Its little under a month left before the start of the Barclays Premier League and the clubs have began their pre-season tours. No doubt the eyes of many will be cast on the top four with last years champions Manchester United being the pick of the bunch due to the new man at the helm. So far it hasn't been an easy start for the former Everton Manager David Moyes as he has only recorded one win from their first three fixtures. Not many will read into these games as there are just pre-season friendlies but no doubt he will be feeling the heat from the fans. The glory hunters.... I mean United fans aren't used to losing, so for his sake I hope this is just minor hiccups.
We're also entering the business end of the summer transfer window, where most of the clubs will try to secure their signings well before the season begins. Which gives the new players time to settle in, Liverpool have been pretty active in the market after securing the signings of Iago Aspas, Luis Alberto and goalkeeper Simon Mignolet. So far all of the players have featured in the pre-season tour with Luis Alberto being the pick of the bunch for many from the new guys. There is still some time left in the window so we may be seeing more signings but Brendan Rodgers and Ian Ayre are keeping their cards close to their chest as for the first time in a while we're seeing things being done in the legendary "Liverpool way".
Of course with the media there is always going to be rumours flying about, they don't call it the silly season for nothing. The biggest story is the Suarez Saga, will he stay or will he go? And if he goes, where will he end up? The player needs no introduction to controversy and is already serving an 10 match ban for biting Chelsea's Ivanovic during the fixture last season, he still has a further 6 games to serve in the new season. During his involvement with Uruguay during the Confederations Cup in Brazil, he spoke out to the media claiming his displeasure during his time in England, especially with the media labelling him as a cheat and a disgrace to the game. Well he can't really blame them but its part and parcel of the game and if he doesn't change his ways, it will carry on.
I always supported the player, yes I agree there is certain things that he does that I am not in favour of, obviously biting being one of them but there is no doubting that he is one of the most naturally gifted player in the league currently. Because of his comments, there have been a host of rumours doing the rounds with Real Madrid being the main club being linked to sign the player. Yes there have been bids from Arsenal but if Suarez really has a problem with the English media would he really stay in England?!
With the signing of Simon Mignolet who was one of the EPL's top goalies last season, there is obvious speculation around the future of Pepe Reina, he never did wear the number 1 jersey for Liverpool but he is most certainly our number 1 keeper no matter what number is displayed on his back. The Spaniard come Scouser has Liverpool in his veins, he was one of the few that could actually understand what Jamie Carragher said but if rumours are true, former Reds boss Rafael Benitez has his sights set on getting the shot stopper for his new team Napoli, then all I can do is wish him well and thank him for all that he has done for this great club.
There are still a few more games to be played before the season kicks off officially and many have their countdowns on the go for the 17th of August 2013 and just like the rest of them I cannot wait to see what this season has in store. A lot has changed since the 2012/2013 season and its hard to predict who will be the front runners. If Liverpool can carry on where they left off from the second half of last season, there is a reality of them reaching the hallowed top four. With Captain Steven Gerrard who recently signed a two year extension leading the ranks, along with the midfield sensation Philippe Coutinho, it going to be very exciting times ahead for Liverpool Football Club.
At 9:30pm on Wednesday the 25th of May 2005, I was staring at myself in the mirror of my bathroom wondering what was going on. I was left almost dumbfounded after what I had witnessed, did that really happen? Or was it just a bad dream and I'll wake up soon to go to work. As scary and saddening to me, I can't imagine what the players felt at that instant.
It was the Final of the Champions League, Liverpool FC proved any doubters wrong as they made it through the group stages by the skin of the teeth or should I say by the "OH YOU BEAUTY!" off Gerrards right foot. Then went on dismantle Bayer Leverkusen and humble European giants Juventus before taking on English Champions Chelsea in a thrilling semi final which saw only one goal being scored between the two legs, although Jose Mourinho would still say there wasn't any goal scored.
As I stood there in my bathroom, I said to myself, it can't end like this. All that hard work throughout the season, being written off countless times but rising to the challenge over and over again, it would be wouldn't be right. I made my way back to the lounge to gear myself for the pain that the second half could have in store. I sat there and I prayed to the the all mighty, as I'm sure many supporters of Liverpool did. We all prayed for a miracle because that was the only thing that could save us.
Being 3-0 down at half time in a major final against opponents of the highest calibre would bring down the spirits of any team but Liverpool FC were not just any team, they didn't have any manager, and they didn't have ordinary fans! For during that 15 minutes, the thousands thats travelled to Turkey who were at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul made their voices heard by belting out You'll Never Walk Alone, so loud that it and the vibrations could be felt in the change rooms. That coupled with the words by new manager Rafael Benitez reignited belief into those players.
