We need to talk about Andrea

Rafa felt the time was right to unleash his sinister rotation policy on the Carling cup. I saw this on a Liverpool forum and thought it was perfect. The boss used the opportunity of the Spurs match to bench some of the top players like Stevie, who needs a rest according to Rafa. Unfortunately, the reserves and fringe players took their opportunity with both hands - to show us that they're not good enough. It's only the carling cup so it doesn't hurt much but it's annoying to see the team perform so badly.

Agger said it wasn't good enough. He's not wrong. Not impressed with Dossena. But given how highly the Italians and Don Fabio himself rate him, there must be more to him than we've seen so far. But he has been fairly shit so far. I thought he was gradually improving but he was rubbish last night, as was Degen. If Arbeloa or Aurelio gets injured, which is quite likely in the latter case, we could be in trouble. Insua looks a better bet than Dossena at the moment. Maybe Dossena will go on to prove us wrong, or maybe Rafa will see he's not working here and cut his losses, as he did with Morientes and Josemi, and sell him in the summer.
The problem Rafa now faces is who to select against at right back against Bolton as Arbeloa is suspended. The options appear to be, play right back Degen or Darby, or move Carragher across from the centre and bring Sami in the middle, alongside Agger. The latter is more likely I reckon. If we go for option a, we can expect Bolton to put Davies on Degen/Darby and launch and aerial bombardment. If we have Carra out there then he'd be well able for it. Hopefully Torres will benefit from the run out and look sharper on Sat morning. We should have more than enough to batter them.

The A Liverpool thing blog has a feature on Fracisco Duran. Insert your own 80's joke here.

Riera has discussed the Spanish players and their use of English. Rafa seems very insistent on this and rightfully so. Speaking of Rafa, Stan Collymore doesn't think that Rafa deserves a new contract. Stan for manager. Tool.

Torres has reiterated that he has no desire to move anywhere else. He's a committed red and is staying here for a long time to come. Great news.

Investment banker Keith Harris reckons that the Americans may be forced to sell in January. Let's hope he's right.