There’s an intriguing series of articles currently being posted on Tomkins Times entitled ‘Should They Stay or Should They Go?’ The aim is to prompt discussion as to which of the current crop of players should be kept and which should be shown the door come the summer.
The problem is, most of these decisions can’t be taken in isolation. For example, it would be easy to say “Sell Skrtel” but what if we don’t sign any other defenders this summer? With Agger’s injury problems and Carra getting closer and closer to retirement, do we trust Kelly, Wilson or Ayala to come in and be as good as or better than the Slovakian?
That being the case, I think the more pertinent question is ‘Are They Good Enough?’ (admittedly it’s not as snappy a title).
Of course, “not good enough” is something we hear all the time and it doesn’t actually mean an awful lot so I’ll quantify. We want Liverpool to be the top team in England and in Europe and for that to happen, they need players who are at least good enough to hold down a place in some or all of the first teams of Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea or even Man City. So if the players are good enough for those teams, they’re not good enough for us.
So here we go... Are They Good Enough?
Pepe Reina
Yes, absolutely. He is the best keeper in the Premiership and would easily displace the current keepers at any of those clubs. We need to keep him but the question is will he be prepared to stay at Anfield after two lousy seasons, five trophyless campaigns and with no European football in any competition looking likely next season?
Brad Jones
Certainly not good enough to be the first team keeper at any of the top clubs but the quality of reserve keepers is generally iffy so it’s not a given that they wouldn’t have him as a squad back up. I never understood why we bought him in the first place. It seemed like a complete waste of £3m and it seems he has now slipped behind Gulacsi as Reina’s understudy. To be honest, I couldn’t give a shit whether he stays or goes but I certainly don’t want to see him in our first team.
Glen Johnson
Yes. Whatever doubts some people have over his defensive reliability, he is after all England’s right back and was coveted by Chelsea when we signed him. I would imagine any of the top teams would be in for him if he was for sale. One to keep.
Martin Kelly
Yes. As good as any of the defenders Man Utd’s youth team has produced in recent years, Kelly looks destined for a career as a top player for club and country.
Jamie Carragher
Hmmm! Tough one. With his age, his lack of pace and his footballing limitations Carra would struggle to hold down a first team place at any of the top clubs. His career is clearly on the wind-down and personally I could quite happily live with never seeing another Carragher back-pass or hoof for as long as I live. He is a Liverpool legend though his reputation has been somewhat marred over the last year or so due to his meddling in club politics. I think he should stay on (if he can keep his beak out of club politics) but for as long as he is an automatic first team selection, our first team will not be strong enough.
Martin Skrtel
On his form since his recovery from the injury sustained at Man City in 2008, he would not get in to any of the top teams. The frustrating thing with Skrtel is that when we signed him, he looked like the next Vidic. At 26, he could still improve but I think the best he’ll ever be is an effective foil for a more cultured partner (the Henchoz to a Hyypia). I guess if there’s doubt then there is no doubt. He’s not good enough.
Daniel Agger
Yes he is good enough for any of the top teams. However, his injury record remains a major cause for concern. We need more defenders of his quality – ideally one or two that can stay fit as well.
Sotirios Kyrgiakos
No. I like the Greek. I really do. I like the fact he’s not very good yet makes himself surprising effective. I like the fact he is an attacking threat from set pieces and very handy against the Stokes and the Blackburns of the Premiership. However, witness the clumbsy penalty he conceded in Braga which ultimately knocked us out of Europe this season. We need a player who can bring all of Kyrgiakos’ good qualities and none of his many bad ones. That said, he remains a great bargain-basement signing by Rafa and will always be assured of a positive reception at Anfield.
Danny Wilson
It’s far too soon to make a judgement. So far, I’ve been very unimpressed but in fairness, he has predominantly been played out of position and in a struggling side as well.
Fabio Aurelio
No. Regardless of his ability, no club with any sense would give him a contract given his injury record. As for his ability, he’s useful but a squad player at best. Rafa was content to release him in the summer only for Roy Fucking Hodgson to resign him on a two-year contract. Says it all really. Prick.
Paul Fucking Konchesky
No! No! NO!!!! Never in a million years. PFK is shit and should NEVER have been signed by Liverpool Football Club. Hodgson is a twat.
Lucas Leiva
I reckon Lucas would feature regularly at some of the top clubs. He’s as good as the likes of Anderson at Man Utd or Mikel at Chelsea and has recently excelled in wins over both teams. As much as I like him as a player, I still would prefer to have him on the bench behind players of the quality of Alonso and Mascherano. When we have that, then we can challenge for top honours again.
Raul Meireles
Tough one. I think Raul would get into the squads of the top teams. After all, Chelsea recently signed Steven Pienaar and Raul is definitely better. I don’t think he is good enough to nail down an automatic first team place at any of the top teams but he’s a useful player for our squad so I’d keep him at Anfield.
