“Liverpool is scheduled to play Southampton on World AIDS Day making it the perfect opportunity to display the red ribbon and reinforce our commitment to the global fight against HIV,” said Mark Devadason, Group Head of Sustainability and Regions at Standard Chartered.
“Our thanks go out to both Liverpool and AVERT who have made this activity possible, and enabled us to show our solidarity with those living with HIV and commemorate those who have died from the illness.”
Ian Ayre, Managing Director of Liverpool FC, added: “Living with HIV is an important cause, and one which the Club is proud to support. When an individual wears a red ribbon they are demonstrating that they have joined the global fight against HIV so we are delighted to be able to use the Anfield pitch to display the ribbon and raise awareness for HIV and AIDS.”
Liverpool have strengthened their backroom team by hiring Steve Peters, the sports psychiatrist who inspired Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Bradley Wiggins to Olympic cycling success.
Stirling University maths graduate Dr Steve Peters taught for 8 years before becoming a doctor and psychiatrist working with men with severe psychiatric disorders. Now he’s best known as the GB cycling team ‘mind mechanic’ behind the success of Olympians like Victoria Pendleton and Sir Chris Hoy. In this fascinating programme, he sits in the Stark chair and talks to Edi about what’s made him and his elite athletes turn their lives around. There is, he says, a chimp in all of us who has to be managed.
Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has brought in the psychiatrist in an attempt to improve the mental strength of players and staff at Anfield as they bid for success.
In addition to working with Hoy and Pendleton, he helped Ronnie O’Sullivan before his victory at this year’s World Snooker Championships and was also employed by Craig Bellamy when the forward was at Anfield last season.
Bellamy credited Peters with helping him improve his form through teaching methods that encourage sportspeople to think more rationally under pressure.
Liverpool’s players will be free to choose whether to use his services.
“We have brought in someone who is the top guy in his field, one of the leading guys in the world in what he does,” Rodgers said.
“I see it as a part of the development of the player.
“The modern game is very much about the psychological aspect of it.
“I do lots of technical, tactical and physical training and sometimes what gets bypassed is the mental tuning for players, especially in the modern game at the top level.”
Rodgers is also hoping that Peters will help him as a manager.
“Command can be lonely and it is always good to have other people to turn to when you are trying to lead the club forward,” he explained.
“I have my staff around me and they are outstanding, but it is always nice to have a different set of eyes with different experiences.
“I have always used neurologists, but I took my time when I arrived here to make sure we could get someone who could really help performance.
In a week in which Liverpool parted company with their communications director Luis Saurez heaped praise on his team mate Steven Gerrard and hailed him as the best Midfielder he has ever seen.
He told Liverpool’s website: “He’s a real legend at this club, for many reasons; the time he’s been at the club, for all what he has given for the club, for the great team-mate he is, for all the years and all those 600 games he’s played here, which is by no means an easy thing to achieve at a club like Liverpool, and for his modesty and the classy person he is.
“I think he is a player for whom you have to show enormous respect. He has always shown utmost respect to the club and has always remained here out of his love for the club, and for me he is the best midfielder I’ve ever seen play or been able to play alongside.”
Suarez added: “I can’t speak about the years before I was born or before I can remember, but I don’t think that the club will ever have another player like Steven Gerrard.”
‘Ohhhhhhhh ya beauty, what a hit son, what a hit!’ Andy Gray gets excited
MANCHESTER City manager Roberto Mancini showed his lighter side before addressing some serious issues as he met media ahead of today’s visit by Aston Villa.
After sending David Platt to speak on his behalf before and after last Sunday’s defeat of Tottenham, the Italian joked with press by arriving
Being Liverpool already been aired on Channel 5 UK is to make its NESN Debut.
The acclaimed television series which brings you inside the world’s most historic soccer club makes its NESN debut on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET.
Filming of the documentary began days after the FA Cup final defeat to Chelsea at the end of the 2011/12 season. Although they won the League Cup for a record eighth time and reached the FA Cup Final, their form had been hit and miss and they finished 8th, their lowest premier league position since 1994. It resulted in Kenny Dalglish being relieved of his duties in May.
Cameras were allowed full access to all aspects of the club and players, on the pitch and training fields, in the gyms, changing rooms and boardrooms, at team meetings and at home. The film captures the recruitment process as the club sought a new manager and the moment when, two weeks later, Brendan ‘Buck’ Rodgers arrived at Melwood, prior to Liverpool’s North American tour.
