloggers, the general consensus is that we need a stable back four this season. I think Johnson and Carragher have their places cemented (although I still believe having Agger and Skrtel in the middle will be the best for us as Carra is getting old). For me a backline of Johnson, Carragher, Agger and Konchesky is not bad but they have to play a large chunk of our season. Remember how solid we were the days of Babel, Hyypia, Henchoz and Carragher in the backline and how consistently those guys played? We need something of that nature this season.

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I don’t know who of you was watching sky sports last evening. I waited and waited and waited but no striker arrived. We got a left back who should be able to cut it in the prem. But still we don’t have a backup striker. Babel went all the way to London by helicopter but no deal. West ham stuck to their guns and asked for the cash. Plus in any case they probably would have had to pay Babel more than they are paying Cole.

Gomes wanted big baller money. 125000 pounds per week is no joke! For a bench ouen!!!!!

I guess Torres came back to bite us. There is no player in worth buying who would be happy just being a bench ouen. I have more respect for a player who leaves a big club in search for more game time than one who moves to a big club for the money.

Just an aside. I read that Plessis has been sold to Panathainikos and another youngster has also gone that way. El Zhar has been sent to POAK on loan with an option to buy. Vincent Weijl has been been sold as well.
Looks like RH is culling the foreign youngsters in the reserves. I think this is the culmination of the new Prem laws. I hope though that it doesn’t symbolise a reversal of the youth policy we had just started. RH doesn’t have a track record of blooding youth players or of building clubs up. He is much more a coach than a manager. He looks at the 1st team as his job. The rest of the matters are for the club admin. This is a big shift from Rafa who was involved in almost every aspect of the club.

At this stage I don’t know whether this is a good or bad thing. I look at Fergie and he is involved in a lot of what happens at Man U. Then I look at Wenger and he likes to be involved in the playing aspects (the 1st team and the youth teams and transfers). In the rest of Europe you are only a coach and there is a director of football who looks after most of the rest, i.e. transfers, facilities, academies, sponsorships etc.

What are your thoughts on which is the best model for us?

p.s. an interesting thought just crossed my mind as I finished this. Imagine King Kenny as director of football at Liverpool…Like Johan Cruyff was at Barca!

Javier Mascherano is set for a move to Barcelona after Liverpool confirmed terms for the transfer of the Argentina captain had been agreed.

Earlier this week Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson insisted Mascherano would see out the remaining two years of his Anfield contract if the club’s valuation of the player was not met.

But the 26-year-old, who was also linked with a move to join former Reds boss Rafael Benitez at Internazionale, now appears close to a switch to the Nou Camp.

A statement on Liverpool’s official website read: “Liverpool Football Club have agreed terms for the transfer of Javier Mascherano to FC Barcelona.

“The Spanish club have now been given permission to speak to the Argentina midfielder.”

When it rains it pours at Anfield? With the whole drama surrounding Mascherano wanting to leave Liverpool, now it is suggested that Dirk Kuyt also wants to leave and head to Inter Milan to rejoin Rafa!

Yet again, we do not know what to believe at this stage but what if Dirk really wants to leave? I say he should go if he wants to as long as we get decent money for him. The last thing we want is a player wishing to play for another team. But according to Hodgson, there is no suggestion that Dirk wants to leave and Roy clearly will not let Dirk leave!

“Dirk Kuyt has not told me that he wants to go,” said Hodgson. “I can only repeat that we have not received an offer from any club for Dirk Kuyt. We don’t welcome an offer. It is very unlikely we could receive any offer from any club now that we would entertain.

“This is obviously something going on behind the scenes, possibly to the manager of Inter. We haven’t received an offer and at this very late stage in the transfer window, it would be remarkably unusual for us to accept an offer for a player that we don’t want to leave for money we don’t need.

“I need the player, I don’t need the money. So I would suggest that, with due respect, if his agent has got serious plans to move him from the club, he should have been working during the last four to five weeks, not in the last three or four days.

“We have not received an offer. When he left the club (Rafa) Benitez signed an agreement that said he would not poach players and, if I am right, that still applies. This is the time of year when agents talk to the mass media.”

What are your thoughts about the potential departure of Dirk Kuyt?

Liverpool will be without captain Steven Gerrard and striker Fernando Torres for their Europa League second leg tie with Trabzonspor on Thursday.

Gerrard has a back problem while manager Roy Hodgson believes Torres is not ready to play three games in a row.

Joe Cole returns after missing Monday’s Premier League game through suspension but wantaway midfielder Javier Mascherano is left out.

Daniel Agger (concussion) and Maxi Rodriguez (illness) are missing.

I have a really bad feeling about tomorrow night with these players missing and if there is a repeat away performance like that seen at Eastlands on Monday night we will struggle to qualify for the group stages.

Dear Mrs. Javier Mascherano

I just wanted to say how ungrateful you are. Javier was plucked from the obscurity of West Ham United’s substitutes bench by Liverpool for 18m. Now 3 years down the line you tell us you want to leave because YOU can’t learn English. For GBP30,000 per week, my wife is willing to learn Mandarin.

Get on with it.

SO, what went wrong last night? Did Citeh show us that money can actually buy you happiness? Their squad was streets ahead of ours, we were dominated all over the pitch. Not only did they have loads more quality personnel over us, they had better shape and they looked a lot more sharper. Last night proved quite a few things (for me), one of them was that the “traditional 4-4-2″ that the english love so much is not suited to the modern game, especially if the top two are classic forwards. It’ll probably work when we play the likes of Blackpool, but against decent opposition with these modern managers, if we play that formation again we’ll come off second best.

