Mascherano holds fort for Liverpool

Reading 1 Liverpool 2:There can be no more damning indictment of the problems earlier this season at West Ham than the current form of Javier Mascherano. Unappreciated, sidelined and ultimately unwanted in a team fighting for survival, the Argentinian has suddenly become pivotal at a club who are currently the bookmakers' favourites to become champions of Europe.

After ending up in West Ham's reserves, Mascherano is also quietly re-establishing his reputation as one of the world's best young midfielders.

"In the last games he has played really well - passing and moving the ball, keeping the ball in position and also tactically," said Liverpool's manager, Rafael Benitez. "He is 22 years old but he has 22 caps for Argentina - that's not easy."

On Saturday, Mascherano was instrumental in a victory that virtually guarantees Liverpool's participation in next season's Champions League and he is likely to be a central figure in the remainder of the current European campaign.

Mascherano is wary of talking negatively about his experience with West Ham but his explanation for his new-found happiness at Liverpool is illuminating.

"I am very happy because I have been getting a good run in the side," he said. "It is good to be in a dressing-room where there is a lot of Spanish spoken. There is a great atmosphere in the dressing-room.

"My team-mates, the technical staff and the fans have been really good to me and that is important. It is much easier to play alongside great players like the ones here at Liverpool."

Unlike Carlos Tevez, who is also finally now flourishing at West Ham, Mascherano is not a player who instantly catches the eye. He simply sits in front of Liverpool's back four, breaking up play and distributing the ball with minimum fuss and maximum effect. In the five games he has played, Liverpool have conceded two goals and it is little surprise that he names Chelsea's Claude Makelele as his footballing idol.

"For me, in that role, Makelele is the best there is," said Mascherano. "He has done so many things as a player with Real Madrid and Chelsea. Hopefully I can get to that level - he is one of the greats."

Liverpool began confidently against Reading and, though Brynjar Gunnarsson equalised Alvaro Arbeloa's early goal, it was a measure of their strength in depth, as well as the tactical acumen of Benitez, that the substitutes Jermaine Pennant and Dirk Kuyt combined for the late winner.

Thoughts immediately turned to the Champions League second leg against PSV Eindhoven at Anfield on Wednesday. A three-goal advantage will surely prove decisive, though Benitez is already guarding against complacency by reminding his players of what they achieved in overcoming a 3-0 deficit against Milan in the 2005 final.

"You know that if they score an early goal they will continue going forward and maybe we will have some problems," said Benitez. "We need to start the game thinking it's a draw and we need to win. The only thing is the confidence can be the problem."

Reading visit Charlton today on the back of a seven-game winless run for a match that will be something of a reunion for the two managers. Twenty years ago, while at Crystal Palace, Steve Coppell signed Alan Pardew from non-league Yeovil Town and ended his opposite number's first experience of being a manager. Pardew was 25 and combining his part-time interest in football with a job as a glazier.

"When I signed him, he was running Sunday teams," said Coppell. "I might insult (his Sunday team) by calling them a pub team but whatever team it was, it was just his mates and he just had the enjoyment of organising them."

Pardew played under Coppell for more than four years at Palace, during which they reached the 1990 FA Cup final, but the Reading manager denies subsequently having played any mentoring role.

"I think he's his own man - he's developed his own style," said Coppell.

Despite the managers' history, as well as the demands of playing two matches in three days, Coppell has pledged he will select a strong team today. "It's a selfish game unfortunately and we have to do our jobs right," he said. "We get paid for winning games, not for being nice blokes."

Guardian Service