What the Papers Say Liverpool

[topfuller]

Liverpool survive late scare to give Benítez some respite

Dominic Fifield at Anfield
Thursday October 26, 2006

The Guardian

The Carling Cup holds little attraction to Liverpool these days, so intent is this club upon succeeding in loftier competitions, but it at least offered Liverpool some much needed relief last night.

This developed into a stunning cup tie, Reading refusing to sink in the deluge, though the hosts will cling to any victory these days.

These opponents had never ventured to this arena before but they will do so again in the Premiership next month with some confidence courtesy of the incredible late revival here that earned them a three goals in the last 15 minutes which threatened to erode the home side's utter dominance.

The magnificence of Peter Crouch's fourth goal for Liverpool, a glorious dummy to round Graham Stack, was lost in the frenzy at the end. That Liverpool ended feeling relief rather than rejoicing hardly suggested a renaissance.

For so long, this had been a game befitting such a miserable evening on Merseyside. Sides made virtually unrecognisable by 15 changes from the weekend - eight of them by Rafael Benítez to take his tally of consecutive matches without fielding an unchanged line-up to 98 - spluttered in the downpour. While the water pooled, the quality drained until, eventually, Reading's concentration went with it. Capitulation followed.

A drab opening period was drifting to a soggy and goalless conclusion when Jermaine Pennant was allowed marginally too much time and space in possession. The winger advanced and, as Reading's ragged back-line retreated, slipped Robbie Fowler smartly between defenders and the returning captain chipped the exposed Graham Stack with glorious ease.

The visitors, for so long the slicker side, were still raging at that loss of concentration when Fowler, making his first appearance since the derby defeat to Everton on September 9, liberated John Arne Riise down the left. The Norwegian's diagonal drive was parried by Stack with the ball cannoning back to Riise on the edge of the area, his second attempt duly skimmed into the corner with the goalkeeper static and aghast.

The unexpected plunder punctured the growing mood of exasperation. The Cameroonian Andre Bikey had largely smothered the midfield, clashing explosively with Mohamed Sissoko in competition for possession, with the combination play mustered down either flank occasionally exposing the home side's jittery defence. Yet all that effort had been frittered away in the seconds before the interval, confidence flooding back into home ranks with the visitors breached.

The third goal, shipped far too easily five minutes after the break, seemed to have settled the result. Pennant's corner veered awkwardly into the cluttered six-yard box where Gabriel Paletta, the young Argentinian centre-back signed this summer and on full debut, held off Bryn Gunnarsson to ease his header into the net.

But even with Crouch adding the fourth, there was a sting for the hosts to endure.

The England forward's goal had come minutes after Bikey had thumped in Glen Little's free-kick and was pursued by Leroy Lita spearing in from the edge of the six-yard box.

With Liverpool suddenly panicked, Shane Long leapt unmarked to nod in Little's centre five minutes from time and Benitez was left pacing anxiously with fury etched across his brow.

[All 5 goals]

Nice report makes me feel a lot better after the last two weeks looking forward to the league game,

[Far Canal]

The Times October 26, 2006

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 64,00.html

Fowler back with a bang as Liverpool get a fright
By Kaveh Solhekol

Liverpool 4 Reading 3

NOTHING is certain but death, taxes and Rafael Benítez rotating his squad. The Liverpool manager edged closer
to a century by altering his starting line-up for the 98th successive game last night, but for once few of his players will
have complained about watching from the sidelines.

Liverpool may have won the League Cup seven times, but the competition has been devalued to such an extent that being
selected to play in it identifies a player as a star of the future rather than one of the present.

Benítez made eight changes to the side that lost to Manchester United in the Barclays Premiership on Sunday, recalling
Robbie Fowler to partner Peter Crouch in attack and handing full debuts to Gabriel Paletta and Lee Peltier, and for 75 minutes
Liverpool played like a team who were determined to erase the memories of their painful defeat at Old Trafford. But after
establishing two three-goal leads, the centre of their defence collapsed alarmingly to allow Reading to come within touching
distance of taking the game into extra time.

“We could have snatched a draw but I’m glad we didn’t because we have some big games coming up and we didn’t want
to play extra time,â€

[topfuller]

The Independent

Liverpool 4 Reading 3: Reds edge Reading in thriller

By Graham Nickless

Published: 26 October 2006

Rafael Benitez played Russian roulette in the Carling Cup at Anfield last night and almost shot himself in the foot. Liverpool edged out Reading after they appeared to be cantering into a fourth-round meeting with Birmingham City by going 3-0 up inside 50 minutes.

In the end, it was the Anfield faithful who were left screaming for the final whistle when an under-strength Reading side staged a remarkable fightback with three goals in 10 minutes.

Benitez, already under pressure after seeing the Reds slip 11 points behind Premier League leaders Manchester United, tried his best to put a positive spin on this narrow victory.

He said: "We're not scoring many goals away from home but to score four fantastic goals here is good for the team and we saw some new young players playing at Anfield for the first time, but we were under a lot of pressure in the last minutes and I'm glad we didn't go into extra time."

The Spaniard made eight changes from the side beaten 2-0 at Old Trafford which brought the doom and gloom merchants bearing down once more. It was left to Robbie Fowler to bring some smiles back to everyone's faces at Anfield when he opened the scoring with a chip over the Reading goalkeeper Graham Stack on 44 minutes to move into second place in the club's all-time League Cup goalscoring records behind Kenny Dalglish.

John Arne Riise made it 2-0 within 60 seconds when he thumped the ball home from 16 yards after his first effort had been punched back to him by Stack.

The tie looked effectively over when Gabriel Paletta, one of two youngsters making Liverpool debuts - along with Lee Peltier - headed home Jermaine Pennant's 50th-minute corner in front of the Kop.

Fowler could have added two more goals before Andre Bikey forced home Glen Little's free-kick to give the visitors hope. That seemed impossible when Fowler played in Peter Crouch and the England man put the Merseysiders three goals ahead again with just 13 minutes remaining.

However, the Royals refused to lie down and Leroy Lita waltzed through the home defence to make it 4-2 with nine minutes left.

Benitez was now a man in a state of panic in the technical area, especially when he saw Shane Long head home Little's cross to set up a grand finale which saw Liverpool survive a mad goalmouth scramble.

Liverpool (4-4-2): Reina; Peltier (Smith, 73), Agger, Paletta, Warnock; Pennant, Sissoko (Guthrie, 62), Zenden, Riise (Kuyt, 79); Crouch, Fowler. Substitutes not used: Martin (gk), Carragher.

Reading (4-4-2): Stack; Halls, Ingamarsson, Gunnarsson (Sodje, 83), De La Cruz; Little, Oster, Bikey, Hunt; Lita, Long. Substitutes not used: Hahnemann (gk), Hayes, Osamo, Dubrois.

Referee: P Walton (Northamptonshire).

[RoyalBlue]

All these reports make a big thing about the 8 changes to the Liverpool lineup - what about ours?!!!

[Royal Fleet]

All these reports make a big thing about the 8 changes to the Liverpool lineup - what about ours?!!!

I would have thought we would have got the hang of this by now.

Liverpool = big club, lots of armchair fans, to whom reading reports is as close to an actual game as they get.

Reading = middle sized clubs, less armchair fans, don't sell newspapers.

[Barry the bird boggler]

All these reports make a big thing about the 8 changes to the Liverpool lineup - what about ours?!!!

Weird that, isn't there usually 8 changes to the Liverpool line-up for every game?