I’ve never known a season like it. I’ve seen the highs and the lows. Watched Liverpool play like champions and like chumps. But never both at the same time. Well, except maybe the 95/96 season but that was mostly in the FA Cup final! In fact it’s been a season of ‘never befores’…
I’ve never before seen supporters of a football team become so obsessed with the tiniest accounting details and the minutiae of international business finance. I’ve never before seen such a show of support for a beleaguered manager like I did before the tottenham game. I’ve never before seen such a clear 50/50 split between fans over the manager. I’ve never seen a Liverpool team be so strong at home and yet inept away. I’ve never seen our defence so fragile and nervous in the last 10 minutes of matches. And I’ve never thought I’d see a beachball score against us… well, not since Micky Quinn retired.
Injuries, slips, disallowed goals, backpasses, inept refereeing, it’s like lady luck sent us a late tax return for Istanbul. This season has had more ups and downs than John Terry’s underpants, and I feel a little exhausted just thinking about it! For the first time I’m looking forward to the World Cup because I need the break from all the excitement! So, having said that it’s been a season of ‘never befores’ I think we can put it behind us and swear ‘never again’!
And on to next season… with maybe a couple of world champions in our squad. That’s if everyone hasn’t been sold to pay off debts and buy a few lampshades. But actually, despite all the doom and gloom, I’m pretty optimistic for the future. Why? Well, although there are clearly major issues behind the scenes at the club, I don’t see too many reasons why they should affect us on the playing field. As long as the playing staff is settled by late july, when we play our first competitive game, then I would argue that wholesale change is NOT needed at Anfield.There are reasons to be cheerful. It’s pretty much agreed that our first XI is as strong as any other in the premier league, generally it’s would be a combination of these players:
Reina
Johnson/Carragher/Agger/Skrtel/Insua
Mascherano/Lucas
Kuyt/Rodriguez/Benayoun/Gerrard/Aquilani
Torres
Now, given a bit of luck and no injuries, I would suggest that this core team needs no alteration. 11 fantastic players can be picked from it all of whom have, in one way or another, justified their inclusion.While we might argue over players like Kuyt, Lucas, Aquilani and Insua, in my opinion, they’ve shown enough consistency and application to be worth keeping hold of or, in the case of Aquilani, show enough potential. Other players who have appeared regularly on the fringes of the first team are Ngog, Aurelio, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Degen and El Zhar. Eggnog has had an odd season. Inexperienced, he has had an awful lot of responsibility and has been inconsistent. However, his goals scored for a young player have measured up well with his rivals from other clubs and this season will have taught him a lot. This makes him worth keeping. Hercules endured a tough start but has quickly shown that he will leave bits of himself on the field for us, and that is worth more than money in my book. Another to keep.
And then we come to Ryan Babel. The enigma. There’s no point retreading old ground on his obvious talents however toward the end of last season he showed a hunger to work hard that I hadn’t seen from him before. Should he be able to keep that up and find a bit of form he will be some player. It’s a gamble, but there’s more to lose by selling him. Phillipp Degen has also had a difficult start, however his attacking intentions are strong and with an injury free pre-season he could provide cover for Johnson. Any price he would reach would not pay for a decent replacement. However, should money be available, there are many better players. Fabio Aurelio is undoubtedly a good player, but his injury record is poor. Like Degen should another option become available it would be sad to see him go, but understandable. And finally El Zhar. Despite showing promise, El Zhar simply does not affect the outcome of games enough. He is undoubtedly a talented player but, for us, expendable.
Other young players have appeared. The likes of Pacheco, Spearing, Ayala and Robinson and there are signs that some of these (and maybe others like Ince, Amoo, Nemeth, Dalla Valle, Shelvey, Darby and Kelly) can make an impact next year. Room in the squad must exist for these players to get their chances. We need cover for each position, but not so much cover that it stifles their progress. With Riera, Dossena and Voronin gone we really need to replace these guys… But beyond that I don’t see major surgery being required. Jovanovic will hopefully provide solid cover for Torres and what funds that ARE available should really go on the purchase of a quality addition to the wings and to the defence. Perhaps the acquisition of Danny Wilson may prove valuable. All this without a penny being spent on transfers.
