The D-Wreck Soccer Radio Show!

A fantastic blogger / interviewer, D-Wreck does some fantastic parodies on football personalities.
He comes up with some of the greatest football spoofs and I receive these interviews every week.

This is an interview he made up with Alex Ferguson, David Moyes and Rafa Benitez

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The Wenger Gyrations, Cristiano Worshippers And Rafa Benitez Is A DVD Pirate And "Silhouette"?

The horrendous pictures of Aaron Ramsey's broken tibia and fibula continued to haunt my weekend's memories. The best part of the weekend's matches was that West Ham United stays 13th, three points above the drop zone with all rivals playing the same amount of games. A good home win against Bolton will further consolidate the Hammers' position in the Premier League table.

Hilario and Obi Mikel combined to gift Manchester City two goals as Mancini's men overcame a lethargic Chelsea. Manchester City have now lost the least games among the top six clubs chasing for Champions League position.

Arsenal moved to within three points of leaders Chelsea with a gritty 3-1 win over Stoke. The Gunners have an easier fixture run-in than both Chelsea and United and as such, must be considered a serious contender for the title. Andrew Weber writing in the excellent Arsenal FC blog will be happy to note that the Gunners faces ball-playing sides  rather than bruising sides in this crucial late stage of the Premier League title race.

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Are Tottenham Hotspur Liverpool's Bogey Team?

An underachieving Liverpool team will face super-confident Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield this Wednesday. A match that should see Maxi Rodriquez and Alberto Aquilani in the starting lineup. But then again, who can read Rafa's mind?

After a great last season, Liverpool were looking to go one better than second and finally be Premiership champions. Spurs brought Liverpool crashing back to reality, beating the Rafa's men 2-1 in London. This setback pretty much set the stage for a turbulent season so far for Liverpool.

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Three Reasons To Be Optimistic About Liverpool's 2009/2010 Premiership Season

After the win against Wigan, Rafa Benitez declared that Liverpool's season will start then. However all that took place after Wigan was an embarassing defeat to Portsmouth. Embarassing because Liverpool hardly showed any attacking threat and were completely shackled by Pompey.

The poor showing by Liverpool has drawn much criticisms about the manager's handling of the club and questionable tactics. Also glaringly obvious were the lack of the fighting spirit demonstrated last season and the worryingly low confidence of the Liverpool players.

I fully believe that Liverpool will turn the corner and that corner starts at Wolves this Saturday. The rumblings within the club indicate signs of better things to come.



Thus, instead of highlighting deficiencies and reservations about Liverpool's season to date, I would prefer to focus on three reasons on why Reds fans can be optimistic in 2010.

1. Torres and Gerrard partnership resumes

It was reported that Rafa has held talks with the Liverpool captain about his performances and the meeting had the desired result. A more determined and influential Steven Gerrard is crucial for the improvement in Liverpool's fortunes. Another boost came in the form that Torres will not need operation on a hernia and this means that the T&G partnership is all set to resume. The Torres and Gerrard partnership guarantee goals and Liverpool are much better when these two play together.

2. Loss of Javier Mascherano means a return to an attacking lineup

Javier Mascherano's wild lunge into Tal Ben-Haim's knee resulted in the Argentinian damaging knee ligaments. With Masch out indefinitely, this paves the way for Alberto Aquilani to assert his push for a first team place. This immediately makes the Liverpool midfield more attacking in nature. Rafa will be hardpressed to maintain his favoured 4-2-3-1 formation without Mascherano and should opt instead for Aquilani. The Italian playmaker, with his passing ability, can provide the creativity and vision sorely lacking in the current Liverpool team.

3. Liverpool traditionally are stronger in the second half of a Premiership season

In the past four season from 2005-2008 Liverpool in the second half of the season have been remarkably strong, garnering 44 (2009), 39 (2008), 34 (2007) and 42 (2006) as compared to 42 (2009), 37 (2008), 34 (2007) and 40 (2006) in the first 19 matches. Though our points tally is slightly lower than in previous seasons (would be 30 from 19 matches if Liverpool beat Wolves), it is fair to say that Liverpool always gets going at the turn of the new year.

