“If the 217th Merseyside meeting was the Gerrard derby, the 219th was the Suarez derby. As ever where he is concerned, it is both compliment and criticism. Unlike the March game when the Liverpool captain’s hat-trick earned him the superlatives, October spawned a more fractious affair. But that is in keeping with Luis Suarez’s persona. He divides opinion as he can split defences on those piercing, pacey solo runs.” ESPN

Everton v Liverpool: David Moyes frustrated by his poor record in 10 years of Merseyside derbies
” The discolouring flows from the Merseyside derby, a fixture bringing frequent frustration for Everton’s esteemed manager. In his 20 league meetings with Liverpool, Moyes has won three, drawn five and lost 12, taking a modest 14 points from a possible 60. The Scot, who will join the legendary Harry Catterick in managing Everton against Liverpool in 11 successive seasons on Sunday afternoon, has currently assembled one of his finest sides, a team of mobility, balance, experience and creative options, but no complacency. The lessons of history, let alone the beseeching of Gwladys Street, ensure that Everton cannot afford a slip in concentration in this 187th league derby, one of the classic dates of the domestic calendar, always an assault on the ears for those in attendance.” Telegraph – Henry Winter

“Forward Raheem Sterling scored his first Liverpool goal to give manager Brendan Rodgers his maiden home league win against former club Reading following a 1-0 triumph. The England Under-21 international, at 17 years and 317 days old, as a result became the club’s second-youngest Premier League goalscorer behind Michael Owen. His strike should not have been the Reds’ sole effort but such are their problems up front this season – prior to kick-off only Sunderland (two) and bottom club QPR (one) had scored fewer at home – winless Reading remained in the game right up until the final whistle.” ESPN

“Liverpool were left with egg on their face when they allowed Andy Carroll to join West Ham on loan just 24 hours before the transfer window closed and then failed to sign a replacement, leaving them with just Fabio Borini and Luis Suarez as the only recognised senior strikers in the squad. With the Reds competing in four competitions this season, going forward with just two strikers – one of whom was to be played out wide every week – was simply asking for trouble, and news that Borini has broken a bone in his foot whilst on international duty with Italy and faces a lengthy layoff is what fans feared would happen.” Sabotage Times

“You don’t need a ton of context to appreciate how batshit amazing this story is. Out of nowhere, a Twitter account emerges, claiming to have inside information. He floats some transfer rumors, scores a few hits, and all of a sudden becomes one of the more trusted sources covering Liverpool FC. So trusted that the club becomes convinced it has a mole, and sics its press pit bull on the rumormonger—only to discover that he doesn’t exist.” Deadspin

“Having secured their first league win away at Norwich last weekend following a tough set of fixtures to start the season, Liverpool faced the prospect of four consecutive home games and the chance to build up some real momentum after a series of impressive performances and encouraging results; things didn’t work out as planned, though. Having somehow contrived to lose at home to Udinese in the Europa League on Thursday despite comprehensively outplaying them, the Reds laboured to a 0-0 draw against an unambitious Stoke side, who seemed more concerned about kicking the opposition from pillar to post than attempting to try and win the game.” Sabotage Times

“Liverpool endured a frustrating afternoon at Anfield as Stoke’s renowned battlers fought their way to a goalless draw. A stalwart defensive display made it five draws in seven matches by Tony Pulis’ men, while a point will be scant consolation for Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers. It could have been worse for Liverpool, who twice almost pushed the self-destruct button, but ultimately this will be viewed as another disappointment in a stop-start season.” ESPN

“Luis Suarez scored his second hat trick at Carrow Road in the space of five months as Liverpool crushed a sorry Norwich 5-2 to record its first Barclays Premier League win under Brendan Rodgers. Suarez scored a memorable treble on his last visit to Carrow in April and he took just 67 seconds to open his account in Norfolk this season, scoring from the edge of the box to make it 1-0. He then capitalized on a terrible mistake by Michael Turner to make it 2-0 before laying on Nuri Sahin, who made it 3-0 just after the break.” ESPN

Charlie Adam
“At Stamford Bridge last season, Charlie Adam appeared to have become a proper Liverpool player, as Kenny Dalglish’s side recorded a fine 2-1 victory over the eventual European Champions. The Scot played a crucial role in both goals. First, he energetically closed down Jon Obi Mikel as AVB-led Chelsea tried to pass out from defence, won the ball, and prompted a rapid Liverpool passing sequence leading to Maxi Rodriguez’s cool finish. His contribution for the winner was even better — a 50-yard pass out to Glen Johnson, who had stormed forward from right back to slide in a late winner.” ESPN – Michael Cox

“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

” Last night, BBC North West and BBC Yorkshire aired a brand-new documentary entitled ‘Hillsborough – Searching For The Truth.’ If you missed it, here it is in its entirety. According to the synopsis from the BBC, the documentary filmmaker speaks to police officers, Hillsborough victims’ family members and the author of an infamous article in the Sun newspaper which blamed Liverpool fans for the disaster. The 30 minute documentary was released last night in the build-up to Wednesday’s much-awaited report from the Hillsborough Independent Panel, where the Panel had access to more than 400,000 previously unreleased documents.” EPL Tale (Video)

