Saturday 29 January 2011

Torres Issues 'Money Or Your Life!' Ultimatum

Torres Issues A 'Money Or Your Life!' Ultimatum

     Undulating waves of euphoria were rippling across the Mersey yesterday as Luis Suarez was one step closer to joining Liverpool FC. That soon turned into a raging squall with full force gale winds tearing at the city's inhabitants. 
     Torres has handed in a transfer request. 
     A what? A WHAT?!
     The poor timing of the request is utterly baffling. Just as we are about to embark on a half season of strong recovery, growth on and off the field, Torres hands the club a recession. Ill advised or selfish, we can't know just yet the motivation around this request, but one thing is for certain, he has shot himself in the foot. 
     Let's consider his options.
     He may go to Chelsea and play up front with Drogba, who is out of contract this season, and other stars who may be getting the chop, according to some sources. That would leave him at another club who are rebuilding. The days of Abramovich excess are coming to an end, he is tightening his belt and buying clever. Risky move.
     He may go abroad. We know that Barcelona would be interested in him. To play alongside his good friend David Villa would be a dream move to him. An opportunity to play for the best team in the world shouldn't be dismissed.
     He may stay. Was his request bungled? I doubt it. Liverpool may be able to hang onto his services but Torres is looking at what lies over the other side of the cliff. If Liverpool keep his services, will it be like that of Ronaldo at Manchester United? Respectfully waiting a season before departing for alot of money on the back of success? Or will it he like that of Tevez at Manchester City? Holding the club to ransom for more wages, more influence and more headlines? Either way, it's inevitable that he gets what's he wants. Player power indeed. 
    Is life after Torres really that bad? We have a proven goalscorer on the horizon. Do we really need to break out the kerchiefs and wave off the departing Torres in floods of tears and much gnashing of the teeth? Sure we will miss his goals even though they haven't been flowing this season. We will miss his commitment, even though that has waivered dramatically this season. I think, most of all, we will miss his talismanic presence. That is an unquanitifiable spirit that money can't buy. 
     The warnings are there for Torres, if he leaves. He will fall into the categories of those strikers who left for a 'bigger club', like Rush, Keegan and Owen. Fresh in the memory is Owen's treachery, leaving purely for money and then playing for our rivals. Keegan left and found no success at Hamburg, his departure also paved way for the greatest Liverpool player of all time, Dalglish. And Rush, who struggled to score at his most prolific best against the tightest of defences in Serie A. These three players should act as a warning to Torres. Barely anyone finds more success away from Liverpool. We are the be all and end all of football spirit. We may not win many competitions but we win enough games to challenge as one of the best teams in the world. We may have fallen from that dizzy perch but we will be back there soon. 
     Torres can leave, he may find success, but I think one thing he has lost is every bit of respect from his millions of strong, working class supporters who do not forgive disloyalty easily. 
      So go Fernando, we wish you well but do not think for an instance that we will miss you, there is always another Owen, Rush, Keegan or indeed Torres on the horizon to score goals for the most prestigious club in England. 
     You'll Never Walk Alone Torres, but at the same time we won't be walking with you. 

