Just Can't Get Enough

 Nice to win again!! One man will get the headlines but it was a good performance all through the team in our 3-0 win at Norwich. Suarez' hat-trick makes it 9 goals in 15 matches for the Uruguayan since he came back from his lengthy suspension, that's the kind of return we need from our main striker and it's great to know he is capable of this kind of scoring rate. They were probably his three best goals for the club (plus Sunderland away last season) and it was as impressive a treble as you're likely to see. The first goal was a very well struck left foot finish and the second was even better. Cutting in from the right at an angle and still some distance from goal there was plenty to do but a crisp, curling shot into the far corner left the Norwich 'keeper with no chance. And then with eight minutes left came the icing on the cake, a couple of touches just inside the Norwich half and then a fantastic strike over the top of the 'keeper and into the back of the net from fully 45 yards, a certain goal of the season contender (along with Coates v QPR and Crouch v Man City in my opinion).

 This weekend it was Jonjo Shelvey's turn to hit the woodwork, his header coming back off the bar, and the youngster also had a brilliant chance to score his first Premier League goal but a slight bobble helped him to miss when it seemed easier to score. We weren't really any better against Norwich than we were against West Brom last week but this time our chances went in, and they certainly weren't our easiest opportunities of the match. A scoreline like this had been coming for a few weeks and I was kind of hoping we'd been saving it for the FA Cup final but a win like this can only improve confidence ahead of next weekend's meeting with the impressive of late Chelsea.

 I would expect plenty of changes against Fulham on Tuesday, Skrtel, Coates, Kelly, Maxi, Spearing, Kuyt and Carroll could all figure from the start so I would expect at least five, maybe up to seven changes to the starting eleven. To be able to bring in seven players like these, and also have Charlie Adam and Lucas unavailable, shows we are trying to build a decent squad capable of competing at the top end of the league. We just need the confidence in our play that comes with regularly winning games and we need a striker to step up and score game in game out. Whether that striker is already at the club or not is debatable, I think there's no doubting the most important area for strengthening this summer but top quality strikers don't come cheap so there may be some wheeling and dealing required.

 This week I'll have a look at the Fulham game and also preview the FA Cup final next Saturday (17:15 kick off time included). I'll then start looking back at our season and looking ahead to the summer and beyond, seeing what I feel the club needs to do regarding the playing and coaching staff. Any contributions or opinions on our season and what is required to move forward will be welcomed, I don't have to agree with other people's views to include them on here, football is very subjective and debating it is what we all love almost as much as watching it.

YNWA

What A Load Of Ballots!

 Tickets for the FA Cup final against Chelsea have been on sale this week and unfortunately I have missed out. The allocation of approximately 25,000 seats wasn't enough to cater for every Liverpool fan who has been to all of our FA Cup ties this season, which is a real testament to the loyalty of our support. Quite rightly season ticket holders who had been to all five of our FA Cup games were guaranteed a ticket, leaving the members and fan card holders who had also attended every match to be drawn out of a ballot for the honour of buying a ticket for the showpiece game at Wembley. I've bought a ticket for every round so far on my fancard along with my brother on his card but we weren't offered the chance to enter the ballot together. He was drawn out and I wasn't, but there's no point only one of us travelling to London. The cost and the fact that you're sat with complete strangers (albeit with a common interest) made it a non starter. I'm sure there will be plenty more people in the same situation as us which leads fans to one of two choices. Either simply don't buy your ticket, making life harder for our ticket office, or buy the ticket and sell it on at a profit which isn't exactly ethical but the way the ballot was set up has brought this on. We decided to simply not buy the ticket but the temptation to cash in had been there though in the end it wasn't the right thing to do. I'm sure some of the people who weren't originally chosen during the ballot will be contacted in the coming days as a few tickets will remain unsold so there is still hope for some of the disappointed.

 While the ballot could have been set up in a more helpful way, the real problem lies with the number of tickets the FA supplies to each participating club. For the semi finals it was around 32,000 tickets per club, and for the final this drops by about 7000 despite the capacity of the stadium remaining the same. 25,000 tickets each for Liverpool and Chelsea still leaves approximately 40,000 tickets for the FA to distribute how it sees fit. There's no denying that there are people who work within all levels of football who deserve to attend a game like this and I wouldn't want them to miss out either, but it's also a fact the both Liverpool and Everton fans travelled in huge numbers an unnecessarily long distance to attend a game at Wembley to help the FA pay for their own over budget stadium when the game could have been played in Manchester. The thanks they get? Thank you for coming but you can't all come back. Very nice. I'm not a fan of the FA and alot of the decisions it makes and to be honest I don't really see them redeeming themselves any time soon.

Back To The Scouts

 I was watching El Classico on Saturday evening and the number of familiar players got me thinking back to an earlier post I’ve put on here. These two teams were fighting out the ‘biggest club game in world football’ (according to almost all football fans) and I was watching Alvaro Arbeloa, Xabi Alonso and Javier Masherano take part after watching them all play at Anfield not so long ago. I was thinking about some of our poorer signings and remembering that we don’t always sign players that don’t work out, all three of these were excellent for us and were sold on for a profit, giving us good football memories and good business practice, two essentials in modern football. It was a big thumbs up to our scouting department.

 Then I started noticing the other players and subs. Dani Alves, Sergio Busquets, Gonzalo Higuain, Fabio Coentrau – all strongly linked to us during Rafa Benitez’ spell in charge. Cristiano Ronaldo – almost joined us during Gerard Houllier’s reign. Tello and Granero – both linked with us in the January transfer window. That gives us a total of ten players involved in such a big game that our scouting department have at some point picked up on. How different things could have been…

 As I’ve made previous mention of, the scouting department finds players, it’s then up to the management and the moneymen to see whether or not it’s a deal that can come to fruition. These transfers don’t always happen but in a time when we’ve been heavily criticised for our signings I think it’s important to point out the calibre of player we’d like to bring in, it just doesn’t always turn out that it is possible to sign them, or to keep them once we have them at Liverpool.

Normal Service Resumed

 After two wins and a draw in our last three games we find ourselves back somewhere familiar, on the end of another disappointing Premier League result. I’ve not seen the game so I’m not going to get into the ins and outs of why we lost, but the stats quite clearly show we’re just not taking our chances. The woodwork was struck another couple of times, it feels like we've hit the post/crossbar more times than we’ve hit the back of the net this season!!

 A breakdown of the goal attempts stats from our last couple of home games is interesting. Against Aston Villa and West Brom combined we have had 49 attempts at goal versus only 14 from our opponents, 17 on target against only 7 from the opposition. Breaking it down to shots per point is scary, it has taken us 49 attempts to earn one solitary point, but to earn a point against us it takes a mere 3.5 goal attempts. At this rate it would take us 147 shots in one game to actually achieve a win!! As much as that would be an entertaining match I don’t really see it happening. Stats like these are not totally representative of how a game (or in this case two games) has gone but they do spell out the blindingly obvious – if you don’t score your own chances and you allow your opponents to score when they get the opportunity you simply won’t win.

 Another glance at the records (some people are either very dedicated or have nothing else to do) shows the extent of our woodwork fetish this season. 30, that's our number. The closest team to us in this stat is Man City, they've managed to hit the post or the crossbar a total of 21 times in the league this term. That basically means it's happened to us half as many times again as it has to the second placed team in this table. City have hit the woodwork 21 times and managed 87 goals, we've hit it 30 times and managed only 40 goals. The difference between us and a good deal more points is a matter of inches. Not that this can be used as an excuse. In football if you don't score you have to simply keep going until you do. It's almost as if the players expect to come close now rather than actually score and that's not good.

 There's only four league games left this season now and it's too late to turn things around. We need good results in those four games to restore some confidence and give the players, owners and, most importantly, the fans the chance to look forward to next season with optimism otherwise it's going to be a very bleak summer. We have the talent within our ranks to get good results but we need the mentality to go alongside that. The senior players have a duty to step up to the mark and help push us over the finish line as respectably as possible, the summer is a time for evaluation and action but we need a few more positives to consider to help keep any changes to a minimum.

Welcome Back Woy

 This weekend sees Roy Hodgson return to Anfield for the first time since leaving by ‘mutual consent’ last January. He is a man who has been in football for a long time and has earned respect along the way and I’m sure if he’d never been involved with Liverpool our fans would consider him to be exactly the kind of football person we love seeing visit our stadium. Since he left us he’s not really said anything bad about the club despite having the opportunity to feel bitter about how short his stay was and I think he should be welcomed back with the applause that he didn’t particularly get when he was in charge.

 The Hodgson months at Anfield were far from successful but I think the short length of his reign makes it unfair for us to be completely critical. There’s no denying he seemed to be the wrong person for the job but not everything that went wrong during his time can be pinpointed as purely his fault. He inherited a team very low on confidence with a few key players desperate to move on, not an easy situation for any manager. Some of his signings were poor, notably Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen , and this didn’t help his cause. Poulsen was someone who we had been linked with in the year or so before Hodgson arrived so I’m not totally convinced this was 100% his signing, and Konchesky has played in the top flight long enough to have done better for us than he did, he certainly didn’t do his manager any favours with his performances. We also acquired Joe Cole and Raul Meireles in the summer of 2010. Cole was an exciting signing who totally flopped, he didn’t have a single game where he was particularly memorable. When Kenny took over in January a lot of players (Maxi, Kuyt, Lucas) upped their game but Cole didn’t, again this makes it seem like it was the player, rather than the manager, who didn’t deliver. Meireles turned out to be a decent player, certainly not a world beater but someone who could make a difference when he was on form and we more than got our money back when he moved on to Chelsea.

 It’s hard to know exactly what went wrong when such an experienced manager walked in through our gates. His style of football is a fairly negative way of playing but we had a side with so little confidence when he arrived that even Arsene Wenger trying to play his breed of fantasy football would have struggled, getting a bit of defensive solidity back into the team was the right way to begin but unfortunately the clean sheets didn’t come along with the change in tactics. There probably isn’t a manager in our history who hasn’t suffered a five month period similar to the one Roy Hodgson experienced, but sadly for the man now in charge of West Brom that was his only five months in charge, rather than a blip in an otherwise successful era. It’s fair to say that if he had presided over a run of league results similar to the one we have just had he would have been out of the door before he had chance to turn things around.

 It would seem that the current owners have a game plan for the club which Hodgson, probably rightly, didn’t fit into. They wanted a man the fans would get behind and support, someone who knew the club, and they couldn’t have made a better choice than Kenny Dalglish. Whether or not this turns out to be the correct appointment is still in the balance after sixteen months, but even during our bad run it still felt like there was more optimism in the air than at any time since Rafa left. It’s good to see a respected English football man like Roy Hodgson doing well at a good club and I hope all Liverpool fans wish him every success, just not this weekend.

Expensive But Worth It

Liverpool 2 Everton 1

 Some things just sound good, some things don't. Saturday 14th April 2012 started with an alarm going off at 5am but from then on it was all uphill. The M6 and the M1 were full of cars with Liverpool and Everton scarves and flags, the motorway services were packed at half past six in the morning, cars were pulled up on the hard shoulder as their passengers brought their 'nervous tension' back up on to the grass verges. Yes, Merseyside moved south for the day. The train from Watford Junction bought us to our first destination, Wembley Central.

As the new stadium came into view the excitement built. It has to be said that for the early part of the day almost everything visible was Evertonian, the Reds arrived at the party a little later, something which was to be echoed on the pitch in the early afternoon sunshine. This was my first trip to the new Wembley and it was impressive. I've heard so many stories about how it's in the middle of an industrial estate and there's nothing around there but in truth it's only five minutes walk from the shops, pubs and eateries of Wembley town centre, not quite in the same league as visits to the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff but still much more hospitable than I'd been led to believe.

 Reds and Blues who had traveled together walked side by side along Wembley Way up to the stadium, all anticipating an occasion that to both sides almost felt like a final rather than simply the step before the showpiece game. I have to say that over recent years the Derby games have taken on a nastier edge with both sets of fans guilty at times of going over the top in their chanting at each other, what had been dubbed 'the friendly derby' had certainly lost it's warm edge in favour of something sharper. But yesterday the two sets of fans mixed perfectly on the coaches, the trains, the pavements and the walkways around the stadium. It's hard to imagine it would have been possible to walk so freely around the stadium in full colours if it had been Liverpool vs Man Utd. The hate between Liverpool and Everton may be very evident in the stands but on the streets the Merseyside rivalry was exactly how it should be.

 The FA Cup is the oldest and probably most famous domestic cup competition in the world, and the trophy just looks special. The ESPN broadcast team of Ray Stubbs, John Barnes, Kevin Keegan, Graeme Sharp and Martin Keown spent plenty of time preparing for the game right in front of us.

 The Kop had moved to our nations capital for the day, bringing down all of our banners and our noise and passion, it was an amazing sight. Representatives from our troops brought out flags for both teams before kick off. The noise and atmosphere built and built in anticipation of the kick off and expectation of victory, both sides not wanting to contemplate losing. The journey to Wembley is long but the journey home for the defeated is even longer, especially for those traveling on coaches or in cars carrying both Reds and Blues. Who would be the ones singing and smiling at the final whistle?

 Coming only one day before the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy there was a real emotion running through the stands. Both Reds and Blues held 'Don't Buy The Sun' posters, Liverpool fans called for a deeper inquest into the events of that fateful day. 'Justice for the 96' was yelled at the top of  our voices, people not even born on the day of the tragedy but brought up on the stories of the day's events shared their feelings too, there are some things that divide Liverpool fans but this subject is one that unites us all.

  A period of silence before kick off was observed perfectly by all in the ground, a real tribute to the families still suffering the effects of the day in South Yorkshire back in 1989. There was also a special reception for the family of Gary Ablett, the only man to win the FA Cup with both Liverpool and Everton.
The stage was now set for the game and everybody was ready. As Howard Webb's whistle started the match the noise grew even more, both sets of fans getting right behind their teams.

 I'm not going to write too much about the actual match today, I'll go into more detail about that later in the week, today's post is more about the occasion. When Jelavic put Everton 1-0 up it didn't look good, we hadn't really threatened going forwards and we were quite clearly not rock solid at the back. Half time changed everything and the manager deserves credit for that. We came out fighting in the second half, Carroll coming close almost immediately after the restart. Once we got our attackers playing in sync with eeach other we were far more threatening. Out front five of Downing, Henderson, Carroll, Suarez and Distin gelled well and two of them combined for our equaliser, the Uruguayan finishing expertly from the Frecnhman's inch perfect through ball. The winner from Carroll's header a few minutes from time brought pandemonium to the stands, a surge to the front at the Red end and a tidal wave towards the exits at the opposite end.

Hard work and chasing down

Keep ball in the corner

  The final whistle brought jubilant scenes in the travelling Kop, and an impressive view of a sea of Blue quickly becoming an ocean of Red at the far end of the stadium. The journey home had just got much longer for some and a whole lot shorter for others.

The Wembley Derby

 When I was offered my new job at Trafford Park there were a few things I thought I would come across and decided I could live with, there was the increased commute, the prospect of seeing Old Trafford in the distance every morning as I crossed Barton Bridge, and of course, multiple glory hunters. What I hadn't bargained for was an office full of Evertonians, but that seems to be what I got. Due to continental shift patterns and other work requirements it is likely that as I step into my workplace on Monday morning there will already be four bluenoses waiting, and not a single red (of the good kind) in sight. For me the games against Man Utd have always been the biggest but in recent times it has become equally important to make sure we keep our nearest and dearest in check, the consequences of not doing so are unpleasant.

 It's hard to choose a favourite between the two teams at the moment, Evertonians are delighting in pointing out that they're above us in the league and that we're in relegation form and have the worst manager in history, but as soon as you suggest we're the underdogs for Saturday it's met with disagreement. The blues relish their poor relation tag whether they admit it or not, it's so much easier when your club or team fails to find some way of it being Liverpool's fault than it is to address the problems constructively. David Moyes gave a recent interview around the time of his tenth anniversary in charge and brought up their defeat to Villareal in a Champions League qualifier in 2005. Everton were knocked out after a questionable refereeing call from Pierluigi Collina and being totally outplayed at home against a superior side that went on to reach the semi final  while Everton suffered a humiliating hammering at the hands of one of the Bucharest clubs. Was it the referee's fault? Did Duncan Ferguson get penalised for leading with his elbow in the manner he had done for years? Did the Everton manager get his tactics wrong? Were Villareal simply better? No, it was because Liverpool were allowed into the competition and UEFA (more on them at the end of the post) didn't want five English sides in the tournament so rigged the draw and instructed Collina not to let Everton through. Basically, it was because of Liverpool. Whatever goes on at Goodison, it always seems to be in some way because of us.

 Anyway, went slightly off on a tangent there, back to Saturday. Everton are in good form and have a striker scoring regularly, we've had a run of bad results but are beginning to see the shoots of a revival and a possible upturn in results. But we're missing a couple of goalkeepers and that's quite an important part of the team. No complaints really about either suspension but the timing isn't good, Liverpool appealed Doni's red card today but were never realistically going to get anywhere, though trying was definitely the right thing to do. Brad Jones had a mixed night on Tuesday at Blackburn but thankfully the media seem to have focused on the positives (for once) and he will go into the semi final with alot of people interested in seeing him do well. Glen Johnson and Daniel Agger have also returned to the first team at a good time, our league results have been awful while these two have been missing, Agger has even contributed two assists in his two sub appearances this week so has contributed greatly at both ends of the field. Whether or not either of the pair is ready to start  against Everton we'll find out on Saturday. We won the game against Blackburn with Gerrad, Downing, Kuyt, Carragher and Suarez all not being used so I wouldn't be surprised if all five of them start at Wembley. Who partners Gerrard in midfield could be interesting, I have a feeling Kenny will go for Kuyt and Downing wide with Spearing and Henderson central and Gerrard behind Suarez but I'm often wrong.

 Coming as it does a day before the anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy the game will take on a new edge. While it shouldn't affect what goes on on the pitch it could possibly have an impact on how the supporters behave. The bitterness between the two sets of fans has grown over recent years but I have to say by and large the majority of Evertonians have always been respectful of what happened that day in 1989, unlike some of our other main rivals. The tributes before kick off will be moving and fan behaviour will be under scrutiny, neither side will want to be portrayed as being out of order on such an emotional day and I would hope for fierce backing of your own side without anything crossing the line being aimed at your opposition, it's time for Merseyside to stand up together. Let's face it, how many neutrals will be tuning in to see some fantastic football and how many will be watching hoping for some kind of incident? Let's all do our city proud.

 It's a huge day for the city and almost everybody will be looking forward to it, with the exception of the organisers of the Grand National, who will be without 65,000 of their punters on their big day. The roads to London will be packed, traffic will be chaos, songs will be sung, rivalries will be played out and at the end of it all one team will have the honour of making the journey back down south in May to fight it out in the final of the oldest cup competition in the world. The other team will have nothing left to play for but the chance to finish above their neighbours in the league. Bring it on.

 A few more points from the last 24 hours or so. Well done to the FA for banning Branislav Ivanovic for his assault on Shaun Maloney, and well done to QPR for winning convincingly despite missing an experienced player through an appalling suspension, bet Mark Hughes team talk for that one was easy enough... Well done to Mohammed Al Fayed for asking the FA to look into refereeing standards, the game at Wigan last night was shocking. There was nothing wrong whatsoever with Wigan's disallowed goal, and the linesman failed to give Man Utd a blatant penalty for handball. Alex Ferguson recently said these decisions even themselves out over the course of a season so Utd now only need to expect six or seven more against them in the last five games and the balance will be restored....  And let me just make mention of UEFA, they have fined Man City £25,000 for returning to the pitch one minute late for the second half of their tie in Lisbon. Sporting were found guilty of racial abuse from their fans during the same game, their fine? £20,000. No wonder the FA get things so wrong so often when they have role models like these to learn from.

Goals, Points and 'Keepers

 They say things come in threes and last night saw us score three goals, take three points and play the majority of the match with our third choice goalkeeper, who for a second looked like becoming our third recent recipient of a red card. The game brought plenty of incident and talking points, many of them positive for us with a few negative moments thrown in for good measure.

 Our starting eleven had five players right at the beginning of their careers, Shelvey, Henderson, Spearing, Coates and Flanagan, along with Glen Johnson coming back from injury, Doni making his first away start, Maxi and Craig Bellamy starting for the first time in a while, Skrtel taking the captains armband for the first time and Andy Carroll playing up front on his own. This line up is far from our strongest, indeed Skrtel and Johnson aside it’s probably as far away from our best eleven as we could have got and to get a win in a game like that is a real credit to all involved.

 We started well with Maxi scoring twice in quick succession around the quarter hour mark, I’m never sure why he doesn’t play more as he has a real knack of scoring and to be honest I think if he started all of our remaining league games he’d probably end up right in amongst our top scorers this season. Flanagan picked up an early yellow card and then was very close to a second for a slightly mistimed challenge near the halfway line. It did look like he was going to be responsible for us going down to ten men and on twenty five minutes this proved to be the case. His underhit back pass sold Doni short, Hoilett nipped in in front, played the ball to the side of the keeper and then ran straight into him, foul, penalty, sending off. Not really much to debate on this one. I think Hoilett played for the foul rather than attempted to play the ball past the keeper and then latch on to it but it was still a foul and if it hadn’t happened Blackburn would have scored so the sending off was inevitable. My only argument is one I’ve said for years, I’m not sure how giving away a penalty can be classed as denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, surely the penalty itself is a clear goalscoring opportunity so one has not been prevented. I think deliberately fouling an opponent to prevent him scoring is one thing, along with goal line handballs like we’ve seen in the past from Suarez for Uruguay or Phil Neville for Everton, but an accidental foul in an honest attempt to play the ball doesn’t need a red card and a penalty in my view. Also a one game ban shouldn’t be needed when the sending off happens so early, in effect players like Doni and Shaun Derry for QPR (see inevitable rant at the end of this post) who are sent off in the opening stages of the game miss two matches rather than one. Flanagan’s short back pass was certainly the catalyst for the downturn in our fortunes and he needs to learn from it but we can’t be too harsh, we’ve seen Steven Gerrard make passes like this every so often throughout his career so it can happen to the best, but it’s important our young right back doesn’t make a habit of it. That one under hit pass has cost Doni and probably himself a place in the team at Wembley this weekend.

 On came Brad Jones for Flanagan and with his first touch saved Yakubu’s back pass, er, sorry, penalty. It was a fantastic moment for a man who has been through so much since he joined us and the Liverpool fans behind the goal cheered his save like he’d scored a goal. Shortly after Yakubu pulled a goal back with a completely unmarked header from a free kick. There’s no way we should be allowing players chances that easy and there needs to be in inquest into exactly how we conceded in this manner. Blackburn’s equaliser was totally of our own making, Jones hitting a clearance against the former Evertonian and then fumbling when trying to catch the ball before the two players collided. I’m not totally convinced the penalty was as clear as it first appeared, Jones played the ball and then the two players made contact with each other before Yakubu went down. I think if the Nigerian had played the ball then the foul was clear but Jones played the ball before the man and I think that is within the rules. Never the less it gave the commentators the chance to excitedly hope for another goalkeeping red card that was never really an option, the ball was moving towards the edge of the area and realistically Coates would have got there well before Yakubu so it certainly wasn’t a goalscoring opportunity. The penalty was placed gently down the centre of the goal and we were all square again.

 The winning goal was perfect for several reasons. Firstly it gave us three much needed points. Secondly it showed our players that if they keep going until the end they may well get a reward. Thirdly Andy Carroll scored it and if anybody in the sport needed a goal it was him. And finally Skrtel fouled Hanley in the build up but the free kick wasn’t given and we were more than due a decision like that after being on the wrong end of so many dodgy decisions lately.

 I think special mention should go to Henderson for putting in a very good shift as a right back for the majority of the game. There were a few occasions when he stayed on his feet when the ball was there to be won and he should probably have made a challenge to win the ball but all in all his attitude, work rate and forward runs were good. I think he is suffering for us a little in the same way Steven Gerrard has done for England. Gerrard is an attacking central midfielder, so is Frank Lampard. Gerrard is mobile and versatile and can adapt to other positions, Frank Lampard is an attacking central midfield player, so Gerrard gets moved away from his natural position to accommodate Lampard and consequently we don’t see the best of him for England. Henderson seems to be suffering the same fate at Liverpool this season. He’s a box to box central midfield player, ideally suited to playing alongside a tackler like Lucas, but he’s been moved out wide as Adam, Spearing and Shelvey all need a central position to play from whereas Henderson can fill in when needed elsewhere. We’ve not seen the best of him yet but he’s been playing in unfamiliar roles and learning. Getting to grips with playing in different roles can only help his development but it means we’re not getting the player we signed just yet.

 Jonjo Shelvey and Jay Spearing also deserve praise for holding the team together from the centre of midfield despite their young years and fairly limited experience. Shelvey looked good playing behind Carroll for the first twenty five minutes but also held his own when he was moved further back after we were reduced to ten men. I also think Sebastian Coates looks better with every game, he’s not exactly a world beater yet but the potential is clearly there.

 Another positive was the clear team spirit and togetherness of the players sitting on the bench. Gerrard, Reina, Kuyt and Suarez all didn’t play but celebrated our goals and saves, and looked gutted when things didn’t go our way. There’s no doubt our senior players care about what’s happening at the moment and if they can translate that into effort on the pitch our performances have to lead to results.

 Something else that emerged from yesterday were a couple of decisions from our powers that be, the FA. Mario Balotelli is to face no further action for going over the top of the ball and landing studs first in Alex song’s knee. This season we’ve had Adam, Skrtel, Spearing, Reina and Doni sent off and banned and none of these have come even close to making a challenge like the one Balotelli made on Sunday, I’m sure other clubs could reel off list of their players who have been sent off for far less. Which brings me to QPR. Shaun Derry was next to an offside Ashley Young when Young dived and the ref sent him off. Referees get one look at incidents from one angle and make mistakes, this happens and always will. After seeing it on TV somebody somewhere has decided that the sending off was justified and Derry will be suspended for a match. Rescinding the card would mean publicly admitting an error from the linesman or that a Manchester United player dived, both of these things happened and anybody who has seen the incident knows what happened and the FA bottling out of saying what everybody else has seen is poor, even by their low (double) standards.

Unbeaten Run Begins?

 Another weekend, more points dropped at home, though after our recent losing streak a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw is far more cheering than it would have been a couple of months back. There's no doubt we deserved something from the game, probably a win, but at least we've stopped the losing run and we have something to build on for our next fixture. We hit the woodwork three times and had three decent penalty claims, though personally I only think one of them should have been given, the opposition keeper was man of the match and we conceded with one of the very few attempts on goal the visitors managed, it's amazing how the same story keeps repeating itself throughout our season. We put alot of pressure on Villa for the majority of the match and could easily have won and we should take plenty of positives from the game. It was a decent performance and the team included a few youngsters like Shelvey, Flanagan and Henderson, aswell as a debutant in Doni so despite not taking all three points we shouldn't be too down about the result.

 Seeing how dominant we were against Villa has led me to investigate a few stats from our latest games. I've taken the information from the match reports on the BBC sport website so if any of it is wrong blame them... In our last eight games we've taken a paltry four points, while our collective opponents have emerged with nineteen. Sounds like we've been battered doesn't it? Over the course of those eight games we've had 105 attempts on goal, 56 on target, while the opposition has managed only 64 attempts, 37 on target. That's nearly twice as many attempts as the teams we've faced, including plenty more goalbound shots. Considering those eight fixtures have included Man Utd away, Newcastle away and Sunderland away aswell as games against Arsenal and Everton it's surprising we're so far ahead in terms of attempts. Stats like these can be misleading as a poor shot from thirty yards is counted the same as a well crafted attempt from close range but it's still interesting to note how dominant we've been in this area. If you'd been presented with these figures without knowing the scores you would expect us to have taken more than four points. To break it down into simple terms it has taken us almost exactly twenty six attempts at goal per point earned, while our opponents need only just over three attempts to earn each point. With a return like that it's going to be almost impossible to achieve anything in the league. Our attackers clearly need to step up and start finishing the chances while our defence has plenty to answer for, one clean sheet in eight games and allowing the opposition to score so regularly with their chances is not a solid base to build from.

 I've a few other observations from the last week or so to put in here if you can bare with me, this may get into 'rant' territory.
 Diving. It's cheating and we don't want it in our game, plain and simple. There have been three examples that come to mind over the last week or so, two from our game at Newcastle last weekend and one at Old Trafford yesterday. Players will cheat to try to gain an advantage, it's in their make up now and it will take a large culture change to eradicate it from our game. I'm not going to look at the players for this, I'm going to look at their managers. Kenny Dalglish said after Andy Carroll's dive that it wasn't a penalty but he thought Carroll stumbled. Alex Ferguson said after Ashley Young's dive that he was pushed and it was a clear penalty, Alan Pardew said after James Perch's dive that he was disappointed with Andy Carroll's dive in the first half. These men have the power to stop their players behaving like this and have a duty to the game to make a difference. I'm hoping both Dalglish and Ferguson went back into the dressing rooms after their interviews and laid into their own players, telling them they've just had to embarrass themselves in interviews and stick up for their players despite the whole world being able to see they were lying. I'd like to think this would happen but I doubt it. I actually think Alan Pardew not mentioning his own player in his interview is a better response than lying about it when we could all see there was no contact from Reina on Perch. Pardew must have spoken to his player in private about his actions otherwise we should all give up watching football, we want to see a fair game.
 Offsides, penalties, referees and media reporting. Wigan conceded two offside goals against Chelsea, Man Utd were awarded a penalty for a 'foul' on a player in an offside position, and we conceded a goal to Newcastle when Cisse was clearly offside. Firstly I'll mention how hard the linesman's job is but it's not good that they make so many errors, all four incidents could have been corrected with TV replays without delaying the game by more than a few seconds. Secondly I want to mention the uproar at Wigan and QPR conceding goals that shouldn't have counted compared to the total lack of mention of Liverpool's injustice, have we really fallen so far in our standing that the media want to do nothing but stick the boot in? I'd hope not but that is what the evidence suggests. I also think the criticism aimed at referee Lee Mason in the Man Utd V QPR game is harsh, missing the offside was the linesman's call, not his, and I just don't see how when a player dives it's the ref's fault for missing it rather than being the players fault for cheating. Having said all that Mason was very very quick to blow his whistle and give Man Utd a penalty at Old Trafford. Referees in general have missed alot in the last couple of sets of fixtures, our non penalty at Newcastle, Balotelli's shocking tackle on Song, Man Utd's penalty incidents against Fulham and QPR, our non penalties against Villa, booking two players for diving at Anfield on Saturday when both appeared to be tripped, Pienaar lying on the ball at Norwich, and I think the decision to award Stoke a free kick against Wolves from which they set up Crouch's winner was shocking. Good tackles nowadays seem to be given as fouls and fouls in the penalty area just don't count. Take for example yesterday at Old Trafford, what would football fans prefer, a 30 second delay in the game or a team playing with ten men for 75 minutes after a wrong decision? Not a hard one is it?

