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 .

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.