No Time To Blog: Day 5 – What I Watched Last Night

September 20, 2009 2 Comments

After a long day blogging and looking for an internet stream to watch football I decided to spend last night watching some telly.  It may not be a very exciting way to spend your Saturday night, but I happen to like watching TV.

The main thing that I wanted to watch was the first episode of French drama, Spiral, as I’ve been waiting three years for the second series to make an appearance.  I soon decided against it as watching a programme with subtitles would have required too much concentration.  Instead, I watched Friday’s Derren Brown special, How To Control The Nation.  It was an enjoyable hour’s entertainment and built up to the ‘special film’ that would stick you to your chair.  Suffice to say, I didn’t stick to my chair.  I felt a mixture of disappointment and relief; half of me would have loved to have been stuck, but the other half would have been horrified that I’d been ‘controlled’.

After that, I thought I’d give the Coen brother’s Burn After Reading a try, which I had recorded last week.  I managed to get about ten minutes in to it before I had to switch off in boredom.  Looking for a bit of light-hearted popcorn TV to compensate, I watched this week’s episode of A Town Called Eureka.  It was a silly episode (but then, aren’t they all?), where the town got frozen solid and featured some very dodgy special effects.  I do like the new relationship between Jack and Tess, despite the fact that they’ve just completely dropped the years of build up in his relationship with Allison.  Jaime Ray Newman has done a great job of making Tess a likeable character that feels like she has been around since the show started.

I recorded both X Factor shows with little intent of watching them and deleted both after about 3 minutes.  Not even Holly Willoughby can keep me watching The Xtra Factor, so the rot must definitely have set in.

It was a result and a surprise that Liverpool were the first match on Match of the Day.  It was clearly an exciting match, but there was some shocking defending by the Reds and it needs to be sorted out pronto.  Listening on the radio, as I mentioned here, really didn’t do the game justice;  I didn’t even pick up on the good run and cross by Ryan Babel which led to Torres’ second goal.

The last thing I watched was this week’s Chuck.  It actually held together really well as an episode, one of the best so far, but the will-they-won’t-they stuff between Chuck and Sarah is really starting to bug me.  They should really make a decision on what direction they’re heading in with it and stick with it.

All in all, it was a decent effort and I managed to claw back some space on my planner.  Now I just have to get myself psyched up enough to watch Spiral.

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West Ham 2 Liverpool 3

September 19, 2009 3 Comments

This is yet another strange match report and is as much a description of my attempts to watch the match as it is about the match itself.  With no ESPN, I’d be relying on internet streams and, as I decided to start typing this while the match was in progress, you’ll have to forgive me if I get the tense wrong from time to time.

Twenty minutes in to the match, I missed Torres’ opener.  I was struggling to get a working stream despite trying a recommendation from a mate which was working fine for him.  On the plus side, I also missed the stress of West Ham hitting the post early in the match.   I was still relatively calm at this point as at least things were going to plan.   Then, just to annoy me, my laptop started making a plonking noise while it tried to connect to a stream.  Fortunately, it didn’t last long.  Unfortunately, the stream didn’t connect either, and West Ham equalised from a penalty, scored by Alessandro Diamanti, on 29 minutes.  I don’t know what was making me angrier at this point, the fact that they conceded a goal or that I couldn’t watch them concede it.

Liverpool re-took the lead on 41 minutes with a goal from Kuyt, turning in a Gerrard header.  At least that’s what Sky Sports News said, I still couldn’t see the game.  Then, just to make the first half utterly miserable, Carlton Cole made it 2-2 on 45 minutes.  It was a struggle not to smash my laptop to bits and go to bed in a huff.

Still struggling during half time, I thought I’d have a quick look at what was going on in some internet forums.  Jamie Carragher was getting a shocking amount of abuse, and, while he might be having a few off games as he gets older, some people have very short memories.

By quarter to seven I’d given up on the streams and decided to listen to it on Five Live.  Listening on the radio keeps you up to date with the facts, but it’s hard to get a feeling for the game.  From what I could tell, it was a fairly balanced match at that point.

In an unusual move, Kuyt came off, on the hour, to be replaced by Ryan Babel, presumably to add a bit of pace to the attack.  It’s not very often that Dirk is substituted and it’s less often that Babel plays well.

Having been lulled close to sleep by the relaxing commentary, I barely realised that Torres had scored on 75 minutes.  Could the Reds do enough to stay in front this time?  The answer was almost immediately no, as Cole forced a save from Reina straight from the kick off.

Something shocking happens on 84 minutes when a pundit talked sense.  Mark Bright said that ANY team would struggle if they lost their best two players.  This is something that people with brains have been saying for years, but many pundits believe it only applies to Liverpool.

Then, before I knew it, the match was over and Liverpool had picked up the win.  From what I could tell, West Ham were excellent in the first half but faded a little in the second.  From a Liverpool point of view, it’s another three points in the bag.  Now I just need to watch the highlights later to see if anything that I have written makes sense.

