There are so many lose ends to tie up at Anfield that it’s hard to know where to begin but lets start with the defeat to Manchester City.
Losing away to City in the second game of the season is neither the end of the world nor the end of our hopes of finishing in the top four and I don’t believe the 3-0 score line was particularly justified. I did however make some worrying observations on the night. Firstly the omission of Javier Mascherano. Some reports suggest that he made himself ‘unavailable’ for selection. Roy Hodgson’s reasoning was that he was ‘not in the right frame of mind’ and so was omitted from the squad. My instincts tell me it was probably a little of both. Hodgson told BBC Sport:
“His head is being turned by Barcelona, who are making overtures to him. But until an offer matches our valuation he will stay with us. The player still remains unhappy. He is not interested in the justice of the fee, he just wants to move. It makes it uncomfortable for us. It’s something to be resolved but certainly Javier was not in the right frame of mind so it was better to play with Lucas and Steven Gerrard, who certainly were committed to the cause.”
Barcelona have reportedly offered just £12m for Mascherano which is frankly an insult. (There are not many better holding midfielders in world football, if any). What is more of an insult is the attitude of the player himself. Mascherano has always been a great holding midfielder, even in his River Plate days but it was Liverpool who rescued him from the West Ham reserves and gave him the first team football he craved. It was also Liverpool who moulded him into a player that is now captain of his country. If a player wants to leave a club then fine, it is part and parcel of football but there are right and wrong ways to go about it. Unfortunately for a player that was so adored by the Liverpool fans Mascherano has gone the wrong way about it.
My second and third observations came during the game. Over the weekend Chinese businessman Kenny Huang ruled himself out of the running to buy the club. In a statement Huang said:
“We thank the many Liverpool fans who expressed support for our efforts and wish the club great success in the years to come. I am now considering my future options and will be making no further comment at this time.”
I was disappointed to read this information over the weekend as I thought the intentions and ambitions of Huang and his backers seemed to match those of the club. Since this statement was released I have heard rumours that many of the Liverpool Board feel that the statement issued by Huang was just a ploy to speed up the sales process. During the Manchester City game I noticed a young Asian woman sitting in the Directors box with Kenny Dalglish and members of the Liverpool Board. I didn’t recognise the woman and it got me wondering. Is this woman in any way connected to Huang and his bid to buy Liverpool or is it just simple coincidence? I suppose only time will tell.
My third observation was the game itself. Everyone in football is very well aware of the hundreds of millions City have spent on their playing squad. They basically have two top class first elevens that they can rotate every week. Given time to gel it is obvious to see them being a real force, not only in the Premier League but also in Europe. The major concern I took from the game was not the result itself it was the lack of control and ideas shown by the Liverpool team. Many pundits and fans have the view that the Liverpool squad doesn’t need an overhaul and there is a certain amount of strength in depth within the squad. This may have been the case two years ago when we came close to winning the title but since then the playing environment has changed. Teams have heavily invested in players and the standard of squads has greatly improved.
Liverpool do not possess a single player in their squad who can play wide and beat a man. Neither do they possess a decent left back or an adequate striker to partner Fernando Torres. Players like Kuyt, Lucas and Ngog work hard but would you call them top class? No.
Money is tight at the moment but when new investment is injected into the club the playing squad could need more of an overhaul than many people think.
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What about the fact we played 4-4-2 last night?
When was the last time we lost 3-0??
It reminded me of Houllier’s last season last night.
Shocking
I shouldn’t worry too much about Kenny Huang. read the article about him on sportingintelligence and it seems pretty plain he has never a realistic investor.
I think it is too early to judge the team yet. I hope that if Roy lets the attacking players off the leish a bit and plays them in their proper positions, then they could turn around the disappointing start.
yes ioticed the asian lady lady with dalgliesh, its his cleaner, only jocking i thought the same as you but not huang someone else.
we will have the two players we need this week,
we will do well we wont play arsenal and city every week, we will win more points against the lower teams that under rafa because roy wint mess about too much, roll on
I think most fans know how badly we need new players of a higher quality, no worries there mate! What we don’t see yet is the willingness with management to do so!
heres that again in english, yes i noticed the asian lady with dagliesh, i thought the same as you but not associated with huang but someone else.
