Winning ugly is the key that sets apart the champions and the rest. Manchester United and Chelsea have shown that it is a vital quality for success over the years, and it has characterised United throughout Sir Alex’s two decades in charge of the club. United’s game against Norwich last weekend epitomized this. They were nowhere near their best for large stretches of the game, and it looked like it would end as a draw, but they came up with the goods and took all three points away. A lot of their performances last season were less than inspiring, yet they still managed to gain points from games when they weren’t at their best, which is a true sign of champions. The ability to grind out results, come from behind, and come up with late winners, is a mentality that simply cannot be bought, and it is something that the Liverpool players are starting to develop, and will need to master if they are to progress further under Dalglish.
On too many occasions over recent seasons, Liverpool have played well and failed to get rewards, so for them to be winning, or at least picking up points when they aren’t at their best is a promising sign. There is plenty of room for improvement, and it is an encouraging start for the reds, as they can only get better. They are still tweaking their side, and finding what works best, in terms of personnel and formation, so keeping the points ticking over during this period is a positive sign. Ultimately, a win is a win, and if Liverpool manage to do it the ugly way, then that certainly bodes well for them for the rest of the season ahead and for the future.
The article was written by Lauren Rutter for FootballFancast.com. Make sure to check out the latest news, blogs and podcasts at FFC – ed.
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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.