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Bolton 2 Liverpool 3

August 29, 2009 2 Comments

It will be a bit of a sparse (non-existent) match report today as I’ve not seen any of the match, not heard any if it on the radio and I didn’t even follow it on the Internet.

I’ve been at Wembley today to watch Warrington win rubgy league’s Challenge Cup. The Wembley experience was great, apart from the lack of signal during the match, which meant (for once) I had no link to the outside world.

As the rubgy reached full time I began to get a bit frantic at my lack of football updates. I eventually got a belated text from a mate saying that the score was nil nil, but I didn’t know what time it was sent. I tried in vain to find the score and was eventually put out of my misery, on the train, by overhearing a drunken loudmouth complaining about ‘lucky Liverpool’. It’s better to be lucky than good, as the old saying goes.

The facts I know about the match are these: Johnson, Torres and Gerrard scored for Liverpool. Bolton led twice. Bolton had a man sent off harshly, which changed the game. Gerrard scored a late winner.

What more do you need to know?

This match was all about picking up a win for the Reds and that’s what we got.

I write this, via the wonders of modern technology, on my mobile phone, hurtling up the M1 towards the beautiful North. Under the circumstances, please forgive any spelling/grammatical errors.

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Liverpool 1 Aston Villa 3

August 25, 2009 2 Comments

To say that I lack enthusiasm for writing this post is as big an understatement as when the Captain of the Titanic said that they’d ‘sprung a bit of a leak’. And since I’m a blogger and not a professional journalist, I feel well within my rights to skip any match details and keep this as brief as possible.

The atmosphere in Anfield seemed weirdly subdued from the start (although I was watching on TV), and this translated in to a weird match. Liverpool had more possession and far more chances during the game but came away well beaten. In a first half that saw the Reds have the better chances, they came in at half time two nil down. The first came from an innocuous free kick deflected in off an unlucky Lucas’ head (and he seems to have gone straight back to being the scapegoat for a poor performance). The second goal came at the end of injury time, from a corner, when the Liverpool players seem to have totally lost their heads.

The second half saw some pressure from the home team and eventually this paid off with a Torres goal. Minutes later, Gerrard gave away a rash penalty and Ashley Young slotted it away. From this point on, with 15 minutes left, the Reds looked like beaten men and the closing minutes of the match was painful to watch.

Villa deserved their win, the defence were solid, they were dangerous on the break and Brad Friedel was outstanding in goal.

I find it harder to make any sense of Liverpool’s performance. The players looked dejected by the final whistle; Rafa Benitez has a tough job on his hands in getting this squad psychologically ready for the rest of the campaign.

A quick note on the coverage as this was the first match I’d seen on ESPN. Ray Stubbs: great signing, Kevin Keegan: always entertaining, Jon Champion & Joe Royle: bloody awful and cliche riddled.

I’m not going to jump to any conclusions on what this result means for Liverpools season, as I said, I’m not a professional journalist. But for a team allegedly going for the title the start to the season has been a disaster.

Who’d be a football fan?

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Liverpool 4 Stoke City 0

August 19, 2009 2 Comments

Well, I can finally breathe again, and Liverpool’s season has officially started.

If I was ‘a little nervy’ before the Spurs match then I was an absolute nervous wreck before this one; I’d even been dreaming about it for the last couple of night (and having a hissy fit mid-dream when Liverpool lost).  Any remnants of football related apathy have certainly disappeared.

Beforehand, the match seemed to be the epitome of a ‘must-win game’, which is absolutely ridiculous for the second game of the season.  It was almost as though I could feel myself drifting in to the realm of hysterical Sky Sports style hyperbole.  Luckily it turned out to be a comfortable victory for the Reds, and my nerves have been restored to their usual placid state.

I won’t be able to give you as detailed a match report as last time, as I watched the game on an internet stream.  It was good enough to just about follow the action, but it hardly compares to glorious Sky HD, and it’s not easy to describe what happened when you can’t always tell who is who.

The game was pretty much wrapped up by two goals in the first half, with an early strike from Torres after 4 minutes (which clearly settled the nerves), and a nice bicycle kick from Glen Johnson just before the break.  Stoke had their moments in the first period, and had a good variety of set plays which looked dangerous.  They also have the not-so-secret weapon of Rory Delap’s long throws; they’re boring to watch but they’re unbelievably effective.  You can’t blame Stoke for using it at every oppotunity, and it’s fair to say that Liverpool needed the second goal.

The Reds played much better in the second half, and limited the number of set pieces for the opposition.  It took until the 78th minute though for the lead to be increased, with Kuyt slotting home after a great bit of build up and an exquisite turn and cross from Gerrard.  The game was sealed by a simple Ngog header (from all of 3 inches out) after yet more good work from Johnson.  All in all a good night’s work.

