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Preview: Liverpool vs Lincoln City

Liverpool take on Lincoln City in the last of their preseason friendly games, the game having been arranged as part of Jack Hobbs transfer to the club in August of last year.

With most of the Liverpool first team squad away on international duty, there is a mix of the reserve squad with a few familiar faces on display tonight - namely Robbie Fowler, who returns to the fold after sitting out the Champions League qualifier and the Community Shield.

The full squad, as announced on LiverpoolFC.tv is: David Martin, Jan Kromkamp, Stephen Warnock, Robbie Fowler, Mark Gonzalez, Fabio Aurelio, Neil Mellor, James Smith, Jack Hobbs, Miki Roque, Paul Anderson, Lee Peltier, Danny Guthrie, Adam Hammill, Godwin Antwi, David Roberts, Salif Diao, Besian Idrizaj.

Nice to see Mark Gonzalez and Fabio Aurélio included as well, hopefully too we’ll see a performance from Neil Mellor when the game kicks off at Sincil Bank at 7:45pm.

The game itself has been sold out for the past few weeks and Lincoln are expected to field their first team in the first half, with the reserves and second string side getting a run out in the second. There’s commentary on LiverpoolFC.tv and if you’re not going to catch the friendly game, you can see the rest of the lads lineup in international duty tonight with Steven Gerrard taking his new role on England’s right wing.

Steve Finnan too is expected to be involved in the action as Ireland take on Holland at Lansdowne tonight too at the same time, with TV3 providing delayed coverage from 10pm

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Scott Carson Joins Charlton

Didn’t see this one coming to be honest with you but Scott Carson has just signed for Charlton on a season long loan deal.

After playing the last few months of the season on loan at Sheffield Wednesday, it was thought (or at least I thought) that Carson would be second in line to Pepe Reina this coming season but it looks like it won’t be the case with the England U21 international taking the train to The Valley to link up with ex-Red Djimi Traoré.

With David Martin as backup and Chris Kirkland gone to Wigan, it looks more certain than ever that Jerzy Dudek is sticking around and won’t be part of any transfer move to bring in Dirk Kuyt. Hopefully Carson will get some good first team action under Iain Dowie as I feel he is quite important to Liverpool’s goalkeeping future.

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Liverpool Will Travel To Kiev

It is destination Kiev for Liverpool in their second leg of the Champions League Third Round of qualifying as Liverpool take on Maccabi Haifa to try seal their place in the Champions League proper.

Kick off for the game on August 22nd is said to be 7:35pm Irish time with the game being hosted in Dynamo Kiev’s Valery Lobanovskiy stadium.

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Result: Liverpool 2 - 1 Chelsea

It might have had a real friendly feeling about the game but Liverpool have clinched the first piece of domestic silverware, the FA Community Shield.

John Arne Riise opened the scoring after just 9 minutes with a rasping drive from around 30 yards before Shevchenko scored his first for Chelsea’s competitive campaign on 42 minutes, picking up a Frank Lampard pass played over the defence to slot home going one-on-one against Pepe Reina.

With the game looking like a penalty shootout was on the cards for The Reds again, Peter Crouch popped up with ten minutes to go to head home past Carlo Cudicini under Craig Bellamy’s pin perfect cross to silence Chelsea fans in Cardiff and seal the game with a 2-1 win.

Majority of the bench got a run out as Liverpool got their competitive campaign off to a great start, sounding out a solid warning to Chelsea who we will no doubt cross paths with again outside of the league campaign. Eleven times in the last two years the sides have met and the result today is Chelsea’s first time to lose three competitive games on the trot, having lost their last two league games of the 05/06 season.
After the game, Benitez said that he was “happy with the performance” and that the “work rate of the players was fantastic”.

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Live: Liverpool 1 - 1 Chelsea

Straight ball from Lampard over the top of the defence into the path of Andriy Shevchenko, the Ukrainian 1-on-1 with Reina who finishes calmly to make it 1-1 just before half time, only a minute after we could have been 2-0 up. Bad time to concede a goal for Liverpool in fairness but first real sign of life from Chelsea who are now also missing Michael Ballack (off injured earlier in the half).

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Live: Liverpool 1 - 0 Chelsea

Bless mobile blogging Nine minutes gone in the game and John Arne Riise has just hammered Liverpool into the lead with a superb goal, taking the ball in the half and embarking on a massive run before rifling in from around 30 yards out. Cudicini managed to get a hand to the ball but could do nothing to keep an absolute bullet of a shot out. Fantastic stuff.

