Steven Gerrard has been ruled out of Liverpool's Champions League trip to Lyon, but striker Fernando Torres will be on the plane that heads for France on Tuesday
Although Gerrard has now played just 25 minutes of five matches since he sustained a groin injury while on England duty, boss Rafael Benitez has delayed any decision on whether his captain needs an operation.
Club sources suggest that Benitez is happy that Gerrard's treatment is progressing well and that the player's injury problem is improving. If Gerrard does have an operation on his groin, it will rule him out for a month and he would be unlikely to play again until mid-December.
Liverpool are trying to avoid that eventuality, and Benitez will assess the midfielder's fitness levels again when the Anfield men return from Wednesday's match.
Torres will travel with the party, having been taken off at Fulham on Saturday after a hour to protect his adductor muscle injury.
But £20million Italian midfielder Alberto Aquilani will be available for selection after recovering from a virus.
Benitez said: "Aquilani trained today (Monday) but was a little bit weak. Hopefully in two days' time he will be better.
"Gerrard won't travel to Lyon. He has no chance. He is improving but we have to wait. He has had an injection but we have to wait two or three days and see how he reacts.
Albert Riera (hamstring), Martin Kelly (ankle) and Martin Skrtel (muscle and virus), are also definitely out of the Group E match that Liverpool must win if they want to retain any serious hopes of qualifying for the last 16.
Meanwhile, the Liverpool manager will make late fitness calls on the recovering Daniel Agger (back), Glen Johnson (calf), Fabio Aurelio (calf) and David Ngog (ankle), none of whom travelled to Craven Cottage.










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CONVERSATION OVERHEARD IN HMP ATAVAR a short play by Stevie O Jay.
Subplot
( Thanks to mattneems )
Fernando Torres
Robbie Keane
Ryan Babel
Xabi Alonso
Dirk Kuyt
Albert Riera
Andrea Dossena
Peter Crouch
Lucas Leiva
Jermaine Pennant
Martin Skrtel
Craig Bellamy
Luis Garcia
Jose Reina
Dan Agger
Mohammed Sissoko
Fernando Morientes
Yossi Benayoun
Diego Cavalieri
Alvaro Arbeloa
Sebastian Leto
Jose Miguel Gonzalez
Gabriel Paletta
Mark Gonzalez
David Ngog
Scott Carson
Mikel San Jose
David Martin
Antonio Barragan
Besian Idrizaj
Jack Hobbs
Alex Cooper
Alexander Kacaniklic
Krisztian Nemeth
Andras Simon
Victor Palsson
Gary Mackay Steven
Vitor Flora
Andriy Voronin
Nikolay Mihaylov
Emmanuel Mendy
Marvin Pourie
Dani Pacheco
Nikola Saric
Lauri Dalla Valle
Gerardo Bruna
Hakan Duyan
Damien Plessis
Peter Gulacsi
Charles Itandje
Philipp Degen
Vincent Lucas
Ryan Crowther
Mihail Alexandrov
Robbie Fowler
Ryan Wilkie
Javier Mascherano
Miki Roque
Nabir El Zhar
Mark Smyth
Jay Smith
Stephen Darby
Craig Lindfield
Adam Hammill
Danny Guthrie
Paul Anderson
Lee Peltier
Fabio Aurelio
Jan Kromkamp
Boudewijn Zenden
Mauricio Pellegrino
Godwin Antwi
Robbie Threlfall
Ryan Flynn
Calum Woods
Paul Willis
Danny O'Donnell
Ramon Calliste
Steve Irwin
Martin Kelly
Ronald Huth
Jordy Brouwer
Francisco Manuel Duran
Emiliano Insua
Ray Putterill
Martin Hansen
Jay Spearing
Dave Roberts
David Mannix
Antonio Nunez
????????????????????????
CONVERSATION OVERHEARD IN HMP ATAVAR
Stevie O Jay and Marlon King are settling into their new home. There’s a bit of friction.
Stevie O Jay : Pheuuuufff
Marlon King : Whaattt?
Stevie O Jay : Ah nothin’
Marlon King : What? You’re the one going Pheuuuufff.
Stevie O Jay : Your feet Marlon, your feet, your f*cking feet?
Marlon King : What’s wrong with my feet?
Stevie O Jay : Can’t you smell or something?
Marlon King : Huh?
