Recently by Dominic King

COMPARE and contrast. While Joe Cole spent the first 48 hours of his Liverpool career beaming from ear-to-ear, Albert Riera could be spotted brooding in the background.

Spending time at close quarters with the Liverpool squad that travelled to Switzerland this week presented an opportunity to decipher the dynamics of the group and watch their interaction with new boss Roy Hodgson.

Admittedly, a number of the players who were in Bad Ragaz are going to find it difficult to force their way into Hodgson's plans and some, like Philipp Degen, have already been told that it would be for the best if they find new clubs.

THE nursery rhyme, then, is correct after all; if two magpies are a signal for joy, one most certainly is a pointer for sorrow.

For much of an absorbing but ultimately galling Europa League semi-final, a lone, plump magpie hopped around the Kop penalty area, brazenly ignoring the stampeding feet of Liverpool and Atletico Madrid's players.

Those who look for omens should have known from then that Liverpool's hopes of salvaging their season were being conspired against by the fates.

AS he held court in the buffet car of the train that was carrying his team to Bordeaux on Wednesday morning, Rafa Benitez was asked what Liverpool had to do to reach the Europa League final.

"We need to score away from home," he replied without hesitation. "Atletico are a very good side on the counterattack, as we experienced when we played them last year in the Champions League."

Time, then, for that team to prove the manager wrong. After failing to grab an all-important away goal in Madrid last night, Liverpool will have to do things the hard way if they are going to secure themselves a trip to Hamburg on May 12.

WHAT a refreshing change. During a season that has seen complications and conundrums reign supreme, Anfield took great delight in welcoming the simple and straightforward home again last night.

Placing all talk about refinancing, debts, takeovers, upheaval in the Boot Room and unrest in the boardroom on the back burner, a smaller crowd than usual was able to sit back, relax and watch Liverpool canter to a routine victory.

There was no panic or angst, no simmering frustrations or nervous impatience but, perhaps, it was always destined to be this way; West Ham United never win at Anfield and they never once threatened to end a wretched sequence that spans almost 50 years.

THIS has been the season when comparisons have been made between regimes and now, perhaps, we have the most startling similarity of all.

You cannot fail to have heard at various stages of this campaign all about the spooky parallels between the final years of Gerard Houlliers tenure and the way things have started to go askew for Rafa Benitez during the current campaign.

Consider these, for instance: early exits from the Champions League (2002/03), failing to mount a credible title challenge after finishing runners-up (again 2002/03) and a frantic, desperate battle to squeeze back into the top four (2003/04).