Six days ago I was high as a kite after watching us deservedly beat Man Ure 2-0. The inevitable mid-week Carling Cup exit away to Arsenal took a little wind out of my sales but it’s not as though it was a proper game and I was still looking forward to seeing my heroes in action again at Fulham.
Little did I know what starting eleven Rafa was going to be forced into fielding in what is always a tricky fixture at the best of times.
How many black cats did Rafa run over in pre-season? I really don’t think I have ever known a season where we have had so much bad luck with injuries and refereeing decisions.
The refereeing decisions are really stacking up now... The penalty we should have had at 1-2 for the foul on Voronin at White Hart Lane; the ludicrous amount of first half stoppage time in which Villa scored a second at Anfield; the penalty we should have had at Chelsea at 0-0 when Drogba fouled Skrtel; the goal awarded against us at Sunderland when the ball deflected off a fucking beach ball; the stoppage time penalty we should have had in midweek at the Emirates when Senderos virtually caught the ball between his elbows, and today two highly contentious straight red cards given against us.
Then there is the bad luck... At White Hart Lane we concede to a wonder strike from a player who has never scored and is never likely to score a similar goal again in his life before conceding a second to a player who shouldn’t have been playing but the FA (Fucking Arseholes) deemed he was only suspended from Newcastle games but could play for other clubs(????????). We dominated at home against Villa before conceding against the run of play to an own goal. Then when Torres got us back into the game, Gerrard gave away a crazy penalty. At Chelsea we played very well only for one of our best players on the day, Mascherano, to make a stupid mistake that was clinically punished. Ahead of the Sunderland game, we lost Gerrard, Torres and Johnson (and Kyrgiakos) to injuries sustained on international duty while Mascherano and Insua were ruled out after travelling half way around the world for a fucking friendly. Against Lyon, Torres was ruled out and then Gerrard limped off after 25 minutes and hasn’t played since. Today, after conceding the opener against the run of play, we levelled only for a silly mistake by Kuyt to again be clinically punished. It seems like every mistake we make is resulting in a goal for the opposition right now.
It’s hugely frustrating but I’m going to take out my frustrations on fucking SKY Sports (bastards). As soon as the match kicked off the bloody commentators were talking about what a defeat would do to Liverpool’s title challenge. A few weeks ago against Chelsea we were hearing that if Liverpool lost, they would be out of the title race because the previous season we had only lost twice (and not won the League). Then against Sunderland, we were hearing that if we lost we would be out of the title race. Last week if we lost against Man Ure we would have been out of the title race. How many times can we be ruled out of this fucking title race? Have we even entered it? Has anyone else been ruled out?
Anyway, here’s SKY Sport’s match report published under the heading "Rafa's tactics torn to shreds" (in blue – the colour of shit) with my comments in red.
Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez is set to face renewed speculation regarding the security of his job after his much-changed side lost 3-1 against Fulham at Craven Cottage.
Yes, Rafa will face renewed speculation from... SKY Sports and one or two tabloids not fit to wipe your arse with but anyone with an ounce of common sense believes he is still the best man for the job.
Fulham took the points as goals from Erik Nevland and Clint Dempsey secured the win after Fernando Torres had cancelled out Bobby Zamora's opener in the first half on the banks of The Thames.
However, Benitez will receive the intense scrutiny after deciding to substitute Torres as an injury precaution early in the second half with the score at 1-1 before then withdrawing the influential Yossi Benayoun after Liverpool had again fallen behind.
To make matters worse for Liverpool, who have lost six of their last seven games in all competitions and travel to Lyon for a must-win UEFA Champions League game in midweek, Philipp Degen and Jamie Carragher were shown red cards in the closing stages.
This was a match which only demonstrated that Torres - who was a hero in last weekend's win over Manchester United, now a blip in the form guide - cannot do it all by himself after a number of his team-mates were missing through injury and illness.
What sort of comment is this? Torres cannot do it all by himself? When was the last time you saw a player single-handedly beat eleven other players in a Premiership game?
He cannot keep producing the only quality in a Liverpool team which, without the injured Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson, looks bereft of ideas and creativity.
Shock, horror! Liverpool without Steven Gerrard and Glen Johnson are less creative than they would have been with them. Next you'll be telling me Valencia scores and creates fewer goals than Cristiano Ronaldo did for the filthy Mancs or that Chelsea were a better team in the second half of last season when Drogba and Essien were playing than in the first half when they weren't. Incidentally, we were also without Agger, Skrtel, Aurelio, Ngog, Riera, Cavalieri and Kelly (OK Kelly might not be a big name but his selection and performance against Lyon suggests he would have been first in line to replace Johnson if fit).
I also thought that Lucas had an excellent first half and that Benayoun and Degen brought a lot of creativity to the team up until Fulham's undeserved opener knocked the stuffing out of us.
Next Wednesday Liverpool travel to Lyon for a match which could see them effectively knocked out of the Champions league in the group stages. After this result they might just be out of the Premier League race, too.
The match could "see them effectively knocked out of the Champions league" but it could also yield a positive result. No one knows what will happen yet so why focus on the potentially negative outcome?
The pressure is building on Benitez. And with the Reds faithful once more booing his substitution of Benayoun the steam is hissing all around him.
Bizarrely, it was a match in which Liverpool enjoyed the majority of the possession. A match in which they pressed forward with lots of effort, often against a wall of white shirts. But a match in which for vast swathes they struggled to supply the quality to go with their industry.
Finally an acknowledgement that we did dominate! No mention of the fact we were so depleted by injuries though.
They must have wondered, however, quite how they found themselves behind after 24 minutes.
Fulham had not had a single shot on Jose Reina's goal. They had barely crossed the half-way line.
But shortly after Benayoun had produced an acrobatic volley which rattled the Fulham crossbar the home side broke away.
Exactly! It was against the run of play that Fulham scored with their first attack. They had put 10 men behind the ball and were looking to hit us on the break in their home game! We, at least, were trying to win the game and were unlucky not to be ahead by that stage.
The ball came to Damien Duff on the left and that trusty left foot curled in a raking cross which cut the Liverpool defence and allowed Zamora to tap home from close range.
The problem for Liverpool was that while they continued to press forward they struggled to produce the high tempo and urgency they had demonstrated against Manchester United last Sunday.
And when the equaliser came they could hardly put it down to rhythm and style. Instead it was fashioned out of nothing, but by the predator supreme.
I disagree with that first statement. I thought we moved the ball about very well and were the only team trying to score until Fulham's breakaway opener. You can't compare a Fulham side playing an extremely defensive game with a Man Ure side who came to Anfield and tried to attack us. Maybe the equaliser was slightly crude in the way it was created but before then we had put together some decent attacking moves only for the final ball or finish to lack quality.
There appeared to be little danger for the Fulham defence when the ball came to Andriy Voronin. His header was weak and misdirected but it cannoned off a Fulham defender and arced into the hitting zone of Torres.
He needed no more invitation. The Spaniard simply swivelled and swung his right boot and a fabulous volley from the edge of the box scorched past Fulham goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer.
It was Torres' 10th league goal of the season and only demonstrated once more his value to Liverpool.
Fulham manager Roy Hodgson made a double substitution at half-time, bringing on Zoltan Gera for Diomansy Kamara and Nevland for Duff due to injury.
The Cottagers might have re-taken the lead on the hour mark when Zamora fired over a cross and Gera swivelled and shot but unfortunately for the home side straight at goalkeeper Reina.
They did take the lead, however, after 74 minutes and once more it was against the run of play.
Exactly! It was against the run of play. Both Fulham goals came against the run of play. What can Rafa do about that? If Fulham had dominated and we'd scored against the run of play, we'd be criticised for being jammy.
This time Paul Konchesky surged down the left-hand side and Reina could only parry his cross. The ball was headed back across goal by Gera and there was Nevland to slide the ball into the net.
No mention of the fact Kuyt could have let the ball go out for a throw-in but inexplicably kept it on a played in Konchesky to create the goal. It was a farce of a goal and totally undeserved.
It got worse for Liverpool four minutes later when Swiss defender Degen was sent off for a reckless lunge on Dempsey.
Yes, it was a reckless lunge but it wasn't two-footed and Degen made minimal, if any, contact with Dempsey (not that you could tell from the meal the cheating twat made of the challenge). It was a free-kick and a yellow card at most. In no reality was that worthy of a straight red card.
Incredibly three minutes later Liverpool were down to nine men when Carragher brought down Zamora as the last man and also, correctly, received a red card.
Correctly? Watch the replay. Carra played the ball. This red was all about evening up the decision from last week after numerous dickheads in the media and their ringleader Alex Ferguson claimed Carra should have been sent off for an alleged foul on Michael Shithead. I would also like to know how anyone can consider Bobby Zamora bearing down on a keeper a "goal-scoring chance".
And to wrap up an afternoon to forget for Benitez, Dempsey rolled in the third for Fulham as Liverpool disintegrated.
Liverpool disintergrated? Liverpool's nine players at that time were Reina, Ayala, Kyrgiakos, Insua, Mascherano, Lucas, Babel, Ecclestone and Voronin. They were 2-1 down so had to try and get an equaliser and were caught out on the break. What else can you expect?