From this point it’s about priorities. Firstly replace Riera. I would suggest Joe Cole. Then, if funds are available, replace El Zhar. I would go for Turan. Then address the injury prone defenders in Degen and Aurelio. If they can prove fitness then great, but if not then what funds remain should be spent improving those positions. Then another top quality striker. Of course, if a buyer is found and silly money made available for fantasy players, then we could talk for hours about who we should buy and need replace no-one! However, I think any new player is a gamble and I believe that, after the last season, the current players and the manager have much to prove. In my experience that makes them better. After coming second the year before we were all guity of taking our feet off the pedal and our eye off the ball. We all just expected to challenge and before we knew it the wheels fell off.
So, more important than any transfer is an improved attitude. A fighting spirit and a willingness to give everything for 3 points. And occasionally throw caution to the wind. Benitez is a cautious man. This has cost us in the past, it cost us in Athens and it cost us this season. It transferred to the team and they became ultracautious. Stevie’s backpass, the nervous last minutes where we conceded so many goals, the unwillingness to get forward away from home. However he, like the rest of the team, deserves the chance to put it right. Caution is important, but so is knowing when to abandon it.
It’s time for Benitez and his boys to man up and make up for their mistakes.
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Good article but i disagree on a few points:
Insua, Degen, Riera and Aurelio should be sold alongwith Babel and El Zhar. They are not good enough and while i respect the manager and the fans for being patient, it is time be much more ruthless. We lowered our standard this year despite the (huge amount of) bad luck, injuries and loss of form from key players.
In selling these players it does three things:
1-Makes a huge statement about performances at this club, perform or leave. This is much needed going into what will be the most heavily contested league campaign in years.
2-It creates finds to buy well in the three most needed positions, LB,attacking midfield and up front
3-It creates room in the squad to bring on and in the younger starlets (selling 6 to buy 3 leaves obvious room for Pacheco; Kelly; Ayala and co).
It’s that easy (!). It looks like Rafa won’t be given much money to spend out side of what he raises in sales (see G Balague’s latest rumour blog)so selling is a must.
If he is given some reasonable money then Rafa may be able to get one/two of his top targets eg David Silva as he is fetching around £20M…
We wait & see. Personally I think we should stick rather than twist on Rafa. One bad season doesn’t justify sacking a manager with whom we have had some fantastic successes in 5/6 years.
Fergy was at a similar point (ie on the cliff edge of being sacked) before he started winning as a habit over many years.
The foundations are there (the positive changes in the youth set up and the young talent being brought in etc etc).
Keep her lit….
What a good post,i too beleive there is not much wrong at Anfield that can`t be put right with the removal of owners and a breath of fresh air from Rafa down the ranks to the youngest recruit we have,i am though disappointed with the way the biased Manchester based journalists and the Man u supporting Irish media have been allowed to whip OUR club into a frenzy and have fans at each others throats from manager through to tacticts,we Reds fans can all play fantasy football management and play, and have drunken `bar`tacticts played out all the time,but a coming together is needed NOW and lets show Sky Sports,ESPN,The Mail,The Mirror,The Star,The dreaded Sun and others they tried but they couldn`t beat us,on or off the pitch, YNWA. 21yrs and still on our f*****g perch.
What a load of bollox – ” It’s pretty much agreed that our first XI is as strong as any other in the premier league”. You are having a laugh arent you? Asides from Reina, maybe johnson, Masch, Gerrard and Torres – there is no one in our team who would get into Arsenal, Chelsea, Man U, Man City or Tottenham teams…..we are not hoping for another 7th place finish – we deserve more.
Our squad is pathetic for a team of our stature – Kuyt, Bennayoun, Aquilani, Lucas, Babel, Insua are not good enough for a title challenging team. Carra has been poor this season, and it looks as if he might be passed it.
I would be happier to sell all the above players, hold onto the spine of 4 truly talented players we have and give the youth a chance – with the raised funds we can go out and get the world class players we need and the quality players want. There are so many out there available at the moment but we dont have the money or the draw.
With the 50m or so we could raise we should allocate 10m to a quality left back, 20m to a decent winger like Silva, Turan, Navas, Mata and 20m to another striker – hell I would be happy with Carlton Cole or Bobby Zamora! Ngog is not liverpool class.
A lot needs to be done – and the only way it is going to happen is with a new manager who can spot the dead wood a mile away. This is all regardless of a new owner, as we all know it is not going to happen anytime soon with the current price tag.
