Analysis of our Transfer Window business.

Now that the transfer window is closed its a good idea to have a look at the playing squad we are left with to see if we can analyse the impact our dealings have had on the playing squad. Notice I have not said how Roy Hodgsons dealings have impacted the playing squad because its pretty unclear right now as to how much control Roy actually has over the transfers. I am sure he is responsible for some of the business we did but when discussing Insua's possible transfer shortly after his arrival Roy said "I saw him play in the last three days and I like him both as a player and on a personal level. However, talks with Fiorentina started before I got here, so I don’t know how advanced they are. I cannot say if Insua will stay at Liverpool or not. I’ll have to discuss that with the club." This does kind of imply that he may not be 100% in charge of our transfer policy.

OUTBOUND:

The main exit from the Club was Javier Mascherano who went to Barcelona for (reported but unofficial £22m).

Alberto Aquilani left the club on an initial 12-month loan which Juventus have the option to make permanent for£13.2m


Mikel San José, Yossi Benayoun, Martin, Albert Riera, Diego Cavalieri and Krisztian Németh brought in a total of £15.9m in from transfer fees.

Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic were used as part exchange in the deal which brought Paul Konchesky to Liverpool.

At the time of writing Emiliano Insua is still a Liverpool player but reports say he is in Galatasaray to tie up a deal, the window stays open accross most of mainland Europe until 12 tonight so that deal could still very well be completed. At the same time this could end up being an initial loan deal.


INBOUND:

Our main piece of business, or at least highest value, and highest profile was the £11.5 paid to Porto to being Raul Meireles to Anfield.

Milan Jovanovic and Joe Cole both arrived on Free Transfers (Bosman Ruling).

Brad Jones, Jonjo Shelvey, Danny Wilson and Christian Poulson were all brought in for a combined value of about £10.5m, however the fee for Wilson could rise if he hits certain targets laid out in the terms of his transfer.

Paul Konchesky arived in exchange for Lauri Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic.



Analysis:

When analysing our transfers I try to keep in mind the current ownership situation. I always defended Rafa Benitez's transfer dealings because of the constraints he was forced to work under, due to the disrgraceful tenure of Waldorf and Statler (or Hicks and Gillet as they are sometimes know) and this situation has not improved at all for Roy Hodgson.

With regard to our reserve and prospect dealing I feel our transfers have improved us slightly. We may have lost a few players who were prospects and may go on to have decent careers, Nemeth in particular certainly impressed at times for the reserves and who is a prospect, but the 25% of any future transfer fees certainly means that should he fulfil his potential we will still recoup some of our losses. The players we brought in, Wilson and Shelvey both arrive with a lot of experience for their age. Shelvey just completed a season where he starred in the 1st division for Charlton and Wilson was named Rangers young player of the year. Hopefully both players can go on to become regular members of the red's first team squad.
With their transfer fees pretty similar we basically swapped Brazilian Diego Cavalieri for Austalian Brad Jones. I believe both keepers are of a pretty similar in standard and in fairness nobody would expect to have a keeper who actually expects to challenge Pepe Reina for his place. Our reserve keeper needs to be professional enough to be ready if called upon but happy enough to warm the bench and i think we have a keeper who will do this job.

Its harder to judge our first team transfer business. Joe Cole coming in on a free was certainly a good piece of business, he has premier league experience and comes with a winning mentality, he is 29 and so should be right in his prime and ready to fit in immediately. If you take Joe as a direct replacement for the departed Yossi Benayoun, you would have to consider this an upgrade. Jovanovic is an experienced international player who can play a number of positions. Already he has looked a hardworking player with a decent touch. Although he is being played wide on the left he is not a natural winger. He is however a tough and disciplined player who can definitely be useful to us in games against stronger opposition where midfield battles are essential. We did lose Albert Rieira who would have been an option in this position but although he was a natural winger was inconsistent at best, lazy at worst, he was to inclined to moan to the press and there were some rumoured discipliary problems in the changing room so it should be greeted as good news that he has left.
Losing Insua and gaining Paul Konchesky is a strange one. I am aware that a lot of people felt that Insua was a weak link in our defence last year and although at times his naivity was exposed it is worth bearing in mind that he was 21 years old and given a lot more responsibility than he should have been due to injuries to Aurelio. Konchesky is a decent left back who has never really been tried at the top level. Although I dont think he is a great player or will improve us, he will offer decent cover and competition for places, also its important for managers to half certain players they know inside out and can trust 100% and this is obviously the case between Roy and Paul (rumour has it that Konchesky was just about to sign for Birmingham  in June but decided to pull out when Roy whispered in his ear that he may be in line for the Liverpool job and if he got it he would do everything he could to bring him with) I am dissapointed to lose a player who i feel will improve overtime in Insua but really I dont feel we have been weakened in this position for this season.

