Liverpool are in Italy tonight to take on Fiorentina in our second Champions League game of the season. We did not do too well in our first match in the Champions League but the team has run into some great form in the last couple of games and I am confident the lads can do well tonight.

Trips to Italy are never easy and we can expect a very hostile atmosphere in the stadium but it should be nothing new to the guys.

I have not watched any of Fiorentina this season as to be honest I hardly watch Italian football anymore. But I see that they do possess Alberto Gilardino and Adrian Mutu. But even with these two players we should be too strong for them.

Looking at us, we make the trip to Italy without Mascherano. He has picked up a hamstring strain and has not traveled with the team. I feel this could be a big blow to us as away games such as these are where Mascherano should be the first name on the team sheet. But hopefully he will recover from this strain in time for the Chelsea game on Sunday. I would much rather have him fit for Sunday than him playing tonight.

Yossi Benayoun is also struggling with an injury but he has made the trip with the squad. I am sure if he is not 100% fit, Rafa will not risk him and rather have him ready for Sunday.

On paper this looks like a tricky game for us but it is the kind of game we need to win so that we do not have to fight to make the knock out stages of the Champions League. I wonder what kind of a starting lineup Rafa will go with tonight? Will he have one eye on the Sunday game and thus decide to leave out some key players? I think Rafa should go with the strongest squad available and make sure we get the 3 points and then we can look ahead to Chelsea after the game.

My starting lineup prediction: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Riera, Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt, Benayoun, Torres.

It is a good thing that we have a game again so soon after our 2-1 loss to Spurs on Sunday. And to make it even better we are back at Anfield for the first time this season. I will not forget the corresponding fixture last season when we were held to a draw by Stoke. A draw that may have just cost us the title. It will be interesting to see how Rafa sets out tonight as I am sure he remembers all too well what Stoke did when they came to Anfield last season. We have to attack them from the first whistle and find a way to unlock them if they decide to play with 10 defenders.

We have to up our game from Sunday, especially our first half performance. I am sure Rafa is going to tinker with the starting lineup. I am not too sure if he will drop Lucas at this stage. Personally I would not want to see Lucas start but we really do not have any other options. The only option at this stage would be to see Stevie G drop back into midfield but I doubt Rafa would do this at this stage. So expect to see Lucas start tonight. The left wing position is going to be interesting as Rafa can pick from Babel, Riera and Benayoun. I would like to see Yossi starting as he offers us more going forward and his game intelligence may just be what we need to unlock a stubborn Stoke.

Rafa is going to make a late call with regards to the availability of Skrtel as he is still suffering from the jaw injury he picked up on Sunday. With Agger still out injured, we are looking thin in central defence so Ayala may just be called up if Skrtel is not fit.

This is a MUST win game for us as anything less than 3 points will be a disaster. My prediction: 3-0 to the Reds.

YNWA

The wait is over! We finally kick off our season on Sunday when we travel to White Hart Lane to face Spurs. It is funny that we ended last season with a home game against Spurs and this season we start against them. I guess we have to now just accept that it is our destiny to play away from home on our first game of the season. I think this is the sixth season running when we have started away from home.

I am upbeat about the coming season and we need to get off to a good start. Spurs at the Lane is never an easy game and I am sure the players do not need any reminding as to what happened last season there. We went down 2-1 in a game I feel we should have at least gotten a draw.
So looking at it this way, a draw or a win on Sunday will be one or three points better than we did last season. We simply can not afford to walk away with nothing on Sunday especially since Chelsea and United have what should be home bankers.

Looking ahead to the game on Sunday, the biggest worry is that Stevie G may not be fully fit as he struggles to recover from a groin strain. Rafa says that if the game were on Saturday then Stevie may not have made it but we remain in hope that the extra day may mean he is fit to play. But I still insist that if he is not 100% ready then there is no need to rush him. I have maintained that for us to win the league this season, Gerrard and Torres must start at least 80% of the games together. If Stevie is not fit for Sunday…there we go already, no Gerrard and Torres combo.

