The Liverpool team to face Blackbrun Rovers this afternoon at Ewood Park has been announced as follows:

Starting 11
Reina
Johnson
Agger
Insua
Carragher
Gerrard
Riera
Benayoun
Mascherano
Lucas
Kuyt

Subs
Cavalieri
Kyrgiakos
Skrtel
Dossena
Aquilani
Ngog
El Zhar

We’ll bring you the latest news from the match as it happens.

Liverpool’s youth team produced a good display to beat Wolves in the 3rd round of the FA Youth Cup at Anfield on Monday Night.

Liverpool took the lead through Thomas Ince on 35 minutes before Krisztian Adorjan scored at the Kop end in the first few minutes of the second half.

The reds now progress to the 4th round in a competition that they have done well in in recent years.

Liverpool continued their recent good form at Goodison Park by beating Everton 2 – 0 on Sunday to win the first Merseyside Derby of the season.

The game was a typical derby match with lots of passion but little quality.

In truth Everton were perhaps the better team, certainly in the first half, but although they created several good chances it was Liverpool that took the lead after 12 minutes when Mascherano’s shot was deflected past Everton keeper Tim Howard. Mascherano’s shot was going about 3 yards wide, but the ball deflected off Everton defender Yobo past the despairing dive of Tim Howard.

It remained 1 – 0 at half time, although Everton wasted excellent opportunities to draw level.

As the game moved into the second half Liverpool slowly began to find their feet, although their marking at set pieces continually gave Everton hope of finding an equaliser. Mid way through the second half Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina produced a stunning double save to deny first Tim Cahill from a header then as Fellaini looked to poke home the rebound Reina jumped to his feet to block the second effort and keep Liverpool’s lead intact.

Liverpool eventually put the game beyond doubt in the 80th minute when Dirk Kuyt tapped in after Tim Howard could only deflect Albert Reira’s shot.

The second goal took the sting out of Everton and Liverpool duly held on for a 2 – 0 victory that lifts them to 5th in the League.

Liverpool winger Ryan Babel has once again stated his determination to leave Anfield during the January transfer window.

The young Dutch player has become increasingly frustrated with his lack of first team football since ariving at Liverpool 2 years ago.

Whilst we can sympathise with Babel for wanting more first team football, we can’t help but think that he has been a total waste of money. When Babel was signed for £11.5million we were very excited about such a great prospect joining the club. Sadly, despite some early promise Babel has failed to live upto his potential. He is a naturally gifted player with pace and power in abundence but he only seems to perform when ‘he’ wants to, not when the team need him too. Too often he goes missing in games and when he does get the ball he often wastes it with poor passing or a lack of vision.

There are many who would say that Babel has not been given a fair chance by Benitez and that with a few games he would develop into the player we all hoped for, but I think Babel has had more than enough chances. He just doesn’t seem to want to play for us, and that for me is reason enough to get rid of him.

There has been much speculation in the papers about where Babel will go, though it seems likely that he will leave on loan in January with a permanent deal coming in the summer is he impresses his new club. Severel clubs in Holland and Bayern Munich are reportedly interested in taking Babel on loan.

We can only hope that someone will be willing to pay a decent amount for the player, though it seems likely that we will take a big loss on the original £11.5million we paid for him.

Despite beating Debrecen on Tuesday night Liverpool crashed out of the champions League at the group stage for the first time during Rafa Benitez’s five years in charge.

Liverpool won the match 1 – 0 thanks to an early goal from David Ngog, but Fiorentina’s victory over Lyon in Italy meant that it is Fiorentina and Lyon who will progress to the knock out stages of the competition.

Liverpool will finish the group 3rd and will therefore enter the UEFA Europa League when the competition re-starts after Christmas.

We will bring you a more in-depth look at how Liverpool’s exit from the Champions League will affect them later in the week.

The Liverpool squad has today flown out to Hungary ahead of their vital Champions League clash with Debrecen.

