There is no doubt that in leaving out, for whatever reason, some of or bigger names Rodgers has increased the pressure on himself for the visit of Chelsea on Saturday. Our ‘first XI’ were soundly beaten at home by Real Madrid and we trudged into our next league game at home to Hull with confidence very low. In fact we haven’t scored a league goal since we were blown away so convincingly by Real. Last night’s performance actually gives me more hope of a decent display and, hopefully, a result against Chelsea than if the same eleven had been bettered in every department again by an excellent Real side.
Wednesday 5 November 2014
Seven Changes And Liverpool Don't Get Hammered, But Brendan Rodgers Does.
There is a word that has come
into football over the last ten or fifteen years that didn’t previously exist –
‘rested’. Last night Brendan Rodgers took plenty of stick from well respected
journalists and pundits for ‘resting’ a number of ‘big name players’. We’ve
been desperately poor lately and it could easily be argued that we don’t have a
single in form player. Does anybody remember the days when players played badly
and were dropped? Can anybody honestly say Rodgers left out a single player who
has made a positive difference in any of our recent matches? I've never before seen a manager get so much criticism for leaving out under performing players.
So, w ho was left out?
I n defence it was Glen Johnson
and Dejan Lovren. Johnson has been targeted by most fans and journalists as a
poor performer for LFC and England for a couple of years now. Lovren, it’s
widely acknowledged, hasn’t yet played particularly well for Liverpool. There’s
a very good case for both to be left out of the side based on performance.
Midfield – Steven Gerrard and
Jordan Henderson. Questions have been raised about Gerrard’s performance levels
this season (admittedly judged against his own high standards) and his ability,
at his age, to consistently play three matches in a week. So he was left on the
bench for the midweek game in a period where we have three games in eight days.
Should we really be overly shocked? Henderson is young, in good fitness, vice
captain and playing reasonably well, his omission was something of a surprise.
A ttack – Mario Balotelli, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho. Five goals
between them all season and none of them are in form. Rodgers is attacked for
sticking with Balotelli and now he’s questioned for leaving him out. Surely on
current form there’s not even an argument that he was the wrong player to lead
the line on his own in the Bernabeu? Sterling started the season well but,
like the rest of our attack, has faded lately. Coutinho has had his moments but
hasn’t yet this season reached the levels of consistent good performances he
showed last term. It’s not possible to see how impotent we’ve been of late and
think the attack didn’t need changing.
Much was made of the fact there
were seven changes to our starting XI, but had Gerrard and Sterling started
would there have been much comment? I doubt it. The players who came in,
especially Lucas Leiva, Kolo Toure, Emre Can, Adam Lallana and Fabio Borini
performed at least as well as the players they replaced have done lately, if
not better. We’ve only really played well in one match so far this season (away
vs Spurs) and it has to be said last night we didn’t play badly. Which is a big
improvement on recent displays.
There is no doubt that in leaving out, for whatever reason, some of or bigger names Rodgers has increased the pressure on himself for the visit of Chelsea on Saturday. Our ‘first XI’ were soundly beaten at home by Real Madrid and we trudged into our next league game at home to Hull with confidence very low. In fact we haven’t scored a league goal since we were blown away so convincingly by Real. Last night’s performance actually gives me more hope of a decent display and, hopefully, a result against Chelsea than if the same eleven had been bettered in every department again by an excellent Real side.
It’s been said that the team selection
for the Champions League last night was not ‘the Liverpool way’ and there is
some justification for this. But picking players on name, reputation and price
tag is also not ‘the Liverpool way’. Accepting a string of sub standard displays is not 'the Liverpool way'. All eleven who started last night worked
hard and played their part in a performance that, while it was far from vintage,
was an improvement on all of our recent games. And that is very much the first
step to getting back on ‘the Liverpool way'.
