Reds On The Rise
Written by Gerry on 9 Feb (34 Comments)

Well I’ve just recovered from celebrating our absolutely superb victory over our wee neighbours at the weekend. All things considered, I think our display in the game has to rate as our best performance of the season so far. There have been occasions over the years when we have beaten the Toffees far more convincingly but rarely have we had a victory over them that has felt so satisfying!

I was unfortunately stuck in traffic when the game kicked off and so I had to listen to the entire first half on a crappy radio reception in my car. So I can’t comment on the Kyrgiakos sending off as I didn’t see it and still haven’t. The commentators on BBC Radio Five were definitely of the opinion that his red card was well deserved but from past experience I’ve learned that their opinions are normally about as much use as a three-legged greyhound, so I tend to take what they say with a healthy grain of salt.

But whatever about the rights and wrongs of his dismissal it certainly turned out to be the turning point of the game. As near as I could figure from the commentary I had to rely on, it seemed up to that point that Everton were just about having the better of things and the sending-off should probably have cemented their superiority but ironically it seemed to have the opposite effect.

Our players gained an extra resolve from the dismissal, our manager showed once again why tactically he is simply the best in the business and our supporters also played their part in lifting the team and were magnificent. I finally reached my destination by half-time so I was able to watch the second half and it is a real testament to our performance that it wasn’t until about the 80th minute that I actually remembered we only had ten men on the pitch.

David Moyes showed his and his teams limitations by not being able to figure out how to make the most of their numerical advantage and in the end we dealt with them quite comfortably. Last season we won several of our games after a member of the opposition was sent off and as a result the pundits on each occasion dismissed our victories as lucky. But Saturday’s victory showed us that playing against 10 men can still be a very tough task unless you have a manager clever enough to make the most of the advantage, which clearly we do and others clearly do not.

I had a lot of fun with my Evertonian buddies afterwards. Normally when I’m taking the piss out of them after a Liverpool victory, they fall back on their old argument about our manager having more money to spend than theirs. But in a game where they had an extra man for almost an hour that argument became null and void, and it’s amazing how quickly they then turned on their manager and their players. Mind you, we seem to have a fair few like that among our own supporters these days so perhaps we better not laugh too loudly!

Deadly Dirk had one of his best ever games in a Red shirt and was our man of the match in my opinion. Just when we needed him most, he’s come up with four goals in four games and must be giving Rafa a little food for thought as he contemplates the return of Torres in a few weeks time.

If we can get Maxi up to speed between now and then, maybe he and Riera can do a job for us on the wings and a Kuyt/Torres partnership might work well for us in a 4-4-2 formation, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. Outside of Kuyt, all of our other players were terrific with the possible exception of Rodriguez who did alright but the game did seem to pass him by at times. However, he is a quality player and I’m sure his performances will continue to grow as he improves his match fitness with more games.

Overall it was a terrific team performance full of grit, determination and some nice football at times. For one reason or another, it’s taken us far too long to hit form this season but with a 17 point return and six clean sheets from our last seven league games it seems we are finally on our way. That said, our form and confidence may still be a little fragile so we can’t afford to get too carried away and must continue to take things one game at a time.

Let’s not forget that our wee neighbours went into Saturday’s Merseyside Derby on the back of a nine game unbeaten run and were full of confidence before it all fell apart and we put them back in their place. So we must maintain our focus as we now head into two massive away games against Arsenal and Man City in the league that might well have a big impact on the direction of the rest of our season.

First up we travel to the Emigrants stadium on Wednesday evening and our away record against the Gooners is pretty crap to say the least. We haven’t beaten them away in ten years, our last nine visits resulting in four draws and five defeats. Of course such stats won’t make a blind bit of difference once the game kicks off but they do show that we have found them to be a tough nut to crack at their place and even a manager as tactical astute as Benitez hasn’t yet managed to mastermind a single victory over them there.

However if we could somehow break our duck and muster a victory over them on this occasion it could be potentially huge in terms of the rest of our campaign. Arsenal have struggled in recent weeks and now sit only 5 points ahead of us so a win would have us breathing right down their necks and make third place a realistic target for us. It would also have the beneficial effect of dragging the Gooners back towards the pack that are currently snapping at our heels.

So the prize for a victory would be significant to us but it will obviously be very difficult to achieve. Speaking after the Everton game, Rafa Benitez said he was a little surprised, given their numerical advantage, that the Toffees continued to play direct, long ball football which we found easier to deal with then we would have done had they tried to play through us, which might have caused us more problems. Well you can be damn sure that Arsenal will be trying to do what the Toffees failed to and they won’t be humping too many easy long balls for our defence to soak up.