Christian Poulsen
[Laughs out loud]
Jay Spearing
Sorry but no. Not good enough and never going to be. It’s always harder to jettison a player produced by our Academy but that isn’t an excuse for keeping one and even using one who will do well to make it as a Premiership player.
Jonjo Shelvey
Don’t know. It was clear that Kenny rated him before his injury and we know that Rafa lined up the signing even if Hodgson was Jonjo’s first LFC manager. I haven’t seen anything to suggest that he is the next Steven Gerrard but if he could be the next Darren Fletcher, he could certainly justify a place in our squad for the next few years.
Maxi Rodriguez
No. It’s clear there is some quality there and the player obviously has pedigree but we just haven’t seen enough from him in a year and a half at Anfield to justify a longer stay. He certainly wouldn’t attract any interest from the top English clubs.
Joe Cole
It’s understood that Chelsea wanted to keep him but weren’t prepared to meet his wage demands. I wish they had. Man Ure weren’t interested but Arsenal, City and Spurs were all linked. I suspect that if we were to make him available, none of those clubs would be interested after his season at Liverpool. I appreciate he tries hard but he is brainless as a footballer and I personally hope never to see him in a Liverpool shirt again.
Alberto Aquilani
Yes. Aquilani is a class player as he has shown in his year on loan at Juventus. With the Old Lady skint, it looks like Juve won’t be able to make his move permanent even for the ludicrously low fee Christian [Penis] Purslow offered them which gives us the option of recalling him or selling him for his true market value. Personally, I expect he will insist on a move rather than returning to Liverpool but given the choice, I’d like to see him playing for us.
Dani Pacheco
How can we know? His reputation is stellar but we’ve never seen him given a chance. People will argue that the lack of time given to him by three consecutive managers is evidence that he isn’t good enough and certainly in his few appearances this year he was unimpressive. However, I would just like to see what he can do with my own eyes before I make a judgement.
Nathan Eccleston
No. Sorry. Forget any idealistic scenarios where an Academy graduate comes good as a squad player. Eccleston is simply not of the required quality.
Milan Jovanovic
No. I can’t see him holding down a place at any Premiership team.
Dirk Kuyt
Yes. At his age, it’s questionable whether any of the top teams would come in for him although I suspect they’d be happy to have him in their squads. Kuyt has been a great servant to Liverpool Football Club and is as strong a contender for our Player of the Season as anyone else. He’s never been what people would call ‘World Class’ and yet has been a regular for Holland’s national team. I would like to think he’ll at least have competition for his place next season but for our sakes I hope that is at Liverpool FC.
David Ngog
Tricky. Is he any worse than Kalou, Bendtner, Owen or Jo? He’s been more or less frozen out since Kenny took charge which suggests the King doesn’t rate him. Certainly he is not good enough to hold down a place in any of the top teams but neither are the four squad players mentioned who are all at those teams. With age on his side, he may yet develop into a decent striker to have in reserve. I’d like us to keep him for at least another year but ideally I’d want us to sign another striker as well. If Ngog is good enough to force his way past Carroll and another striker, good for him and us.
Luiz Suarez
Yes. Already looks a star in the making.
Andy Carroll
Yes. It’s debatable whether he is ready to hold down a place in any of the top teams and certainly unlikely that any would have paid £35m for him, but I’m sure they’d all love to have him as an up and coming player. If he develops as is hoped, he could be one of the Premiership’s star strikers for years to come.
So to summarise, the players I think are good enough to play for the top clubs in England and whom we should definitely keep beyond the summer are: Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Agger, Lucas, Aquilani, Kuyt, Suarez and Carroll. Other players I think we should keep are Carragher, Shelvey,Pacheco, Meireles and Ngog. That suggests out of 12 out of 26 players need to be replaced. Clearly that is a tall order for one summer so the certainty is that some of those 12 will have to be retained and our transition from our current malaise to a team with sufficient quality to challenge for top honours will be gradual.
Personally, if no one I’ve said should be retained leaves, I would prioritise the following in order: 1 winger with pace (ideally for the left flank and Ashley Young would do nicely), 1 left-back to be first choice in the position, 1 central defender (Sami Hyypia Mk II), 1 other winger with pace (to play on the opposite flank), 1 central midfielder (may not be required if Aquilani returns), 1 striker, 1 back up left back (wouldn’t be required if we could get Insua to return although that is highly unlikely). After that, it would be a case of replacing the weaker members of the team in whatever order they can be replaced.
Of course, if someone like Reina or Johnson goes, replacing them becomes the first priority. Who’d be a manager!
Saturday, 19 March 2011
Friday, 18 March 2011
Liverpool 0 Braga 0 Agg L 0-1: Reaction
So we’re out of the Europa Cup and looking highly unlikely to re-qualify next season. Reaction? I’m disappointed but also slightly relieved.
