http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/159869-borini-i-ll-be-at-anfield-tonight Fabio Borini has admitted that Wednesday night's Barclays Premier League clash between Liverpool and Sunderland at Anfield will be a tough watch for him. The Italian striker has impressed on his season-long loan at the Wearside club, who go into their final 10 games of the campaign battling to stay in the top flight, while his parent team sit at the opposite end of the table. Speaking exclusively to LFCTV GO in the build-up to Wednesday's game, the 22-year-old reflected on his season so far at the Stadium of Light, explained the differences he's noticed in himself and offered his thoughts on the match itself. Borini said: "It's been a good season for me. Of course, there have been some tough moments, and we've not won a lot of games, but there are positives you have to take, like reaching the Capital One Cup final at Wembley and how well we've fought back after a bad start. "We're still fighting to stay up, of course, and that's a race we're in until the end of the season. "In the past I've been used to being at clubs used to winning, it was an everyday feeling. Here at Sunderland it's been a case of grabbing anything you can to get points. So it's a different way to achieve your targets, but it's an experience you can use.
http://www.liverpoolfc.com/news/latest-news/159846-borini-has-been-a-9-10-for-black-cats Sunderland supporter James Hunt provides the view from the Stadium of Light ahead of Wednesday night's clash at Anfield, including a report on the progress of on-loan Fabio Borini. What has changed for Sunderland since the last time these two sides met? Well the manager, for a start. Gus Poyet has obviously come in and changed things up a bit, in terms of both personnel (although the side probably won't look too different on that front from the one you guys beat earlier) and in terms of playing style. That said, what hasn't changed is the fact we're still not winning games, nor looking like doing so. You're 18th with 10 games left to play... are you confident of avoiding relegation? In a word: no. In several words: I was convinced at Christmas we were down, but then things started to turn around, which coincided with the cup run. Since the final something has been massively lacking, and it now just seems we're resigned to a slow crawl to the Championship. What have been the positives for the Black Cats in 2013-14? What gives you confidence for a trip to Anfield? The aforementioned cup run is pretty much *the* positive. The semi-final win over Manchester United was as heart-stopping, agonisingly tense a moment as we've had in recent memory, both torture and pure ecstasy. The Wembley weekend, even despite the result, was one of the best experiences I've had as a Sunderland supporter. As for confidence for the trip to Anfield? Erm...er...any beach balls knocking about? How is Gus Poyet likely to set Sunderland up for Wednesday's game? He's tended to go 4-3-3, with wingers who like to cut inside, and play a possession-based game with a couple of deeper-lying midfielders. Obviously Fabio Borini is ineligible (more on that later), so it'll be interesting to see who comes in. Elsewhere, Connor Wickham has just been recalled from his loan spell with Leeds, and it wouldn't be a surprise to see him thrown straight into action given Jozy Altidore looks utterly devoid of confidence (and ability). You were one of the first teams to suffer at the hands of SAS - Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez - this season; how would you go about trying to stop the duo this time? Well we won't have Carlos Cuellar in the side this time around, so that's a start, and Wes Brown gives us at least a glimmer of hope. They are playing frighteningly well at the moment, though, and our defence isn't the tightest at the best of times...maybe just kick them? Probably wouldn't even get close to that. Have you been surprised by the rapid blossoming of Jordan Henderson this year? Yes and no. Obviously with him coming through the ranks at Sunderland his ability has always been evident, and I wrote an article back in August on his development under Brendan Rodgers. He has kicked on to another level since then, and it's fantastic to see him reaping the rewards of all the hard work and dedication he's put in, especially since it didn't start too well for him at Liverpool. Fabio Borini is obviously ineligible for this fixture - how much of a blow is that for Sunderland? Massive. For the past few games he's not only looked like the one player capable of producing something, but also the one player who cares. It's becoming a familiar story for Sunderland fans that such a player is one who is only on loan, with little chance of being kept on a permanent basis (see also: Danny Rose, Danny Welbeck, Jonny Evans and so on). How has the Italian performed for your team this season? Marks out of 10? Probably around an eight in reality, but in comparison to the rest of the team - and given the importance of the goals he has scored - I'd say a nine or a 10, especially since Gus Poyet arrived and he began to establish himself in the side. He's going to be a massive player in the run-in as we try to escape relegation, and hopefully we'll see him played more down the centre as he offers both pace and a genuine goal threat. What's your prediction? Normally I'd try and be blindly optimistic, hoping we can snatch a draw or such like. As it is, I can't see us scoring, nor keeping a clean sheet. I'll take our goal difference not taking an absolute hammering. 3-0.
http://www.safc.com/news/team-news/2014/march/ones-to-watch-liverpool One's to watch?? Surely the list would be shorter if it was one's NOT NEEDED to be watched (Mignolet for instance as he won't be busy)! So will we be happy if Liverpool declare at 5?
