What a win against Udinese could bring

So here we are, 5 hours to kick off in a game which, if we dont win would see us eliminated from a competition that many people didn’t want us to be in in the first place.


Things have changed since we first qualified for the competition. Most Liverpool fans I have spoken to want us to qualify from our group and make it to the knock out phase of the competition. The first time I noticed the shift in how people felt about this competiton was walking out of Anfield after we had allowed Young Boys a share of the spoils in a game where we had been sitting comfortably. The disappointment and in some cases anger on the faces of the Kopites showed that suddenly, this competition mattered.

The Europa League, to put it bluntly, is not a pretty competition. It is the uglier, slightly plumpier sister of the beautiful, slinky Champion League. It cant offer us prestige, it cant offer us vast amounts of money hell even if we win the thing we will have made significantly less than a team who made it through the group stages of the Champions League. It does have its uses though. It can offer us experience. Our younger players are getting a crash course in life as a professional footballer this season. They are experiencing highs and lows, games you are expected to win and games you find impossible to win. This will make us, and the players themselves, all the more stronger next season and even the season after that. the Europa league is something else though., it is European competition. Our young lads are going to experience something most of them have not had before, a do or die 90 minutes on foreign soil. Its not just the players either, when it comes to European experience our young manager is also operating at novice level. To win games like this breeds confidence and teaches players how to win. Its not just for this years competition that we need to win, it could be for the experience our players can bring into next seasons Champions League....

Liverpool 1 - 0 Southampton (Talking Points)

Liverpool got back to winning ways with a decent win over a struggling Southampton at Anfield on Saturday. It is a difficult game to some up, we played very well at times, should have put the game beyond the struggling Saints, didn't manage to score the 2nd goal and so ended the game with a nervousness which was not becoming of our stylish play throughout the game. There there were plenty of positives to take from the game not least of which being the simple fact of getting 3 PRemier League points at Anfield for only the 5th time in 2012. As ever there were some negatives too but overall i felt a lot more positive about how we may go forward from here after the game.

Now we fu*kin' love him:    
The return of Lucas to the starting line up was the most welcome surprise I got that day, (until later Saturday evening when I walked into my own surprise 30th birthday party arranged by my beautiful wife and nearly jumped through the roof) We had known of course that Lucas was in contention for a place in the squad but I think most presumed that he would be entering the fray from the bench. While we all have to be careful not to expect that the return of the great Brazilian stopper would be the end to all of our troubles, it was nice to see that some of the things I felt he would help us achieve were clearly evident in his 86 minutes on the pitch. Not only did he perform impeccably himself even though it is simply not possible that he is fully match fit after only 45 minutes for the U21 side, his return immediately lifted the performance of others who had had to temper their own games to make up for his absence. Joe Allen and Steven Gerrard were able to take up much more advanced positions which came much more naturally to them than the roles they had been asked to fill over the last few weeks. In fact the shape of the entire team looked a whole lot more balanced with Jose Enrique returned to his preferred full back position, and Glen Johnson returned to his natural spot at right full, it was clear to see that both felt much more comfortable travelling forward to support attacks, safe in the knowledge that should the ball be lost there would be some cover making its way to fill in. Lucas is quite simply the best defensive midfielder in the league and while it's clear that he will never be the man to score the goals that win the headlines, his very presence on the pitch can be enough to provide an attacking impetus to the side.

Its only Southampton:
Of course this is true, but at this stage of our development these are exactly the kind of games we have to be winning. In fairness, to give it your all and beat one of the top 4 gives you a great feeling and it can lift the optimism of fans and players not to mention the luxury of the bragging rights but until we can consistently beat the teams we are expected to beat, once off wins against the big boys will not make that much difference to our final league positions. The hard fact is that the fixture computer did not give too much leeway to Brendan Rogers at the beginning of the season. We had a run of games which meant it was clearly going to be difficult to put together a huge amount of points unless everything clicked immediately. We all know that that did not happen, although we can also accept that had it not been for some tough decisions and some bad luck without doing too much more, we could easily be 5/6 points better off from even the most difficult of those games. As we approach Christmas, and its run of games which comes thick and fast we have a number of games from which we can realistically hope for a high number of points. And with this in mind, Southampton was a great dress rehearsal and a great result to start off with. whisper it quietly but if we can manage to rack up a number of wins in succession it could feasibly become realistic to start targeting top 4. As of right now we are only 7 points behind Tottenham, which is certainly not an insurmountable gap.

When he scores a volley or when he............. uses his hand:     
OK, so its a pity that the 5th yellow card which leads to a one match ban for our favourite Uruguayan was received in such a silly and utterly avoidable fashion but what is done is done. For what its worth, I honestly think that this was a simple reflex action which was driven by the insatiable desire to win we all know he possesses, much like the other hand ball he is famous for was. Its difficult to know what BR is going to do in this situation, it could be an opportunity for a youngster to come in and stake a claim, but from watching the Europa League it doesn't seem like there are any of the deputy strikers which BR deems ready. If he had his eye on any of them I think they would have started more games in that competition so i think its unlikely they will come in. It's a pity because I've liked things i have seen in both Yesil and Morgan but to be fair to BR he has shown that he is to be trusted completely when it comes to the progress and the state of readiness where the youngsters are concerned so I would not questions his decisions there.. One Europa League experiment could be given another try however with Jonjo moving into the striker position as he did against Young Boys at Anfield. It seems that BR likes him in this advanced position although I am not totally convinced just yet. Although I am pretty sure it won't happen I would really like to see Steven Gerrard get the nod up top. Although I’m sure iI don't need to describe how good of a finisher he is, to me it makes perfect sense. Perhaps BR see's a forward role for Jonjo as something which will be more frequent in his future and if thats the case this provides a perfect opportunity to familiarise him further. For my money though, if someone is going to be on the end of a chance I would much prefer it to be Stevie rather than Jonjo.

