Friday, February 29, 2008
Some matters outside of football first. Some
disturbing news on Thursday that Mas Selamat, leader of the JI network in Singapore, escaped the Whitely Detention Centre the day before, limping and probably unarmed. Someone got bribed to letting him go? In any case, Singapore's impregnable security is impregnable no more. Haha... Our neighbours in the North and below us are definitely laughing at us.
I also took my 'O' Level Physics SPA Skill 1 and 2 on Wednesday. It was worth 7.5% of the total 'O' Level physics paper. I think I did quite well, and hopefully might be able to grasp 90% of the marks allocated. I need it! My theory isn't very good, you know...
Now back to football, NOT soccer. Argentinian midfield hard-man Javier Mascherano has signed a four-year contract, for a fee thought to be £17 million, to be paid to his owners MSI, not West Ham. So now Liverpool's midfield looks like this, in accordance to their pecking order.
Steven Gerrard,
Javier Mascherano, Xabi Alonso, Lucas Leiva
Let's look at the first midfield quartet Rafa Benitez had.
Steven Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Dietmar Hamann, Igor Biscan
The only two survivors are Steven Gerrard and Xabi Alonso. But the 2005 back-up midfielders of Dietmar Hamann and Igor Biscan are replaced by the 2008 batch of Javier Mascherano and Lucas Leiva. Definitely, Hamann and Mascherano will be compared to in the near future, whether Mascherano is better or as good as Hamann in his prime, that sort of thing. But it'd be hard to see whether Lucas is better than Biscan, as both are different sort of players.
Now on to the game tomorrow night. Liverpool travel to the Reebok Stadium to face Gary Megson's Bolton Wanderers side. That ground has been a bit of a difficulty for Liverpool in recent times, and must improve their record in order to regain fourth spot and put pressure on Everton.
Reebok Stadium
Sunday 2 March 2008
9.25pm (SG GMT+8)
Football Channel (27)
Liverpool Line-Up:
25 Jose Manuel Reina
23 Jamie Carragher
__ 4 Sami Hyypia
3 Steve Finnan
______________________________________ 17 Alvaro Arbeloa
8 Steven Gerrard (
C)
____ 20 Javier Mascherano
11 Yossi Benayoun
______________________________________ 6 John Arne Riise
15 Peter Crouch
______ 9 Fernando Torres
Substitutes:
30 Charles Itandje _ 14 Xabi Alonso _ 19 Ryan Babel _ 7 Harry Kewell _ 18 Dirk Kuyt
Liverpool will need to play with some strength and decent height all around to try to neutralise some of Bolton's threats. Jose Reina to start in goal again. Steve Finnan should be deployed at right-back, whilst Alvaro Arbeloa might be used at left-back to deal with the pace of El-Hadji Diouf or height of Kevin Davies. Either way, Sami Hyypia will start to deal with Davies' more central threat, whilst the returning Jamie Carragher will command the defence.
Javier Mascherano should start to deal with Kevin Nolan or/and Ivan Campo. Skipper Steven Gerrard will continue in the heart of the midfield, and his bursting runs should cause problems for Bolton's defence. Yossi Benayoun will play to add something different to the Reds' attack, and John Arne Riise, if not started at left-back, should play at left wing to give Liverpool some defensive edge and a bit of hard running when attacking.
Fernando Torres will start, no matter what opposition. Abdoulaye Faye might have a hard time dealing with him. Peter Crouch should start alongside Torres, with his height at both ends of the pitch being very useful. If Rafa goes with the five defenders on the pitch, I doubt there would be another on the bench, so Xabi Alonso will take his place, and come on if an added midfield man is needed. With an extra bench place, Ryan Babel and Harry Kewell could have places on the bench, and could come on to add a more attacking threat. Dirk Kuyt will come on should a striker be needed.
C'mon Reds!
Bye~!
my thoughts at 10:55 pm