the only thing im hoping for in this game is that Wickham starts, has a good game and is raring to go for west ham Hopefully people dont slate him after 1 game...sickening when people do that, admittedly if he has an absolute shocker then granted but needs games in our team and think he could be a good player! People have slated him saying hes not good enough when quite simply he has yet to have his run in the team...personally think Wickham/Scocco could of done more of a job than Altidore/Fletch has done this season
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/boy-who-lost-game-for-mighty-426869 This is the lad blamed for causing the freakiest, maddest – and one of the most talked-about – goals in football history. Meet Liverpool fan Callum Campbell, 16, who bashed a beach ball on to the pitch…and condemned his team to a crazy defeat. “It was me,” he said last night. “I’m the one who did it. I’m the one caught on camera. I’m so, so sorry. This is my worst, worst nightmare. “When I got home I went into the garden and threw up. I was physically sick – and that’s before the death threats started appearing on the internet the next day.” Millions of people around the world saw the beach ball collide with the real ball on TV and in gleeful videos on YouTube. Distracted Liverpool goalie Pepe Reina went for the wrong ball and the real one trickled into the net behind him. It was side-splittingly hilarious – unless, of course, you support Liverpool. All week speculation has raged about the identity of the fan who pushed the beach ball from the crowd. Vile death threats have been made over the web by fellow Liverpool supporters fuming at the mystery supporter’s incredible blunder. At his home a few streets away from Liverpool’s famous Anfield home, Callum recounts, step by horrified step, the freakiest goal ever at Sunderland’s stadium a week ago. Fanatical Callum was with the singing, boisterous away supporters and the bouncing Liverpool beach ball came his way just before kick-off...and he punched it forward on to the park. But it wasn’t cleared away and, as Sunderland surged into the attack five minutes into the match, the red beach ball bounced jauntily into play. For Liverpool, enduring their worst start to a season for 22 years, it spelled disaster – Sunderland held on to the bizarre one-goal lead. “I watched it over and over again, and I still can’t work out how it happened,” Callum said. “But my mum tells me it wasn’t my fault – and that’s what I have to believe. The referee should never have allowed the goal. I just hope the real fans understand and forgive me.” Arriving home from the match, Callum locked himself in and didn’t go out for two days. Meanwhile, Liverpool supporters unleashed their fury via the internet. “Leave town kid – stay home or you’re dead!” one wrote. Another advised “Get a coffin ready.” And yet another warned: “I’m not only going to stab you, but mince you up and make curry out of it.” Callum said: “When I looked closer these people were from America and Australia and all over the world – so-called fans who never come to Liverpool. So after that, I just ignored them. “I knew the true fans wouldn’t threaten me like that – they would know I was more cut up about what happened than anyone else.” Even so, it’s a pretty unpleasant place to find yourself. “How was I supposed to know what would happen?” said Callum. “It was just a bit of fun, and if I could turn back the clock and do it differently, throw the ball into the crowd instead of on to the pitch, then I would. “I’m really, really sorry it happened like it did. “It’s bad enough when Liverpool lose, like in a normal way, but this was just one big disaster. I’ve thought about it all the time. I’ve gone over and over it, till it’s doing my head in. I know it wasn’t my fault, but even so…” The Campbells are presenting a solid line of defence, sitting side by side on the settee. Flanked by mum, Liz, 48, and dad, John, 46, Callum, looks as if he’s wishing that the sofa would swallow him up and all of this would go away. They’re all Reds supporters. It’s a Liverpool FC household. True fans have been sympathetic, they say. All the venom has come from outsiders with no idea what really happened. “Television made it look like I lobbed the beach ball on to the pitch and straight away it hit the match ball,” Callum said. “But the truth is, the game hadn’t started. The teams were just coming out. And the beach ball wasn’t even mine. I’d never seen one before. The crowd were bouncing it around above their heads, then it came my way and I just took a big swing and knocked it towards the pitch. After that the wind carried it into the net. “I can’t believe it stayed there. It would have taken someone a couple of seconds to move it away, or put a foot on it and flatten it, but nobody bothered. And then it started to roll about. Just at the wrong moment. “But I accept, I shouldn’t have thrown it on to the pitch in the first place.” The day had started wrong. As he left on the coach with four mates for the long journey to Wearside, trainee painter and decorator Callum realised he had left something precious behind – the red rosary beads that belonged to his grandma who died a year ago. He always wears them around his neck at a game. Callum was already feeling uneasy. “I’ve seen him when Liverpool are losing, fingering the beads for divine help,” says his uncle Tony Moore, 46, who goes with him to most matches. “Inside he is torn apart. “When they lost to Everton last year, I had to drag him from the ground. He was in tears. And that was a normal defeat. Imagine how much worse this is. “Let’s say Liverpool are just three points short of winning the league at the end of the season – he’ll be beside himself, thinking they were the points that he cost them.” Friends and relatives from all over the country have called to offer sympathy and asked how the family was bearing up, like you would after some enormous tragedy. They recognised Callum from early TV footage screened before newspapers and broadcasters blurred out his face. “Callum walked in after the match white as a sheet,” Liz says. “He couldn’t eat. He normally has a pizza delivered when he gets back from a match, but he couldn’t face anything. “He just sat at the table with his head in his hands and he kept going over and over what had happened. “He said, ‘Do you think I was to blame Mum?’ As a mother, and a Liverpool fan, I told him no, he wasn’t. “There was plenty of time to move the ball before the match kicked off. The goal shouldn’t have been allowed. It was a freak accident. “Liverpool FC is the love of his life. Not girls, or music, or clothes – Liverpool. “He shouldn’t have to go through the rest of his life being known as the fan who lost them a match.” Dad John adds: “If anyone is to blame it’s the ground staff who didn’t move the ball.” Callum has heard that the Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez has been trying to find him. A look of panic, flashes across Callum’s face. “If he and Mr Benitez were to walk in here today, I’d tell him I’m so sorry for what I did,” he said. Don’t worry, son. Mr Benitez just wants to reassure you, like your mum, that it wasn’t your fault.
