Our now difficult quest for the league title continues tomorrow with a trip to The Boro with a win the only acceptable result. We all know that we must win tomorrow and beat Sunderland at home before we make the trip to Old Trafford in search of a win that could blow the title wide open again. I don’t like to say it but ManU are cruising at the minute and we can only hope they hit a rough patch on the run and drop a few more points.

Tomorrows game is more difficult with the news that Torres will be missing so a lot rests on the shoulders of Kuyt, Riera, Benayoun and probably Babel to get the goals. Hopefully the return to league action of Gerrard and Alonso will prove to much for our hosts. Boro have struggled in the EPL this season but come into the game after a good win against West Ham in the FA Cup mid-week. Liverpool visit on the back of a 15 match unbeaten record which can only be matched by ManU.

You may not realise but Liverpool are looking for three Premier League points on Teesside for the first time since a 1-2 victory on 16 March 2002, when Emile Heskey and John Arne Riise scored for the Reds, and Gareth Southgate replied for ‘Boro. I hope it not a bad omen but The Reds have drawn their last three game at The Riverside. Hitting the back of the net has always been the issue on our visits to this ground. We have scored only one league goal in our last six league visits to Teesside, that being Fernando Torres’ equaliser in last season’s corresponding fixture and we have failed to score in seven of our last nine visits. We all remember the home fixture this season when it took a 90min strike from Gerrard to virtually steal the three points.

One factor which could affect the performance is the continuing boardroom headlines which seem to pop up every 10mins at Anfield. As well as the ongoing contract wrangles involving our manger we now, as I have previously posted, have to contend with the new that Rick Parry is to stand down at the end of the season although this may serve to end the contract problems faced by Rafa as it seems their relationship lately has been far from good.

Player Quote Of the Week

I’ve never wanted to leave. I’m here for the rest of my life, and hopefully after that as well.

A fine loyalty speech from Alan Shearer. Lets just hope that the St James Park grounds people can get the pitch repaired after Alan is put in the hole at half-time….even at the at stage he might show more life than some of the current crop of Toon players.

Rick Parry is to leave his post as Liverpool chief executive at the end of the season, BBC Sport understands.

Parry’s departure is expected to be announced officially later on Friday and marks another twist on the boardroom wrangling at Anfield.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez wants greater control over transfers in his protracted talks over a new contract.

And Parry’s departure is likely to take Benitez a step closer to finally signing a fresh deal.

Parry’s relationship with Benitez and American co-owner Tom Hicks has been strained, but in November he pledged his loyalty to the club after he was linked with the chief executive’s post as part of the Football Association’s 2018 World Cup bid.

He decided to remain at Anfield, despite being the top contender from a five-man shortlist for the job.

This has been the story making the papers this morning! I do not think I have gone through a season like this when Liverpool have been dominating the backpages. We are always making the headlines for one reason or the other and most of the time it is not for our on field performances. Now today it is all about the ‘possibility’ of Jose Mourinho being ‘asked’ if he would be interested in the Liverpool job if Rafa was going to quit.

Now Rafa has come out and said that he is not ready to quit. We can only be 100% sure about this when he signs the new contract. But these Mourinho reports got me thinking this morning: would we really want Mourinho to take over if Rafa were to leave us?

I am not too sure if I would want Jose to be at the helm at Anfield. We just have too much bad blood with him since his days at Chelsea. Granted the guy is a brilliant coach and has bought success to Porto, Chelsea and Inter. From a pure footballing perspective, I have no problems with Mourinho as the coach but whether he is the right man for the Anfield job is questionable.

You also have to ask yourself if he himself would want the Liverpool job. He seems to be in love with Chelsea and why would we want a guy who loves one of our biggest rivals to lead us to success.

I just wonder if us as Liverpool fans would welcome Mourinho with open arms, would you?

It looks like we will be without Torres for this weekends trip to Middlesbrough after El Nino twisted his ankle early on in the game against Real Madrid. I wonder if him staying on for longer during that game made the injury worse? He did not look his normal self at all after picking up the injury. This has been a bad season for Torres injury wise.

I think El Nino needs a good rest and the unfortunate part is that he will not be getting a rest this summer as Spain will be visiting us here in South Africa to take part in the FIFA Confederations Cup. As much as I am looking forward to seeing Torres, I actually wish he would stay at home and rest this summer so he can be fully fit for us next season.

Torres may even miss the game in midweek against Sunderland and hopefully he will be fit for the return tie with Real Madrid and more importantly the trip to Old Trafford on 14 March. The full extent of El Nino’s injury will only be known today. We cross our fingers that it is not too serious.

