One hundred thousand fans will pack Melbourne's MCG stadium this afternoon for Victory's hotly anticipated game with Liverpool, and Reds boss Brendan Rodgers has done the right thing by choosing to field a very strong team for the game.
Many fans were expecting Luis Suarez to start the game, but he's on the bench instead, and will probably make an appearance in the second half.
FULL TEAM: Jones, Johnson, Skrtel, Wisdom, Enrique, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson, Ibe, Sterling, Borini.
SUBS: Mignolet, Kelly, Coates, Agger, Flanagan, Spearing, Lucas, Downing, Alberto, Aspas, Suarez, Robinson, Assaidi.
Kolo Toure and Philippe Coutinho both miss out through injury. The Official LFC site confirmed:
"Kolo Toure is out with a tight calf; Philippe Coutinho with a training ground knock. Neither serious"
LFC may play it down, but it's slightly concerning the Kolo Toure is out injured this early in his Reds career. If he's getting injured in pre-season, what's going to happen in the rough and tumble of the Premier League? Perhaps it's just a one-off, but Liverpool's need for another central defender is increasingly acute.
Given the huge financial disparity between the two teams, Liverpool are odds-on to win the game, and to highlight the mismatch, Fox Sports Australia posted the following (speculative) figures today:
ANNUAL INCOMES (AUD)
Liverpool
- $12.9-12 million: Steven Gerrard
- $10.9-12m: Luis Suarez
- $8.9-8m: Glen Johnson
- $6.9-6m: Kolo Toure, Daniel Agger, Stewart Downing
- $5.9-5m: Jose Enrique, Jordan Henderson, Lucas Leiva, Martin Skrtel
- $4.9-4m: Jay Spearing, Fabio Borini
- $3.9-3m: Simon Mignolet, Joe Allen
- $2.9-2m: Iago Aspas, Sebastian Coates
- $1.9-1m: Oussama Assaidi, Martin Kelly
- $999-500 thousand: Brad Jones, Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Pacheco, Raheem Sterling, Joe Flanagan, Andre Wisdom, Jack Robinson
Victory
- $175-125 thousand: Adrian Leijer, Nathan Coe
- $124-75k: Billy Celeski, Leigh Broxham
- $74-60k: Nick Ansell, Andrew Nabbout, Francesco Stella
- Less than $60k: Lawrence Thomas, Scott Galloway, Connor Pain, Jason Geria, Jimmy Jeggo, Jesse Makarounas, Luc Jeggo, Luke Radonich, John Buceto, Christopher Cristaldo, Dylan Murnane, Jordan Brown
Jaimie Kanwar
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Many fans were expecting Luis Suarez to start the game, but he's on the bench instead, and will probably make an appearance in the second half.
FULL TEAM: Jones, Johnson, Skrtel, Wisdom, Enrique, Gerrard, Allen, Henderson, Ibe, Sterling, Borini.
SUBS: Mignolet, Kelly, Coates, Agger, Flanagan, Spearing, Lucas, Downing, Alberto, Aspas, Suarez, Robinson, Assaidi.
Kolo Toure and Philippe Coutinho both miss out through injury. The Official LFC site confirmed:
"Kolo Toure is out with a tight calf; Philippe Coutinho with a training ground knock. Neither serious"
LFC may play it down, but it's slightly concerning the Kolo Toure is out injured this early in his Reds career. If he's getting injured in pre-season, what's going to happen in the rough and tumble of the Premier League? Perhaps it's just a one-off, but Liverpool's need for another central defender is increasingly acute.
