With Liverpool’s fate in Europe sealed by the results of yesterday, there's nothing left to do but look forward. In doing so, it seems that there isn't a whole lot of agreement about Liverpool's priorities…

First there was Jamie Carragher, before yesterday's fixture, stating that there’s no shame in ending up in the Europa League, and that Liverpool would be happy with the opportunity. Well no shame then.

Then there’s Liverpool’s captain, asserting that the only thing left to do now is win the whole effin’ thing. Europa style.

Javier Mascherano agreed, reassuring fans that they deserve more and that Liverpool would put forth everything they had to bring back some European silverware.

And then we have Rafa Benitez, master tactician, shoddy facial manicurist, and occasional magician, reporting that Liverpool will prioritize a top-four league spot over any cup glory, be it FA or Europa.

Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it seems a bit odd that now is the time to focus on league. Five losses and seventh place certainly does beg for more focus…about two months ago. It’s clear that Liverpool’s only realistic hope for silverware lies in either the FA Cup or Europa League, neither of which will be a cake-walk. Luckily Liverpool have some time to focus on league, but when the time comes to roll the dice in the remaining cup competitions, I’d be really discouraged if Rafa treated them as reserves-only fixtures. Sure, it’s “only” the Europa League, but a strong showing would still do a lot for Liverpool’s already fragile pride.

In other news that is poorly timed, Jean-Michel Aulas, Lyon’s president, has called on Liverpool to do the French club a favor by beating Fiorentina at Anfield. Sure thing, buddy.

Surely there are hundreds of clubs who would be envious to take part in the Europa League (and I think hundreds of teams started in the competition), but for Liverpool this is surely the capstone on a month of disappointment.

The win at Debrecen was anything but a foregone conclusion, with Liverpool needing to scramble to escape with the 1-0 win. Some curious substitutions as well, but at least Aquilani was on the pitch for…a minute. Good run out, son. And we have confirmation that Andrea Dossena is still alive.

Lyon couldn’t convert their chances late in the second half, largely due to the goalkeeping of Sebastien Frey, falling 1-0 on a first half penalty. Lyon looked more dangerous in the second half, with Puel bringing on villains Lisandro Lopez and Cesar Delgado, but couldn’t do Liverpool the favor they needed. Now Lyon need Liverpool to beat Fiorentina at Anfield to secure first.

There’s really little left to say after such a disappointing stretch for Liverpool–injuries, inconsistent form, and all-around indifference surround the club, as well as most of my cerebral cortex. Even the goals at Anfield against City on Saturday were met with muted applause, and at times all you could hear were the City supporters. Whatever the case, it’ll be a fascinating few months.

Surely now the calls for Rafa’s job will again ring out, with the club failing to advance beyond the group stages for the first time in his tenure at Liverpool. This will likely bring about the Rafa apologists, which will bring on disgruntled players (oops, too late), and Martin Samuel’s chin-less, scruffy-faced columns…

Hopefully the injuries will begin to right themselves, Liverpool will hit their stride in league and the remaining cup competitions, and there will be plenty to learn from this stretch.

Not a great feeling when Liverpool’s future isn’t really in their own hands, but as of writing they’re doing all they can–up 1-0 away to Debrecen. They really need a result from the other fixture, and as of right now Lyon leads Fiorentina 1-0 through a penalty…

Liverpool:

Reina
Johnson-Carragher-Agger-Insua
Mascherano-Lucas
Kuyt-Gerrard-Aurelio
Ngog

Bench: Cavalieri, Spearing, Dossena, Aquilani, Benayoun, Kyrgiakos, Skrtel.

To recap:

* David Ngog opened the scoring with a stunning volley from six yards after some good Liverpool pressure.

* Liverpool concede the equalizer from a set-piece: Brum get three headers in the box, the last by Chucho Benitez past Pepe Reina.

* Albert Riera aggravated his hamstring injury (again) and had to come off…enter Steven Gerrard.

* Cameron Jerome threw his hat in the ring for goal of the season, beating Pepe Reina from fully thirty yards. Out of nothing really.