With so many players unavailable through injury Rafa has taken just 18 players out with him, and several of those are a doubt for the match.  The squad in full is

Pepe Reina, Diego Cavalieri, Glen Johnson, Daniel Agger, Fabio Aurelio, Emiliano Insua, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Jamie Carragher, Martin Skrtel, Andrea Dossena, Alberto Aquilani, Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun, Javier Mascherano, Lucas Leiva, Jay Spearing, Dirk Kuyt, David Ngog.

The match takes place tomorrow at 7.45pm.

LFC Past and Present will bring you all the team news and action from the game.

Liverpool suffered another setback as they were held to a 2 – 2 draw at Anfield by big spending Man City. 

The first half was marred by injuries to Ryan Babel and Daniel Agger and the game never really got going until 5 minutes after the break when Martin Skrtel stole in front of Adebyor to flick in a Steven Gerrard free kick to score his first ever Liverpool goal.  That should have given Liverpool the impetus to go on and win the game but instead it was Man City who upped the tempo and with pressure building on the Liverpool defence it was no surprise when City equalised from a corner.  Once  again Liverpool’s zonal marking system looked to be at fault as Adebyor (Cities best player in the air) was left completely unmarked 6 yards from goal to score the equaliser.  Angry discussions between goalkeeper and defenders followed, seemingly re-inforcing the fact that the players themselves either do not like or understand the zonal marking system employed by Benitez.

Things got even worse for Liverpool 4 minutes later when City produced a lovely flowing move to carve open the Liverpool defence and allow Stephen Ireland to score from close range.

But with the home fans beginning to think another disappointing loss was on the cards, up popped Yossi Benayoun to score an equaliser, just 74 seconds after City had taken the lead.  There is an old saying in football that you are never more vulnerable than just after you have scored and that certainly rang true for the Man City defence, who stood and watched as Gerrard and Kuyt combined to pass the ball across the six yard line where Benayoun reacted quickest to slide into an empty net.

Whilst the equaliser brought instant relief to the Anfield faithful, it did little to hide the fact that Liverpool had once again let a lead slip away at home.

Liverpool could have won the game in the 4th minute of injury time, when Lucas found himself unmarked 8 yards out, but he was unable to direct his header and Liverpool’s chances of gaining a much needed victory were gone.

Although Liverpool showed great determination to fight back after going behind the result is yet another disappointment for the Reds, who remain 7th in the table a point behind Man City.

The defencive frailties that have blighted Liverpool’s campaign all season long were once again on show yesterday and someone within the club must surely be starting to ask serious questions about our defending, especially from set pieces, where the players seem uncomfortable and awkward.

Liverpool’s injury curse has struck again with two players injured in the opening 20 minutes of today’s game against Man City at Anfield.

First Daniel Agger was forced off with a nasty cut above his left eye.  It has since been comfirmed that the injury prone player has suffered a concussion and has required a number of stitches to close a 2 inch gash above his eye.  The injury happened as Agger went for a Steven Gerrard free kick.  Agger flicked the ball on but collided with a City defender in the process.

Then, just minutes later Ryan Babel was forced off with a jarred ankle after clashing with Dutch teammate Nigel De Jong.  Babel went for a powerful shot but just as he connected with the ball De Jong slid in and Babel kicked both the ball and De Jong.  Babel was urged to try to run the injury off but he decided that he was unable to continue (much to the disgust of Gerrard and the Liverpool fans).  Although it is no Babel’s fault that he got injured you have to question his attitude after giving up so easily.  I’m sure other players would have tried a bit harder to continue…

The Liverpool team to dace Man City at Anfield today has been announced:

Starting 11 -
Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger, Insua, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Babel, Ngog.

Subs:-
Cavalieri, Aquilani, Riera, Aurelio, Benayoun, Kyrgiakos, El Zhar

The match kicks off at 12.45pm today.

Although not a Liverpool player LFC Past and Present would like to wish Tottenham goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini a speedy recovery after the 36 year old was involved in a traffic accident.

The goalkeeper was knocked off his BMW bike during a collision with a car.  Although not life threatning, his injuries include two broken wrists and a broken pelvis, and doctors say it is unclear whether he will ever recover sufficiently to play football again.

We hope all football fans will join us in wishing Carlo a quick and full recovery.