A few final comments:
Liverpool's starting back four cost a combined total of £2.8 million. The entire starting XI cost £69.4m (average £6.3m per player) but 60% of that was spent on Torres (who delivered) and Mascherano (who didn't again). Without Torres and Mascherano, the other 9 players who started cost a combined £27.8m (average £3m per player).
Can you ever envisage a scenario where Man Ure, Chelsea, Man City, Tottenham or even Arsenal have to field nine starting players whose combined cost is less than the price of Rio Ferdinand?
Of the seven players on our bench, only Babel and Dossena could be considered "established" players with Ayala, Plessis, Spearing, Ecclestone and Gulacsi plucked straight out of the reserve (youth) team.
To give criticism where it is due, Voronin was terrible again - just as he was in midweek - and I have completely given up on Ryan Babel now. What a total waste of space!
Saturday, 31 October 2009
Tuesday, 27 October 2009
Price of success
Imagine Rafa had £56.8m to spend on players without having to sell any of his current squad. Imagine how much he could enhance our squad with that sort of cash at his disposal.
Why £56.8m? Because that is how much more Man Ure's squad cost over ours for Sunday's game. That's right. Fergie spent £56.8m more than Rafa in buying the squad that Rafa's beat 2-0.
Look at the figures. The only department in the first elevens where Rafa has outspent Fergie is in goal - but then Pepe Reina is only 27 whereas van der Sar is 110.
Man Ure's defence cost a whopping £17.5m more than ours (apparently Rafa paid over the odds for Johnson!) and their midfield cost a further £6m more despite the fact Giggs and Scholes came through the youth team.
Up front, Fergie's two strikers cost a combined total of £57.8m while Torres and Kuyt cost a bargain £32m.
Both teams used two subs each. Fergie's cost £14m combined (although obviously Michael Shithead was free) while Rafa's cost just £8m and one of his (a £1.5m signing) scored the game's second goal.
Of the unused subs, Fergie's cost £5m more.
I've banged on a lot recently about money but the bottom line is had Rafa spent £23m on Berbatov instead of Torres, he probably would have been out of a job by now. Fergie can afford an expensive mistake or two. People have questioned Rafa for paying £20m for an injured midfielder in Aquilani but Fergie paid £17m for Owen Hargreaves and he's been injured for two years but Fergie can still field £18m Anderson, £18.6m Carrick and £16m Valencia in midfield, not to mention the old fogies Giggs and Scholes or currently injured duo Park Ji-Sung and Darren Fletcher. People also questioned Rafa for spending £17m on Johnson but Fergie's back four cost £17m more than ours and Torres made Ferdinand look anything but a player worth £29.1m.
So to Tom Hicks I say: "Never mind high-fiving your mates when Rafa's greatest buy bangs in a classy opener against the reigning League Champions. Get your fucking money out and give Rafa a chance to make us the reigning League Champions."
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Yes, we can! Liverpool 2 Man Ure 0
Oh happy day! We were absolutely fantastic. Every one of our players gave his all and we thoroughly deserved the win.
The Mancs were not as bad as messrs Richard Keys, Graeme Souness, Steve Coppell and Jamie Redknapp were claiming post-match but then that is typical of today's "expert" analysis. Had the Mancs played exactly the same way but won, they would be saying what a professional performance it had been and slating us just as they did after the Chelsea game when I thought we were as good as them. The truth is the Mancs were narrowly but deservedly beaten, not because of their own deficiencies but because our players and supporters gave 110%. Lucas and Mascherano were absolutely excellent as were Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger at the back. I could go through the whole team dishing out praise. Torres was the match-winner but ultimately I thought Yossi Benayoun was the best player on the pitch today. No Liverpool player let us down. Mascherano's red card (which I thought was a case of Andre Marriner evening up his decisions after sending off Nemanja Vidickhead) takes nothing away from his heroic performance.
Sadly, it is the job of SKY's panel of "experts" (as if Graeme Souness is qualified to criticise a Liverpool manager) to embellish or create talking points and controversy just as they did when suggesting that Carragher should have been sent off for his part in the tusseling match with Michael Shithead and implying the offence was equal to the foul by Vidickhead on Kuyt that saw the Serbian sent off for the third match against us in succession.
Firstly, to use pundit-speak I thought the free-kick conceded by Carra was a case of "six of one and half a dozen of the other", i.e. Shithead was pulling Carra's shirt just as much as Carra fouled him so I'm not even convinced it was a foul. Secondly, Shithead was running away from goal and there were at least two Liverpool defenders who could have got back had he not gone to ground. Thirdly, Marriner awarded the Mancs a free-kick in a very dangerous position and booked Jamie. Fourthly, Vidic was on a yellow when he blocked off Kuyt and received a second booking, not a straight red - even though he clearly was the last man and there is absolutely no doubt he denied Kuyt a goalscoring chance through foul play. The injustice was that Vidickhead should have received a straight red, not a second yellow but given he only got a yellow card for that blatant piece of cheating, how any so-called expert (Jamie Redknapp) can claim Carra should have been shown a straight red is beyond me.
Before the game, Coppell was asked who he thought would win. He answered: "I think Man U will win no problems and I think Rafa will struggle to keep his job at the end of the season." What did that last statement have to do with the question asked? What does Coppell know about whether Rafa is in danger of losing his job at the end of the season? Prick. One question, Coppell... Did Man U win no problems?
When asked post-match what this results proves, Rafa said it proves "the team is better than people think". Certainly today they showed more capability, grit and quality than they have of late but any team is only as good as its results. Keep performing like this, and no one will be questioning whether this Liverpool team is good enough.
Right, I'm off for a beer because results like this need celebrating. COME ON YOU REDS!!!!!
The Mancs were not as bad as messrs Richard Keys, Graeme Souness, Steve Coppell and Jamie Redknapp were claiming post-match but then that is typical of today's "expert" analysis. Had the Mancs played exactly the same way but won, they would be saying what a professional performance it had been and slating us just as they did after the Chelsea game when I thought we were as good as them. The truth is the Mancs were narrowly but deservedly beaten, not because of their own deficiencies but because our players and supporters gave 110%. Lucas and Mascherano were absolutely excellent as were Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger at the back. I could go through the whole team dishing out praise. Torres was the match-winner but ultimately I thought Yossi Benayoun was the best player on the pitch today. No Liverpool player let us down. Mascherano's red card (which I thought was a case of Andre Marriner evening up his decisions after sending off Nemanja Vidickhead) takes nothing away from his heroic performance.
Sadly, it is the job of SKY's panel of "experts" (as if Graeme Souness is qualified to criticise a Liverpool manager) to embellish or create talking points and controversy just as they did when suggesting that Carragher should have been sent off for his part in the tusseling match with Michael Shithead and implying the offence was equal to the foul by Vidickhead on Kuyt that saw the Serbian sent off for the third match against us in succession.
Firstly, to use pundit-speak I thought the free-kick conceded by Carra was a case of "six of one and half a dozen of the other", i.e. Shithead was pulling Carra's shirt just as much as Carra fouled him so I'm not even convinced it was a foul. Secondly, Shithead was running away from goal and there were at least two Liverpool defenders who could have got back had he not gone to ground. Thirdly, Marriner awarded the Mancs a free-kick in a very dangerous position and booked Jamie. Fourthly, Vidic was on a yellow when he blocked off Kuyt and received a second booking, not a straight red - even though he clearly was the last man and there is absolutely no doubt he denied Kuyt a goalscoring chance through foul play. The injustice was that Vidickhead should have received a straight red, not a second yellow but given he only got a yellow card for that blatant piece of cheating, how any so-called expert (Jamie Redknapp) can claim Carra should have been shown a straight red is beyond me.
Before the game, Coppell was asked who he thought would win. He answered: "I think Man U will win no problems and I think Rafa will struggle to keep his job at the end of the season." What did that last statement have to do with the question asked? What does Coppell know about whether Rafa is in danger of losing his job at the end of the season? Prick. One question, Coppell... Did Man U win no problems?
When asked post-match what this results proves, Rafa said it proves "the team is better than people think". Certainly today they showed more capability, grit and quality than they have of late but any team is only as good as its results. Keep performing like this, and no one will be questioning whether this Liverpool team is good enough.
Right, I'm off for a beer because results like this need celebrating. COME ON YOU REDS!!!!!
Saturday, 24 October 2009
Can we fix it?
It's late October and we have well and truly buggered up our season. We're miles off the pace in the League and realistically need to win our three remaining Champions League games to avoid the humiliation of ending up in the hideously renamed Europa League.
Can we fix it? It's not impossible but we absolutely have to beat the dirty Mancs tomorrow to kick-start our revival. Can we beat Man Ure tomorrow? Of course we can. Do I expect us to? Of course I don't.
All the evidence points to a Man Ure win.
We are in lousy form and there are major question marks over the fitness of three key players. Meanwhile, the Mancs are picking up points without having to do anything to earn them and will go into the match in good form and in full strength. With us having lost twice at home already this season, you can't argue that the game being at Anfield will give us any kind of an advantage and it's also notable that we haven't beaten any decent teams this season and have an extremely leaky defence.