You're either with us or against us

Its kind of hard judging Liverpool at the moment. In fairness if you asked me right now what i think about how we're doing my answer would be much the same as it would have been at the start of the season, basically we'll have to see how it pans out.

Where Spurs supporters, whose manager has been in place for a similar timeframe as Brendan Rogers, have seen fit to boo their team off their home pitch at least 3 times this season our own manager has seen his name sung by the anfield faithful a number of times. Just to put that into perspective, spurs currently sit in 5th place joint on points with Everton where Liverpool are currently in 12th 6 points of the champions league qualification.

Its not simply blind faith by fans either. if we look at things realistically there is no hiding the fact that after 10 league games under Hodgson we had more points than at the same juncture under Rogers and after those 10 games fans discontent with Hodgon was made widely known at most available opportunities, granted this was somewhat by his own doing in that (fabulous orator that he is) he specifically asked to be judged after 10 games. I have heard some Liverpool fans wondering why we should keep faith with Rogers when Hodgson was so readily cast away by supporters (an belatedly the owners). it is pretty simple really. What we have been able to see so far from Rogers is forward thinking where the only thing Hodgson could look to was the past. There is something to buy into under Rogers where all the Hodge could offer was a face scratch.

The problem Rogers has right now, is that unlike Rafa Benitez for example, he has nothing to point to on his CV to convince you that he can turn this situation around. There is no track record on which to lean. Using Rafa as the example, when struggling in the league in his first season we could look to his 2 La Liga titles for reassurance. With Rogers it is promotion to the PL with Swansea and one season where they performed better against expectations in the PL. Its not exactly reassuring. What is tangible though is what we can see on the field. We have seen our side dominate possession in most games this season. We have seen the blooding of youngsters, some as young as 17 slotting seamlessly into the side. I know full well that at times last season under Kenny we saw some beautiful passing football but it was rarely alongside the type of control we have seen so far this season.Its not much to cling too but its something. Whether that domination can start to turn itself into points is another story, if we are to take this as a starting point then its a good position to start from. If we can win the control of games, it can't take that much to turn winning control into winning matches.

A major problem at the moment is scoring goals. At the moment we have only Suarez who looks likely to score in any game, we really need to start sharing the goals throughout the team. Gerrard, Shelvey and Sterling have all had big opportunities over the last few weeks but  many for whatever reason the confidence to just stick it in the back of the net is lacking. Whether that will simply come with time or it is a more chronic problem time will tell but if we can make an astute signing in January to help out in this respect then i’m sure that things will improve quickly.

To break things down, it seems we have a side who cannot score, but can dominate possession. In this situation we wouldn't be in too bad of a state if we were solid at the back, but unfortunately it seems we are prone to shipping weak goals. The funny thing is our Centre Back partnership still looks like one of the best in the business on paper. I honestly think our first priority MUST be to sort out our defence and stop shipping goals. If we're not conceding so many we could maybe get by, even with our poor scoring record.  I think the re-introduction of Lucas can instantly improve our shape and make us stronger defensively while also improving out attack by moving the likes of Allen to his more natural advanced position.

As for Rogers I can honestly only say that i'm not making any judgements just yet. I've seen enough to mean that i still believe in what he is trying to achieve, but i can't honestly say that he definitely WILL achieve this. I don't subscribe to this idea that everything is black and white. Its not as simple as simply being for or against the manager, its not as simple as saying we are a shit team or a great team. Right now we are in transition. We’re not sure what we are going to get out of this season, and we are not sure what we are going to get out of this team. Performance wise we have seen improvements, even if they have not been accompanied by an improvement in points tally. I still support what this manager is trying to achieve, but it is too early to judge how successful we have been, or even can be.

At what point does the result become more important than the performance?

Liverpool are currently in the middle of their worst start to a league season for 10,000 years.... or something, maybe its not that long but its BAD, Sky Sports told me so! We opened the season with a poor 3-0 defeat away to West Brom, got a battling draw at home to the defending Champions, suffered defeat to an impressive Arsenal and had another battling draw at Sunderland. These results were poor but worse was to come with a home defeat to fierce rivals Man Utd. This run of league form has left us with a points haul which is paltry in any man’s language, except a German man, in his language its “dürftig”. The total is 2 points from a possible 15. I can hear you say it, “this is Liverpool?”. Surely the fans have had enough of this manager already. Surely they are booing the team off the park and a baying mob is gathering outside Anfield every night with pitch forks and flaming sticks demanding the player’s head on a plate? Well the thing is, they are not..... and dont call me Shirley! The reason they are not is because, through this haze of poor results, there has been a level of improvement. There have been bumps of course, its not been a complete incline. Against City we looked strong, but we lost a little something going into the Arsenal game. We battled at Sunderland but didn’t set the world alight. 

           Then came the international break, which was immediately followed by our first “proper” Europa League game against Young Boys of Berne. Going into this game I had passed comment that I had yet to see a proper show of Rodger’s influence. There had been glimpses but nothing tangible enough to convince me that we were on a steady path. Then Rodger’s made the decision which most fans agreed with by throwing our Young Boys into the game against Berne’s Young... (yeah you’ve all heard the joke by now, I’ll spare you). What followed was an exhibition. Again it wasn’t infallible, we conceded 3 goals, but we came back twice to win a game away from home and we dominated the game for the most part. Its a competition few care about (I do, but we’ll speak about that again) and we put out a junior team, not even a reserve team, this was a team of mostly youth players. With that in mind, it shouldn’t have bothered most fans what we managed to do. The win and performance by a team far removed from our first 11 in a devalued competition shouldn’t have meant anything. It did though. It struck a chord. It showed us what was possible. It showed us this manager has a plan, and when its followed, this is what can happen.