The Europa League has not been a fun competition to participate in. It’s always been a case of just getting through the group stages and knock out ties against teams best described as dross, in the hope that we would experience some ties of the calibre we were used to from our years in the Champions League (e.g. Benfica and Atletico last season). At that stage, we could have experienced a bit of excitement about a European Cup tie and also expected to see our strongest teams take to the pitch in both legs.
As it is, we’ve played no teams of note and our fringe players have been used throughout the competition. There has been few goals and little excitement. In that respect, it’s probably for the best that we are out and won’t be back in the competition next season.
On the negative side, it’s embarrassing to go out at home to a team like Braga, our co-efficient rating will be impacted by our failure to qualify for European competition and our season has been confirmed as trophyless as early as mid-March for the first time since Houllier was in charge.
Realistically, 6th place is the best we can hope for in the League and that is where we currently sit so we now face two months of just trying to maintain a pretty mediocre League position. It’s sad.
On the plus side, Luis Suarez is eligible to play in all of our remaining fixtures and with fewer fixtures remaining, we don’t need to chop and change the team too much.
The Europa League has not been a fun competition to participate in. It’s always been a case of just getting through the group stages and knock out ties against teams best described as dross, in the hope that we would experience some ties of the calibre we were used to from our years in the Champions League (e.g. Benfica and Atletico last season). At that stage, we could have experienced a bit of excitement about a European Cup tie and also expected to see our strongest teams take to the pitch in both legs.
As it is, we’ve played no teams of note and our fringe players have been used throughout the competition. There has been few goals and little excitement. In that respect, it’s probably for the best that we are out and won’t be back in the competition next season.
On the negative side, it’s embarrassing to go out at home to a team like Braga, our co-efficient rating will be impacted by our failure to qualify for European competition and our season has been confirmed as trophyless as early as mid-March for the first time since Houllier was in charge.
Realistically, 6th place is the best we can hope for in the League and that is where we currently sit so we now face two months of just trying to maintain a pretty mediocre League position. It’s sad.
On the plus side, Luis Suarez is eligible to play in all of our remaining fixtures and with fewer fixtures remaining, we don’t need to chop and change the team too much.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Braga 1 "Liverpool" 0
As much as I stand by my assertion that winning the Europa League should be Liverpool FC’s number one priority for the remainder of this season, King Kenny’s team selection for our away tie at Braga suggested that the club is prioritising the League and using UEFA’s second tier competition as an opportunity to field fringe players.
Given our shocking record in Portugal, I had hoped to see a stronger XI than one featuring Joke Cole, Christian Poulsen and Jay Spearing.
Had we been playing Barcelona in the Champions League, I have no doubt that Steven Gerrard would have played – irrespective of concerns about his groin. However, away to Braga, I can understand the logic behind resting him if there were legitimate concerns over his fitness.
With Agger and Kelly also out injured – not to mention the pathetically fragile Fabio Aurelio – and with Carroll being eased back from injury and Suarez cup-tied, this was never going to be close to our strongest XI. With Jonjo Shelvey – whom Kenny’s early team selections suggested he rated above many other squad players - also injured, perhaps there was little alternative but to include some of the dregs in the squad.
I’ve nothing against Jay Spearing. He is an honest player who certainly gives his all whenever he plays in the first team. I just think that the Premiership standards are a tier above his level of capability.
Christian Poulsen and Joke Cole are two players I have quite a bit against. Poulsen is crap. I admit that he will forever be emblematic in my mind of the disastrous Hodgson reign. However, my issues with him are not political. Meireles was also signed by Hodgson and I like him because he is a decent player. Had Poulsen provided a single moment in a Liverpool shirt to justify a scouting report that didn’t read “DO NOT SIGN THIS PLAYER”, perhaps I would be more patient with him but his failure to even resemble a professional footballer during his time at LFC has led me to the point where I don’t ever want to see him in our team again.
As for Joke Cole, to me he is tainted by association to Christian Purslow - the man who got rid of Rafa; replaced him with Hodgson; approved a ridiculous deal to loan Alberto Aquilani to Juventus giving the Italian club the right to buy at a fraction of the fee we paid which looks well below his current market value, and declined to sign Marouane Chamakh for nothing in order to pursue the marquee signing of Cole.
Despite this, my issues with him are not political. My real frustration with Cole is that I celebrated his signing. I genuinely believed his signing was a coup for our club. Watching him ping the ball around in our season’s curtain raiser versus RK Rabotnicki, I thought we now had three star players: Torres, Gerrard and Cole. Just like Torres and Gerrard, Cole has been a massive let down.
It’s not that he has been a bad player. He just hasn’t done anything positive. Even his best contribution – the wrongly allowed last minute offside winner against Bolton – probably kept Hodgson in a job for another week. His first minute goal against Steaua Bucharest was of little relevance as we ran out 4-1 winners whereas his sending off against Arsenal and his missed penalty against Trabzonspor were far more costly. Those incidents aside, there are literally no other incidents of note in his Liverpool career. He is a nothing. A non-entity. But a non-entity who collects more than £90K per week.
