Personally, I’ve written quite the opposite saying that Lampard should be left out all together so that Gerrard can partner with Villan, Gareth Barry. So now, internet people, what do you think?

On behalf of all Reds fans I’d just like to say, “SUCK IT RIO! UP YOURS OWEN!”

And I’d like to comment first on his post from earlier today. Well-written, admittedly, but I sorta disagree with what he was saying. Pennant was only decent against Derby because it was Derby. Sami Hyypia could have hit quality crosses from the left-wing against that defence. And for England? After one game on the left? Granted – he should be in the squad, and his pace makes him a valuable asset for the Reds – as well as his vast improvement this season, but his crossing isn’t consistently good enough from the wing to be better than the likes of Shaun Wright-Phillips. He may be fast, but isn’t as fast as SWP or Aaron Lennon.

Frankly, I wouldn’t have him in my Liverpool team. Possibly against the likes of Derby, whose defenders’ legs have seen many a better day, but for teams where brains are required rather than pace, Benayoun or Babel are both much better choices (Babel even has pace too). England’s Left Side? Joe Cole. He’s brilliant, never mind his lack of playing time thus far. No other questions. And as backup? Stuart Downing. Yes, he’s naturally left-sided. Yes, he’s the teacher’s pet. But yes, he is rather good actually.

But interesting points though. This is what the site is all about – debate and comment. I rather like Babel and Benayoun myself, mixed with a little of Stevie G and the Monster Masch – sounds like a rather nice midfield cocktail to me. But Rafa doesn’t like Benayoun too much, even if he was immense against Toulouse last week. Oh, and we’ve got Sissoko, Alonso, Kewell and Pennant too. I don’t seriously believe that Leiva or Leto will be regularly used this season (despite the €15 million outlay), but both look like crackers for the future.

Let us not get ahead of ourselves though. Top of the league. Fantastic, but every encounter should be treated as tricky. In the next two months, we have Portsmouth away (great atmosphere at Fratton), Everton away (tense derby), Blackburn away (always difficult at Ewood Park) Tottenham at home (good side, but possibly the easiest cos of Anfield and their lack of form) and Arsenal at home (…its Arsenal). If we pick up thirteen points (/15) from the five, as well as full points from the other encounters (Fulham, Wigan, Birmingham) – thats championship form. I will certainly have no doubts we can do it, even if now it feels to me that something has to pop up and ruin it. Like possibly Steven Gerrard’s toe falling off tomorrow.

Interestingly, Benayoun is captaining Israel tomorrow evening. He gives us his own view on the Gerrard jab, deeming him the world’s best player and says that the Israelis have little fear in going to Wembley.

Carra, oh how we love you. He says that he is desperate for the Reds to break their title duck. As are all of us.

More good news for the Reds. Stevie Finnan is set to be ruled out because of injury for Ireland’s games this week. Now he can stay in Liverpool for recuperation and should now be able to get fit and ready for Portsmouth.

“You’re ugly, but you’ll win in the end”. Just like that annoying kid in your Maths class, well thats how I’ve paraphrased Bernd Schuster’s statement. Bit early to be worried about us, is it not?

See ya on Saturday.

The only other negative from this is that it exposes our backline even more. We’re probably going to have go out and buy someone or bring up Stephen Darby and/or Emiliano Insua from the reserves. The latter I think is ready, but I’m not so sure about the former.

That brings up some of the best news I’ve heard in a long while. Seems like Rafa has come to his senses and sold Gabriel Paletta to Boca Juniors. That’s one nightmare I can stop having. Paletta was just not disciplined enough for the Premiership. He had all the other tools, but got caught out of position way too many times. It’s a shame he never worked out and I wish him all the luck in Argentina where he should be fine.

Also Fabio Aurelio has returned to training early and could be ready to go as early as after the international break in mid-September. He could also be a huge boost to our backline problem, providing cover at left back for Riise and freeing up Arbeloa to cover the centre and right back spots.

In other good news, we won. That’s twelve matches undefeated including preseason, not bad. I’ve watched the match a couple of more times and pretty much got it spot on the first time. I’m going to do player grades in a little bit as well as a ‘What will Rafa do?’ for the Toulouse match.

Let’s see, Beckham? Check. Terry? Check. Lampard? Check, and might I add that his goal was impressive yet he seemed to relatively disappear after that. I guess Fatty Frank also heard that the food at the New Wembley is pretty good and seeing how overpaid he is, in his price range. It was quite evident that this team lacked the kind of world class ability that scousers Gerrard and Rooney would have provided. At times it seemed they couldn’t put a meat pie in Fat Frank’s mouth using their hands, yet alone put the ball in the back of the net.