The main men returned for the next game, the big one, the home tie versus ManU. From the first minute, Liverpool looked up for this one. The immediate effort and commitment maybe owes some credit to the magnitude of the game following the Truth about the 96 deaths at Hillsborough finally being released to the wider public, but the quality of the performance does not. The quality could only have come from the mentality preached by the manager and the talent of the players. We even went down to 10 men after 20 minutes or so but still the performance levels remained and we held control of the game for the most part, even taking the lead at the start of the second half. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be in the end, the numerical advantage took its toll in the long run and a more than dubious penalty decision offered the 3 points to ManU and they took them without a question. At the end of the game, fans were understandably disappointed but few were downhearted. The only frustrations which were spoken were those against the referee.

The kids returned, along with a significant new face to beat a strong West Brom side at the Hawthorns in the Carling Cup. The significant new face is another reason for the optimism of the fans as Jerome Sinclair became the new holder of the record for youngest ever Liverpool player in a competitive game, in a funny twist of fate Sinclair was on the pitch at the same time as the previous record holder Jack Robinson. This was another strong performance and another new face Nuri Sahin managed to score his first goals for the club.

From what I have written above I think its pretty clear to see why Liverpool fans are keeping their chins up right now and why optimism is trumping pessimism at the moment. But that is exactly what brings us up to here and the question which opened this article, at what point does the result become more important than the performance? Up to now we’ve been able to acknowledge the fact that our opening to the season was particularly difficult in itself, when you put on top of that the new manager and the forming of a new team plus implementation of a new mentality certain allowances were always going to be made. The way the team has been improving over that difficult start has made the allowances last a little longer, but that difficult start is past us now. What we are facing into is a run of 3 very winnable games. First up comes Norwich away and while we have been able to take good performances up to now, and we will expect a good performance on Saturday too, will that be enough or would the fans forgo a performance at this point for the sake of 3 points? I mean, of course, in an ideal world we would have both but as we have learned over the last few season, just because we should, or could, win doesn’t mean we will. If that turns out to that we do not win but keep our performance levels will the patience of the fans be extended or will the pressure suddenly be heaped upon the manager? I’d be interested to see people post their own opinions in the comments section below to know what people think. Lets hope this is a question which doesn’t have to be answered just yet. There is plenty to be optimistic about, if we can get our first league win under Rodgers on Saturday the fans will have something tangible to hang their belief on and will help him prove himself to the players and encourage them to keep working with them. If not..... well, we’ll have to look at that next week.

The Truth.... Finally

THE TRUTH..... Finally. The survivors, the families of the 96 who lost their lives, the loved ones, the friends, the people of the city of Liverpool and all supporters of Liverpool FC saw the Truth finally made public to the rest of the world. Finally there has been acknowledgment from the government of the cover up and finally the names of the 96 victims as well as all Liverpool supporters who attended Hillsborough on April 15th 1989 have been cleared of ANY wrong doing whatsoever. David Cameron said “On behalf of the Government – and indeed our country – I am profoundly sorry for this double injustice that has been left uncorrected for so long.” It is a travesty that it has taken this long for the truth to come out, but finally, FINALLY, it has come out. 

People who have watched any decent documentary, the TV dramatization by Jimmy McGovern or read any of the true stories of what happened that day will have already been fully aware that there was injustice to fight against. Those who asked the question of "why will they not just let it go" will hopefully have finally received their answer today too. I can only hope that small minded idiots who let petty club, city or personal rivalries make excuses for their disgusting chants of "Murderers" or "You killed your own fans" will take a long, hard look at themselves today. I am aware that this is only a minority in any club but I wont need to remind Liverpool fans that it was only this year that fans of a certain blue London club interrupted the anniversary's minute silence with their disgusting chants. The mind-set for people outside of Liverpool to believe the un-true version events was orchestrated by the Police Service and facilitated by the media in particular The S*n. The report has shown that there was a conscious police effort “to develop and publicise a version of events that focused on…allegations of drunkenness, ticketlessness and violence.” This clearly shows exactly what has lead to the widely accepted myth that it was the Liverpool supporters themselves to blame. Many media outlets reported the lies, however, The S*n (which was the most read newspaper in England at the time sensationalized this further with a banner headline "The Truth" which lead a story containing nothing but lies. It is known that this headline was written by Kelvin McKenzie, the rag's editor at the time. McKenzie today issued an apology which was described by leader of the HFSG as "too little too late". Hopefully, the fact that the report has proven and the Prime minister himself has stated that these stories are complete lies will force people to forget the lies they were fed back then and adjust their minds to the actual truth. 

This report is of course only the start. The reports findings have proven that the verdict of Accidental Death in all cases is a farce and a thundering disgrace. The 3.15 cut off point robbed a number of the families of justice and meant that any evidence after this time has never been considered by any court. Speaking at the vigil this evening, Anne Williams made clear that she will now be submitting the evidence she has collected to the Attorney General, for the 6th time and the 6th Attorney General, in the hope that the verdict in relation to her own son will be reversed and a new inquest can begin.

The Truth has finally come out, but this is just the beginning. The fight for justice will continue...

I've put some of the reaction from some of the important people from today below as well as links to the full report and access to the fully disclosed documents.

Sheila Coleman, spokeswoman for the Hillsborough Justice Campaign: "Of course [the apology] is welcome, because it is an acknowledgement that Liverpool, the bereaved families and the fans have been telling the truth for years and yet have been considered liars. Without doubt the inquest verdicts have to be quashed. David Cameron batted this back to the attorney general. The attorney general needs to surely, with the evidence presented to him today and the evidence previously presented to him, must quash the inquest verdicts in all cases. With the clear evidence that fans could have been saved - and the evidence is there - he needs to give all of those 96 victims their right under law, the right to a fair hearing. It needs a full inquiry into how they died."