Tuesday 25 January 2011

The Reason

The Reason

          Many media critics and journalists had nothing but scorn for the way LFC had been playing this season. Heaping on the pressure that threatened to envelop the beleagued Roy Hodgson. The fans drew on this criticism of the players and instead turned it onto the manager, threatening to bring him down no matter what.
          Often, in the media, the attention was focused on the detrimental effect the fans and the players were having upon Hodgson. To an extent I agree with this assessment by the media but not necessarily the purpose. We as fans only wanted to express ourselves and begin the process of recovery that Hick & Gillett had so disastrously prompted. With some of the most powerful protests seen in football taking place on the terraces, the internet and the streets, it would only be a matter of time that change would be granted.
          Football is obviously a fickle monster, it generates its own heroes and villains, its own romances and divorces and its own fairytale endings and abrupt nightmare finishes. What Hodgson failed to take into consideration was the maelstrom he was placing himself in. Not only had the fans taken three years of lies and misdirection from Hicks & Gillett, they had seen their hopes of challenging for the title diminish as soon as it had been nurtured into life by Benitez. Half of the fans mourned Benitez and expected less glory, the other half rejoiced and expected a man to fire LFC to better success.
          How wrong were those fans?
          His press conferences immediately defied belief. Calling Northampton ‘formidable’, chastising the protests against the previous owners and shuffling away from Alex Ferguson when confronted with condemnations of Torres’ professionalism. That’s how Hodgson alienated the fans, by not being a backbone for the fans, he should have been enraged to hear such comments about one of his players, he should have spat into the microphone and demanded a personal apology from Ferguson. Although very good friends, there are still times when one will overstep the mark.
          The media didn’t cover itself in glory either. Continuing to back Hodgson just because he was an English manager is so typical of the Premier League and the British press. I cant believe the blame that Benitez got for the narrow, negative and frankly negligible way that Hodgson played. He himself spoke of how ‘this wasn’t [his] team of players’. Consistently backed by the likes of Andy Gray, Patrick Barclay and Henry Winter, Hodgson became a bit of a clown, stumbling from press conference to press conference, always with a failing quote, a sound bite that took chunks out of his career. Yet, still he was backed by Establishment, loathe to turn on anyone who would be named a Manager of the Season.
          Hodgson’s formations were, well archaic and frankly depressing. A standard 4-4-2 for basically every match, away from home we sat so deep we basically filled our own goalmouth. Torres was so isolated due to the midfield having no creators, they sat on the wings, Meireles and Cole, and Gerrard got his way by playing in centre midfield, even though he is far less effective there. This just created a midfield that sat and absorbed wave upon wave of attack. The wings were taken up with creative midfielders who should have been supporting Gerrard and Torres.
          Results such as the defeat to Blackpool at home, the loss at Ewood Park and the shambles at Old Trafford, all serve to indicate a man who was at the end of a relatively successful career. He was using methods that had revolutionised the football world in the eighties and nineties. He simply couldn’t compete with the high intensity of formations such as the ultra wide 4-5-1 or the passing narrowness of 4-3-3.
          In the end, Hodgson demonstrated a drastically fatal flaw. He assumed he knew the club and its supporters, their dreams and their hopes, their style of football and the level of football we would stomach. However, he couldn’t have been more further from the truth, this is Liverpool Football Club and we didn’t win 18 titles and 5 European cups by playing four central midfielders at home to Blackpool.

Saturday 15 January 2011

Liverpool FC V Everton FC - Match Preview

Derby Preview

     Liverpool take on Everton at Anfield tomorrow for the 214th Merseyside Derby, or as we say round here, The Derby. 
     Taking on a massive significance as Kenny Dalglish makes his emotional and romantic return to Anfield, this derby is destined to be high profile. Everton are in better form than Liverpool, holding possession better but facing a striker crisis. However, is this the moment Liverpool finally bounce back? Dalglish has a terrific record against Everton, losing only 3 of 20 meetings. 
     I feel if Dalglish keeps the team that he has been playing then we should be able to see a few goals. The midfield is the key as Everton should be missing Pienaar through a transfer pending and Cahill is away at the Asian Cup, Liverpool will miss Joe Cole through injury and Gerrard through suspension. 
     Whoever wins this will go above the other, the bragging rights are up for grabs and the inevitable pressure on the manager will increase with Moyes starting to lose face with the fans.
     Crucial battles will be Skrtel/Beckford. Since moving to the Premier League, Beckford has failed to sparkle and Everton fans are often left exasperated, he does find himself in decent spaces and this will push Skrtel who isn't having the best season. I see Beckford pulling Skrtel all over the pitch.
     Agger/Saha. I don't see any problem here unless Agger has to cover for Skrtel and this let's Saha link up with Beckford. However, Agger can handle the off pace Saha.
     Torres/Distin. This is very interesting, I can see Torres getting crushed by Distin but I also believe in Torres' ability to recognise who the weaker centre back is and go for Jagielka instead. 
     Johnson/Kelly/Bilyaletdinov. If Johnson plays right back I can only see trouble as Bilyaletdinov will tie him in knots. However, if Dalglish settles with the team of the past two games then I have every confidence that Kelly will easily contain the quite straight runs of Bilyaletdinov.
     Arteta/Lucas/Meireles. This is where most of the battling will be. In a stilted midfield lacking in creativity, you will be able to see the absence of Gerrard and Pienaar. Both Lucas and Meireles need to stifle Arteta as he will look to be the creative mind for Everton.
     My prediction, 1-0. Liverpool, I see a stronger midfield with Jovanovic on the left and Maxi on the right Meireles pushing forward supporting Ngog and Torres. This 4-1-4-1 formation of Liverpool's will stretch Moyes' 4-4-2 as wide men pushing inwards will force the Everton wide midfielders to track back and help out the defence. 
     However, you can never truly call a derby as they always throw up surprises. Red and yellow cards are inevitable, goals are not. 
     

