Two not so good games!

It was the week before my WPE. Yet I could not look away from the important game vs Standard Liege at Anfield. Liverpool were scraping through with wins against sunderland and middlesborough, and a better display was certainly needed. But it was no different from the first leg at liege. Liverpool never looked dangerous, but this time though Liverpool’s defense was much better and the opposition wasn’t threatening either. This game meant the world to Standard, as they were over-passionate about the whole thing. Of course champions league qualification meant a lot of money and that means they can probably retain their star players and attract more if they did manage to qualify. It could have happened on another day. Liverpool were professional and their experience in the competition made the difference. Both sides were relentless, neither deserved to win, neither deserved to lose. Eventually at the very possible end of a football game, before the lottery of a penalty shoot-out, Kuyt settled it from a fantastic cross from Babel. Yet again, Kuyt rescues the reds in champions league. How he is not worth to the team I dont understand. At least in financial terms, he’s probably worth the 18m price tag that Rafa put on him, now that he has helped Liverpool qualify.

I beg to differ from many Liverpool fans who think Kuyt is useless to the team.

These are the main qualities of Kuyt

1) He’s always there. His positioning and off the ball movement is top class, perhaps even better than Torres’s which I have noticed on several occasions. This according to me is the most important attribute of a striker. Look at Tevez for instance.

2) He closes down very quickly and puts pressure on the defense.

3) He’s to the midfield, what a midfielder is to the defense. He comes to the rescue of a player caught in possession on several occasions. Benayoun is another player who does that a lot.

His bad qualities

1) Poor finisher. This is why he can never be the target man that Torres is.

2) Low confidence on the ball.

3) Not much of a passer/crosser

I am big fan of Kuyt, who I think gets ripped just because he was not a high profile signing. I am sure players of Liverpool would acknowledge his role in the team. Always a player should be rated by Performance X Ability. Even though Kuyt is probably 70% on ability terms, his performance is 100% always.

I dont even feel like describing the Aston Villa game. I wanted to see Barry’s performance. May be even a juicy competition between him and Alonso. Nothing of that sort happened. You could say it was always going to be a 0-0. I just dont think MON is the sort of manager who deserves all these accolades. Liverpool were without major stars, any other team would have attempted to murder Liverpool especially when they were just pulling off some mediocre performances. I have great admiration for Young and Reo-coker. Reo is certainly among the future stars of england. But they were nowhere to be seen. It was a boring game in summary. I dont remember much from the game, I guess that says it all. It might also be because I am too eager to describe the man utd game .

Liverpool V Middlesborough

Date: 8/23/2008

Venue : Anfield

Result : 2-1

Best opposition player(s) : Tuncay.Mido, Huth

Best Liverpool player(s) : Carragher, Gerrard

Verdict : What a match!

This match was at 9 am my time. I woke up 10 minutes late and immediately switched on my computer to watch the game, not even bothering to wake up from my bed. Next time I should just sleep in my Liverpool jersey so that I don’t end up thinking that was the reason why Liverpool lost. But there was no need for all that today, Liverpool won from nowhere, a victory worthy of celebration.

As soon as I tuned in, the game was already going at good pace. For about 5 minutes the ball was seldom on the ground it was headed around the park by the boro and liverpool players. The game was very physical and very quick. Today was not Alonso or Benayoun’s day. Keane was showing quality. Initially both Keane and Torres were rusty. But then I can remember at least four occasions when there were signs of a blossoming partnership. The best move was probably when Keane sold a superb lane change to beat 2 boro defenders and found Torres, only for Torres to miss unbelievably from 6 yards. That was the best chance in the first half. However besides a few scares like that, boro’s defense was efficient at thwarting liverpool’s attacks. Their counters were well orchestrated by downing. Huth and Pogatetz were quite pacey and strong. I would rate them among the top premiership center halves. In the first half I was disappointed with Alonso and Benayoun. Alonso was poor with his corners. It seemed as if they were trying to work out something from the training ground with Gerrard waiting to pounce on anything falling kindly outside the box. However Alonso’s corners never went past the near post and were dealt with ease.