Margaret Aspinall, chairwoman of the Hillsborough Families Support Group, whose son James died, told the AP news agency: "This is what the families and the fans have been fighting for 23 years. Without the truth, you cannot grieve and where there is deceit, you get no justice."

Trevor Hicks, who lost two daughters in the disaster: "The truth is out today, justice starts tomorrow." He added that the families will pursue "any avenue" in their search for "accountability". Mr Hicks said that three people fainted when relatives saw the report. During a press conference with victims' relatives, he said the families "knew nothing about the incompetencies of the ambulance service until today", and that while they had been "staggered" by the level of incompetencies, he did not blame "the guys on the shop floor". Mr Hicks also rejected former Sun editor Kelvin MacKenzie's apology over the newspaper's coverage of the disaster as "too little, too late".

Anne Williams lost her son Kevin at Hillsborough. She has campaigned tirelessly for justice, forming the Hope for Hillsborough campaign. Previous requests for a second inquest into her son's death have been refused. Speaking at a vigil on Wednesday in Liverpool, Mrs Williams said that her lawyers would be submitting papers to the attorney general demanding a second inquest into the death of Kevin and insisted "they can't refuse me this time". She warned the establishment she "will never go away", adding: "I want justice for the 96."

The Right Reverend James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool and chairman of the panel: "The documents disclosed to and analysed by the panel show that the tragedy should never have happened. There were clear operational failures in response to the disaster and in its aftermath their were strenuous attempts to deflect the blame on to the fans. The panel's detailed report shows how vulnerable victims, survivors and their families are when transparency and accountability are compromised. My colleagues and I were from the start of our work impressed by the dignified determination of the families."

Tom Werne, Liverpool FC chairman said: "On behalf of myself, John (Henry, club owner) and everyone at the club, I would like to extend our thoughts and prayers on this hugely significant and deeply emotional day to everyone affected by the Hillsborough disaster. Today, the world has heard the real truth about what happened at Hillsborough. As a football club, we will continue to remember those who died and support the families who lost loved ones on that terrible day. We hope that today's findings will give some comfort to the families and survivors, and go some way to addressing some of the key questions that have hung over the Hillsborough tragedy for the last 23 years."

Liverpool Football Club said in a statement: "Liverpool commends the Hillsborough Independent Panel report which acknowledges the avoidable catastrophic failures before, during and after the disaster. The club also welcomes the prime minister's apology to the families and survivors on behalf of the government and await the attorney general's pending review of the report. After 23 long and painful years, our fans have finally been fully exonerated of all blame. Today, the world knows what we have always known, that Liverpool fans were not just innocent on that terrible day, but that there was reprehensible and hurtful misrepresentation of the truth. Liverpool Football Club would like to thank the Hillsborough Independent Panel for its rigorous work over the past two-and-a-half years and for publishing a comprehensive report based on the in-depth research and analysis into hundreds of thousands of documents."

LINK TO THE PANELS FULL REPORT 

(to download a copy, right click and choose "Save As")

Q&A for the Season Ahead

A lot of websites and forums run Q&A sessions with their members/writers at this time of year which focuses on the year ahead. Well as this is a one man operation I decided to write my most schizophrenic article to date.

The idea of this really is to show what my thinking is and put my hopes and expectations on record so we can look back on this, maybe mid season and, at the end of the season to show how woefully incorrect I have been on all fronts

Liverpool

How many points can Liverpool get this season?

Well last seasons paltry total was 52 points, it seems we have a lot of work ahead to improve. In saying that though we were unlucky on many occasions last season. I think it wont take that much to improve that total by 10 or more points. I’ll stick my neck on the line and say 68.

What would your starting 11 be as of right now?

Same as Rodgers’ against Gomel with Joe Allen coming in for Shelvey.

Reina, Johnno, Enrique, Agger, Skrtel, Lucas, Allen, Gerrard, Downing, Suarez, Borini

What position do we need to strengthen before window closes?

I still think we may still be short up from (especially if big Andy leaves). The links with the loan signing of Barcelona youngster Christian Tello look promising. I think we may also be short a skilful wide forward who can beat a man, but that may not be so important with the full-backs bombing on and certainly capable of beating a man. I would like to see us add another striker, whether or not big Andy stays.

Who would you be happy to see leave before the window closes?

We’ve already allowed more to leave than we have had join so far so I wouldn’t want to deplete the numbers too much. Having seaid that, I dont think it would be in anyway detrimental to see Charlie Adam and Joe Cole leave the club.

Which Youngsters can make the breakthrough this year?

I think everybody is excited by the prospect of Raheem Sterling finally making the breakthough. I can see him getting some more game time but I wouldn’t expect him to make the jump to starting a lot of games just yet. I think maybe 10 appearances or so will help his progress greatly. I think that without a back-up left back to Jose Enrique this could be a really big year for Jack Robinson. I think he looks a real prospect and should at least find a regular spot on the bench this season.

How Many games will Danny Agger play?

Providing he stays with the club, I think his fitness issues are now behind him. Hopefully he wont be asked to play 2 games in a week unless it is extremely important. Once he is managed right I see no reason why he cant improve on last years record and play in appx 30 league games.

 

How many goals will Borini score?

From the limited sample size we have had so far it seems he knows where the back of the net is. He has played in England before so hopefully it wont take him long to get used to the hustle and bustle of the Premier League. I wouldn’t like to put too much pressure on him. I think everyone would be more than satisfied to see him score 10/12 league goals this campaign. If anything happens to Suarez meaning he ends up playing a more central role he may even achieve more.