There is no doubt that in leaving out, for whatever reason, some of or bigger names Rodgers has increased the pressure on himself for the visit of Chelsea on Saturday. Our ‘first XI’ were soundly beaten at home by Real Madrid and we trudged into our next league game at home to Hull with confidence very low. In fact we haven’t scored a league goal since we were blown away so convincingly by Real. Last night’s performance actually gives me more hope of a decent display and, hopefully, a result against Chelsea than if the same eleven had been bettered in every department again by an excellent Real side.
Tuesday 5 August 2014
Has Luis Suarez Already Been Replaced At Liverpool?
Last season was without doubt our best of the Premier League era, fast flowing attacking football that was exciting to watch and brought us many memorable wins against all kinds of opposition. The problem with eye catching football is that your best players inevitably catch the eyes of the mega rich and we have lost last season's stand out player, Luis Suarez to Barcelona for £75 million.
Suarez is almost a one off, somebody that can make things happen out of nothing and astonish fans, team mates and, most importantly, his opponents. There are only a couple of players out there who could come in as 'like for like' replacements for the talented Uruguayan. Suarez has yet to be seen in a Barca shirt due to his ban earned on World Cup duty and unless Lionel Messi is under similar restrictions and is having to keep his Liverpool shirt away from the cameras after a secret swap deal it's unrealistic to expect us to bring in a straight ahead replacement.
So what is the next step, how do we replace the irreplaceable?
We don't.
If we try to play exactly the same way as last season with an inferior player in Suarez' position we will produce inferior performances. I don't mean we'll play badly, far from it, but we won't have the same 'get out of jail free' card that we played when we needed to over the last twelve months.
It seems to be fashionable (and, let's face it, enjoyable) for fans of other teams to say we failed to win the title last term because Steven Gerrard slipped over, but this couldn't be further from the truth. We failed to win the title because our defence wasn't up to it. Away to Hull we were poor, we didn't show up, but we still managed a goal and if we could have kept an average-at-best attack out we would have gained the points necessary to top the pile. Similarly away at West Brom, we scored but a horrendous mistake allowed Victor Anichebe(!) to prevent us taking all three points. Home to Aston Villa was a similar story. Home to Southampton and away to Newcastle -couldn't defend set pieces. Away to Crystal Palace - couldn't close out a game with a commanding lead. Change the outcome of any one or two of these games and we go into this coming season as defending champions.
Scoring over 100 goals in the league last season was an amazing feat that we were always odds against to repeat this time around, with or without Suarez. But conceding 50 goals was extremely disappointing and quite simply not good enough for a team in the top four.
The point I'm trying to make is that it will be virtually impossible to replace Suarez' goals but we don't necessarily have to. If somebody can come into the side and score around half of the 31 goals Suarez netted, the defence can do the rest. Dejan Lovren looks a good player and will hopefully keep the ship tighter than either Kolo Toure or Mamadou Sakho managed. If, as looks likely, we can bring in Javier Manquillo and Alberto Moreno to play at full backs in place of Glen Johnson and the improving-but-still-out-of-position Jon Flanagan it should add more stability to our back four.
Reducing the goals conceded column from 50 to somewhere around 30 will go a long way towards making sure Suarez' goals aren't missed. I'm aware of how many assists also need replacing but Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic have the attacking quality to do this.
We probably haven't secretly signed Messi but it is possible we've already brought in the players who will allow us to build on the promise of our 2013/14 campaign.
Suarez is almost a one off, somebody that can make things happen out of nothing and astonish fans, team mates and, most importantly, his opponents. There are only a couple of players out there who could come in as 'like for like' replacements for the talented Uruguayan. Suarez has yet to be seen in a Barca shirt due to his ban earned on World Cup duty and unless Lionel Messi is under similar restrictions and is having to keep his Liverpool shirt away from the cameras after a secret swap deal it's unrealistic to expect us to bring in a straight ahead replacement.
So what is the next step, how do we replace the irreplaceable?
We don't.