I was expecting a second half like in sunderland, when liverpool managed to up their tempo and passing in the second half. But it looked as if they had to start all over again. To be fair to Liverpool Middlesborough didn’t create many chances as well. But they played an open game, perhaps the right thing to do Vs Liverpool this early in the season. Carragher marshalled the Liverpool defense very well and took good care of Aliadiere and co. Boro’s best chance until then was that of Tuncay. He superbly turned Skrtel with a deft touch only to spoil it with a weak shot. It would have been a classic like the Bergkamp goal had it not been saved. However, the introduction of Mido was very crucial for Boro. I was never a fan of Mido and didn’t rate him when he was with spurs. But he showed good skill on the ball. He was also pacey and strong. Unlike Aliadiere he worked deep. This probably explains why Rafa chose to play Skrtel (or possibly Agger) instead of Hyypia, despite earlier suggestions that Hyypia might be given another start. At about 70 minutes, Mido shot a fantastic low drive past Reina to give Boro the lead and robbing me of fantasy points for Reina’s clean sheet. I was shocked and I felt desperate for possession just like Liverpool’s midfielders. Gerrard showed an increased determination. He stepped up for the corners and free kicks from then on as if to say “Alonso! no nonsense please!”. Rightly so, there were better chances once he stepped up a gear. Liverpool looked like they were going to equalize and no one could ever write off a Liverpool comeback. But there wasn’t much time left. I was praying for a draw, “ok may be arsenal and united will screw up too”, I thought. Even then I was sure Chelsea were going to thrash wigan. Carragher of all people made good use of a loose ball outside the box. His volley was on target and deflected on to goal by pogatetz. Equalizer!! Anfield was alive again. There were only 3-4 minutes plus added time left. I was quite happy with the draw and I even thought that was all liverpool deserved. But then a 93rd minute free kick from outside the box was deflected on to gerrard’s path 20 yards from goal. And when that happens there was only going to be one outcome. GOAL! TOP CORNER! The kind of moments Liverpool fans crave. I was yelling with delight and I immediately felt sorry for Boro. But then this is why Gerrard is a hero to many. This is why teams like spurs and boro dont make it big despite playing a good game. Benitez was quoted saying that he could have imagined many shooting over the bar at that moment, but Stevie would always be on target. It really made my day. And Arsenal did screw up, failing against Fulham, the relegation survivors. Elsewhere Sunderland conquered the Spurs and Stoke ousted villa in a thriller. I am really enjoying these underdog upsets. I just hope nothing of that sort happens against us. We’ve had our share of such things last season. I pray for more luck this season.

Oh! How can I forget? Mike Riley was nothing but SHIT! Do we have any more good refs left?

Fowler close to Rovers Deal

Ok! But why is this news on Liverpoolfc.tv? Fowler may be an ex-liverpool player. Since then he has played for Leeds, City and Cardiff including a short stint again at Anfield. But now he wants to work under Incey at Blackburn. Ok good for him, because I always have believed age has been made such a huge deal when it comes to strikers and midfielders. When goalkeepers who are expected to be the most agile people on the pitch are allowed to pursue their careers until the late 30s in the top flight. All this because pace is given too much importance in modern day football. Paul Ince was manager of MK Dons and I am sure he is used to seeing good players who are in their 30s in their league. In his eyes I guess Fowler should have seemed somewhat younger.

However this news appearing on Liverpoolfc.tv is somewhat ludicrous. Ok I understand at Liverpool all our ex-players are treated with importance. But this is just indicative of the fact that we aren’t chasing anyone at the moment. Also even when Benitez was talking about Alonso the club website chopped off the last bit where he claimed he would like to add a left footed player who could play in 3 positions and that Alonso could only leave at a staggering price to avoid controversy. I managed to read the remainder of the interview on Goal.com. This attitude of Liverpool press disappoints me. It’s high time they changed the layout of the website and they should also better moderate the kind of stuff the club posts as “news”.

