Anfield Red

This week saw the ridiculous suggestion that Rafa Benitez was trying to bring John Arne Riise back to Anfield; but what most people forgot before they ran the story was the original source (who I am not going to mention for obvious reasons), and the fact we already have 3 left backs at the club.

The story was a total non starter from the outset on what must have been a slow news day, yet most sites ran the article claiming Benitez was going to bring Riise back; despite the fact we have Insua, Aurelio and Dossena already in that position.

Rafa always said he wanted two players for each position, and he recently stated to Paul Tomkins that Dossena was a model professional, so if Aurelio and Insua got injured I doubt we’d see him think twice about putting the Italian in that position.

Let’s go back to Riise; he was part of the Istanbul glory, part of the FA Cup 2006 team, but he started to struggle for form, was no longer scoring goals (and was more often than not wasting out free kicks by being the man the ball was played to before blasting it into row 66 of the kop); he argued with Gerrard on the pitch during a match with Arsenal a few years back; and effectively put us out of the Champion’s League by heading into his own net in the 94th minute against Chelsea rather than putting his right foot through the ball. Aurelio is a better set piece taker and can put in a better cross than Riise; while Insua has time on his side having made his breakthrough into the first team at a young age.

Most Liverpool fans will never forget Riise for the goal against the Mancs or his goal against Everton that prompted his song; or the ball he played into Gerrard in Istanbul; but there’s no way Rafa would bring Riise back to Anfield.

We already have Riera on the left, while Benayoun and Babel also ply their trade on the wing sometimes so why would Benitez drop either of them for Riise?

Who is going to be linked with a ’shock’ return to the club this Sunday? Biscan? Traore? Cisse? I can’t wait to NOT read this load of tripe again..