Given the huge financial disparity between the two teams, Liverpool are odds-on to win the game, and to highlight the mismatch, Fox Sports Australia posted the following (speculative) figures today:
ANNUAL INCOMES (AUD)
Liverpool
- $12.9-12 million: Steven Gerrard
- $10.9-12m: Luis Suarez
- $8.9-8m: Glen Johnson
- $6.9-6m: Kolo Toure, Daniel Agger, Stewart Downing
- $5.9-5m: Jose Enrique, Jordan Henderson, Lucas Leiva, Martin Skrtel
- $4.9-4m: Jay Spearing, Fabio Borini
- $3.9-3m: Simon Mignolet, Joe Allen
- $2.9-2m: Iago Aspas, Sebastian Coates
- $1.9-1m: Oussama Assaidi, Martin Kelly
- $999-500 thousand: Brad Jones, Philippe Coutinho, Daniel Pacheco, Raheem Sterling, Joe Flanagan, Andre Wisdom, Jack Robinson
Victory
- $175-125 thousand: Adrian Leijer, Nathan Coe
- $124-75k: Billy Celeski, Leigh Broxham
- $74-60k: Nick Ansell, Andrew Nabbout, Francesco Stella
- Less than $60k: Lawrence Thomas, Scott Galloway, Connor Pain, Jason Geria, Jimmy Jeggo, Jesse Makarounas, Luc Jeggo, Luke Radonich, John Buceto, Christopher Cristaldo, Dylan Murnane, Jordan Brown
Jaimie Kanwar
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really hoping coutinho injury is nothing serious
ReplyDeleteThis stream better be good! lol
ReplyDeletewill you really stop with your negativity jaimie.. what has toure done to you.. he's fasting for over 15 hours which is a damn hard thing to do and training+travelling also would make it even harder so small injuries wold tend to happen because he hasn't eaten and is dehydrated
ReplyDeleteread the full article - the bit were it says "nothing serious" might be a give away.
ReplyDelete100,000 fans! That's a big crowd!
ReplyDeleteWould be nice to make it 3 wins from 3 in pre season.
I think pre seasons a prime time to be injured Jaimie and also a prime time to be extra cautious. Poor diet, not much fitness, the weather in Indonesia, more intense training would all contribute to injuries and if ever theres a reason to no play someone then its for a friendly. I wouldnt worry too much. I find it strange when salaries are revealed, surely these are educated/uneducated guesses? Pretty sure salaries cant be revealed so readily?
ReplyDeleteThe club's total salary figure is available in its yearly financial report, but I think you're right - the individual figures are probably guesses, made to fit the total figure.
ReplyDeletestrikes me odd that Coutinho is one of our lowest earners and Downing one of highest.
ReplyDeleteHe'll on a high wage because at Villa he'll hve been on a high wage so for us to get him we'd pay similar or slightly higher. Whereas Coutinho would have been on a low salary an came in slightly higher-although im sure over the next few years Downings will decrease and Coutinhos will increase.
ReplyDeleteIn listening to it on an Aussie radio station SBS Radio 3, sounds so strange listening to Aussie commentary though, like Soccer Am!
ReplyDeletewhat a nice goal, wonderfull teamplay
ReplyDeleteGood on joe Allen. Good run and lovely pass;)
ReplyDeleteJordon Ibe is looking great.
ReplyDeleteabsolutely, allen and sterling looking pretty good too!
ReplyDeleteborini - unforunately has no presence on the field
great teamplay by gerrard an allen.
ReplyDeleteIs Borini actually on the pitch? wtf? lol
ReplyDeletei understand the reasons behind it. but i still find it ridiculous. in terms of footballing ability. id rather have adam back than downing.
ReplyDeleteSorry mate, some people on here dont always understand the obvious. I dont agree about Adam though, im one of the few who rates Downing tbh.
ReplyDeleteYep, Borini is pretty anonymous. We need two more strikers (one more is Suarez stays)
ReplyDeletehaha saw him on the bench to so i guess so.... sometimes managers try to play down serious injuries
ReplyDeleteWatching him play gives me great optimism for his future. Sterling has been fantastic too. Allen is also surprising me!
ReplyDeletei´d say 2 if suarez goes one more if not. that would be enough for me.
ReplyDeletea cb and probably a lb - rodgers wont go for another CDM i think
I dont get it, he scores for Italy an is clearly highly rated there, he had a really good strike rate for Roma. There must be some talent there. I hope he comes good.
ReplyDeleteHe is now... 3 shots in 8 minutes
ReplyDeleteI thought Jay Spearing left?
ReplyDeleteanyone realize when agger came on he took the captain arm band from lucas i guess we know whose the vice captain there
ReplyDeleteCould our Uruguayn talisman have looked more disintrested in the event. and they tell me Torres is a sulk. 95400 fans. disgratefull *****
ReplyDeleteat least suarez assisted but he idk could be because i was monitoring him extensively seemed out of it still hope he stays (can't stand arsenal)
ReplyDeleteunnecessary don't u think
ReplyDeleteif thats what we get from him coming season i hope he goes.
ReplyDeletemy favourite was after the assist when he turns his back to rest of team and just walks off.