How many goals will Suarez score?

I am convinced that the team will be better set up this year to provide chances for Luis. Last season it seemed at times that he was trying too hard. He was required to make his own chances mostly and it seemed that by the time it came to get a shot away he was tired this resulted in a tame, or off target, shot. This season he will hopefully be able to play a lot of games with Stevie G, there were roots of a partnership starting to take hold in pre-season. Realistacally we probably shouldn’t hope for more than 15 goals, which would be an improvement on last year. However, I’m going to be bold and predict that our Uruguayan will break the 20 goal mark.

Will Andy Carroll stay this season (If so, how many games will he start)?

Its looking more and more likely that Andy will stay at the club. I dont think that Rodgers’was as desperate to get rid as many have said, I think its more a case that he was a saleable asset and so he would have cashed in. Without a concrete offer though I think he will stay. If he does, I dont think Rodgers is the kind of man who will ignore him purely because his supposed inability to fit the system. I think if he stays he will get a decent chance to prove himself. Not that this will be easy, barring injury to others his appearances will be sporadic and he showed last season that he usually needs a run to hit his full potential. There is a theory that all this transfer news has simply been orchestrated by Rodgers as a motivational tool for Andy. I think he will get 8/10 league starts plus a fair few sub appearances. He will get a lot of games in Europe and the cups too.

Premier League Overall

Who will win the League?

I think it will be between Utd and City again with City using the experience they picked up last season to eventually win the title

Who will make up the top 4?

I think its most likely to be City, Utd, Arsenal and Chelsea though not necessarily in that order. If Brendan Rodgers gets his ideas across quickly and we pick up some strong early results it may be possible for us to challenge but I think its too early to realistically expect top 4. Spurs are in a similar situation right now with AVB.

Who will be relegated?

I would love to see Fat Sam fail, but I think he probably has too much experience for that. I hope things work out for Steve Clarke at West Brom but I’m afraid they may be in danger. Other than that, Southampton look quite weak and I think Wigan could this time fail in their usual bid for late survival.

Which team will be the surprise package?

I think Villa should improve a lot under Lambert. But I am confident Reading will be very strong under Brian McDermott, maybe not top half but i'm sure they will be safe from relegation with a few weeks to spare.

Who will win Player of the Year?

Steven Gerrard now that he’s been returned to the advanced position he was so successful in under Rafa Benitez he will score a lot, create a lot and he’s liked by the general public in a way Luis Suarez can never be.

Who will be the first manager to be sacked?

I think its between Roberto Di Matteo, Mark Hughes and Steve Clarke...... I’m going to go with RDM.

Fantasy Premier League 2012/13

With the new season almost set to get underway, and along with that a lot more blogging from me. I thought I would start off the season by creating another league for the readers of The Red Article. We'll have periodic updates on the site which will hopefully keep it competitive throughout the season.

If you were in the league last year all you need to do is set up a team and you'll be added automatically

If not, its quick and easy to set up:

Just click on this link http://fantasy.premierleague.com and create your team. once you've created your team click on "Leagues", then click on "Join League", select "Private League and click next. Next, enter the League Code 529590-287546

This Year I have also set up a Head-to-Head league the code for this is 537744-281033

Once thats done your all set up! Feel free to pass the league code to anyone who wants to join.

Brendan Rodgers

Well, following the quotes from the Swansea board it seems inevitable that Irishman Brendan Rogers will soon be announced as Liverpool FCs new manager. Its an appointment that will disappoint many, mainly due to his name being quite low profile,  but its one which seems to make some sense when you look at it more closely. I would just like to make clear at this point (i dont think it is any secret) that my preference would have been the return of Rafa, but I can understand the reasons why FSG would have avoided this. I’m disappointed that they decided to not even discuss the role, or seek any discussions with him, but I don't think this is the correct time to discuss that in full. In the same way that we had to accept the exit of Kenny, I will have to accept this and look forward with this new appointment,

Over the last few weeks as the number of names bandied about increased daily, I must admit that one name which i paid very little attention to was that of the (then) Swansea manager. In fact that may have had a lot to do with statements released very soon into the search process which stated that he had declined the opportunity to speak to the Liverpool Owners. After this statement, the odds fluctuated between candidates with Roberto Martinez, Rafa Benitez, Louis Van Gaal and Jurgen Klopp all featuring as the favourite at one time or another. My attention has only turned back to the man who (it seems) is set to be appointed over the last day or two. What I will say is that the more I read about him, the more I like him.

Here’s a description of his early life from Wiki: Rodgers was born in Carnlough to parents Malachy and Christina,the eldest of five brothers.He was educated at St. Patrick's College in Ballymena. He played gaelic football and hurling in Carnlough before taking up football when he was 13. He grew up as a supporter of Celtic.

His career as a player was brief due him being forced to retire at the age of 20 due to injury. From that point on he focused on coaching, first with the youth teams of Reading. He then moved to Chelsea under Jose Mourinho where he also looked after their youth teams. His first managerial role was with Watford, where he failed to make many waves guiding them to a 13th place finish in the Championship. He then re-joined Reading as their manager, but he left the club by mutual consent following a poor run of results after just 7 months in charge.  

In his time out of work his spent his time studying football in Holland and Spain, what he learned was that possession is the key. He built his football principles on possession, the ethos being that if we have the ball they cant score. If we lose the ball we get it back quickly and high up the pitch and build again. Hi style of play is very much in the mould of the Barcelona and Spain brand of Tiki-Taka passing. He resolved to commit completely to these beliefs.