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Stopping the rot in the Kop

Life as a Liverpool Football Club supporter is often filled with drama, from Istanbul to a 4-0 home win against Real Madrid to a High Court battle for the very soul of the club, (don’t make me go there again, the palpitations are still trying to settle!)

One thing was supposed to be for certain, the certainty of a new era at Anfield. The era of the mumbling man, the shoe gazer, the shuffling gentleman who would ‘put an arm’ around the players. Roy Hodgson was the man that all ‘experts’ hailed as the firm and steady hand that would wrestle the tiller from the grasp of the tactically European ethos that had enveloped Melwood.

As a fan, I was bitterly disappointed that, as a club, we had gone in the direction of a ‘safety net’ manager, someone who would settle down the dust filled moments, soothe aching egos and partake in the nodding-dog act that the boardroom so desperately wanted. I wanted dynamism, brevity of negativity, depth of passion and a sincere, winning mentality. What I got was archaic formations, mediocre home games, appalling away performances and a misinterpretation of the very fabric of Liverpool FC.

Roy should never have been given this job. In his own words, this was his “reward for 35 years in football”. What, exactly, he had done in those 35 years to warrant one of the biggest jobs in world football, is completely underwhelming. The job was obviously too big for him as he lurched from one poor post match interview to the other. Northampton a formidable side? No rebuff to Sir Alex Ferguson on Torres’ perceived “cheating”? Blaming the fans for negative performances and singling out the protests of fans, against the debt accrual of the previous owners, for criticism? The more I think about his time at the club the more I’m reminded of an embarrassed senior citizen who utters something deeply un-p.c. and is forever trying to scratch himself out the hole, unable to fully come to terms with quite how the world has moved on.

Then a strange thing happened. Somebody wanted to buy us, someone saw into the vision of the wounded Phoenix licking its wounds, ready to rise from the ashes of the shackles placed upon the greatest English football team ever. Fenway Sports Group are sincere and have a belief that mirrors our own, they are echoing the sentiments that so many fans shout from the terraces.

The decisions made by FSG so far have been considered, reverential and, dare I say it? modern! The inclusion of a Director of Football is something many fans would have resisted, but I have to say it is both refreshing and reassuring. Too many times we have been burnt at the hands of the transfer market. Damien Comolli seems adroit at bringing in talent and his handling of the Hodgson situation seems quietly impressive. Reluctant to change, but changes when the need is recognised.

As a fan I feel content yet excited by the explosion of Dalglish onto the scene. His immediate impact upon the psyche of the players was evident to see in probably the happiest 1-0 defeat of my life. We played well as a team, great defending and good going forward. You could see the passion return, like a body being coloured back into life. The formation seemed odd to me and belied the rigid structure instilled by Hodgson. A 4-5-1 that sometimes progressed to a 4-1-4-1 was at best hard at the back and at worst stilted in midfield. I do firmly believe, though, that Dalglish will reinvigorate an attacking mindset. His return is like that of The Lord of The Rings, in the shade for many years, away from the club before coming back as the overseer of the youth, but the Coronation of the King is now complete. I can sleep with the belief that my team now has a fire in the belly and suddenly hope abounds across the Fields of Anfield Road.