Liverpool have had injury woes from the start of the season, with Gerrard, Agger, and Torres (back when was still a Red) and the team struggled constantly to find any momentum or flow in their play with different players every week.
Joe Cole, the star signing of the summer, has had limited appearances and hardly the effect every Kopite knows he’s capable of. Same could be said of Fabio Aurelio, who was initially released by Rafael Benitez at the end of last season, but brought back immediately, with a better deal, when Roy Hodgson took over.
It would be easy to think that Glen Johnson left Liverpool in the summer, like our other right sided wizard Yossi Benayoun, due to a handful appearances from the England full back this season. Daniel Agger’s already been mentioned, and the talks of possibly selling him have been fuelled more intensely with another knee injury against West Brom ending his season.
None of that has been taken in worse than news of captain Steven Gerrard’s groin problems reducing him to a spectator from the KOP end for the rest of the season. In the last few years, him and Fernando Torres were both considered the driving force behind the team and without either one of them, there was always an air of uncertainity about facing anyone, and an element of surprise in case of a win. Not anymore though.
Without doubting Gerrard’s talismanic qualities on and off the pitch, some of the latest Liverpool performances with makeshift full backs and youngsters have been breathtaking to say the least. Lucas Leiva’s ressurgence coupled with Raul Meireles’ continued grit, and youngster Jay Spearing’s refusal to show any signs of stage fright, have seen Liverpool’s midfield appear stronger and more importantly surer of themselves than ever before. Dirk Kuyt’s been flitting in and out of the right wing position, but wherever the Dutchman has played, his heart has been constantly visible on his sleeve.
Last week’s performance against Arsenal, the week before against Manchester City, and this weekend’s thrashing of Birmingham have all been witness to that. Against City, it was clear Liverpool played with a flair not seen since two seasons ago when they came within five points of beating Manchester United to the league. That was back when Xabi Alonso was still at Anfield. Albert Riera and Alvaro Arbeloa were ripping apart full backs, and Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, and the occasional Sami Hyypia appearance made it difficult for other teams to break through on to Pepe Reina’s goal.
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Written by someone who knows very little about Liverpool football club. Glen Johnson was not in the team that came second in the league.
Also Fernando Torres was not at liverpool 5 years ago
Glen Johnson , dude? Are you sure? If i were Ryan Babel i would tweet ” #smh”.
Apologies for that error. I mixed up Arbeloa (who was the right back then) with Johnson for some reason…
Sorry to be pedantic, but Robinson didnt start against Arsenal, he came on for Aurelio after about 20 minutes.
Again, more utterly dreadful ‘journalism’ on this website. Embarrassing, really.
Hi Keith,
You may be unaware, this is a fans website, written by fans, it has no pretensions to be a serious “journalist” website. They write articles because they enjoy writing them, not because they are paid to. If you want something else, please go another website where your unhelpful comments can be unappreciated by someone else. The writer made an honest oversight in couple of things he said in his article. As editor, I should have looked more carefully at the article and I shall endeavour to correct any in future.
Thanks.
Agreed Dave, well said!
Well said said Dave, an interesting read all the same
Carrol would,nt get in my team – not at the expense of Maxi, Yes I know!!! but if a player gets a hat trick he should at least expect to start the next game even if not getting 90 mins.
Or even proof-read it once?
Anyway, i shall take your advice.
Good article and i cant get the criticism you get!!it’s written very well and those are also my ideas right now.i mean well done to King Kenny and Steve Clarke for not only rescuing the club and getting the results better but for using youngsters too.Jack Robinson will get a clap from me everytime i watch him trying harder and harder.i cant choose which is the most surprising of these two,Martin Kelly or John Flanagan!!Congratulations to both of them for fighting even though they are both too young.Spearing sh*t my mouth as i said in the start of the season that he is 22 years old and doesnt develop well..Well he’s s**t my mouth the last weeks and the guy’s fighting at every chance.next to Lucas those two make the difficult part of the game,marking and passing all the time.Meireles is TOP class and not only that but he is 100% commited from the 1st time he came to Anfield to watch the Liverpool-Arsenal game.Kuyt is really the “DURACEL” Dirk and i just want to hail everyone from King Kenny to FSG for the captures of Andy Carroll and Luis Suarez.both of these guys have been awesome and they are 22 and 24 years old,meaning they are both young.if we create a top squad with good wingers providing crosses to Carroll or Suarez it’ll take us to the next level.just look at Tottenham where Crouch doesnt have the skill Messi has but still with Bale and Lennon on the wings,with good crosses he gets to score easily.what i want is a fresh and young squad like the German national team at World cup for example.Khedira,Ozil,Muller,Neuer,Mertesacker,Marin,..etc while other teams with more so called “experienced” players,scr**ed it up like Argentina,Italy or England for example.can you really say that Khedira-Schweinsteiger-Ozil are better than Gerrard-Barry-Lampard??no way but they were more hungry for fresh for winning.that’s what i want to see at Liverpool.Torres is considered one of the best strikers in the world in his good game but his good game never existed in his last season for us!!he scored 9 goals before he left but most of these 9 goals were sitters.and while Suarez and Carroll might not have the quality Torres posses,they are hungrier for goals and assists and i LOVE that.
Future is Bright
YNWA