Liverpool reserves lost for just the second game of the season against Wigan Athletic. You’ll find plenty of good match reports elsewhere, so I want to focus on the team performance and the progress of particular individuals I’ve been tracking this season. (By Matthew Cain.)
Watching Fernando Torres at Atletico Madrid, there was always a nagging doubt in my mind about this rangy, tousle-haired darling of the Vicente Calderon. Sure, Atleti supporters, ever eager to worship, adored him. Sure, he carried the team through several seasons almost single-handedly (albeit often surrounded by decent/underperforming players). But did he have that star quality, the ability to mark his name down as one of the very best in the world?
You don’t win the Bola de Ouro (Golden Ball), given to the best player in the Campeonato Brasileiro — an honour previously won by the likes of Zico, Romario, Kaká and Carlos Tevez — if you can’t play football (an allegation against Lucas you don’t have to look far to find should you care to frequent Liverpool forums).
