Setanta IS airing it according to my DirecTV menu, plus the LFC on TV thread. Check it out. In addition to the game, I assume Setanta will also air ET and penalties. That is, unless they've lost the rights to those.
Liverpool: Cavalieri, Degen, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Aquilani, Lucas, Benayoun, Kuyt, Gerrard, Torres. Subs: Aurelio, Babel, Ngog, Spearing, Skrtel, Gulacsi, Pacheco.
Degen in for Darby and Gulasci on the bench instead of Cavs, wonder if that's significant wrt transfers. Glad to see only one LB at the start. I'm looking for Gerrard Kuyt and Benayoun to be more dynamic in swapping positions than they normally are. Could be an important game for Degen's career. I was hoping for Darby, but oh well. Hopefully Pacheco Babel and Ngog will see action in the second half of a comfortable win
Clearly I didn't read my own post. I assumed Reina was in the XI, I wasn't implying that Reina could be transferred. Back to the game
Torres off for Ngog at 29 minutes. Its not obvious that Torres is hurt. He got a hard foul in the first 5 minutes, but has been moving well since then. He ran off OK. Strange... Reading have been better in the first 1/3 of the game. McAnuff and Church are dangerous on the counter
Somebody needs to give Maxi a Liverpool scarf. He's still wearing an Athletico one. Mattress makers!!
Thank god for that own goal, that was atrocious. Torres just can't catch a break this season, so frustrating. I hope Benitez brings on Pacheco in the second half, we need some creativity injected into this game.
An undeserved first half lead. Gerrard converts a deflected shot. They started off well in the first 10 minutes and then went completely flat. until the last 7 of the half. Plenty of pointless possession, not much attack. No one seems to be willing to take a man on other than Agger and Degen. AA showed some quality passes but also gave away some poor possession. Lucas has been pretty much useless, failing to break up attacks and turning the ball over when he gets it. Carra's doing his usual hoof the ball forward to no one when not under pressure. Kuyt's been AWOL. Benayoun had a good shot after nice work from Ngog, who also had one decent shot. Bottom line is that Reading looked far too comfortable in defense until that goal and looked the more likely to score on the counter. Liverpool don't look that motivated. Somebody needs to get these boys fired up, whether that's Rafa or the young uns start putting them under pressure for starts. Lets hope for better in the second. I'd be tempted to pull Kuyt and Lucas off and bring Babel and Pacheco on. Pacheco behind Ngog, Gerrard next to AA and Babel and Benayoun swapping on the flanks. Edit: the comms said it is not Torres groin, rather a knee tweak. No idea if its serious.
wow, what an awful half. Should be 2-0 down really, they had 2 great chances and we scored off a deflection right before the half. Our midfield is useless, and by midfield, I mean Aquilani. He's given too many balls away and hasn't done anything worthy of note. and to make matters worse, the only CM we have on the bench is.... Spearing. Let's get out there second half and get a respectable result and hopefully a better performance.
Gerrard takes a corner and then follows it in at speed and scores a Lampard special. Technically that goes down as scoring from a corner! We need to secure the next goal. Hopefully Reading will need to push forward more and this will allow us to counter-attack like they have done in the first half. We need to keep passing well - generally we have kept it well and won most of the 50-50 balls in midfield but the last 10 minutes we were getting a little sloppy in our passing.
I thought Lucas was worse than AA over the 45 minutes, but neither have been good. Too bad we don't have that CM that was here for so long. what was his name? Oh yeah, Gerrard.
I like this kid Ngog but to be honest, I don't think he's got the drive to take it to the other team and score. I Really hope he proves me wrong and scores. Yossi and Aqua need to move around and create a goal in the MF. Gerrard needs to find a spot to take a hard shot on goal. Without Torres it looks like LFC have not strikers. Thank god Babel is coming on. My feed keeps dropping, Can someone tell me who is in the MF for Liverpool. I see Yossi, SG, Aqua,