If we try to play exactly the same way as last season with an inferior player in Suarez' position we will produce inferior performances. I don't mean we'll play badly, far from it, but we won't have the same 'get out of jail free' card that we played when we needed to over the last twelve months.
It seems to be fashionable (and, let's face it, enjoyable) for fans of other teams to say we failed to win the title last term because Steven Gerrard slipped over, but this couldn't be further from the truth. We failed to win the title because our defence wasn't up to it. Away to Hull we were poor, we didn't show up, but we still managed a goal and if we could have kept an average-at-best attack out we would have gained the points necessary to top the pile. Similarly away at West Brom, we scored but a horrendous mistake allowed Victor Anichebe(!) to prevent us taking all three points. Home to Aston Villa was a similar story. Home to Southampton and away to Newcastle -couldn't defend set pieces. Away to Crystal Palace - couldn't close out a game with a commanding lead. Change the outcome of any one or two of these games and we go into this coming season as defending champions.
Scoring over 100 goals in the league last season was an amazing feat that we were always odds against to repeat this time around, with or without Suarez. But conceding 50 goals was extremely disappointing and quite simply not good enough for a team in the top four.
The point I'm trying to make is that it will be virtually impossible to replace Suarez' goals but we don't necessarily have to. If somebody can come into the side and score around half of the 31 goals Suarez netted, the defence can do the rest. Dejan Lovren looks a good player and will hopefully keep the ship tighter than either Kolo Toure or Mamadou Sakho managed. If, as looks likely, we can bring in Javier Manquillo and Alberto Moreno to play at full backs in place of Glen Johnson and the improving-but-still-out-of-position Jon Flanagan it should add more stability to our back four.
Reducing the goals conceded column from 50 to somewhere around 30 will go a long way towards making sure Suarez' goals aren't missed. I'm aware of how many assists also need replacing but Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Lazar Markovic have the attacking quality to do this.
We probably haven't secretly signed Messi but it is possible we've already brought in the players who will allow us to build on the promise of our 2013/14 campaign.
Friday 9 May 2014
Just Two More Scorelines In Our Favour Needed..
It’s a cliché, but football
really is a funny old game.
Friday 31 January 2014
To Buy Or Not To Buy - Yevhen Konoplyanka
I'm writing this with three hours or so left to go until the transfer deadline passes so I've no idea how our pursuit of Ukranian Yevhen Konoplyanka will end, I want to talk about all the circus around the possible signing rather than the player himself.
Not so long ago we didn't have things like Twitter with it's up-to-the-minute news, clubs just held negotiations and either announced they had signed a player or they didn't. Now we have people who until a couple of days ago hadn't heard of the player suddenly throwing in their opinions about what we are doing right and wrong in the mainly private talks we are having with the players club (Dnipro, for those who aren't up to speed with their Ukranian football).
Some of the stuff I'm reading is sensible, most of it isn't. People are saying we should just stump up the money the selling club want and bring the player to Anfield. If you asked me for my opinion on the player's value I'd have to tell you I have no idea, I'm not aware of ever seeing him play. And I like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable about football. If our scouting, management and finance departments have come up with their own conclusion about what the player is worth based on months of scouting, an in depth knowledge of the transfer market and years of negotiating experience I'd probably go with what they say rather than a figure I plucked out of the air.
The credible sources I have read seem to be saying the major stumbling block is not the total value of the deal, it's the way we want to spread the payments, with a certain amount up front and the rest depending on appearances and whether or not we make the Champions League. I seem to be in a very small minority who think this makes perfect sense. Anybody remember what happened to Leeds United?
We don't know if we will qualify for next season's Champions League, we're in a good position and bringing in an experienced player who has already had an impact in the Premier League could be just what we need to help push us over that magic line into 4th place. But that's not what we're on about signing. Coming from Ukranian football into the English game you would expect Konoplyanka to need time to adjust, he would be a signing with more of an eye on the long term future than the remaining fixtures of this campaign. If we finish in the top four there will be financial rewards AND we will be more attractive to potential new signings, in short maybe in the summer we could do better.