The second thing that last nights’ game proved was that SG has no place in central midfield, especially if we are going to play a rigid 4-4-2. Like Rafa tuned, he runs around too much, he lacks the discipline to occupy that space and stay there. He didn’t make enough tackles last night. He basically left Yaya and Barry to run circles around Lucas. SG does not know how to control the game, he plays the game at one pace, it looks great when it comes off but sometimes that’s not good enough we need someone who can hold possession and assess the situation. Right now I’d say our squad is looking rather thin, and I hope that Hodgson is not loaning out players because he thinks we are sorted depth wise. I hope he has a plan, I really do otherwise this might be a long season. I’d hate to think that he loaned out Acquillani because he thinks that a player with his talent is surplus to requirements.

I won’t even start on our perennial problem position, left back. The less said about that the better. If LFC are going to have a new owner, that better happen soon otherwise we are going to be a mid table team very very soon.

Roy Hodgson has said that Alberto Aquilani could be set to go out on loan back to Italy. The Italian has been plagued by injuries ever since he arrived at Liverpool from Roma and has really never gotten a long run in the team. Rafa bough him in as a replacement for Xabi Alonso but we have not gotten to see his talents yet.

There is no doubting that Aquilani has the ability but maybe he needs some time to get over his injuries and play in a team where he is in the starting lineup every week. Currently at Liverpool, he will not be a regular starter if all the players are fit and thus maybe that is the reason Roy wants to send him out on loan.

I would prefer Aquilani to go out on loan rather than be sold as I still want to see him as a Liverpool player. He has shown us glimpses of what he can do and I have no doubt he can do that consistently for us on a regular basis. I was just thinking that maybe Italian players are not too suited to the English game. There have been players such as Zola, Vialli and Di Matteo who have adopted well to the English game but you do not see too many Italians making their mark in the Premiership and that could be the reason why Aquilani has struggled.

Do you think that it is a good idea for Aquilani to go back to Italy on loan?

They say ‘when it rains, it pours!’. That is exactly what happened to Joe Cole this week. It started off with him being wrongfully sent off against Arsenal on Sunday and then he was found guilty of speeding on Wednesday and now last night he goes on to miss a penalty infront of the Kop in Liverpools’s 1-0 win over Trabzonspor in the Europa League Qualifier.

What I did not know is that Joe Cole had NEVER taken a penalty before in his 12 year professional career. I guess the writing was on the wall for him to score his first goal for Liverpool last night and what better a chance than to do so from the spot. But his tamely taken spot kick was easily saved by the Trabzonspor goal keeper.
But credit to Cole for setting up Ryan Babel with the one and only goal of the game that gives us a slender lead going into the return leg next week.

I have no doubt that Joe Cole will bounce back from this ‘horror’ week and will have an excellent season for us. He will miss the game on Monday night against Manchester City as he starts to serve his 3 match ban for his red card. It will be interesting to see how Roy deploys the troops on Monday night without Joe Cole. Will Gerrard now go back to play behind the striker or will he maintain his role in central midfield?

As we edge closer to transfer deadline day, Javier Mascherano still remains a Liverpool player even though he wants to leave. Mascherano ignored Roy Hodgson’s calls to him during the summer break and when Mascherano returned to pre-season training he told Roy that he wants to leave the club this summer. Roy had no problems with that but told Masch that he can only leave if an offer suitable enough comes in for him. Up until today, no offer has been tabled yet for Masch.

It was initially thought that Rafa would take Masch to Inter but the former gafa has not made a bid yet for Masch and time is ticking. Now Barcelona are said to also be interested in Masch but they to have not made a bid. Masch must be wondering what is going on! Why do Inter and Barca not want to bid for him? Are they being put off by the £25 million valuation Liverpool have put on him? I believe we should not get a penny less than £25 million for Javier as he is the best player in the world in his position. And I am glad Roy is sticking to his guns and not letting Masch go for a knock down fee just because he wants to leave. This morning Roy made it clear that Masch has two years left on his contract and he would have to honour them if no offer comes in for him. Knowing Masch the way I do, if he stays with us this season, he will give his all. Just look at the way he played against Arsenal on the weekend, he was one of our best players on the park.

Last season Masch had a slow start to the season as he was distracted with the possibility of him joining Barcelona. But now we only have until 31 August to put Masch’s mind at ease. If he does not leave he will be a Liverpool player until January at least and he will give us his all.

I for one would not want to see Mascherano leave us just as long as he is 110% focussed and committed to helping the club. To his credit, Masch never said he hates Liverpooll Football Club he just hates the city and England in general. His wife does not want to settle in England and would rather be in Spain or Italy. You can see how this affects Masch, he is a young man with a young family and he wants the best for his family.

Looking at the situation on the field: If Masch does stay, there is no doubt he will be one of the first names on Roy’s teamsheet every weekend. He would most likely play with Gerrard in the middle of the park. This could be one of the best tag-team midfield combinations in the game today if they remain fit and on form. We signed Poulsen as a backup for Mascherano in the event that he left Liverpool so if Masch is tired or injured, we have Poulsen to fill in. Then where does that leave Lucas? Will Lucas be above Poulsen in the pecking order? Some of my fellow Red fans have suggested that Lucas be picked ahead of Poulsen. Until I see Poulsen play in the Red shirt I will not comment just yet. But all it goes to show is that we have quality backup in central midfield if Mascherano stays.
If he does go, then it would be a case of Lucas and Gerrard in midfield which could do the trick but I would much rather have Masch in there.

What are your thoughts on the current Mascherano situation?