ReplyDeleteWe cant sell our top scorer to one of our CL spot rivals.
ReplyDeleteHe can go, but I think he just has to go abroad.
Why are people slating Suarez? obviously he isn't going to be same as last season, he only been training for a few days he isn't sharp yet, least he got a assist.
ReplyDeleteAgreed
ReplyDeleteyh like he never did that before he always celebrated every assist ...... seriously
ReplyDeleteWell, he does want to move doesn't he? His future is far from decided, he may well yet go Real, so I wouldn't expect him to be all smiles and enthusiasm.
ReplyDeleteGood run out,as for Suarez I think Jim Beglin summed it up perfectly,as in people will be looking at Suarez picking him out for this and that,If he doesn't run after that ball he's having a 'Torres sulk',I'd be very surprised if he is a Liverpool player come September 1st but if he does he won't sulk like Torres did.
ReplyDeleteexactly i do understand neither in retrospect i probably commented about his performance to soon as everytime he had the ball he tried to do something with it take on a player feed it through and even when he didn have it at times he tried to close down and get it i guess our whole teams performance was lackluster and as a result seeing that same sort of body language from suarez would have fed our worst premonitions
ReplyDeleteThe Victory really carried themselves well. They had a fair selection of regulars out of the match and still played good football. Pitch wasn't what Liverpool players would be used to but it's pretty normal in Australia. Take away that last minute goal and it's a good result for a local team that should otherwise be a massive distance from Liverpool in terms of class.
ReplyDeleteWhat's really nice is that we shattered the attendance figure from United's game in Sydney. And there is no way United fans anywhere could match that rendition of YNWA. Just staggering.
are u for real? his body languge and effort was a disgrace he doesn't want to b there. people paid good money to watch that hes a f"ckin disgrace to the shirt sell the little s"it asap
ReplyDelete?
now that was painful to watch,also i think rodgers missed a trick not putting suarez on seperatly ,it would have given the fans a chance to show how much we want him to stay imo hes off fsg are happy to sell they are just playing hardball over the fee
ReplyDeletei think its good he didnt came on seperatly, it shows that he isnt over the moon, hes also just a player one that is not bigger than this enormous football club.he isnt our messias or anything like that, and theres no reason to make him feel like he is!
ReplyDeleteno we agreed with blackburn but it was said he only wants to go to bolton, as a squad player i´d like to keep him :)
ReplyDeletebut he did it for gerrard,and i am sorry but i disagree for the fans their it was a once in a lifetime chance to see there heros(most of them)and it would have been a nice touch ,god knows we did not put much of a display on the pitch for them
ReplyDeleteWhat was painful to watch? The game?
ReplyDeletewell jas looks like that's the last time we will see him in a red shirt all in all its the end. sell him asap I don't really care who to but its got to be 50million just want to see the back of him now
ReplyDeleteJaimie Kanwar,
ReplyDeletethe next time you want to b1tch and moan about ,me thats fine ,but at least have the balls to let the reply go live (and do not delete it)and do not hide behind your delete button,if i had posted that i would be banned now ,there is not much point in having a comments policy ,when it only seems to apply to certain posters,
Sorry mate I think you underestimate Melbourne Victory, particularly their manager, who employs a fantastic passing system and is the most successful coach in this country - and I support their biggest rivals.
ReplyDeleteThat, and also it's pre season with a less than perfect pitch, I never expected a 5-0 thrashing.
yes m8 imo it was awful who wants to watch a side were the centerbacks seem to spend half the match passing it between themselves
ReplyDeleteHmm, see my reply to your other post :)
ReplyDeletei do not underestimate any side we are playing anymore,and i did not expect a thrashing but at times it was hard to tell witch side were lfc
ReplyDeletehmm,see my reply to your other post;-)
ReplyDeleteWin is a win, scored 8 goals in 3 games, and kept 3 clean sheets. Positive.
ReplyDeleteOn TV here (fox sports) there is a great English commentator, goes by the name of Simon Hill and is a City supporter. He's the voice of Australian football.
ReplyDeleteOn the Australian network that held the rights to the game, the host knew nothing about football as that network has no football pros or enthusiasts. I'm disappointed they won the rights to it.
Seriously, it's his first game. We will see Sunday how he plays, I'm not reading to much Into it.
