Farewell to the King

Kenny presented as manager

Today, at approximately 5pm UK time Liverpool Football Club announced that the club had parted ways with its manager Kenny Dalglish. King Kenny as he is fondly known to many was brought in an emergency situation to help steer the club to safety after what could only be described as a disastrous start of the season by Roy Hodgson. Roy, who was employed by the old regime failed badly and with new owners growing increasingly impatient, along with the fans there was no other option but to terminate his contract. Kenny was called in as a temporary replacement. He did well by guiding the club to a 6th place finish, after such a horrendous start, a place outside the top 10 looked well on the cards. Kenny was rewarded with a contract extention for his good work and so begun the 2011/12 season.

John Henry

 The season which can be described as a lot of things, didn't turn out to be our finest. Even though we ended up with silverware (unlike other "big clubs"), our league position and home record were major causes for concern. Hence after the season ended, he was called up to Boston by the owners for meetings. There was tons of speculation over the internet as to what these meetings were about but everyone seemed to have guessed correctly. It was the end of the Kings reign.

Andre Villas Boas

 What next for our club? There have been many names mention so far, even though its been barely 6 hours since the announcement but the few interesting ones have been Roberto Martinez and the other, Andre Villas Boas. Both young and have a good sense of the game. Roberto having a good few years experience in the English Premier League and helping Wigan  not only keep their head above relegation but also finish in a decent place, whilst Villas Boas has a point to prove after his stint at Chelsea was abruptly ended.

Roberto Martinez

To end off, most of us knew Kenny was not the long term solution to our problem and FSG knew that, it was nice having him around but in order for us to be really challenging for top spots, we need someone that is capable of achieving that. Kenny will forever be known as King to us, his record speaks for itself, some say he has tarnished is reputation after the last season but you cannot over shadow the rest of his achievements over one season. He, himself must be disappointed, but I'm sure he knows it was the right thing to do. After all, it was he who said "Nobody is bigger than the club". Thank you King Kenny.

Walk on, walk on, with hope in your heart.

King Kenny

Thats racist!

Growing up in South Africa, I was faced with it first hand. Sure it wasn't as bad as how it was for people much older than me but still everyone knew what racism was. Apartheid, even though well gone now and South Africa being 18 years as a democracy, there are still signs of racism today. Now why you ask did I bring up such a topic? Well its been a while since I did a blog on my favourite football club and after this weekends victory over long term arch rivals Manchester United, the comments that filled my timeline on twitter deserved one. In fact I was called all sorts of things by one person, daft, prick and told I was stupid.

Luis Suarez & Patrice Evra

Lets start from the very beginning. Liverpool vs Manchester United at Anfield in November last year, Luis Suarez and Patrice Evra have a coming together over something and words were exchanged. In the case held by the English FA, Evra claimed he was hurled racial abuse by Suarez, he who then took to the stand and admitted to calling Evra a "Negrito". Before going anymore further, let us ask google what this term "Negrito" means.

the diminutive negrito is used, as a term of endearment meaning "pal", "buddy" or "friend". Negrito has come to be used to refer to a person of any ethnicity or color, and also can have a sentimental or romantic connotation similar to "sweetheart," or "dear" in English. - Wikipedia

Okay, surely Suarez wasn't calling Evra sweetheart but clearly according to 90% of Google's search results it isn't deemed racist. The FA them self did not say Suarez was racially abusing Evra. The charge was for him admitting to using the word which is why Liverpool FC were up in arms over the decision to ban him for 8 games. Yes there was a case to fight but was it really worth it? In South America the term is used loosely but obviously in Europe it is a bit different. With the modern day game of football having so many nationalities playing in the league itself, we're going to get a culture clash of note. If you still don't understand it, here is Gus Poyet's explanation of it.

Dirk Kuyt celebrates the winning goal

Getting back to yesterdays game, most United fans were upset and claimed Liverpool fans displayed racism, yes there was one tool who was caught on camera making a monkey like figure, unfortunately you do get the odd numb skull. We cannot control these things but he will be caught and will face the consequences. Now to claim the entire crowd were being racist because they booed Evra every time he touched the ball, that's a bit harsh no? Especially seeing that Danny Wellbeck and Antonia Valencia were of the same race as Evra and were not booed at. That's a big statement to make, that 40 odd thousand people support racism. Sure we hate the guy for what he did but support racism? really?

