Surprise, surprise, guess who's joined the Reds in training for the Barclays Asia Trophy? That's right, Harry F-in' Kewell. Awesome. Whether he plays or not, we'll have to see, but I'm pretty confident we'll see him in the second match either against Portsmouth or Fulham. I'm actually really pleased that King Harry is revving to go instead of taking post Asian Cup time off. It means he's serious about being a contributor this upcoming season and I honestly believe he'll be a crucial factor in our quest for the Premiership.
Anyhow, with these matches only being three days apart, I'm confident we'll get a longer look at some of the new players and possibly a preview of what our starting line-up will be. Yeah, yeah, I know what Rafa likes to do, but I think this year will be different. I think he'll actually have a certain squad that he uses as the EPL squad and barring injury will be the 'regulars'. Unfortunately though, I don't think we'll see that in this tournament, as though I'm sure he'll go with a lesser side in the first match.
This is who I see playing today:
Carson
Arbeloa
Hyypia
Paletta
Darby (I'm not sure if he's even there but...)
Babel
Sissoko
Yossi
El Zhar
Voronin
Crouch
Bench (not sure if we're limited, but if so):
Mihaylov
Agger
Riise
Gerrard
Kuyt
We're going to be relying heavily on Hyypia and Arbeloa to be solid in the back, but if Paletta can play as well as he did against Auxerre and Darby maintains his consistency, we should be fine. I'm hoping we don't have to bring anyone off the bench, but if we have to, hopefully it will be just let them get a run in. Anyhow, I'm sure the real line-up will be introduced soon. Cheers.