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The Reds seek to
repair some of their dented pride after the 3-0 loss to Manchester
City. Roy Hodgson and his team have been given the perfect opportunity
to do so with the visit of newly promoted Albion, who got hammered 6-0,
on the opening day by Chelsea.

It will be strange
surroundings for a lot of the Albion players and playing on the revered
Anfield could be a motivation, or they could be caught in the harsh
glare of the Kop.

Liverpool manager,
Hodgson, has earlier revealed that neither Fernando Torres nor Steven
Gerrard are included in the Reds’ squad that will travel to Trabzonspor
for the second leg of their Europa League tie on Thursday.

Both Steven Gerrard
and Fernando Torres were rested for the trip to Turkey but are expected
to be fit for today’ clash. Argentine Maxi Rodriguez is unwell, whilst
defender Daniel Agger is still suffering from the concussion he got in
the match against Arsenal on the opening day.

Hodgson said, on
Liverpool’s official site – liverpoolfc.tv, that, “Steven Gerrard
unfortunately has had a recurrence of the back problem which he gets
from time to time. The same applies to Agger for Sunday. He played in
the game on Monday which was to some extent against medical advice.

He wanted to play
but felt a bit sick after the game. That’s mainly due to the concussion
he suffered, so it would be foolish for us to risk him.

“Maxi is sick. He’s
in bed at the moment with a bit of gastroenteritis, so he’s out of the
question. With Fernando Torres we’ve made the decision that we don’t
wish to risk him three games in a row at this stage of the season with
him having done so well to get back this quickly.” One other player
that will not be on the Anfield pitch is Javier Mascherano.

A rebel, Mascherano
had refused to play for Liverpool recently and that led to a change of
formation and probably the hiding they got from City.

A statement on
Liverpool’s website read: “Liverpool Football Club have agreed terms
for the transfer of Javier Mascherano to FC Barcelona. The Spanish club
have now been given permission to speak to the Argentina midfielder.”
Without the Argentine captain, Hodgson said, “if we come through it
we’ll come through it stronger.” Liverpool got through and he will hope
they show their strength against the minnows.

Though West Brom
have a new hero in Nigerian striker Osaze Odemwingie, who scored on his
debut against Sunderland to give his new club three precious points,
Anfield may be a road too far for the Nigerian.

City need to change away form

Going away from
their City of Manchester Stadium base has not been good enough and it
probably cost the Blues of Manchester qualification for the lucrative
Champions League. This season has to be different if they are to
challenge for the title and a berth in Europe’s top club competition.

Though things seem
to be going great for the manager with the deepest purse – Roberto
Mancini, four games into the season, his team has scored six goals and
conceded none plus the humbling of Liverpool, which has definitely left
a marker for the rest of the season.

The Italian gaffer
has set up his team in the flexible 4-3-3 formation and his stars have
responded to the challenge. His challenge will be to maintain the edge
when they play away from home against supposedly weaker opponents,
apologies to Sunderland. After the exertions on Thursday against
Timisoara, he will be lining up his best eleven at the Stadium of
Lights today.

Sunderland
meanwhile have not started well and Steve Bruce will be looking for
quick improvements from his team. And Sunderland, will be hoping to
catch the millionaires unawares today.

The Sunderland
manager believes City will be a test for any team in the Premiership
this season. “Games don’t come much tougher than this one in the
Premier League. I watched them against Liverpool and they were
impressive.

“We’ll have a big
crowd behind us – it’ll be a different atmosphere to Tuesday night, for
sure – and we’re looking forward to the challenge.

“Everyone wants to
play against a big team and at the moment they don’t come much bigger
than City with their spending power and the players they’ve brought in.
They’re doing extremely well and we know it will be a tough test.”

Barcelona face Mourinho test

After 12
disappointing months and $358.54 million spent on acquiring the likes
of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka, Real ended a second successive season
without any silverware.

This season, they
may have made their shrewdest acquisition in Jose Mourinho, who no one
will deny has a winners’ mentality. There have been huge changes at the
Bernebeu with Raul, Guti and Christoph Metzelder making way for younger
stars like Mesut Ozil, Sami Khedira, Pedro Leon, Sergio Canales and
Angel Di Maria. Ricardo Carvalho has also been bought to bolster a
suspect defence.

Mourinho has now
become the club’s 11th coach in seven years. He quit Italian side,
Inter Milan, after leading them to an historic treble of UEFA Champions
League, Serie A and Coppa Italia titles last season.

In preparing for
the season, Madrid has won four and drawn two of its six pre-season
games, but the Portuguese tactician believes there is still room for
improvement.

“Our pre-season has
been very difficult. With a new coach and six signing, we haven’t had
much time to work if we want play differently.

“We are satisfied with how we’ve been doing and we will improve with time. This is a very young squad, but full of quality.

“The important
thing is that we can grow, that we are solid, and to play at a
medium-high level while being consistent in our style of play and
results.”

The Real team will
be without Fernando Gago and Kaka and defenders Pepe, Ezequiel Garay
and Raul Albiol are also out of the trip to Mallorca.

Mourinho has made
clear he prefers to play Cristiano Ronaldo on the wing rather than as a
centre forward, with Gonzalo Higuain likely to start up front.

Mourinho will be up
against a former Real great in Michael Laudrup who also just assumed
stewardship of Mallorca. He took over after the departure of Gregorio
Manzano.

Mallorca had a fruitful last season and just missed out on qualifying for the UEFA Champions League.

They also possess a
scary home record – 15 wins in 19 home matches. They will not be in the
Europa Cup as they were denied entrance for financial reasons.

Two-time reigning
champion Barcelona has made just a couple of additions in the form of
David Villa, but that is a key addition. They are also looking to
offload Zlatan Ibrahimovic to AC Milan.

One has to recall
that eight members of Spain’s FIFA World Cup-winning squad now reside
at the Nou Camp. They have also brought in the very versatile
Brazilian, Adriano from Sevilla.

The midfield will
be bolstered by the arrival of Javier Mascherano from Liverpool to fill
the void left by the sale of Yaya Toure to Manchester City.

The race in La Liga is shaping out to be a two horse race. Barcelona know the threat of Mourinho,

having knocked the
Catalans out of the 2009/2010 UEFA Champions League and the dream of
achieving an unprecedented consecutive Champions League wins. He will
be the major threat as the Camp Nou team set out to win a third
consecutive La Liga title.