At this point, there is realistically nothing he can do between now and the end of the season to convince me he should still be a Liverpool player next season. If anything, the problem might be finding a club who will take him off our hands given the lack of quality he has shown.
To me, he is a lost cause and I would rather see a promising youngster like Dani Pacheco given the chance to sink or swim than see the Joke continue to flounder.
Given the limitations already placed on the squad, I feel Kenny could still have fielded a decent XI in (4-2-3-1) Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Johnson, Lucas, Meireles, Kuyt, Rodriguez, Pacheco, Ngog. It wouldn’t have stopped Kyrgiakos conceding the penalty from which Braga scored but it might have given us a better chance of grabbing an away goal or two.
As it is, we will now need our strongest possible XI for the home leg. I believe we will have enough quality to overturn our 1-0 deficit but if we are to advance in this competition, Poulsen must not start another game and we can’t gamble on fielding such weak XIs again.
My concern is that perhaps Kenny views a Europa League exit as acceptable collateral damage - in which case Poulsen and co will continue leading us to our inevitable elimination. Don't do it, Kenny! Give us a silver lining to this most transitional of seasons.
Given our shocking record in Portugal, I had hoped to see a stronger XI than one featuring Joke Cole, Christian Poulsen and Jay Spearing.
Had we been playing Barcelona in the Champions League, I have no doubt that Steven Gerrard would have played – irrespective of concerns about his groin. However, away to Braga, I can understand the logic behind resting him if there were legitimate concerns over his fitness.
With Agger and Kelly also out injured – not to mention the pathetically fragile Fabio Aurelio – and with Carroll being eased back from injury and Suarez cup-tied, this was never going to be close to our strongest XI. With Jonjo Shelvey – whom Kenny’s early team selections suggested he rated above many other squad players - also injured, perhaps there was little alternative but to include some of the dregs in the squad.
I’ve nothing against Jay Spearing. He is an honest player who certainly gives his all whenever he plays in the first team. I just think that the Premiership standards are a tier above his level of capability.
Christian Poulsen and Joke Cole are two players I have quite a bit against. Poulsen is crap. I admit that he will forever be emblematic in my mind of the disastrous Hodgson reign. However, my issues with him are not political. Meireles was also signed by Hodgson and I like him because he is a decent player. Had Poulsen provided a single moment in a Liverpool shirt to justify a scouting report that didn’t read “DO NOT SIGN THIS PLAYER”, perhaps I would be more patient with him but his failure to even resemble a professional footballer during his time at LFC has led me to the point where I don’t ever want to see him in our team again.
As for Joke Cole, to me he is tainted by association to Christian Purslow - the man who got rid of Rafa; replaced him with Hodgson; approved a ridiculous deal to loan Alberto Aquilani to Juventus giving the Italian club the right to buy at a fraction of the fee we paid which looks well below his current market value, and declined to sign Marouane Chamakh for nothing in order to pursue the marquee signing of Cole.
Despite this, my issues with him are not political. My real frustration with Cole is that I celebrated his signing. I genuinely believed his signing was a coup for our club. Watching him ping the ball around in our season’s curtain raiser versus RK Rabotnicki, I thought we now had three star players: Torres, Gerrard and Cole. Just like Torres and Gerrard, Cole has been a massive let down.
It’s not that he has been a bad player. He just hasn’t done anything positive. Even his best contribution – the wrongly allowed last minute offside winner against Bolton – probably kept Hodgson in a job for another week. His first minute goal against Steaua Bucharest was of little relevance as we ran out 4-1 winners whereas his sending off against Arsenal and his missed penalty against Trabzonspor were far more costly. Those incidents aside, there are literally no other incidents of note in his Liverpool career. He is a nothing. A non-entity. But a non-entity who collects more than £90K per week.
At this point, there is realistically nothing he can do between now and the end of the season to convince me he should still be a Liverpool player next season. If anything, the problem might be finding a club who will take him off our hands given the lack of quality he has shown.
To me, he is a lost cause and I would rather see a promising youngster like Dani Pacheco given the chance to sink or swim than see the Joke continue to flounder.
Given the limitations already placed on the squad, I feel Kenny could still have fielded a decent XI in (4-2-3-1) Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Johnson, Lucas, Meireles, Kuyt, Rodriguez, Pacheco, Ngog. It wouldn’t have stopped Kyrgiakos conceding the penalty from which Braga scored but it might have given us a better chance of grabbing an away goal or two.
As it is, we will now need our strongest possible XI for the home leg. I believe we will have enough quality to overturn our 1-0 deficit but if we are to advance in this competition, Poulsen must not start another game and we can’t gamble on fielding such weak XIs again.
