Kindred

Nathan Eccleston says its off

He's said that this is not his team that he put together andused that in an attempt to deflect criticism. However… Cole, PFK, Poulsen, Meireles, Jones & Aurelio were all signed during his tenure. Reina, Torres & Gerrard are all undisputed top class players. He's spoken positively about Carra, Lucas, Kuyt & Maxi & even Ngog. Despite criticising him earlier, he also said he wanted to see Glen Johnson playing well in his team. Soto was spoken of as a potential captain in Gerrards absence. He's consistently played Skrtel, even ahead of others when available. Eventually(!) spoke positively about a number of the younger players (Spearing, Shelvey,Kelly et al) saying because of them we don't need to spend big to fill the squad. Who's left? Babel (finally played a full game the other week & said he had a good game), Jovanovic (who he maybe doesn't seem to like) & Agger who's been injured most of the season. Other than adding an extra striker (which has been obvious for ages) and maybe Babel & Jovanovic what part of this squad would he change to make it his?!? Seems like he rates the majority of them!

2-2 Ngog

1-0 Jovanovic

Meireles has apparently signed for £10.7M according to Daniel Taylor(guardian)

You can listen here - about 35mins in

Sure Roy said at the PC yesterday that they would train today and then he would tell the players the team. (no criticism of rafa or others who wait till 2 hours prior to kickoff intended just an small interesting aside with a change in manager). Maybe it will help us start games a little better if everyone is more mentally aware of who they will be playing with?

Kind of in 2 minds about Babel as I know exactly what your saying. The other side of it (as a backup anyway) is that he's probably the only other 'striker' who could play up front and create chances for himself, which is part of what Torres does (only a part mind!) Whilst I've a lot of time for Ngog he generally needs chances creating for him. But that's probably all that Babel would do when up on his own - head down, run & shoot! A little harsh maybe as there were some signs of improvement late on last season. Still, as you say, he's probably more suited to the 15min subs role.

Was watching a couple of short interviews with Roy earlier and he mentioned that he was disappointed not to have sold some more players already. He said we had a squad of 30 players but obviously only 25 could be part of the squad, so some would have to move on if they want to play. Guessing he means the likes of Insua & El Zhar. The only signings he considers 'his' so far are Poulson & Cole, as the others were already sorted before he came (though he's quite happy to have them). He said he wanted to bring in 2, or hopefully 3 more players though, so possibly one or two other more recognised names might be sold too. I guess all this implies it's a sell to buy policy, which is why he's disappointed not to have sold more players so far. Babel was referred to when talking about the strikers we currently have (he described him as an 'interesting' player!), but that there were a number of clubs expressing an interest in him, so he is possibly one to go. As he says, there's no point having 4 or 5 players, battling for just one position, (presumably meaning he'll be sticking with some variant of 4-5-1) He also mentioned that he'd been impressed with Spearing (despite his lack of experience), Pacheco, Shelvey, Sterling & Suso so far. Oh yeah, and Gerrard is viewed as a central midfielder!

I always remember what Norwich did with Chris Sutton when he was in demand (many years ago!). They came out and said they didn't want to sell, but if an acceptable offer was made (believe it was at the time a record £5million) within a week they would accept it and let the player speak to any of the clubs involved for one week to arrange and finalise a deal. If after such time a deal failed to be agreed then he would not be sold that year. Maybe we should try something like that with Mascherano. I think a small part of the problems last season was the long protracted sale of Alonso, giving us no time to either get a proper replacement (if the money was available!) or to prepare the team to play in a different way without him in preseason. I think its important not to let that happen again. (almost forgot we did get Aquilani but he is a different type of player to Alonso)

Reyes is more left footed isn't he? But plays on the right for them, so he tends to cut inside more which will be onto Johnsons right side. Might be part of why he's there.

Rafa Benitez has responded to Albert Riera's outspoken attack on him by suspending the Liverpool winger until Monday. In what amounts to a two-game ban for Riera, the £6million signing from Espanyol has been told to stay away from Liverpool's preparations for Thursday's Europa League last 16 return leg against Lille and Sunday's Old Trafford showdown with Manchester United in the Barclays Premier League. Riera, who will also be fined, has infuriated Benitez with the timing and contents of an interview with a Spanish radio station, in which he claimed he had been ostracised, accused his fellow-Spaniard of lacking communication skills and described Liverpool as 'a sinking ship'. Benitez is acutely aware that overturning a 1-0 first-leg deficit against Lille and repeating last season's Old Trafford triumph could be crucial to salvaging some respectability from a desperately disappointing campaign, as well as earning himself some breathing space. Liverpool's under-pressure boss does not want any distractions and feels let down by Riera, who will be sold at the first opportunity. According to sources in Spain, Benitez rang Riera's agent, with news of the suspension, as soon as he heard of the interview and verified it had taken place. Riera was subsequently informed that he would not be allowed back in Liverpool's Melwood training ground until Monday, when he can expect to feel the full force of Benitez's wrath. Riera claims he has received two offers from clubs in Russia, the homeland of his wife Yulia Koroleva. He could be set for a swift exit as the transfer window in Russia, which was supposed to close last week, has been extended to April 8. Here