It's Not All Doom And Gloom

 There’s so much negative press around Liverpool at the moment it’s getting me down so I’m going to write this piece looking specifically for positives, as there must be some. The papers after our weekend defeat at Newcastle happily printed headlines such as ‘what a joke’ and things like that but objective writing went out of the window in favour of over hyping a story. Simpson’s goal line handball got a mention but the lack of penalty and red card was not reported as the game changing mistake that it was. Cisse’s second goal was described as ‘having a hint of offside about it’ rather than just truthfully printing he was six yards offside and the goal shouldn’t count. Never let the facts get in the way of giving us a good kicking while we’re down eh? Losing 2-0 away at high flying Newcastle (where Man Utd lost by even more than we did) whilst being on the wrong end of a couple of critical errors by the officials is not particularly embarrassing. Our current run is but if you’re going to write things like that you need to talk about the entire winless run rather than just a one off game where luck, amongst other things, was not on our side.

 John Aldridge’s comments have been widely reported today, he’s told the press we are a laughing stock and this has been jumped on with headlines everywhere. Aldo is as passionate a Liverpool fan as anyone and in this time of struggle we all need to stick together rather than stick the knife in. For this reason I doubt he only said we’re a laughing stock, I’d be very surprised if he was purely critical and didn’t highlight any positives, I imagine the press have chosen the part of what he said that will make a good snappy headline and ignored the rest, the same way they did with Patrick Viera’s interview last week.

 Let’s have a look at where we are compared to where we were. For a start we’re back in Europe next season. No European football this season has been strange after being used to it for so long. For a team that hasn’t won the title for over twenty years we must have played significantly more European games in that time than any other club who hasn’t been champions, and indeed more than some clubs who have won the league since we last did. It may not be the Champions League but playing in the Europa League next season is a step up from missing out this season. It’s extra revenue, extra exposure across Europe, an extra tool to use when trying to sign new players and, more importantly, another trophy to try to win.

 We have a trophy in the cabinet. It may be the lesser of all the competitions we are involved in but we’ve still won it, beating some very good sides along the way. Winning away at Stoke, Chelsea and Man City is something probably no other team will do this season. Our detractors say we only won the trophy on penalties against a lower division side but you don’t win a competition purely in the final. If we’d drawn 2-2 with Cardiff in the quarter final and gone through on penalties and then beaten Chelsea 2-0 in the final we would have been given much more credit for the same set of results in a different order. We can’t help the way the competition is drawn out, we can’t put ‘heated balls in the bag’ (thank you Mr Moyes for that one).

 We’re in the FA Cup semi final. This is the furthest we’ve got in the competition since we won it in 2006, and indeed both of our domestic cup runs have been significant improvements on anything we’ve managed in the last five years. We’ve only won two league games this calendar year but in that time we’ve beaten Man Utd, Man City and Stoke in cup competitions so it proves the team isn’t completely toothless. Since winning the Carling Cup there has been no real incentive to win any of our league games but as soon as a cup game comes along and we see the possibility of making it through to the next round the players have stepped up. It will still be very difficult to win the FA Cup given the other teams left in it but we have a chance, and a domestic cup double would in many ways represent a more successful season than whichever one of the Manchester clubs doesn’t win the league has had.

 We’ve beaten the neighbours twice. I’m not one of those fans obsessed with the derby, three points are three points whoever you get them from, but the reaction of the Evertonians to our slump has provoked me into pointing out how we’vebrushed them aside with very little fuss on both occasions we’ve met this season. After only taking a point from them last season taking six this term has been very welcome.

  Form. We’ve lost six of our last seven league games which is without doubt an appalling record but during this run we’ve put in arguably our two best performances of the season, the home games against Arsenal and Everton. A 2-1 defeat at Old Trafford is by no means a disgrace, we played well for seventy minutes at QPR and at Newcastle we started brightly enough and had we been given the penalty we should have had it’s likely we would have gone on to win the game, or at least not lose. Only the home game against Wigan and the away trip to Sunderland have been truly awful, and on both of these occasions the winning goal against us came as a result of a lucky ricochet. I know it seems I’m clutching at straws here but despite our poor results we’ve not been on the end of a hammering, indeed only one of the defeats has been by more than one goal, and we’ve missed decent chances in almost every match. I think our form isn’t great, and the belief seems to be missing from the players, but it’s not as bad as the run of results would suggest.

 The finances have been improved. Kenny’s activity in the transfer market has resulted in our annual wage bill being seriously reduced. The likes of Torres moving on along with Joe Cole and Alberto Aquilani being sent out on loan has made a big difference. Players we have brought in have arrived on much lower wages, I don’t know the figures but I’d bet Carroll and Suarez combined don’t earn more than Torres did on his own. The same with Henderson and Adam, I expect Joe Cole was on a similar, if not even larger amount, to those two combined.

 We have a squad that can stay together and improve together for years. Reina, Enrique, Agger, Skrtel, Johnson, Coates, Kelly, Flanagan, Downing, Adam, Lucas, Spearing, Henderson, Suarez and Carroll all have plenty of their career left ahead of them. I know they haven’t all been fantastic for us this season but they have all shown at least something in flashes and are all at an age where their best years are ahead of them. That’s fifteen players, none of whom will be on huge wages, that if they fulfil their potential could be with us for a long time.

 Martin Skrtel. The Slovakian has been far and away our best player this season, he’s scored goals, blocked shots and made tackles. He’s been better than I thought he was going to be and he seems very happy at Liverpool. I remember watching the likes of Ruddock, Babb, Matteo and Bjornebye in our defence and then something changed. We signed Sami Hyypia and Stephane Henchoz and our defence became safe (apart from a small period we’ll call ‘the Biscan experiment’…...). The emergence of Jamie Carragher as a top class centre back covered us when Henchoz lost form and departed, and the signing of Agger helped us as Hyypia reached the end of his career. With Agger becoming more and more injury prone, and Carragher not being the force he was we needed somebody else to step up and Skrtel has done that with minimum fuss and maximum effect.

 We have no Tom Hicks. We have no George Gillet. Our club came very close to administration and real financial meltdown during their ownership and they are now gone. The new owners seem to be sensible and despite our poor recent form they have not spoken out. They will make any difficult decisions that need making but don’t feel the need to be in the spotlight that can come with owning such a high profile club. All in all they are a massive massive improvement on the clowns that came before them.

 Well, that’s at least a few positive things, ignore all of our Premier league matches (apart from the Derby) in 2012 and everything is rosy. YNWA.

Missing Links

 Our poor recent form has led to plenty of questioning of Kenny Dalglish’s activities in the transfer market, making special mention of the amount of money the club has paid out in fees. It’s true that what Kenny has spent is a huge sum of money, and it’s also true that through player sales and the reduction in the clubs wage bill almost every penny he has spent has been made back. But that’s not what this is about. I’ve thought back at our transfers for the best part of the last decade and while I haven’t had the chance to fully research my findings, I‘ve mainly relied on memory, there are a few things I’ve noticed.

 Nemanja Vidic, Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra, Ashley Young. All players who have played a big part in Man Utd’s success either this season or over the last five or six years. And, if I’m not mistaken, all players who we were linked with in the press to some degree before they signed for Man Utd. I don’t know how much of it was just paper talk at the time or how genuine our interest was, but given the ability of the players I’m sure we were really interested in them.

 Gael Clichy, Gareth Barry, James Milner, Adam Johnson, Carlos Tevez, Edin Dzeko. Same story. All players who have contributed to Man City’s improved fortunes over the last two or three years and all players we have been reported to be interested in signing. Again, I have no idea how strong our interest was but I’d be prepared to bet they are players our managers would have wanted to sign for our club.

 And then there is the other one. According to Phil Thompson’s biography we had a deal agreed for Cristiano Ronaldo. It was a great surprise to him and Gerard Houllier when it was announced the winger was to join Man Utd as they thought it was agreed he was coming to us. And the story goes we had him lined up for something like £5 million!

 All of these players have been arguably more successful than any of our recent signings, though some of them not without controversy or trouble. The point I’m trying to make with all of this is that there isn’t necessarily anything wrong with our scouting system, good players who’s transfer fees were within our budget (though right at the top end in some cases) have been identified, which leads us to a conclusion many Liverpool fans don’t really want to accept – there are other clubs out there with far more pulling power than ourselves. Every supporter of every club believes their club is the best club in the world, I’m sure if you asked a die hard Wolves fan, even as his team stares relegation in the face, he would be convinced any player should join them purely because he so passionately believes in the club he has followed all his life. Liverpool fans have this loyalty and belief by the shedload, and the club also has the history and tradition of success to back up this belief, so the club’s current position in the pecking order isn’t easy for us to admit.

 We signed Stuart Downing in the summer from Aston Villa for a similar fee Man Utd paid for Ashley Young. I’m sure if you’d asked any Liverpool fan at the time who they would prefer they would have said Young, the same goes for the manager and coaching staff. The reality is we’re not as big a draw as Man Utd so we had to accept second pick. The best way to attract the top players is to be successful and be challenging for league titles, but the best way to win league titles is to bring in the top players. It’s a vicious circle and without an Abramovich style sugar daddy it’s a situation that in today’s climate is almost impossible to escape.

 The number and intensity of fixtures played by today’s top sides doesn’t help us. Clubs challenging at the top need substantial squads and have the financial muscle to assemble them and it’s hard to compete. We need to work extensively on our marketing and overseas revenue streams to allow us to be competitive in this area. In the not too distant past the best fifty players in the Premier League would have been shared out between the top ten clubs, with six or seven per club at the top of the table and three or four per club towards mid table. Now the top two or three clubs have fifteen each leaving so few left for the other teams it’s no surprise we can’t compete. The wealth of Man Utd, Man City and Chelsea mean we are having to rely on buying talented younger players like Carroll and Henderson who are not yet proven rather than being able to buy players closer to the finished article like Berbatov and Barry. How many other sides in England would use a player like Berbatov so sparingly? And when he moves on he will be sold abroad, it’s a case of ‘we don’t need him but we don’t want anyone else to have him’ and it makes it all the more difficult for clubs just below the top four to break into the group.

 Our better players over the last ten to fifteen years have been almost exclusively home grown, I’m thinking about Fowler, McManaman, Owen, Gerrard and Carragher. It’s easier to keep hold of players like this who have a real affinity for the club and the supporters. The only two of these who have left by their own choice both went to Real Madrid and it’s hard to criticise a footballer for wanting to go there. Investment in youth is key to moving forward as a club. We have a good academy set up and though it’s not possible to just ‘produce’ a player, the talent need to be there to begin with, hopefully this will pay dividends for us over the coming years. Against Newcastle on Sunday we had Flanagan, Carrager, Spearing and Gerrard in the team, that’s four out of eleven despite spending £113 million on players over the last fifteen months. Martin Kelly and Jack Robinson also have the potential to become first team regulars over the coming seasons. Home grown players have a few advantages, they tend to be given more time by the fans before judgement is passed, and they don’t cast a transfer fee. Three or four academy produced players in the first team saves enough money to be able to go out and buy a decent calibre of player, it’s just a matter of being able to guarantee that player the type of stage on which he wants to perform.

A Barcode Beating

 Right, to begin with I'll point out that I've got alot to put in here today so apologies if this post is a little disjointed, I expect I'll be back and forward between different stories and sub-stories so my writing may lack a little cohesion.

 Our first visit to the Sports Direct Arena saw us lose again, two goals from Newcastle's big money January signing being the difference between the teams. It was a fairly decent game, both sides passed the ball well at times and both made chances and it was certainly a watchable Premier League match. I'm going to try to take the disappointment of defeat out of my mind for now (I'll get to it later though, I'm sure) and look at a few of the key incidents in the game, in the order they happened.

 The first act of note in the game saw Andy Carroll use his strength, determination and ability to pass two Newcastle defenders and then the keeper but for some reason chose to fall to the ground rather than stay on his feet and more than likely score. He was rightly booked and it was the kind of offence that in my opinion should be punishable by a suspension, a yellow card isn't really a deterrent for players these days but I'm sure if being caught diving meant an automatic three game ban players would think twice before trying to cheat. I think trying to win a penalty shows how low Carroll's confidence in front of goal actually is at the moment, a striker in form would be focused on scoring in that position and gaining a penalty wouldn't enter his head when the chance to stick the ball in the net falls his way. Carroll actually played pretty well in the first half and if he'd had a little more support up with him I think his presence would have led to a goal for him or a team mate.