Where we finish this time around will have a big impact on how much money we have to spend. If we finish 5th we may find ourselves looking at £8million players, if we finish 4th we could be looking at £16million players. Offering around £8million up front with the rest dependent on success is sensible, and I'd rather the club I support was run sensibly than not.
Then on to the players we already have. Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson are all talented young players who have improved as the season has gone on. They are exactly what you want at your club, players who are playing well now but are also ones for the future. Would any of them losing their place in the starting XI to somebody who may take time to settle really benefit us? Nope.
Long story short, if the deal is right for the club buy the player now, if it doesn't suit us then let the players who have performed admirably this season carry on. Take stock in the summer when we know where we are from both a sporting and a financial perspective and get our summer business done early. Simple really.
Not so long ago we didn't have things like Twitter with it's up-to-the-minute news, clubs just held negotiations and either announced they had signed a player or they didn't. Now we have people who until a couple of days ago hadn't heard of the player suddenly throwing in their opinions about what we are doing right and wrong in the mainly private talks we are having with the players club (Dnipro, for those who aren't up to speed with their Ukranian football).
Some of the stuff I'm reading is sensible, most of it isn't. People are saying we should just stump up the money the selling club want and bring the player to Anfield. If you asked me for my opinion on the player's value I'd have to tell you I have no idea, I'm not aware of ever seeing him play. And I like to think I'm fairly knowledgeable about football. If our scouting, management and finance departments have come up with their own conclusion about what the player is worth based on months of scouting, an in depth knowledge of the transfer market and years of negotiating experience I'd probably go with what they say rather than a figure I plucked out of the air.
The credible sources I have read seem to be saying the major stumbling block is not the total value of the deal, it's the way we want to spread the payments, with a certain amount up front and the rest depending on appearances and whether or not we make the Champions League. I seem to be in a very small minority who think this makes perfect sense. Anybody remember what happened to Leeds United?
We don't know if we will qualify for next season's Champions League, we're in a good position and bringing in an experienced player who has already had an impact in the Premier League could be just what we need to help push us over that magic line into 4th place. But that's not what we're on about signing. Coming from Ukranian football into the English game you would expect Konoplyanka to need time to adjust, he would be a signing with more of an eye on the long term future than the remaining fixtures of this campaign. If we finish in the top four there will be financial rewards AND we will be more attractive to potential new signings, in short maybe in the summer we could do better.
Where we finish this time around will have a big impact on how much money we have to spend. If we finish 5th we may find ourselves looking at £8million players, if we finish 4th we could be looking at £16million players. Offering around £8million up front with the rest dependent on success is sensible, and I'd rather the club I support was run sensibly than not.
Then on to the players we already have. Raheem Sterling, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson are all talented young players who have improved as the season has gone on. They are exactly what you want at your club, players who are playing well now but are also ones for the future. Would any of them losing their place in the starting XI to somebody who may take time to settle really benefit us? Nope.
Long story short, if the deal is right for the club buy the player now, if it doesn't suit us then let the players who have performed admirably this season carry on. Take stock in the summer when we know where we are from both a sporting and a financial perspective and get our summer business done early. Simple really.
Saturday 18 January 2014
Liverpool Drop Two Points, Suarez Drops To The Floor
We dropped points at home today for only the second time this season in a 2-2 draw with Aston Villa, coming from 2-0 down to earn a point. We weren't at our best today and didn't deserve to win but over the ninety minutes we probably justified our share of the spoils.
Our defence didn't perform well and our midfield was over-run until the introduction of Lucas at half time, but a cool finish from Daniel Sturridge and a pressure penalty from Steven Gerrard gave us a draw that had looked unlikely for the majority of the first forty-five minutes. It was our penalty that will prove to be the main talking point of the match and will doubtless gain more column inches in the Sunday papers than anything else that happened in the Premier League today.