"We would have a conversation and decide what's the best for the club," said Benitez. "I've said before I want to keep the best players here because that means we can be closer to the top four. They are the most important. "We gave extensions to players because we want to keep the squad together. "If you ask any manager in the world they will tell you they want more money and want to spend but at this moment we have to do what's best for the club. "That means managing the situation for each player and see what happens." Here I wonder if we're seeing a change in tack from Rafa and he's now playing the long game. Instead of an all out attack on the problems within the club in the media as they occur, it's becoming a slow drip drip of suggestions of the problems. He seems to be almost following the party line, but usually with an apparent acceptance of the situation, whilst still letting the world know what is actually going on with an implication of his unhappiness of the situation. From the outside its seems he & his family are very well settled here and he's grown to have a strong affinity with the club so would like to stay and maybe see this through somehow. Maybe he's set himself a time limit to it too?

Bugger! Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres were today ruled out of this weekend's trip to Sunderland - though Rafael Benitez has received better news on the injury to Sotirios Kyrgiakos. Both Gerrard (groin) and Torres (muscle) have failed to recover from knocks sustained on international duty, but both may return for our midweek Champions League clash with Lyon. Kyrgiakos, meanwhile, limped out of Greece's World Cup qualifier in midweek, and initial press reports suggested he could be out for several months. However, Benitez expects the centre back to be available within a week to ten days. The boss told Liverpoolfc.tv: "Both Steven and Fernando still have some problems. They will need more time and won't be available this weekend. I think they could be available for next week. "With Kyrgiakos we were really worried because people were talking about maybe six months, but after the scan we think one week to ten days. That's very positive." There was also better news on Dirk Kuyt after his injury scare during the international break. "Kuyt is okay. He was training normally with the team and will be available," added Benitez. South American trio Javier Mascherano, Emiliano Insua and Lucas Leiva have all returned to Merseyside following their long-haul international flights over the past week. All three are available for the clash at the Stadium of Light.

4321 at a guess? Aurelio in midfield with Masch & Spearing

Is it not likely to be a performance related deal? i.e. a 'basic' plus so much extra for winning the premiership, champions league, fa cup etc. So only if we win everything over the next 4 years we get 80M. So its unlikely it would actually be 20M a year (with the best will in the world!) Still an improvement on where we were though.

Is it my failing memory or wasn't Ariel Ortega signing at one point back then too?! Can't believe it was so long ago!

Yeah me too. Don't think they bear comparison. Its also reported in the Star of all places, for the same amount. They've got some quotes but pretty sure they were what rafa came out with a while ago.

Hmmm Rafa Benitez is quota to be enforced refusing to be drawn into a bidding war for David Silva after making a 'take it or leave it' £15million offer for the Valencia winger. The Liverpool manager thought he had struck a deal for Silva but reacted angrily after the Spanish club leaked details of the proposed move to try to bump up the price. The stand-off has forced Benitez to widen his search for a winger, with Middlesbrough's Stewart Downing his new No 1 target.

Whilst i tend to favour technology, thats the one for me. One ref ultimately making the decisions but more eyes on the game from different view points from which to confer, particularly on the goal line.

FT 2-1 Plessis & Bruna Degen made it through 23mins!

Degen's just come on - 70 mins

1-1 54 mins gone

Where we were last year Team P GD PTS 1 Man Utd 38 58 87 2 Chelsea 38 39 85 3 Arsenal 38 43 83 4 Liverpool 38 39 76 Where we are now Team P GD PTS 1 Liverpool 33 38 71 2 Man Utd 31 33 71 3 Chelsea 32 35 67 4 Arsenal 33 26 62 With Man Utd still to play Arsenal, Boro away, Manc derby & Spurs. In a hypothetical world, if offered that at the start of the season, I think I would have taken it. If Man U had only 1 game in hand I definately would. I think we've progressed a lot this season, particularly in our play and thats without Torres & Gerrard for large parts of the season. All I wanted at the start of the season was a genuine title challenge. Didn't care so much about the cups. A good run in the CL is good for confidence, prestige & finances, but it was the league that was my priority. Of course, whats made it harder to take is the results against the top 4 being good and throwing away points against some of the teams we should be taking all 3 from. Just think its worth remembering where we were at the start of this season. Also the Keane fiasco. If a £20m player had come in and clicked it might just have made a difference. We need to put that right this summer & then just maybe next year.....(not that I've given up on this season just yet!)

Id have wanted a freekick for that if it was at the other end. Just wondering why only a 2 man wall and no man on the line for the free kick. Looked very inviting to me, all he had to do was get it on target and it would have taken a very good save to stop it. just look slow all over the pitch. Slow in thought, slow in movement and a few sloppy passes. Might need some more pace in the final third (Babel?) to break through, as they're getting a lot of men behind the ball centrally to stop us playing through them.