However it is good to hear that our central defenders are fit (Carragher, Agger and Skrtel). I am sure Rafa is going to start with the two who are the fittest. Personally, I would like to see a Carragher - Agger combination as Spurs are likely to start with Crouch and Defoe so Carra can deal with Crouch whilst the pace of Agger can contain Defoe.

My probable lineups for the game are:
Tottenham (Probable, 4-4-2): Gomes; Corluka, Bassong, King, Assou-Ekotto; Palacios, Jenas, Modric, Lennon; Crouch, Defoe.
Liverpool (Probable, 4-2-3-1): Reina; Insua, Agger, Carragher, Johnson; Lucas, Mascherano; Riera, Kuyt, Gerrard; Torres.

Looking at that probable Spurs lineup, I feel their defence is suspect. Gomes is a very dodgy keeper and if he is having one of his off days then we will bag a couple of goals. Spurs greatest threat would come from their attack and I wonder how well Insua will be able to handle Lennon. It will be a big test for the young Argentine but he should pull though. Mascherano will have his hands full trying to pick up the runs of Modric and Jenas but as Spurs do not tend to have Modric sitting wide on the left during the entire game, that should give Glen Johnson a bit of attacking freedom down the right.
If Stevie is not fit to play then I see Yossi coming in and filling in in his role as opposed to us going with another striker like Voronin or N’gog.

Prediction time: I would want a win and if it is a win, I see us winning 2-1.

Premiership action returns on Tuesday night when the Gunners visit us at Anfield. Premiership games do not get any bigger than this. In the past it would have been Arsenal at this stage of the season challenging for the Premiership but this time it is us. It is a must win gave for us, as is every game left this season. Beating Arsenal on Tuesday will not be easy but we can do it.

We have the advantage of not having played on Saturday or Sunday so we will be fresher than Arsenal who played against Chelsea on Saturday in the FA Cup on a pitch which Wenger complained so much about. Theoretically we should have the upper hand against Arsenal but this is football after all and anything can happen.

I am just reading that Van Persie and Adabayor have been ruled out of the game which should be to our advantage as those two have really carried Arsenal through this season. We will be without Captain Fantastic, Steven Gerrard who is still nursing his groin injury. I had hoped he would be back for this game but I guess there is really no point risking him and rushing him back from injury if it means he plays one game and then is out for the rest of the season.

Having being knocked out of the Champions League, it means that the league is our only hope for silverware this season. Chelsea and Manchester United are going to have the added pressure of playing in the Champions League and hopefully this will play to our advantage as we would be fresher for the league.

It seems like ages ago when we played Chelsea in the Champions League last week. I have been looking forward to this game and I hope the boys make us proud. I see us just edging this one 2-1.
Good luck you Reds.

YNWA
96

It is now or never for Liverpool. After loosing 3-1 at home in the first leg, many have written us off. But one thing I know about Liverpool and the character in the squad right now is that they have a strong never say die attitude. We have come back from the dead so many times this season and I honestly believe we can do the same on Tuesday against Chelsea. It will not be easy but there is still 90 minutes of football to be played and anything can happen.

We just have to look back at Istanbul in 2005 when we were 3-0 down at halftime against AC Milan and we fought back. On Tuesday night it is highly imperative that we get the first goal. That will just build up even more confidence and who knows what will happen.

Having seen Bolton score 3 goals in their 4-3 loss to Chelsea on the weekend, I have even more confidence that we can actually go through. Better yet, Chelsea will be without John Terry for this game and that will give us a hole in their defence to exploit.

Essien had Gerrard in his pocket in the first leg but I am sure Rafa has a plan for this if Chelsea decide to use the same tactic again. I believe Tuesdays game is going to boil down to the tactics adopted by the managers. Guus won the battle in the first leg but I know Rafa will not let us down for a second time. With Torres starting to fire again and Gerrard having being rested on the weekend, our attack should be revved up for this. The return of Mascherano on Tuesday will be a welcome boost for us. We missed him so much in the first leg.