The key to this game can be summed up quite nicely. Arsenal will try to control the ball. get into a rhythm and play their football but we’ve got to stop them, and remember to play football ourselves when we get the chance. We will need to show the same kind of grit and determination that we showed at the weekend if we are to come away with some kind of a result.

I would leave Aquaman and Maxi on the bench for this one. I know they both need games and I’m sure they’ll get plenty in the weeks ahead, particularly with the Europa League coming up, but I’m not sure that either of them will be ready to start in this particular game. This is a game where we’re really going to have to dig in and probably try to grind out a result and for that we will need to have our best battlers on the pitch.

So I would have Dagger and Skrtel in the centre of defence, the Carra/Kuyt partnership on the right and the Insua/Riera partnership on the left. Lucas and Masch in the centre of midfield might well turn out to be our two most important players in this one and will need to be at their bruise brothers best to ensure we win the all-important midfield battle.

I’m sure Gerrard will play a little deeper and give them a hand but also keep his eye out for an opportunity to hit them on the counter. Eggnog would seem to be the obvious candidate for the lone striker role but I wouldn’t rule out Babel. I’ve pretty much given up on him at this stage and he didn’t really do himself any favours when he came on at the weekend but if we are going to play on the counter, that pace of his might just be a very useful asset against their defence.

On our travels recently we’ve been extremely good defensively but we haven’t exactly been a John Terry when it comes to scoring away from home! However if our defence can continue the run of solid form they’ve shown recently, then one goal just might be enough for us and I really don’t care if it comes from the penalty spot, a free-kick or goes in off the referees arse.

This is one of those games where my head is telling me it will be a draw and my heart is telling me we could nick it by a single goal. But when it comes to Liverpool I always follow my heart so my money’s on a smash and grab result and us pinching the points with a nerve wrecking 1-0 or 2-1 victory. Fingers crossed and I’m off now to sacrifice a few chickens!

Keep the Faith

(8 votes, average: 4.63 out of 5)

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(34 Comments)

Back To Basics

Well I guess as a Liverpool fan I should be feeling pretty happy right now but the truth is I’ve got mixed emotions at the moment. On the pitch, things are starting to come together for us at long last but off the pitch things are as frustrating as ever and have once again left me feeling as confused as a hungry baby in a topless bar!

Yet another transfer window has come and gone without the manager being given the necessary backing to add some much needed extra strength to the squad. I suppose that shouldn’t be much of a surprise given what’s gone on before but given the teams current position, a couple of decent quality new faces coming in would have given everyone an extra lift and improved our chances of climbing back into the top four and having a good go at the Europa League.

But once again the club’s balance sheet has taken precedence over the team sheet and this seems to have become standard practice at Anfield since the club became saddled with our two lying American owners. For the most part, Rafa Benitez has always really been in a position where he has had to sell players to buy players but he almost always managed to make a profit from his sales and through this method he has been able to gradually upgrade the side over time.

However recent evidence suggests he can no longer even count on the money he makes through player sales to strengthen the side. During last January’s transfer window we sold Robbie Keane back to Spurs for somewhere between £12 and £15 million. The question we all had back then was who would be brought in to replace him but we soon found out the answer to that question was no one!

When you consider how close we came to winning the league last season it is tempting to think that had we used that cash to bring in a quality replacement last January, it might well have helped us to get those extra few points we needed to win it. Still, we hoped that the money from the Keane sale would turn up during last summer’s transfer window to help the boss really strengthen the squad and build on what we had achieved in the last campaign.

Instead of this more players were sold on at a profit and a chunk of that profit along with the money from the Keane sale disappeared, presumably into other areas, and certainly wasn’t put back into the team. And this past January has been more of the same with almost £7 million coming in through player sales and just £1.5 million being spent on our one signing Maxi Rodriguez.

Now considering all of that it seems to me that our club has become unique in the history of football. Throughout all the years going back as far as the foundation of the game, the board of every club existed to provide funds to support the team but at our club these days it seems the reverse is true and it appears that it is the team that is being used to provide funds to prop up the board and it’s a bloody disgrace!

After our game against Bolton on Saturday Tom Hicks, on one of his rare visits to Anfield, was kept inside the ground by security for his own safety for a couple of hours as a few hundred Liverpool supporters protested outside of the ground. These supporters should be heroes to us all and they let Hicks know exactly what they thought of him and his partner and they both should count themselves lucky that these people simply want them to leave, because if it were up to me I’d be pushing to have the pair of them publicly flogged as well!

Anyway, at least football-wise things are going well and we seem to be moving in the right direction. We conceded too many soft goals this season and they have cost us dearly so Rafa has clearly decided to go back to basics and focus on making us hard to beat again and it seems to be doing the trick. Our 2-0 win over Bolton at the weekend means we’ve gone six league games unbeaten and have kept five clean sheets.