I'm eternally optimistic.... But I can;t find a single optimistic reason tonight. I suppose there's always the chance of 1 shock result a week! Sadly it won't be ours
I'm usually the same mate but if we play as we did in the opening half hour on sat we'll be olbliterated by the most potent strike force in the universe
Whatever you say gus! Poyet looking to spring surprise Published: 26 March, 2014 by Stuart Vose 'Desire, commitment and organisation' are keys for boss. Gus Poyet will head to Anfield tonight looking to stifle Liverpool as the Uruguayan looks to engineer what he says would be a “great upset”. Poyet is gearing up for a clash with a high-flying Reds side boasting the division’s sharpest attack, with a total of 82 goals scored so far this season. The Uruguayan has highlighted “desire, commitment and organisation” as foundations and says every player will have to operate at their maximum if the visitors are to come away with a result. Can we be the surprise of these midweek games? It would create something special for us - especially with our need for points. That’s the mentality, to go there and cause a great upset - Gus Poyet “We need to make things very difficult for Liverpool,” he told SAFSee at the Academy of Light. “We’re playing against one of the top teams, away from home as well. “Can we be the surprise of these midweek games? It would create something special for us - especially with our need for points. That’s the mentality, to go there and cause a great upset.” Chief amongst Liverpool’s threats are the front pairing of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge, who are closing in on becoming the most prolific strike partnership since the Premier League’s formation. Poyet will look to find a way to stop the pair, who he believes could be the best partnership of the last 20 years. “Liverpool have been playing really well but what they are doing is creating something really unique," he explained. “They are probably the only team in England right now who don’t worry about conceding two or three goals because they can score five or six. “That’s something which is very important for a football team, when you have that possibility then it doesn’t matter how you play, how well you defend, how much you keep the ball because you will always have a threat up front who will get you the goals you need to win the game. “There’s a desire which I think is marking this partnership, making it probably one of the best in the last 20 years of English football.” Meanwhile, Poyet will make a minimum of two changes tonight with two first-team regulars missing. On-loan Liverpool man Fabio Borini will watch from the sidelines against his parent club, while Marcos Alonso is suspended. And Sunderland's head coach has laid down a challenge to the players coming in to “take responsibility” and make their mark. “There are always players that you are going to miss,” he said. “We need the other ones to take responsibility; I think it’s as simple as that. “They’re part of the squad and they are part of the first team squad…so I’m asking them to be professional and to defend the club and that’s the least that the supporters will expect them to do.”
I can honestly say, and it breaks my heart, that tonights game is the most negative I've ever felt about a game. I can't see anything other than a battering, I really can't, anyone got owt to change my mindset? Anything? No?
It's to do with offshore financing & recruitment mate, summat I haven't done in years. It's a ****ing good job like, just a massive move, I've got a few weeks to decide like.
I'm probably not the best for advice, i would just jump on the plane, you are more calculated than me.
Aye, it's a big one mate, if it was mainland Europe, or purely financial, I'd have accepted on the spot. Where I'm at, it means uprooting my lass, and leaving my parents, now my dad has some health issues, a 2 hour flight from Spain matters little, a 23 hour one from Oz is different. Lifestyle wise, would be brilliant of course, 6 weeks training in Hong Kong as well, which I would ****ing love, but it might just be the timing that's off, you know. I'm ****ing torn like, seriously, not much is helping.
Tough one mate, i;m more like a pikey, go where i want, care even less. I'm not helping much here like. Take your time and think about it, you're lass not fancy it?