QUOTE: “My philosophy is to play creative attacking football with tactical discipline, but you have to validate that with success. I like to control games. I like to be responsible for our own destiny. If you are better than your opponent with the ball you have a 79 per cent chance of winning the game. For me it is quite logical. It doesn’t matter how big or small you are, if you don’t have the ball you can’t score.”

QUOTE: “My idea coming into this club [Swansea] was to play very attractive attacking football but always with tactical discipline,” he said. “People see the possession and they see the penetration, the imagination and the creativity, but we’ve had 23 clean sheets this year. So in nearly 50 per cent of our games we haven’t conceded a goal.”

QUOTE: “The example of the Barcelona model was a great influence and inspiration to me. When I was at the Chelsea academy, that was how my players would play, with that high, aggressive press, combined with the ability to keep the ball.”

He was next appointed to the manager’s seat at Swansea City where he lead them to become the first ever Welsh team promoted to the Premier League. He certainly implemented his philosophy to the Swans, this is evidenced by their statistics this season where they completed 17,881 passes, a figure much higher than Liverpool’s.... or Man Utd’s... or even Arsenal! In fact the only team with a higher number of passes this season were Champions Man City. His team also managed to keep 13 clean sheets in their first top flight season too, this is 2 more than Liverpool managed.

As I said earlier, its not the most high profile appointment and at the beginning of this search its not the one I was calling for, but as I’ve found out more about him the more I get on board. As it seems that we have not got the resources to compete with Man City et al with regard to investment it's going to take a different approach if we are to to reach the summit. I quite like the idea of the new structure of our club, its a forward thinking idea and a fresh new start for the club and the team. If you're doubting Rodger’s credentials, it's not hard to identify other managers who have had huge success when appointed to their first job at a big club, Guardiola at Barca, Rafa at Valencia, Mourinho at Porto, hell even Kenny at Liverpool (first time of course). The appointment is definitely a gamble, but to be fair every one of the linked managers represented a gamble in one way or the other. This may also sound strange, but i've got to be honest here, there is something about this appointment which just feels right. There is no guarantee of success for Rodger’s, but I can guarantee one thing. I am prepared to offer my full support upon his appointment and I believe he has the tools necessary to succeed, whether that happens or not time will tell, but I think we can at least expect to see some beautiful football on the way to finding out.

Brendan Rodgers.... Welcome to L4!

Well Done Red Men!

Well thats it, its all turned around now. Kenny is the best manager we’ve had since... well.. Kenny. The glory days have returned and Liverpool are gonna win the league next year. If your sarcasm alarms haven't gone off yet, you might want to get them repaired. While we’ve not exactly achieved that, we certainly have improved, we've had a very difficult season in the league in which I accept we have under achieved, but in the cups, we've just been great. The bookies may have made us favourites for this game, but they were about the only ones who did. According to David Moyes the whole of England was behind his boys in blue, well if that was true I’m delighted we managed to disappoint the whole country. This one was certainly a game of 2 halves. I thought we started stronger, but Everton took control of the first half after 10 minutes and held that control through to the break. We came out the much stronger side in the second half though and eventually made our superiority tell to win the game late on. There was much to be happy about in this result, and performance. I’m going to try and look at some of them now.

We reminded the blues whats what.
It must be hard to be a blue. Even when they think they get the upper hand were always able to pull them back in some way. Its only 7 years ago when they finished above us in the league to qualify for the Champions League at our expense... or so they thought. We of course went and won Europe's premier competition that year and qualify by doing so. We also got the added joy of watching them fail to make it through to the their qualifier. They overtook us in the league a few weeks too, so we felt we better knock them out of the FA Cup. All I can say is thank god I’m red!

An important comeback
Of course Everton’s confidence coming into this game was only heightened by them taking the lead, I’m sure this moment seemed sweeter because it resulted from a mistake by our own ex Evertonian Jamie Carragher. I’ve got to be honest, I felt we still had a chance even when behind. It took a lot of patience and pressure to get back into the game. Where others may have panicked, we kept our cool to, in the end, force the win.

The Management.
It's clear Kenny has taken a lot of stick this season, and as I have admitted before he’s made mistakes. I was fearful that he had made another one in some of his selections to start this game but in the end he was vindicated and I was delighted to be proved wrong. Our shape was good and he made good decisions during the game to regain control when behind. If I doubted the initial selection of some I was in complete agreement with every substitution made. On the eve of the anniversary of Hillsborough it was a great feeling to see a man who has been, and continues to be, so instrumental in helping the families and the city and the city cope with such tragedy with that great big smile on his face. His face may have aged but that smile still defies his years.

Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll!
As every journo and commentator delighted in pointing out, our strike partnership for the game have taken a lot of stick this season. The reasons may differ, but they each, im sure, wanted to prove points. Well they certainly did that. Both had strong games and linked up to decent effect during the match. Andy got his second late headed winner in a week. I enjoyed Carra saying that this goal was worth 35 million on its own, but in fairness only time will tell if he ever proves to be worth the kind of money we spent. This was a decent place to start. At the very least he has secured a place in the folklore of the club and for that he should be proud. He has enough time to make some impact through the rest of the season and if he stays injury free over the summer, who knows how next season will turn out for him.

Wembley.
We waited a while before making our first appearance in new Wembley, but like the busses we've now been there twice in just a few weeks. We've secured 2 victories and who would bet against us securing a third in 3 weeks time? Anfield south, is proving to be a good hunting ground once more.

My answer to a question....