ReplyDeleteAgree
ReplyDeletethe writing was on the wall the day he told the truth about the club ,we are going nowhere fast
ReplyDeletehopefully he will be sold by sunday
ReplyDeleteAt one point Victory had 70% possession. I thought it was a pretty decent game up until 70mins when all the subs came on. I also enjoyed a kid on 60K a year skin Enrique. I don't expect much from these friendlies, the highlight was the record crowd, but again I don't think the game was that bad at all tbh
ReplyDeleteUnlikely, but Real Madrid are going to enter the race for him after selling higuain. I don't mind either he goes or stay.
ReplyDeleteI don't wanna add fuel to the fire, but during the warm down there were a few shots of a coach telling Suarez off, that he had to participate with the team. We will see what develops in the coming days.
ReplyDeletedo know what stream u had cause i never saw that and i watched the full 90
ReplyDeleteunnecessary me thinks
ReplyDeleteI live in Sydney so I watched it on TV, it was about 15-20 minutes after the final whistle.
ReplyDeleteAye, Villa had a ridiculous wage bill (until the last season or two, hence all these youngsters playing now) for a club that have not done much for years.
ReplyDeletei see well i was watching it on espn and i didn see that who knows u could be right but lol gotten into such a habit of defending suarez it comes naturally now
ReplyDeleteUnited just lost their second pre-season game. Football is not all glamour and brilliance.
ReplyDeleteJesus Christ, the atmosphere tonight totally shat on the non atmosphere delivered By Mancs in Sydney. Just got a photo with rush in my hotel ( Liverpool are staying in my hotel). I'm sitting in the bar now waiting for the team to return. It was a wonderful experience, but Suarez disappointed me. 96000 fans were screaming for him and he looked half assed.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't place much importance on pre-season games. I couldn't even care if we won or lost either, as its not paramount.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, rush is chilling feet from me as I write this! Unbelievable. I reckon victory defended really well tonight, but we seemed to click more later. *3 minute time lapse* The players just walked back in now. Suarez was the only one to stop to sign autographs on the way to the lift, which was surprising and a bit heartening. Toure stopped too but there was only 5 fans waiting there in the hotel with massive crowd outside. It was straight for the elevator. So Suarez apparently gt told off by trainers for moping around in the warm down, but then happily signed autographs for fans. So who knows!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's only preseason!
ReplyDeleteBut it does show some things. Stuart Downing is at best competent enough, but is so predictable it must be easy to play against him. No imagination whatsoever. Has good games in him but is a step away from what we need in the future.
Skrtyl will never be comfortable on the ball. He is so frightened of it I guarantee better teams, and even limited ones, will pressurise the others till the give it to Skrtyl. In our new system, that's a liability. There was a big change when Agger took over in that respect.
Aspas and Alberto are unlikely to settle in as quickly as Coutinho. Very unlikely. They seem fazed by simple pressing, it will take time for them to get used to the PL
That confirms what I saw in the warm down. Also since I've always known your from Aus I hope you had an awesome time mate, I wish I could of gotten down there, especially to be part of a record crowd and maybe a once in a lifetime experience of Liverpool coming to this country. Have a great night :)
ReplyDeleteNope, good spot! but I did see a nice kiss from Stevie to Lucas :)
ReplyDeletewell seems like the writing is on the wall for vice captaincy there to me watch again i was astounded but at the same time not to surprised the guy is one of our most faithful players
ReplyDeleteIt's better to say the injury looks very serious but he should be back for the next match then everyone is happy
ReplyDeleteare you referring to villa or liverpool?
ReplyDeleteYou could have a job for life there
ReplyDeleteTrue, we have a bad wage bill too, hence all the trimming done in recent seasons whilst we have been without CL money. I've mentioned that a few times on this forum, there is no hiding that. Although Villa were being ridiculous with the level the wage bill went to, in relation to what they had/hadn't done on the pitch. Their's was much more disproportionate. A year or two ago, they had a higher wage bill than Spurs. That is how bad it was, considering how regularly Spurs finish in top 6.