Sunderland V Liverpool

8/16/2008

Venue : Stadium of light

Result : 0-1

Verdict : Relieved

Best opposition player: El Hadji Diouf

Best Liverpool player : Torres, Alonso, Benayoun in that order

The first premier league game of the season. Rafa breaks his proven 4-2-3-1 formation to justify the new signing that is keane. Kuyt is still out on the right hand side with benayoun on the left. Clearly Liverpool are no top class team yet without the choice of a specialist in that role. With Gerrard playing in central midfield supporting Keane and Torres, Plessis was brought in, instead of Alonso. I was wondering if Alonso had fallen out of favor. Only later did I realize why Plessis was probably on. Plessis never went forward…never. Playing Sunderland in the first half turned out to be almost like playing Standard Liege except that now we commanded more respect because stevie was starting. Sunderland started the fitter side, out-running the full backs and throwing in testing crosses. Most of Sunderland’s counters were broken because we had 5 men at the back. Dossena rarely went up to the goal line. Diouf was constantly breathing down the necks of Hyypia and Dossena. All we could see of Liverpool were long balls either from Reina, Carra or Dossena. Plessis did well in passing to his back 4. Hyypia almost shocked with a terrible back header that was almost latched on to by Diouf. He then showed his mettle by coming back into the game strongly. Besides a few good runs from benny, there was nothing to be seen from keane, stevie or torres. Kuyt tried to impress his manager on the right side with a few good crosses and some rampant collisions with the opposition. As the commentators pointed out, we didn’t have the width to confuse the opposition. Robbie keane manufactured a chance out of nothing and shot a bit wide of the goal at about 40 minutes. By this time Liverpool were showing some signs of attacking flair.

Liverpool continued from where they left, with a first half substitution of Alonso for Plessis. This seemed like an attacking move and an unprecedented 45 minute change from Rafa. But it was later learned that Plessis had suffered a thigh strain. Alonso made a difference to the game, firstly he was more tenacious defensively. He made Kuyt run after long balls. He was bending it like beckham. And he almost scored from 70 yards…again. Stevie played better with Alonso. Benny was sharper and we saw dominant action from Liverpool as they were asking questions at the sunderland goal every now and then. A rebound from a Kuyt shot on goal was squandered by Keane and Torres, who didn’t quite look like strike partners. Rafa was brave in introducing El Zhar again as Keane was subbed at 72 minutes. The game was heading for a draw eventhough Liverpool played better and Sunderland were showing signs of fatigue. Roy keane was not shy in introducing Michael Chopra, clearly he wanted 3 points. It looked set for a draw, when Torres got space at about 25 yards from goal, which was enough for him to put a powerful strike past the outstretched Craig Gordon’s hands at the near post. It was one of those games in which one and only one goal was enough to decide the match. Liverpool did well to hold on for the remaining 5-6 minutes. Clearly Torres is proving time and again why he’s world class, by single handedly bagging the points for Liverpool. Liverpool need a better team effort vs better opposition and definitely need to sign a winger.

Standard Liege V Liverpool

Result : 0-0

Verdict : Disappointing

Opposition best player(S) : Wilfred Dalmat, Axel Witsel, Igor De Camarago

Liverpool’s best player : Pepe Reina

Story :

