Watch Liverpool

Posts Tagged ‘watch liverpool’

• Manager without Gerrard and Torres for Europa League game
• ‘I couldn’t have envisaged a more difficult situation’

The handful of Liverpool fans congregating at Skopje’s Alexander the Great airport yesterday wore increasingly puzzled expressions as a series of red-tracksuited figures ambled through arrivals and out into the afternoon sunshine.

With Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Glen Johnson and Joe Cole left behind in England at a time when Fernando Torres, José Reina and Dirk Kuyt have still to return to pre-season training, there are few familiar faces on Europa League qualifying duty here in Macedonia.

Roy Hodgson seems hardly to have put a foot wrong during his first month at Anfield but Liverpool’s new manager appeared slightly terse last night, his refusal to answer questions about anything other than the game against FW Rabotnicki perhaps betraying a certain tension. Deep down he must wonder whether a scratch XI comprising reserves and academy players can avoid dissipating the considerable feelgood factor engendered by Cole’s signing and the decisions of Gerrard and Torres to remain on Merseyside.

Defeating a battle-hardened Macedonian team sprinkled with gifted Brazilians in this gateway to the Europa League proper is unlikely to be straightforward. “We are obliged to put our fate in the hands of many inexperienced players,” Hodgson said.

“We can only hope they come through against a side well versed in European football. I couldn’t have envisaged a more difficult situation at the start of my Liverpool career than the one I find myself in: playing a European qualifier against a good opponent without 10 senior players. I’m hoping we’ll be able to win but I’m far from confident that will be the case.

“It’s especially hard to play qualifiers on 29 July in World Cup years. Everyone, most of all Uefa, knows you can’t bring people off the beach, give them three days’ training and throw them into a top-class match. I’m relatively confident tomorrow’s team won’t let Liverpool down but we’ll have to be very good to survive.”

If there was an ominous sense of a honeymoon about to come to an abrupt end, at least Hodgson had not entirely lost his sense of humour.

Reminded that three years ago Rabotnicki drew 1-1 here in a Uefa Cup tie against a Bolton Wanderers team then managed by Liverpool’s current assistant manager, Sammy Lee, he said: “Sammy hasn’t been able to tell me much; I think he’s erased Bolton from his mind but he does remember they got through with some difficulty.”

Liverpool’s manager had earlier said he would discuss with his board the Europa League’s position in the club’s pecking order of priorities but, asked whether that chat had happened, he merely replied: “All we ever seem to do is have discussions so I’m pretty sure they’ll have taken place. But this is a very important game.”

Whatever this season’s European policy, this game at a ground in the process of being rebuilt – both ends of the Phillip II Stadium are largely rubble and, of the two functioning stands, one was surrounded by cranes yesterday as final building blocks were lowered into place – could be the opportunity Alberto Aquilani needs finally to begin demonstrating why Rafael Benítez paid £17m for him.

Just as Skopje is a mishmash of communist-period architectural atrocities and Ottoman era gems, Hodgson’s teamsheet promises to be a mix of delicate talent – Aquilani, Daniel Agger and Milan Jovanovic, a newly arrived Serbia winger once coveted by Real Madrid – and raw youth such as David Amoo. “Most people will not have heard of the players here, they won’t recognise them,” acknowledged Hodgson who is privately well aware that Anfield’s youth production line declined on Benítez’s watch. “But if you’re going to be a top player at Liverpool you need to be able to handle a game like this. We’ll find out if they can. It’s an opportunity to swim.”

He did not contemplate throwing seniors in at the deep end here. “Gerrard and the others never came close to playing, they’ve only been training four days. It would have been complete folly to play them in difficult conditions,” said Hodgson it was also too late to parachute any new buys into a club boasting only five of the eight homegrown players aged over 21 now mandatory in all Premier League squads. Asked whether he was poised to sign Luke Young from Aston Villa, Hodgson typically straight-batted: “Well he’s not playing tomorrow.”

He must trust Liverpool’s ersatz defence proves similarly unforthcoming this evening.

FW Rabotnicki (4-3-3, prossible): Bogatinov; Dimovski, Fernando, Belica, Sevlovski; Tunevski, Grigorov, Todorovski; Ze

• ‘Fernando Torres has told us he wants to come back’
• Roy Hodgson says striker will resume training next week

Fernando Torres has put a spring in Roy Hodgson’s step by pledging his immediate future to Liverpool. Speculation that the Spain striker would leave Anfield this summer has swirled around for months, but instead of heading for Manchester City or Chelsea it seems Torres intends staying on Merseyside for a while longer.

“Fernando Torres has told us he wants to come back,” Liverpool’s manager said yesterday. “He’s told us he’s looking forward to Monday and getting back to work and playing for us next season. That’s what we know and as far as I’m concerned, all others reports are erroneous.”

Torres was given an extended break after his involvement in Spain’s World Cup win but he has held private talks with Hodgson and clearly likes what he is hearing. “He’s having a well-deserved break with his family,” Hodgson said. “He’s keeping a low profile and not really talking to anyone, but he has spoken to us.”

The tone of the Liverpool manager’s conversations with Javier Mascherano appears to have been somewhat frostier, however. Hodgson – who also introduced his three new signings, Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic and Danny Wilson, ahead of this morning’s departure for Macedonia and the Europa League qualifier against FW Rabotnicki – has reminded the Argentina midfielder that he will leave Anfield on Liverpool’s terms alone.

Moreover, he hinted Mascherano, who has two years remaining on his contract, may yet be thwarted in his desire for a swift escape, ideally for him involving a reunion with Rafael Benítez at Internazionale.

“He wants to leave, he’s made that particularly clear,” Hodgson said. “He wanted to leave a year ago and he wants to leave now. But Javier Mascherano is contracted here and I will continue to treat him as a Liverpool player until this club decides that should change.

“Just because Mascherano is a bit unhappy does not necessarily mean he will leave. I expect him to honour his contract until the day this club accepts an

• Player writes letter to club asking fans to forget the past
• Winger had previously described club as a ’sinking ship’

Former Liverpool winger Albert Riera has written a personal letter thanking the club and fans, whom he urged to forget the past.

The Spaniard, who completed a move to Olympiakos last week, has more reason than many to gloss over recent history.

Riera spent the final three months of last season in effect suspended after falling out with former manager Rafael Benítez and then describing the club as a “sinking ship”.

His letter, published on the club’s website, is unlikely to build any bridges with supporters who were hugely critical of Riera, whose form faded badly after a promising debut campaign following his summer 2008 move from Espanyol.

“I would like to say goodbye and thank you for the opportunity to play in this fantastic club,” said Riera’s letter.

“I would like to thank the fans for their support; you’re unbelievable.

“I would also like to thank the staff and my team-mates. I would like to wish the club all the best for the new season, I can see there’s a lot of changes taking place and its like a breath of fresh air into the club.

“I think the club will have a very positive future. I want the fans to remember me as a player who tried to give his best. My first year here was one of the best seasons and the closest the club have come to winning the Premier League.

“Last season was a season for everyone to forget in all ways, which can happen to any club. In football it’s important to look forward and forget the past. I felt it was time for a change and I’m looking forward now to the new challenges which lie ahead.”

LiverpoolOlympiakosTransfer windowguardian.co.uk