My concern is that perhaps Kenny views a Europa League exit as acceptable collateral damage - in which case Poulsen and co will continue leading us to our inevitable elimination. Don't do it, Kenny! Give us a silver lining to this most transitional of seasons.
Sunday, 6 March 2011
An overdue tribute to Dirk Kuyt
Following his hat-trick against Man Utd, I feel it is time for an overdue tribute to Dirk Kuyt.
Kuyt gets a fair bit of stick for his woeful first touch, general lack of pace and obvious limitations as an attacking player. While he is also praised for his work rate and super human stamina, such praise is tinged with the regret that he failed to become the 20+ goals-a-season striker we signed him to be.
Had Albert Riera or Jermaine Pennant matched Kuyt’s goal-return from wide positions and offered the versatility of playing up front when required they would have been lauded. However, those players were both signed as wingers whereas Kuyt was signed as a striker so, rather unfairly, different expectations are applied.
In the past I’ve compared him to Man Utd’s Park Ji-Sung. Park strikes me as a player who lacks the skill and poise of say Cristiano Ronaldo or Nani and who lacks the ‘star quality’ of Wayne Rooney and Dmitar Berbatov and yet his more agricultural approach frequently proves effective in some of the biggest fixtures such as games against Arsenal and Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final. Sometimes, having a player with an outstanding work rate and an uncanny knack of finding the net in the biggest games is a greater asset than having a ‘star’ player.
This is both a complimentary view and a slightly critical view. On the one hand, in making this comparison, I am acknowledging Kuyt’s value to the team and suggesting that even if we’d had a stronger squad over the last few years, he would still have had a valuable role to play. On the other hand, it infers that, given that stronger squad, perhaps Kuyt should have been used in certain games but should not necessarily have been a fixture in the first team.
Had we possessed Man United’s strength in depth over the last few years – or even two quality wide players – perhaps it would be correct to question Kuyt’s status as an automatic selection. However, we had the squads we had and there can be no doubting that since his conversion to the right wing in 2007-08, Kuyt has been the best man for that role at our club. Any frustrations over his limitations in that role should be aimed at the men who undermined our club by failing to invest adequately in the squad.
But of course, this is a tribute so focus on his limitations are inappropriate. Instead, let me list some of the reasons why Kuyt has been a fantastic servant to Liverpool Football Club.
> He has scored for us in a European Cup Final.
> Only Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Ian Rush and Roger Hunt have scored more European goals than him.
> Only Steven Gerrard has scored more Champions League goals than him.
> Of the current Liverpool squad, only Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Pepe Reina have made more appearances than him.
> Only Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres have scored more Premiership goals for Liverpool than him.
> Only 12 players who debuted in the last 20 years have played more Liverpool games than his current total of 230: Rob Jones (243), Jamie Redknapp (308), David James (277), Robbie Fowler (369), Jamie Carragher (630), Michael Owen (297), Danny Murphy (249), Steven Gerrard (532), Dietmar Hamann (283), Sami Hyypia (464), John Arne Riise (348) and Pepe Reina (299). In that time 159 players have appeared for the club.
> He has scored career goals against Everton (x5), Arsenal (x3), Chelsea (x3) and now Man United (x3).
> He has also scored Champions League goals against Inter Milan, AC Milan, Marseille and Porto.
> He has scored crucial (late) goals in European knock-out ties against the likes of Standard Liege, Trabzonspor and Sparta Prague.
> In the last 5 seasons, only Reina (246) and Carragher (241) have played more games than him.
> He never gives less than his best and works tirelessly for the team whenever selected.
The song goes “We all dream of a team of Carraghers”. It is clearly meant that we wish every member of the team had Carragher’s commitment and not his skill set. For the same reason, it could also be sung that “We all dream of a team of Dirk Kuyts”. And for the record, if a team of Dirk Kuyts played a team of Carraghers, the Kuyts would win by a cricket score!
Kuyt gets a fair bit of stick for his woeful first touch, general lack of pace and obvious limitations as an attacking player. While he is also praised for his work rate and super human stamina, such praise is tinged with the regret that he failed to become the 20+ goals-a-season striker we signed him to be.
Had Albert Riera or Jermaine Pennant matched Kuyt’s goal-return from wide positions and offered the versatility of playing up front when required they would have been lauded. However, those players were both signed as wingers whereas Kuyt was signed as a striker so, rather unfairly, different expectations are applied.
In the past I’ve compared him to Man Utd’s Park Ji-Sung. Park strikes me as a player who lacks the skill and poise of say Cristiano Ronaldo or Nani and who lacks the ‘star quality’ of Wayne Rooney and Dmitar Berbatov and yet his more agricultural approach frequently proves effective in some of the biggest fixtures such as games against Arsenal and Barcelona in their Champions League semi-final. Sometimes, having a player with an outstanding work rate and an uncanny knack of finding the net in the biggest games is a greater asset than having a ‘star’ player.