I just hope someone like MON sees it as a good opportunity and takes the project on – even better if he wanted to bring milner with him!
our team is s**t and nowhere near the standard of those around us – both in terms of the first XI and in terms of the depth of talent we have.
Good article!
@jimbo 2010
I see where you’re coming from… but what would happen if we sold Insua, Degen and Aurelio and then lost Johnson and the new LB to injury for a month? We’d be right back where we started.
And could you guarantee that a new winger would definitely perform right from the start? How gutting would it be to see David Silva playing like a donkey for us in a brand new league while Babel is scoring for fun for Arsenal?
There’s an old saying that sometimes you don’t know what you got till it’s gone!
re: Gee
I understand your point but Rafa has had Degen fit for a good while now & rarely played him. Insua & Aurelio are our only LBs granted, but with one quality LB brought in and utilising one of our youth stars as cover(&with Agger so able to cover in emergencies) I think we’d be ok. It’s unlikely we’d have another season with so many injuries – I’d say we’d had more than enough of our share of bad luck, time for a change!
As for buying in talent and expecting performances from the start well that is always the case. If the player was brought in before our pre-season then that bedding in period would be shorter. Anyways if it was a Silva then I believe that with the quality and speed he has then much like Torres he’d fit in well and quickly enough. Look at Maxi, he didn’t take long & he came mid-season. Babel has had more than enough time (&2nd chances) plus his stock is still high being young, Dutch and with clear potential.
I reckon he’d be more likely sold to a foreign club rather than an english one anyway.
Better the devil you know? Well, I believe in Rafa BUT it is time to be ruthless with the players who have been here long enough to perform. Look at Benny, he was average for a while but cam to the for last season & despite injuries and being surrounded by a changing team week to week (due mainly to injuries – no dig at Rafa’s rotation) he was one of our most creative & effective players. Babel? What has he done despite getting the one thing he believed was necessary, back to back games. The product? Better attitude, better work ethics but less end product.
He needs to be sold & with the money bring in a player with real quality not just potential.
I may be proved wrong but there’s little doubt that he’d been given a good shot at it by Rafa…
@ken08
Love your attitude, man!
The problem with the media is not really that they hate Liverpool, it’s more that bad news and strife is what sells. Anything Liverpool related is popular online and guaranteed to get lots of hits… and let’s face it… there hasn’t been much good stuff to talk about!
Then they wheel out battered old pros, who’ve clearly headed one too many crosses and can barely remember which boot goes on which foot, to comment before their medication has kicked in! 😉
@jim
It all comes down to chances and calculated risks… we’re unlikely to have a season so full of injuries again. But we will have injuries… throw in some suspensions and you have real problems again.
I take your point about Babel you could be right… you could equally be proved wrong. That’s what makes him such an enigma!
We have to prioritise, and I think that… with limited funds… there are other priorities.
@jim
It all comes down to chances and calculated risks… we’re unlikely to have a season so full of injuries again. But we will have injuries… throw in some suspensions and you have real problems again.
I take your point about Babel you could be right… you could equally be proved wrong. That’s what makes him such an enigma!
We have to prioritise, and I think that… with limited funds… there are other priorities.
And I think change for the sake of change more often goes wrong.
@JDRed
I did say ‘pretty much’ agreed!
It’s quite easy to speculate which players would be in which teams… but actually how
many of their players would you have in ours?
Maybe 4 or 5 from each. That’s generally how it works. And it’s worth bearing in mind that the core of those players performed excellently against their top rivals last year and still… even in a bad season.. against most of them this year.
So I think it would be not just throwing the baby out with the bathwater… but also the bath, the bathmat, the soap and the rubber duckie!
At the end of the article you make a point about LFC needing a fighting spirit. That is exactly what was missing too often over the last 12 months. I wonder if we’re a team that plays better as an underdog and, after we finished 2nd and the expectation levels were raised, we didn’t know how to play without being underdogs. Right from the 1st game of the season against Spurs the team was too weak in its attitude.
We do need a few more quality players but it’s an attitude thing more than a playing staff thing that needs improving.
Accepted, you make a valid point as well , however I will add that stubborn Rafa make changes to his technical team Sammy Lee & Pellegrino are not doing for it for us and replace them with our famous sons Dalglish & Rush and he must accept their advice and tactics as well as they the read the game better and know the Liverpool way. I will also add that Insua & Ngog be used in the reserves for at least one season as they are not good enough as yet to be in the first team.