* Liverpool have spent nearly the entire second half on the offensive, and get their chance at an equalizer when David Ngog flops down in the box (see banner picture). If he’s looking for the penalty there, as opposed to avoiding Carsely, it’s shameful, shameful stuff.

* Gerrard beats Joe Hart for the equalizer, 2-2.

* It’s Benayoun’s turn to come off injured, hamstring for him as well.

* Aquilani makes his Anfield debut in the 82nd minute as Liverpool search for the equalizer. Nervy stuff.

* Liverpool can’t find a way through, and at the full-time whistle it’s Liverpool 2, Birmingham 2. Not the result anyone would have wanted.

Poor run of form, you say? Every team has them. Manager on the brink of extinction? Extinction doesn’t exist, just ask Kirk Cameron. Injuries spreading like chlamydia in Deadwood? Al Swearengen says injuries are for ********** **** (audio NSFW). Bring on Birmingham City.

Good news for fans stateside–this one will be televised in all its HD glory on Monday afternoon on ESPN2HD. This season has really opened my eyes in terms of the way football should be watched. Counting down the days until FSC makes the conversion.

Better news for the club as well, as it looks like many of the fitness worries are starting to right themselves. It’ll still be game-time decisions for the big names–seems like Gerrard and Torres have been in and out of the operating room five times a piece in the last week based on the headlines. Rafa’s also notoriously coy about the availability of players for matches, so speculating about who will or won’t be available is a moot point.

Alex McLeish’s side have given a fairly decent account of themselves this time around, with 11 points from 11 matches so far. Perhaps most importantly for a newly promoted side, they haven’t been the victim of any blowouts. Their biggest loss was 3-1 to Arsenal at the Emirates, and that also happened to be the most goals they’ve conceded all year. They proved to be a bogey team for Liverpool last time they were in the top flight, forcing two 0-0 draws with the Reds in the 2007-2008 season. This campaign they’re led by Chucho Benitez, clear frontrunner for hairstyle of the year, and James McFadden, the Scottish international who leads the squad with two goals in the Premier League.

Little needs to be said about the current state of Liverpool–five losses already in league, on the brink in Europe, and seemingly more injured first-teamers than fit. Obviously Monday is a must-win. Not because Liverpool need it to get back into the title race, not because they need to stay in the fight for fourth place, but because the club simply needs a good result. The memory of the 2-0 win over United at Anfield is long gone, and taking all three from a Birmingham side that will put up a good fight would do Liverpool well.

Rafa will probably field a side that is a mixture of his first-choice and reserves, with little choice to do otherwise because of injuries (see team roster) and suspensions (Degen and Carra). Birmingham are certainly no gimme–they’ve played organized, tough football this season, and Liverpool will have to work for the result regardless of who’s on the pitch. Come Monday we’ll have a better idea of who’s available, but for now all eyes are on the three points. Oh, and that one match tomorrow.

Another biggie, huh?

What we know:

Liverpool are missing Steven Gerrard, Fabio Aurelio, Glen Johnson, Martin Skrtel, Albert Riera, Martin Kelly and Andrea Dossena. Fernando Torres, Daniel Agger, and Alberto Aquilani are in.

Lyon are not immune to the injury bug, outlined here by Inara. Francois Clerc, Mathieu Bodmer, Jean-Alain Boumsong, and Cleber Anderson are out, leaving Lyon with a bit of crisis in central defense.

What we hope:

Goals. Lots of goals. Strong in central defense. Control in the midfield. That Lucas didn’t read the papers.

Those included in Liverpool’s squad aren’t all 100% fit–most notably Fernando Torres. Rafa seems to think that he can avoid surgery so long as he’s handled correctly. Let’s just hope that handling includes a couple goals today.

Liverpool Starters:

————Reina————–
Carragher-Kyrgiakos-Agger-Insua
——-Lucas—–Masch——–
Kuyt——————Benayoun
———Voronin—————
————Torres————-

Bench: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Babel, Ngog, Spearing, Darby, Ayala

Looks like Carra is pushed out wide to accomodate for the missing Glen Johnson. Well played to nate at oh you beauty, who touched on this quandry in the match build-up. Hopefully the concerns are for naught. No surprises in midfield, maybe a bit of a shocker that Voronin starts in the hole behind Torres. His industry against Fulham seems to have paid off. Aquilani starts on the bench, as do Ryan Babel and David Ngog. For my money, at least two of those three will have a pivotal role to play today. Time will tell.