In midfield we lost Mascherano, or should I say he finally succeeded in forcing his way out of the club. In fairness to Mascher I loved him as a Liverpool player and felt he always gave 100% when on the pitch. He is one of the best players in his position in the world so any team will be weaker for having lost him, however he wanted to leave and so once that was clear we could never really force him to stay. His family were not happy in Liverpool and were living in Buesnos Airies so its only fair that he decided to move to keep them happy. I wish we had gotten more money for him but it appears that even if we had that money would not have been put back into the transfer kitty so it doesnt really matter. We also lost Aquilani who never really made an impact at Liverpool. In fairness his first season at the club was disrupted by injuries then a number of illnesses and then the fact of our season going so poor that Rafa couldnt put him in as often as he would have liked. Aquilani is clearly a quality player who maybe had not adapted to English football 100% but would certainly have been a useful option to have in our squad. I cant really understand letting him go on loan meaning we cannot get a replacement but lose a quality player. As defensive midfielder we brought in Christian Poulson, a good experienced player who Roy worked with earlier in his career. I feel Poulson is a decent player but not immediately a first team regular. I would have been happier to see him come in as an addition to, but not replacement for Mascherano. Raul Meireles who I feel is very exciting in that it seems he will give us a new option and not simply be a replacement for any one player who is leaving the club. He is a box to box dynamic type player who loves a tackle and can use the ball very well.  He could give the side better balance when playing beside either Lucas or Poulson as a player looking to create chances rather than simply retain possession.

Over all I feel we have a decent balance to our side after this transfer window. I would have preferred for us to bring in another striker to help take the weight off Nando and to a lesser extent Ngog but at the same time i am glad we didnt end up paying over the odds for a player such as Carlton Cole just to add an extra body. We have certainly added experience to our first team. I am excited to see how the players gel and how the balance works, if the new players settle quickly we could see some exciting football at Anfield. Some of the problems from last year remain insofar as we are short on numbers and after the first team there is not much strength in depth but if we stay injury free we are a match for any team in the league. Three points against West Brom were a good start but with trickier fixtures coming up we need to hit the ground running.

Liverpool 2 - 1 Trabsonspor (Positives and Negatives)

In this feature called "Positives and Negatives" I will try to look back on each game and pick a few good points and also a few bad points. I am reviewing games in this way because I think there are enough straight forward Match Reports on sites, blogs and newspapers. I also dont really believe in the whole marks out of ten thing that newspapers and some websites do, it very rarely is accurate in my eyes. Even in victory there are things to pick up and improve on (maybe not exactly negatives but points to improve on) and at the same time, after a defeat there can be reasons to not let yourself get too down and remember its not as bad as it seems. This is basically my attempt to remind people that things arent always as black and white as the media make out, there is a grey area between brilliant and shite!

So here it goes, please remember these are only opinions, if you feel differently please feel free to post your comments.

NEGATIVES:

• Poor Passing: This was mainly resticted to the first half in fairness but it seemed to be a deficiency which carried through from the City game the other night. A lot of short passes went astray.

• Too many long balls: When our short game wasnt working too well we seemed to resort to thumping the ball up the pitch too quickly, Styrios and Jamie in particular were guilty of this a number of times. Considering we only had Ngog up front on his own this was very wasteful and simply resulted in giving possession away and inviting another attack.

• Lack of width: Well I think everybody is aware that we dont have any natural wingers at the club, as good a player he is and as much as I love Dirk Kuyt a natural winger he is not. Against Trabsonspor we tried Aurelio out there, as a natural left back he should have provided the width we needed but a poor personal performance from him and too much defensive responsibility negated any width which we needed. This didnt help us to retain possession because the centre of the pitch was too crowded and as soon as players  received the ball they were immediately under pressure. This changed in the second half when Kuyt moved to the left which gave Johnson more room to push forward. One of his runs resulting in our first goal.