Before jumping to panic, like the rag Mail has today citing “Liverpool have 1 point and 1 goal out of 2 games” it’s worth taking stock of where we are right now in football’s hierarchy.
We don’t have any money, we have a threadbare squad and Roy is working with an inherited squad. Citeh have some excellent, excellent players and will do that again to other top teams this season; I would rather have us lose to Citeh than I would in the way Villa lost at the weekend.
The biggest concern and a valid one was our lack of width, that gave Adam Johnston and Kryten Milner the chance to push back Agger and Johnson with no support from the guys above them. That needs to be changed as a priority, if he’s available come January when we have money to spend I would be happy with SWP.
Jovanovic is one of the worst players to wear the shirt. Just what is he good at.?
He can’t beat a man, just runs with the ball like a headless chicken.
Agger. I’m fed up of saying the same thing about this lad, he CANNOT win a ball in the air. His tackling is powder puffy considering he came & spouted out he like the physical side.
Skirtel. Pretty much the same as above. Slighly better in the air, but what the f*** was he doing with that rash tackle in the 3rd minute.?
A 3rd division centre half tackles like that. AND if the ref had applied the law as it stands, he would have been off after the pen.
Dirk woefully out of sorts, as was Lucas when confronted with that huge midfield man.
I felt sorry for Torres & Ngo. No service at all.
Worst of all lst night though was WE SHOWED NO FIGHTING SPIRIT.!!
I believe the Chinese girl to be Ian Ayre’s wife. As to the squad, yes an overhaul is needed, perhaps it could include something for Roy e.g. managerial intervention when things are going pear shaped? Waiting for 70 minutes as Liverpool floundered before doing something was stupid. As for giving Pacheco 5 minutes on the left wing – explain that!
Agger should not have been at left back wheres our new lb.
Also i thought the performances of all but Gerard and Carra need to be looked at and Jovanovic needs to start fitting in i hardly saw him.
1) We don’t have natural width to be playing 4-4-2 with Kuyt n Jovanovich on the wings both who like to come inside as would have Ryan Babel if he started on the left. 2) Lastnight showed us what strength in depth we have or lack of it. 3) Just what does Roy see in Lucas and we don’t. 4) He bought Poulsen why didnt he play him, dont give me the crap about he needs time to adjust, he was brought to play in the Prem coz Roy thought he was good enough so play him these are the types of matches he should be playing in. 5) Sort out the Mascherano fiasco a.s.a.p and bring in some decent players we still need atleast 4-5. 6) I saw the Asian lady alongside Kenny was thinking Huang was still around somewhere, but now it appears as a unknown bidder.
7) Good luck Roy you’ll need it.
8) Well done to City and good luck to em.
9) Great fans as always our great club has 3-0 down and all you could hear was YNWA at the end, if Carlsberg did fans they wouldn’t be a patch on ours ……YNWA
10) SORRY FOR THE RANT LOL
Sorry, but Roy Hodgson was found out last night. 442 away from home against Man city when we should have played 4231. Players played out of position like Agger at left back. Why sign Aurelio for another 2 years if you’re not going to use him.
Lucas getting battered today unfairly by all quarters. Gerrard continually playing the Hollywood ball and getting caught out of position. A good coach would tell him to keep the ball and choose his runs carefully, maybe that’s why Rafa rarely played him there. I think he can play there, but he would need someone like Aquilani in front to link up the play. That’s not going to happen now though.
Why was Maxi left on the bench when he should have started? Not the quickest player, but clever and good in possession. Maxi should have played instead of Jovanovic with Babel on the other side with Kuyt in the hole instead of Ngog.
In our defence we came up against well oiled machinery last night, and we were poor.
Anyway the media and Purslow got what they wanted an English manager, 442(Andy Grey applauding Hodgson before the game), no zonal marking, Gerrard in the midfield and CB playing LB.
Why am I concerned?
We need a left back and we need real wingers. Why didn’t Kuyt play with Torres and play a real pacey winger on the right? We played with David Amoo during pre season and the qualifiers, he looked better than Kuyt in that position.
