From Kopblog
Man, it`s good to be home. Devon is certainly a beautiful part of the world but it never stopped bloody raining the whole time I was there, in fact I got pissed on that much I felt like a cigarette butt in a urinal. So it`s great to back here at Kopblog HQ, with the footy back again and to be able to get down to some proper blogging, life is good!.
Mind you, when I first arrived back and was catching up on all the latest news, I thought I had somehow drifted into a parallel universe. With Andy Gray, Jose Moaninho and Steve McMoneyman all tipping us to seriously challenge for the title this season and yet seemingly many Liverpool fans feeling a lot more pessimistic about our chances, these are strange days indeed!
People are of course entitled to their doom and gloomy outlooks for the season but I suspect some may be worrying too much about the possible weaknesses in our squad instead of focusing on its many strengths. For my part, in the last blog I tipped us to finish in the top two this season and I`m feeling even more confident about that after yesterday`s game.
I`ve long suspected that the Premier Leagues fixture computer has been infected with an anti-Liverpool virus as once again it has managed to “randomly” give us a much tougher set of early fixtures in comparison to the rest. Starting with a very tricky away trip to Sunderland while the rest of our big four rivals all had home games. We than have a home game against one of our bogey sides Middlesbrough followed by an away trip to Villa Park and then the mancs come to Anfield. So I was absolutely delighted that we managed to get our campaign off to a good solid start with a 1-0 victory at the Stadium of Light yesterday.
Obviously it was very important for us to get off to a winning start but even that aside, all things considered, I thought this a great result for us. Sunderland have spent a lot of money in the transfer market and were full of optimism for the new season and keen to impress in front of a full house, so this was not the best time for us to have to face them at their place.
In contrast to this, we came into the game on the back of a very tough midweek CL qualifying first leg tie at Standard Liege and were without Masch, Lucas and Babel due to their Olympic involvement. We were also without Skrtel and Degan through injury and Agger also had to remain on the bench after picking up a knock in midweek. I think it`s fair to say that at least 5 of those 6 would have played in this game if available and not to mention the fact that Torres and Keane are still in the “getting to know you” phase of their strike partnership. So I was a bit worried going into the game that there was a big fat banana skin just waiting for us to slip up on.
That said, I thought we did a professional job and while the performance was by no means vintage we controlled most of the game and I never felt that we were really in any danger of losing the match. In the first half we were about as heavy legged as a herd of pregnant elephants and they had a couple of half chances but we soaked that up and came back at them towards the end of the half. I realise that some people may accuse me of child abuse for daring to be critical of Plessis, as he is a player that has come through from our young reserves, but nevertheless I can`t say that I`ve really been overly impressed with what I`ve seen of him so far.
In yesterday`s game he reminded me of a blind crab. He couldn`t seem to see a pass further than two yards and everything went sideways. I don`t wish to be overly harsh on the lad but if he is to seriously challenge for a place in our first team now and in the future I think he has got to make an awful lot more of the opportunities he is given. I know he will need more time and games to develop but he was 20 back in March and he is now at the age where the likes of Lucas, Babel and players like Fabregas were already starting to play international football.
It may seem unfair for me to be comparing him to such players at this stage, but this is Liverpool Football Club and if he is really going to make it here that is the level he`s got to be aiming for. Please feel free to throw all the flak at me that you want, but basically my point is that these opportunities he`s been given won`t come around too often and I just think that he needs to do a lot more.
When Alonso came on in the second half he transformed the game and we played a lot better with him pulling the strings in midfield. I thought he was clearly our man of the match. Not only did he set up Torres for the goal but he also nearly gave us another one of his specials with a shoot from well inside our half that wasn`t too far away from hitting the target. When you see Xabi playing like this you can`t help but think why in Shanks name would we consider selling him but the truth is he hasn`t really played like that often enough for us over the past two seasons. That said, based on his performance yesterday I think Rafa might want to reconsider letting him go and I`m sure he would be happy to stay if he was given an assurance he was in the managers plans.
Torres`s goal was a real cracker and it was good to see him starting the season in the same manner he finished the last. He wasn`t having one of his best games, in fact he had less touches than a lap-dancing leper, but he doesn`t need many chances and is always capable of scoring from seemingly nothing. When he got the ball from Alonso he was a long way out and there didn`t seem to be a lot for the Sunderland defence to worry about, but one touch, than a half turn and the ball was banged into the bottom corner, end of story.
I thought we well deserved the victory. Although the game finished 1-0, it could very easily have been 3-0. In the first half we had a stonewall penalty turned down after the ref played an advantage to us when Gerrard was fouled. The ball than went through to Benny Onion in the box and he was totally clobbered from behind by a Sunderland defender but the ref bottled the decision and idiotically gave us a free-kick for the original foul on StevieG instead.
Than in the second half when the ball was deflected out off Craig Gordon and Torres`s goal-bound shot hit off Robbie Keane and went wide. That was obviously frustrating on the one hand but on the other it was good to see that our two forwards reacted so quickly to the loose ball while the rest of the Sunderland defence had barely moved. That has got to be a good omen for plenty of goals from them both in the future.
Had we managed to win the game 3-0 I`m sure everyone would be crowing about us right now, but as we only won by the one goal I notice some people are having a moan about our under par performance. I thought our performance was understandable in the circumstances and besides this, I personally couldn`t give a monkey`s fart about our display as long as we take the points.
It`s all about results at this stage, the performances will improve in time. Overall though, I thought everyone did ok and I would give them all 6 out of 10, except for Dossena at left back who gets a 7 and is beginning to look like a very good quality addition and Hyypia also gets a 7 for showing why Rafa made a very wise decision in keeping him around for at least another season. Xabi Alonso gets an 8 out of 10 from me for his man of the match 45 minutes.
Before I put this game to bed, a few words about Dirk Kuyt. I notice from reading the comments on the last blog that some people are having a pop at Deadly Dirk and he seems to be becoming a bit of a scapegoat for any of the teams dodgy displays. I can understand the points being made about him and I would agree that he can sometimes be very frustrating to watch, particularly when he`s having one of those games where he spends more time on his arse than a one legged tap dancer. But all that aside, I`m still very glad that we have him.
He may not be seen by many as the ideal player to play on the right side of our attack but he also plays in that position for Holland and what he may be lacking in mazy wing-play he certainly makes up for in sheer hard graft. The guys energy levels are amazing and I`ve never seen him give anything less than 100% in a Liverpool shirt. Besides this, he was hit hard by his Father`s death last season and this clearly affected his play but even so, he did score some very important goals for us during that campaign. I think we`ll see a lot better from him this time around, so give the guy a chance and get off his back. If some of our other players put as much effort into every game as he does, I think we would run away with the league title this season.
Anyway that`s all from me for now. I`m very happy that we`ve started off the season with three well-won points, which is more than the mancs can say. So that`s one game down and 37 to go and we will have Babel back to help us try to double our total against Middlesbrough at Anfield next week, now that Holland have been knocked out of the Olympic competition. So far, so good!
Keep the Faith
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