Archive for the ‘Liverpool’ Category

Liverpool and Tottenham are both chasing Utretcht FC striker Rick van Wolfswinkel. The Ducth striker can either play upfront or on the wings and is considered as one of the hottest prospects in European football today. Wolfswinkel was a regular for the Holland U-21 side, and has just recently made his senior international debut.

Director of football Damien Comolli of Liverpool thinks that van Wolfswinkel is a star of the future. Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp is also a big fan, and has sent scouts to monitor his progress on several occasions. Arsene Wenger is also a admirer of van Wolfswinkel.

With the January transfer window open Wolfswinkel’s agent Louis Laros has said, “At this moment it is unlikely Ricky will move because I have not received an concrete offer from either Tottenham Hotspur or Liverpool. I cannot say at the moment if it is serious interest, an enquiry, or just rumours. We are waiting for calls from both clubs, as we need an official offer from Liverpool or Spurs to proceed.”

The Premier League clubs’ chairmen have shot down a proposal which would have seen a playoff being played between fourth and fifth placed teams for the final Champions League slot. As per the current regulations, the top two finishers in the Premier League have direct qualification to the UCL while teams finishing third and fourth have to play qualifying rounds. The proposal mooted that the final Champions League spot be granted to the winner of the playoff which was to be played between the fourth and fifth placed teams in the League after the end of the season. The fortunes of the top three finishing teams were not to be affected.

The likes of Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool were quick to voice their dissatisfaction over the suggestion. Other teams in the top half were considerate enough to give it a thought with Martin O’Neill describing it as “interesting” and one that “people might go for”.

Any change in the current format would have needed the approval of 14 of the 20 Premier League clubs. With the television deal in place for the next three years, any change would have reflected only after the current deal expired.

Also, the general consensus at the meeting was that the team finishing in fourth position after a gruelling season deserved to play in the Champions League. The congestion in the English football calendar did not help the change at all. Premier League bosses feared that this change would reduce the significance of the FA’s other tournaments especially the FA Cup. Why mend something that ain’t broken?

Another disappointinng match for all the Liverpool fans, with a number of players expected to recover from injury and featuring in this match, a draw is not the results that the loyal Anfield supporters wanted.

Torres failed late fitness test to be involve in the match, while both Aquilani and Gerrard still not in 100% form were sitting on the bench. With vice-captain Carragher suspended, Kuyt take up the captain role while playing upfront with Ngog. Glen Johnson, Albert Riera and Martin Skrtel are all back in the starting lineup after recovered from injury.

Ngog give the Reds an early lead on 13th-minutes before Benitez and Jerome scored a goal each to give Birmingham a 2-1 leads at the breaks. Then the referee incidents happened on the 71th-minutes when Liverpool was awarded a penalty for Carsley sliding challenge against Ngog inside the penalty box. While the replays shown clearly that Carsley’s leg did not touch Ngog at all. S.Gerrard steps up the spot kick and equalise for Liverpool. Aquilani manage to make his Anfield debut in the final 10 minutes.

 Liverpool dominated the game with more than 3/4 of the ball possession and tried out 35 shot attempt in total. Guess sometime you requires luck to win the match too, since birmingham only got 2 shots on target in 90 minuts. This match also results in 3 players having injury, Birmingham’s Tainio along with Liverpool’s Riera and Benayoun. Glen Johnson was reported to pull out of England squad after picking up an injury from the match too.

Rafael Benitez are in hugh pressure now after only 1 win in 9 matches and is grateful to have the 2 weeks international break coming up. Hopefully most of his key players will be able to recover in this 2 weeks. But Liverpool will have a busy weeks right after the breaks by facing Man City in Anfield before travel to Hungary to play against Debrecen in Champion League and lastly an away derby match against Everton.

Alot peoples such as A.Ferguson, J.Terry and W.Rooney had already write off Liverpool title chances and state that Liverpool are currently struggling to retain their top 4 spots. Liverpool are sitting 7th on the table, 11 points behind league leader Chelsea after 12 game played.