Stevie O Jay : Ere lad, your feet stink the place out. Even the f*cking screws don’t come in here anymore. I don’t know how many times I’ve told you, wash your f*cking feet!!
Marlon King : Oh. Alright then.
Stevie O Jay : Huh, thanks a lot.
Marlon starts to sort through his washbag, gets his favourite soap out, his nice new facecloth and begins to give his feet a wipe.
Marlon King : Have you heard the news?
Stevie O Jay : What news?
Marlon King : About Benny?
Stevie O Jay : Benny? Benny who?
Marlon King : Benny The Ball Benitez.
Stevie O Jay : What about him?
Marlon King : They say he’s not a real manager.
Stevie O Jay : Not a real manager .. whatdya mean?
Marlon King : He’s not Benitez.
Stevie O Jay : ( Perplexed ) What!?
Marlon King : His real name’s Benitio. He’s mob.
Stevie O Jay : Eh?
Marlon King : He’s not Spanish .. he’s Italian.
Stevie O Jay : Whatdya mean he’s not Spanish?
Marlon King : He’s mafioso.
Marlon cleaning between his toes flicks a ball at Stevie.
Stevie O Jay : F*ck off.
Marlon King : ( He flicks another ball of cheese ) Something to do with Capello’s mob. Apparently the football club is a front for people trafficing.
Stevie O Jay : Eh?
Marlon King : Yes, you heard me right, I said people trafficing.
Stevie O Jay : ( Totally confused ) What?
Marlon King : The Italian mob were trying to find a front for their operation. They tried Loserpool. Do you remember when you won the Champions League?
Stevie O Jay : Yeah, great night.
Marlon King : Well it was alright til half time.
Marlon King : Benitio couldn’t believe his luck when you won the Champions League, made him look like he was a football manager. It was all luck. He’s knows nothing about football. He’s been winging it since then.
Stevie O Jay : ( Taken aback. ) Knows nothing?
Marlon King : Nope. The Italians weren’t too happy though. You weren’t supposed to win. Benitio was supposed to throw the game.
Stevie O Jay : No-one told me.
Marlon King : Benitio was supposed to tell you.
Stevie O Jay : Well he didn’t. F*ck!!
Stevie O Jay : F*ck!!
Marlon King : The Italians weren’t happy bunnies. Anyway, Benitio was making so much money trafficing people in and out as football players, taking a cut of the fees that it saved his life. He paid back the mob and made Capello rich. Everybody was happy. But that’s when the American mobs wanted a piece of the action.
Stevie O Jay : How do you know all this?
Marlon King : Ah, ah …... Benitio thought he was doing a great job but he hadn’t a clue what was really going on. Do you know some people say that he thought he was a real football manager? Like Alex Ferguson or something?
Stevie O Jay : I thought he was a real manager.
Marlon King : So does Benitio, that’s why it was so sweet.
Stevie O Jay : So that’s why the Americans mob bought the club. It didn’t make sense. They didn’t seem to get on ….
Marlon King : ….let’s call it a family disagreement.
Stevie O Jay : They weren’t putting money in, … they were taking money out.
Marlon King : That’s it, who’s a clever boy? Well things have gone t*ts up and the Americans want to bring in their own man in and I’m afraid that it’s ‘Goodbye Mr Benitio’.
Stevie O Jay : And I thought it was the b*autiful game.
Marlon King : That’s right. ( Marlon flicking another ball of toe cheese at Stevie ) On yer head.
Stevie O Jay : Listen, do that one more time and I’ll set my ‘patsy ‘ mates on you.
Marlon King : Ha, ha, ha, ha, not in here you won’t. .. ha, ha, ha , ha.
Stevie O Jay : Ha, ha, ha,
why is it all rafa's fault? u have to blame the players at some point, They are all internationals they should motovate themselves! We must have 5-6 players that have been a captin at some point, carra, Mascherano, torres ,Benayoun , kuyt !!!
Im also at a loss CHILL. I want to get behind the manager and give support but also dont understand how sometimes they can perform so brilliantly closing everything down and attacking and othertimes apear so lacklustre.
GOOD CASE AGAINST RAFA
All jokes aside, the problem at anfield is definitely the manager, when you consider Liverpool can raise their game occasionally like they did against Man United, so the question the owners of Liverpool should be asking rafa is ' why cant you motivate your team to do it every week? ' obviously the talent and quality is there, but only seems to come out occasionally and that is down to the manager for failing to motivate his players every week
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