A Starting XI up there with the best? What has Rafa left for Roy?
Some Reds fans will argue that Rafa Benitez has left Roy Hodgson with a high class starting eleven. No doubt, if we look at possibly our strongest starting line up, there is much to be optimistic about: Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, Emiliano Insua, Maxi Rodriguez, Alberto Aquilani, Javier Mascherano, Steven Gerrard, Yossi Benayoun and Fernando Torres. To most this would seem to be a very strong line up, more than capable of achieving the top four place required of them, but somehow last season, this was not the case.
Why and how this happened is down to a number of factors. Significantly injuries to some of our key players and the lack of form of others definitely played a part. With Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard, Alberto Aquilani and Glen Johnson all out for good parts of the season, the strong starting eleven was weakened significantly. The big problem then, has been seen to be squad depth. The lack of real class on the substitutes bench and any real options to change games when things were not going so well, certainly contributed to our poor showing last season and eventually seeing Rafa Benitez exit the club.
The lack of squad depth has been blamed on a lack of funds, and to some extent this is true when money from Robbie Keane and Xabi Alonso’s sales were not fully reinvested into the playing squad, leaving to Rafa relying on players such as David Ngog up front and to buying an injured Italian midfielder who would take months to settle into his new surroundings. Not all of this can be blamed on the lack of funding though. If we look at supposedly our best starting eleven again, you begin to see holes in places you shouldn’t, most significantly at the back. Jamie Carragher’s form was out of Rafa’s hands but the introduction of both Glen Johnson and Emiliano Insua was down to Rafa.
With Fabio Aurelio injury prone as he was, an able deputy should have been ready and waiting but because of Rafa’s decision to sell John Arne Riise in favour of Italian flop Andrea Dossena for £6m, we were left with a young Argentine Emiliano Insua. To be fair to the player, he tried his best, but he was just not ready to play as regular left back in the Premier League. Both he and Johnson are a lot more attack minded than previous players in the position, a positive move by Benitez you would think to encourage more attacking play, but it caused greater problems in defence and an element of the side that was once its bedrock ceased to be as effective.
Of course, this is not to dwell on past actions. Hodgson now has to form his own team out of a good nucleus of players left to him. The big problem though, is that good nucleus may opt to mutiny. The player’s highlighted in bold above are all those who have not committed their future to the club. It would rip the heart out of the club, and we would certainly be left with not only a squad lacking depth, but a first eleven too. If ever such a situation arose we would be truly heading for mid-table mediocrity and Hodgson has the biggest challenge on his hands since Bill Shankly, something that John Aldridge believes to be the case:
“He’s got a massive job on his hands at Liverpool. I think this is the most important stage in Liverpool’s history since Bill Shankly took over with what’s happening off the field with the owners and the lack of stability at the club. Something had to happen as soon as possible and you had to go in and test the situation about which players need to go out, what you’ve got to bring players in and who you can keep. That’s very, very important as Javier Mascherano has been using the wild card about his wife and there’s question marks about Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard. They’ve got to be sorted out ASAP.”
For the club’s sake let’s hope he succeeds.
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Newcastle News 24/7
July 1st, 2010
the problem with insua is not that he’s too attacking, cos he’s not. he’s a fairly conservative full back who can overlap and do a job when required.
his problem is that he is just so one footed it’s unbelievable. he is completely unwilling to use his right foot for even the simplest pass. makes it so easy to read him and to pressurise him.
July 1st, 2010
Hey Donal, stay off the crack. We are lucky you are not our manager. Milner is overated, he is average at best. As for the rest, you would sell most of our euorpean based players and bring in the english. Smart move. Not that i have anything against english players, but surely after the world cup you would limit the amount of english players in your team not increase them. Maybe im wrong. We don’t have the luxury to pick and choose, we need to be smart with our money, unlike the previous heir to the throne. 2 maybe 3 very good players will be enough to get us through the hurdle of the sale and then think about restructuring the team if the money is there. Unlike Rafas policy of buy 6 or 7 nobodies and hope they come good, we should get 2 maybe 3 if we can stretch it that far. This where rafa went wrong. In six years he could have bought 1 or 2 world class players a year and have a world killing team with the money he had spent, instead we are left with driftwood… Roy will change all of that i hope….
July 1st, 2010
Yobo-that is not the youth team, most of the youth team is in the academy genius,Plessis is now 22 and El Zhar is 24,San Jose is already gone,Plessis is being released and Nemeth is overrated and has said he wants to stay in Greece so let him,the only young player you could argue for a stay is Spearing but Leicster have made a bid and want to keep him so let him go,half of the them arent good enough for Liverpool, Pacheco,N’gog,Shelvey,Ayala,Kelly,Darby,Dalle Valle and Bouzanis are the only top quality youth players that are in the first team squad, if you know anything about football and Liverpool you would want Riise back with are cash situation,he has been one of the best left backs in Europe this year, everyone seems to remember the own goal against Chelsea but Riise was a quality left back for many years and we have never really replaced him,he is 29 and has a few years left in him and the main thing is we can pick him up for around £5m ,you could not get a better left back for that price ,names such as Taiwo, Kolarov and Zeigler would be nice but they will cost £10-15m and on a limited budget Riise is the best option he even got in ZonalMarking.com’s team of the year. One of the best football fan sights by the way,it goes into tactics etc. in great detail.That blog is just what I would like to see happen with Liverpool but it is unrealistic,Carlton Cole is one I would like to see as he is English and we need a big strong target man who can hold the ball up and create space for Nando or other players, anytime I watch West Ham he is fantastic and he is miles better than Heskey, i’ll never know how he managed to go to South Africa.C.Cole would be my choice but Llorente,Carew,Crouch or Jones i’m just saying we need someone of that type and he is the youngest out of these lads only slightly , he is English and he is realistic,West Ham have said they will sell at the right price, to be honest I would prefer Crouchy back but that is never going to happen.Aquilani will prove himself this season again people saying he is crap I wonder do they actually watch football,when he was fully fit towards the end of the season he was one of our best players.Granted Milner is unrealistic but apparently he loves the club and doesnt want a move to either Manchester clubs because of his Leeds connections, also he is guarenteed a start at Anfield and with the likes of Silva and Toure signing for City maybe not so up there.Milner seems to be a good genuine lad who wouldnt move just for money remember Nando for example took a pay cut to come here but we will have to wait and see to be honest I think he will stay at Villa for another season but maybe he is money hungry and will move to Man Shitty.Even the likes of Lucas and Babel can prove themselves under Hodgson and if you think those changes would lead to mid table mediocrity you are very much mistaken im not saying we would win the title every year because anything can happen in football and other teams are spending a lot more but with that squad we would definetly challenge every year and plus it would be good to see a few more homegrown players in the team.The rumours are changing everyday though today I have already hear Gilberto Silva{hope not too old},Danny Murphy{again probably a bit too old but still a good player and could maybe do a Gary McCallister},Joe Cole{would be a great signing but everyone wants him so we will have to wait and see,Brede Hangeland{the type we need a bit like Sami was, a good defender who is dominant in the air and has very good positioning would be great version of Krygiakos and would start ahead of Carragher},John Carew{the type of forward we are missing he would be a good signing},Rafael van der Vaart{would be a great signing and we should definetly try to snap him up}
August 17th, 2010
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