Luis Suarez put the ball past Brad Guzan, waited for contact and went down, only the contact didn't really come. And if it did the Uruguayan was already on his way down. Guzan wasn't blameless in the incident, his challenge was clumsy and not clever and in truth Suarez should have been able to gain a legitimate spot kick from the goalkeeper. But he didn't. As a Liverpool fan it's very difficult to know exactly where to stand on this. We should have had a penalty inside the first five minutes for a clear handball so I have no qualms accepting a dodgy penalty later on in the game. Also I'd much rather we got a draw today than a defeat, nobody wants to see their team cheat, but nobody wants to see their team lose either.
Suarez has a reputation as a diver and I don't see how anyone can say it isn't justified, but I also feel his position as poster boy for all that is wrong with football is unjustified. I can't and won't defend Suarez for some of his actions, but I will happily point out the inconsistency in the reporting of what he does and what others do. I've never seen a penalty decision replayed as many times as the one today and that includes several 'dodgy' ones for pretty much every big team in Europe.
I'll freely admit out number seven takes a dive sometimes and I wish he wouldn't, but today is honestly the first time I can remember us gaining a point from him doing so. If any fans of any other team can tell me Suarez has cheated them out of points I'll admit I'm wrong but I don't think I am.
Luis Suarez has a high profile and a reputation for diving, and in my view the times he has gone down to easily have cost him rather than helped him. Today he was fouled on several occasions and got nothing. He received a knee to the thigh when he was potentially through on goal, and a flying elbow to the head from an opponent who had no control over where his body was going. Both could, arguably, have been interpreted as red cards by a different referee on a different day. Why weren't they even called as fouls today? Because it was Luis Suarez. His dive today won us a point so it was worth it, but his dives in previous matches have possibly cost us the chance to have been playing against nine men today, an advantage that would surely have seen us take all three points.
The reaction when Suarez steps out of line is nothing short of hysterical and is hyped up far more than when other players do the same things. I don't need to name the other players as you know who they are, but they never seem to get criticism quite as fierce as that directed at Suarez. And I believe this influences the decisions made by referees. Luis Suarez has probably been denied more genuine penalties and free kicks than he's been awarded, and ultimately this is costing us. He is a victim of his reputation but he's also a victim of his own actions.
It's not as easy as it seems for fans to criticise players who cheat as every team has them. I'm sure Aston Villa fans were screaming at Suarez today and calling for retrospective action, fines, bans, public hanging and so on. And then half an hour after the penalty their own player is touched in the chest and goes down clutching his head trying to get an opponent sent off. Had the ref fallen for this and sent off Daniel Sturridge and Villa gone on to beat a ten man Liverpool would the same Villa fans have complained? Of course not. I repeat, nobody wants to see their team cheat, but everybody wants to see their team win as well.
I feel I have to mention that this season up until today Luis Suarez has been exemplary, he has made mistakes in the past but genuinely seems to be learning from them, let's hope the referees who don't protect him when he is genuinely (and painfully) fouled learn as well.
Anyway, back to the match. We didn't play well and our system for the first half didn't suit us so I think we have to be happy with a point. Every team has results and performances like this, the key is not to let it happen too often. There's no point making the same mistakes again and again, the management and players have to learn what went right and what went wrong and make sure our next performance sees us improve and hopefully win.
One final point abut today's football in general for anyone who has managed to keep reading this far. Why is it so hard to fit two strikers into one team and still have a good balance in modern football? History is littered with great strike partnerships but it seems it's getting harder to play two strikers side by side. We've had a good balance in the team for the majority of the season, especially when Suarez was suspended or Sturridge was injured. Now we can play the pair of them together we seem to have a gaping hole in the middle of midfield and an exposed defence. That's an issue Brendan Rodgers has to address quickly.
Our defence didn't perform well and our midfield was over-run until the introduction of Lucas at half time, but a cool finish from Daniel Sturridge and a pressure penalty from Steven Gerrard gave us a draw that had looked unlikely for the majority of the first forty-five minutes. It was our penalty that will prove to be the main talking point of the match and will doubtless gain more column inches in the Sunday papers than anything else that happened in the Premier League today.
