Liverpool Football Club: Rebirth

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10 August 2011

Rodgers Confirms Fernandinho Purchase

Anfield- In need of a striker to replace the injured Andy Carroll, Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has made his first significant purchase with the club, signing versatile 25 year old forward Fernandinho from São Paulo for a reported £8,500,000. Able to play all three forward positions, the diminutive Brazilian is tremendously gifted with the ball, has pace to spare and a great finishing touch. He's also quite strong for his size, but questions about his stamina have some wondering if he can hold up through a rugged Premier League season. In transit at press time, Fernandinho is expected to be on the bench for the opening match with Sunderland just three days from now.
In other transfer news, Rodgers has loaned out another of his youngsters, sending 17 year old CAM Suso to Hibernian for the season.

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Match Day #1

Liverpool 1-2 Sunderland

Scoring Summary
Nicklas Bendtner(Sun) 6'
Luis Suarez(Liv) 16'
Craig Gardner(Sun) 45'

Recap- "Unlucky" That's how new Reds manager Brendan Rodgers described it, and for our money he was right on target, as Liverpool opened the 2011-12 Barclay's Premier League season with a 2-1 loss to visiting Sunderland.
Outshot 17-5, out possessed 57% to 43%, and totally outplayed, Sunderland won the match with two smash and grab goals by Bendtner and Gardner, fine keeping by backup Craig Gordon, and a little help from the frame of the goal which kept out shots from both Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. Also lost during the match was left winger Stewart Downing, who's badly sprained ankle will keep him out of the linuep for up to four weeks. All in all not a great day for fans of LFC.

Barclays Premier League Results: Match Day #1

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Blackburn 0-1 Wolverhampton
Fulham 2-0 Aston Villa
Liverpool 1-2 Sunderland
Newcastle 1-1 Arsenal
QPR 0-1 Bolton
Tottenham 2-0 Everton
Wigan 1-2 Norwich City
Stoke City 2-2 Chelsea
West Brom 0-2 Manchester United
Manchester City 3-0 Swansea City

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18 August 2011

Agger Forces His Way Out Of Anfield
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Star CB Sold To Bayern For Whopping £18,000,000

Off To Germany and the Bundesliga

Anfield- Unable or unwilling to adapt to new manager Brendan Rodgers' philosophy, 26 year old star CB Daniel Agger demanded a transfer immediately following the Reds loss to Sunderland. Unable to talk him out of it, Rodgers reluctantly listed the Danish international setting off a bidding war between Arsenal, Bayern Munich, and AC Milan, with Bayern eventually winning out with an £18,000,000 bid. Sympathetic to the situation, FSG, the owners of Liverpool football club handed Rodgers the entire sum to purchase a replacement. Early word is that Rodgers is hot and heavy after 24 year old Inter CB Andrea Ranocchia, Inter's asking price is said to be north of £15 million pounds.

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Headed to the beach house for the rest of the week, huge update when I get back!

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Round One Results
14 August 2011

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Aldershot Town 2-1 Peterborough
Barnet 3-3(3-1p) Crystal Palace
Birmingham City 3-0 Gillingham
Bradford City 2-2(1-2p) Brighton
Bristol City 3-0 Oxford United
Cardiff City 3-1 Doncaster
Carlisle United 2-1 Bury
Cheltenham Town 1-2 Colchester
Dagenham 0-3 Portsmouth
Exeter City 2-1 Walsall
Huddersfield 2-0 Hereford
Hull City 3-0 Crewe Alexandra
Ipswich Town 2-1 S****horpe United
Leeds United 3-1 Sheffield Wednesday
Leicester City 2-0 Burton Albion
Leyton Orient 1-2 Derby County
Macclesfield 2-2(4-2p) Coventry City
Middlesbrough 3-0 Accrington
Millwall 4-1 Torquay United
MK Dons 1-0 Port Vale
Morecambe 2-2(1-3p) Burnley
Northampton 1-2 Watford
Notts County 2-1 Hartlepool
Oldham Athletic 1-2 Blackpool
Preston North End 4-1 Rochdale
Reading 3-1 Rotherham United
Sheffield United 3-1 Yeovil Town
Southampton 4-1 AFC Wimbledon
Southend United 1-2 Chesterfield
Stevenage 2-1 Plymouth Argyle
Swindon Town 0-1 Barnsley
West Ham 3-0 Shrewsbury
Wycombe 1-1(2-1p) Crawley Town
Brentford 1-2 Bournemouth
Nottingham Forest 4-0 Bristol Rovers
Tranmere Rovers 3-3(1-3p) Charlton Athletic

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Match Day #2

Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool

Scoring Summary
Steven Gerrard(Liv) 13'
Tomas Rosicky(Ars) 57'
Robin van Persie(Ars) 74'

Recap- Dealing with injuries to both Andy Carroll and Stewart Downing and the sale of defensive stalwart Daniel Agger, Liverpool went into the Emirates and played their hearts out, only to be denied the draw by a late screamer from Robin van Persie. The loss drops the Reds to 0-0-2 on the year, surely not how new Manager Brendan Rodgers envisioned it.

Barclays Premier League Round #2 Results

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Arsenal 2-1 Liverpool
Aston Villa 1-0 Blackburn
Chelsea 3-0 West Bromwich
Everton 1-1 Queens Park Rangers
Norwich City 1-2 Stoke City
Sunderland 2-1 Newcastle United
Swansea City 3-0 Wigan Athletic
Wolverhampton 2-0 Fulham
Bolton 0-1 Manchester City
Manchester United 1-1 Tottenham Hotspur

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23 August 2011

Rodgers Gets His Man!
Ranocchia Capture Confirmed This Morning

Imposing CB Andrea Ranocchia Is Heading To Anfield

Anfield- With the transfer deadline just days away, Liverpool Manager Brendan Rodgers has secured the signature of one of the bright young defenders in all of football today with the purchase of 24 year old CB Andrea Ranocchia from Serie A side Internazionale for £15,500,000.
The six foot five Italian International will immediately be slotted in next to Martin Skertl in the starting XI with Jamie Carragher heading back to more of a substitute role.

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Match Day #3

Liverpool 2-1 Bolton Wanderers

Scoring Summary
Dirk Kuyt(Liv) 23'
Fernandinho(Liv) 52'
Ivan Klasnic(Bol) 53'

Recap- Getting his first significant minutes as a Liverpool player, the electrifying Fernandinho made an immediate impact, using his blazing pace to score what would prove to be the match winner, as Liverpool defeated visiting Bolton by the score of 2-1, getting Manager Brendan Rodgers his first win as LFC gaffer. On the down side, the injuries continue to mount, with Dirk Kuyt leaving the game early in the second half with a sprained knee. Early reports say he'll be out for about a month.

Barclays Premier League Match Day #3 Results

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Manchester United 3-1 Arsenal
Tottenham Hotspur 1-1 Manchester City
Aston Villa 1-1 Wolverhampton
Blackburn 2-1 Everton
Chelsea 2-0 Norwich City
Liverpool 2-1 Bolton
Newcastle United 3-0 Fulham
Swansea City 2-1 Sunderland
West Bromwich 0-2 Stoke City
Wigan Athletic 2-2 Queens Park Rangers