Gerrard in Red Return Downunder

Former skipper Steven Gerrard will pull on the famous red Liverpool shirt when he joins the club’s all-star side against an Australian legends side at ANZ Stadium on 7 January.

Gerrard, who quit Anfield to move to Major League Soccer side LA Galaxy at the end of the 2014-15 season having made more than 500 appearances for the club, will captain a side that also includes Jamie Carragher, Luis Garcia, Dietmar Hamann, Ian Rush, Danny Murphy and John Aldridge.

Former manager Gerard Houllier will coach the team against a Socceroos outfit likely to contain the likes of Mark Bosnich, Brett Emerton, Scott Chipperfield, Tony Popovic, Jason Culina, Mile Sterjovski, Craig Foster, Robbie Slater and Ned Zelic.

NSW minister for sport Stuart Ayres said the match was a massive coup for soccer fans.

“The Australian team, named the Australian Legends, will be a who’s who of local champions, including Mark Bosnich, Brett Emerton, Tony Vidmar and many more. It will be a great occasion, and I encourage everyone to book their tickets as soon as possible,” Ayres said.

Houllier managed Liverpool between 1998 and 2004, and helped secure a Cup treble in 2000-01, winning the League Cup, FA Cup and UEFA Cup, while also finishing third in the Premier League.

“It will be a very proud moment to step back into the dugout to manage the Liverpool Legends team,” Houllier said. “I’m very much looking forward to working with some of the best players in the club’s history, some for the first time and some not.”

Gerrard added it would be great to play with the official Liverpool FC Legends. “The squad looks like its a great set of lads, it’ll be good to get on the pitch with them. Our fans are the best and to play in front of them again will be emotional, I’m sure.”

It will be Liverpool’s third trip to Australia since 2013, but this will be the first time their legends’ team is visiting.

Fellow European football giants Manchester United, Juventus, Roma and Real Madrid have also visited Australia in recent years, playing in front of sold-out crowds.

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Gerrard Bookends Buck Rodgers

Steven Gerrard has criticised Brendan Rodgers’ “overconfident” approach to Liverpool’s fateful game against Chelsea that derailed the Merseyside club’s 2013-14 Premier League title bid.

Rodgers has had to deal with uncomfortable headlines linking the former Borussia Dortmund manager Jürgen Klopp with his job, with scrutiny building after Liverpool needed penalties to scrape past Carlisle in the Capital One Cup on Wednesday. And quotes from Gerrard’s new autobiography published in the Independent will do little to improve matters.

Liverpool led the table by five points with three games to go until they were beaten 2-0 by José Mourinho’s side in April 2014. Manchester City proceeded to win a game in hand and ultimately won the title by two points.

The match against Chelsea swung on Gerrard’s slip, which presented the ball to Demba Ba for a breakaway goal in first-half injury time. But in Steven Gerrard: My Story, the influential midfielder – now with LA Galaxy – points the finger at Rodgers as well.

Gerrard said: “I’ve never been able to say this in public before but I was seriously concerned that we thought we could blow Chelsea away. I sensed an over-confidence in Brendan’s team talks. We played into Chelsea’s hands. I feared it then and I know it now.”

Gerrard also recalls the moment he was told he would not be in the starting lineup against Manchester United last season. Gerrard was used as a half-time substitute in the game but was sent off just 38 seconds after his introduction for stamping on the United midfielder Ander Herrera – and he reveals in the book that he came close to venting his displeasure at Rodgers himself.

“A sudden lump formed in my throat,” he said of the conversation in the manager’s office earlier in the week. “I had a split-second decision to make. Do I have a go at him?”

Elsewhere in the book, Gerrard discusses his role in keeping Luis Suárez at the club in the summer of 2013. The Uruguay striker appeared set to join Arsenal, only for Liverpool to turn down the London club’s bid and keep Suárez at Anfield to spearhead that title near-miss.

Gerrard recalls texting Suárez to ask: “Luis, what’s going on here? We need to straighten this out.” The pair talked at training the next day and then met with Rodgers, with Suárez eventually persuaded to stay on Merseyside. He scored 31 league goals that season before leaving for Barcelona last summer.

Gerrard also describes being deployed to attract transfer targets to Anfield and claims he was asked by the club to “take a crack” by text at both Alexis Sánchez, before the Chile forward’s move from Barcelona to Arsenal, and the Germany midfielder Toni Kroos, who ultimately left Bayern Munich for Real Madrid.

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Beckham Ponders MLB Franchise

Since leaving the Los Angeles Galaxy in December, and retiring from the game after a five-month stint at Paris Saint-Germain, Beckham has been mulling over the location for a prospective MLS franchise.

The former England captain has now made up his mind and he will pay a discounted rate of $25m (£16m) to start an MLS expansion team in Miami, someone with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because plans are not yet being publicly discussed.

The option of becoming a team owner was included in the MLS contract that Beckham signed when joining the LA Galaxy in 2007. "We know that Miami is one of the most passionate soccer markets in North America," the MLS executive vice president, Dan Courtemanche, said. "We have met with David Beckham regarding ownership of an expansion team, and we look forward to David one day owning an MLS club."

There are currently 19 MLS teams and the league commissioner, Don Garber, hopes to expand to 24 by the 2020 season. A 20th team is already in place to begin playing in 2015 after the Premier League club Manchester City and their partner, the New York Yankees, paid an expansion fee of $100m to launch New York City FC.

The MLS still has to give Beckham the go-ahead to make Miami the location of the franchise.

Beckham is looking to raise several hundred million dollars of investment to fund the setup costs, including putting together a squad of players and building a stadium, although the franchise could initially play in an existing venue.

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