Alex Ferguson

Crowds boo players all the time, Rooney gets booed at Anfield, Mascherano, Gerrard, Torres, Carragher and the list goes on, all have been booed by opposition fans, were they being racially abused? Nani is a black player, he put in a number of dives when playing against Liverpool which subsequently got him booed at Anfield, were we being racist then? I'm not quite sure what brought on this reaction from certain United fans. Maybe it was the result, maybe they're sore losers or it could be penis envy, who knows? The fact of the matter is, none of the managers brought it up, nor did any of the news broadcasters (besides that moron who was caught on camera). Evra himself didn't make mention of it at all, Fergie just seem perplexed how his team lost with the usual comments being "we were the better team"...ahem, as one United supporter told me once "If you believe you were the better team, then why didn't you win?"

Kenny & Steve Clark

Now Liverpool haven't had the best of season's but from the past 2/3 it has been an improvement. We have our ups and downs and this past week we have surprised a lot by beating both Manchester teams in cup competitions both of whom are topping the League table and have brilliant squads. That there is some accomplishment, the Liverpool team is still in a rebuilding phase so most fans know not to expect magic from the word go even though we have the legend that is King Kenny back in charge. We still get frustrated at certain players during the game but in some instances they produce moments of brilliance that get us results.

Moron caught on camera

To end off, yes Suarez isn't the most liked player in world football after what he did in the World Cup but he did get punished for it, he was sent off, a penalty was given but Ghana didn't take the chance that was handed to them. One cannot take away his brilliant technical ability and his eye for taking an creating chances. At the end of the day, "haters gonna hate, Suarez gonna celebrate"

YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE

Return of the King

Dying in bed from abnormally high fever on Saturday, very little could lift my spirits and ignite me to move a muscle. Heck, I didnt even tweet for 12 straight hours! Until of course I noticed something fishy going on in my twitter time line (yes I was monitoring it but not tweeting). Ryan Babel  tweeted that another player, Lucas had something to tell us, he then tweeted again that maybe it was Glen Johnson who wanted to tell us this. Then tweets flooded in of an expected announcement from LFC.TV.

Its like I was touched my god himself, I got out of bed, jumped around, prayed to thank the lord and informed my followers of this glorious news. Twitter, Facebook, emails and BBM's were flooded with messages of joy an elation. Roy as you know was set to go one way or another, for the owners to ask King Kenny to come back and hold fort was special, because right now we need someone special to inspire the team to be just that, a team again. Many argued that he has been out of the game for too long and doesnt understand the pressures of the modern day game. Bull shit if you ask me, he watches the games, his been back at LFC in the backroom staff and academy for over a year so to say he has lost touch is like saying  Hugh Hefner doesnt know what brunettes are. His very first game in charge of Liverpool would be against Manchester United in the FA Cup, could it get any better than this? A revival game of note was on the cards. Now realistically speaking, a win was asking for much, most of all what we wanted was a good all round performance from our team.

Come Sunday the day of the game, I make sure I tune in, in time to see the King step out onto the field. The traveling KOP of 9000 dont disappoint in making his entrance a grand one. Then I saw him, out stepped Howard Webb, who? Acclaimed to be one of the best ref's in the world who for some reason always seems to make the most controversial decisions at Old Trafford against the traveling team. Lets hear it from the United guys now shall we. "Oh f*ck off, you guys are just useless, lame excuse, just finding other reasons besides your team" yeah okay what ever, wonder whats this then. Oh no, what did I do? I just posted facts of a number of games that Webb officiated at Old Trafford in which he made critical decisions that worked in favour of United. The FA are probably going to investigate me like they did to Rafa after he pulled out a list of facts, actual facts that showed proof that the FA favoured Alex Ferguson but lets not bring that up again as it may hurt the United clan as no one has single handedly  insulted Fergie like that before.

Didnt take long for Webb to show his love and affection to the Red of Manchester, 3 minutes in United cut well into the Liverpool defence, the slightest of touches (if any) by Daniel Agger sends Berbatov into his very own rendition of Swan Lake. Of course Webb being 20 meters or so back, blocked by 4/5 players and no indication from his linesmen could see that this was an obvious penalty. Shocked by the decision the Liverpool players have every right to argue, for me it was pretty much a normal thing for us really. Theres almost always a dubious penalty awarded to United against us, whats that I hear? this wasnt dubious or controversial? Better tell that to Skysports, BBC Sport and Goal.com. I could post other news websites but that would just be petty. Players dive, I agree but at least own up to it, I may have said during some banter to the United blokes that Torres never dives but they managed to dig up the one and only time he did lose his balance in the League and evidently it was against United at OT, but that game was wayyy back in 2008, so who's bringing up the past now ;) Back to the game, the over all shape of Liverpool was good. Kenny resorted to playing Gerrard up front behind Torres, Maxi and Kuyt on the wings with Lucas and Miereles patrolling midfield. Kenny proved I wasnt going crazy by thinking Aurellio was better than Konchesky and had him set at Left back with Konchesky not even making the team to travel to Old Trafford that day. Agger, Skertl, Kelly and Reina made up the rest of the defence. 