This is both a complimentary view and a slightly critical view. On the one hand, in making this comparison, I am acknowledging Kuyt’s value to the team and suggesting that even if we’d had a stronger squad over the last few years, he would still have had a valuable role to play. On the other hand, it infers that, given that stronger squad, perhaps Kuyt should have been used in certain games but should not necessarily have been a fixture in the first team.
Had we possessed Man United’s strength in depth over the last few years – or even two quality wide players – perhaps it would be correct to question Kuyt’s status as an automatic selection. However, we had the squads we had and there can be no doubting that since his conversion to the right wing in 2007-08, Kuyt has been the best man for that role at our club. Any frustrations over his limitations in that role should be aimed at the men who undermined our club by failing to invest adequately in the squad.
But of course, this is a tribute so focus on his limitations are inappropriate. Instead, let me list some of the reasons why Kuyt has been a fantastic servant to Liverpool Football Club.
> He has scored for us in a European Cup Final.
> Only Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Ian Rush and Roger Hunt have scored more European goals than him.
> Only Steven Gerrard has scored more Champions League goals than him.
> Of the current Liverpool squad, only Jamie Carragher, Steven Gerrard and Pepe Reina have made more appearances than him.
> Only Robbie Fowler, Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres have scored more Premiership goals for Liverpool than him.
> Only 12 players who debuted in the last 20 years have played more Liverpool games than his current total of 230: Rob Jones (243), Jamie Redknapp (308), David James (277), Robbie Fowler (369), Jamie Carragher (630), Michael Owen (297), Danny Murphy (249), Steven Gerrard (532), Dietmar Hamann (283), Sami Hyypia (464), John Arne Riise (348) and Pepe Reina (299). In that time 159 players have appeared for the club.
> He has scored career goals against Everton (x5), Arsenal (x3), Chelsea (x3) and now Man United (x3).
> He has also scored Champions League goals against Inter Milan, AC Milan, Marseille and Porto.
> He has scored crucial (late) goals in European knock-out ties against the likes of Standard Liege, Trabzonspor and Sparta Prague.
> In the last 5 seasons, only Reina (246) and Carragher (241) have played more games than him.
> He never gives less than his best and works tirelessly for the team whenever selected.
The song goes “We all dream of a team of Carraghers”. It is clearly meant that we wish every member of the team had Carragher’s commitment and not his skill set. For the same reason, it could also be sung that “We all dream of a team of Dirk Kuyts”. And for the record, if a team of Dirk Kuyts played a team of Carraghers, the Kuyts would win by a cricket score!
Wednesday, 2 March 2011
What is important this season?
The reactions of football fans intrigue me. Liverpool lost to West Ham on Sunday with a pretty disjointed and disappointing performance but to hear some people, you would think it was the end of the world.
In reality, it was probably the end of our very slim hopes of nicking a Champions League place – if it wasn’t, Chelsea’s win over Man Utd last night surely was – but the odds of us achieving that were so slim that I thought it would take a miracle to happen. Clearly some people got so carried away with our recent good form that they had begun to think of Champions League qualification as ours to throw away. Nonsense.
When you have unrealistic expectations, you are going to be disappointed more often than not. I’ve seen that a lot in recent seasons. When Rafa led us to within a smidgen of winning the title in 2009 only to be robbed by bent officialdom at Old Trafford, people claimed we threw away the title. That season we achieved our record number of points in the Premiership; we achieved the highest total by any runner up in Premiership history; we finished above both Arsenal and Chelsea who had finished 25 and 37 points respectively above us in Rafa’s first season at Anfield just 5 seasons earlier; we scored the most goals and had the best goal difference in the League; we lost the fewest games – fewer than any team that had failed to win the League in Premiership history; we beat Chelsea and Man Utd home and away and absolutely tonked Man Utd at Old Trafford, and we still reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League having battered Real Madrid in the previous round. To some people that wasn’t good enough. To those people this was evidence of negligence and incompetence by our manager.
Those same people deserved what they got when Rafa was sacked and Roy Hodgson was appointed instead. They called Rafa an idiot but were then faced with the shocking reality of a real idiot being in charge at Anfield. Had FSG not sacked Hodgson, I’m convinced he would have relegated us. Thankfully, we got rid before it was too late. It still should have happened sooner in my opinion (to be honest, he never should have been appointed at all) but at least it happened soon enough to give us a fighting chance of finishing comfortably in mid-table.
For King Kenny to then come in and lead us seemingly effortlessly up the table to within striking distance of the top four was way beyond my expectations. When you consider he has done this while having to sell Fernando Torres to Chelsea and hasn’t yet had the benefit of fielding the player signed to replace him, it is even more incredible. He arrested our decline, improved the quality of football on display, reversed our negative goal difference and generally restored the joys and pleasures of supporting Liverpool FC.