Luis Suarez put the ball past Brad Guzan, waited for contact and went down, only the contact didn't really come. And if it did the Uruguayan was already on his way down. Guzan wasn't blameless in the incident, his challenge was clumsy and not clever and in truth Suarez should have been able to gain a legitimate spot kick from the goalkeeper. But he didn't. As a Liverpool fan it's very difficult to know exactly where to stand on this. We should have had a penalty inside the first five minutes for a clear handball so I have no qualms accepting a dodgy penalty later on in the game. Also I'd much rather we got a draw today than a defeat, nobody wants to see their team cheat, but nobody wants to see their team lose either.
Suarez has a reputation as a diver and I don't see how anyone can say it isn't justified, but I also feel his position as poster boy for all that is wrong with football is unjustified. I can't and won't defend Suarez for some of his actions, but I will happily point out the inconsistency in the reporting of what he does and what others do. I've never seen a penalty decision replayed as many times as the one today and that includes several 'dodgy' ones for pretty much every big team in Europe.
I'll freely admit out number seven takes a dive sometimes and I wish he wouldn't, but today is honestly the first time I can remember us gaining a point from him doing so. If any fans of any other team can tell me Suarez has cheated them out of points I'll admit I'm wrong but I don't think I am.
Luis Suarez has a high profile and a reputation for diving, and in my view the times he has gone down to easily have cost him rather than helped him. Today he was fouled on several occasions and got nothing. He received a knee to the thigh when he was potentially through on goal, and a flying elbow to the head from an opponent who had no control over where his body was going. Both could, arguably, have been interpreted as red cards by a different referee on a different day. Why weren't they even called as fouls today? Because it was Luis Suarez. His dive today won us a point so it was worth it, but his dives in previous matches have possibly cost us the chance to have been playing against nine men today, an advantage that would surely have seen us take all three points.
The reaction when Suarez steps out of line is nothing short of hysterical and is hyped up far more than when other players do the same things. I don't need to name the other players as you know who they are, but they never seem to get criticism quite as fierce as that directed at Suarez. And I believe this influences the decisions made by referees. Luis Suarez has probably been denied more genuine penalties and free kicks than he's been awarded, and ultimately this is costing us. He is a victim of his reputation but he's also a victim of his own actions.
It's not as easy as it seems for fans to criticise players who cheat as every team has them. I'm sure Aston Villa fans were screaming at Suarez today and calling for retrospective action, fines, bans, public hanging and so on. And then half an hour after the penalty their own player is touched in the chest and goes down clutching his head trying to get an opponent sent off. Had the ref fallen for this and sent off Daniel Sturridge and Villa gone on to beat a ten man Liverpool would the same Villa fans have complained? Of course not. I repeat, nobody wants to see their team cheat, but everybody wants to see their team win as well.
I feel I have to mention that this season up until today Luis Suarez has been exemplary, he has made mistakes in the past but genuinely seems to be learning from them, let's hope the referees who don't protect him when he is genuinely (and painfully) fouled learn as well.
Anyway, back to the match. We didn't play well and our system for the first half didn't suit us so I think we have to be happy with a point. Every team has results and performances like this, the key is not to let it happen too often. There's no point making the same mistakes again and again, the management and players have to learn what went right and what went wrong and make sure our next performance sees us improve and hopefully win.
One final point abut today's football in general for anyone who has managed to keep reading this far. Why is it so hard to fit two strikers into one team and still have a good balance in modern football? History is littered with great strike partnerships but it seems it's getting harder to play two strikers side by side. We've had a good balance in the team for the majority of the season, especially when Suarez was suspended or Sturridge was injured. Now we can play the pair of them together we seem to have a gaping hole in the middle of midfield and an exposed defence. That's an issue Brendan Rodgers has to address quickly.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)