Unlike the last match there are lots of positives to take from the game.  We kept a clean sheet whilst giving a first start to 18-year old Daniel Ayala, who didn’t look totally out of place in the centre of defence.  There was an impressive display by Lucas in the middle of the park and hopefully people will start to get a bit more behind him as he grows in to the role.  Insua had another good game and is a lively runner, even if he isn’t the finished article just yet.  A goal for Ngog gets him off the mark early doors, and can do his confidence no harm.  And maybe most of all was the great attacking impact of Glen Johnson, with a goal and an assist, and the blossoming of an exciting partnership with Kuyt on the right.  Like I said, it was a good night’s work.

Any result is made sweeter when your rivals lose, and tonight had the lovely bonus of Manchester United losing to Burnley (yes, Burnley);  it’s good when you’re not the only team to have lost early on.  I wonder if the papers will write them off so quickly.  I somehow doubt it.

If I’ve missed out anything obvious, blame that internet stream (although you can’t complain for free).

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Piss Poor Punditry

August 15, 2009 1 Comment

Yesterday I wrote a post describing my apathy towards the impending football season (Season’s Greeting), and was beginning to wonder if anything could re-light my fire (so to speak).  Later that day, I found my spark.

As I was driving to my mate’s house last night, I listened to a Premier League preview on Five Live, featuring Pat Nevin and Perry Groves.  They were talking about Spurs when I tuned in, and my ears pricked up when I heard them start to discuss the chances of Liverpool winning the league.  Within a few minutes I was swearing at the radio and trying desperately not to crash, as I attempted to control my rage.

I’ll attempt to convey to you some of the drivel that they were coming out with.  I apologise now if I misrepresent anything that was said, as I am trying to remember it from last night and was annoyed by everything they said (I might well be biased).  I am also not sure which of the pundits said what, so I can’t help you decide which of them is worse.  Here we go:

Benitez has made a massive mistake in selling Alonso.

I can understand the argument that selling Alonso has weakened the Liverpool team, but can the blame for this really be assigned to a Benitez mistake?  Rafa made no secret of his desire to keep Xabi at the club, and insisted on Real Madrid stumping up a massive transfer fee before he’d even speak to them.  Alonso himself made no secret of his desire to move, even (allegedly) putting in a transfer request.   Can you really keep a 27-year old player who doesn’t want to stay, when you have a chance to get a huge fee for him, a fee that you’ll never get again? I can only say that you can’t.

Liverpool are TOTALLY reliant on Gerrard and Torres. If either of them get injured then Liverpool are stuffed.

Like every team in world football, if you lose your two best players, then you won’t be as good.  That’s not exactly rocket science, is it?  But did they bother to check how many times that Stevie and Nando played together last season? I’m guessing not, since the answer is 14 games.  So Liverpool had one of those two players injured for nearly two-thirds of last season and finished second.  I think someone should reconsider their comments.

Numbers 1 to 11, Liverpool are good.  The rest of the squad are hopeless.

It could well be argued that there are weak spots in Liverpool’s squad and that some of the fringe players don’t offer too much.  But are there only 11 good players at Liverpool?  People from opposing clubs debate who is a good player, and who isn’t, almost endlessly on football forums.  The definition of who is a quality player is so subjective as to be almost meaningless.  The only measure that I can think to use is to list players who Rafa will regularly start as part of his rotation system.  The players who I think fit this description are: Johnson, Aquilani, Agger, Gerrard, Torres, Riera, Aurelio, Benayoun, Kuyt, Mascherano, Lucas, Insua, Carragher, Reina, Skrtel.  Now, I don’t expect you to think that all of those players are ‘world-class’ (they’re not), but they did all regularly start for the team that came second in the league… and there are 15 of them.  Outside of those 15, we have a decent backup goalie in Cavalieri, two full internationals in Babel and Dossena, and Ngog, a 20 year old striker with only one season in a new country, who still managed to score 3 goals in a smattering of appearances.  Now, I’d never try and argue that the ‘second 11′ is anywhere near good enough, but they’re not as bad as the black&white merchants would make out.

Aquilani won’t work at Liverpool because he’ll run in to the same space that Gerrard does.

This comment is almost too stupid to comment on.  Yes, Liverpool will have to adapt to Aquilani’s style of play in contrast to Alonso’s.  The key word is ADAPT.  Morons.

Anyway, that concludes my rant.  In the cold light of day, perhaps the comments they were making weren’t as stupid as I am portraying.  It can be very difficult to see what is actually true as a football fan, as you are intrinsically biased.  I do think, however, that these examples do illustrate the one-dimensional thinking that plagues 99% of football pundits working in the media today.  They simply don’t deal in facts, but get an idea based on a gut feeling, and spin it out in to a fully fledged theory, which is stated as fact.  In last night’s programme, the fact that Ngog and El Zhar aren’t established, prolific strikers lead to the conclusion that Liverpool only have 11 decent players.  The lesson that the broadcasters need to learn is that being an ex-player, and not being brain dead, doesn’t  make you a good pundit.

Looking on the positive side though, the anger roused in me last night has got me all fired up for tomorrow’s match. Come on you Reds!

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