I am charged up for this game and highly confident we can pull it off. My prediction; 3-0 to the Reds!

YNWA
96

Click here for the Match Report from OurKop.com .

Here we go again, Liverpool vs Chelsea in the Champions League. I am actually getting sick and tired of always playing these guys. It would have been nice to play someone else but I guess we just have to deal with what we have infront of us. After Man Utd’s win against Villa on Sunday, I feel that it could just be a bit tougher for us to win the league now and the Champions League may prove to be our best shot at getting silverware this season. But with that said, I know a large majority of us would rather with the Premier League than the Champions League. But knowing Rafa the way I think I do, he still wants to win the Champions League and he will set the troops out tomorrow night to beat Chelsea.

I do not see why we can not get a good result in the first league. The important thing is that we have to make sure Chelsea do not get an away goal. And we are more than capable of preventing them from scoring. We may be missing Mascherano in midfield through suspension but Lucas will step in and hopefully he will step up his game. I must admit that Lucas has improved quite a lot since he cut his hair! The rest of the team should pick itself with Aurelio coming in at leftback for Insua and Riera replacing Dossena at left wing.

What I know we are capable of doing is going to Stanford Bridge and scoring so even a 0-0 draw for us would be okayish. I hope the lads are pumped up for this game. We need to go as far as we can in the Champions League and forget about the league for 90 minutes. I have heard a few fans in the last few days saying that we should forget about the Champions League and rather focus on the league. If we were top of the league and were in a situation where if we won all our remaining games we would win the league no matter what the other teams do then I would agree with them. But right now the league is out of our hands and we have to rely on United slipping up which I hope they do!

I see this game against Chelsea going our way. A perfect score would be 2-0 to us but I see us only getting a 1-0 win which would be good enough to get the job done at the bridge.

Click here for the match report.

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Rafa and Co set off to London and Fulham in the search of at least one point that will knock ManU off the top of the table for 22 hours at least as ManU will have to wait until Sunday and their home game with Villa. Liverpool however really need to pick up three points tomorrow to really put the pressure on. A draw will be two points thrown away rather then a point won. It is probably not a bad time for Liverpool to play Fulham. The Liverpool players know that they found it tough to score against them at Anfield and they now also know that they are dangerous at home following their win against ManU.

It will all depend in my opinion how all the Liverpool react from their midweek excursions with their national sides and how fresh they are. It is getting near the end of the season and for a few players legs a lot of miles have been covered to date. By right there should be no need to have to pick the players up as they should be buzzing regarding the position they have managed to get themselves back into and with UTD not playing very well and missing several players through suspension, tomorrow could be tricky for the current EPL Champs if Villa turn up with their A-Game.

We are chasing four wins in a row which we have not managed to do since October. Fulham as we know are looking for back-to-back wins against ‘big-four’ clubs and also three wins on the spin which they have not managed to do since their amazing relegation saving run last season. Roy Hodgson has done a great job since taking over the reigns at Craven Cottage and he will have his team fired up and they will be full of confidence after the win over ManU so expect a tough match. I think Liverpool may have to win ugly tomorrow but I hope they prove me wrong.

We on the other hand have scored 11 goals in our last three EPL fixtures. Boast the best attack in the league. Failed to score in only one of the last nine EPL games. We currently have our highest total in the EPL at this time ever. We have Lost just one of 15 league games in which they’ve opening the scoring; away to Spurs. We are the only club not to have lost a Premier League game in which they were drawing at half-time; won nine and drawn nine of 18. We are boasting the best record against clubs currently in the top-half; won eight and drawn seven, picking up 31 points out of 45, only Chelsea eclipse that with 32. No club have netted more than our 27 goals on the road. There you have it - according to that Fulham should just ring the FA and tell them to give us the three points now - if only it was so easy but I still think Liverpool will win by a 1 goal margin. 0-1 or 1-2. I like to see Fulham doing well as my Uncle Jack played between the sticks for them after he left The Gunners but please not tomorrow.

