As the new season edges ever closer, Liverpool look no closer to appointing a new manager, but whoever gets the job will certainly be thrown in at the deep end, as the 2010/11 Premier League fixtures were announced yesterday. Due to last season’s 7th place finish, the Reds already knew they’d have an early start, with the club’s first competitive game just 18 days after the World Cup final.
Liverpool will begin their season on July 29, as they begin their Europa League campaign in the third qualifying round. The second leg is a week later on August 5, after which the Premier League season kicks off nine days later, with Liverpool handed a tough opening game against Arsenal. Should Liverpool make it through their first Europa League tie, they would face a play-off round fixture on August 19, before travelling to Eastlands to take on Manchester City.
On the positive side, an early competitive fixture could help the squad to hit the ground running. Liverpool’s first opponents, whoever they may be, should not cause too many problems, and it could be beneficial that the players have games of importance in the pre-season period, rather than simply playing for fitness.
However, with a squad that was seriously lacking strength in depth last season, and which at the moment has no manager to strengthen it, Liverpool will be playing a lot of important, difficult games at the start of the season. Early home matches against the likes of Blackpool and West Brom should yield victories, but Liverpool must visit Birmingham, Manchester United and Everton before the end of October.
With key players such as Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt all hoping to feature in the latter stages of the World Cup, some of Liverpool’s players are barely going to get any time off before the season begins. It gives a chance to some of the fringe players, such as David Ngog and Alberto Aquilani, a chance to impress, and Kopites will hope they have enough to navigate the club through the early European ties without the need to risk the tired World Cup players.
Liverpool’s new manager will certainly have his work cut out in the first few weeks of the season with some tough matches, but if he can get some positive results in the big games then it could provide an early morale boost, which has been in short supply over the last year.
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Football FanCast writer Oscar Pye-Jeary documents his time in South Africa following England in the 2010 World Cup. (England v USA).
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God bless new manager for LFC
Let us all start to make noises about Carlos Salcido. Maybe we can make him a target.
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