Ryan Babel's winning goal in this fixture last year made him the only Liverpool player to have scored for us in this fixture during Benitez's five year tenure. We have only won this fixture once in the last seven seasons and have lost it five times.
I have seriously contemplated not watching the game as seeing those bastards win at Anfield again and worse, potentially seeing Michael Shithead score against us for them would be just unbearable.
However, sometimes in football the form book can be thrown out of the window and a template can unexpectedly excel. It would be a shock result if we were to win but shock results do happen.
I will be watching - braced for the worst - in the hope that logic is defied as Mascherano bangs in Liverpool's winner while Michael Shithead suffers a richly deserved career-ending injury and Fergie chokes on his fucking gum.
As Kevin Keegan famously said: "I would love it if we beat them!" I would bloody love it.
Can we fix it? It's not impossible but we absolutely have to beat the dirty Mancs tomorrow to kick-start our revival. Can we beat Man Ure tomorrow? Of course we can. Do I expect us to? Of course I don't.
All the evidence points to a Man Ure win.
We are in lousy form and there are major question marks over the fitness of three key players. Meanwhile, the Mancs are picking up points without having to do anything to earn them and will go into the match in good form and in full strength. With us having lost twice at home already this season, you can't argue that the game being at Anfield will give us any kind of an advantage and it's also notable that we haven't beaten any decent teams this season and have an extremely leaky defence.
Ryan Babel's winning goal in this fixture last year made him the only Liverpool player to have scored for us in this fixture during Benitez's five year tenure. We have only won this fixture once in the last seven seasons and have lost it five times.
I have seriously contemplated not watching the game as seeing those bastards win at Anfield again and worse, potentially seeing Michael Shithead score against us for them would be just unbearable.
However, sometimes in football the form book can be thrown out of the window and a template can unexpectedly excel. It would be a shock result if we were to win but shock results do happen.
I will be watching - braced for the worst - in the hope that logic is defied as Mascherano bangs in Liverpool's winner while Michael Shithead suffers a richly deserved career-ending injury and Fergie chokes on his fucking gum.
As Kevin Keegan famously said: "I would love it if we beat them!" I would bloody love it.
Thursday, 22 October 2009
History versus Money
5 European Cups, 18 League titles, 7 FA Cups, 7 League Cups, 3 UEFA Cups and 3 European Super Cups. Those are the reasons why Liverpool Football Club is considered a giant at home and abroad. Of course, history is to be respected but just as Nottingham Forest and Leeds United can boast proud histories, the reality of the present day is the most important factor in considering whether a club should be challenging for the game’s top honours.
In the present day, Liverpool’s stadium is smaller than those of Man Ure, Arsenal, Newcastle and Sunderland and Man City. Liverpool’s first team squad costs less than those of Man City, Chelsea, Man Ure and Tottenham and a wage bill lower than Man City, Chelsea, Man Ure and Arsenal.
Liverpool’s record signing cost less than the record signings of Man City, Chelsea and Man Ure while we haven’t broken – or come close to breaking - the British transfer record since 1995.
People, particularly Bluenoses and SKY pundits, harp on about the money we’ve spent but, as I pointed out after the Lyon game, it’s no good having four ‘expensive’ players if the rest of the squad cost a pittance.
I’ve done some analysis of Liverpool’s financial ability to compete with their English rivals since we last held the transfer record and it makes shocking reading. The table below shows Liverpool's record signings since 1995 and the players signed by other clubs for equal or greater fees before we next broke our transfer record (therefore after we paid £11m for Heskey, only players signed for £11m or more are listed).
In the present day, Liverpool’s stadium is smaller than those of Man Ure, Arsenal, Newcastle and Sunderland and Man City. Liverpool’s first team squad costs less than those of Man City, Chelsea, Man Ure and Tottenham and a wage bill lower than Man City, Chelsea, Man Ure and Arsenal.
Liverpool’s record signing cost less than the record signings of Man City, Chelsea and Man Ure while we haven’t broken – or come close to breaking - the British transfer record since 1995.
People, particularly Bluenoses and SKY pundits, harp on about the money we’ve spent but, as I pointed out after the Lyon game, it’s no good having four ‘expensive’ players if the rest of the squad cost a pittance.
I’ve done some analysis of Liverpool’s financial ability to compete with their English rivals since we last held the transfer record and it makes shocking reading. The table below shows Liverpool's record signings since 1995 and the players signed by other clubs for equal or greater fees before we next broke our transfer record (therefore after we paid £11m for Heskey, only players signed for £11m or more are listed).
Around 1995, there was financial parity between Liverpool, Man Ure and Arsenal with minimal differences between the three clubs' transfer records and with each breaking the record within a year.
A season later, Newcastle stunned the world by almost doubling the transfer record to land Alan Shearer for £15m.
We did not eclipse that record set in 1996 until we signed Fernando Torres in 2007.
It took us twelve full seasons before we had a player more expensive than Newcastle's record signing from 1996. By that time, Chelsea had signed 12 players for £15m or more; Man Ure had signed 6, Newcastle had bought another and Tottenham and Leeds had signed one each.
Our club record of £8.5m for Collymore was broken towards the end of the 1999-2000 season when Gerard Houllier shelled out £11m for Emile Heskey (presumably someone missed out the decimal point after the first '1'). By that time, £11m was still less than the club record signings of Newcaslte, Man Utd and Tottenham (seriously) and just a few months later, Arsenal signed Sylvain Wiltord for £13m, Chelsea bought Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink for £15m and Leeds bought Rio Ferdinand for a British record £18m. Basically, within a year of us breaking our club record, six rival clubs had bought at least one player for fees greater than our club record transfer fee.
Before we broke our transfer record again with the £14m capture of Djibril Cisse (again a decimal point must have been missed somewhere), Man Ure had broken the British transfer record three times with the signings of Ruud van Nistelrooy (£19m), Juan Sebastian Veron (£28.1m) and Rio Ferdinand (£29.1m). In addition, they had also exceeded our record £11m with the signings of Cristiano Ronaldo (£12.24m), Louis Saha (£12.82m) and Dwight Yorke (£12.6m) with the latter being signed two seasons before we bought Heskey.
In addition to Hasselbaink (£15m), Chelsea bought Fat Frank Lampard for £11m and this was before Abramovich came along with his bags of cash to permanently destroy English football. Once the Russian pitched up, Chelsea signed no fewer than six more players for fees greater than £11m: Duff (£17m), Veron (£15m), Mutu (£15.8m), Crespo (£16.8m), Makelele (£16.6m) and Ferreira (£13.2m). Interestingly, Veron, Mutu, Crespo and Makelele all left for nothing while Duff went for just £5m. Consider that the next time someone lambasts Benitez for signing Keane for £19m and selling him for £16m plus add-ons that could see the fee rise back to £19m.
Leeds had already signed Ferdinand for £18m before we landed Heskey but they subsequently signed two Robbie's (Keane and Fowler) for £12m and £11m respectively. Even Fulham (yes, Fulham) broke our transfer record when they signed Steve Martlet for £11.5m while Man City did what Houllier was too stupid to do and bought Nicolas Anelka for £13m.
Basically, until we signed Cisse, eight Premiership clubs had bought players for greater fees than our club record (Man Ure, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Leeds, Newcastle, Fulham and Man City). It is also worth noting that when we signed Cisse for £14m, the transfer record stood at £29.1m (more than double) and in the same summer Chelsea signed Didier Drogba for £10m more (£24m) and Man Ure signed Wayne Rooney for £13m more (£27m).
Before Liverpool’s transfer fee record was broken for the next and final time to date, Chelsea had brought in six more players for fees above £14m (Drogba £24m, Carvalho £19.85m, Wright-Phillips £21m, Essien £24.4m, Shevchenko £30.8m and Ashley Cole £16m); Man Utd had added three (Rooney £27m, Carrick £18.6m and Hargreaves £17m), and Newcastle and Spurs had signed Michael Shithead (£16m) and Darren Bent (£16.5m).
Despite this, people seem to think that Rafa should have won the Premiership by now. Actually, only two teams have won the Premiership during Benitez's time at Liverpool and they are the two whose names feature most regularly in the list above.
Fuck history; money wins every time.
Wednesday, 21 October 2009
Liverpool 1 Lyon 2: Show me the money!!!
I don't know what shocked me more at Anfield last night: what I was seeing or what I was hearing.
Admittedly, the team played badly and deserved to lose to a Lyon side that played well on the night. No one can be happy at seeing such an inept display at both ends of the pitch (with absolutely nothing in the middle) and the fact it was our fourth defeat on the spin only makes things worse. The players were clueless and there seemed to be an inexcusable lack of effort and urgency. For Rafa to then substitute our best attacking player and bring on fucking Voronin was mystifying.
However, to hear some supporters calling for Rafa to be sacked was just incredible. Can't these idiots see that the man has been handicapped by the club's owners? Can't these muppets see beyond the shit that was on the pitch last night and recognise that when Rafa is able to field his better players and those players are in any sort of form we will be a far stronger team?