Looking at the potential squads tomorrow shows that for Fulham Mark Schwarzer is the only remaining player to have been on the field for every minute of every one of their Premier League matches this season and Simon Davies, my national captain Aaron Hughes and ex-Red Danny Murphy (249 apps with 44 goals 97-04) have also all started every one of Fulham’s Premier League matches this term. Ex-Toffee Andy Johnston is their top scorer with 7 goals.

For Liverpool Reina matches Schwarzer’s record for Liverpool and Jamie Carragher has still started every game this season in the EPL. The mighty Stevie-G is our clubs top scorer with an ‘un-lucky for some’ 13 goals. Lets hope it’s unlucky for Fulham when he moves onto maybe 14 & 15 tomorrow.

Now waking up on April Fools day we were met with the headlines that Alan Shearer was taking over at Newcastle. Mike Ashley obviously feels that his extensive managerial experience in saving teams from relegation will stand them in good stead for missing the drop this season. I don’t know who is the bigger fool but I suppose time will tell.  So this weeks quote of the week is reserved for the new man in the hot seat of the biggest-small club in the EPL.

“One accusation you can’t throw at me is that I’ve always done my best”

Thanks Mr Shearer, the new Messiah, (how many is it now??) Don’t be so hard on yourself. If you don’t think you’ve done your best before it better change quick in order to save that crock of crap from the Championship.

Tonka Out - YNWA

JFT 96…RIP.

I think most of us have returned to earth after last weeks fixtures against Madrid and ManU and now we must prepare for another massive game at home to Villa on Mothering Sunday. Every match from now until the end of the season is huge and we cannot let the win against ManU be squandered at the very next hurdle. I am sure you can remember back to the home win against ManU. Yea, a great result but we followed it up with a 0-0 against Stoke which was very disappointing.

Since Martin O’Neill heaped pressure on his squad by throwing their chances in the UEFA Cup to concentrate on qualifying for the Champions League they have went on a bit of a slump. I am over the moon about this as I thought it was a disgrace not honouring their place within a tournament that many other teams would have loved to be in. I think Mr O’Neill thinks Villa are bigger than the UEFA Cup so I would just love for him to only qualify for the same tournament this season as well. I am sure the Villa fans that travelled to Russia would have a few choice words about his decision as well.

However, Villa will be no pushover and we all know that on their day they have a lot of strength and especially attacking pace which is what can trouble any defense in the world. Liverpool however will be flying high in confidence and will not fear walking out on Sunday to put the only remaining unbeaten home record in the EPL on the line. We are unbeaten in 14 EPL matches against Villa with 8 wins and 6 drawn since Villa won at Anfield back in Sep 2001.

We are now undefeated in 25 home league games having won 17 and drawn eight since ManU’s 0-1 triumph at Anfield on 16 December 2007 our only defeat in 37 league games on home turf and we are looking for three EPL wins in a row which will be the first time since Sep/Octobers 5 in a row. Villa however have only won one of the last 12 league games against the so called ‘Big Four’, and won two of 39 against the quartet of Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United; those defeats being home to Chelsea on 2 September 2007, and away to Arsenal on 15 November 2008. This is a records O’Neill needs to start eating into but lets hope this does not start until the visit Old Trafford next week. It is a massive two weeks for Villa as two defeats will, in my pinion put the final nail in the coffin regarding their CL Qualification dreams.

With regards to the squads Torres will be making his 50th EPL appearance for The Reds two days after his 25th birthday. He will also be facing a few ex-Reds tomorrow. Firstly he will have to get the ball past Brad Friedel who will be extending his record breaking run to 182 consecutive EPL appearances. Brad made 31 appearances for Liverpool between Dec97-Nov2000. We will then have to prevent Heskey from putting the ball in at the opposite end. The 31 year old England international made 150 league appearances and scored 39 goals for the us between March 2000 and May 2004.

