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Liverpool’s Best and Worst Seasons of the Millennium – Part Two

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UEFA Champions League Quarter Final: Liverpool v ArsenalLIVERPOOL have enjoyed many memorable moments throughout this millennium, despite the lack of a Premier League title winning campaign. Nevertheless, for all the good seasons Liverpool have enjoyed, there have been poor ones sat alongside.

But which season has been Liverpool’s best since the turn of the millennium, and which has been the worst?

Part One looked at the reign of Gerard Houllier, the famous 2001 treble and eventual demise. Part Two will look at his successor – Rafael Benitez.

2004/05 – Premier League (5th), Champions League (Winners), FA Cup (3rd Round), League Cup (Runners-up), Top Scorer (Steven Gerrard, Milan Baros, Luis Garcia – 13 goals):

A year which saw Michael Owen depart to Real Madrid for just £8 million, the hapless Antonio Nunez, and Djimi Traore’s appalling (but stupidly funny, on reflection) back heeled own goal to knock Liverpool out of the FA Cup at the 3rd round stage to Burnley was later completely overshadowed by arguably the greatest night in Liverpool’s history – Istanbul.

The journey included the classic against Olympiakos at Anfield in the Champions League, being four minutes from elimination before Steven Gerrard’s thunderbolt and Andy Gray’s commentary. Moreover, they memorably knocked out Italian champions Juventus and English champions Chelsea.

Having travelled to Turkey to take on AC Milan in the final of the world’s biggest club competition, they suffered an absolute mauling in the first half, from Paolo Maldini’s goal in the first minute to Crespo’s double, leaving Liverpool 3-0 down and completely out of it before the half was out. However, through the hearts of the fans with a soulful version of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ and a change of tactics, Liverpool rose from the ashes and came back from the dead to score three times in six minutes, changing footballing history, before surviving Milan attacks, cramp, and Jerzy Dudek’s incredible double save from Shevchenko to take it to penalites. There, once again Dudek denied Shevchenko to bring old big ears back to the Anfield trophy cabinet for a fifth time and on a permanent basis. The greatest footballing comeback ever, in my biased opinion.

However, there was more to the season than just the Champions League success. Liverpool’s run to the League Cup final was mostly through the younger members of the squad, although Gerrard was needed to see off Watford in the semi-finals. However, he then experienced one of those rare awful days associated with Chelsea, scoring a bizarre own goal which took the final into extra time, which Chelsea then went on to win.

Nevertheless, two cup runs, with one culminating in a first European Cup win for 21 years, in your first season is not bad going at all. However, Rafa couldn’t stop Liverpool falling out of the top four in the league, with a loss to Arsenal at Highbury handing 4th place to local rivals Everton. Luckily, UEFA re-wrote the rules to allow Liverpool back into the Champions League for the following season as defending champions. Liverpool’s first team was not too shabby, but the depth of the squad left a lot to be desired, so overall this season has to been as one of Liverpool’s best, without a shadow of a doubt. Despite missing out on fourth, two cup finals and Liverpool’s greatest cup win make it probably the most memorable season of the millennium. Verdict: A.

2005/06 – Premier League (3rd), Champions League (Last 16), FA Cup (Winners), League Cup (3rd Round), UEFA Super Cup (Winners), Club World Cup (Runners-up), Top Scorer (Steven Gerrard – 23 goals):

A return of 82 points, at the time a record for the Reds in the Premier League, emphasised a steadier and more consistent season compared to the rollercoaster ride of the season before. Nonetheless, there was an FA Cup final that provided Liverpool fans with enough drama to last a millennium, before even bringing 2005 into the equation.

Nicknamed ‘The Gerrard Final’, Liverpool won their seventh FA Cup in Cardiff, beating West Ham on penalties after another 3-3 draw which saw the skipper score twice, once into the top corner in the second half to level it at 2-2, before scoring as the clock went into injury time to make it 3-3. Gerrard then scored one of the penalties in a shootout that eventually saw Anton Ferdinand have his saved by the increasingly impressive Pepe Reina on the day, winning arguably the best FA Cup final of modern times.

After navigating through the early rounds of the Champions League (thanks to UEFA), before coming top in a group containing Chelsea, Liverpool were quite confident about going on another stellar run in the Champions League. Unfortunately, Benfica were too good over both legs and the defending champions exited at the last 16 stage. It was an early exit in the League Cup too, losing to Crystal Palace, meaning that it was the league and FA Cup which Liverpool impressed in, the opposite of the season before.

Benitez managed to address the squad strength far more successfully after a season in England, bringing in the likes of Peter Crouch, Reina, Momo Sissoko and later Daniel Agger, increasing the quality and steel at the club. It all culminated in a stronger season in the league, with success in the UEFA Super Cup over CSKA Moscow, but heartbreak against Sao Paulo in the Club World Cup which saw the players not only want to win it for the club, but also for Rafa, who had just lost his father. A season where Liverpool made progress in consistency, played an awful lot of games and still came out with two trophies made it a job well done. However, not as good as 2005 or 2001. Verdict: A-.

2006/07 – Premier League (3rd), Champions League (Runners-up), FA Cup (3rd Round), League Cup (QF), Community Shield (Winners), Top Scorer (Peter Crouch – 18 goals):

Another ‘look back and wish if things had been different’ season, almost identical to the summer of 2002 where if the right signings were made, Liverpool could have arguably won the title – it was the last improvement needed after the previous two seasons under Rafa. Regrettably, despite links to the likes of Daniel Alves, Liverpool couldn’t buy players that were A*, or had the ‘X Factor’. The players that were brought in weren’t bad, much better than Houllier’s this time four years ago, just the world class quality needed to win the league. Consequently, the need for finances to buy these players and build a new stadium saw Rick Parry and David Moores turn to the now loathed and hated Americans, Tom Hicks and George Gillett.

Liverpool still had a season that most teams would take happily, finishing in the top three in the league for a successive season, beating Chelsea to win the Community Shield and another dream run to the final of the Champions League, again beating Chelsea en-route, before this time succumbing to AC Milan in Athens. Pepe Reina continued his world class form, Carragher found a new impressive partnership with Daniel Agger and the midfield trio of Gerrard, Alonso and Mascherano were arguably the best in the league. However, despite finishing 3rd again, Liverpool were 14 points worse off compared to 2006, showing signs of inconsistency once again as Liverpool stood still this season rather than illustrating any improvement compared to the two seasons before.

Furthermore, the humiliating Anfield exits to Arsenal in the domestic cups weren’t pleasant viewing either. All in all, a good season for Liverpool, but not an improvement compared to the standards set before in the previous two, with it all stemming from the lack of A list signings at the start. Verdict: B.

That’s the end of Part Two, but Part Three will look at the final period of Rafa’s reign and how Liverpool came so close but so far in the title hunt and the turbulent reign of the not-so-dynamic duo Hicks and Gillett. Once again please express your opinion on the best and worst seasons of the millennium for Liverpool, but also on the topic of managers. Which one was better – Rafa or Houllier?

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1 comment

  • Martins c. says:

    We have been doing well. But since we steped down from the top 4 finish, everything changed. I think Rafa iz greater than Houllier. But i pray Brenda we take us in the high place.

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