He had an impressive track record at Swansea City, but would the new ‘king of the Kop’ be able to raise Liverpool’s game in time for the new season? Endorsing the appointment, managing director Ian Ayre says, “Brendan was always first choice. He has his own style and philosophy, which is evident in watching what he achieved last year with Swansea.”
As this film shows, Rodgers is firm but fair. “You can’t get away from the nuts and bolts, which is about hard work and honesty,” he comments. As far as he is concerned, that philosophy applies to him as well as his staff and team. “Whatever it takes to make Liverpool successful, then my life is devoted,” he says. “It’s all part of the dance.”
The Premier League have announced the following fixture changes:
Manchester United v Liverpool
New date : Sunday 13 January, 2013(1:30pm)
Reason for amendment: Live on Sky Sports
Arsenal v Manchester City
New date: Sunday 13 January, 2013(4pm)
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
Queens Park Rangers v Tottenham Hotspur
New date: Monday 14 January, 2013 (8pm)
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
(In the event of either club being involved in an FA Cup third-round replay, this match will revert to Saturday 12 January, 12:45pm, and remain live on Sky Sports)
West Bromwich Albion v Aston Villa
New date: Saturday 19 January, 2013 (5.30pm)
Reason: Live on ESPN
Chelsea v Arsenal
New date: Sunday 20 January, 2013 (1.30pm)
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester United
New date: Sunday 20 January, 2013 (4pm)
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
Southampton v Everton
New date: Monday 21 January, 2013 (8pm)
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
Sunderland v Swansea
Date: Tuesday 29 January, 2013 (7.45pm) – no change
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
Arsenal v Liverpool
Date: Wednesday 30 January, 2013 (7.45pm) – no change
Reason: Live on Sky Sports
Brendan Rodgers is facing his former side Swansea tonight Swansea in the latest round of the Capital One Cup and the reds Boss will deploying his Tiki-Taka football style hoping to overcome his former club after leaving the Liberty last summer. Liverpool are defending the trophy they won last February after beating Cardiff City on penalties.
The last time the clubs actually met proved to be Rodgers’ last game in charge of the Swans – ironically a 1-0 win over Liverpool at the Liberty.
Michael Laudrup’s side reached this stage after victories over Barnsley and Crawley Town, while Liverpool beat West Brom at The Hawthorns.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers: “You have got two hats on really. The professional hat first and foremost says we want to get to through to the quarter-finals and nothing will get in the way of that.
Former Liverpool star Jamie Rednapp talked about Rodgers style shortly after Brendan was appointed as the Anfield boss and said ” He wants his teams to pass in all areas. He has used a system that has worked in Spain, especially for Barcelona — principally the two centre halves split, the full backs push on and the holding midfielder steps in and plays from there. Everyone is encouraged to get on the ball, take risks, pass it, keep it. Liverpool will be playing the tiki-taka style.
He won’t change at Liverpool, but he will need time to implement his way of playing. The Liverpool crowd will be patient, because they love and understand their football and will quickly see what he is trying to achieve.
This squad should be excited about working with Brendan because he won’t waste a training session, where he will be working with the ball and teaching them how to break down other teams.
Liverpool have won the League Cup eight times – the most any club has won it.
So what is Tiki-Taka !
Tiki-taka is a style of play that has evolved from Total Football and is characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels, and maintaining possession. The style is primarily associated with La Liga club FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team under managers Luis Aragonés and Vicente del Bosque and also Pep Guardiola, ex-manager of FC Barcelona. Tiki-taka moves away from the traditional thinking of formations in football to a concept derived from zonal play.
Tiki-taka has been variously described as “a style of play based on making your way to the back of the net through short passing and movement,” a “short passing style in which the ball is worked carefully through various channels,” and a “nonsensical phrase that has come to mean short passing, patience and possession above all else.” The style involves roaming movement and positional interchange amongst midfielders, moving the ball in intricate patterns, and sharp, one or two-touch passing. Tiki-taka is “both defensive and offensive in equal measure” – the team is always in possession, so doesn’t need to switch between defending and attacking.
“We have the same idea as each other. Keep the ball, create movement around and off the ball, get in the spaces to cause danger”.
Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona using tiki-taka faced 52 different teams and managed wins against all of them except Chelsea, while Lionel Messi has not scored against Chelsea in eight UEFA Champions League matches (including a missed penalty spot kick in the second leg of the semi-final in 2012).
Video Courtesy of FC Barcelona, Mediapro, RTVE, Sky Sports, AL Jazeera, LaSexta FIFA and UEFA.
The Touchline Times 