Gerrard ruled out for three weeks

15 minutes post-Keane. That’s all it took. 15 minutes. Throw in a Lucas red card, a hobbling Torres and a faded, disjointed Riera and Kuyt and you’ve got the rest of Liverpool’s season.

Gerrard to miss three weeks with a hamstring tear

As Gerrard walked off to the merciless cheers of the home support and Everton pricked Liverpool’s bubble of optimism post-Chelsea, Rafael Benitez faced up to an awkward couple of weeks, starting Saturday. Gerrard had looked tired in recent weeks, that is true and in fairness, post-bar brawl has not looked the player he was in the pre-bar brawl games. While this is fair and Rafa is right when he says that the press who complained when he withdrew his captain against Wigan can see the result when he got injured, the fact is Gerrard shouldn’t have started this game.

For a man so spectacularly singular in his thoughts, he can be absolutely mind-boggling at times. He rests teams in the FA Cup. The fans get their backs up. He rests half his team for the FA Cup. The fans finally get to the stage where they can see a league title somewhere, however vaguely, in the horizon, and he puts out the same, knackered team that he started with against Chelsea, albeit it with superficial Dossena and Mascherano changes. Why? He’s left himself with Ngog as a squad player who will certainly be called upon this season, without any doubt. Even if Torres miraculously goes without injuries, he won’t be able to play all the time. And why not last night? Torres got beaten, soundly, by Lescott and Jagielka in both recent games. His role is so important post-Keane that a majority would rather see Gerrard missing for three weeks than Torres. And yet both play last night, and what’s worse, Torres gets another kicking, gets dominated by Jagielka (who has to be in Capello’s thoughts now based on January alone) and it will not be a surprise if he doesn’t start against Portsmouth, thereby resting him for Spain’s clash with England on Wednesday.

Rafa knows Liverpool fans wouldn’t take kindly to a weak team being put out against Everton. But when has he ever listened to his heart over his head? Last night was a big blow to Liverpool and a timely reminder to the young players at Liverpool that they won’t get many chances to impress. Like Keane, Rafa expects total accuracy with tactics, and tolerates little else. Except from himself.

Not Keane enough?

You have to feel sorry for Robbie Keane.
Sure, he has earned another generous signing-on fee for a few months inactivity at Liverpool. Sure, you hated him every time he did the bow and arrow, roly poly, I’m an asshole goal celebration.  And yes, he does have an accent that suggests he might mess you up for looking at his bird.
But at least he seems to love his football. And he seemed to love Liverpool. And yet the two couldn’t be reconciled, either because Rafa Benitez never fancied him to fit in and was prepared to leave him on the bench as a power play in his contract struggles, or because Irish players seem to have been cursed at the club since Graeme Souness took over in the not-to-be-spoken about era of the 90s.

Hee has the right kwall-ities and ees a very good profethional no?

Keane tried his heart out, he ran and ran, as he has always done. He scored tidy finishes and that cracker against Arsenal. And he would have scored more had he been alowed to play more.But the sings were always there. On his debut for Liverpool, getting the chance to play for his boyhood club in the Champions League away at Standard Liege, Liverpool were huffing and puffing at 0-0. An away goal is seen as crucial in the Champions League, albeit Liverpool are the one club that seem to turn 0-0s into aggregate wins with ease. With 67 minutes on the clock, Keane’s time was up and Steven Gerrard awaited to renew his potent partnership with Torres.

The following match against Sunderland, on his league debut with the scores tied at 0-0 and 76 minutes on the clock, Nabil El Zhar readied himself and Keane was withdrawn. Torres would score the winner just minutes later and the tone for Keane’s Liverpool career was set. The match winners were Torres and Gerrard. They were Benitez’s luxury, the ones who he’d leave on because they had that spark to win the game. Keane never fitted into the luxury bracket.

Martin Skrtel to Anfield?

It looks like beleagured Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez will be the first Premiership manager to welcome a big money signing into the Premiership. Martin Skrtel looks set to join for £6-7 million from Zenit St Petersburg.

Seems strange that this money is suddenly being made available given that a move for Khaladze was seemingly rejected by Liverpool’s Yanky-Doodles as they weren’t happy to splash the cash.

A meeting between Hicks, Gillett and Rick Parry in the USA is expected to focus on the plans for the new stadium which have hit the brakes in recent weeks. Benitez will be hoping his masters rubber-stamp the deal for Skrtel with Liverpool desperate for centre-back cover.

Sami Hyypia is unlikely to leave, although rumours are linking him with Fulham. Skrtel is ineligible in the Champions League, which Liverpool will be prioritising at some stage in the second half of the season unless miracle results let them back into the title race.

Anyone know whether Skrtel is any good? Let us know by leaving a comment. We would also like to hear how Liverpool fans are warming to the American owners? Not very well….? We thought so….

Managerial Madness

Billy Davies has left Derby County by mutual consent with his team rooted to the bottom of the Premiership. Meanwhile Rafael Benitez is next for the chop, if you believe what you read in the papers.

Davies is unlucky. That’s all that can be said really. Admittedly they have been absolutely shocking but in truth, getting them to the Premiership was a hell of a job in the first place. Derby’s squad doesn’t look like it would get near the top of this year’s Championship let alone hold its own in the top division.

What’s going on at Liverpool?

Rafael Benitez is not a happy man at the moment.
After surprising reporters by mentioning that he might be a candidate for the England job, Benitez has now been given a stern rebuke by co-owner Tom Hicks.

Hicks said:
After the Champions League final in Athens, Rafa made certain demands of us and we responded to those demands in the summer.
We brought in some good players and spent more money than has ever been spent before at this club.
We now have some crucial games coming up in the Premier League and the Champions League and we want to see if we can win these games with the players we have.
This was the message we gave to Rafa recently and I think during the international break he must have grown a bit frustrated about this.
We told him to concentrate on the games coming up and nothing else and I guess he didn’t like that.
But, for the time being, we just need to be focused on what happens on the pitch.

Benitez stunned the media assembled for his press conference on Thursday by saying he would be a good candidate for the England job. Apparently unhappy at the reaction to his announcement, Benitez said:

Maybe I could be Steve McClaren’s replacement if I improve my English. I was being serious. You never know what can happen in the future.

The dispute between Benitez and the club’s owners seems to have got slightly out of hand, with the Americans refusing to talk about further signings until they meet with Benitez after Liverpool’s home game against Manchester United on the 16th of December. Benitez is reportedly frustrated that the owners have refused to green-light the full signing of Javier Mascherano whose loan expires at the end of the season.
Mascherano has impressed fans and pundits alike with the ease in which he has settled into the club and become an important member of the first-team. Mascherano will not be short of suitors should Liverpool fail to come up with the money for his transfer, though the player is reportedly keen to stay on Merseyside.
Whatever happens, watch this space because this dispute won’t go away easily. Liverpool’s results will be under huge scrutiny with the club’s owners unlikely to need too much persuasion to part with the Spaniard should they fail to qualify for the next stage of the Champions League, or should league form not improve.