The last few weeks have been my hardest since I started writing this blog. Of course there were the time constraints I mentioned due to our new arrival, but mainly the problems are caused by how things are right now. Liverpool won the first trophy available of the season only 4 or 5 weeks ago, but in line with how the season has gone for the most part things took a downward turn after this. The nadir of our downturn became apparent when the players allowed a 2-0 lead versus struggling QPR be turned into a 3-2 loss. People thought that this was as bad as it gets and we would go out in our following game against Wigan and win comfortably to restore some faith. Unfortunately we got the reverse of our expectations when the players put in a particularly poor performance and again suffered defeat to a relegation threatened side. There is no point in sugar coating it, this is simply not good enough. The form guide shows what a low we are on, in the last 6 games we are L,L,L,W,L,L which gives us a total of 3 points from an available 12 with a goal difference of -2. Two of these games (Utd and Arsenal) were always going to be difficult but overall the return is pitiful. Its left us as supporters in a particularly low position. You cant go anywhere without people taking pot shots at you, and in fairness you just have to take it. There is no apparent defence, at least none which might make sense to your average idiot! Liverpool fans are taking the stick, letting it eat at them and ending up coming to all sorts of conclusions of what needs to be done. After a run like this its hard to look at an overall picture, you tend to just focus on what's hurting you. But just because our league form is at a particularly low point right now, it doesn't mean we are not building or picking up experience. Its clear that not everything is bad, we won our first trophy for 6 years a few short weeks ago. If the question is should we sack the manager, my answer is:

There are a lot of things going wrong at the club right now, but you cannot just throw out the baby with the bath water.

 

Is this where we are now? What happens if a new manager comes in and he has a difficult period in his first year? Do we sack him too?........ And the next?....... And the next? We are not Chelsea. We are not Inter Milan. We are Liverpool Football Club. I am not for one minute suggesting that Kenny Dalglish should be exempt from criticism or scrutiny. I don't deny that mistakes have been made. But we have to be realistic too. We are building and that will take time. Even through poor results we've seen that this side can produce some excellent football. We've seen some excellent results too. We've won a cup and we are going to play an absolutely mega FA cup semi final versus the blues in a couple of weeks. Mistakes may have been made in the transfer market, that is true of every manager who has ever lived. I would love for somebody to point my in the direction of any manager for whome every signing has worked out perfectly. In general it seems the best managers get about 50% of their signings spot on, I would argue that Kenny/Commoli's signings are not far of this figure. Some players have struggled but they can improve with this experience. We may need to cut our losses on some and there is no doubt we need to add more, but this can be done. I've said it before, but its still true. W are NOT a million miles from being a good side. It's not time to cut and run. It's time for a bit of faith and patience.

Things can change.... quickly

I should probably start with an apology for the lack of Articles over the last few weeks. Any readers who know me will know that my Wife and I welcomed our 2nd baby into the world last Wednesday, and to be honest the weeks leading up to then have been bedlam. Not that I will have loads of free time for a while but I should be able to work out a routine to get back to producing at least 1 Article a week going forward. I actually had a comprehensive article on the Arsenal defeat fully prepared but I never published it as it was out of date by the time I had a chance to.

With the baby coming home on Saturday, surprisingly in time for the match, I settled down to watch our game against Sunderland with the expectation that there was a script written and that after a few hard weeks, both personally and in terms of Liverpool we would return to normality by gaining victory. Sunderland had been in good form since appointing O’Neill, but so had Liverpool, albeit with the same difficulties in terms of chance conversion, I was confident we would have enough to beat them although I did accept that this would be a difficult game. As has happened so many times this season, my prediction was wrong.

From the minute I heard the team was slightly confused by our starting line-up. There is a persistence with selecting players who seem so clearly out of form and I find very difficult to understand. There was nobody named in our starting line-up who I am prepared to write off as Liverpool players just yet. Arguments on the merits of players that end with comments like “he’ll never be a liverpool player, simple as” baffle me completely. I’ve seen too many supposed failures reach unexpected heights and too many iron clad successes fall flat on their faces to ever base opinions about players on a short term of reference. Particularly when players are still young and learning their trade, or still acclimatising to life at Liverpool. I must admit, I am struggling to reconcile this point of view whilst watching Charlie Adam at the moment but I have no doubt that he is being utilised so often through necessity due to our midfield injury troubles this season. Also I have to accept that what I, or any other fan, see of the players and know about the players probably makes up about 10% of what goes into selecting the team week to week.

I’m not going to go into the game itself too much, sufficed to say I was not happy with our performance. Like a lot of fans, I have no problem expressing my frustrations and asking questions as to why this isn't done and that isn't done, but when it all boils down to it I honestly cannot suggest any quick fix solutions to the problems we face right now. Its not simply a matter of 1 or 2 things that can be solved by instant decisions, but at the same time lets not throw out the baby with the bath water and start demanding huge changes purely because of frustration. One major frustration is when Kenny doesn't criticise the players following a performance like this, but lets be realistic such criticism would do no more than appease fans for a very short period of time but could damage the team on a much larger time frame. I have no doubt there is a major crisis of confidence amongst the players right now (how many spot kicks have we missed again?) and that needs to be managed very carefully.

I don't want to sound like I’m trying to be positive just for the sake of it. I know from talking to some fans that some people have reached a type of point of no return where trying to point out any type of positive is seen as crazy talk. I think that people who cannot acknowledge, or remember that this is not the first time we’ve been down, and it wont be the last either, are crazy. I’m always saying it but the only way to control your emotions and not allow yourself to be eaten up by despair is to maintain some sense of perspective. One of the things I've heard that particularly annoys me is people saying that we are no better off than we were under Roy. I can admit that we are currently going through a run of results that were typical during Hodgson’s time, but the repercussions of those results are nowhere near as drastic as they were becoming at that time. I’ve repeated myself far too much this season to bother pointing out the steps forward that we have taken in the last 12 to 15 months and to be frank I think if anyone still needs these improvements spelled out they are probably too far gone for their minds to be changed.