Our starting XI last night was more similar to a Carling Cup XI. It actually cost a combined total of just £52.4 million. That averages out at just £4.8m per player. Add the cost of the three subs who featured and that total increases to £58.9m and an average of £4.2m per player.
Had they been fit, there is every probability that Torres, Johnson and Aquilaini might have featured last night. Their combined cost is £60m or average £20m per player.
Does it not make logical sense that a team with three players costing around £20m each will fare better than a starting XI plus 3 subs costing less than those three players combined?
When pundits are calling us a two-man team, etc. and when people criticise our lack of strength in depth, it seems to infer criticism of the manager. Does anyone think for one second that Rafa had the choice of signing Samuel Eto'o for £30m but chose to sign Voronin for free instead? Does anyone think Rafa eyed up Ashley Cole but thought Aurelio would be a better player for the team? Did Rafa decide against signing Glen Johnson last year because he really wanted Philipp Degen?
Last night laid the truth bare. Rafa has signed some excellent players when given the money to do so but he hasn't been given the money often enough to do so. As a result, we have a squad of weak players that Rafa has to rely on when forced to do without his top stars. Generally, if you pay £1.5m you get a Kyriakos or a kid like Insua or Ngog but if you pay £15m-£25m you can land a Torres, a Mascherano or a Johnson. You might land a Keane but then United signed Berbatov for £30m (half the price of our team last night) and he is atrocious. No one gave Fergie the grief Rafa got over Keane. At least we got rid of our duffer for a minimal loss. The difference is, Fergie can afford to make a bad signing in the £30m mark because he can always afford another. Rafa got back most of his money on Keane but hasn't been allowed to respend it.
Incidentally, Man Ure's first XI against CSKA Moscow tonight cost a combined total of £117.4m which averages out as £10.7m per player - that is the equivalent of signing an additional Daniel Agger or a Martin Skrtel for every one of our players last night. Including their three subs used, Man Ure's 14 players cost £135.95m or £9.7m per player. Oh and they were without £27m Wayne Rooney and £17m Owen Hargreaves, not to mention other first team regulars Patrice Evra and Park Ji Sung..
This is not a level playing field. Before people start slating Rafa, let's appreciate the great job he has done to have us competing with Man Ure and Chelsea at home and the biggest clubs around Europe without the same financial resources over the last five seasons.
The reality is that the formula for success is as follows:
MONEY + DECENT MANAGER = SUCCESS
The other variations are:
MONEY + CRAP MANAGER = NO SUCCESS
NO MONEY + DECENT MANAGER = NO SUCCESS
NO MONEY + CRAP MANAGER = MIDDLESBROUGH
I think we have an excellent manager but without money at a time when Chelsea, Man Ure, Spurs and City all have far more expensive squads, we cannot be expected to compete domestically and that means that short of a miracle, this group stage is the last we'll be seeing of the Champions League for a while.
Admittedly, the team played badly and deserved to lose to a Lyon side that played well on the night. No one can be happy at seeing such an inept display at both ends of the pitch (with absolutely nothing in the middle) and the fact it was our fourth defeat on the spin only makes things worse. The players were clueless and there seemed to be an inexcusable lack of effort and urgency. For Rafa to then substitute our best attacking player and bring on fucking Voronin was mystifying.
However, to hear some supporters calling for Rafa to be sacked was just incredible. Can't these idiots see that the man has been handicapped by the club's owners? Can't these muppets see beyond the shit that was on the pitch last night and recognise that when Rafa is able to field his better players and those players are in any sort of form we will be a far stronger team?
Our starting XI last night was more similar to a Carling Cup XI. It actually cost a combined total of just £52.4 million. That averages out at just £4.8m per player. Add the cost of the three subs who featured and that total increases to £58.9m and an average of £4.2m per player.
Had they been fit, there is every probability that Torres, Johnson and Aquilaini might have featured last night. Their combined cost is £60m or average £20m per player.
Does it not make logical sense that a team with three players costing around £20m each will fare better than a starting XI plus 3 subs costing less than those three players combined?
When pundits are calling us a two-man team, etc. and when people criticise our lack of strength in depth, it seems to infer criticism of the manager. Does anyone think for one second that Rafa had the choice of signing Samuel Eto'o for £30m but chose to sign Voronin for free instead? Does anyone think Rafa eyed up Ashley Cole but thought Aurelio would be a better player for the team? Did Rafa decide against signing Glen Johnson last year because he really wanted Philipp Degen?
Last night laid the truth bare. Rafa has signed some excellent players when given the money to do so but he hasn't been given the money often enough to do so. As a result, we have a squad of weak players that Rafa has to rely on when forced to do without his top stars. Generally, if you pay £1.5m you get a Kyriakos or a kid like Insua or Ngog but if you pay £15m-£25m you can land a Torres, a Mascherano or a Johnson. You might land a Keane but then United signed Berbatov for £30m (half the price of our team last night) and he is atrocious. No one gave Fergie the grief Rafa got over Keane. At least we got rid of our duffer for a minimal loss. The difference is, Fergie can afford to make a bad signing in the £30m mark because he can always afford another. Rafa got back most of his money on Keane but hasn't been allowed to respend it.
Incidentally, Man Ure's first XI against CSKA Moscow tonight cost a combined total of £117.4m which averages out as £10.7m per player - that is the equivalent of signing an additional Daniel Agger or a Martin Skrtel for every one of our players last night. Including their three subs used, Man Ure's 14 players cost £135.95m or £9.7m per player. Oh and they were without £27m Wayne Rooney and £17m Owen Hargreaves, not to mention other first team regulars Patrice Evra and Park Ji Sung..
This is not a level playing field. Before people start slating Rafa, let's appreciate the great job he has done to have us competing with Man Ure and Chelsea at home and the biggest clubs around Europe without the same financial resources over the last five seasons.
The reality is that the formula for success is as follows:
MONEY + DECENT MANAGER = SUCCESS
The other variations are:
MONEY + CRAP MANAGER = NO SUCCESS
NO MONEY + DECENT MANAGER = NO SUCCESS
NO MONEY + CRAP MANAGER = MIDDLESBROUGH
I think we have an excellent manager but without money at a time when Chelsea, Man Ure, Spurs and City all have far more expensive squads, we cannot be expected to compete domestically and that means that short of a miracle, this group stage is the last we'll be seeing of the Champions League for a while.
Monday, 19 October 2009
Beach Ball 1 Liverpool 0: It's happening again!!!
Don't blame it on Rafa. Don't blame it on the beach ball. Don't blame it on the injuries. Blame it on Gillet and Hicks.
After watching a weak Liverpool XI succumb to defeat after conceding a goal by a beach ball at Sunderland on Saturday, I thought to myself “It’s happening again...”
In 2001-02 Liverpool finished second in the League with their highest points tally in a Premiership season to date. The next season we finished fifth.
After finishing second last season with our highest points tally in a Premiership season to date, I am now really fearful that we are going to finish fifth this campaign (if not lower).
What is similar between the two seasons is that immediately prior to each one, established and experienced players who had contributed to recent successful campaigns left the club. Prior to 2002-03 we said goodbye to Sander Westerveld, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Redknapp, Gary McAllister, Nick Barmby and Nicolas Anelka. Before this season commenced, we lost Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Sami Hyypia and Jermaine Pennant.
Where the situations differ is that in 2002, the departing players mostly left by the manager’s choice. This summer, Rafa would have preferred to keep all the players he lost bar Pennant but realistically was not able to. In 2002, Houllier recouped very little on the players he moved on whereas Rafa recouped a fortune on Alonso and a profit on Arbeloa. In 2002, Houllier was given a significant transfer budget which he then pissed up the wall buying crap players from France. In 2009, Rafa was allowed to reinvest the money he brought in from player sales only. In 2002-03, the Champions Arsenal deteriorated significantly allowing an unimpressive Man Ure to steal the title while Liverpool’s ineptitude (they went through 11 consecutive League games without a win) allowed unimpressive Newcastle and Chelsea squads to take the remaining Champions League spots. This time round, competition has never been stronger with Chelsea and Man Ure remaining strong while City have emerged as a genuine threat, Arsenal have improved and Spurs and Villa are also having decent starts to the season.
Basically, Houllier buggered up a squad capable of challenging for the title whereas Rafa was handicapped by the club’s owners at a time when the need to strengthen has never been greater.
While these fucking Americans have been busily ripping our football apart, Rafa has somehow managed to keep us in that top four and reaching the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Now, with the rug pulled out from under his feet, Rafa faces his greatest challenge as Liverpool manager to keep us in the top four. The consequences of failing to qualify for the Champions League next season would include a significant loss of revenue and an inability to attract big name players to the club in order to strengthen thus making it harder to get back in the season after next. Worse still, these dickhead yanks would almost certainly try to pin the blame on “Roffa” and give our manager the boot. Given they were prepared to appoint Jurgen Klinsmann in the past, God only knows who we could end up with in the hot seat. Whoever they did bring in is unlikely to have money to spend other than the £20m or so we would get for Mascherano after he demands a transfer so it’s impossible to see how he could strengthen us sufficiently. With the American’s crippling loans, how long then before they start looking to cash in on Torres, Gerrard, Reina and Johnson?