Lyon Starters:

————–Lloris—————
Reveillere–-Cris–Toulalan-–Cissokho
Pjanic——–Makoun—–-Kallstrom
Gomis-–—–Lisandro——–-Bastos

Bench: Vercoutre, Govou, Tafer, Gassama, Ederson, Delgado, Gonalons.

Cris and Toulalan partner again in central defense, and Bafa Gomis and Lisandro Lopez will lead the attack. While they’re riddled with injuries themselves, they’ve also got the two goalscorers from Anfield on the bench–Maxime Gonalons and Cesar Delgado. Well done to Inara over at the Lyon Offside on the predictions, only missing out on Gomis.

Maybe a bit sensationalist to leave that excerpt as the lead-in, but the overall thrust of an article from the Times(among other sources) is that Rafa Benitez feels that progress alone is an acceptable indicator of success. Since there’s plenty of ammo here, I figured it’s best digested quote-by-quote:

“I don’t agree with people when they say you have to win trophies. You have to be close and create a group of players that can fight for trophies.”

I’m not sure which people Rafa is referring to, but these people must not be interested in professional sports. Certainly the players have to have the ability to challenge for trophies, but having players that get you close is not cutting it.

“We got 86 points in the Premier League last year and some people say it wasn’t a good season. But to finish second and close the gap between the top team and us to four points was a massive achievement. “

The joy of last season’s second-place finish was…non-existent. You compete to win trophies, not to watch others celebrate with them. I think it was a season that was largely positive, but for Liverpool the expectation is much more than runners-up.

“Trophies mean a lot to everyone but to see the team progress means you can guarantee you will be there in the future and you can fight for trophies.”

The progression of a team from season to season does not necessarily guarantee future success. Teams progress backwards at times, forwards at others. To imply that the successful progression of a team over a five-year period is somewhat linear seems misguided at best. In fact, some would say that another trophyless, second-place finish after winning a continental trophy four years previously is not much of a progression. But trophies don’t matter that much, eh?

“People can say I have been here for five years but you can see the difference. Compare the value of the club before and the value of the club now. Compare the value of the squad before and the value of the squad now, you can see the progression.”

Someone better than I will probably break this down to see if it’s accurate, but offhand I’d say the value of this squad, particularly the one that was on the field for the last twenty minutes at Craven Cottage on Saturday, isn’t breaking many banks. There’s definitely players with high value on the squad (Gerrard, Torres, Masch), but there’s room for argument. Mssrs. Hicks, Gillett, your thoughts?

“We needed to do something to protect the player. We were more or less in control of the game. If we had left him on the pitch maybe we would have lost the player for a month. It was a difficult decision but we decided to start with him because he can do a proper warm-up. But we decided to take him out at 60 minutes. The last time he played 80 minutes it took him four days to be fit.”

This is obviously one of the biggest bones of contention from Saturday-the decision to take Fernando Torres off with 30 minutes left to play. Being “more or less in control” at that time was largely due to the presence of Torres, who was the only player on the pitch that really looked threatening. I can completely understand setting a limit for a player, but I’m more of the mind that the flow of the game should make that limit fluid. Letting emotion completely influence the decision to keep a player on would have been foolish, but that’s never a worry with Rafa, one of the more collected-seeming managers around. You can’t see Rafa setting the 60-minute limit for Torres and then changing his mind, can you?

Now Torres could have limped off injured at the 70-minute mark and Benitez would look like a genius, but taking off Benayoun minutes later did nothing but damn Rafa’s decision-making further. Both players looked less than impressed to be subbed off, and the fallout since then has mirrored their responses. Ronnie Whelan, one of the more outspoken former Liverpool players, has gone so far as to say that Rafa has given up on the league. Around the 80-minute mark on Saturday, there could be little argument that it’s fiction.