We are down right now but we will not stay down. We have, at the very least a very strong spine of players who have experience and will fight tooth and nail to see this club succeed. We have a manager who, while still in the early days of this term in charge, has shown he can manage this team to fantastic performances and results. He lives and breaths the club, the city and its supporters. We have already won a trophy and have booked our place in next seasons UEFA cup. We are still in the FA Cup.

Regardless of League position, current form, or even time of the year we have a fixture on Tuesday which is always the first I look to at the start of the season - the home tie against Everton. This one ALWAYS sets the pulses racing no matter what the end result. It offers a perfect opportunity for the players to win the fans over again and gives the whole team a chance to redeem themselves. It is also a perfect opportunity to change mindsets and get back in form. Its important to remember that things can change very quickly, sure only last week it was possible for me to get a full nights sleep. It might seem unlikely but the hardship is what makes it all worthwhile.

YNWA

Carling Cup Winners 2012

Step 1.… complete!


On Sunday Liverpool took another major step in their mission to return to their former standing. It had been a long 6 years since Liverpool last appeared in a final, and an even longer 7 years since we had last lifted a trophy. It is not the most glamorous competition to win and when Europe is on the cards it is rightly deemed to be 4th in the pecking order of possible achievements at the start of the season. Of course due to previous failures Europe wasn’t on the cards this year and so at the beginning of the season the most pragmatic Liverpool fans were saying a season of transition where we improve on the league and hopefully pick up a cup would be successful. The most optimistic of fans were saying that we should win a cup and finish in the top 4. I’m sure there were pessimists too but the less said about them the better. Whether you were in the pragmatist or optimist camps, your pre-season ambitions are still well and truly alive and step one of this mission has been completed. Although some Liverpool fans were blinded to the reality of our perilous situation last year, I don’t think anyone can say that what we have achieved, even at this (relatively) early point of the season, doesn’t show massive improvements. The silverware for one means Kenny has continued a record which is blighted only by one Hamster Scratching individual, this being that every Liverpool manager since Bill Shankly has won at least one Trophy during their managerial tenure. Granted, Hodgson was only in for a short period of time, but he had already ensure we suffered an embarrassing defeat at mighty Northampton Town and were firmly locked in a relegation battle, remember people this is just over a year ago I am talking about here. Pundits have been lining up to criticise our performance in winning this final, conveniently forgetting the epic battles which went into securing our place in the showpiece event. Heroic battles away to Stoke and Chelsea and a 2 leg war versus Man City meant we earned this The game itself was never going to be a formality, well I say never but who knows how we may have kicked on had Johno’s early effort not crashed back off the bar only to be launched into row Z by Stevie. The optimists were out to make life difficult as always proclaiming that we would steam roller the lowly Cardiff City who it would seem from these kind of predictions must have been given a by all the way through to the Final. You would think Liverpool fans would know better after previous recent difficulties against the likes of Alaves, Birmingham City and West Ham. Anyway … I tweeted at half time, and it proved to be the case right through to the final whistle that this game served as some sort of microcosm of our entire season so far we had huge amounts of possession and created some chances, although very few clear cut ones, but failed to make our advantage pay. From the minute the starting 11 was announced (which was very late by the way) it seemed we may be missing something, and with retrospect we can we were. Some big players failed to deliver and some previous under-achievers stepped up to the plate.

Stuart Downing in particular put in his best performance whilst wearing the Liverbird yet, even if I do think his performance has been exagerated by some. Jordan Henderson on the other hand failed to make any impact, in his defence he was played in the position which he has struggled to impress in for much of the season, wide-right and even more wide in this game than in many others. Its not a good sign that he allowed this game to pass by, but on the plus side its good experience for a player of 22 to have, especially because we managed to win the game in the end. Luis Suarez also struggled to make an impact as he has done in each game since his ban. I don’t think he should be dropped but perhaps if Andy keeps his form up to a decent level we could think about introducing him from the bench on the weekend against a tired Arsenal defence. It may take some pressure off and help him impose himself to regain some confidence. Andy Carroll had a decent enough game, he was involved in us getting the equaliser but didn’t really add much in other phases. He is doing simple things well,much better than he was at the start of the season but I still find myself frustrated by his lack of movement in the box. His confidence in general play is improving, to a point where he no longer looks like an elephant on one leg when controlling the ball but his strikers confidence is not yet at 100%. He has done enough to take the pressure off himself for a while but he needs to keep improving. Jose Enrique played, what he admitted afterwards, was the biggest game of his career to date, but unfortunately put in one of the weakest performances of his time in this team. He definitely needs to improve to maintain his place in the side through to next season but again the experience will surely benefit him. The outstanding performer of the tie, and of the season so far has undoubtedly been our Slovakian monster Martin Skrtel, He continued to defend with the strength and consistency Kopites are becoming acclimatised to and he scored our equaliser, succeeding where our more natural scorers had failed by simply putting the ball over the line! Gerrard, Carra, Reina, all had decent but unremarkable games. I was delighted to see Carra coming onto the pitch and being involved in adding another medal to his collection. I think its important to note that we won this final without having to lean on the hero of many previous finals, Steven Gerrard, who played well enough but who’s shooting was way off the mark.

By the end of the season I hope that this wont have been the biggest game we have played in. Its just as important to win on Saturday when we face an Arsenal side which is resurgent after a huge victory in the North London derby last weekend. We have a game in hand on them at the moment, even if this is the tricky derby, but if we lose this one we will be 10 points behind them and even the most optimistic fans would have to acknowledge this would be too big a task. A draw isnt much use either but I am hopeful of getting a victory. We’ll need to be on top form of course but spirits should be high now that the players have a medal in their pockets.