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Posts Tagged ‘afternoon’

• Greece international signs two-year contract
• Defender had fallen out of favour at Anfield

Liverpool have confirmed that defender Sotirios Kyrgiakos has joined Wolfsburg. The Greece international has signed a two-year contract with the German club although no fee has been announced.

“Liverpool FC this afternoon confirmed that Sotirios Kyrgiakos had left the club and joined Bundesliga outfit Wolfsburg,” a statement on Liverpool’s website read.

Kyrgiakos made 49 appearances for Liverpool after joining the club from AEK Athens in the summer of 2009. The 32-year-old made 28 of those last season although his first-team opportunities were reduced when Kenny Dalglish returned as manager.

Kyrgiakos revealed he was looking forward to returning to Germany after spending two season at Eintracht Frankfurt from 2006 to 2008. “Wolfsburg are a good club. They won the championship in 2009,” he told the club’s official website. “I’m here to play and I would like to play every game. I am fit and ready, but the coach decides when and if I get to play.”

LiverpoolWolfsburgguardian.co.uk

• Roy Hodgson says Liverpool ‘need to start winning’
• David Moyes says Everton ‘got their reward’

The Liverpool manager, Roy Hodgson, was pleased with his players despite another disappointing result at Goodison Park, where they lost this afternoon’s Merseyside derby 2-0 to Everton.

He said: “We fell behind to a deflected block which fell kindly for [Tim] Cahill so I thought at half-time we were a bit unlucky to be a goal down because we had got back into the game well. In the second half we did everything the team could possibly do, we played well, created chances, we limited them to very few and put them on the back foot.”

Mikel Arteta scored Everton’s second goal after 50 minutes.

Hodgson said that Liverpool’s star striker, the Spaniard Fernando Torres, was low on confidence.

He said: “I don’t think he is physically unfit, I think he showed that today, he did plenty of work and we don’t have any injury problems with him. He got battered during the World Cup and mentally he is probably a bit low and he needs a goal or two to get it back. Certainly today I would have no qualms about his performance.”

Liverpool are in the Premier League relegation zone with one win in eight games but Hodgson is refusing to panic.

“I don’t think it is a crisis, I thought the way we played today was not the level of a team in the bottom three but six points from eight games is a very poor return,” he said. “We need to start winning to climb the table and until we do the word ‘crisis’ will continue to be bandied around.”

The Everton manager, David Moyes, was delighted with the win.

“Their attitude was spot on and they got their reward,” he said. “I thought we have played better in the majority of games than we did today but it was a derby and a different kind of game.

“Some of our performances [earlier in the season] were good but we did not get the result but today we did enough. We are getting away from the wrong end of the table. We are a good enough team to be at the top end.”

LiverpoolRoy HodgsonEvertonDavid Moyesguardian.co.uk

• Striker suffered adductor strain during defeat to Blackpool
• Blow for Roy Hodgson ahead of crucial trip to Goodison Park

Roy Hodgson’s problems at Liverpool show no sign of abating after Fernando Torres was diagnosed with an adductor strain that makes him highly doubtful for the Merseyside derby at Everton on 17 October.

The Liverpool striker limped out of Sunday’s home defeat by Blackpool after just nine minutes to prompt his withdrawal from the Spain squad to face Lithuania and Scotland in the Euro 2012 qualifiers. A scan this afternoon confirmed Torres suffered a strain rather than a tear but, having damaged his left adductor in the World Cup final and previously struggled with a hernia, Liverpool will not rush the striker’s recovery, even for a game of huge importance for their beleaguered manager.

“Fernando was assessed earlier today at Melwood and underwent a scan this afternoon,” said Dr Peter Brukner, Liverpool’s head of sports medicine and sports science. “He will have intensive treatment over the next couple of weeks but it is too early to say if he will be fit for the game against Everton.”

Only last week Hodgson declared Torres fully fit following two knee operations earlier in the year plus his World Cup injury, and his absence at Goodison Park would be a serious setback for a side mired in the relegation zone.

LiverpoolFernando TorresAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk