Arsenal 2 Liverpool 2, 90 Minutes That Confirmed What You Already Thought

 Before last night’s game I’d probably at a push have accepted a draw at Arsenal, and I’d definitely have taken us scoring two goals. We were always going to have spells under pressure and our defence would have done very well to keep a clean sheet, but it would have been nice being 2-0 up to have gone on and won the game.

 To be honest last night was a very entertaining game that didn’t really tell us too much about Liverpool, it will have only reinforced whatever you already thought about us, whether that was positive OR negative.

 If you believe that Brendan Rodgers isn’t the right man for Liverpool and the squad is too young, inexperienced and lacking in leaders then the way we failed to hold on to our lead will only have made that belief stronger.

 If you think we’re improving with a young, adaptable squad then the way we went 2-0 up with Suarez settling in immediately to a new position on the left and Henderson growing into his role as a first team player, then the first hour will have given you great encouragement.

 The reality of yesterday’s game is probably somewhere in between the two, there were plenty of positives and good performances but there was also a worry about how far back we sat early in the second half and how we struggled to win the ball back once Arsenal had it.

 Jordan Henderson played well even not taking into account his goal, he looked confident and his movement, energy and passing was good. And I loved his goal celebration, nothing fancy, just a player who was absolutely made up to score a goal and would play for free if it meant he got that feeling regularly. The performance of Jamie Carragher certainly showed there’s life in the old dog yet and will certainly give the manager a few selection headaches. And the biggest plus for me was Pepe Reina’s shot stopping, he’s been a bit below par for a while now but he was excellent yesterday despite missing the last few games through injury.

 Both sides could have won the game and both sides could have lost it. Arsenal didn’t defend well and it was good to see us capitalise on their weaknesses, but they also attacked well and made some good chances that they didn’t take as well as the ones they did. Suarez could have won it right at the end and if he had done I’m sure the press would have said we deserved it, the same way if Giroud had taken his easy chance inside the six yard box the reports would have favoured Arsenal.

 It would have been interesting to see (though I’m glad we won’t have to) the reaction had Suarez taken the dive Giroud was booked for. I’m sure he would have taken more stick than the Frenchman for the same act but I think the topic of the media coverage of Luis Suarez has been done to death so I’ll leave that alone. Until next time.

 All in all a good point, though it could have been more, but it could also have been less. We should go to Man City on Sunday with belief rather than just hope after we proved we can hold our own against the sides chasing Champions League places and I wouldn’t be particularly surprised to see an unchanged Liverpool starting XI at the Etihad.

Do Liverpool Have A Point To Prove At Arsenal Tonight?

 In certain areas of our play we’ve made great progressions this season, or retention of the ball has at times been very very good, resulting in our opponents chasing us rather than us chasing them. While it’s quite clear we haven’t yet worked out how to regularly turn this possession into goals it has meant that we’ve outplayed everyone we’ve played against in the league this season for long spells. The only exceptions to this have been Aston Villa and tonight's ’opponents, Arsenal.

 Even in defeat to Man Utd at home and a draw against Man City we dominated the majority of the games and left them knowing they’d been in a real match they’d been lucky to escape from undefeated. Spurs away we played very well second half and didn’t deserve the defeat, Everton away we should have won. We’ve handed out beatings to QPR, Wigan, Norwich, Fulham and Sunderland, dominated Reading, Southampton, Newcastle and Stoke at home without scoring as many as we should have done. Chelsea away we had decent spells in the second half, Enrique missing a simple chance to win the game right at the death.

 But Arsenal have been regarded as the best passing team in the league for the last decade and if there’s one side we want to show off against in my opinion it would be them. Ok, we want to beat traditional rivals Everton and Man Utd, and the new money of Chelsea and Man City, but it would be an accomplishment to take on the Gunners at their own game and come out on top. We were poor against them at Anfield early on this season and they deservedly won 2-0, that should be a good motivation for the manager and his players to put on a display tonight and I’m hoping we rise to the challenge.

How Will We Approach Tonight's Trip To Arsenal?

 After Sunday’s poor performance we have two difficult away games where we are unlikely to see the amount of possession we have become accustomed to in our Premier League games. In order to get anything out of these fixtures we need to get back to basics, and basics means defending well, none of the stupid errors that cost us our place in the FA Cup 5^th round.

 I have a feeling Brendan Rodgers will attempt to improve the defence by playing Skrtel, Agger and Carra at the back with Johnson on the right and either Enrique or Downing on the left. This would still allow us to play a three man central midfield of Lucas, Gerrard and either Allen or Henderson, with Sturridge and Suarez up front. I could be totally wrong but I just have a hunch this is how our manager will approach both away games in the next week.

 Arsenal away is a hard game to plan for as, much like with Liverpool, you’re never quite sure which team will turn up. They’re capable of tearing you apart when they’re bang in form and can turn it on with very little notice, and it’s not unusual for them to score a few goals in a few minutes, once they have their foot on the gas they keep it there. And they also have it in their locker to fall apart, especially at home where their fans seem to regularly lose faith in Wenger for a few weeks at a time. The downside of such a huge stadium is that when there is a negative attitude coming from the stands it can be overwhelming for the home players and if we can start the game well there could be something in it for us.

 There are plenty of similarities between Liverpool and Arsenal this season, we’ve both had some high scoring victories against lesser sides as well as some dodgy defeats, and we’ve both struggled against the top sides, and both managers are trying to win over the fans, albeit for different reasons.

 Normally I’d be happy with a draw at Arsenal but I think after Sunday our players owe us a bit more, three points would go a long way to repairing the damage caused at Oldham. If we go all out attack and leave gaps then the intelligent movement of Walcott and Podolski, combined with the clever passing of Cazorla will hurt us, but if we’re careful, patient and persistent I think we have a decent chance of getting a positive result.

 I’ve not been particularly impressed with the Arsenal defence and there is real cause for us to feel confident going forwards at the Emirates, we just have to make sure we don’t lose concentration on the defensive side of our game for a second. Suarez’ close control is so good it regularly requires two defenders to take the ball off him, meaning there is space to be found for a second forward and if Sturridge uses his intelligence the partnership could bring us our second successive win at Arsenal.

When The Cover Ducks - Does The Liverpool Squad Need More Balance?

 I’ve been saying for years that I don’t see the logic in signing squad players in their late twenties or early thirties, if somebody is going to make ten to fifteen appearances it makes more sense both financially and from a player development point of view to give younger players a chance.

 I’ve somewhat changed my mind on this issue.

 I’m not against signing younger players, the complete opposite in fact (there will be a post on here later this week or early next week about why it is vital for us to do this), I just think youth alone won’t work, you need experience alongside them. You can put a group of kids in a classroom with all the equipment and text books in the world but if there’s no teacher they won’t learn as quickly.

 Fixtures like the one at Oldham yesterday give the manager the opportunity to rotate his squad, to keep a few of his big guns on the sidelines ready for the bigger battles that lie ahead this week. Picking a young player who may only rate a 4, 5 or 6 out of 10 is a good thing, if you feel playing him now will aid his development and he will grow to become a dependable regular 8 or 9 out of 10 man. Picking six or seven of these younger players in one staring XI is dangerous and it can backfire spectacularly, like it did yesterday. Robinson, Coates, Wisdom, Sterling, Henderson, Allen and Borini may have potential (some more than others) but not one of them is a guaranteed 7 or more out of 10 man yet. That gave us the very real possibility yesterday that the majority of our team would underperform, and it happened. And we know the rest.

 Last season we had players like Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy and Maxi Rodrigez on our books, men who you could be sure would be solid even if they weren’t spectacular. I know that letting these go has reduced our wage bill but it has now also reduced our income, as getting knocked out of both domestic cups so early will affect our gate receipts and prize money. Looking at our current crop Jamie Carragher should have played yesterday, no debate about it really.

 It’s far easier to say we should sign a couple of experienced senior pros for small fees who can come in and do a job for us a dozen times a season than it is to actually do it. But it needs to be done. At present we have Carragher (at the very back end of his career), Gerrard (needs a rest every now and then), Johnson (can be injury prone), Reina (possibly looking for a move away) and Downing (far from a consistent performer for us) who fall into the senior professionals category, with Skrtel, Lucas, Agger and Suarez behind them but when you look around at the top clubs throughout Europe they seem to have more of this type of player than we do. When the battle heats up there’s nobody you’d rather have alongside you than someone who’s been through the fight before.

 I don’t want this to come across as an anti-young players piece, as it isn’t. They are the future of our club and we currently can’t afford to buy the top established superstars so we have to develop our own. I’d just like to see a more balanced squad at Liverpool and I think that’s not an unreasonable thing to want.

No Need To Panic But Lessons Must Be Learned After Liverpool Lose At Oldham

 My last post was a discussion on whether we should prioritise trying to win the FA Cup or qualify for the Champions League. Well, at Boundary Park this afternoon the players made that decision for us, they decided that the league was our top priority, and some of them also decided they shouldn't really feature much in our remaining league fixtures. 

 I usually approach games like this feeling nervous but for some reason I wasn't overly worried today, even when we went 3-1 down I still felt we wouldn't lose, not because of how we were playing, it was just a feeling. The warning signs were there very early, they had a striker who was 6 foot 6 and all elbows, we had a centre back whose name was Sebastian Coates. 

 Firstly let's get the excuses out of the way - there was a clear foul in on Sturridge in the build up to the second Oldham goal, and later on the same player should have had a clear pen. Andy Townsend said it wasn't a foul on Sturridge and he was wrong, and Twitter was full of people saying as much. But that's irrelevant, I've seen teams lose to dodgy refereeing decisions but I've never seen anyone lose due to a biased commentator. There was ample opportunity to defend the situation properly and we didn't, to blame anyone other than ourselves would be wrong. And the penalty? Well there's no guarantee we'd have scored it, and we were two goals behind at that point anyway so it may not have saved us even if it had been awarded and we'd stuck it away. It's got to be said that the result today was entirely fair, Oldham deserved the win, Liverpool deserved the defeat. We don't usually do very well against Stoke, and it turns out a poor man's Stoke has the edge over a poor Liverpool, we just can't handle a team being physical and determined against us. 

 Cup ties like this are rarely won by skill alone, it needs to be combined with experience and the right attitude to overcome a hostile, up for it crowd and a team of hard working, determined professionals on the biggest day of their lives. Our squad is young and full of potential, but what it lacks is a lot of experience. There's only one way to get that experience and that is to play in these types of game. And that's why I'm not feeling overly disappointed after the result, every player out there in a red shirt today will learn from today's experience and it WILL help us in future campaigns. 

 It will be hard for Brendan Rodgers to miss the flaws in our play today, and in his team selection, so I fully expect a day like this not to be repeated any time soon. There were obvious problem areas, Coates and Robinson don't look up to it, Borini works hard and makes intelligent runs but isn't close to being clinical enough, Jones is a back up 'keeper and nothing more. But it's all a learning curve and the players out there who have Liverpool futures ahead of them like Wisdom, Henderson, Allen, Sturridge, Suarez and Sterling will get their heads down and take the lesson on board.

 I've not seen Oldham since their visit to Anfield last season so I'm not sure if today was their usual style of play, but if it is then I think our scouting department has a few questions to answer as we clearly weren't fully prepared for what we faced. And the team selection wasn't right and must be learned from. It's easy to say had we had Reina, Johnson, Agger, Lucas, Gerrard and Downing from the start we would have won but this may not have been true, Oldham fought hard and played well, simply saying our first choice XI would have battered them is disrespectful to their efforts today. But not having any of these players on the pitch from kick off was a mistake - experience was what was called for and wasn't what was selected.

 The team chosen wasn't the right one to win today, but the next seven days will show whether or not it was the right call to leave out Johnson, Lucas, Agger, Gerrard and Downing. If we manage two positive results at Arsenal and Man City then the manager's decision will have been vindicated, two defeats and we might as well have played our strongest possible side today and given ourselves a better chance of progressing.

 I'm not too gutted by today, but if we don't learn from it then I'll remember it as a turning point missed. I am gutted however since the draw for the 5th round was made and we've missed out on a home tie with Everton. But for today it's well played Oldham, you deserved the win.

FA Cup Magic Or Champs League Qualification For Liverpool - Which Should We Prioritise?

 With the ever growing importance of the Premier League and the Champions League (well, qualifying for it anyway), just how relevant is the FA Cup to our season?

 Last time around Kenny Dalglish found himself being criticised by journalists and some LFC fans for saying he prioritised winning trophies over finishing 4th. He brought us the League Cup and took us to Wembley for the FA Cup final where an Andy Carroll header almost brought us level late on against Chelsea, had the game gone to extra time and Fernando Torres been introduced I don't think there's anyone who wouldn't have fancied our chances of winning. But he still lost his job as he failed to lead us back into the Champions League and the big bucks that come with playing in Europe's premier competition.

 From that we have to deduce that domestic cup success doesn't rank very high on the owner's priority list, league position is everything. But if performing well in the cups doesn't buy you time in charge, does that mean losing against lesser opposition shouldn't count against you particularly? I doubt it. A fixture like the one we have tomorrow isn't great for a manager, win and you get no real credit, lose and a large amount of pressure lands on your shoulders.

 The decision to relieve Dalglish of his duties last summer shows the owners feelings clearly, he wants Champions League qualification over domestic cup success, but how do the fans feel? If you polled every Liverpool fan about whether they would prefer an FA Cup triumph or finishing 4th (see top right corner of this website) I expect we'd be split more or less 50/50 on the matter. I think I'd rather take six points from our next two league matches than beat Oldham tomorrow, but I also really don't want to lose tomorrow, it's not an easy choice but for me I think league position is more crucial in our current development than winning the FA Cup, but I'm sure there are many who would disagree with me.

 However, 30,000 of us were lucky enough to be packed inside Wembley last April for a Merseyside Derby we won't forget in a hurry (read my review of the day here) and I doubt any of us would swap that afternoon for much in football. Along the way last season we also knocked out Man Utd, there's something satisfying about beating your biggest rivals in the league, but knocking them out of a cup competition is extra special. Last season our two biggest enemies fell on our sword in the FA Cup and that's sweet, we'd settle for that every season if we were offered it!

 We would never have had the magic that was Istanbul without finishing near the top of the table, but last season's highlights were those beautiful late strikes by Dirk Kuyt and Andy Carroll. The FA Cup is the most likely place to find a highlight for this season, but finishing 4th is most likely to bring us magical moments next term. Let's be greedy and go all out for both the FA Cup AND the top 4.

 YNWA

Liverpool Travel To Oldham In The FA Cup 4th Round

 It’s Oldham away in the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon and it’s never easy when you’re away against a lower division side. What you really need in games like this is an early goal, but we managed this against Mansfield in the last round and still ended up with a nervy finish. Probably need two early goals, just to be on the safe side…………..

 We played Oldham in the cup last season as well, at Anfield, in a game best remembered for accusations of racial abuse from an Oldham defender who claimed a member of the crowd had called him something inappropriate. This was front page headline news, made the top of the national TV news and took up the first half hour of Sky Sports News every hour for a day. If you used your magnifying glass properly you may have found the two lines written in the papers a few months later when the police cleared the accused after studying video and enhanced audio of the incident. Not that I’m suggesting the reporting was sensationalistic and one sided……………………..

 The match itself was a straightforward win for the Redmen and it would be nice to repeat that in front of the TV cameras this weekend ahead of back to back tricky Premier League fixtures. I’d be surprised if we put out a full strength side given the trips to the Emirates and the Etihad that immediately follow the cup game. I expect the likes of Jack Robinson, Sebastian Coates, Fabio Borini, Jonjo Shelvey and Suso to start, keeping a few regular first team players such as Suarez, Johnson and Gerrard on the bench in case of emergency. It would be nice to give these players a complete rest but I don’t think it would be wise to leave them out of the squad altogether. It’s not a big journey to Oldham and it’s important we progress to the next round, a good cup run in his first season in charge would help as Brendan Rodgers looks to build a squad capable of challenging for top honours.

 There are no real big clashes in this round of the FA Cup so you would expect the big guns (and Everton….) to all progress so if we get past Oldham there’s a strong possibility of a glamour tie to follow. And we all love good proper knockout football against one of the top sides, especially at Anfield.

TV Mythbusting - What The Pundits Have Said About Liverpool

 Lazy pundits are responsible for generating false urban myths about LFC.  As Lance Armstrong used to believe, the more you pedal a lie, the more you regurgitate a line, the more you repeat an opinion, the more readily it is believed.  In fact, keep on going and over time that opinion turns into a universally accepted fact.  There’s a few LFC urban myths that have done the rounds in recent years and are still being pedalled as facts from the damn right irritating (which I’m going to talk about here) to the more serious ones regarding the Suarez race incident and worse still the events of Hillsborough (which are obviously no less important but have been discussed in detail elsewhere).  So what of these myths:

 1)  LFC revert to 4-4-2

 Jamie Redknapp was delighted.  He’d  spent half time during our recent defeat at Castle Greyskull berating Rodgers’ lack of a Plan B.  He wanted to see Sturridge come on to play alongside Suarez, and he got his way.  Everyone in the studio breathed a sigh of relief that Rodgers was showing some flexibility, and the commentary team echoed their feelings, praising the manager for not sticking to his one and only formula by getting us to play 4-4-2 (yes, the formation which every modern manager seems to have now accepted is outdated).  Except he didn’t.  Not one of the so-called experts noticed that in fact it was the same Rodgers formation, but with a change of personnel.  Suarez was the man dropped into the tip of the midfield triangle; we still had two wide forwards (not midfielders).  Actually, one pundit did notice –Robbie Savage in a very interesting (and accurate) write-up of the match on the BBC website.

 2) The Kop got Hodgson the sack

 No, actually Hodgson got Hodgson the sack. The myth goes like this: LFC fans never gave him a chance because they wanted Dalglish appointed. The fans were against him from the start. Sky resurrected this old chestnut this week when comparing Brendan’s first 19 games to Roy’s. Redknapp, of course, was chief culprit number 1 nodding like a Churchill dog and pedalling the lie. The truth is that Hodgson did get a fair crack of the whip, he just blew it. There may have been apathy at his appointment, but there was no pre-season rebellion, no calls for King Kenny. Instead there were two fundamental faults which meant that Roy was never going to last. One: he didn’t have a clue how to handle the press. Talking about Fergie as his friend and talking about draws against mid-table teams as successes chipped away at the foundations. His long-ball tactics brought the house crashing down. The man brought a brand of football to Anfield which was even worse than Souness’ team of Clough and Stewart (at least they were encouraged to try to play). But the pundits never mention that because, er, probably because they did all their research at the time from the back pages instead of actually watching games.

 3) Shipping out Andy Carroll was a mistake

 The cheap shot fired at Rodgers for the first half of this season. It wasn’t an ideal situation, but it wasn’t a mistake. Andy Carroll was never going to fit in to a Rodgers team, simple as that. His touch is too clumsy, the players weren’t going to be playing long balls and high crosses, and he wasn’t mobile enough to make the three-pronged attack work. Ah, say the lazy pundits, but what about when you are a goal down at Stoke and you need a plan B? Nonsense. This season isn’t about plan Bs. This season is about setting the wheels of a Plan A in motion. That means playing the Rodgers way as much as possible. Ideally, every second of every game – but a learning curve takes time. We don’t need to be complicating things by working on a second way of playing at the same time. Also, it’s east for pundits and fans to focus only on Saturday afternoons. What about the rest of the week? Anyone who’s ever played Sunday league football can guess the types of drills Rodgers uses in training. He likes the ball involves as much as possible. Imagine that game, you know the one: two small teams in a confined space, keeping possession from the other team being the object of the game. Would you be happy to have Andy Carroll on your team in that game? The point I’m trying to make is: if his touch is deficient in games, it would be deficient in training too – he would lower the quality on the training pitch and make it harder to bring in the change in style that the manager wants. Also, think of the finances. We must have had a loan fee for Carroll. Let’s say, for argument’s sake that it was £1m. Then they must be paying his wages. Again, let’s be cautious and say that’s £50k per week, mid August to January 1st. So let’s say we’ve saved at least £2m already by farming him out, closer to £5mill by the end of the season. I would rather have £5mill extra in the bank ready for the summer transfer window than have the “option” of Carroll on the bench. Even if he got a game from time to time, would his impact be enough to get us £5million pounds’ worth higher in the league table? Doubt it.

 4) Liverpool have always played like this

 Pass and move, it’s the Liverpool groove. Yes I know – so good they wrote a song about it, but there’s a lazy punditry alert here too. We have (Hodgson apart) always tried to play pass and move with varying degrees of focus (Houllier favouring a more direct approach for instance), but the brand of football, the tica-taca that Rodgers is trying to instill is different to anything we played in the past. I want to say “a step up”, but until we’re winning championships and playing like Barcelona I can’t really say that. But what I know is that from the very first friendly of the season it was obvious that there was a brand of passing from the back coming in that was not a return to the past, but something new. I’ve only heard one pundit all season point out our setup at goal kicks, for example, which really emphasises this way of playing (for the record it was Ratboy last week). The centre backs peel off to the sides of the penalty area, the holding midfielder, be it Lucas or Allen, drops in to the area where most teams would have their centre back, and the full backs are nowhere to be seen. Actually, they are pushed up almost as far as wingers. I’ve read some excellent blogs about this style of play, but haven’t heard any informed debate on TV about it. This takes us nicely to the next myth, which is:

 5) Reina shouldn’t be playing about with it there

 I remember telling my friends before the season began: we must be ready for a catalogue of defensive errors in the beginning. Keeper, centre backs, they will be under more pressure because more will be expected from them. And it’s proved true, but the lazy pundits insist on blaming them every time they come close to making a mistake. How many times this season have we heard one of the co-commentator say something along the lines of “I know the manager wants them to play from the back but in that situation you just hit it into row Z”? I rarely watch foreign football. But over the last couple of years I’ve been transfixed when watching Barcelona matches. And not just when Messi is on the ball, or there’s another attacking wave in progress. I also love watching the incisive passing between the goalkeeper and centre backs. It is fantastic to watch these players out-pass the opposition in their own penalty area. It’s not easy, granted, but we’re sure as hell not going to get any better at doing it by booting the ball into row Z at the first sniff of danger. We need to take risks to improve. Practise makes perfect and all that. It’s one thing doing these things in training, but the players will only be truly comfortable when doing it in the Premier League has become the norm. And if they’re still not comfortable, then they will be surplus to requirements.

 So who are these critics? 

 King of this breed of pundit is, sadly, everyone’s favourite LFC cockney Jamie Redknapp. And the mould is set such that it’s actually easier to pick out those who actually do have an opinion. I’m sure not everyone will agree, but for me the best ones out there right now are:

 Souness: who has matured into the role like a fine wine (and seems to love winding up Redknapp which is a bonus).

 Carragher: at the World Cup it didn’t take him long to show that he would speak his mind. Said it like it was, and didn’t mind upsetting people or arguing with the other studio guests.

 Neville: yes I know, blasphemy! As a pundit at least he tries to analyse instead of just describing what is going on. I think he does it quite well. It’s just a shame it’s him. Although I do question how much of it is fed to him by off-camera studio analysts. He is an awful co-commentator though – why don’t sky tell him he doesn’t need to put on a high pitch voice every time he enters the commentary box?

 Niall Quinn: speaking of co-commentators, here’s a man who comes into his own whilst watching a game. Intelligent, insightful, quick to judge decisions (where many of his peers watch numerous replays and still sit on the fence, or worse get the decision wrong).

 Colin Murray: neither a pundit nor a co-commentator but a presenter. For the time being. Is it just me that thinks the Beeb are shooting themselves in the foot by relieving him of his duties? His “crime” it seems, is to be too critical of players. The former-pros don’t like this. I do. It’s like having a fan on the show – asking the probing question that the likes of Lineker shy away from because their relationship with the players is too cosy.

Written by 3s

Playing For Keeps At LFC - Pepe Reina Or Jack Butland?

 There have been two fairly persistent rumours over the last month or so regarding Liverpool and goalkeepers. We’ve been linked with a bid for Birmingham City’s Jack Butland and Barcelona have been rumoured to be after our long term first choice ‘keeper Pepe Reina.

 Butland is young, English and highly rated, would not yet command massive wages and is apparently available for around £6million. This all fits perfectly into our current recruitment policy and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was a player we were seriously considering. Moving from struggling Birmingham to Liverpool would surely appeal to the player and I think this transfer is one that could well happen, if not in January then maybe in the summer.

 Reina began his career at Barcelona, he was in goal for them in 2001 when Gary McAllister’s penalty at the Anfield Road end won the UEFA Cup semi final for us. The project going on at Liverpool right now is exciting and full of potential but Barcelona is about as close to the finished article as a football team can get and Reina isn’t getting any younger. Victor Valdes has said he won’t extend his contract at Barca (probably bored having nothing to do every week) beyond the end of next season so they are looking for a new ‘keeper and Reina fits the bill. I think this move would suit both parties so I think there’s likely to be a lot of truth in the rumours and it wouldn’t be a shock if it happened.

 Here’s where the problem lies – goalkeeper is unlike any other position on the pitch. A player in any other position can be brought on for the last fifteen minutes or so to gradually get used to high pressure first team football. And he has team mates to help him out with everything. A young ‘keeper will have to play from the start, and if he makes a mistake he loses the match, there’s no team mate that can chase the opponent and win the ball back. In recent times we’ve signed Chris Kirkland and Scott Carson, two promising young English goalkeepers and it hasn’t really worked out for them but for some reason I have more faith in the current management and training set up when it comes to aiding youth development than I have done in previous regimes.

 If we could bring in Butland for a reasonable fee and pay him initially a fairly low wage and move on Reina for a hefty price, also removing him from the wage bill it would free up funds to improve the squad elsewhere so from a business point of view the deals would make sense.

 Positionally Pepe plays quite high up the pitch for a goalkeeper and that allows the team to set up in a more attacking formation, essential for a side that wants to score goals. If he is replaced it can’t be with somebody who is purely a shot stopper, we need somebody who has a good command of the penalty area and can sweep up behind the defence. I’ve not seen enough of Butland to know what kind of ‘keeper he is but I’m sure our scouts will do their homework properly.

 Reina hasn’t been as good over the last couple of seasons as he was previously but he’s still a top ‘keeper, and he’s a big positive influence in the dressing room, and the supporters love him. If he did move on we’d be gutted to see him go but I think everybody would understand if he chose to go to Barcelona, as long as his replacement was capable of filling his gloves to the same standards he set from 2006 to 2009.

Faith In Youth

 One of the stats doing the rounds today is that Liverpool have named three teenagers in their starting XI six times this season. No other team in the Premier League has done it even once.

 Firstly I think this goes to show just how thin our squad is, and secondly how confident our manager is in his own methods. Putting his faith in youngsters so early in his reign could have (and has on occasion) gone wrong for Brendan Rodgers. Young players need time to adapt to first team football and new managers aren’t always afforded time in such a results driven environment. In my opinion it picking the teams he has done so far shows a great strength of character in our manager which will serve him well in his (hopefully long) time in charge of Liverpool.

What Will The Rest Of Liverpool's Season Bring?

 After Saturday’s big win over Norwich there’s a sense of optimism around our club and our fans, and the league table is beginning to show a few signs of progress for the reds. What can we realistically expect to finish the 2012/13 season with?

 Trophies? One of the main problems we’ve had this season is that we haven’t yet beaten a team above us in the league and to win the Europa League or FA cup we’ll have to knock out teams we haven’t yet been able to win against. I’m not saying we can’t do it but it will be very hard. We’ve shown this season we’re more than capable of outplaying pretty much anyone, but when it comes to outscoring them we’ve struggled. The addition of Daniel Sturridge looks to be working and just maybe with the extra goals he currently looks like scoring we can have a good run in one or both competitions. Either trophy in Brendan Rodgers’ first season in charge would be a great achievement.

 League position? Where constitutes an acceptable league finish will be somewhat determined by who wins the domestic cups. Currently it’s top four for the Champions League and only 5th place gets you a Europa League spot. Chelsea winning the League Cup would give 6^th place a European spot and if two teams in the top four contest the FA cup final that would also give 7^th place entry into the Europa League. Long term we want to be back in the Champions League on a regular basis but until that happens we still need to be playing European football at Anfield so it’s important we qualify for at least the Europa League.

 Where we will actually finish in the league is anybody’s guess. After the next couple of matches we’ll have played everybody in the top half of the league away from home so our remaining big games will be at home. We certainly have the chance to get a reasonable points tally but in my opinion too many teams above us need to drop too many points for us to reach 4^th this season. I have a paranoia about the fact that David Moyes has never won at Anfield and when Everton visit us towards the end of this season it’s likely to be his last opportunity to do so and I really have a feeling Everton will take the points from that clash. But aside from that game I’m quietly confident in all of our remaining fixtures really. If we could win at the Emirates in a couple of weeks I’d say we have a good chance of finishing above Arsenal, and a couple of injuries to key players at Goodison could see us leapfrog Everton so I think we’ve got a good shot at finishing top five as long as we can remain consistent.

 The main aim for Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool this season is to improve on last term and after a six month settling in period and a second transfer window it would appear the foundations for a successful team have been laid. The next few months will dictate how our new manager will be judged but at just past the halfway point of the season it’s fair to say he’s doing well.

Liverpool 5 Norwich 0, A Very English Win

 Just a few more observations on our big win over Norwich and FSG's policy of recruiting young British talent coupled with Brendan Rodgers bringing in players who have performed well for us at youth level.

 We had three goals scored by English players.

 We had three assists by English players.

 We kept a clean sheet with a defence containing three English players.

 Our starting XI contained three players who have come through our youth system and have only ever played for Liverpool.

 That's about it really, great result, great performance and we seem to be seeing the benefits of an intelligent transfer policy.

Youthful Signings Pay Off For Reds - And Not Just Today!

 After seeing the Liverpool squad for today's game against Norwich I thought the majority of the players either came through our youth system or were brought in as young, up and coming professionals rather than established top level players. A bit of Wikipedia research seems to back up my hunch. Below is today's match squad along with the age each player was when he joined the club.

Brad Jones - 28
Andre Wisdom - 15
Daniel Agger - 22
Jamie Carragher - 12
Glen Johnson - 25
Steven Gerrard - 7
Lucas - 20
Jordan Henderson - 20
Luis Suarez - 23
Daniel Sturridge - 23
Stuart Downing - 26

Subs

Peter Gulacsi - 17
Joe Allen - 22
Fabio Borini - 21
Raheem Sterling - 16
Jonjo Shelvey - 18
Jack Robinson - 9
Martin Skrtel - 24

 Aside from Brad Jones, Glen Johnson and Stuart Downing all of the players bought in arrived in their early twenties or in their teens. My previous post went into detail about the cost of signing established big name players in the latter half of their careers compared to buying younger talent with potential and a sell on value so I'm not going to go into that again. 

 There have been some major world stars plying their trade at Anfield over the last five or ten years, the likes of Fernando Torres, Javier Mascherano and Xabi Alonso are top players, known throughout world football as genuine top drawer talents. What we sometimes forget is that, although these players were highly rated before they joined us, they only became real superstars at the top of their game while they were at Liverpool.  Looking at our current squad of youngsters I'd say we're going the right way about developing more big name players the same way those in recent years, as well as Luis Suarez right now, emerged onto the biggest stage with Liverpool.

 There can be no better argument to put to young talent choosing which club to join than what has happened at Liverpool over the last decade. We've put our faith in young players from Britain, Europe and South America and, despite the lack of titles, remained one of the best supported clubs in the world, making these players instant heroes to millions. Who wouldn't want a piece of that?

 And I don't expect us to be signing Wesley Sneijder.

Viva La Evolution? / The Real Cost Of Players?

 Looking at where we’ve been struggling this season there’s one obvious area – goalscoring. Suarez has more than pulled his weight in the central striker role but he’s had no support from his fellow strikers, the two men who play either side of him. I could be wrong but I think we’ve only had four goals from these positions so far (Sterling 2, Downing 1, Enrique 1) and that’s nowhere near enough, not even close. Then you start to look at who we let go in the summer and for me three names stick right out, Dirk Kuyt, Craig Bellamy and Maxi Rodrigez. In my opinion any one of these three playing every week in the Sterling / Downing /Borini roles would have had more than four goals by now on their own.

 As I’ve already written in earlier posts I think bringing in younger, mainly British players is the right way forward, and the need to reduce the wage bill was great, but I think last summer we maybe attempted a little too much revolution rather than the gradual evolution that is normally the way football teams develop. I think at least one of the three experienced, proven senior professionals should have been kept to see out this season and aid in the transitional period we are currently going through. We brought in less than a million in transfer fees for the three of them combined so moving them on didn’t really bring us in much cash, though it did help bring our wage bill down – something that we needed to do now we don’t have Champions League football. Overall I’ve been quite impressed with the way FSG have taken a realistic view of where the club is at right now and cut our cloth accordingly.

 Which brings me to my next observation.

 I’ve been hearing so much over recent seasons about how much we’ve spent on transfer fees, but exactly how realistic are the figures quoted when people talk about football in the pub or in the workplace? Especially when it comes to Liverpool. I’m going to have a look at three cases, but please note that all of the figures I’m using are what I’ve got from the press, there is nothing official and I’ve no insight into actual player wages.

 The thing I’ve been hearing a lot recently, especially before and after last weekend’s game at Old Trafford, is Van Persie cost the same as Suarez. Let’s have a look at that in a little more detail. According to the media Van Persie cost £24million and is paid £200,000 per week over a four year contract. Adding the transfer fee and wages together comes to a total of just over £65million for one man for four seasons of football (working out at around £16million per season). Given his age it’s reasonable to expect he will see out his career at Man Utd, meaning they will receive no transfer fee for the player as he leaves.

 Suarez cost £23million, was paid £30,000 per week for a year and a half and then £90,000 per week for a further four years, giving a grand total for the deal of about £45million for five and a half seasons of football (working out at around £8million per season – half that of Van Persie). Looking at Suarez’ age and ability we could choose to sell him in a couple of years for approximately £40million to the right buyer, that would mean that even if we paid him his contract in full having him at our club would have cost us around £5million for three and a half to four seasons, meaning his services would have cost us in total just over £1million per season.

 Then we have Fernando Torres. We paid approximately £21million to Atletico Madrid, paid him around £100,000 per week for three and a half years, costing us all in all £39million for three and a half seasons work (just over £11million per season). But then we sold him. For £50million. Giving us a profit on the player of about £11million (meaning we actually GAINED around £3million for every season of football he played for us, not to mention the memories and goals he gave us).

 This opens up a whole new debate (which I won’t go into now) about whether this makes a club a ‘selling club’ or if it’s ‘well run and financially responsible’ but I think the figures are interesting reading.

 The potential sell-on value of a player makes a huge difference to most clubs when they make a new signing and for this reason I’m fairly sure we won’t be bringing in Wesley Sneijder despite the rumours. He’s 29 years old and if we pay £8million and give him £150,000 per week for four years it will total almost £40million with little chance of recouping any of that money by selling him again and that’s far beyond what we should be spending on one player right now. In short four seasons of Sneijder would cost us £50million MORE than three and a half seasons of Torres, and it’s very doubtful he would have as great an impact as the once feared Spaniard.

The Importance Of Beating Norwich

 Our next game is arguably our most important game of the season. Norwich at home is usually one of those run of the mill matches that blends in with the rest of the fixture list but not this time. Packed in tightly between trips to Man Utd, Man City and Arsenal a game at home to Luis Suarez’ whipping boys sticks out like a sore thumb. And we must win it.

 We’ve built up a decent amount of momentum recently and have finally settled in the top half of the table, not an aim in itself but it’s nicer to be on that page than the one below. Defeat at Old Trafford somewhat halts our momentum and two more difficult away trips could potentially have a massive impact on our season. I’m not taking for granted that we will lose at the Etihad and the Emirates but they’re certainly games we’ll have to be at our best to win and we’ll need to beat a top side for the first time this season to take the three points from either of them.

 Everton and Spurs both dropped points on Saturday in games they would have hoped to win but still pulled a point further clear of us, we simply can’t afford anything other than a victory against Norwich as if these teams get any further ahead of us we just won’t catch them. The second half performance against Man Utd meant that despite losing to our biggest rivals we came out of the match feeling pretty positive about the remainder of our season, we cannot let that bubble burst.

 I was one of those fortunate enough to be on the Kop for it's last ever game as a standing terrace against Norwich and we lost that match. But it didn't matter, it was all about the occasion and the result was irrelevent. This time the complete opposite is true, it's a very minor occasion but the result could hugely affect how our season will end.

Liverpool Defeated But Not Deflated

 Another game against a top side, another failure to win. But the second half performance hopefully points to the direction the rest of our season will take and there were some very encouraging signs. I think Brendan Rodgers would probably admit he got the tactics wrong for the first half, Utd looked shaky when we finally put pressure on their aging defence but the mistake of affording them too much time on the ball in the first half cost us both a goal against and also the momentum of the game which is key in high pressure fixtures such as this one.

 We've been playing quite well lately, spells of top quality football have certainly been creeping into our game  but this has happened because we've had the majority of possession, something that was denied to us in the first half at Old Trafford today. Had it been two or three nil at half time we couldn't really have complained, the clear chances all fell to the home side and only a great block by Skrtel and a couple of vital tackles by Agger saved us.

 Rodgers brought on Sturridge at half time and changed the formation and at first it didn't really alter the pattern of the game but once we got use to the new system we improved and gave them a game. Unfortunately we were two nil down by this point and although our chances proved it wasn't too late, some sloppy finishing (story of our season.....) denied us an equaliser we arguably deserved.

 After some eventful encounters between the two sides over the last couple of seasons today's match was fairly free of controversy but as always there were a couple of talking points. For Utd's second goal Skrtel fouled Welbeck outside the box and the home crowd, led by their manager (who claims he never pressures officials.......) bayed for a red card for our defender. It was certainly a foul but the ball ran straight through to Reina and it would take one hell of an argument to persuade me that Welbeck is good enough to create himself a clear goalscoring opportunity without being able to reach the ball. The free kick was accurate and Evra's header took a very fortunate deflection off the face of Vidic. When the ball left Evra's head Vidic has offside but only by a couple of centimetres, technically the goal shouldn't have stood but if you're going to defend your own six yard box so ineffectively you get what you deserve and complaining about a few centimetres is pretty futile - do your own job properly and there is no issue.

 There was an incident midway through the second half that will surely dominate the post match talk and all of the back page headlines for the coming weeks though. The ball came into the Utd box from the right wing and Vidic headed it out for a corner. Howard Webb was partially unsighted (not for the first time at Old Trafford) and awarded a goal kick. And then, in possibly the most blatant act of cheating ever seen in Premier League football VIDIC DID NOT CHASE THE REFEREE AND CONFESS THAT THE BALL HAD GONE OUT OF PLAY OFF HIS HEAD. The entire crowd was stunned at this disgraceful act and I'm sure the FA charge will come for the defender first thing in the morning, acts like this SIMPLY CANNOT BE TOLERATED and if he is booed at every ground he visits for the rest he only has himself to blame. Or something like that anyway if the press and all football supporters are consistent with their views on the game.

 Despite the defeat it certainly wasn't all doom and gloom for Liverpool, Sturridge looked very bright, alert, intelligent and full of energy and all of that, added to getting a goal on his league debut, will massively increase our attacking options for the rest of the campaign. Also it's been noted often enough (especially on these pages) that we have a young squad but we also have to remember we have a young manager who is still very much learning his trade. Rodgers may well have got the first half wrong but read the game well and made changes that gave us a decent chance of taking something from the match. The more experience our new manager gets of big games like this the better we will do in them and I have a lot more confidence going into the tricky away fixtures at City and Arsenal than I did before the second half of today's match.

Faith In Wisdom, Wisdom In Youth

 Following Raheem Sterling’s example Andre Wisdom has now signed a new long term Liverpool contract. Although far from being the finished article Wisdom has been impressive when he has featured for the first team. I’ve long argued that spending £5 million on a squad player to start a dozen games a season is pointless, use your younger players and hopefully one of them will shine.

 Our squad contains a decent number of young British players and this bodes well for the future. So far this season we’ve had contributions from Sturridge, Sterling, Shelvey, Henderson, Allen, Wisdom, Kelly and Robinson – eight British players aged 23 or under who could form the nucleus of our team over the next decade, with the likes of Conor Coady and Adam Morgan just behind them and Thomas Ince and Jack Butland rumoured possible signings to add to the group.