There was still a mountain to climb but with Steven Gerrard leading his troops, he showed them the way. Getting the first goal in the second 45 was always going to be important and a well placed header by Captain Fantastic of the cross from John Arne Riise beat Dida and found itself in the corner of the net, that ignited something beautiful. Two minutes later the Red men were on the attack again, Dietmar Hamann passed the ball to Czech International Vladimir Smicer who didn't think twice and struck a low shot towards goal, which prompted Milan Baros to make his most vital contribution during the 90 minutes... getting out of the way!
There I was in my lounge barely finished typing out my text message after the first goal to send to my cousin "and the comeback begins" the score was 3-2. I looked up to the heavens, well my ceiling and thought "maybe there is a God?" In what seems like a flash they were on the attack again, who else other that Steven Gerrard breaking his way into the box only to be brought down by Italian hard man Gattuso. Penalty! Step up Xabi Alonso, with practically the whole world watching, he struck his first attempt which was parried away by Dida only for the Spanish superstar to rocket home the rebound. "Mission Impossible. Accomplished!" said the commentator while Alonso nearly had his head ripped off by Baros during the celebrations.
That equaliser sent every Liverpool supporter into a sense of ecstasy I for one was lost for words, belief was always there but to actually see it happen was truly extraordinary. Carlo Ancelotti still says its the worst 6 minutes of his life and what transpired after that will go down as one of the memorable defensive display in a final with Carragher playing through cramp and Hyypia the being the stalwart that he was but the main talking point being Dudek's double save in extra time..
With nerves already half shattered from the 120 minutes, penalties were next to come but by then one already had a feeling that the Gods were looking down on us. Many sing the praises of Dudek which is duly deserved but spot kickers deserve mentions too, the moment got the better of Riise who had his saved but Cisse, Smicer and Hamann who might I add played the game with a broken toe, all converted to hand Liverpool the win and their 5th European Cup. It was an evening of mixed emotions, we all heard stories of the great European Nights of yesteryear but there it was, back for us to enjoy again. There was a particular fan that caught my attention, an elderly gentlemen sat on his own in the stands , overwhelmed with what he witnessed, in tears he took off his shirt to wave as acknowledgement to the players as they made their way around the ground.
Saturday will mark 8 years to that day but it will forever be etched in my memory, it was one of the greatest nights of my life and has been dubbed as the greatest final ever played, to quote a football great "The English club proved that miracles really do exist" - Diego Maradona. More importantly was what that game meant to me, like everything there was a moral to the story. Never give up, fight for what you want as you will be rewarded, never to dream but believe!
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.
Is it just me or have Liverpools last 2 managers have some sort of fear to make a substitution? Fare enough the starting 11 they chose for the game is their choice and after a week of preparation and training they feel those guys are the best to do the job on match day. Now everyone knows things dont always go the way you planned it out to be hence in football they have a bench with 7 players sitting there so if something does go wrong eg: injury or a player is tired, or an individual is playing like shit it gives the manager an opportunity to make a change. With Liverpool's recent results being more unpredictable that dancing blind folded in a mine field, we never know for certain if the team out on the field is capable of getting the 3 points.
Last Monday we played a fairly understrength side that tore Aston Villa to shreds. It could have ended well embarrassing for the visiting side as many chances were either squandered or brilliantly saved. This weekend you would have thought with Torres back in front and the unrest in Tyne side with the sacking of their manager and appointment of a new one that didnt have any support from the fans that we'll have a good shot and collecting all 3 points again. Thats where you're wrong. Newcastle were out to get us and we looked well dumbfounded at times. Now not to divulge too much into the game and to focus on the topic of this blog, the world could see we were playing poorly, surely this is a sign to make a change? Fresh legs, different options, change of strategy, all of these come with making substitutions. Babel was brought early in the second half for Ngog which was only due to a nasty head injury suffered to the French striker, if it was not for that we'd have to wait till after the 65th minute to see a change. Many times Roy will wait till the 79/80th minute to make a change. You cant throw a player on in the last 10 minutes and expect him to do magic. You still got 10 other blokes out there that have been playing kak for the entire game so they're not going to click soon as some one else is thrown on. For me there is no shame in making a change early on, it shows that the manager knows his decision was wrong and his rectifying it before the problem gets worse. We've seen Jose famously making a tactical substitution in the 34 minute, it was a change as he said "to improve the game". He felt the player was not doing what he felt he would so he made the change. Chelsea ended up winning that game and thats all that mattered.
Now this isnt a post to attack Roy again, Rafa Benitez was just the same. He should wait till late on to make changes which often grated my nuts, especially last season which we try not to remember. I dont know why they make changes so late, other managers bring on players in the 55th-75th minutes for tactical reasons, from 80th + minutes the changes are either to manage the game or to kill time time. We on the other had make tactical changes in the 80th minute. I guess we're good like that. I just hope in games to come we aren't left frustrated like we were on Saturday.