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Community Shield - Liverpool vs Chelsea

We’re about a half hour from kick off and while I’d love to be able to provide live updates on the game through the blog I’ll be out and about in the local to catch the game.

As it stands, the confirmed team is as follows:

Pepe Reina, Steve Finnan, Jamie Carragher, Danny Agger, John Arne Riise, Jermaine Pennant, Momo Sissoko, Bolo Zenden, Mark Gonzalez, Luis Garcia, Peter Crouch.

A relatively tried and tested lineup for Liverpool but the game still undoubtedly has a “friendly feel” to it as Frank Lampard put it during the week. Should be a fantastic game ahead. No doubt as well there’ll be a strong lineup from Chelsea with Shevchenko and Ballack out to make their mark in their first competitive game for the Blues.

Joe Cole misses out, as does Petr Cech and William Gallas whose Chelsea future still hangs in the balance. Its been a war of mindgames during the week and in the build up to the game between Mourinho and Benitez who know each other inside out at this stage and I certainly don’t think there’ll be any holding back in today’s game, friendly or not.

Craig Bellamy starts on the bench for Liverpool as does Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso, surprisingly, which adds more to the friendly atmosphere of the game, Benitez obviously more worried about the start of the league campaign. No place for Robbie Fowler today who is still carrying a knock from preseason but Fabio Aurélio makes the bench and might well make an appearance as a sub - both sides being allowed to make a total of six changes today in a change to the rules by the FA.

Kick off is just half an hour away, here’s to a Liverpool win and an entertaining game.

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Curtain Falls On Carl Medjani

Carl Medjani’s Liverpool club career has come to an end with the French youth captain signing for Lorient, as was expected he might, where he had spent the season on loan two years ago.

The move comes as no real surprise as the French exodus continues out of Anfield, Djimi Traoré leaving earlier in the week soon to be followed by Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama Pongolle. Signed in 03/04 by Gerrard Houllier, the closest Medjani ever came to a competitive appearance was as an unused sub against Kaunus in the Champions League last season.

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Gerrard Named England Vice-Captain

Steven Gerrard has been named as vice captain for the England squad under the new guidance of Steve McLaren with John Terry named as England’s new skipper, replacing David Beckham who turned in his armband after England’s World Cup campaign.

While many thought the race to be neck and neck all the way there can only be one captain and McLaren has chosen the Chelsea skipper to replace Beckham citing that respect shown to Terry by his fellow professionals was one of the main reasons behind his decision.

“He has been an inspiration for Chelsea and is at his best in adversity. Over the five years I’ve been involved with the England coaching set-up I’ve seen first hand the respect that John has among his fellow players.”

I would go as far to say that I’m happy that Gerrard wasn’t named captain. As much as there is huge pressure on him at Liverpool guiding the team week in week out with the Premier League, domestic trophies and the Champions League all on the table this season, there seems to be no end to the pressures associated with the English captaincy. True, he will deputise in any absence by Terry from the English fold and while it would be a great honour for him to lead his country I still think that he will have his day and I’m glad he’ll have that extra freedom to focus on Liverpool.

Speaking of Terry, Gerrard said…

“He’s a tremendous leader for Chelsea and has all the qualities required to do the role. I’m also pleased to have been appointed vice-captain by Steve McClaren today. I am grateful that Steve took the time to call me and inform me of his decision. There are a number of captains in the England squad and I know we will all be giving 100% support to Steve and John.”

Should make Sunday’s clash a little interesting don’t you think?

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Le Tallec Transfer Falls Through

According to Alain Perrin it looks like Anthony Le Tallec’s proposed transfer to Sochaux has been cancelled.

“It is very complicated. I don’t know why, but it is complicated. We will bounce back and target another prospect. I have another option and we are going to travel.”

It was suggested that Le Tallec would be moving back to French football, at least on a loan move with a permanent transfer in view at Christmas or by the end of the season but for now the player shall remain in England.

No official word yet on Pongolle’s proposed move to Osasuna or transfer away from Anfield altogether with Blackburn still a possible destination.

With Niall Quinn now at the helm at Sunderland I’d wonder if he would consider re-signing Le Tallec on loan for the season, likewise with Mark Hughes for Pongolle as he looks to replace Bellamy. While I’ve already said I wouldn’t be surprised or disappointed to see them leave it would be great to have them play a full season of regular first team football and add to the squad strength next season. If its not going to happen then just cut them loose now.

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