Surprisingly with the attacking talent on both sides this seasons earlier fixture was a 0-0 draw away to Villa which ended our 100% start to the season. Last season corresponding fixture was also drawn 2-2 with an 88min leveller from Crouch. As stated earlier a point is of no use as I fully expect ManU to react strongly to their humiliation by thumping Fulham. I am fully confident however that we will win 2-0 with a Torres double. The man is on fire and with Martin Laurson still missing from the heart of Villa defense I think he willjust be to hot for the like of Knight to handle.

Manager Quotes of The Week

a) Home advantage gives you an advantage.

b) In a year’s time, he’s a year older.

c) The first 90 minutes are the most important.

Ex-England and Newcastle manager Bobby Robson gives us a fine and professional example of stating the obvious. Maybe he should have added another as in ” Newcastle are crap”. It’s plain to see why the Geordies love him aint it? mmmmm…

Tonka out - YNWA…

So here it is, this seasons EPL boils down to 90mins tomorrow at Old Trafford. Our three draws in January and the awful defeat to Boro last month has presented us with the task of having to beat ManU away in order to retain any hope of preventing them from having a share of our record of 18 English top-flight championships as a win for United will move them 10points clear with a game in hand.

We travel to Old Trafford in good form and confidence high after our mauling of Real Madrid on Tuesday night but if you believe that Rafa will have the team play in the same manner against ManU I think you will be disappointed. ManU away is a totally different task than Real at home. I can see the team being more defensive at the start in order to try and fustrate our hosts and then attempt to get a foothold ourselves and pinch a goal. I can’t see for the life of me this game being a classic but if it’s still level with 20 mins to go it will boil over as the Liverpool players will know its better to get beat trying to win than settle for 1 point.

There has been a lot of talk that ManU supporters and the team itself are scared of Liverpool but that is a load of bull. I am not a blinkered football fan who believe every other team apart from us are crap. ManU are awesome and they have at this time the best squad of players in the world who are all in good form and scared of no one and a win against them on their patch would be the best result for Liverpool in many a year. Rafa has never managed a win at Old Trafford and we are looking to complete our first double over them in seven seasons whilst United are bidding for a fifth successive home victory over us and that would also give them their best ever Premier League sequence of 12 successive victories. it would also leave them one short of Arsenal’s Premier League record of 13. They are undefeated in 18 at home in a sequence stretching back over a year and need to score one more goal there to become the first club to total 700 home goals in Premier League history. We must remember however that Chelsea had a great home record before we went there this season.

If we do manage a great victory tomorrow it will be our 100th Premier League win under Rafa Benitez. Although the stats above make impressive reading for ManU our lads go into this game having not lost to a fellow ‘Big Four’ club this season; beating Chelsea home and away, Manchester United at home and drawing away to Arsenal. We can only hope that Torres is as fired up as he was on Tuesday night which was one of his best performances to date but he needs to control that agression. I feel sometimes he is playing on the edge and if he does anything silly on Saturday the ManU players and supporters will be straight on to Alan Wiley’s back trying to get him booked and then hopefully, for them, sent off as they know how dangerous he is. We all know that this can happen especially if we remember how Mascherano was treated last season by Steve Bennett.

A lot rests on Masher and Alonso’s shoulders tomorrow to stiffle ManU in midfield but by far the hardest task will be the back four and Reina who must contend with probably Rooney, Berbatov and Ronaldo. Aurelio and Arbeloa must get to grips with Ronaldo as he switches flanks. Inter let hm hug the touchline on Wednesday night un-marked. I would rather have somebody a lot closer to him when we don’t have possession of the ball. He is at his most dangerous when he gets a run at the defense in and around the box looking for the slightest touch so that he can go down on the hope of getting a free-kick or pen. Prepare to be shouting at the TV screen as he will be up to all sorts tomorrow.