Defensively this is a world away from our early season form and obviously a lot of credit must go to Pepe and the rest of the defence as well as Masch and Lucas but I must say I’ve been really impressed by Kyrgiakos. This guy has really taken me by surprise and I think he has been superb in our last three games.

He’s been almost like Sami Hyypia with a bit more pace. To be honest I think the guy is a bit of a thug who almost seems to intimidate the opposing forwards which I think is great, and I’d pay good money to see him take on Drogba. But besides all of that, he seems to be a really good defender and a much better player than I thought.

Dagger is fit again and it won’t be long before Carra can move back into the centre of our defence so Rafa will have some tough decisions to make, but on current form I would definitely like to see Hercules stay in the side particularly in our upcoming game against our wee neighbours.

But while we have been defensively strong, our attack is still not firing on all cylinders and that isn’t too surprising given the fact that most of our creative department is either injured or finding their way back to fitness. Torres, Benny Onion and Glenda are big losses to us on the attacking front and to a lesser extent I think Dagger is also a bit of a loss to us in an attacking sense because of the way he carries the ball into the opponents half instead of hoofing it upfield like the rest of our centre backs.

Of the players we have got available, Aquilani is getting better with each game but he still needs time, as does Maxi. Riera has done well since returning from injury but I still think there’s more to come from him and then we come to StevieG. Form-wise and injury-wise, this has been a difficult season for the skipper. He has hit bad patches of form before in his career but I think this season has probably been his worse spell in a Liverpool shirt. It seems like every time he’s looked like he might be getting back to form, he’s picked up an injury and we have most definitely missed him.

He came through for our youth system and has spent all of his career at the club and I think because of this sometimes we are all a little guilty of taking him for granted but he is a massively important player for us, more important even then Torres. We have shown plenty of times in the past that we are capable of winning games without him, but it’s a damn sight easier with him.

Gerrard is a real difference maker for us and if he can get his fitness and form back it will dramatically increase our chances of achieving what remains of our goals this season, without him it will be a lot tougher and I think that’s the way Rafa sees it as well. After our disappointing 0-0 draw at Wolves some people gave the boss a bit of stick for playing Gerrard for the full 90 minutes and not playing Aquilani but I’m sure that had we drawn or even lost to Wolves with Aquaman in the side, many of these same people would have also given the boss just as much stick for not playing Gerrard, sometimes it’s seems like he can’t win!

The fact of the matter is that whatever you might think about Benitez, I think we can all agree that he is knows all there is to know about the fitness of players, he’s almost obsessive about it. He will have known exactly where Gerrard was in terms of physical and match fitness ahead of the Wolves game. As it turned out Gerrard didn’t play very well against Wolves and he also didn’t play well in the first half against Bolton but in the second half he started to play like his old self again.

I know he would have been helped by the fact that Bolton took off the guy who was man-marking him but even before that guy went off Gerrard was starting to play with more confidence and having a bigger influence on the game. So the net result is the captain will now be raring to go in the Merseyside Derby this weekend and in the other big games we have coming up this month and that is thanks to some good management by the boss.

Had he not gotten the 90 minutes against Wolves under his belt, he wouldn’t have been as ready for our big game at the weekend as he is now and we are going to need him at his best against Everton. So maybe some people should hold off on their caustic criticisms of the boss and his decisions every time a result goes against us and accept the fact that he might know just a little bit more about the game than they do.

The fact of the matter is that the only thing that was disappointing about our game against Wolves was the result. Had we snuck in a goal and took the points, nobody would care about the performance and there would be no criticism of any of the boss’s decisions etc, and that’s one of the things that really bugs me about these people who only seem to come out of the woodwork to spout their shite when we lose or don’t get the result we’re looking for.

I think if you’ve got a valid point to make about the manager, a player or the team in general, that point should stand up whether we win or lose, not just when we lose. It would also help if many of these opinions weren’t so stupid and illogical. I heard a typical example on the radio after the Wolves game as some clown phoned in and moaned about Rafa not playing the same side that beat Spurs the previous weekend and then in his next breath he said, “ and what the hell was he thinking playing Lucas and Mascherano together in the centre of midfield.”

Obviously he had failed to notice or remember that Lucas and Masch had played together in the side that beat Spurs the previous weekend, the very same side he was complaining about Rafa not playing in the first place. But that and similar such rubbish is the kind of crap we seem to hear these days after every bad result and it’s extremely annoying to say the least. I’m not sure what these so called “supporters” are seeking to achieve with all of their piss and vinegar but it seems to me it’s not just our American owners who are set on ruining our club and I wish the whole bleeding lot of them would piss off.

Anyway, on to our game against our wee neighbours at the weekend and I’ll keep this short because I’ve already gone on long enough. Fitness permitting, I think Rafa will go with the same side that beat Bolton on Saturday although he might be tempted to throw Dagger back into the side.