It’s a nightmare scenario.
I can see only one way we can stay in the top four and that is we find a sugar-daddy prepared to heavily invest in our squad. No investment = no future. Americans out!
After watching a weak Liverpool XI succumb to defeat after conceding a goal by a beach ball at Sunderland on Saturday, I thought to myself “It’s happening again...”
In 2001-02 Liverpool finished second in the League with their highest points tally in a Premiership season to date. The next season we finished fifth.
After finishing second last season with our highest points tally in a Premiership season to date, I am now really fearful that we are going to finish fifth this campaign (if not lower).
What is similar between the two seasons is that immediately prior to each one, established and experienced players who had contributed to recent successful campaigns left the club. Prior to 2002-03 we said goodbye to Sander Westerveld, Robbie Fowler, Jamie Redknapp, Gary McAllister, Nick Barmby and Nicolas Anelka. Before this season commenced, we lost Xabi Alonso, Alvaro Arbeloa, Sami Hyypia and Jermaine Pennant.
Where the situations differ is that in 2002, the departing players mostly left by the manager’s choice. This summer, Rafa would have preferred to keep all the players he lost bar Pennant but realistically was not able to. In 2002, Houllier recouped very little on the players he moved on whereas Rafa recouped a fortune on Alonso and a profit on Arbeloa. In 2002, Houllier was given a significant transfer budget which he then pissed up the wall buying crap players from France. In 2009, Rafa was allowed to reinvest the money he brought in from player sales only. In 2002-03, the Champions Arsenal deteriorated significantly allowing an unimpressive Man Ure to steal the title while Liverpool’s ineptitude (they went through 11 consecutive League games without a win) allowed unimpressive Newcastle and Chelsea squads to take the remaining Champions League spots. This time round, competition has never been stronger with Chelsea and Man Ure remaining strong while City have emerged as a genuine threat, Arsenal have improved and Spurs and Villa are also having decent starts to the season.
Basically, Houllier buggered up a squad capable of challenging for the title whereas Rafa was handicapped by the club’s owners at a time when the need to strengthen has never been greater.
While these fucking Americans have been busily ripping our football apart, Rafa has somehow managed to keep us in that top four and reaching the knock-out stages of the Champions League. Now, with the rug pulled out from under his feet, Rafa faces his greatest challenge as Liverpool manager to keep us in the top four. The consequences of failing to qualify for the Champions League next season would include a significant loss of revenue and an inability to attract big name players to the club in order to strengthen thus making it harder to get back in the season after next. Worse still, these dickhead yanks would almost certainly try to pin the blame on “Roffa” and give our manager the boot. Given they were prepared to appoint Jurgen Klinsmann in the past, God only knows who we could end up with in the hot seat. Whoever they did bring in is unlikely to have money to spend other than the £20m or so we would get for Mascherano after he demands a transfer so it’s impossible to see how he could strengthen us sufficiently. With the American’s crippling loans, how long then before they start looking to cash in on Torres, Gerrard, Reina and Johnson?
It’s a nightmare scenario.
I can see only one way we can stay in the top four and that is we find a sugar-daddy prepared to heavily invest in our squad. No investment = no future. Americans out!
Sunday, 11 October 2009
Knee-jerk reaction or evidence-based conclusion?
Last season, I conceded our title chances at several points in the season only to find my optimism reignited at later stages. The most obvious example was after the home draw against City followed by a chronic defeat at the Riverside. We looked dead and buried and I didn’t believe that even a victory at Old Trafford would be enough to claw back United – not that I believed we would win at OT. Then after we smashed them 4-1 and they lost their next game at Fulham as we trounced Aston Villa 5-0, I found new reasons to believe we could win it. There were two key factors in that change in outlook. First we were playing well and looked like we could beat anyone and everyone and second the Mancs were totally out of form and looked extremely vulnerable. They could and should have dropped points in their following games against Aston Villa, Sunderland and Tottenham but freak events and bad refereeing decisions combined to see them win all three and my hopes proved to be false hopes.
Earlier in the campaign, I had conceded the title after we failed to beat or even score against Fulham and West Ham in successive home games only to see Man Ure avoid a deserved home stalemate of their own by scoring a Fergie-time winner against Sunderland. Their ability to win a game they deserved not to coupled with our inability to do the same led me to conclude it would be them, not us who would win the title. Though I was proven right ultimately, the point is that I subsequently found reason to believe we could win the League before the end of the season.
I promised myself not to be so quick to write off our chances this campaign and yet by the first weekend of October I have already done so at least twice. Am I guilty of knee-jerk reactions?
Excluding occasional extreme reactions fuelled by immediate post-match emotion (and often alcohol), I try to be balanced in my conclusions. For example, after the Aston Villa home defeat, I pointed out that in 2001-02 we also lost at home to Villa in our third League game and had won 1 lost 2 of our first 3 games but went onto to enjoy our then record best season in the Premiership. As disappointed as I was after that defeat this campaign and as difficult as it was to envisage us winning this title, I found reasons to believe it was too early to write off our chances.
However, when the transfer window closed without our squad being strengthened, I felt it would take a miracle for us to win this League title. Had we beaten Chelsea (and we could have if the clear-cut penalty had been given for Drogba’s blatant foul on Skrtel), I might have had a reason to think that miracle was possible. Unfortunately, we suffered a harsh and ill-deserved defeat. Meanwhile, I have seen the Mancs and Chelsea winning games they should have drawn and drawing games they should have lost with some hugely fortunate refereeing decisions going in their respective favours. For Liverpool to win the League, we would need Man Ure and Chelsea to perform below their potential while we would have to perform to or above ours. If anything, this season Man Ure have performed above their potential while Chelsea are definitely achieving theirs. Meanwhile, City and Arsenal look strong enough to offer us serious competition if those other two did start to blip.
It is on that basis that I simply cannot see us winning this title. I don’t think that is a knee-jerk reaction. I believe it is a logical conclusion based on evidence. If we win at Sunderland and then beat the filthy Mancs at Anfield in our next two League games, I might find reasons for optimism – particularly if the likes of Chelsea, City and Arsenal drop points during the same period (no, I’m not worried about Spurs). If that happened and I wrote on here that we could win the League, I would be vulnerable to accusations of knee-jerking but I would argue that my point of view has altered in the light of new evidence.
Right now, the evidence available indicates we can’t beat any team likely to qualify for European football and concede two goals every time we play away from home. If our results in our next two League games offer alternative evidence, then any conclusion drawn will obviously be different. However, I won’t be coming out and stating we will win the League – that really would be knee-jerking.
Earlier in the campaign, I had conceded the title after we failed to beat or even score against Fulham and West Ham in successive home games only to see Man Ure avoid a deserved home stalemate of their own by scoring a Fergie-time winner against Sunderland. Their ability to win a game they deserved not to coupled with our inability to do the same led me to conclude it would be them, not us who would win the title. Though I was proven right ultimately, the point is that I subsequently found reason to believe we could win the League before the end of the season.
I promised myself not to be so quick to write off our chances this campaign and yet by the first weekend of October I have already done so at least twice. Am I guilty of knee-jerk reactions?
Excluding occasional extreme reactions fuelled by immediate post-match emotion (and often alcohol), I try to be balanced in my conclusions. For example, after the Aston Villa home defeat, I pointed out that in 2001-02 we also lost at home to Villa in our third League game and had won 1 lost 2 of our first 3 games but went onto to enjoy our then record best season in the Premiership. As disappointed as I was after that defeat this campaign and as difficult as it was to envisage us winning this title, I found reasons to believe it was too early to write off our chances.
However, when the transfer window closed without our squad being strengthened, I felt it would take a miracle for us to win this League title. Had we beaten Chelsea (and we could have if the clear-cut penalty had been given for Drogba’s blatant foul on Skrtel), I might have had a reason to think that miracle was possible. Unfortunately, we suffered a harsh and ill-deserved defeat. Meanwhile, I have seen the Mancs and Chelsea winning games they should have drawn and drawing games they should have lost with some hugely fortunate refereeing decisions going in their respective favours. For Liverpool to win the League, we would need Man Ure and Chelsea to perform below their potential while we would have to perform to or above ours. If anything, this season Man Ure have performed above their potential while Chelsea are definitely achieving theirs. Meanwhile, City and Arsenal look strong enough to offer us serious competition if those other two did start to blip.
It is on that basis that I simply cannot see us winning this title. I don’t think that is a knee-jerk reaction. I believe it is a logical conclusion based on evidence. If we win at Sunderland and then beat the filthy Mancs at Anfield in our next two League games, I might find reasons for optimism – particularly if the likes of Chelsea, City and Arsenal drop points during the same period (no, I’m not worried about Spurs). If that happened and I wrote on here that we could win the League, I would be vulnerable to accusations of knee-jerking but I would argue that my point of view has altered in the light of new evidence.
Right now, the evidence available indicates we can’t beat any team likely to qualify for European football and concede two goals every time we play away from home. If our results in our next two League games offer alternative evidence, then any conclusion drawn will obviously be different. However, I won’t be coming out and stating we will win the League – that really would be knee-jerking.
