First blog entry

I have decided to start a blog having become increasingly frustrated at my inability to adequately express myself within the restrictions of Facebook’s character limits. Plus I seem to be collecting “friends” for the sake of it, many of whom I haven’t seen or spoken to in years; who don’t necessary share my passion for football, and who seem to think the world wants to see photos of their babies or know what they are planning to have for dinner. As a consequence I have become convinced that Facebook is not the place for my rantings about the world of football. Therefore I will be posting my reactions, views and rants on this blog henceforth whenever the urge takes me.

It might appear an odd time to begin a blog that is most likely going to be mainly about football and more specifically Liverpool Football Club with just one game of the season remaining but if I keep updating it might be interesting in 12 months time to retrospectively read my views on the summer’s transfer business and my undoubtedly over the top reactions to the highs and lows of the 2009-10 season. After all, going into the 2008-09 season, I thought Robbie Keane would prove an excellent acquisition while I conceded hopes of Liverpool winning the League after each of the home draws with West Ham, Everton, Man City and Arsenal only to find reasons for hope and optimism thereafter. That Liverpool did not win the title perhaps proves I was right but on reflection I can see that I gave up hope too early.

In fact, if I look back even further in the club’s recent history, I can recall calling for a change of manager after our FA Cup defeat to Barnsley in the 2007-08 season only for Rafa to make me look like a fickle idiot by leading the club to home and away wins over Inter Milan in the next few games.
So already it appears my views are invalid and likely to change but then couldn’t the same be said about most football fans and pundits for that matter? How many people have said Liverpool will never win the League under Rafa yet look how close he took us this season.

If we beat Spurs at Anfield on Sunday we will end the season with 86 points. To put that into perspective, 86 points would have won the Premiership in 7 of its 16 seasons. Manchester United won the Premiership 6 times with less than 86 points. The only team to have won more than 85 points and failed to win the Premiership was Manchester United in 1994-95; they won it the next year with fewer points.

Even if we lost (which is highly improbable but with it being the end of the season freak results can occur), our current total of 83 points (plus our current goal difference) would have won us the Premiership in 6 out of its 16 seasons.

The importance of securing second place is emphasised by the fact that in the Premiership era, only Arsenal in 1997-98 and Manchester United in 2002-03 have won the League after finishing outside of the top two places in the previous season (and Arsenal were level on points with the second-placed team in 1996-97 but finished third on goal difference). By that logic, the probability is that next season’s winner will be either Liverpool or Manchester United and given that no team has ever won the top division in four consecutive seasons, it would appear the fates favour Liverpool.

Considering Liverpool have already achieved their record points total in a Premiership season during a campaign in which Fernando Torres missed numerous games through injury and struggled for form and sharpness in many of the games he did play, there is reason to believe that Liverpool can go one better next season if Torres and Gerrard stay largely injury free and if this summer’s transfers are considerably more successful than last year’s.

Finally, a word on the over the top media criticism Rafa has received this week for declining to concede that Manchester United were the best team this season. I fully support Rafa for not pandering the biased media hacks. Why should he? Had Liverpool won the League, would Fergie have conceded Rafa’s team were the best? This is the same Fergie who after seeing his team trounced 4-1 at home by Liverpool claimed his side had been the better team. Does anyone remember Fergie conceding that the teams of Wenger and Mourinho who beat Manchester United to Premiership titles were better than his? Thought not. So why should Rafa be gracious in defeat when he has every right to feel it was an undeserved one given the rub of the green referees have given Fergie’s men in the run-in?

Had Rafa come out and said Manchester United were the better team, what message would that have sent out to his players and the Liverpool fans? Isn’t it better to convince his players they were worthy of a Premiership title this season but were robbed by a combination of unfortunate injuries, freak results and generous refereeing decisions in Man Utd’s favour? Wouldn’t it benefit his team to get his players fired up to make amends next season rather than telling them another team was better than them? Fergie seems to get praised for building a “siege mentality” despite his petulance in refusing to talk to the media whenever his team loses, etc, etc. while all Rafa seems to get is criticism. Is it racism or just the anti-Liverpool agenda that so many believe exists?

In any case, I for one don’t actually agree that Man United were the best team. The old sound bite that the League table doesn’t lie and the best team always wins is absolute rubbish. The League is won by the team that is most effective at winning points. That is not a matter for debate and it is statistically proven that Manchester United were the most effective team at winning points this season (irrespective of whether they did so deservedly or profited from a series of generous refereeing decisions). The identity of the best team in the League is a matter of opinion and varies depending on each individuals’ personal opinions of what qualities make a team the best.

I know plenty of Evertonians who would swear that Everton are the best team irrespective of any factual evidence to the contrary. It is a common perception (and one I subscribe to) that Arsenal have consistently played the best football over the last three or four seasons. Neither of those teams has been as effective as Man Utd, Chelsea or even Liverpool when it has come to winning points but it doesn’t make anyone’s opinions less valid. My opinion is that since the 4-0 win over Real Madrid, Liverpool have played the best attacking football this season and taking into account the injuries, notably to Torres, as a team they have performed outstandingly well this campaign - better than Man Utd who won the League because of their squad rather than the quality of their first team.