As I mentioned early, Hercules has been playing very well at the centre of our defence and so has Skrtel but Dagger is a lot better at playing the ball than the both of them and in a tight game, as this is sure to be, having an extra player on the pitch who can pick out a pass might just make a difference and may see him getting a start. The other selection dilemma for the boss will be deciding between Lucas and Aquilani.

If we were playing away at Goodison I’d be certain he would go with Lucas but the fact this game is at Anfield means he might just decide to stick with Aquaman who is improving all the time. He did very well to get that header to Kuyt for our first goal against Bolton, just as he also did well to assist Kuyt for the first goal against Spurs. So it will be interesting to see which way the boss will go with this one but I suspect if we are going to try to outplay them it will be Aquaman but if we going to try to outfight them it will be Lucas, who is a terrific battler for us in midfield.

Overall this is obviously going to be a really tough game. Everton are in a bit of form at the moment and we’re not doing too badly either. I suspect the bookies might be favouring a draw but my money’s on us nicking the points with a hard fought 2-1 win.

Keep the Faith

(31 votes, average: 4.81 out of 5)

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(218 Comments)

Dances With Wolves

I was feeling as depressed as a turkey on Christmas Eve over the weekend watching all those FA Cup games because I still feel a bit bitter that we are no longer involved in the competition, especially when I look at the teams left in it. Had we got our game together just a little bit sooner I think we would have had a great chance of going all the way, but there’s no point in crying over spilt milk.

The only reason I drag up our lame FA Cup exit is because the lingering disappointment of it distracted me a little from our recent league form which has actually been pretty good, or perhaps I should say results-wise it’s been pretty good. While there has been some improvement in our play lately we are still by no means firing on all cylinders.

I still think that even with the players we have sidelined at the moment we are capable of performing a lot better, but there has been a definite improvement recently and we have managed to take 10 points out of 12 in our last four games which has put us right back in the frame for a top four spot. We were very unlucky to drop two points at Stoke but that’s still a damn fine return particularly in our current circumstances and the players and manager deserve great credit.

Tomorrow we go dancing with Wolves at Molineux and it’s a game we must win, let’s face it every game between now and the end of the season is a must-win for us now. Under normal circumstances a trip to Wolves wouldn’t be particularly a daunting task for us but if there’s one thing we’ve learned this season, we can take nothing for granted.

In fact even history tells us we must be on our guard. I was checking some stats recently and was very surprised to read that our last five trips to Molineux have resulted in three defeats and two draws, our last victory there came in 1979 courtesy of a rare Alan Hansen goal. I know those stats won’t mean a damn thing tomorrow but maybe Rafa should pin them up on the dressing room as a little word of warning to our players ahead of the game.

Our options for the game have been boosted by the earlier than expected return of Steven Gerrard from the hamstring strain he picked up against Reading. However with our “two man” team performing very well in the absence of those two men in our last couple of games, I don’t think the boss will feel under as much pressure to rush back the skipper. I suspect he may keep him on the bench and give him some time later in the game to get him ready for our next game against Bolton.

So I think that, depending on fitness, he might well go with the same team that did so well against Spurs and hold off on starting both Gerrard and Rodriguez until we face Bolton. As far as Wolves go, they have found goals difficult to come by and have only scored 17 in their 21 league games this season, and haven’t scored any in their last three. So let’s hope they don’t start tomorrow and Hercules and Co can continue their recent good form at the back and get us out of there with another clean sheet. Any type of win will do for me but my money’s on a repeat of the scoreline when we faced them at Anfield, 2-0 to The Reds.

In other matters, I’ve been keeping up to speed with what’s been happening on the transfer front. There seems to be a certain amount of interest in Ryan Babel and a transfer fee in the region of £9 million has been reported. At the start of the season I argued that we should keep Babel, my reasoning being basically because we had already spent so much time and money on developing him that it would be a shame to see another team reaping the rewards of our efforts.

However I’d now be happy to see the back of him. The guy is obviously a complete moron and now seems to be more hassle then he’s worth, so provided Rafa is able to use the funds from his transfer fee to fund a replacement, I’d be very much in favour of him going. I actually think Maxi was brought in to be his replacement whether it be during this window or the next but I hope it will be this one and the gaffer is able to use the cash towards bringing in a striker.

With Torres out for six weeks we badly need more cover in attack and it can’t wait until the summer. Kenwyne Jones would appear to be one of the main options being looked at, at the moment with Rafa confirming that Christian Purslow is having talks with Niall Quinn. I notice some people are already debating whether this guy is good enough for us but as far as I’m concerned that’s up to the manager to decide. Only he will know what type of player he is looking for and if he thinks he’s good enough, that’ll do for me.

Keep the Faith

(19 votes, average: 4.47 out of 5)

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(330 Comments)

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