 The next key incident in the game came from a Liverpool corner when the ball bounced off a combination of Carroll and I think Gutierrez and was well on it's way into the net when it struck the outstretched arm of Danny Simpson on the goal line. It hit him somewhere between the elbow and the shoulder so it was clearly a handball offence that should have resulted in a penalty and a red card. Liverpool's record with penalties this season certainly suggests that it would not be a formality we would have taken a 1-0 lead but it would have been a great chance and Newcastle being reduced to ten men so early on would have made a difference to the outcome of the game. The linesman looking across was shielding his eyes from the sun so possibly didn't see it but this doesn't change the fact an offence was committed.

 Only a couple of minutes after that Newcastle went ahead, Skrtel caught slightly underneath the ball leaving Papiss Cisse to finish with a very well placed header in off the post. Ben Arfa was given far too much time to cross and the ball was in the air for a long time, from a defensive point of view it was preventable and, taking nothing away from Newcastle, going a goal behind wasn't what we deserved at that point.

 Part way through the second half we went 2-0 behind, a counter attack and some intelligent running saw Cisse get his second. The Senegalese was a good five or six yards offside when the ball was played towards him, it took a very very slight deflection on it's way to him but as I understand it this does not constitute a 'second phase of play' and the flag should have gone up. It wasn't even a close call, it was as clear as they come. Cisse was able to put the ball into the net unmarked and unchallenged but why should a defender have to mark an offside attacker? As long as the player is offside the defenders are well within their rights to leave him alone and expect the officials to do their job. The same linesman with the same sun in his eyes missed this one aswell.

 The final act of any note was Pepe Reina's red card in the last few minutes of the game, seconds after we'd used our final substitutions. Reina was kicked by Perch (for which the Newcastle player was correctly booked) but he reacted and as the two squared up Pepe moved his head in Perch's direction and Perch fell to the floor. Replays don't really show any contact, or if there is it is less than minimal and Perch's reaction didn't help the situation but the rules are pretty clear and Reina can have no complaints at his dismissal, the ref had very little choice but to send him off. Ironically enough that red card could be the thing that COSTS Newcastle a place in Europe next season, if they finish sixth they will need Liverpool to reach the FA Cup final for the next UEFA cup spot to be given to the sixth place team, and Reina will now be suspended for the semi final with Everton, making Liverpool's task more difficult. This incident was spotted in the same goalmouth by the same officials with the same sun shining as the ones that were missed earlier on in the match. And somewhere, in a bar in France, Zinedine Zidane leans towards his mate and says 'you seriously call that a headbutt?'.

 Newcastle played well and look good value for a top six finish under the management of a man the supporters desperately didn't want in charge and the sensible ownership of a man they despise at a stadium their own fans spray with graffiti. This isn't really a dig at Newcastle fans, I think fans of most teams would have similar feelings in similar situations, it just goes to show how fickle (and occasionally wrong) football supporters can be.

 Anyway, about our own performance. We weren't too bad for the majority of the match, the first goal came minutes after we should have had a penalty and the second goal was offside so it's possible to put forward a decent argument that we deserved a draw, it's just alot harder to make a case for the win. Some of our approach play in the first half was neat, Bellamy looking good and Carroll looking determined, again the opposition woodwork was struck and Carroll also came close with a header. The problem lies with a lack of belief, as soon as we concede the players just don't seem to believe we can still get something from the game. Our goal return this season is very poor and it seems to affect everybody, it just doesn't seem we have somebody who we can trust to put the ball in the net so the overwhelming attitude seems to be 'it ain't gonna work so why bother' and this has led to our recent glut of defeats. Injuries to key players haven't helped, Agger, Johnson, Lucas and Adam would all be in our starting eleven and Martin Kelly would be first choice back up so missing all of these makes a difference. Losing Reina aswell means we're missing half a team.

 The frustration created by us not looking like winning games has boiled over a few times lately and it's no surprise one of our senior players was sent off for something like Pepe did today. I think our keeper has been frustrated for a couple of years now and it has led to his own usually perfect form dipping and him losing his normally cool head like he did today. It could just as easily have been Gerrard or Suarez of Kuyt to be honest, there's more than one player who seems fed up and close to the edge at the moment. The pursuit of Doni in the summer as an experienced back up keeper for a reasonable price could prove a masterstroke over the next few matches. He has one game at Anfield in front of a supportive home crowd and a difficult away trip to Blackburn to prepare himself for the FA cup semi final against our neighbours at Wembley. Reina hasn't been on top form this season so as long as Doni doesn't make any real howlers I don't think having our reserve keeper between the sticks should harm us. In fact removing one of our frustrated senior players from the team and replacing him with somebody who will be happy just to be playing could be a positive thing for a few games.

 Kenny really has to earn his money over the next few days and how we react against a struggling Aston Villa side on Saturday could well determine his future. I think he is unlikely to be in charge next season after presiding over a run of results like we've had lately but if he is it probably means the our season has ended very well with a series of league wins and an FA cup triumph. It would be strange to see Liverpool let a manager go after winning a trophy (possibly two), it's the kind of thing Real Madrid do, but football has changed and league position and Champions League qualification has overtaken the traditional aims of a team at the beginning of a season - winning trophies. Newcastle are in dreamland at the moment at are deservedly receiving huge media praise but they are in absolutely no danger of winning a trophy this season, in fact they haven't even come close. But this is modern football and even clubs with fantastic traditions must move on in order to thrive in the current football climate.

 I'll write more about the good and bad points of Kenny's management this season later in the week, I don't think immediately after a defeat is the best time to analyse things properly. I'm sure the media will have enough to say about our season in the papers tomorrow, they'll probably make a big deal over our £113 million spend (and ignore the £81 million recouped and the £30 million drop in our annual wage bill, the reduction of out squad average age etc, basically all the positive aspects). It will be a difficult couple of months now for all connected with Liverpool but as a club and as a fan base we stick together and support who we have. Changes may need to be made but right now is not the time, we make the most of what we have got for the moment and do what we can to get the best out of the team. That's the Liverpool way and long may it continue.