About Me

I have been a Red since I was about 6 or 7. My boyhood hero was Kenny Dalglish and I have an autograph from him while he was still at Celtic. Thanks Gran! As such I gravitated towards the team he played for. So I have been Scottish-South African- Scoucer for about 30 years now! I am extremely passionate about our club, and have felt the need to start this blog in the face of the abject nature of our performaces under Benitez and the Hicks/Gillett ownership.

Monday 19 September 2011

Britannia Blank and Harry Hoodoo Continue

Firstly, let me start with something important,  I would like to wish Ronnie Moran all the best after his hospital admittance on Friday. Lets hope he has a speedy recovery our thoughts are with him and his family in this difficult time. A true gentleman who has been associated with the club for over 50 years, he is LFC.  

Secondly, what is all this nonsense with Nathan Ecclestone's twitter post about his personal view's on 9/11. Surely in this day of bland banalities from our footballers on the various social networking sites.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14914280.stm

His opinion is not exactly earth shattering and new.Surely the 10th year anniversary of this horrific event is an appropriate time to discuss it? Whether you agree with the view or not, its surely better than reading 'Training was hard, bought another Porsche, shagged my brother's fiance cos I is bored' or whatever other piffle players post!  

So onto the football, unlike the shiny Blu-Ray boxset for Star Wars loaded with extra and enhancements our for 'New Hope'  our performances over the last 2 weeks looks like more of the same old toot with shiny new cover. I have not watched the Stoke game but the highlights and stats tells it all. 24 shots, 8 on target and we still lose. Sounds familiar, our Birmingham jinx had the same sort of ring to it. Clearly we didn't play badly and Shawcross seemed to be everywhere blocking shots and making challenges. I suppose I should cover the 3 'controversial' incidents in the game.

1) Delap handball - Definitely hand-to-ball, at home you tend to get those away maybe not, so on that one certainly the luck didn't favour us.
2) Walters penalty - Sorry for me that was pen. Carra loses his balance then manages to almost get himself back in position but decided to not only put his arm across Walters but grabbed his shorts. Walters for his part went down easily but that is to be expected these days. From Mark Clattenberg's perspective he sees the arm across the front and the grab on the shorts. So no complaints from me.
3) Upson handball - No brainer here, again the ref got it right. Suarez is attempting to cross ball and Upson slides in the ball driven from 2 yards away hits his leg and then his arm. His arm wasn't flailing all over the place ala John Terry.  

So on the basis of the above, I am not sure I can give Kenny's post match comments much credence. 'Crucial decisions in every game have gone against us'. I can't think of too many that have gone against us. I list the one I can think of below.

1) In the opening game, sure Richardson should have been sent off for the challenge that led to the Suarez penalty, which was finally shot down from Space over the weekend as it was interfering with US defence satellites! So we should have played against 10 men. That smacks of sour grapes, we should be able to beat a team that had with a whole new midfield at home.
2) Arsenal game, I thought there was nothing 'crucial' in that game. They had a player sent off, rightly. We got a lucky 1st with the O-G and Suarez may have been given offside, so if anything we benefited.
3) Bolton game - possible a couple of maybe pens but honestly we won 3-1 going on 10-0 so can't see the issue there either.

So King Kenny had productive meeting (scheduled not special) with Mike Reilly who is in charge of the referees on Monday and came away with a clearer understanding of what we should be doing and how we should behave. Glad to see that was communicated so well to the team for yesterday's game with Spurs then!!!!!!

Sure Mike Jones was bit card happy. Honestly you have to ask yourself 2 questions, was he consistent and did he apply those standards to both sides? I think he did. Was it a dirty game, definitely not, should there have been as many card, probably not. The player have a responsiblity too, they can see what is being booked and what isn't yet our players seemed to ignore that. Thay have all been reffed by Mr Jones before........ 

Yes there were more robust challenges in other games over the weekend that did not even get a booking (Barnett on Klasnic). But each ref will interpret things differently and you can only go by the one that refs you each week.  