What was the point in blooding some of our more talented youngsters if when the season starts Roy goes back to the same old players?
Kuyt is a good squad player but on the right wing he is a poor choice.
What worried me last night was that Roy didn’t make a change when it was so obvious we were struggling. I wonder what his reasons were. It hasn’t filled me with faith, that’s for sure.
Why have a bench at all if you’ve no intention of using it.
He may get away with it this time but I doubt the fans will put up with it if it continues.
Chinese woman in the crowd is Ian Aryes wife.sorry to disappoint..
http://lancashire.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/a-night-in-marrakesh-the-annual-marina-dalglish-ball-held-at-knowsley-hall-18597/
Another observation, Roy Hodgson looked out of his depth last night. When he needed to make changes he seemed bereft of ideas. Not what we want for a Liverpool manager, and he looks as if the pressure has really got to him.
I can’t help but be disappointed by some of Woy’s decision making yesterday.
I can’t understand why he played the 4-4-2 that he did given the following:
1. We were playing a good side away from home
2. Man City play with two good holding/defensive midfielders (De Jong and Barry)
3. Mascherano went AWOL so we had to settle for a player who isn’t a natural defensive midfielder in a 4 man midfield (Lucas)
4. We had no natural width so most of our play was clearly through the middle where we were outnumbered.
5. Torres and Ngog is a relatively untried strike partnership
6. We don’t have the type wingers to service to two up front.
I can’t help but think we should have played a counter attacking 4-5-1 – even if we didn’t win, hell even if we lost by one goal it would have been less demoralising than what happened last night.
liverpool can perform well in the next game..our defensive character is out from the game(city) due to masch strike..LUCAS?still need improvement..maybe poulsen is the right player to play at masch place..due to Europe League Roy have to rest him..jova is the fastest stiker than babel..what i can about the game(city)is no luck on our side…that’s all
Where the hell is fabio Aurelio ,Johnson was more than poor yesterday.I think we were out of the match since the very first second
We defended like a pub team.The second goal could have been avoided if you adopt zonal marking and what the hell was Skirtel thinking with the tackle that gave away the penalty?Dirk is too limited as a winger and the manager is tactically naive.It is had to win a game without controlling the midfield and to play 442 away to a very good side beggars belief.Get Ben Alfa and Lasana Diarra with the pennies left in the kitty and we will have a good season
I have to say that the mistake was to play 4-4-2. The moment I saw the line-up I was worried. Surely a three man midfield of lucas, poulsen and gerrard behind torres would have been far better, with kuyt/maxi and jova/babel on the wings coming in to support. I’m glad we are looking more attacking but it was a mistake to play that way on the road against a city team filled with pace. We basically had four strikers on the pitch, albeit two playing as wingers.
I don’t know why we haven’t sorted a left back yet – Roy has known about the situation for a long time now and to play Agger there is dangerous. While I think he can perform there it’s far better to have a player that has spent his career in that position – full back is not an easy position to master and the more you play out of position the more opportunity you have for mistakes. Eventually you end up ruining the confidence of a good player.
The lack of pace is really worrying too – between the strikers and Pepe we really have none now. Torres, Ngog and Babel are all speedy but then who? Gerrard a few seasons ago but even he is starting to look slow over any distance.
I think the purchase of Ruiz, Turan and possibly Caecido would be excellent if and when Masch and Kuyt leave. There was talk of Forlan being available for 15 mill earlier in the summer – that would be amazing if we could pick him up so cheap. He has at least 2 or 3 good seasons left in him I think and he would be the perfect foil for Torres.
But hey, what do I know, I only watch the game! I have to put my trust in Roy now cos we ain’t got anyone else up there we can trust (Kenny aside). So come on Roy, make us proud. If nothing else we should be putting up a fight, the things that have gone on at the club in the last few seasons should be uniting the fans and the squad rather than splitting us. And I do believe Roy is the sort of man to rally the troops, circle the wagons and dig in. While I still think Rafa was a great tactician and master of spotting flaws and weaknesses I think he probably helped in creating splits throught the club at a time when we needed unity. Get rid of Masch asap and move on. YNWA