I loved the little battle that was taking place in last nights game between Fernando Torres and Real Madrid’s defender, Pepe. Before the game, Pepe had come out and said that he was going to ‘beat down’ Torres during the game. I think in the first 5 minutes of the game Torres fouled Pepe and left the big Brazilian on the floor. I kept a close eye on this battle all night and the two were having a real go at each other last night. It would have been great if Torres had gotten a goal last night and rubbed it into Pepe’s face! The picture below just showcases that there is no love between these two.

Thank you! Thank you Yossi for that goal! As Liverpool fans we have not had much to smile about over the last couple of weeks but last night must have bought a smile back onto our faces. Going into the match I was not too confident especially with all the speculation that Rafa was about to quit. But when the game started last night and we had played for a couple of minutes, I thought to myself, “There is nothing special about this Madrid team!” Real had gone on a 9 match winning run but that all came to an end yesterday thanks to a late header by Yossi Benayoun courtesy of a brilliant freekick by Aurelio.

I had thought Real were going to come out all guns blazing and put us under pressure but for 90 minutes we were the better team as Real offered nothing going forward and their defence looked very suspect whenever we went forward. As the game progressed I was actually thinking that 0-0 would be a bad result for us as Real were clearly there for the taking.

The injury to Torres early on did not help much. After he twisted his ankle he just did not look the same. I just hope that the injury is not too bad. Yet again it just went to show that we can actually play well and win when Stevie is not playing. I was a bit surprised that Rafa threw him on with minutes to go as he could have risked him picking up another knock especially since the game was virtually in the bag by then.

I know it is only half time in the tie but we must surely be favourites now having gotten that crucial away goal. Real have no choice but to come out and attack us at Anfield in two weeks time and judging by their defence last night, we can certainly get a goal or two against them at Anfield.

Well Done you Reds! I dedicate this win to Rafa! “Rafa-Rafael! Rafa-Rafael! Rafa-Rafael! Rafael Benitez!!”

The Champions League is back and what a game on Wednesday night when we travel to Madrid to take on Real. I had been looking forward to this game for a long time, since the draw was made, but now that the game is only hours away I am not to confident going into this one with all that has been happening at Liverpool in the last couple of days. We dropped 2 points on the weekend against Manchester City at home and that must have taken a knock out of our confidence. The lads just have to bounce back and give it 110% against Real Madrid on Wednesday because if they do not, we could be in the receiving end of a bad scoreline.
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Your guess is as really as good as mine! I am getting sick and tired of this! Who are we to blame: Rafa or the American Owners? I think it has now boiled to the fact that Anfield is no longer big enough for both Rafa Benitez and Rick Parry. One of them has to leave and I hope it is Parry. There is no way we can afford to loose Rafa. Just look at what he has done for us over the years, I really can not see or want any other manger to come and take over our club right now. I want to see Rafa have the full support of the board and to be allowed to do things his way (to a certain degree) and have him stay on for many years. There is no point in us loosing him now and then getting another new face who is going to want to start to rebuild the team and give us another 5 years before we start challenging again.

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Another 2 points dropped and with that we may have just dropped any hope of winning the title. We are now 7 points behind United and it is going to be really tough to claw back. All it simply means is that we have to win every single game left to play, including going to Old Trafford and winning and hoping at the same time that United slip up along the way. It is not mission impossible but it will be tough and will require a lot of luck.

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Liverpool have asked Uefa to alter a potential Champions League quarter-final date to avoid the anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster.

Should Rafael Benitez’s side overcome Real Madrid to make the last eight, they could be drawn to play the second leg of the next round on 15 April.

The date will mark 20 years since 96 fans died on overcrowded terraces.

“We have asked not to play on that date and that 14 April be considered instead,” the club said.

An annual service at Anfield on the day of the disaster is usually attended by Liverpool players and officials, as well as relatives of the supporters who died.

The occasion will be lent extra significance should Juventus defeat Chelsea and be drawn against the Merseysiders in the quarter-finals.

When Liverpool played the Italian side in the European Cup final in 1985, 39 spectators were killed after a wall collapsed during rioting at the Heysel stadium in Brussels.

When the two sides next met, 20 years on from that disaster, in the Champions League in 2005, the matches in Turin and Liverpool passed off peacefully amid public demonstrations of remembrance.

Liverpool have been scheduled to play on the anniversary of Hillsborough before, most recently in 2006, when the Premier League agreed to their game against Blackburn being moved to 16 April.