Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers is sweating over the fitness of Pepe Reina after the goalkeeper picked up a hamstring injury while on international duty with Spain.

Reina revealed on Wednesday that he would undergo tests at Anfield after picking up the knock during the half-time warm-up.

The shot-stopper is thusly a doubt ahead of Liverpool’s match against Reading on Saturday, but Reds boss Rodgers is hopeful the injury won’t prove too serious.

“We’ll wait another 24 hours to see how he is,” the 39-year-old told reporters. “It’s nothing overly serious – he felt just a slight twinge in his hamstring at half-time in the game.

“I met him here [on Wednesday at] about 7.15pm. All of our players coming back from international duty come here [Melwood] to be assessed and reported before they go back home.

“We had the checks on him and he had a scan this morning. It’s not overly serious, but we just need to weigh up the risk in the next 24 to 48 hours.

“I think Spain picked up a few injuries. By all accounts the pitch wasn’t the best and a number of them picked up muscle injuries.

“Speaking to Pepe last night, he very rarely has any muscle injuries, but hopefully it will prove not to be serious.”

“He’s been wonderful since I came in here. He’s a good guy and one of the top goalkeepers in this league.”

Should the Spain international’s injury force him out of Saturday’s clash, Rodgers confirmed Brad Jones will take his place, and is confident the reserve goalkeeper will rise to the occasion should the need arise.

“It’s good for us that if he can’t play, we’ve got Brad Jones, who has made fantastic improvement since the beginning of the season and shows up every day of his life very well here,” Rodgers added.

“So if Pepe can’t play, we’ve got an able understudy who can come in and do very well, I’m sure.”

Liverpool midfielder Suso is close to agreeing an improved contract at Anfield, manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed.

Suso, who has been at the club since 2010, has broken into the Reds first team this season, making five appearances in all competitions so far, and Rodgers is pleased the youngster is ready to commit his future to the club.
“He will sign a new contract later which shows our commitment to him and shows he is very happy here and feels he has hope, which is important,” he told reporters.

“I have been really impressed. He is a good boy and very keen to learn. He is a wonderful technician, he’s very bright and a thinking player – which I like.”

The 18-year-old made his Reds first-team debut in the Europa League win over Young Boys in September, before earning a first Premier League start in the 5-2 victory at Norwich nine days later.

Rodgers knows Suso has much yet to add to his game but is clearly ready to show faith in the midfielder with an improved deal.

“He needs to add goals to his game but obviously when you are a young player coming into the team you are really just trying to settle in,” the Reds boss added.

“But for him he is very creative and he works very hard. He’s done very well; there is a long way to go but he’s shown excellent promise.”

The long International break has passed and we are back to the bread and butter of mainstream club football to make a profit.

It was not an easy week for punters as there were some strange results involving big teams. Portugal were 1/12 (1.08) in places to overcome Northern Ireland and could only labour to a 1-1 draw. 

Incredibly, Germany, who were widely considered a “banker” after their destruction of Republic of Ireland, let a four-goal lead slip and drew 4-4 at home to Sweden. It is the first time in history that die Mannschaft have given up a four-goal lead.

Even Spain, who had won every qualifier home and away since September 2007, failed to beat France, conceding a goal with the last kick of the game.

Have courage in your convictions, despite setbacks

I got stung on the Spanish result myself and it is important to react with professionalism when you suffer such a painful loss and not to allow it to affect your confidence and judgement. It is not often that Spain will fail to win a qualifier and it must be put into perspective.

If you have had rough weeks in your betting, don’t despair! Be reluctant to make wholesale changes if there is no real need.

Some bettors are tempted to change their approach and methods if they go through a difficult period. My general advice would be to stick with your approach if you believe in it and it has a history of producing results.

The danger in changing is that a new approach will come with no guarantee of working and you could experience a further period of loss. You will soon get back into profit and my own experience tells me that these difficult patches are often followed by a sustained period of profitability.

Weekend Tips

Looking ahead to the weekend, Sportingbet offer some nice prices on certain markets. Liverpool once again are very short in the market to beat Reading at home at 1/3 (1.33).

I have already discussed the methods of simply opposing teams that come with abnormally short prices. Liverpool are certainly in that category.

Another angle is to simply back the other team to score one goal or more. In this case, with over 0.5 goals, as soon as you get your goal your bet is won.

Reading are 8/11 (1.73) simply to find the net at Anfield and this is worthy of consideration if you wish to oppose Liverpool in some way.

Elsewhere, Palermo look a much happier team under Gian Piero Gasperini and they seem to enjoy his 3-4-3 system. They can overcome promoted Torino at home at an attractive 6/5 (2.20) with Sportingbet.

Thank you to all who have signed up to my service www.jdfootballbetting.com.  The service comprises of a full advisory service and regular selections. You can sign up for a reduced €79 this weekend only.  You can contact me directly on jdfootballbetting@live.com or subscribe to www.jdfootballbetting.com