In other Liverpool players International action, despite praise from the official site, Riise did not have a great game for Norway against Javier Mascherano and the Albicelestes. In fact, Riise won a very questionable penalty from his fellow teammate by basically diving in the box after Javi kicked the ball away from him and he had no chance of making a play. Mascherano, on the other hand, was quite impressive at times, including a lot of fancy footwork against the Norwegians.

The only Liverpool player to score on the day was Dirk Kuyt, who came on for Holland in the second half and scored the only goal for his country in their 1-2 loss at Switzerland. Ryan Babel also played in this match.

All 15 called-up except Scott Carson (how ironic is that?) LFC players played some minutes for his country with Pepe Reina, Sammi Hyypia, and Daniel Agger playing full matches. Why Daniel Agger played the full 90 is a mystery to me, his team lost at home 4-0 to Steve Finnan and the Irish. Seems to me a manager would take out his star players as not to risk injury, especially after his side went down 3-0 in the 54th minute. With Agger and Hyypia now fatigued, who are we going to start alongside Jamie Carragher at centre back on Saturday at Sunderland? Arbeloa?

Anyhow, overall not a good day for our internationals and a boring day at that. Hopefully the boys will take out their frustrations on the Black Cats. Cheers.

Would you like to take over for me and write the Liverpool blog here at the Offside? If so, please contact Bob (bob [at] the offside.com) or click on the ‘Write for the Offside’ box in the upper right corner of the page. Cheers.

* With Finnan being called up for Ireland and Agger always a mainstay with Denmark, it looks as if the right side of our backline will be facing off next week when their two countries play a friendly on Wednesday. As much as I loathe international play, I’ll probably make an effort to catch this match.

* It sounds as if McClown is suggesting Crouch go elsewhere if he wants a regular spot on the England squad. Not that I wouldn’t mind seeing el giraffe leave, but the England skipper has a lot of nerve threatening a player who has been an epiphany for his country for the past year and a half. Especially when you consider the options McClown has up front. Should Dean Ashton leave West Ham with Bellamy and Zamora there? What a moron. If anything McClown should embrace Rafa’s not-so-extraordinary rotation policy, as it will keep Crouch fresh whenever he may need him. Muppet.

* Finally, Rafa has added 17-year-old Bulgarian keeper Peter Gulacsi from MTK to his ever growing collection of net-minders. Okay, time to flush that name down the memory hole. I wonder what the odds are for who will be are regular keeper five years from now. Here’s my guess: Reina 3/2, Carson 5/1, Bouzanis 8/1, Martin 10/1, Mihaylov 10/1, Hansen 25/1, Itandje 50/1, Mimms 100/1, & Oldfield 125/1. Is Carson a sucker bet?

* Steve McClown refuses to give up on trying to lure Carra back to the England squad and visited the Liverpool camp earlier this week to speak with him. I for one am hoping Carra stays adamant about retiring from international play, especially since he’ll probably only be used for the August 22nd Germany friendly anyhow. Sol Campbell wants to play and there’s always Wes Brown (ha ha ha), so McClown can go piss off.

* Rafa has warned agents not to interfere with his squad by telling their players that going elsewhere would benefit them more. If you want to read an interesting article about how much rubbish the reaction to Rafa’s rotation policy actually is, Paul Tomkins wrote an interesting article about it on the official site. He compares the rotating and tinkering of Benitez with Sir Alex and Mourinho and comes up with some surprising conclusions. Turns out, they do it just as much, but for some reason don’t get the same negative feedback from the press, pundits, and fans. I’m personally am no longer going to bash it especially since I enjoy seeing the variety of talent and ability that we have on our squad.

* Speaking of keeps, our part-time super model/goaltender, none other than Scott Carson, threw such a hissy fit about playing second fiddle to the world’s greatest keep, a.k.a. Pepe Reina, that Rafa has decided to send him elsewhere. It looks as though he might be headed out on loan to Villa, but just in case Sven was wondering, he’s for sale at £12M. That sounds about right, especially if you consider former Hearts gk Craig Gordon is apparently worth £9M. I still can’t get over Roy Boy buying a keep for £9M!!! He’s lost his frickin’ mind… for the umpteenth time. Anyhow, I’m sure everybody’s favorite human rights activist, Thaksin Shinawatra, won’t mind getting out the checkbook for England’s finest.

* Finally, if you’re wondering who to bet on for first LFC player to be sent off in a match, look no further than Xabi Alonso, who’s a 9/1 favorite. Some of the other odds are Alvaro Arbeloa and Momo Sissoko both at 12/1, Daniel Agger at 14/1, Jamie Carragher is 16/1, and finally the skipper is 20/1. Personally, my money would be on Javier Mascherano and/or Harry Kewell, who are at 20/1 and 40/1 respectively. Javi tends to be a bit reckless at times and Harry’s got a well-needed attitude so far this year.