• Joe Cole's performance: Without being over critical, he was basically on the perifery of the game without ever really showing his best. As mentioned previously our poor short passing game and our eagerness to play the long ball forward to Ngog contributed to his inability to get involved. At times he showed nice touches without doing the job which was needed, namely retain possession and create chances for others. At one point in the second half he tried to take down a ball into the box with his shoulder when Ngog had made a great run and simply needed the ball to be headed into his path for a strike on goal. I feel that at the moment Joe is trying too hard to please and he will surely calm down when results pick up and the weight is off his shoulders, then we will see the real Joe Cole.

POSITIVES:

• The second half performance: We came back into the game in the second half. Our passing game improved and we started making a bit more space to receive passes. Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly also started pushing on further which gave us a bit more width. We seemed better able to stop Trabsonspors attacks and started to build some of our own. The fact that we were able to pick ourselves up again after another poor performance in the first half shows a good strength of character in the team. It also shows Roy's motivational skills in the fact that we looked a better team that in the first half.

• Martin Kelly's perfomance: Another 90 minutes for Martin Kelly can only help his progression along. I think he looks a really good prospect. He is only 20 not 21 until April until next year but already he looks like he is not out of his depth. He still has a lot to learn but this kind of game in a hostile atmosphere is what should bring him along to the next level.

• The Result: In a game where we never hit top form and where we were missing Gerrard, Torres, Agger, Rodriguez and Jovanovic were missing we still managed to not only get through the game but also record a victory to become the first English team to win in Turkey.

• Confidence: To come from 1-0 behind at half time and win 2-1, with such a depleted squad should give our whole team confidence as the season moves on. It was the kind of result that can kick start our seas, as long as we follow it up with a victory against West Brom on the Weekend.

New Attacking Style?

When Roy Hodgson was confirmed as manager of Liverpool FC the Media Spin machine seemed to go into overdrive almost immediately. Pundits were queuing up to tell us that our new manager would bring with him a new attacking style for kopites to salivate over, he would "release the constraints" placed on the team by Rafael Benitez and would entertain the masses as well as achieving a higher finish than 7th place. There was never really any basis for this view (Hodgson has never been known as a flamboyant manager, more of a pragmatist) but this is what we were told. This view was pushed harder following the signing of Joe Cole, this signing was used as evidence by some of the new attacking intent of Liverpool FC and our manager. A good performance against Rabnoticki seemed to kick this view on again and so the view was now no longer just being pushed by the media it was now accepted by a lot of people who had previously been sceptical. Since then however evidence to the contrary has been coming forward on the pitch. If performances against Trabzonspor and Arsenal in which we gave up a lot of possession and failed to exert our style on the opposition in any meaningful way went someway to curtailing things then a shambolic performance V's Man City should really have put everything into context.

The point of this post is not to slag off our style of play under Roy Hodgson in any way its more to point out that the whole exciting football myth which was pushed, then accepted, then dashed has really only served to undermine the ongoing project which Roy has in hand. It has lead to people being overly dissapointed with 2 results which really were not all that surprising, OK i didnt expect us to ship 3 without reply against Man Cty but at the same time I am not overly shocked that from our first 2 games (Arsenal at home and City away) we have only taken 1 point.

I felt in the Arsenal game we showed the discipline which we should be able to expect under Roy, however i was slightly dissapointed we did not hold posession better when at home. The defensive discipline we showed against the Gooners had lead to me being quietly confident that we might be able to frustrate City, however that confidence proved to be misplaced. The performance was poor, very poor, in fact really it could be an anomily and perhaps should not be taken to heart too much. Mascherano's antics certainly upset our preparations and I believe this could have lead to the (widely criticised) 4-4-2 formation chosen by Hodgson for this game. As a side note, when watching this game i could not help but feel that Aquilani would have been a useful weapon to have in our armoury, either in from the start behind Torres or even to come off the bench, silly to consider such things I suppose now that he is out on loan and no longer available.

At the moment we are still very much a work in progress. While trying not to get too down hearted about the recent results I am conscious of the fact that we are now under serious pressure to beat West Brom and get through to the next stage of the UEFA cup, anything less and I fear Roy will be under serious pressure regardless of how early he is into his project.