I'll let one of you pick a lineup first. Blackburn on the skids. Win one for Milan and Carra! We need to chase any silver we can get.
Kirkland Finnan Henchoz Biscan Riise Diouf Murphy Gerrard Kewell Pongolle Heskey Would like to see Otsemobor get a game at RB - if they've removed the bullet from his arse yet.
Dropping Hyypia from the team sheet so soon after taking away his captaincy would probably cause him too much emotional distress. It would be nice for Pongolle start a game for once. However, I would prefer to see him alongside Owen and not Heskey. Just picture two speedy forwards running at the turtle-like Amoruso. It would be funny. Houllier also needs to put Diao on in the 86th minute with a specific order to break the legs of Lucas Neill. He can't sacrifice Steven Gerrard for this purpose but Diao won't be needed once Hamann returns and he seems to be developing a habit of roughing up widely despised players anyway. Of course I am kidding. Kind of.
^ I know what you mean Gabbage re Diao coming on. Don't think Owen will play on Wed - he had a little dig at GH for having to play vs Leeds, and that he'd now still feel the injury because of it (along those lines). With the Man U game coming up I don't think he'd be risked. A bloody shame we drew Blackburn in the Cup, would have liked to have seen a few more kids get a game vs lower league opposition - and no doubt Souness will be winding up his players once more for us on Wed. 2-1 to LFC (no broken bones on our team this time too)
I'd play Sami and rest Igor. I'd also rest Harry (got to rest him some time) and play Le Tellec. I agree that Heskey should partner FSP. Lastly, I think Diao is injured and not available for leg breaking duty. Perhaps D-Jimmy could be brought on for that purpose -- but only with a 2 goal lead. And I am joking
Official site says Souness to pick his best side available with former Reds Babbel. Thompson and Freidel set to play. http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news/drilldown/N142417031028-1341.htm
Letest reports indicate that GH will play Owen -- hard to believe but that's whats said. We shall see.
Our options are limited by injuries (remember to add Vladi to the list), and more so by the fact that this is a pretty tough draw for so early in the competition (away, no less). I don't see many options: Dudek Finnan Hyypia Biscan OK . . . Riise Murphy Kewell Gerrard [C] Diouf Owen Pongolle . . . he's earned it. Subs should include Kirkland, Henchoz, Le Tallec, Heskey and Traore. And three of them should get significant playing time (30+ minutes), if at all possible; ideally Heskey for Owen, Le Tallec for Kewell, and Traore for Riise (but of course, you can almost never plan those things in advance.) ----
Which would mean he's probably sitting for Fulham. Which also means my girlfriend, sitting next to me in the stands, won't be able to ruin the match by spending 15 minutes commenting on his ass. Mixed blessing, I guess.
A fairly useless preview on soccernet, which I post here only because it has some good, encouraging info on Owen staying with the Reds: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/headlinenews?id=281713&cc=5739 ----
Hang on guys ... turn this around. Owen always takes a couple of games to come back to full sharpness after injury. The hour against Leeds was a necessity under pressure and has kicked him off back to full match fitness. On Sunday, we face a very tricky trip to Fulham with 3 points a must. And then on Saturday following, United are in town. Far from indicating that his participation tonight means he will miss either of those games, it means he will go into those games that little bit sharper than otherwise. The injury is clearly not the problem some are making it to be. Houllier does not gamble with players in this manner normally and would be unlikely to try to with the run of games we have coming up.
I think playing full strength side is vital against Blackburn, but some, um, experimental substitutions wouldn't be risking too much. Owen has to be at his best for Fulham and especially against ManU. If we learned anything the last few years about Owen, it's that he goes through hot and cold streaks and normally takes a few matches to get back into it. Play him.
I see this as a good opportunity to play Kirkland, Pongolle and Murphy. All three are pushing hard to break into the starting 11 anyway. They'll have a lot to prove. Certainly agree with starting Owen and getting at least another 60 minutes under his belt. Nice to get a win out of this one and build our confidence some more.
Kirkland Biscan Traore Hyypia Henchoz Gerrard Murphy Le Tallec Diouf Pongolle Heskey Subs Dudek Finnan Riise Hamann Kewell.
Friedel Neill Taylor Babbel Gresko Reid Ferguson Tugay Thompson Cole Yorke Subs Jansen Yelldell Gallagher Johansson Emerton
Hamann--Stellar! Owen missing: a bit of a shock! Le Tallec: Less of a shock. Kewell gets a break. And Traore gets his chance. I've suggested this elsewhere, so if it goes wrong, I'll take the flames in a couple of hours. . . -----