Monday, 5 October 2009
Match Reaction
It is the morning after Liverpool's defeat to Chelsea and SKY Sports have been “sensationalising” the fact that no team has ever won the title after losing 3 games from their first 8. That statistic has all the relevance of a Paul Merson opinion (none). Last season, Liverpool proved the number of points won is more important than the number of games lost when we lost only twice but didn’t win enough games to win the League. Interestingly, last season after 8 games, Man Ure had 15 points and went on to win the League. Liverpool currently have 15 points after 8 games.
Last season we won 25, drew 11 and lost 2. If half of those draws had been wins and the other half defeats, we would have won the League. We haven’t drawn at all yet this season so it is a nonsense to dismiss our title chances purely on the basis of the number of defeats after 8 games.
The other common “expert” analysis of Liverpool is that our midfield lacks creativity. ‘Liverpool fan’, Andy Gray described Lucas and Mascherano as “destructive” players who are unlikely to play a sweeping 40-yard pass or slip a ball down the channels. The Mirror’s Oliver Holt meanwhile, saw fit to write an article slating our lack of creativity from midfield and, again, claiming we miss Alonso.
Last season we won 25, drew 11 and lost 2. If half of those draws had been wins and the other half defeats, we would have won the League. We haven’t drawn at all yet this season so it is a nonsense to dismiss our title chances purely on the basis of the number of defeats after 8 games.
The other common “expert” analysis of Liverpool is that our midfield lacks creativity. ‘Liverpool fan’, Andy Gray described Lucas and Mascherano as “destructive” players who are unlikely to play a sweeping 40-yard pass or slip a ball down the channels. The Mirror’s Oliver Holt meanwhile, saw fit to write an article slating our lack of creativity from midfield and, again, claiming we miss Alonso.
Both make valid although hardly astute points. Of course we miss Alonso. He was our most creative central midfield player and it's pretty obvious that if Rafa selects Mascherano and Lucas in the same team, there will be a lack of creativity. However, these "experts" seem to overlook the fact that Rafa has signed a creative midfielder to replace Alonso. At a cost of £20m, Aquilani was bought to play in the first team. When fit, Rafa surely intends to play Aquilani plus one of Lucas and Mascherano in the bigger games. Unfortunately for us, Aquilani was injured when signed and hasn't yet recovered. It's fair to question the wisdom of signing a player to fill a key position who was likely to miss the first quarter of the season. Ultimately, we will only be able to judge that decision at the end of the season when we will know if Aquilani was (a) any good and (b) able to play often enough to make any difference. If Rafa was hoping that other players could do enough to keep us in the title race in the meantime, it looks as though he was wrong so Aquilani will have to have an unbelievably good impact to really justify Rafa's gamble.
I believe that the biggest problem with this Liverpool team, and the reason they won't win the Premiership, is the overall lack of goal-scorers. Torres and Gerrard are exceptional players and, fitness permitting, will both net 20+ goals this season. Kuyt and Benayoun are capable of chipping in with 10-15 goals each. Babel and Riera can get up to 10 each. Beyond that, there are not many goals in this Liverpool squad. Of Liverpool's back four at Chelsea, Skrtel and Insua have never scored while Carragher averages less than one goal every 100 games.
In midfield, Mascherano and Lucas have scored just two Premiership goals between them in over two seasons. That meant 5 players out of the 10 outfield players who started yesterday's match were highly unlikely to trouble Chelsea's defence. It is those players who must improve their goal returns if we are to have any chance of challenging for the title in this or any season.
Being effectively defensively isn't enough (not that our defensive players have been effective this season). The likes of Terry, Gallas, Carvalho, Ferdinand and Vidic all chip in with goals for their teams and even defensive midfielders like Claude Makelele and Owen Hargreaves have netted for their teams in recent title-winning campaigns.
Below are the numbers of goals scored by midfielders and defenders for the last five champions:
2004-05...........2005-06............2006-07...........2007-08...........2008-09
Chelsea...........Chelsea............Man Ure..........Man Ure...........Man Ure
Midfield..........Midfield..........Midfield..........Midfield..........Midfield
Lampard – 13..Lampard – 16. Ronaldo - 17...Ronaldo - 31....Ronaldo - 18
J. Cole – 8.......J. Cole – 8.......Scholes – 6.....Nani - 3............Carrick - 4
Robben – 7......Robben – 6.....Park - 5...........Giggs - 3..........Fletcher - 2
Duff – 6............Duff – 3...........Giggs - 4.........Hargreaves - 2.Giggs - 2
Tiago – 4.........Geremi – 2......Carrick - 3.......Carrick - 2........Macheda - 2
Makelele – 1....Essien – 2.......Fletcher - 3......Scholes - 1......Park - 2
................................................Richardson – 1.Park - 1..........Scholes - 2
................................................Eagles - 1................................Gibson - 1
.................................................................................................Nani - 1
TOTAL – 39....TOTAL - 37....TOTAL - 40.......TOTAL - 43.......TOTAL - 33
Defence.........Defence.........Defence.........Defence..........Defence
Terry – 3.........Gallas - 5.........O'Shea - 4.......Ferdinand - 2...Vidic - 4
Gallas – 2........Terry - 4...........Vidic - 3...........Brown - 1.........Brown - 1
Carvalho – 1....Del Horno – 1..Ferdinand - 1...Vidic - 1...........Rafael - 1
........................Carvalho - 1.....Silvestre - 1
.................................................Evra - 1
TOTAL – 6......TOTAL – 11.....TOTAL – 10.....TOTAL – 4.....TOTAL – 6
In the same seasons, Liverpool's records are as follows:
2004-05:
Midfielders (21) - Luis Garcia (9), Gerrard (7), Alonso (2), Biscan (2), Kewell (1)
Defenders (9) - Riise (6*), Hyypia (2), Finnan (1)
* Also often played and scored from midfield
2005-06:
Midfielders (23) - Gerrard (10), Luis Garcia (6), Alonso (3), Kewell (2), Zenden (2)
Defenders (2) - Riise (1), Hyypia (1)
2006-07:
Midfielders (18) - Gerrard (7), Alonso (4), Luis Garcia (3), Gonzalez (2), Pennant (1), Kewell (1)
Defenders (8) - Agger (3), Hyypia (2), Carragher (1), Riise (1), Arbeloa (1)
2007-08:
Midfielders (25) - Gerrard (11), Babel (4), Benayoun (4), Alonso (2), Pennant (2), Sissoko (1), Mascherano (1)
Defenders (2) - Hyypia (1), Aurelio (1)
2008-09:
Midfielders (35) - Gerrard (16), Benayoun (8), Alonso (4**), Babel (3), Riera (3), Lucas (1)
Defenders (7) - Aurelio (2), Carragher (1***), Agger (1), Arbeloa (1), Hyypia (1), Dossena (1)
** Alonso's goal at Chelsea was later credited as an own goal by the Premiership but was recorded as Alonso's in the club's official records
*** Carragher's goal at Middlesbrough was later credited as an own goal by the Premiership but was recorded as Carragher's in the club's official records
Only last season - the only season in which we competed for the title - did we get enough goals from midfield but that stat is debatable given Gerrard was predominantly playing in a forward's role. It is also notable that two of the most regular scoring defenders, Hyypia and Riise are no longer at the club. For that reason, we need Agger back in the team as soon as possible while the likes of Skrtel, Insua, Mascherano and Lucas have to improve their goal returns or we will continue to be overreliant on Torres and Gerrard to win us matches.
Sunday, 4 October 2009
Chelsea 2 Liverpool 0
I thought Liverpool played well today. I also thought Chelsea played well and that the two sides pretty much cancelled each other out. A draw would have been a fair result but in the end we were punished by a stupid mistake by a player who had an otherwise very good game.
I won’t waste time bleating about the fact Drogba shouldn’t have been on the pitch to create the opening goal after committing at least four bookable offences (three counts of simulation and the foul on Skrtel which should have resulted in a Liverpool penalty). Let’s be honest, we never get penalties against Chelsea in the League while Drogba cheats week-in, week-out and nothing is done about it. He is a man without honour or integrity and I can only hope Karma sees fit to inflict on him a really, really, really serious and painful injury to rectify all those he has feigned over the years.
Ultimately the game was won and lost in defence. Chelsea’s defence was superb restricting Torres to a couple of difficult headers and one decent opportunity on his weaker foot which sadly he scuffed wide. No other Liverpool player threatened. After the game, we are none the wiser as to whether Hilario is any good as we simply didn’t test him.
Liverpool’s back four defended pretty well and the team actually coped reassuringly well with Chelsea’s set pieces. Up until the 58th minute, you couldn’t fault any of them but then Chelsea did what Fiorentina had done so cleverly four days ago... They let Liverpool’s defenders have the ball. We’ve seen it happen so many times in recent years. As Insua, Carragher, Skrtel and Johnson nonchalantly knocked the ball about between themselves, the only team in danger of conceding was Liverpool. With Chelsea bodies dotted every which way in front of them, Liverpool’s defenders couldn’t see a pass on so rather than risk conceding possession, they passed the ball and the buck to each other. Had any one of those players taken a gamble and just launched the ball forward one of two things could have happened. Either a Liverpool player would have retained possession further up the field, possibly leading to a goal-scoring chance being created, or a Chelsea player would have taken possession and begun an attack on the Liverpool goal for which our midfielders would have been facing the play and better equipped to defend effectively. The one certainty is that had one of our defenders booted the ball forward, Mascherano wouldn’t have conceded possession in a key area and gifted Chelsea an opportunity to hit us clinically and decisively on the break.