The club is up against it, and they’ll need every bit of resolve to get a result against Lyon on Wednesday.

Chronologically:

-Torres off, Ryan Babel on. Apparently uninjured. Maybe with the midweek Champions League fixture in mind…but after that first half stunner, tough pill to swallow.

-Goal Fulham. Nevland flicks home after Dirk Kuyt saves the ball from going out of bounds, directly into Konchesky’s path, whose cross finds Gera, who nods to Nevland right in front of Reina. 2-1 Fulham.

-Nathan Eccleston comes on for Yossi Benayoun, white flag in tow.

-Phillipp Degen, who was largely positive on the afternoon, is shown a red for a late challenge on Dempsey. Probably not a red, but the tackle looked bad.

-Carra is red carded for dragging down Zamora. Down to nine men. Hideous.

-Ayala comes on for Kuyt. At this point, the attacking options are: Voronin, Babel, Eccleston.

-Dempsey trots into the box and slots past Reina. 3-1 Fulham.

-Final whistle after four minutes of stoppage time. Never has a final whistle seemed like such a rescue.

An embarrassing finish to the match to be honest. Liverpool were sloppy, careless, and unable to put anything together, and that was just in the first half. What a shambles after last weekend’s victory over United, and a decent showing midweek in the Carling Cup. Cue binge drinking.

The Steven Gerrard groin injury saga spirals further and further down the rabbit hole, with worries now that he’ll need surgery to repair his injured man zone. Clearly his long-term health is the most important, but it will be a massive blow to the club if he misses an extended spell. Naturally, the club and country discussion comes up, but Rafa’s not having it. He’s so tough.

On a more positive note (?), Lucas is out for blood today. Apparently he feels his performance against Fulham at Anfield was one of the worst of his career. Alcohol use has decimated my long-term memory, so there’s no use arguing with him. Particularly with that picture of him lying on the pitch screaming. How did he get there? Why does he continue to style his hair like Ellen Degeneres? Is this actually a promo shot for Saw XIV?

Lineups will be posted when they come out, but I’m going to take a wild stab and say:

———-Reina———–
Carra–Skrtel–Agger–Insua
——Lucas–Masch——
Benayoun————Aurelio
———Kuyt————-
———-Torres———-

Glen Johnson’s continued injury struggles present Liverpool with an ongoing problem–mostly that they don’t have a true right-back to fill in. In fairness Phillipp Degen looked very dangerous against Arsenal, but I don’t see Rafa installing him in the first eleven that quickly. Martin Kelly would be the likely back-up, but his injury leaves him on the sidelines yet again. Albert Riera’s injury and Ryan Babel’s ineptitude (had to start with an in-) make the left wing an issue, and Fabio Aurelio seems to be the only replacement. Nabil El Zhar has fallen off the map a bit this season–were this last season I’d guess he might figure in somewhere, but he appears to be AWOL so far. Yossi Benayoun will likely find himself in a very similar role as last Sunday, floating in and out of central midfield, interchanging at times with Dirk Kuyt. Fernando Torres remains Liverpool’s biggest threat in attack.

As for Fulham, my best guess is timmyg’s best guess. Which includes the info of which I was ignorant, that Danny Murphy will likely be out, as will Simon Davies, Dickson Etuhu, and Andy Johnson. Nice of Liverpool’s hosts to try to match their body count.

Roll on game time.

Liverpool:

———–Reina———–
Degen-Carra-Kyrgiakos-Insua
——Lucas—–Masch—–
Kuyt————–Benayoun
——–Voronin————
———–Torres———-

Bench: Gulacsi, Babel, Spearing, Plessis, Dossena, Eccleston, Ayala

Apparently Martin Skrtel is injured as well, pushing the Greek into the starting eleven, and further evidence that I am blind when it comes to “seeing” what Rafa will do. Hadn’t even thought much about Andriy Voronin, but he’ll pseudo-partner Torres up top. Really young set of subs for Liverpool today–the oldest is Andrea Dossena.

Fulham:

————-Schwarzer————
Pantsil-Hangeland-Hughes-Konchesky
Dempsey—Baird—Greening—Duff
——-Zamora—–Kamara———