“It feels like every time Liverpool plays Everton these days, the game is billed as ‘the most important derby’ for years. Ahead of Saturday’s Premier League encounter, both sides have more in common than usual; managers battling with early-season selection problems, defensive lapses, key players injured and unrealistic expectations after over-achievement last season.” SI

“Wow, I genuinely didn’t see this coming. The first word I associate with Mario Balotelli is bargepole. As in, don’t go near him with one. That said, £16m for his talent is a steal. But why are AC Milan letting him go quite so cheaply? Once penalties are excluded he has a very good goalscoring record there in a poor team (with penalties it’s an excellent record, but Steven Gerrard still takes Liverpool’s spot-kicks). Why do people keep offloading him? Why always him? Obviously he may now be starting to grow up; but frankly, he needs to.” Tomkins Times

Balotelli is good business for Liverpool
“Few things polarize social media like the terms “Liverpool” and “Mario Balotelli.” So when news broke Thursday that the Italy striker appeared to be on his way to Anfield, the subsequent Twitterstorm was predictable. On Monday, I made the point that Liverpool didn’t need another high-profile striker, that Brendan Rodgers likely felt he’d be best served with the one-forward system he used for most of his managerial career and that, if he were going to add an option up front, it made sense for it to be a youngster or a mid-range squad player, rather than someone in the Edinson Cavani/Radamel Falcao bracket.” ESPN

“The winning goal brought Brendan Rodgers bounding on to the pitch for the first time since Liverpool’s victory over Manchester City during last season’s title run-in. Relief, not delirium, sparked the Liverpool manager’s invasion on this occasion but the over-exuberance was understandable. Here was a reminder of how that title challenge began. For Southampton at Anfield in August 2014, read Stoke City at Anfield in August 2013. Twelve months ago Liverpool laboured to three points against a team under new management courtesy of a Daniel Sturridge goal and an 89th minute penalty save from Simon Mignolet. The script remained the same for Ronald Koeman’s first day as a Premier League manager. A poacher’s goal from Sturridge plus a sublime 88th-minute stop from Mignolet, who tipped Morgan Schneiderlin’s goal-bound volley on to the bar to preserve a slender lead, left Southampton lamenting undeserved defeat.” Guardian

“WHATEVER the issue – wrong owners, rip-off ticket prices, reduced allocations, travel issues, kick-off times, the manager, Luis Suarez; whatever it is, the question is always the same: ‘What do Liverpool fans think about…’. For about five years now I’ve been involved in Liverpool fanzines and websites, like Well Red Magazine, and later this here, The Anfield Wrap. During that time I’ve spoken to all kinds of journalists about all kinds of issues surrounding Liverpool and Liverpool fans.” The Anfield Wrap

“In his second full season on Liverpool’s first team, 19-year-old prodigy Raheem Sterling lit up the Premier League with nine goals and five assists. He was an integral part of Liverpool’s unexpected title challenge and eventual second-place finish. He helped the team score a club record 101 goals, partnering in an almost unstoppable attack with Luis Suárez and Daniel Sturridge. You can get lost watching Sterling’s YouTube highlights from Liverpool’s 2013-14 season — so much so that it’s kind of remarkable to think that two summers ago, the most compelling Sterling clip was one of his manager dressing him down in front of his teammates.” Grantland

“As Tottenham discovered last season, regardless of how much money you receive for your star man, it’s extremely difficult to replace him. For Tottenham and Gareth Bale last season, read Liverpool and Luis Suarez this season – it’s difficult to imagine how Liverpool can replace a player who scored 30 league goals last season. Will suarez departure from liverpool present problems? In reality, however, Spurs’ transfer approach was entirely correct. Their problem in Bale’s final campaign was that they relied on him too much – which was understandable given his incredible goalscoring contribution, but meant that when he was off-form, or injured, the rest of the side struggled to function. Bale was effectively handed a free role, which meant he produced some stunning moments of genius with his license to roam, but the structure of the rest of the side fell down.” Free Bets

“Brendan Rodgers forged his managerial reputation at Swansea City on the back of a possession-heavy philosophy, and it was widely expected that this approach was to be a permanent feature of his time at Anfield. Early in his tenure, the Ulsterman famously told a fansite briefing: I’ve always enjoyed and worked with the statistic that if you can dominate the game, with the ball, you have a 79% chance of winning a game of football. If you’re better than the other team, with the ball, you’ve got an 8 out of 10 chance of winning the game.” Tomkins Times

“The dream is over. The romance is dead. The glory will have to wait.  Liverpool’s season is not mathematically at an end, of course, but the nature of their spectacular collapse will have drained the impetus from their title challenge with as much speed as it has animated Manchester City, once thought adrift from the summit of the Premier League table.  Given the 25 years of heartache linked to the Hillsborough disaster, the souring of a dream which captured considerable public sympathy is especially hard to take. There is been more than a hint of misty-eyed destiny in the accomplished way that Steven Gerrard has carried his teammates to the pinnacle but, in purely sporting terms, their fall is not completely surprising. If Liverpool’s intense, fast-paced attacking style provided us all with some kind of illicit high in recent months, then their disregard for the game’s core principles surely represents the wicked comedown.” backpagefootball

“My name is Mikey, and I’m a Liverpool supporter. It has been three days since I last watched a game. I get up at four or five in the morning to watch matches because I now live in Australia. There have been times I have woken up the entire family with my screaming at the TV. I force my son to wear Liverpool pyjamas and sleep beneath a Liverpool bedspread every time Liverpool play. I blamed my wife for a defeat once because she put the duvet on his bed the wrong way around. I have a kid’s football shirt in a frame on the wall because I believe it made Liverpool unbeatable whenever my baby son wore it. I even got my wife to wake him up and put it on when we were 2-0 down to Portsmouth. He got back to sleep eventually. We won.” Tomkins Times