Ultimately, it was Mascherano’s mistake but it occurred because for the second game in a week, four defenders weren’t prepared or weren’t capable of finding a pass through or beyond a tightly packed midfield.
That’s it. That’s why we lost. Had Torres taken his chance on his left foot, we might have snatched a draw but instead we paid a high price for not having defenders who can bring the ball forward from the back.
It’s not a case of our title bid being over. It’s a case of no title bid being made this season. I am worried because, from what I’ve seen this season, I think Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City are all better than us. Today we proved we can put in a performance and compete against the bigger teams but ultimately it got us nowhere.
The fact is, our defence is simply not good enough. We have played five away games in proper competitions (i.e. excluding the Carling Cup game at Leeds) and have conceded two goals in every one. Two at Tottenham, two at Bolton, two at West Ham, two in Fiorentina and now two at Chelsea. That is, in a word, shit. As a team and as a unit, the defence is not functioning. We’ve battered some of the minnows of the Premiership at home but haven’t beaten or even taken a point of any team likely to make the top 10 in the final League table.
It’s a frustrating state of affairs and it is only natural to look for someone to blame. Who do I blame? Gerard Houllier. What a berk! If that man had a brain in his head, we might still have had Nicolas Anelka in our team. Instead, Houllier took the £15 million the striker would have cost and blew that and more on Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou. In total he spent £19.7m on three players with a total resale value of just £3.5m. Houllier pissed £16.2 million up the wall while Anelka went on to inflict maximum devastation on us and not only by opening the scoring against us today. In the final home game of the 2002-03 season - the season after Houllier let Anelka go - Anelka's brace against us for Man City was the difference between us going to Chelsea in that season's final game needing a draw and needing a win. Having never won at Stamford Bridge in the Premiership at that time, we might have managed to play out a draw but needing to win after the 2-1 loss at home to City, we succumbed to defeat and Chelsea pipped us to fourth place and Champions League qualification. Then Abramovich bought Chelsea and since then they have been able to buy a squad that is the envy of most teams in Europe. Had Houllier signed Anelka, we would have had an excellent player in our squad going into the 2002-03 season and would probably have finished above Chelsea. Perhaps with Chelsea only in the UEFA Cup, Abramovich might have looked elsewhere – we’ll never know – but certainly Anelka wouldn’t have wound up in the Chelsea squad today.
I also blame David Moores and Rick Parry for selling our club to two dickhead yanks with no intention of investing the kind of money on our team that is required to compete for the Premiership title. First Man Ure, then Chelsea and now Man City have proved that money wins Leagues. That was perfectly illustrated in today’s game. In £13.5m Florent Malouda, Chelsea were able to bring a player off their subs bench who was better than £8m Albert Riera and, as a wide player, better than £9m Dirk Kuyt and £5m substitute Yossi Benayoun. Up front, Chelsea fielded two strikers, one of whom cost £24m and the other cost £15m. We had just one striker who cost £21.2m. For an additional £17.8m, Chelsea had two quality players who combined to win today’s game while our striker was starved of quality service.
The message to the Americans is simple: Give us money to spend and give us a chance of competing for the title. Don’t and we won’t.
I won’t waste time bleating about the fact Drogba shouldn’t have been on the pitch to create the opening goal after committing at least four bookable offences (three counts of simulation and the foul on Skrtel which should have resulted in a Liverpool penalty). Let’s be honest, we never get penalties against Chelsea in the League while Drogba cheats week-in, week-out and nothing is done about it. He is a man without honour or integrity and I can only hope Karma sees fit to inflict on him a really, really, really serious and painful injury to rectify all those he has feigned over the years.
Ultimately the game was won and lost in defence. Chelsea’s defence was superb restricting Torres to a couple of difficult headers and one decent opportunity on his weaker foot which sadly he scuffed wide. No other Liverpool player threatened. After the game, we are none the wiser as to whether Hilario is any good as we simply didn’t test him.
Liverpool’s back four defended pretty well and the team actually coped reassuringly well with Chelsea’s set pieces. Up until the 58th minute, you couldn’t fault any of them but then Chelsea did what Fiorentina had done so cleverly four days ago... They let Liverpool’s defenders have the ball. We’ve seen it happen so many times in recent years. As Insua, Carragher, Skrtel and Johnson nonchalantly knocked the ball about between themselves, the only team in danger of conceding was Liverpool. With Chelsea bodies dotted every which way in front of them, Liverpool’s defenders couldn’t see a pass on so rather than risk conceding possession, they passed the ball and the buck to each other. Had any one of those players taken a gamble and just launched the ball forward one of two things could have happened. Either a Liverpool player would have retained possession further up the field, possibly leading to a goal-scoring chance being created, or a Chelsea player would have taken possession and begun an attack on the Liverpool goal for which our midfielders would have been facing the play and better equipped to defend effectively. The one certainty is that had one of our defenders booted the ball forward, Mascherano wouldn’t have conceded possession in a key area and gifted Chelsea an opportunity to hit us clinically and decisively on the break.
Ultimately, it was Mascherano’s mistake but it occurred because for the second game in a week, four defenders weren’t prepared or weren’t capable of finding a pass through or beyond a tightly packed midfield.
That’s it. That’s why we lost. Had Torres taken his chance on his left foot, we might have snatched a draw but instead we paid a high price for not having defenders who can bring the ball forward from the back.
It’s not a case of our title bid being over. It’s a case of no title bid being made this season. I am worried because, from what I’ve seen this season, I think Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City are all better than us. Today we proved we can put in a performance and compete against the bigger teams but ultimately it got us nowhere.
The fact is, our defence is simply not good enough. We have played five away games in proper competitions (i.e. excluding the Carling Cup game at Leeds) and have conceded two goals in every one. Two at Tottenham, two at Bolton, two at West Ham, two in Fiorentina and now two at Chelsea. That is, in a word, shit. As a team and as a unit, the defence is not functioning. We’ve battered some of the minnows of the Premiership at home but haven’t beaten or even taken a point of any team likely to make the top 10 in the final League table.
It’s a frustrating state of affairs and it is only natural to look for someone to blame. Who do I blame? Gerard Houllier. What a berk! If that man had a brain in his head, we might still have had Nicolas Anelka in our team. Instead, Houllier took the £15 million the striker would have cost and blew that and more on Diouf, Diao and Cheyrou. In total he spent £19.7m on three players with a total resale value of just £3.5m. Houllier pissed £16.2 million up the wall while Anelka went on to inflict maximum devastation on us and not only by opening the scoring against us today. In the final home game of the 2002-03 season - the season after Houllier let Anelka go - Anelka's brace against us for Man City was the difference between us going to Chelsea in that season's final game needing a draw and needing a win. Having never won at Stamford Bridge in the Premiership at that time, we might have managed to play out a draw but needing to win after the 2-1 loss at home to City, we succumbed to defeat and Chelsea pipped us to fourth place and Champions League qualification. Then Abramovich bought Chelsea and since then they have been able to buy a squad that is the envy of most teams in Europe. Had Houllier signed Anelka, we would have had an excellent player in our squad going into the 2002-03 season and would probably have finished above Chelsea. Perhaps with Chelsea only in the UEFA Cup, Abramovich might have looked elsewhere – we’ll never know – but certainly Anelka wouldn’t have wound up in the Chelsea squad today.
I also blame David Moores and Rick Parry for selling our club to two dickhead yanks with no intention of investing the kind of money on our team that is required to compete for the Premiership title. First Man Ure, then Chelsea and now Man City have proved that money wins Leagues. That was perfectly illustrated in today’s game. In £13.5m Florent Malouda, Chelsea were able to bring a player off their subs bench who was better than £8m Albert Riera and, as a wide player, better than £9m Dirk Kuyt and £5m substitute Yossi Benayoun. Up front, Chelsea fielded two strikers, one of whom cost £24m and the other cost £15m. We had just one striker who cost £21.2m. For an additional £17.8m, Chelsea had two quality players who combined to win today’s game while our striker was starved of quality service.
The message to the Americans is simple: Give us money to spend and give us a chance of competing for the title. Don’t and we won’t.
A Bridge too far?
