After their excellent few months at the end of last season, Liverpool fans could be forgiven for feeling overly optimistic about the new season. Liverpool haven’t made a terrible start to this season, although they are yet to begin playing with the same spark and dynamism that characterised Dalglish’s first few months in the managerial hot seat. Despite the fact that they have yet to find their best form, they have picked up a steady stream of points. This ability to ‘win ugly’ is the hallmark of the great sides and it is something that Liverpool haven’t shown for a while.
Over the last decade or so Liverpool have rarely shown this ability to win ugly. The only season they perhaps did show it in abundance was 2008-2009, under Rafael Benitez, when they pushed Manchester United close for the title. Over the course of the campaign they showed an amazing fighting quality, with late goals and comebacks galore, and it is this character and spirit that is the mark of champions and contenders, which was reflected in their high league position at the end of that season. Since then Liverpool have struggled with playing below par and picking up points. Although they suffered a heavy defeat to Tottenham when playing poorly, they have picked up points so far this season against the likes of Everton, Arsenal and Wolves when they haven’t really looked at their best.
Picking up points when you aren’t playing well is certainly a positive sign for the reds, as at this time of the season results are far more important than the performance. There is plenty of time for the squad to gel, and to regain the fluidity of last season and that will surely come with more games. The fact that they had so many new signings to bed in, has obviously had an impact over the performances of the team, but it is a good sign that they have picked up points despite this. At this early stage of the season grinding out results is a necessity, and it seems that Liverpool are starting to do this.
Continue Reading on Page 2 ...
WATCH LIVERPOOL V MAN UTD! 188BET are offering the opportunity of winning a 2 VIP Legend’s Lounge tickets for the match. Please click on the banner below to be in with a BIG chance of winning the massive prize!
–
–
–
[ad_pod id=”unruly-video” align=”center”]
In the 2008-2009 season we were arguably the best side in the league for a fair amount of the season, and we were ranked no. 1 in the UEFA rankings for the 2nd half of the season. This season we’ve been awful. Hopefully the reintroduction of Gerrard can add some skill to the midfield, as loaning out Aquillani and selling Meireles has massively reduced our creative potential in the middle of the park. Lucas and Adam are solid at protecting the back line, but going forward seems an issue. I know Henderson was bought to be this type of player, but at the moment, he is appalling. People say he will improve (and to be honest when you’re that bad the only way is up), but he is half the player he was at Sunderland, and I for one had expected him to be player better than that by now. Bring on Gerrard to the rescue, yet again! We now have a big squad, just far less talent unfortunately.
In recent years, notable players out: Meireles, Torres, Aquillani, Alonso, Mascherano, Bellamy, Crouch.
Notable players in: Suarez, Bellamy, Enrique, Downing.
I wouldnt say LFC is winning ugly. i thought the team was very professional in the game against everton. The recent setup does seem to suit andy caroll though. When i think abt Torres, and his need for the right setup to be prolific, i think of caroll in the same way. Another plus was the lack of long balls directed at Caroll and it seemed to work. I wonder why it took the players so many months to realise this though. lastly, please oh please dont talk about titles, Mr Clark, Carra. just try to win every single game and see where we are come end of the season. That message was implied in El Pistolero’s recent comments, and that starts with the Man U game, yes i believe we can beat them, so go out there and do us proud!!!
Scouse Joe did you actually read the article at all? I think the article is spot on, we’ve had a bad game against spurs (even then if we hadn’t gone down to 9 men we may of sneaked an undeserved draw we were only 1 nil down when that happened) and we had 5 points stolen off us by officials against stoke and sunderland. If those games were called right we would be 1 point off the lead with a very new young squad. We have shown flashes of great football here and there and when we become consistent we will be great to watch. The league positions aren’t even finalized by Christmas let alone by beginning of October so calm down people. Joe you say yourself 08-09 it was the second half of season we were really strong yet your willing to hang new players out to dry after only 7 games in? Of which we should have won 6! Also the players you list us losing, half those were brought in to replace the other half that’s why your able to list more leaving than arriving! We’ve replaced aqualani, meireles, jovanovic and Cole with Adam, Henderson, downing and bellamy and I personally quite like that, the new squad is a lot younger and the only player we lost who ever played good in the prem for us was meireles and he wanted to leave wasn’t the clubs choice. Suarez and Carroll replaced torres and babel and yet again I’m happy bout that too.