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Liverpool’s World Cup So Far

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Sakho has been a real rock for France at this World Cup

Sakho has been a real rock for France at this World Cup

Liverpool finished second in the premier league, so it is unsurprising that many of the club’s finest talents have swapped Liverpool red to don their national strips at the world’s premier sporting competition: The World Cup. As much as I love the World Cup, I always breathe a sigh of relief when I hear that the Liverpool players who are involved have escaped without injury or controversy. I’m not aware of any stories relating to any Liverpool players so far in this World Cup.

Just kidding, but I am going to leave Suarez until last – mainly so this doesn’t turn into an irritable rant, but also so I can discuss some other players’ performances without tainting them with Suarez’s stupidity.

12 Liverpool players (excluding probable signing Adam Lallana) have travelled to Brazil for the World Cup finals: Pepe Reina, Sebastien Coates, Simon Mignolet, Glen Johnson, Jordan Henderson, Rickie Lambert, Steven Gerrard, Kolo Toure, Mamadou Sakho, Raheem Sterling, Daniel Sturridge, and Luis Suarez. Their involvement, so far, has been varied.

Pepe Reina has been a fan favourite at Anfield since joining from Villareal in 2005, and despite his recent turn in Napoli blue, remains a name that Liverpool fans around the world listen out for on the international stage. Unfortunately for Reina, and for his native Spain, their defence of the World Cup faltered at the first hurdle, and despite numerous mistakes from Real Madrid and Spain captain Iker Casillas, he never kept goal for Spain in the World Cup. With the emergence of Spanish goalkeepers such as David De Gea, and the fact Reina will be 35 when the World Cup in Russia rolls round, this might have been his final World Cup.

Goalkeeper Simon Mignolet, thus far, has also played no part for his country, Belgium, and unless there is injury or calamitous mistake, I don’t see him ousting Thibault Cortois from the Belgian goal. This Atletí/Chelsea player is also a young goalkeeper that has broken through in recent seasons, and, considering the season he has just had, I understand why he has been picked ahead of Mignolet, even if Simon is ours! As for Sebastian Coates, well, I am sure he will have been pleased to have gone to Brazil, but he had no chance to get into the Uruguayan team before they were knocked out, the defence were just too good, despite Lugano’s injury.

Spain goalkeeper

Pepe Reina has been unlucky with Spain so far

Kolo Toure and Mamadou Sakho have had very differing World Cups thus far. Toure’s World Cup has been a series of extremely unfortunate and sad events. Starting on the flight to Brazil, Kolo took ill with what turned out to be a bout of malaria, resulting in him missing the Ivory Coast’s first World Cup match. A few days later came the news that Kolo and Yaya Toure’s brother Ibrahim sadly lost his battle with cancer at just 28, news which preceded the country’s premature exit from the competition. By stark contrast, Sakho has been a starting component in a resurgent and youthful French team that have become many people’s dark horses for the competition. Hopefully this will spark a more consistent season for Liverpool.

Financial fair-play and home-grown talent regulations have attempted to encourage the breadth of English talent at English clubs. For as long as I can remember, the core of Liverpool’s team has been English players. The sextet of Liverpool players that traveled to Brazil as part of the England national team are already returning home, much to the disappointment of the entire nation; despite this, they were some of the shining lights of England’s otherwise disappointing performances. Rickie Lambert was only part of the final game, and didn’t impress in a team that drew in a dead rubber against Costa Rica. Despite his mistake that led to Luis Suarez’s second goal, Gerrard’s performance was solid throughout the games he was involved in, not spectacular, but solid.

Raheem Sterling was undoubtedly England’s standout player, the risk to play him in the first game paying off immediately. Along with Sturridge and Henderson, who were both chosen to start England’s World Cup games, the 3 provided a glimmer of hope for England’s future, and suggested that Liverpool will be a threat again next year, at least in the attacking department. Glen Johnson had his usual Marmite performance in the defence, a department that did not excel overall throughout England’s campaign. Jon Flanagan’s inclusion in the preliminary 30-man squad shows how important he has become for Liverpool, and England going forward.

Suarez has left his marks all over this World Cup

Suarez has left his marks all over this World Cup

And finally, the enigma that is Luis Suarez. I finally thought he might have won the English press round; his semi-fit performance for Uruguay against England, and the two goals that sealed the win, may have all but knocked England out of the World Cup, but it showed his status as a world class striker and strong finisher. And then came the biting incident – well, to be exact, the third biting incident of his career – when, for no good reason, he decided to sink his teeth into the shoulder of Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini. I really have no idea what was going through his mind, or whether he thinks this is an acceptable thing to do, but I am royally pissed off with him. He is so talented and integral to our team, and he has gone and gotten another long ban (not that I really understand the finer intricacies of this ban, I just know in all likelihood it will mean he is not available for Liverpool’s first 12 matches.) By no means am I condoning what he has done, I just wish the ban didn’t affect us so much; maybe selling him is not such a bad thing, if we can get a lot for him….and an adequate replacement.

I understand that the international scene is completely different from the premier league, and that it is not actually possible for a team such as Liverpool to compete at the World Cup, but I can’t help but imagine how we would do if it were theoretically possible. The World Cup so far has been one of the most exciting and explosive competitions to date, with goals flying in from everywhere, and no-one a clear favourite. With Liverpool’s attacking prowess, I feel we would definitely hold our own in the tournament. Alas, this is not possible, so I am just going to hope that no more of our players do something stupid in the upcoming knock-out fixtures, and wish all the remaining Liverpool players the best of luck. Wouldn’t it be great to see pictures of Sakho lifting the Cup, or know you have a World Cup winning goal keeper in your net going into the new season?

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2 comments

  • Diego 'Digger' Souness says:

    Sakho & Mignolet are our last hope and i had such high hopes for Coates!
    Definitely hope Holland dont win it, imagine Van gaal parading the World cup at Old trafford, we’ll never hear the end of it from those pesky Mancs.

  • David Tyrer (Editor) says:

    Had high hopes for all the England lads, Suarez, Sakho but I think Sakho’s our last real hope now. Be nice to have one or next season’s key players come back on a high.

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