If Rafa needed to point out a measure of the progress Liverpool have made under him, today’s opposition would provide the perfect illustration. Since Benitez arrived on Merseyside in the summer of 2004, he has overseen 24 games against Chelsea in just 5 seasons. His record is shown below:
2004-05 Pld. 5 W 1 D 1 L 3 GF 3 GA 5
2005-06 Pld. 5 W 1 D 2 L 2 GF 3 GA 7
2006-07 Pld. 5 W 3 D 0 L 2 GF 5 GA 3
2007-08 Pld. 5 W 0 D 3 L 2 GF 4 GA 7
2008-09 Pld. 4 W 2 D 2 L 0 GF 8 GA 7
TOTAL Pld. 24 W 7 D 8 L 9 GF 23 GA 29
Chelsea slightly edge ahead on stats but overall the records between the teams are virtually equal. That is a remarkable achievement considering Chelsea’s vastly superior resources and the fact that in Benitez’s first season, Chelsea already had a squad good enough to win the League whereas Liverpool’s atrocious squad needed a total overhaul. In spite of now having four managers plus Avram Grant in charge during Benitez's tenure, Chelsea have had relative stability in terms of playing staff illustrated by the fact they could today field 6 key players who also played in Rafa’s first match against Chelsea (Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Lampard, Drogba and Joe Cole) or at least they could if Cech wasn't suspended. By comparison, Rafa could field just one - Carragher. Gerrard is the only other current Liverpool player who was in the Liverpool squad that season although he missed that fixture through injury. While Chelsea’s spine was in place as far back as then, Rafa had to build his team up integrating numerous signings in key positions each season despite which he has steadily improved our record against the Londoners.
In fact, recent stats favour Liverpool. We are unbeaten against Chelsea in the last 5 League games against them and are also unbeaten in the last three fixtures at Stamford Bridge in all competitions (4 if you just take the first 90 minutes of our 07-08 annual Champions League Semi-Final there). Let’s also not forget that we beat them home and away in the League last season and finished above them in the table for the first time under Benitez.
You can also add anecdotal evidence to the mix. In our 2004-05 Champions League Semi-Final against them, no one gave us a chance. Even we as supporters knew they were a better team than us and that somehow squeezing past them would represent a major coup and shock. Irrespective of the respective histories and sizes of fan bases, our 1-0 win over them was a giant-killing act in which we were David and they were Goliath. Fast forward to last season and we were going into games expecting to win. Their 3-1 win at Anfield last spring was considered a shock result around Europe. When we won 1-0 at the Bridge in the League, people were saying “It’s about time Rafa’s record against the other Big 4 teams improved.”
The only shock result that could occur today is a big win such as 4-1 for either team. That shows how much Rafa has bridged the gap between the two sides.
Today, nothing would surprise me. We got our asses deservedly kicked in Europe in midweek while Chelsea hardly shone against Cypriot minnows after their shock loss at Wigan the weekend before. Rafa will know he got his team selection wrong in Florence. With Mascherano ruled out after picking up a hamstring injury in training, Rafa should have kept Stevie G in midfield alongside Lucas but instead restored the captain to his roving forward role and brought in Aurelio for only his second start of the season. The result was that Fiorentina dominated the midfield with ease and Gerrard barely saw the ball in the first half. Aurelio and Lucas were awful but another South American, Insua rivalled them for the title of worst Liverpool player on the pitch. The other full-back, Johnson also had his worst game for the club resulting in a complete lack of width until Gerrard started pulling wide in after half-time.
Mascherano is expected to be fit for today’s game and, if so, Rafa will certainly play him alongside Lucas. Personally, I would pair Gerrard and Mascherano. At Anfield last season, Chelsea man-marked Gerrard and it appeared to nullify him. Of course, it subsequently transpired that Stevie was injured but Chelsea will think that their tactic was successful and will likely try it again if our captain is given the forward role. Put him in midfield and the tactic will be wasted. Instead, put Benayoun in the second striker’s position and use Kuyt on the right. When used in a wide position, Benayoun offers no protection to the full-back behind him and invariably drifts inside leaving no outlet in the wide positions. Put him in a central role and he can shine as he did at the back end of last season. Kuyt will protect his full-back and will also stay wide and get crosses in. On the left, Rafa faces a tough decision. Everyone in football knows Johnson is vulnerable in one-on-one situations but if Ancelotti’s scouts aren’t blind, they will also see that Insua is a weak link on the opposite side of the pitch. Riera will give only limited protection and Babel will give none. Rafa’s choice is to swap Insua with Aurelio or, more likely, to play Aurelio in midfield ahead of the Argentine. Either way, he has to do something in mitigation as Chelsea will certainly target Liverpool’s full-back areas today. If we can nullify their threat from the wide positions, they will struggle to create through the middle just like last season. For me, that is the key to today’s game.
Prediction? No idea. Nothing would surprise me but for once, I hope Manchester United are still top of the League after today as that will mean we picked up at least a point. Meanwhile, if we get battered, at least we won’t have helped Man Ure’s title bid. It’s a no lose situation.
2004-05 Pld. 5 W 1 D 1 L 3 GF 3 GA 5
2005-06 Pld. 5 W 1 D 2 L 2 GF 3 GA 7
2006-07 Pld. 5 W 3 D 0 L 2 GF 5 GA 3
2007-08 Pld. 5 W 0 D 3 L 2 GF 4 GA 7
2008-09 Pld. 4 W 2 D 2 L 0 GF 8 GA 7
TOTAL Pld. 24 W 7 D 8 L 9 GF 23 GA 29
Chelsea slightly edge ahead on stats but overall the records between the teams are virtually equal. That is a remarkable achievement considering Chelsea’s vastly superior resources and the fact that in Benitez’s first season, Chelsea already had a squad good enough to win the League whereas Liverpool’s atrocious squad needed a total overhaul. In spite of now having four managers plus Avram Grant in charge during Benitez's tenure, Chelsea have had relative stability in terms of playing staff illustrated by the fact they could today field 6 key players who also played in Rafa’s first match against Chelsea (Cech, Terry, Carvalho, Lampard, Drogba and Joe Cole) or at least they could if Cech wasn't suspended. By comparison, Rafa could field just one - Carragher. Gerrard is the only other current Liverpool player who was in the Liverpool squad that season although he missed that fixture through injury. While Chelsea’s spine was in place as far back as then, Rafa had to build his team up integrating numerous signings in key positions each season despite which he has steadily improved our record against the Londoners.
In fact, recent stats favour Liverpool. We are unbeaten against Chelsea in the last 5 League games against them and are also unbeaten in the last three fixtures at Stamford Bridge in all competitions (4 if you just take the first 90 minutes of our 07-08 annual Champions League Semi-Final there). Let’s also not forget that we beat them home and away in the League last season and finished above them in the table for the first time under Benitez.
You can also add anecdotal evidence to the mix. In our 2004-05 Champions League Semi-Final against them, no one gave us a chance. Even we as supporters knew they were a better team than us and that somehow squeezing past them would represent a major coup and shock. Irrespective of the respective histories and sizes of fan bases, our 1-0 win over them was a giant-killing act in which we were David and they were Goliath. Fast forward to last season and we were going into games expecting to win. Their 3-1 win at Anfield last spring was considered a shock result around Europe. When we won 1-0 at the Bridge in the League, people were saying “It’s about time Rafa’s record against the other Big 4 teams improved.”
The only shock result that could occur today is a big win such as 4-1 for either team. That shows how much Rafa has bridged the gap between the two sides.
Today, nothing would surprise me. We got our asses deservedly kicked in Europe in midweek while Chelsea hardly shone against Cypriot minnows after their shock loss at Wigan the weekend before. Rafa will know he got his team selection wrong in Florence. With Mascherano ruled out after picking up a hamstring injury in training, Rafa should have kept Stevie G in midfield alongside Lucas but instead restored the captain to his roving forward role and brought in Aurelio for only his second start of the season. The result was that Fiorentina dominated the midfield with ease and Gerrard barely saw the ball in the first half. Aurelio and Lucas were awful but another South American, Insua rivalled them for the title of worst Liverpool player on the pitch. The other full-back, Johnson also had his worst game for the club resulting in a complete lack of width until Gerrard started pulling wide in after half-time.
Mascherano is expected to be fit for today’s game and, if so, Rafa will certainly play him alongside Lucas. Personally, I would pair Gerrard and Mascherano. At Anfield last season, Chelsea man-marked Gerrard and it appeared to nullify him. Of course, it subsequently transpired that Stevie was injured but Chelsea will think that their tactic was successful and will likely try it again if our captain is given the forward role. Put him in midfield and the tactic will be wasted. Instead, put Benayoun in the second striker’s position and use Kuyt on the right. When used in a wide position, Benayoun offers no protection to the full-back behind him and invariably drifts inside leaving no outlet in the wide positions. Put him in a central role and he can shine as he did at the back end of last season. Kuyt will protect his full-back and will also stay wide and get crosses in. On the left, Rafa faces a tough decision. Everyone in football knows Johnson is vulnerable in one-on-one situations but if Ancelotti’s scouts aren’t blind, they will also see that Insua is a weak link on the opposite side of the pitch. Riera will give only limited protection and Babel will give none. Rafa’s choice is to swap Insua with Aurelio or, more likely, to play Aurelio in midfield ahead of the Argentine. Either way, he has to do something in mitigation as Chelsea will certainly target Liverpool’s full-back areas today. If we can nullify their threat from the wide positions, they will struggle to create through the middle just like last season. For me, that is the key to today’s game.
Prediction? No idea. Nothing would surprise me but for once, I hope Manchester United are still top of the League after today as that will mean we picked up at least a point. Meanwhile, if we get battered, at least we won’t have helped Man Ure’s title bid. It’s a no lose situation.
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