Braga 1 "Liverpool" 0

As much as I stand by my assertion that winning the Europa League should be Liverpool FC’s number one priority for the remainder of this season, King Kenny’s team selection for our away tie at Braga suggested that the club is prioritising the League and using UEFA’s second tier competition as an opportunity to field fringe players.

Given our shocking record in Portugal, I had hoped to see a stronger XI than one featuring Joke Cole, Christian Poulsen and Jay Spearing.

Had we been playing Barcelona in the Champions League, I have no doubt that Steven Gerrard would have played – irrespective of concerns about his groin. However, away to Braga, I can understand the logic behind resting him if there were legitimate concerns over his fitness.

With Agger and Kelly also out injured – not to mention the pathetically fragile Fabio Aurelio – and with Carroll being eased back from injury and Suarez cup-tied, this was never going to be close to our strongest XI. With Jonjo Shelvey – whom Kenny’s early team selections suggested he rated above many other squad players - also injured, perhaps there was little alternative but to include some of the dregs in the squad.

I’ve nothing against Jay Spearing. He is an honest player who certainly gives his all whenever he plays in the first team. I just think that the Premiership standards are a tier above his level of capability.

Christian Poulsen and Joke Cole are two players I have quite a bit against. Poulsen is crap. I admit that he will forever be emblematic in my mind of the disastrous Hodgson reign. However, my issues with him are not political. Meireles was also signed by Hodgson and I like him because he is a decent player. Had Poulsen provided a single moment in a Liverpool shirt to justify a scouting report that didn’t read “DO NOT SIGN THIS PLAYER”, perhaps I would be more patient with him but his failure to even resemble a professional footballer during his time at LFC has led me to the point where I don’t ever want to see him in our team again.

As for Joke Cole, to me he is tainted by association to Christian Purslow - the man who got rid of Rafa; replaced him with Hodgson; approved a ridiculous deal to loan Alberto Aquilani to Juventus giving the Italian club the right to buy at a fraction of the fee we paid which looks well below his current market value, and declined to sign Marouane Chamakh for nothing in order to pursue the marquee signing of Cole.

Despite this, my issues with him are not political. My real frustration with Cole is that I celebrated his signing. I genuinely believed his signing was a coup for our club. Watching him ping the ball around in our season’s curtain raiser versus RK Rabotnicki, I thought we now had three star players: Torres, Gerrard and Cole. Just like Torres and Gerrard, Cole has been a massive let down.

It’s not that he has been a bad player. He just hasn’t done anything positive. Even his best contribution – the wrongly allowed last minute offside winner against Bolton – probably kept Hodgson in a job for another week. His first minute goal against Steaua Bucharest was of little relevance as we ran out 4-1 winners whereas his sending off against Arsenal and his missed penalty against Trabzonspor were far more costly. Those incidents aside, there are literally no other incidents of note in his Liverpool career. He is a nothing. A non-entity. But a non-entity who collects more than £90K per week.

At this point, there is realistically nothing he can do between now and the end of the season to convince me he should still be a Liverpool player next season. If anything, the problem might be finding a club who will take him off our hands given the lack of quality he has shown.

To me, he is a lost cause and I would rather see a promising youngster like Dani Pacheco given the chance to sink or swim than see the Joke continue to flounder.

Given the limitations already placed on the squad, I feel Kenny could still have fielded a decent XI in (4-2-3-1) Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Johnson, Lucas, Meireles, Kuyt, Rodriguez, Pacheco, Ngog. It wouldn’t have stopped Kyrgiakos conceding the penalty from which Braga scored but it might have given us a better chance of grabbing an away goal or two.

As it is, we will now need our strongest possible XI for the home leg. I believe we will have enough quality to overturn our 1-0 deficit but if we are to advance in this competition, Poulsen must not start another game and we can’t gamble on fielding such weak XIs again.

My concern is that perhaps Kenny views a Europa League exit as acceptable collateral damage - in which case Poulsen and co will continue leading us to our inevitable elimination. Don't do it, Kenny! Give us a silver lining to this most transitional of seasons.