Derby County vs. Liverpool FC (Boxing Day)

I am NOT loving the first sentence in this preview from today's Independent...

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is likely to shuffle his side for the trip to Derby with a tough trip to fourth-placed Manchester City - who have a fine home record - next Sunday.

Benitez has already made 223 alterations to his Liverpool side this season, on a match-to-match basis, while he has also used 77 substitutions, making it a remarkable 300 changes in player personal in 28 matches so far.

At Derby, Ryan Babel, Andriy Voronin, Fabio Aurelio and Lucas are all in the running for a starting place.

Jack Hobbs could also get another run-out in defence while Xabi Alonso could also continue his comeback from injury.

Provisional squad: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Hobbs, Hyypia, Riise, Aurelio, Benayoun, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano, Kewell, Babel, Lucas, Sissoko, Crouch, Kuyt, Torres, Voronin, Itandje.

I am NOT loving the first sentence in this preview from today's Independent...

Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez is likely to shuffle his side for the trip to Derby with a tough trip to fourth-placed Manchester City - who have a fine home record - next Sunday.

Benitez has already made 223 alterations to his Liverpool side this season, on a match-to-match basis, while he has also used 77 substitutions, making it a remarkable 300 changes in player personal in 28 matches so far.

At Derby, Ryan Babel, Andriy Voronin, Fabio Aurelio and Lucas are all in the running for a starting place.

Jack Hobbs could also get another run-out in defence while Xabi Alonso could also continue his comeback from injury.

Provisional squad: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Hobbs, Hyypia, Riise, Aurelio, Benayoun, Gerrard, Alonso, Mascherano, Kewell, Babel, Lucas, Sissoko, Crouch, Kuyt, Torres, Voronin, Itandje.

Tinkerbell is ringing again. Rafa should just stick to the winning team. Another slip-up would certainly end our challenge for top spot. No time and opportunity for further experiment and mistakes.

Remember when he kept an unchanged side for the first time in 99 matches last season? Was that just to stop the total from hitting treble figures or was there some actually tactical reasoning behind it? I never got to the bottom of that.

The statistics quoted in that article are complete & utter bollocks. I can't be bothered to get the correct stats at the moment, but I know that every other season Rafa has made in the region of 120 changes over the course of the whole season.

Stop changing......we have the best squad at the moment unless Babel,Agger or Alonso included in starting line-up

The statistics quoted in that article are complete & utter bollocks. I can't be bothered to get the correct stats at the moment, but I know that every other season Rafa has made in the region of 120 changes over the course of the whole season.

Well technically the last two matches alone he made 9 changes for each match - that makes 18 - before substitutions so I find your 120 changes over an entire season somewhat surprising.

Anyway the post above I completely don't understand so all that it leaves me to say is that I fully expect 3 points tomorrow.  If Rafa plays a weakened side and it blows up in his face then I will have no sympathy for the flak the guy will face.  We desperately need to go on an extended winning run, not an unbeaten run - a WINNING run. 

If we're going to make our March and April remotely interesting we definitely need to be getting maximum points week in and week out because the other top three sides really don't look like they are going to drop too many.  And Man City and Everton are both capable of going on runs themselves.

your right KK , would'nt it be nice to be still involved come march . We need maxium points over the christmas period and anything less will just be like any other year when we're relying on CL. LETS SEE WHAT HAPPENS IN THE NEXT 4 MATCHES

Anyone think Torres will play today, rafas said on main site him and gerrard were tired last game at the end?

Well chris i do think so.....He's a key player dude.Without him,the performance of the team will go down.Btw,I hope Babel play today hehehe.
Wait a minute,Alonso play tonight(evening in england)??

Who will be able to give me updates on this match? Will someone be doing it, I might be lucky to catch the second half.

Who will be able to give me updates on this match? Will someone be doing it, I might be lucky to catch the second half.

You can use the BBC update service,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/l/liverpool/default.stm
Just go to "Live Text" on the upper left, should work in Oz.

Ok im going to the bookies on Torres first goal, any predictions on score i should do, was thinking along the lines of 0-3 to us!

Yeah so i hear on radio 5 live good good, all we need now is Sunderland to win against mancs, and arsenal to slip up later

If only one of Arsenal or the Mancs drop points it will do for me! By the way villa are 2-1 up against chelsea.

Half Time: Chelsea 1-2 Aston Villa

Knight gave away a stupid penalty in injury time. Shevchenko puts it in. 2-0 and i would have been very confident. They now have 10 men and only a 1 goal advantage, would love to be level with Chelski and a match in hand.

Knight gave away a stupid penalty in injury time. Shevchenko puts it in. 2-0 and I would have been very confident. They now have 10 men and only a 1 goal advantage, would love to be level with Chelski and a match in hand.

That's still good on all accounts if they can keep them for this long I'm sure they will try and keep the lead as this would be a BIG win for them (and us)

Anyway back on topic please guys

My predicted line up for today's game is as follows

Reina

Arbeloa Carra Hobbs Aurellio

Voronin Gerrard Alonso Kewell

Babel  Torres

I'll go with a comfortable away win.

Chelsea equalise from a goal by Andriy Shitschenko

:'(     Now he scores...

Yeah hohoho, new gambling on starting XI................
The line up in full is: Reina, Finnan, Aurelio, Carragher, Hyypia, Gerrard, Alonso, Babel, Riise, Voronin, Torres. Subs: Itandje, Benayoun, Lucas, Kuyt, Mascherano.

Chelsea have taken the lead 3-2!  This is becoming a good game 10 man Villa have equalised  3-3

Reina, Finnan, Aurelio, Carragher, Hyypia, Gerrard, Alonso, Babel, Riise, Voronin, Torres.

Good choice for today, got torres first goal today also us to win 0-3 at 16/1 come on you reds!!!!

have to say good line up for today hope the players havnt had too much boucholais come on you reds