Liverpool are the latest visitors to St James’ Park in today’s lunchtime kick off. We caught up with Liverpool fan Mike, to find out his opinions on the game and the latest goings on at Anfield.

1. Are you worried about the reports of a rift between Benitez and Liverpool’s American owners? What are your thoughts on it all?
Having now read Hicks’ response (not the joint statement with Gillett), there might be something to it. Still, can’t do anything about it so I’m not worried. If something happens, it happens - for better or worse.

2. You’ve had a patchy Champions League campaign so far this year compared to recent seasons. Is there anything in particular that you can put this down to?
Partly injuries; partly the timing of international breaks; and partly Benitez mismanaging his rotation to some degree. And there’ve been some lacklustre individual performances, too.

3. Meanwhile in the Premier League you remain unbeaten. Can you see yourselves doing what Arsenal did a few years back and going the whole season without losing?
I can see it happening. It depends on how Benitez approaches each game. If you look at the Arsenal game a few weeks back, he played a very defensive setup for a home game (Kuyt and Voronin as holding wingers is about as defensive as it gets, in my opinion) - if he takes that approach in big games the rest of the year, we’ll grind out draws no trouble. However, if he extends that approach to mid-table teams as well, we’ll find ourselves unbeaten but too far behind the leaders. Frankly I’d rather play to win games, even if that means losing the odd game.

4. What’s your opinion of Newcastle so far this season?
I’m disappointed, to be honest. I tipped them to challenge the top 4 and they’ve fallen far short. Injuries to Owen and Viduka have played a part, sure but the organisation of the defence has been just woeful, despite spending a fair bit on that area of the park. I think Cacapa and Alan Smith were strange buys - Cacapa seems past it to me, and at 31 was always going to find it tough to adjust to the Premier League after so long in France. Smith is just a Dirk Kuyt/Andriy Voronin clone to me, he’ll run around and work hard all day but won’t contribute much in an attacking sense. Having Barton and Emre back will do a world of good, those two can really play and use the ball, and give you much more in the middle than Butt, Smith, Geremi. So I expect things to pick up from now on for you lot - hopefully AFTER this week, though.

5. Where do you think both Liverpool and Newcastle will finish, come May?
2nd and 10th, respectively.

6. The ‘too many foreigners in the Premier League’ debate has resurfaced following Wednesday night, with several managers and players, including Steven Gerrard agreeing. Any thoughts?
You have to look at the reason why England aren’t producing world class talent. From a neutral (i.e. non-English) perspective, I’d hate to see restrictions on imported talent … because then we’d be left with teams full of third-rate Englishmen. The problem is not that there are too many foreigners, it’s that clubs are neglecting the homegrown talent in their youth systems to some degree. I think the problem might be the foreign managers, possibly - look at the top 4 clubs, none of them have English managers. Why should they care about the development of English talent when they can bring in Spanish, French, Portuguese, African talent?

7. Who’s your tip for the title this year, and which teams are going down?
I think Man U will defend successfully, unfortunately. It’ll be a tight race though. Teams going down will be Derby, Boro and Wigan.

8. Looking to the game tomorrow, which of your players should we fear the most?
Should I even say it? Torres, without doubt. To stop El Nino you’ll have stop Gerrard and Kewell in particular (if they play). You can put 3 men on Torres, but he’ll just wriggle free if the delivery is good enough.

9. And which Newcastle players will be our dangermen?
Emre: great playmaker with a wicked left foot. Viduka: mercurial, capable of anything. Martins: quick and dangerous, Liverpool will have to do their best separate him and Dukes as often as possible.

10. Finally, what’s your prediction?
Liverpool 2-0

Thanks to Mike for answering our questions