“At least, we might surmise, the waves of panic might be starting to recede from lapping against the walls of Anfield now. On Sunday afternoon, Liverpool put in about as complete a performance as could have been hoped for considering their wretched start to the season against West Bromwich Albion eight days previously in holding Manchester City to a two-all draw in front of the television cameras. There was plenty for Liverpool supporters to be optimistic about, as well. The debut of Raheem Sterling, after three appearances from the substitutes bench, showed off a player with a sack of potential, while Joe Allen, whose signature from Swansea City for £15m raised eyebrows at the amount of money paid, put in about as accomplished a performance as Liverpools midfield has seen since the club started its slide down the Premier League table a couple of years ago.” twohundredpercent

“An own goal from Andy Webster was all that separated the two sides as Liverpool scraped a narrow 1-0 victory over Hearts in the Europa League play-off at Tynecastle. Hearts impressed for much of the tie before suffering a late blow against their Premier League visitors, who made the trip across the border without a number of star players.” ESPN

“West Brom stunned 10-man Liverpool with a resounding victory to mark the start of the Steve Clarke era in style in this Premier League encounter at the Hawthorns. A superb strike from Zoltan Gera, Peter Odemwingie’s penalty plus a header from on-loan newcomer Romelu Lukaku made it a miserable day for new Reds boss Brendan Rodgers. Liverpool also had defender Daniel Agger sent off early in the second period and looked a shambles at the back in the final half hour.” ESPN

“Earlier in the summer, TTT, as part of a new era of open communications between the club and its fans, was invited to ask Liverpool’s principal owner, John Henry, some questions. Recently I felt the time was right to submit a series of questions, which were devised by contributors to this site.” Tomkins Times

“It wasn’t meant to be this way. From the moment he became part of Roma’s youth system Alberto Aquilani was identified as one of the brightest prospects to emerge in years and yet now, just over a decade later, he moves to Fiorentina looking to rediscover that early promise. Having finally ended a Liverpool career that was always ill-fitting and never truly began in earnest, the 28-year-old moves to a club now synonymous with rebuilding the reputation of fallen stars. He will be hoping the famous Viola shirt can do the same for him.” ESPN

“Liverpool’s continued absence from the Champions League is dangerously becoming something of a self-defeating cycle. Without the prestige and, more importantly, the revenue from competing in Europe’s elite club competition, the Reds lack both the financial clout and the pulling power to compete with the top sides for the big names – and, on top of that, they’re now becoming vulnerable to other teams coming in for their star players, with the lure of big-money contracts and Champions League football potentially turning the heads of key members of Brendan Rodgers’ squad.” Sabotage Times

“There are two main ways to approach the selection process. The first is to pick each player by ‘type’ and select men who will complement each other on the pitch, producing a balanced and cohesive team. The manager simply gives these players a general framework to play in and lets them play. This method is not very detailed; the trick is in signing the right archetypes. We can broadly call this the ‘macro’ method. The second approach is much more sophisticated and requires a much deeper understanding of tactics and the ability to translate these ideas into instructions the players can absorb and understand. They will need to know precisely what they are expected to do in any given situation. Player types become less important as specific instructions can govern behaviour – but the balance and detail of the manager’s plan has to be spot-on. This, then, is the ‘micro’ method.” Tomkins Times

“Football is a folk game in the truest sense of the word; it is of the people, by the people and for the people. Therein resides its power and longevity. The Victorians lay claim to codifying and defining the sport but the game itself has existed in some form or another all over the world for centuries. The Romans and ancient Greeks played a ball game with their feet, as did the Chinese; indeed the practice of Cujo (literally kick-ball) dates back to 1BC. There are variations in most cultures that are region-specific and as different from each other as football is to rugby. There seems to be something enduring and fascinating across the world about these team ball-games played with the feet. However, the game in England evolved from games that involved neighbouring towns and villages attempting to move a ball to a specific geographical location, the balls were usually carried and involved an unlimited amount of participants and resembled localised riots rather than a hobby or pastime.” Tomkins Times

“Football fans hover on the edge of insanity all year round. But the summer seems to push many over the precipice. It’s the time of hope and imagination, and that can be dangerous. The massive increase in newspaper space dedicated to football, allied to the rise of the internet, has helped turn the summer into a stress-fest. But the advent of Twitter has given voice to a thousand wind-up merchants, pranksters and wannabe transfer scoopers, the result of which is to multiply the insanity.” Tomkins Times

“The UK’s wartime leader undoubtedly had many virtues, but an interest in football was never amongst them. Nonetheless, however unintentionally, his above quote accurately summarises the current position of Liverpool FC, because if ever a football club has reason to be proud of its history and traditions, it’s Liverpool. At the same time, if ever a football club was at risk of that same tradition becoming an unintended euphemism for inertia and underachievement, it’s also Liverpool. Churchill is perceptive in his counselling that the past is there to be respected but should not be allowed to dictate the present.” Tomkins Times

“I can’t stand the noise. Please, make it stop. In the old days we wanted Liverpool FC to do its business in private and only release it to the world when it was complete. Now, in life in general, no news is bad news. Indeed, no news is terrible news. No news is an excuse for mass hysteria. I’ve been guilty of it, too; Twitter, in particular, does that to you. You stare at the screen as it updates … and still no news! It’s been five seconds! Refresh, refresh.” Tomkins Times