After our win against Chelsea, I did dare to dream of us usurping them and stealing the fourth Champions League spot but I knew it was extremely unlikely and that it would have required title-winning form between now and May to accomplish. Realistically, that was never going to happen and it’s clear looking back that what Kenny did was get us winning the sort of games we should be winning – something Hodgson was never able to do. From that winning run in what was essentially a kind set of fixtures - Wolves (a), Fulham (h), Stoke (h) – the team acquired the form and confidence to go and win at Chelsea. However, since then we have returned to the sort of patchy form I expected when Kenny took the job. We were robbed blind against Wigan (h) but deserved what we got at West Ham.
With some tough fixtures remaining, I expect the remainder of the season to be an even mixture of wins, draws and defeats and I expect we will finish around where we are in the table now – 6th or 7th. That remains an impressive achievement given the relegation battle Hodgson left us facing.
The icing on the cake would be a Europa League win. At least that’s how I see it but some fans disagree. There seems to be a large number of Liverpool supporters who think we should focus on the League and field reserve teams in Europe’s secondary competition. I just don’t understand their logic.
What can we achieve domestically this season? The best realistic outcome is that we secure 5th place and seal Europa League qualification for next year – but what is the point if we don’t value the competition when we’re actually in it?
The likelihood is that our best route to qualify for a European competition next season is to win the one we are currently playing in.
However, next season is for next season. We still have a chance of winning a trophy this season. Whether you rate the Europa League or not, it is the only competition we can win this season and as such, I consider it to be our number one priority.
Winning trophies is what Liverpool Football Club is all about. In fact, I would go so far as to say winning trophies is what football is all about. Why enter competitions unless you want to win them? Why support the team season after season if you don’t care whether they actually win anything?
Of course I want Liverpool to be challenging for and winning the Premiership and the Champions League but those objectives were beyond us before the first ball was kicked this season. After that, the next priority had to be the FA Cup. Thanks to a twat of a third round draw and a bent performance by Manchester United’s Howard Webb, that was beyond us after just one game. Next priority? For me, the Europa League still has more prestige than the League Cup. In any case, thanks to Hodgson and his master class in motivating “B-team” players, that was also beyond us after just one game.
We can still lift silverware in Dublin in May. The Europa League Final might not have the pizzazz of the European Cup Final but we are currently light-years away from even having a chance of playing in that one. While we rattle around amongst the also-rans waiting for our time to come again, wouldn’t it be better if we could pick up the odd trophy along the way?
Let me put it another way, what do the following players have in common: Arbeloa, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Aurelio, Mascherano, Lucas, Benayoun, Kuyt, Rodriguez, Riera, Babel, Keane and Torres? Answer: All of them won or have won nothing with Liverpool FC (excluding the Community Shield in Agger’s case). Kuyt and Aurelio have been with us for five seasons. Mascherano and Arbeloa joined the same year. Torres, Babel, Benayoun, Lucas and Skrtel all joined the following season. Johnson, Kyrgiakos, Rodriguez, Riera and Keane joined after. After our Champions League Final defeat in Athens, we’ve come close to reaching another Champions League Final, a Europa League Final and just missed out on a League title but we’ve failed to add to our collection of silverware.
Keane, Arbeloa, Benayoun, Riera, Mascherano, Babel and Torres have all been and gone leaving us with no memories of them parading trophies.
Champions League football is important to keep existing players happy and attract new ones but that alone is not enough. Above all else, players want to win medals. They want to be raising trophies as ticker tape rains down around them and supporters laud them as heroes.
Yes, the Europa League is a second-rate competition. Yes, it is less prestigious than the UEFA Cup was when we last won it in 2001. Yes, it was not our first priority at the start of this season and won’t be at the start of next season (assuming we qualify). But it is the only chance we have of celebrating with our team on the last day of our season.
For the departed players it is too late to win a trophy but for the likes of Carroll, Meireles and Kelly, what a way to start!
In reality, it was probably the end of our very slim hopes of nicking a Champions League place – if it wasn’t, Chelsea’s win over Man Utd last night surely was – but the odds of us achieving that were so slim that I thought it would take a miracle to happen. Clearly some people got so carried away with our recent good form that they had begun to think of Champions League qualification as ours to throw away. Nonsense.
When you have unrealistic expectations, you are going to be disappointed more often than not. I’ve seen that a lot in recent seasons. When Rafa led us to within a smidgen of winning the title in 2009 only to be robbed by bent officialdom at Old Trafford, people claimed we threw away the title. That season we achieved our record number of points in the Premiership; we achieved the highest total by any runner up in Premiership history; we finished above both Arsenal and Chelsea who had finished 25 and 37 points respectively above us in Rafa’s first season at Anfield just 5 seasons earlier; we scored the most goals and had the best goal difference in the League; we lost the fewest games – fewer than any team that had failed to win the League in Premiership history; we beat Chelsea and Man Utd home and away and absolutely tonked Man Utd at Old Trafford, and we still reached the quarter-finals of the Champions League having battered Real Madrid in the previous round. To some people that wasn’t good enough. To those people this was evidence of negligence and incompetence by our manager.