The team responded well to going a goal down with them creating a few good moves that could have resulted in equalising goals, unfortunately our lucky charm Vidic wasnt playing that day. Rio did well to clear many a shot and low cross that came in. Then the second of the 2 controversial decisions that Webb made in the game occurred. Free ball to be won, Gerrard and Carrick attempt to win it, I'd say Gerrard was fairly closer to it but matter of the fact is what happened next. Play was stopped after Webb felt there was no advantage to United, and after being consulted by his assistants, the United players then telling them to step away he then brandished the red card to Steven Gerrard. My view on the tackle, was it reckless? yes, malicious? no, was he making an attempt to win the ball? yes, was he wanting to damage the player? no, do I want him to damage the player? yes. The challenge warranted a stern talking to and a yellow card at most. Why just a yellow? Many say it was a 2 footed, studs up challenge, I took the liberty of getting screen grabs from the replay to show that he in fact went in with 1 foot, not two. See the back leg is in the other direction, of course once he lands the trailing leg will follow. He cant de-attach his leg. Then they say "why did he lunge?" what did they want him to do? moon walk?

It was a 50/50 but in those cases with you being in OT with Webb its seen as a 99/1 tackle. Carrick rolled around for a few seconds but was fine after that. You probably think Im being unreasonable and a bitter rival, I would post stills and videos of Rafael's stomp on Maxi or Nani's kick to Aurellio's knee but surprise, surprise none of those made the highlights nor were mentioned in any of the articles and both easily card-able offences, plus after Howard Webb gave De Jong only a yellow after his ninja kick on Alonso at the world cup final, I thought he could have been less harsh on Gerrard... oh wait Alonso was a Liverpool player, right that explains it.

Back to the game, 10 men against 12, I mean 11, we did well to hold our shape and quite honestly offered United very little space to attack with only one moment midway in the second half that made the heart skip when Reina was forced into 5/6 consecutive saves from all angles with at one stage his goal gaping open. Kenny made a double substitution which saw Maxi and Miereles depart for Babel and Shelvy. Both youngsters, both pacey and both with attacking mentality, it was clear what Kenny was thinking. They were superb, almost instantly tearing through the field, Babel firing down the left almost found Torres with his first burst, Shelvy showing his brilliance hunted down the United defender to the corner flag, and attempted to find Babel at the edge of the box but the pass was behind the arriving player. Everything we did was leaps and miles of the Liverpool we were used to seeing this season. Im not sure if it was a once of performance by certain players or if this is the Liverpool we going to see till the end of the season. Torres I must admit isnt looking himself yet but Kenny on Monday re-assured fans that they will get him back to the striker we know and love. The funny thing from after the game was the gloating by the glory hunting mancs, fine a win is a win and we are out of the competition, if it were Liverpool whom won under that circumstances I would be disappointed, besides the ref's decisions, having a team with a man short I would have liked to see my team finish them off, at 1-0 anything can happen, so it is critical to make sure of the victory. I'll just leave Uniteds failure of scoring a second down to brilliant Liverpool defence and no one can say we "parked the bus" because we did attack. It was funny reading the after match comments by the managers and players, Fergie claiming everything was fair (give me a break), Berbatov claiming he would never dive (yawn) and Kenny stating both decisions were a joke (lol).

To round of the weekend of laughs, step up Rayn Babel with his tweets. Many mock him but he is a funny yet talented guy. After tweeting "and they say he is one of the best ref's in the world smh" and posting this pic of Webb in a United kit, the FA have stepped in to punish him for such a thing, while the rest of the world laughed along with him... besides United fans of course, this shit aint funny.

Joke being doing the rounds since Sunday:


Howard Webb's kids have denied their Dad is a secret Man Utd fan."He is totally unbiased," Alex, George, Bobby, Matt and Cristiano stated.

I hope this is a signal of things to come for Liverpool as I really liked what I saw on Sunday, we played with reason again. We looked like we had tactics, plan B's, and other options apart from the boring long ball approach. Our defence looked good and had structure even with Kelly stepping in last minute for Glen Johnson. Aurellio showed he still has his set piece radar in check. So Wednesdays game away to Blackpool couldnt come sooner.

YNWA