Liverpool- West Ham 0-3

When you lose one of the best players in your history you are bound to have a period of transition. That said, Liverpool's summer changes have made sense: they got an incredibly strong James Milner  from Manchester City, who it turn was handed over the eternal talent Raheem Sterling. I have never been a Sterling fan, and would change him for Milner any time. Christian Benteke was signed to score the goals; although not as skilled as Sterling, he is physically strong and a good target man. And to give the creative edge they signed the Brazilian Roberto Firmino from Hoffenheim.
In the first three matches Liverpool did not start bad; the defense was solid although goals were missing.
That was not the case in yesterday's home match against West Ham, who got their first league victory at Anfield since 1963!
It was a strange match, because West Ham efficiently punished every mistake in Liverpool's defense. That said, these mistakes should not happen and are bound to be punished in the Premier League. While Rodgers may still be in the transition to post-Gerrard Liverpool, one has the feeling that this will be a roller-coaster season for Liverpool; they will fight with the new players under pressure to perform and with the rest of team looking for a guy to guide them.
West Ham, now managed by the Croatian Slaven Bilic are nevertheless a very interesting side with their new signings, three of which played fantastic matches yesterday: Pedro Obiang, Dimitri Payet and not least the young Argentine Manuel Lanzini, who even scored a goal and led the deadly West Ham counter-attach.
With their performance they surely appeared to be much better signings than Liverpool's!

Champions League 2015-16 Groups

This last month has been full of travels and work and I have not had much time to dwell much on a fantastic start of the season in Europe as well hugely interesting transfers. This will be another fantastic season, and not least in the Champions League where the draw took place today.

Group A:

• Paris St. Germain
• Real Madrid
• Shakhtar Donetsk
• Malmo

A very interesting group, where many eyes will be on Real Madrid versus Paris St. Germain, and in particular one Angel Di Maria. While they are the favourites by far, Shakhtar Donetsk is an experienced side in the tournament, and are usually very strong in Ukraine (although they may not get to play in Donetsk). Malmo is one of the surprise teams in the tournament after eliminating Celtic in the qualifiers. This will be their second CL participation in a row, and will play without pressure for more upsets.

Group B:

• Manchester United
•  PSV Eindhoven
• CSKA Moscow
• Wolfsburg

Manchester United and in particular Wayne Rooney made it to the CL in style with a heavy victory against Brugge. They will surely be happy about the draw; no easy side, but none Manchester United should not be able to defeat either. The Dutch champions from Eindhoven should be small favourites to follow United, but CSKA and Wolfsburg are both interesting sides, notably Wolfsburg, with a young side that surprised everyone in last season's Bundesliga.

Group C:

• Atletico Madrid
• Benfica
• Galatasaray
• FC Astana

Atletico Madrid are by now a very experienced CL side that is looking towards at least another semifinal. The Portuguese champions of Benfica had a bad CL last season and will be looking not to end last in their group this time, and the same is the case for the Turkish champions of Galatasaray, who last season not only were last in their group, but also conceded a terrible 19 goals. Finally, FC Astana, the Kazakh champions, are the Cinderella of the CL this season. Everything they do will be a surprise.

Group D:

• Juventus
• Manchester City
• Sevilla
• Borussia Monchengladbach

In my view this is the most interesting group, with last years finalists from Juventus looking to repeat the feat but without the legendary Andrea Pirlo, although with a fantastic team anyway. Manchester City enters the tournament with the same hopes as ever; and perhaps the experience of being humiliated by Barcelona last season will help them in this difficult group. Sevilla are one of five Spanish teams thanks to having won last season's Europa League. Just for that, they are a side to reckon with. Finally, Borussia Monchengladbach are in the CL after taking 3rd spot in the Bundesliga last season. They will look to create surprises with a young interesting side.

Group E:

• Barcelona
• Bayer Leverkusen
• AS Roma
• Bate Borisov

Not much to say about the defending champions of Barcelona, who must be candidates to be the first side to retain the title. AS Roma are probably not favourites, but will look to better their dreadful CL from last season that saw defeats at home to Bayern Munich and Manchester City. Bayer Leverkusen beat another Rome side, Lazio, to make it to yet another CL. Last year they made it to the last-16 only to be narrowly defeated by Atletico Madrid, and they certainly remember Lionel Messi from a legendary CL match in 2012. Finally, Bate Borisov participated in last season's tournament where they conceded an awful 24 goals (but did manage a victory against Athletic Bilbao), and perhaps that experience will help them this season, but don't bet on it.

Group F:

• Bayern Munich
• Arsenal
• Dinamo Zagreb
• Olympiakos

Many are already talking about the Bayern Munich-Arsenal clash. I think the Germans are big favourites, with Arsenal set not to show yet another disappointing European performance. This should be Arsenal's year if any! Olympiakos are not to be underestimated. Last season they won all their home matches in a difficult group, but lost all away matches. Just a slight improvement there should see them through. The Croatian champions are back in the CL after two years.

Group G:

• Chelsea
• Dynamo Kiev
• FC Porto
• Maccabi Tel Aviv

Chelsea will not be disappointed about the draw, although it may be special for Jose Mourinho to return to the club he first time took to the Champions League title (that is, if anything is ever special for Jose Mourinho!). The Portuguese made it to the quarterfinals last season and were full of hope after defeating Bayern Munich in the first leg, only to be destroyed 6-1 in Germany. Still, they should be favourites with Chelsea. Dynamo Kiev are back in the CL after two years absence after becoming Ukranian champions. With their experience and strong home record they should not be underestimated. In the meantime Maccabi Tel Aviv made it to the Champions League after eliminating always-experienced Basel. It will be surprising if they can do anything in this group!

Group H:

• Valencia
• Zenit St. Petersburg
• Olympique Lyon
• Gent

My preference is for Valencia so I am very happy they are back in the CL after defeating Monaco in a nail-biter. They will surely want to show their best, and this group does not look terrifying, but difficult certainly. Zenit St. Petersburg are Russian champions and have experience in the tournament, with a third spot in their group last season, while the formerly mighty French Lyon are back in the CL for the first time since the 2011-12 season. Gent, last season's Belgian champions, will be hoping to scrape a few points in the group.

Di Maria to Paris

The long running rumour that Angel Di Maria was on the way out of Manchester United have been confirmed. Next season Angel Di Maria will be in Paris St. Germain. For any football fan this is a welcome change; Di Maria is one if the best players in the world, but his change to Manchester United put him at a club with a coach that was not willing or able use Di Maria in his tactical setup. This reinforced a period where Di Maria seemed to lack a confidence that is so important for any footballer.

A player like Di Maria is certainly wasted on a club as Manchester United, but he will certainly fit in Laurent Blanc's Paris St. Germain where he will join other South Americans (and Argentines) such as Ezequiel Lavezzi, Javier Pastore, Edison Cavani, Thiago Silva, as well as the great Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The purchase of Di Maria is only bound to make Paris better this coming season.