“After what has been a monumental and emotional week on Merseyside, football was something of an afterthought. The findings of the Hillsborough Independent Panel have shocked the nation, but it merely highlighted what the families of the victims and the survivors of the disaster have known all along. The club, though, had to focus on the task at hand: a trip to Sunderland, as Brendan Rodgers went in search of his first league win as Liverpool boss.” Sabotage Times

Rush: Rodgers needs time to build Reds
“Liverpool legend Ian Rush is adamant that Brendan Rodgers will be a success at Anfield if he is given time. Rodgers replaced Kenny Dalglish as manager in June but has failed to win any of his first four league games at the Reds helm. Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Sunderland has left Liverpool with two points from a possible 12, their worst start to a season since 1911. But Rush, who won five league titles during two spells at the club in the 1980s and 1990s, sees signs that Rodgers is starting to pull things together.” ESPN

“Fourteen years later, and getting settled in Stoke, 600 miles and a world away from St Etienne, Owen will struggle to find a preview that does not mention his goal against Argentina at the 1998 World Cup. What the ITV commentator Brian Moore described above, in the rising pitch that gilded a thousand similarly spectacular goals, was not just a moment for Owen’s early career, but what would become the enduring reference point. It is not a bad one to be stuck with, though Owen can be forgiven for wishing he had something a little more recent in contention. Instead he signs for Stoke City on a free transfer, as he did for Manchester United three years ago, once again keen to prove that his football career does not exist solely in the past tense.” SI