“A tearful Luis Suarez was led away from the scene of the accident with his face hidden inside his white Liverpool shirt, first by captain Steven Gerrard waving away an intrusive television camera, then by unused substitute Kolo Toure. Gerrard had been on his haunches, as had several of Liverpool’s players, while others sat in utter misery on the Selhurst Park turf before manager Brendan Rodgers emerged into the media suite and spoke of his squad being ‘devastated’. Never has going top of the Premier League with one game to play been greeted by such an outpouring of grief, despair and disappointment – but this was a thunderous night in south London that turned all logic on its head.” BBC (Video)

Istanbul in reverse signals death of Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool dream
“It was the expression of shock on those in the visiting contingent, from Brendan Rodgers in the technical area to Luis Suárez out on the pitch, which told the story. At least the Uruguayan had mustered a smile of disbelief while the game was still in progress before disintegrating into floods of tears, hiding his face in his shirt. Steven Gerrard was just as inconsolable before recovering some level of composure to hoist his team-mate from his haunches and push away the intrusion of a television camera.” Guardian

Liverpool Lost the Premier League Title Just Like They Almost Won It
“They finished last season in seventh place and came into this year with something like 33-1 odds of winning the Premier League. After back-to-back losses to Manchester City and Chelsea to end 2013, they found themselves in fifth place. But since the beginning of 2014 they’ve won 14 games, tied three, and lost one. They’ve clinched a spot in the Champions League group stages, and they’re atop the table with one game left in their season. Or: Humans exist as cast members in the blackest comedy, directed by some cruel, faceless, string-pulling auteur we will never see. Everything is a disappointment. And any success is just seemingly self-prescribed medication against the bleak, hopeless, ultimately hollow reality that nothing will ever work out the way we want it to.” Grantland

“Brendan Rodgers says Daniel Sturridge is in with a chance of returning to Liverpool’s starting lineup at Crystal Palace on Monday night. The England international, 24, is recovering from a hamstring injury sustained during the 3-2 win over Manchester City on April 13. The striker missed the following Sunday’s 3-2 victory at Norwich, but returned to action as a substitute seven days after that off the bench as Chelsea won 2-0 at Anfield.” ESPN

“Last summer, I said I thought Liverpool should sell Luis Suarez. There were a lot of reasons behind it, but most of it boiled down to the fact that Suarez was one of the worst high volume shooters in Europe when it came to converting shots into goals. A non-penalty conversion rate of 8.7% in his first season in the league, followed by another of 12.3% in his second season weren’t impressive enough for me to think his dribbling (also inefficient) and ability to create his own shot were enough. Liverpool were already near the limit in how often teams can generally shoot in a game (19.4 in 2012-13), and in my opinion, Suarez’ inefficiency was keeping Liverpool from taking the next step and competing for a Champions League place.” Stats Bomb

“I grew up in the dark yet magical Liverpool of the 1980s, a time when Liverpool FC won so many trophies that the team seemed to be on a permanent victory parade through the city’s streets, showing off their latest piece of silverware (watch the Super 8 footage here.) As a third-generation Everton fan in his formative years, witnessing Liverpool’s stars perpetually cruise by aboard an open-top bus was a searing sight. The players lolling casually around the cup on the front of the upper deck, a pose that suggested winning had really been no sweat at all.” ESPN (Video)

“Liverpool stand three steps from Premier League heaven after all the qualities required to win titles were put to the test by Norwich City at Carrow Road. Brendan Rodgers’s side – it is still just too early to call them champions-elect – showed their attacking brilliance, resilience and enjoyed a little good fortune to hold out for a win that at one stage looked a formality. Early goals from Raheem Sterling and Luis Suarez were examples of the fluidity and brilliance that have become Liverpool’s trademark this season, but those other factors were at work as they dug in to go five points clear at the top of the table with a 3-2 victory.” BBC

“… Liverpool have of course spent some money to get into the hunt, but nothing compared with that spent by Chelsea, Man United and City in winning their titles of the past decade, during which time football became about billionaires and even trillionaires. Liverpool have five huge games left, but if they win the title it would make them the ‘cheapest’ champions in many a blue moon.” Tomkins Times

“The long wait to win a Premier League championship might finally soon be over for Liverpool. After standing as English soccer’s marquee club for generations — including winning a record 18 titles in the old First Division — Liverpool have failed to win a league championship since 1990. With an eight-game Premier League winning streak that has included comfortable wins over Arsenal (5-1), Manchester United (3-0), and most recently Tottenham Hotspur (4-0), the club now controls its own destiny. If it wins each of its six remaining fixtures, the league championship will again return to Merseyside.” Grantland

“Liverpool took advantage of an inept defensive display by Tottenham to cruise to a 4-0 win at Anfield on Sunday and return to the top of the Premier League for the first time since December. An eighth straight win for Liverpool was never seriously in doubt from the moment Luis Suarez scored his 29th goal of the campaign in the 25th minute, adding to an own-goal by Younes Kaboul inside two minutes. Philippe Coutinho’s low drive in the 55th and Jordan Henderson’s free kick, which crept in past a mass of legs in the 75th, finished off Spurs and fuelled the growing conviction inside Anfield – and increasingly across the country – that Liverpool can win a first English league title in 24 years.” SI