Looking at the ManU squad for tomorrow we see that Edwin Van Der Sar is leading the race for the Barclays Golden Glove with 18 clean sheets. Ronaldo is of course Manchester United’s top Premier League scorer with 12 goals and tomorrow will start his 150th EPL fixture. Paul Scholes in a hat-trick short of 100 goals and Ryan Giggs is the same amount of goals away from 150 for the club.

The Liverpool squad has no such landmarks but Reina is the only remaining player to have been on the field for every minute of every one of Liverpool’s Premier League matches this season and Carragher is the only other player to have started all of Liverpool’s Premier League games this term. Steve G is our top Premier League scorer with nine goals and what we would give for one of his specials or in fact a 2 yard tap in tomorrow.

Players Quote’s Of The Week

As it’s ManU tomorrow the quotes of the week has to come from one of their own -

Part A) Interviewer - “Would it be fair to describe you as a volatile player?”

Beckham - “Well I can play in the centre, on the right and occasionally on the left side”.

Part B) ” I definitely want Brooklyn to be christened but I don’t know into what religion yet”.

Part C) “Alex Ferguson is the best manager I’ve ever had at this level. Well he’s the only manager I’be actually had at this level. But he’s the best manager I’ve ever had”

Part D) “My parents have been there for me, ever since I was about 7″

How did we ever come to think that Golden Balls was a bit daft ????

After Saturdays result against Middlesbrough only the most optimistic Liverpool / Chelsea fans and the mathmaticians within football say that the league is not over. It is really inconceivable that ManU in their current form and with their current resources will squander the points lead that they have built at the top of the EPL. This does not mean however that for the Liverpool squad the season is over. If the teams performances dip on the back of the gloom around Anfield automatic qualification for next seasons Champions League competition will be lost as well. Chelsea, Villa and even Arsenal will fight tooth and nail from now until the end of the season and the manager, Gerrard, Carragher and Alonso need to bring the team back into line and produce the strongest finish to the season as possible.

This starts therefore with tonights visit of Sunderland. Since taking over from Roy Keane, Ricky Sbragia has done in my opinion a decent job and he seems to have the players performing for him with more determination and a will to win. The team spirit is back so much more now than during the period that brought the demise/end of Keane and Quinns re-healed relationship after the goings on in Japan during the World Cup.

The history of this fixture shows that we have won our last five meetings with Sunderland without conceding a goal. Well that sounds like a good start but before we get carried away we will be again short up front with the continuing absence of Torres. Once again apart from the usual suspects of Kuyt and Gerrard somebody else really needs to step up to the plate and do something or else we could be on the slippery slope towards fourth place especially with our next two games in the EPL being away to the leaders ManU and then home to the top three chasing Aston Villa.

Sunderland have not won at Anfield since 1983 when some guy who I don’t even know called Gary Rowell scored a penalty for a 0-1 win. Saturday’s defeat at the Riverside was our first in 16 games and we must be eager not to fall to our first back-to-back defeats in 50 Premier League outings. That hasn’t happened since losing to Reading (a) and Manchester United (h) on 8 and 16 December 2007 respectively. Sunderland have not prised a point off Liverpool since their 2-1 victory at the Stadium of Light on 15 December 2002 and The Black Cats have failed to score in eight of the last nine Premier League meetings with the Reds.

The squad details show that if selected for Sunderland Grant Leadbitter will be making his 100th appearance whilst for Liverpool Javier Mascherano is 1 match away from 50 appearances. Liverpool will of course be facing an ex-Red in Djibril Cisse who is currently Sunderland’s top scorer with 9 goals. The 27 year old France international made 79 appearances (49 in the league) and scored 24 goals (13 league) in two years with Liverpool from July 2004.

Last season’s reverse fixture.

Sunderland 0-1 Liverpool
16 August 2008 - Ref: Alan Wiley
Liverpool scorers: Who else but - Torres 83

Funny Player Quotes.

‘There’s no in between - you’re either good or bad. We were in between’

Gary Lineker provides us with a match report for Liverpool against Boro on Saturday but you can never beat contradicting yourself within the very next sentence - stick to the golf and selling Walkers Crisps big ears.