I went home at 1.30 p.m. giving up on my research for the day to catch my beloved Liverpool’s first serious game of the season. It was away to Standard Liege, the champions of belgium. Standard Liege is a side that I have only seen in Fifa games and the only belgian side I know of besides Anderlecht. A small club with small players and a manager who had tasted European success with Steua Bucharest during god-knows-when times. This club surprised me in many different ways. Firstly the stadium was great and easily was better than many premiership stadiums. The fans were excellent. The pre-match appreciation of Liverpool players was commendable and the atmosphere was great. The fantabulous support they gave their home side wishing for the upset of the season almost came true. Standard are belgian champions not without a reason. However engulfed we might be with “top-notch” soccer from the premiership and the la liga, it is always exciting to watch the underdogs play their hearts out against 5 time european champions. It was an exciting match… from a Standard perspective however. For a liverpool fan, it’s a night to be forgotten. We started with Pepe Reina on goal, Arbeloa,Carra,Agger and Dossena, Plessis,Alonso, Benayoun, Kuyt, Keane and Torres in a conventional 4-4-2 formation. The opening 15 minutes were a disaster for Liverpool. The Standard players were fit, young and agile. They were closing down on Alonso and Plessis with ease. Alonso did his best to get in to the pocket, but it was all in vain. He sprayed long passes every now and then although not with impressive accuracy which seemed like what we may have to do if we dont have good quality wide players. Plessis did ok, at least he was confident. Dossena impressed me pre-season, but in this game he was a bag of nerves. Arbeloa’s performance was a good testimonial as to why he was an understudy to Sergio Ramos for Spain; they are miles apart. Carra had a somewhat disappointing game and it was unlikely of him to be affected by the situation, especially since he was captain and was influencing the other young players. Alonso’s set pieces delivery was poor. I am a big fan of Benayoun, for 5m imo he is one of the best signings so far. He did well but his performance could have been better. From what I saw of Kuyt: Please! either play him to support torres or as a third striker or sell him. He’s a work horse who can pile up pressure on the opposition player, but I don’t like to see him defending and saving goals like the last man. Arbeloa made an effort to get forward, but both Kuyt and Arbeloa couldn’t do much because of Dante and Witsel of Standard. They seemed too quick for the two of them. Keane showed his clever vision in 2 occasions but he failed to execute the final ball properly. Torres was great at trapping the ball, creating space and winning free kicks at the edge of the box, but the service he got was substandard. There wasn’t a clear cut chance that Liverpool can talk about.

Pepe Reina starred not only because he made the all important penalty save, but he was very bold and took responsibilty in many situations. Agger was good and his physical presence was there to be seen. Stevie came on when there were 22 minutes left and he showed why he’s boss. His corner deliveries were much better. So was his effort from the free kick. I could see he was not his fittest self (may be even a couple of pounds heavier) but his performance was one Liverpool can be happy about. Personally I was happy to see the manager trusting the young gun El Zhar who didn’t disappoint me. I just hope the players are fitter for saturday at Sunderland. At the moment I want Argentina to win their tie vs Holland, so that we can have Babel back.

I also thought Liverpool didn’t show their experience since they were not able to control the pace of the game. I would have loved to see Pennant subbing in for Kuyt, but the reason why he didn’t come on was because it was a game in which the opposition had the upper hand and I wouldn’t imagine pennant performing well defensively. But the thought we are playing Kuyt because he’s winning us balls in midfield seems farcical to me. And we had Voronin on the bench who did quite well in pre-season. Was he there to be used if we were winning the game? I just dont understand where Voronin is going to play this season. May be for the reserves.

Pennant – Good player : but use him or sell him

Kuyt : Good payer but for the role he’s doing get a specialist. Kuyt subs for keane and vice versa

Voronin : Use him or sell him.

Get Babel back, and get a winger someone who is a shade better than pennant and who can tolerate getting benched.

Torres the new Kop legend

Is he the next God after Fowler? Only time will tell. Make no mistake what we have here is world-class material. 28 goals so far in all competitions. The best way to finish this glorious first season for him is by netting the winner in moscow, which I pray should be against Manchester United. That would probably put him ahead of cristiano ronaldo to bag the world player of the year award. Ronaldo is easily the player of the year for me. I do admire his ability from a neutral stand-point, but genuinely I feel that Torres has the potential to be far superior. May be I am comparing different kinds of players, but nonetheless key goal-scorers. What does Torres have in addition to superior footballing skills? He has this quiet arrogance about him. He knows what he can do… never taunted by the opposition, strong in all aspects. The only thing he needs according to me is…a hair cut.

YNWA

Guru