 I’ve paid attention over the last few years as Spurs signed Paul Robinson, Aaron Lennon, Jermaine Defoe, Tom Huddlestone, Michael Dawson, Garteh Bale and Kyle Walker and thought they were going about things the right way. Young, British players who have grown up watching the Premier League every week  and understand the passion of English football can be invaluable (well, often over priced anyway) and in my opinion give a clear indication of the direction in which a club is heading.

 Not all the signings will work out, the never do, but some will and hopefully our future will be bright and full of players our fans can identify with, players who know what it means to wear our shirt. Spurs are such a good example to follow, they brought in young players and struggled, remember them being bottom of the league when they beat us early in Redknapp’s reign? But these young players laid good solid foundations, gained experience and the team has been challenging in the top five for the past few seasons now.

 Winning the Premier League has become harder and harder and without a silly amount of money coming in (it’s nearly ten years since anybody who isn’t Man Utd or has a sugar daddy came top) it’s certainly not something that will happen for any club short term. Hopefully our base of home grown talent can take us back to the higher league positions over the next few seasons and from there we can push on and get back to a point where we’re genuine title contenders. It’ll take time but showing faith in our youngsters is realistically our best shot, and seeing our club doing this is a great cause for optimism.

Early Team News Ahead Of Old Trafford Visit

Manchester United have received a boost ahead of Sunday's big game with the timely return of one of their key men for the fixture.

In Defence Of Luis Suarez - Part 3,679

 I’m going to start this by admitting something I very rarely say – there are some things in this world I don’t know anything about, many of them very important. For information about these things I have to rely on journalists, I need to read what they write, listen to what they say and have faith that they are knowledgeable enough about the subject not to mislead me.

 Reading about Luis Suarez’ diabolical act of cheating that has tarnished the FA Cup in The Independent has worried me. One of the things I am actually clued up on is football. I know that when a ball bounces up at a players arm from less than two yards and the player makes a motion with his arm in an attempt to move said limb out of the path of the ball it is accidental handball. To state that Suarez entered the field of play with diabolical intent is simply untrue.

 There are two possibilities. Either the writer doesn’t know enough about football to recognise an accidental handball (which isn’t an offence, despite a widely accepted trend over recent years to penalise such an occurrence if it significantly benefits the ‘guilty’ party). Or the writer has chosen to deliberately misrepresent the facts. I don’t see how somebody could rise to such a position at such a famous publication without a basic knowledge of the rules of football, leaving only the second option. This is what concerns me. If I know that a journalist is deliberately writing sensationalistic, headline grabbing inaccuracies about one incident, how can I be sure it isn’t happening when I read about subjects I’m not as well versed on?

 The general media reaction to Suarez’ goal on Sunday has been pretty appalling, even the TV weathergirl has given her opinion on it, saying he should have admitted it. Firstly, if the handball was an accident (which as I’ve already stated it clearly was) then there’s nothing to admit to. Secondly, who wouldn’t accept that goal for their team? Fair play to the Mansfield manager who happily accepted that had his team scored such a goal he wouldn’t have thought twice about it.

 Suarez has had his critics (ok, maybe that’s a slight understatement) and one of the things levelled at him is his refusal to accept the decision of the official on occasion, and now they are saying he should walk up to the referee and tell him he got it wrong. We’re all taught a couple of things growing up playing football, play to the whistle, and the ref’s decision is final. Suarez adhered to this, he did nothing wrong. Though the Mansfield goalkeeper did say something quite noteworthy, he accused a striker of SMILING WHEN HE SCORED A GOAL. Shock, horror, what’s the world coming to?

 So far this season Suarez has been tripped in the penalty area by Jonny Evans, pulled by Per Mertesacker, assaulted by a Norwich defender (sorry, name forgotten), stamped on by Robert Huth, played onside by the entire Everton defence and been given nothing. At no point has anybody suggested any of these players should have told the ref they’d wronged the Uruguayan. What is often said after incidents such as these is ‘these things even themselves up over the season’, in which case Sunday was only the first of a series of contentious calls that will go in our number seven’s favour. The suggestion that he should have spoken to the ref because it was Mansfield is patronising and condescending, saying that it’s a small club having their day in the sunshine who should be treated as a special case. The fact that Suarez took the goal so happily is probably the biggest compliment that could be paid to the outstanding performance of our non league opposition and the fight they put up against us. Mansfield acted with class from the second the draw was made and deserve much praise for their conduct, and that of their manager post match.

 Peter Crouch scored a goal for Stoke against Man City not long back where he clearly handled the ball more than once and it caused very little outcry, despite the fact that his manager has appointed himself moral guardian of football in recent months. John Terry cleared the ball from well behind the line for England in the Euros, nobody said he should have told the ref the ball was over the line. The list of dubious incidents that players could have aided referees with is endless, the calls for honesty from players have only emerged today because it involves public enemy number one, had it been any other player it would hardly get a mention.

 I started this piece with the intention of defending Luis Suarez, but the more I think about it the more I realise I’ve nothing to actually defend him for. Our next fixture is at Old Trafford at the weekend and 100% of supporters for both sides would take a winning goal scored in exactly the same fashion as the one yesterday without a moment’s hesitation.

 I’ve now seen Luis Suarez called a cancer on the game and a diabolical cheat by people in positions where they should know better, if that isn’t going more than slightly over the top then what is? I’ve asked before and I’ll ask again – will anybody who’s team has actually lost points due to Suarez cheating please tell me the incident? I’m not saying he’s an angel, but I honestly don’t recall Liverpool winning a game in which he’s deliberately bent the rules to his advantage. But I do recall several matches where Liverpool have dropped points as a result of incorrect decisions against him. If this season is going to see things evened up then we’ve got plenty more controversy to come.