ReplyDeleteagree about the crowd
ReplyDeleteits not about winning and losing its about how we played ,more content with passing the ball between the defenders than attacking
ReplyDeletehope you had a great day m8
ReplyDeleteahahaha true from the way its going
ReplyDeletethe whole team ,looked at best competent when it came to attacking ,the defending was not much better,and when i said that aspas and alberto,did not look upto it the other day ,i was slaughted ,and if they looked fazed by simple pressing god help them against stoke
ReplyDeleteDefinitely agree that how we play is more important than winning or losing, in pre-season but even then, I don't place much importance on it. Especially when we are flying from one place to the other within a matter of days and playing soon afterwards. It is not easy, doing a multi-country tour. But money is money. For me, its more of a fitness thing and getting some of the playing flow back by the end of pre-season, not all of it as that isn't easy in the circumstances.
ReplyDeleteas a professional id expect him to show same courtesy towards fans than the 95000 fans today singing for him are showing towards him. instead of sulking away like some spoiled brat cause his cannon shaped lollipop was taken away by mean mean employer.
ReplyDeletei dont see how downing will get starts this season if sterling and ibe can produce like that.
ReplyDeletewho the f"ck are united
ReplyDeletetrue he didnt always, but in this case it looked really awkard. Players ran up to him and he barely agknowledged them. In that moment I think you could see how much he don`t want to be there.
ReplyDeletePerformance wise, no quarms as he has only had a day or so training. His attitude though looked all wrong.
Its at times like this I wish we were as rich as city and could stick him in the ressies for a few months till he stops acting like a spoilt kid. 120k a week, 95k fans singing for you, and he dont appreciate that? madness.
spot on billy the suarez affair is turning into a shambles....fsg dont want him they just want more money..thats all well and good but is can spread bad vibes through the team.....i said at the begining of last season it would be his last one thats why fsg where not throwing the book at him for his antics as they knew it would reduce the price.....ive seen nothing to change my mind to say he will not be sold on the last day so they have an excuse for not buying
ReplyDeleteagree 100% m8 ..it was terrible to watch
ReplyDeleteso what your saying is hes biting the arm that feeds him....well no surprise there
ReplyDeletehes not even anonymous
ReplyDeletewe where the ones passing it back
ReplyDeleteenough is enough sell the little pr"ck he disrespected the club and the fans that paid good money to see him today .we as a club have stood by him .let him be someone elses problem. get as much as we can because we will show we are no soft touch like we been in the past in the t/fare market . he has burnt his bridges today with a lot of redmen
ReplyDeleteBilly - please do not personally insult LFC players. Thanks. (post edited)
ReplyDeleteI think everyone should relax a bit; man utd have already lost 2 games!
ReplyDeletejust needed to get that off my chest wot alittle s"it the man is
ReplyDeleteI was at the game and after the whistle it seemed that they were told not to switch tops but suarez immediately did it and wore a Victory top.
ReplyDeleteFrom what we saw he was approached by LFC staff to put on a LFC Hoody atleast 2 times.
I might be reading too much into this but yeah
Did anyone notice there was like no FK's in the game until Lucas came on? lol
ReplyDeleteThe football was fairly ordinary (as to be expected from a friendly), but the atmosphere was awesome - so glad I managed to get tickets! Fortunately some filthy scalpers got left holding some tickets too.
ReplyDeleteAgree that the Suarez situation is ridiculous; as soon as we get the right figure, he needs to go. But who will we replace him with? All the suggestions that have been made as suitable replacements have already sorted out their futures (Cavani, Higuain etc).
No question we need someone special...
youtube videos doing the rounds now with the MCG version of YNWA. I have to say, although you'd have to have actually been there, I suspect it might have eclipsed what you'd hear at Anfield. Hard to beat 95,000 all in unison. If there were unsuspecting folks outside the stadium at the time they must have wondered what was going on. The new Essendon team song perhaps.
ReplyDeleteWith 50 million quid I think we'll do alright. Soldado would be barely half of it. We don't need the big names, we just need to find the next Torres/Suarez for 20-25 million and spend the rest on quality for the squad. There is risk involved, but we've done it before and looks like this scouting team has some brains.
ReplyDeleteAustralian teams operate under a salary cap of $Aus2.5 million for the whole team.
ReplyDeletethats my point;-)
ReplyDeletei know its preseason but i cannot recall a more boring game
ReplyDeleteIt seemed like there was an arrangement to switch shirts after the match, because Downing had promised a young Victory kid his shirt so I don't think there's much there. After a friendly you tend to switch shirts straight away - but anyways..
ReplyDeleteHate to tell u this but Adelaide rival Sydney in that department a bit biased arent ya.
ReplyDelete