Team news

Liverpool preview
All four of the Liverpool players sent to Belgrade this week for treatment for their injuries are in the squad to face Manchester City at Anfield.

Glen Johnson, Fabio Aurelio, Yossi Benayoun and Albert Riera have all been treated by Serbian physiotherapist Mariana Kovacevic this week and are all back in full training.

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez will also have Steven Gerrard in the starting line-up after a fortnight's break to allow a groin injury to heal.

But striker Fernando Torres, on a three-week treatment programme to cure his more serious groin problem, will not be involved. Jamie Carragher returns after suspension.

Boss Rafa Benitez is desperate to salvage Liverpool's season and get them into the Champions League again next year, and he was prepared to try almost anything to get his top stars fit.

With Steven Gerrard also certain of starting the match against City follow recovery from a groin problem, it is only striker Fernando Torres (also groin) who is not available against Mark Hughes' men.

And it is City who may have inadvertently alerted Liverpool to the placenta cell treatment available in Belgrade.

Riera and City full-back Pablo Zabaleta were friends and team-mates from their time together in Spain, and it was the Argentina international who told his friend about the treatment he had in Belgrade.

Benitez said: "We knew of other players at Premier League clubs who have been to Belgrade for treatment with this lady, and we were made aware that it was very effective. Zabaleta told Riera about it.

"She has been working for seven years with top-class sportsmen, not just footballers. So she has the experience.

"We felt it was a good opportunity to send some of our players. We sent two, Benayoun and Riera and they came back and started training straight away.

"So we decided to send two more, Johnson and Aurelio, and the same thing has happened. They have been training and all four will be in the squad against City."

Man City preview
Record signing Robinho will travel to Liverpool with Manchester City , even if the £32.5million striker is unlikely to play.

The subject of so much media talk last week, when he left City's training camp in Abu Dhabi and did not return, preferring instead to remain with his national side ahead of their victory against England, Robinho has not featured in a competitive game since injuring his ankle on international duty against Argentina in September.

Manager Mark Hughes expects him to be fit to face Hull in City's next fixture after the Liverpool game.

City will also be without winger, Martin Petrov, who has a knee injury, while Sylvinho is out with a calf injury.

Although he missed last week's friendly in Abu Dhabi in order not to aggravate his knee, Craig Bellamy seems certain to be in the starting line-up.

As common sense prevailed and Robinho did not end up making his comeback for Brazil, either against England last Saturday or Oman three days later, after a near three-month absence with an ankle injury, the striker has been able to maintain his improvement on the training ground.

His performances have been enough to confirm his place in Hughes' travelling party for Merseyside. But his actual comeback may have to wait until the visit of Hull next week.

"It is important Robinho is back with the group," said Hughes.

"It could be a little bit early for him but certainly he is in the frame for next week's game." After a run of five successive draws, City are eager for a victory against possibly the most likely of the established top four to fall from their lofty perch.

Not that Hughes is taking anything for granted.

"There is a demand on Liverpool," he said.

"They are expected to be successful. That has been there for decades. There is a fear of failure in the sense of not allowing themselves to think of the consequences of losing games.

"After a run of drawn games it is the perfect match for us.

"We have to be playing at our best to get a positive result and I am sure the reverse is true.

Liverpool vs Man City

Last modified 23:34 22/11/09

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If you believed Rafa Benitez and Mark Hughes, their sides are both still on course for a top-four finish.

Don’t believe the hype.

Despite the stellar names on show, the thrills and spills of an enthralling second half and a point apiece that will satisfy both men, this was a day when the flaws of both Liverpool and City were brutally exposed.

The home side lost Glen Johnson in a pre-match fitness test before Daniel Agger (below right) and Ryan Babel both went off with head and ankle injuries inside 20 minutes.

But after showing remarkable endeavour to go ahead through Martin Skrtel just after half-time, Liverpool allowed City to hit back with goals from Emmanuel Adebayor and Stephen Ireland.

Despite manager Benitez’s valid complaint that his hands have been bound by an injury crisis, there is no excuse when a Slovakia centre-half like Skrtel allows Adebayor to drift away from him to head home Craig Bellamy’s 68th-minute corner.

When substitute Sotirios Kyrgiakos then allowed himself to be tied in knots by Shaun Wright-Phillips and left powerless to prevent the City winger setting up Ireland for a second in the 76th minute, it provided more evidence that this is going to be a tough winter for the Kop.

To their credit, Liverpool were behind for just 29 seconds before substitute Yossi Benayoun belied his own lack of fitness to grab an equaliser.

Benitez said: “You are never happy when you draw a home game – and at the end we were the team looking to win– but the players gave me everything.”

But character and commitment only go so far. Liverpool have now failed to win in a five-game period that has seen them falter in the title race, knocked out of the League Cup and on the brink of a Champions League exit.

City’s statistics are just as worrying. The Blues may still have only lost once this season, but six successive draws have given manager Hughes plenty to ponder.

When the visitors should have been looking to put their boot down on the throat of a Liverpool team in early disarray, they lacked the invention and determination to do so.

Adebayor looked as disinterested as his last days at Arsenal, Wright-Phillips and Ireland seemed scared to go beyond the halfway line, and Wayne Bridge struggled once again to do the dirty work that should come naturally for an England left-back.

Only Shay Given’s stunning save to keep out Skrtel’s early header kept the scoreline level in a mistake-ridden first half.

When Skrtel once again poked at City’s soft set-piece underbelly two minutes into the second half, this time he was able to guide home Steven Gerrard’s free-kick.

But Hughes’s introduction of Carlos Tevez for the lethargic Gareth Barry transformed City. Adebayor drew them level with a textbook header aided by Skrtel’s woeful marking, before Ireland threw off his shackles to guide home a cross by the revitalised Wright-Phillips.

But City have thrown away leads against Fulham and Burnley in their run of stalemates – and they did the same again.

Substitute Nedum Onuoha’s miscued clearance fell to David Ngog and when his poor attempt at a shot came off Joleon Lescott, Benayoun reacted first to score.

Hughes said: “It shows you how far this team has come that we have players who are disappointed to have drawn at Anfield.

“I thought we deserved to win because we were the better team, but again we have let a winning position slip.”