Those same people deserved what they got when Rafa was sacked and Roy Hodgson was appointed instead. They called Rafa an idiot but were then faced with the shocking reality of a real idiot being in charge at Anfield. Had FSG not sacked Hodgson, I’m convinced he would have relegated us. Thankfully, we got rid before it was too late. It still should have happened sooner in my opinion (to be honest, he never should have been appointed at all) but at least it happened soon enough to give us a fighting chance of finishing comfortably in mid-table.
For King Kenny to then come in and lead us seemingly effortlessly up the table to within striking distance of the top four was way beyond my expectations. When you consider he has done this while having to sell Fernando Torres to Chelsea and hasn’t yet had the benefit of fielding the player signed to replace him, it is even more incredible. He arrested our decline, improved the quality of football on display, reversed our negative goal difference and generally restored the joys and pleasures of supporting Liverpool FC.
After our win against Chelsea, I did dare to dream of us usurping them and stealing the fourth Champions League spot but I knew it was extremely unlikely and that it would have required title-winning form between now and May to accomplish. Realistically, that was never going to happen and it’s clear looking back that what Kenny did was get us winning the sort of games we should be winning – something Hodgson was never able to do. From that winning run in what was essentially a kind set of fixtures - Wolves (a), Fulham (h), Stoke (h) – the team acquired the form and confidence to go and win at Chelsea. However, since then we have returned to the sort of patchy form I expected when Kenny took the job. We were robbed blind against Wigan (h) but deserved what we got at West Ham.
With some tough fixtures remaining, I expect the remainder of the season to be an even mixture of wins, draws and defeats and I expect we will finish around where we are in the table now – 6th or 7th. That remains an impressive achievement given the relegation battle Hodgson left us facing.
The icing on the cake would be a Europa League win. At least that’s how I see it but some fans disagree. There seems to be a large number of Liverpool supporters who think we should focus on the League and field reserve teams in Europe’s secondary competition. I just don’t understand their logic.
What can we achieve domestically this season? The best realistic outcome is that we secure 5th place and seal Europa League qualification for next year – but what is the point if we don’t value the competition when we’re actually in it?
The likelihood is that our best route to qualify for a European competition next season is to win the one we are currently playing in.
However, next season is for next season. We still have a chance of winning a trophy this season. Whether you rate the Europa League or not, it is the only competition we can win this season and as such, I consider it to be our number one priority.
Winning trophies is what Liverpool Football Club is all about. In fact, I would go so far as to say winning trophies is what football is all about. Why enter competitions unless you want to win them? Why support the team season after season if you don’t care whether they actually win anything?
Of course I want Liverpool to be challenging for and winning the Premiership and the Champions League but those objectives were beyond us before the first ball was kicked this season. After that, the next priority had to be the FA Cup. Thanks to a twat of a third round draw and a bent performance by Manchester United’s Howard Webb, that was beyond us after just one game. Next priority? For me, the Europa League still has more prestige than the League Cup. In any case, thanks to Hodgson and his master class in motivating “B-team” players, that was also beyond us after just one game.
We can still lift silverware in Dublin in May. The Europa League Final might not have the pizzazz of the European Cup Final but we are currently light-years away from even having a chance of playing in that one. While we rattle around amongst the also-rans waiting for our time to come again, wouldn’t it be better if we could pick up the odd trophy along the way?
Let me put it another way, what do the following players have in common: Arbeloa, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Aurelio, Mascherano, Lucas, Benayoun, Kuyt, Rodriguez, Riera, Babel, Keane and Torres? Answer: All of them won or have won nothing with Liverpool FC (excluding the Community Shield in Agger’s case). Kuyt and Aurelio have been with us for five seasons. Mascherano and Arbeloa joined the same year. Torres, Babel, Benayoun, Lucas and Skrtel all joined the following season. Johnson, Kyrgiakos, Rodriguez, Riera and Keane joined after. After our Champions League Final defeat in Athens, we’ve come close to reaching another Champions League Final, a Europa League Final and just missed out on a League title but we’ve failed to add to our collection of silverware.
Keane, Arbeloa, Benayoun, Riera, Mascherano, Babel and Torres have all been and gone leaving us with no memories of them parading trophies.
Champions League football is important to keep existing players happy and attract new ones but that alone is not enough. Above all else, players want to win medals. They want to be raising trophies as ticker tape rains down around them and supporters laud them as heroes.
Yes, the Europa League is a second-rate competition. Yes, it is less prestigious than the UEFA Cup was when we last won it in 2001. Yes, it was not our first priority at the start of this season and won’t be at the start of next season (assuming we qualify). But it is the only chance we have of celebrating with our team on the last day of our season.
For the departed players it is too late to win a trophy but for the likes of Carroll, Meireles and Kelly, what a way to start!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
