LIVERPOOL great John Barnes has spoken of his disbelief at Liverpool’s misfortune in front of goal this season and admits that he has never seen anything like it.
In an interview with Liverpoolfc.tv the wing wizard lamented the goal-scoring woes of this campaign but firmly backed things to turn around for the Reds next term. Barnes, who has seen Liverpool hit the frame of the goal on 30 occasions so far this season, said:
“It’s incredible. In every game they have played this season, they have come close. If the goals were maybe six inches bigger, then we’d win the league!”
“I haven’t seen anything like it before, but it’s part of football. While it hasn’t happened for Liverpool this year, next year I am hopeful they will convert a much larger percentage of the chances. The longer you go hitting the post and missing opportunities, you see players snatching at chances. But as I said, the pleasing thing is they are still creating chances. The players are good enough, we just need to add a little bit more composure in front of goal to our game. The goals will come.”
Talking about the disappointment against West Brom. on Sunday, the Liverpool legend remarked:
“It was symptomatic of Liverpool’s season. They have not been playing badly, they have created more chances than most teams in the Premier League and have hit the post more than anybody. We just need to be a bit more clinical and composed in front of goal, but we’ve played okay and created chances. When you don’t take your chances, you always leave yourself open to making a mistake and losing the game, as happened against West Brom. But if we can create as many chances next season, we’ll definitely score more goals.”
When asked about Liverpool’s fixtures in the run up to the F.A. Cup final Barnes was very clear:
“All games are important because you can’t turn it on and off. You can’t say it doesn’t matter and just look forward to the Cup final. In every game you play, you have to give 100 per cent and put on a fantastic performance that will lead you onto the next game, so they’re vitally important. To go into the Cup final with confidence, it’s important you’ve played well in these next two games.”
“I’ve stopped predicting how games are going to go because the Premier League is so unpredictable! But I know Liverpool will be going all out because the players have Cup final places to play for. The players will have something to prove.”
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Meanwhile, John Barnes is to give a lecture about racism in football at the Sherrington Building at the University of Liverpool next month. Barnes, who was a victim of racism during his playing career, particularly when playing for England, was a vocal commentator on the Luis Suarez-Patrice Evra affair and was also part of an anti-racism in football summit held at Downing Street earlier this year, and will deliver the lecture at 5.30pm on May 17th.
For tickets and information follow this link www.liv.ac.uk/events/john-barnes
You can catch up with Neil on Twitter @Neil1980 or on his blog http://itsallinthegameblog.wordpress.com/
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Great players, managers like Messi, Ronaldo, Stevie, Shankly, Mourinho, Guardiola or even teams like the LFC of old and Barca did not became great because of luck alone. They became great because they worked hard, had talent and knew what they were doing. I am saying this because KD had said after the West Brom game (actually he had been saying all season) we need luck. You could be unlucky in a few games maybe 3 or 4. If you said that in almost every game (in our 11 draws and 12 loses)you are not unlucky but INCOMPETENT. Surely if KD is any good he would have a solution by now?
If we are in any other profession or any other organization, could we keep on saying this to our bossess to save our skin?
Paying 85 mill for a set of Chanpionship players and playing them out of position is not down to luck. Playing Skrtel at rightback at Spurs is not luck. Failing to try harder to retain Meireles when we are so in need of creative players is not down to luck (oh he is having the last laugh now, his team is in the FA Cup and CL final). Failing to play Maxi eventhough he scores almost everytime he plays is not down to luck. I could go on and on but you get the point.
If you talk about out of luck it would be LFC. Cowboy owners, kicking out our true world class managers in recent years and having not one but TWO clueless managers in succession.
Oh i take the cowboys owner appointment back. Its not down to bad luck but the extreme greed of a certain Mr. Parry and Mr. Moores