Rest assured, even if Liverpool do not achieve the revised target of fourth place, Rafa Benitez will resign. That's another reason to stay optimistic, perhaps Mourinho will be interested in returning to the Premiership as Liverpool manager.

Lastly, David Ngog's excellent form and goal scoring exploits has helped to put a shining light in an otherwise bleak season. Four goals this season and with a 29% shots to goals ratio percentage, he has shone in his limited role as understudy to Fernando Torres.

Okay, so there are five reasons to be optimistic instead of three. But the main thing is that it's still only halfway and there are 19 more matches to go. Fourth place is only eight points away! And there is still the Europa League trophy to be won!

Only Rafa Benitez Can Have The Brillant Idea Of Playing Aquilani and Torres In A Meaningless Champions League Match

The Official Liverpool club site reported that Alberto Aquilani will start tonight against Fiorentina in a meaningless Champions League match. Fernando Torres is also expected to be named on the substitutes bench. The initial reaction from me when I was told by a Red Devils fan was, "why oh why? Rafa has got things wrong yet again!"

But when I sat down later and calmly thought about this bit of news, I understood what Rafa wanted to achieve on Wednesday evening.

Rafa's decision to finally play Aquilani will be warmly received by all fans who have suffered as Liverpool's season fell apart in recent weeks. So in a meaningless Champions League match, Rafa stumbled upon the ingenious idea of finally unleashing the playmaking skills of Alberto Aquilani. Playing him in a no-pressure but still competitive match can definitely ease Aquilani back into fighting condition necessary to help Liverpool's cause for FA Cup and Europa League glory.

It's hard to argue with the mindset of Benitez as he sought to improve firstly, Aquilani's and Torres' match fitness and secondly, allow Aquilani to build his own match confidence by pitting him against familiar Italian opposition. If everything goes according to plan, Aquilani should be in contention for a first Premiership start against Arsenal. Fiorentina and Arsenal are ideal opposition for the playmaker who is regaining his stride after a long lay-off. Thirdly, if Torres comes off the bench in the 65th minute, there will be ample time in the match for Aquilani to develop an understanding with 'Nando. Rafa hopes to reap the benefits come Sunday when Arsene's team come to town.

So now, does starting Aquilani and naming Torres on the bench against Fiorentina now seems like a masterstroke to you? It sure does smell like Rafa is thinking ahead yet again, this time towards getting three points against Arsenal! So, the Gunners had better watch out this Sunday as Rafa seems to have a plan cooking in the Anfield oven.

World's Best Football Manager

Bob Bradley is the most winningest coach/manager in MLS history with 141 victories. That got me thinking about who could be the best active football manager. Naturally, the usual suspects were around, namely, Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsene Wenger and Rafa Benitez.
I came across the International Federation of Football History and Statistics (IFFHS) website and found All-Time World Coach Ranking.

From the period of 1996-2008, the accumulated rankings compiled by IFFHS are as follows,
1. Sir Alexander Ferguson (Manchester United)
2. Marcello Lippi (Italy)
3. Arsène Wenger (Arsenal)
4. Guus Hiddink (Russia/Chelsea)
5. Sven-Göran Eriksson (Mexico)
Sir Alex had a winning percentage of 58.3% out of 1261 matches and is the only manager from this list to have won the Champions League twice.
Guus Hiddink however had a slightly better win percentage (59.2%) with a lower number of games.

6. José Mário dos Santos Mourinho Felix (Inter Milan)
Jose Mourinho was 6th overall. Jose has a superior win percentage of 68% but lost out on the elusive Champions League Cup while at Chelsea. Still solely on win percentage, Jose is the world's best football manager.

In 14th place, is
14. Rafael Benítez Maudes (Liverpool)
- a winning percentage of 55.5% and boosted by the consecutive semifinal appearances in recent years in the Champions League.

16. Vicente del Bosque (Spain)
The current Spain boss is in 16th place, cruelly let go by Real Madrid but now proving that he has the managerial nous for international football. Del Bosque's Spain is still unbeaten in the World Cup 2010 Qualifiers.

20. Fabio Capello (England)
Have won 9 out of 12 England games with a win percentage of 70%. Let's hope he wins the World Cup for England. It's been too long for the oft-suffering England fans.

Becks with Fergie before Inter CL game (image from Getty images)