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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Spurs 2 Liverpool 1

August 16, 2009 2 Comments

Well, Liverpool start the league campaign with a loss, and I have a horrible gnawing sensation in my stomach: Welcome back football.  I have a long standing belief that there is no enjoyment in football, and that even the highest highs never quite outweigh the regular lows.  But maybe that’s just me.

I was a little nervy before the match, we’ve not always done as well against Spurs as we should have, and there was the added pressure of the rest of the ‘big four’ winning over the weekend.  With Carragher, Skrtel and Gerrard passed fit, the team looked as you would expect, perhaps apart from the inclusion of Ryan Babel ahead of Benayoun and Riera.

The opening period of the first half was extremely scrappy, largely due to Skrtel and Carragher attempting to undo all the medical staff’s hard work and wiping each other out of the game.  The central defenders had a nasty clash of heads, on 16 minutes, and it took them both a long time (and 12 staples in Carragher’s head) to settle down afterwards.  Skrtel in particular struggled to shake it off, and was forced to take painkillers.

Liverpool’s play remained disjointed for the rest of the half, but Spurs seem to grow in to the game.  On 30 minutes, Robbie Keane missed a golden chance to go ahead, as Reina made an impressive save from close range.  He then made another great save from Keane, just a few minutes later, with Defoe immediately spurning another chance, flashing a header wide.  41 minutes in, Keane blazes another good chance high over the bar.  Despite the Tottenham chances, I still felt fairly comfortable, until, after 44 minutes, Benoit Assou-Ekotto scored with a great strike from the edge of the box.  To be fair, the shot was pretty much unsavable, and there wasn’t a lot that the defence could do.  Liverpool upped the tempo for the few minutes until half time, but it finished 1-0 at the break.  A frustrating half of football, made worse by listening to Glenn Hoddle and Jamie Redknapp saying how much better Tottenham’s squad is than Liverpool’s.  It’s not like Sky Sports’ pundits to jump to conclusions after 45 minutes of football, is it?

The second half started pretty much the same as the first ended, until on 54 minutes, Glen Johnson was brought down in the box by the goalie, following a brilliant attacking run.  Steven Gerrard slotted the resulting penalty away to make it 1-1.

On 58 minutes, done for pace by Defoe, Jamie Carragher brought him down with a clumsy tackle.  From the resulting free kick, Spurs’ new boy Sebastien Bassong scores with a header, 2-1.  I won’t mention the dodgy technicality that meant that Bassong only served one match of a two match ban, and meant that he was available for this game.

67 minutes, and Yossi Benayoun replaced Ryan Babel; Benayoun was one of Liverpool’s star performers towards the end of last season, so it looked to be a positive move.  Babel did little to justify Benitez’s faith in starting him, but I wouldn’t hold it against him, as the whole team were struggling.  Skrtel was finally replaced on 74 minutes, by Premier League debutant Daniel Ayala.  No pressure then for his first game!  Liverpool’s final throw of the dice came on 78 minutes when Andriy Voronin replaced the usually untouchable Dirk Kuyt.

The substitutions made something of a positive impact and Voronin was unlucky not to earn a penalty on 85 minutes.   Sammy Lee got a red card on 89 minutes, for complaining about the ungiven penalty, and it pretty much summed up the frustration of the whole game.  Despite a slight improvement, Liverpool never really got going, and Spurs were definitely the worthy winners.  The match finished 2-1.

I’m not sure that I can take any positives from the game, and I have tried.  About the best I can come up with is that the media will have now already written us off for the title race, and at least that’s a bit less pressure to deal with.  Small comfort.  As much as I struggle to defend today’s performace, I do hope that any media reports on the match highlight the massive impact that the clash of heads had on Liverpool; it totally disprupted the team.

I had written, in my season preview Season’s Greeting, that I was feeling apathetic to the football season.  Sadly, I can report that it is now longer the case; I really wish I didn’t care right now.

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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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West Brom 0 Liverpool 2

May 17, 2009 Leave a comment

West Brom 0 – Liverpool 2

In the end, it turned out to be a good win for the Reds today; the contrast between Liverpool’s muted performance, and West Brom’s fighting spirit was the main feature of the first half hour of the match.  It was only when ‘Geronimo’ Gerrard pounced on a defensive slip that the West Brom’s heads fell a little, and the game become a bit more comfortable. 

This pattern of play was inevitable in a match that the Baggies needed to win to realistically have a chance of survival, and the Liverpool players struggling to get up for what was now a meaningless game.  West Brom had chances to put us under pressure, but the game looked comfortably won as ‘Dangerous’ Dirk Kuyt scored a good solo effort on the hour.  West Brom made a fight of it in the last 15 minutes, and the continued pressure resultied in a bizarre bust up between ‘Crazy’ Jamie Carragher and “Ave a go” Arbeloa.  Let’s hope that the boys kissed and made up afterwards.  The West Brom fans did themselves credit at the end, and stayed to support their players and manager;  there’s no pleasure in relegating a genuine football club.  

On a football related note, I was concerned that I may have come across as somewhat bitter in yesterday’s post (It Is Now).  As it turns out, I needn’t have worried.  Checking out the Liverpool stories on Teamtalk, I came across this story:

http://www.teamtalk.com/football/story/0,16368,1776_5330893,00.html

In it, Rafa basically says that he has to try and buy wisely in the summer as Manchester United have a better, bigger squad than he does, and are in a financially better position to improve.  A pretty reasonable comment I would have said (especially as he will have been asked specifically how he can catch the champions next season).   Then I read the Comments section; apparently I was wrong, Benitez is making outrageous excuses as well as being a unrepentant liar.  I won’t go in to the specifics about what the comments were, and how wrong the majority were – it should be obvious to anyone with half a brain, biased or not.  But, given that most of these remarks come from supporters of a club that’s just won the league, it’s nice to know I’m not the most bitter man in the room.  

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