Chucky's 1st card was for a cynical tug on Modric's shirt. Adebayor was booked for a late one on Carroll. Adam's 2nd card was for a knee high lunge in a genuine attempt for the ball on Parker. Again no complaints. Skrtel  as always makes bad decisions in the defensive 3rd of the pitch and he was even more culpable playing out of position. The 2nd card was sheer stupidity. Bale had already laid the ball off and was only going down the line, so instead of dropping off and tracking the run, Skrtel jumps in and stamps on Bale's ankle.  So not even an hour gone and we are down to 9. Result. Hammered.

I really have to question our team selection and tactics. we have basically been playing 4-2-3-1 and for some reason we went 4-4-2 to accomodate Carroll. I dont understand Kenny's thinking here. We have looked sharp and incisive with 4-2-3-1. Was it a nod to media pressure over the last week or so about him being on the bench and having a  huge price tag? I don't know, but is seems strange to play him in this away game. Surely Stoke was his kind of game? Spurs away was always going to be a football match not a battle.

Skrtel is not a rightback and Bale is probably one of the top leftsided midfielders in the world, so surely we needed some cover in front of him?? For me that means either Kuyt and Bellamy plays in front of him. Henderson and Downing do not track back enough or have the correct work ethic.

So 4-4-2 That actually looked something like this for the 1st 20 minutes

Skrtel-Carra-Agger-Enrique
Downing-Henderson-Lucas-Adam-No-one
Carroll and Suarez 

I put 'no-one' on the wide left as that appeared to be what we were doing and for some reason Downing and Henderson were on the same side of the pitch in the same space and neither helping Skrtel! Spurs certainly started the quicker as you would expect from the home team who are smarting from a 5-1 hammering by City in their last hoem game. Adebayor put one across our bows in just the 2nd minute from a ball from the right where our invisible midfielder was.Did we learn from that, No! For some reason Bale was left completely unmarked out on the left, Agger was at left back Skrtel had run away to centre-half. Excellent finish from Modric and probably no more than they deserved.

We didnt really get back into the game until the 20th minute or so but we were 2nd to everything Modric and Parker streets ahead of Adam and Lucas and the occasional central involvement of the completely-out-of-his-depth Henderson. Sorry this guy is not a Liverpool player and isnt worth anything close to 20 mill.  Headless chicken. Meireles, Aqualini are vastly superior, hell even Shelvey looks more at home. 

So Agger gets injuryed and Coates comes on for an unexpected debut. Although lets be honest Agger had lasted almost 4 whole games, which is a record in itself. So within a minute Adam goes, a bit of a re-shuffle, Carroll goes out to the right Downing stayed left Suarez to break. Fine that will and did do until halftime. So one was expecting a tea cup or two to be smashed and a tactical change. Sure 2 subs used but needs must and we are still in the game.

Nope, not a thing from Kenny. Surely 1-0 down,a man light and completely off the pace you need a bit of graft to get a foothold. Carroll looks like a lumbering Hippo most of the time. Sure he needs the game time but we need a result more. He can play the whole game on Wednesdat agains Brighton. So for me he should have come off at halftime and Kuyt on. Then its 4-4-1 and use Downing and Suarez's pace on the break.

So we are still not really in the game when Skrtel get sent barely 60 mins gone. Carra shows some sense by telling him to slow down as he trudges off while the bench dithers on what to do. So we go with Henderson at rightback. Within 10 minutes we are 3-0 down and the game is over. Defoe rifled one in to the bottom corner and Pepe dropped a clanger for Adebayor to flick over him and side-foot in. I am sorry but surely a re-shuffle is required when you go down to 9, especially when the 2nd player to walk is fullback. No, its the 70 minute before we do anything. By then its too late, the game is over. I was flabbergasted at Kenny's lack of action.

We have seen this type of performance before from us when playing the early game, be it Saturday or Sunday, unless its ManUre we do not seem to be at the races. We seriuosly need to look at our preparation for these games. We looked like the team that had played in Europe on Thursday.

For me the Jordan Henderson experiment is over. He has had 6 games now and I don't see that he is better than Kuyt, Adam or Spearing either centrally or wide. I have said it before, him and Carroll are for our future not now. Unlike the quality of of youngster being signed at the Legions of Doom, ours are not up to standard yet.

At least the suspensions for Adam and Skrtel will be for Wednesday's League Cup game away at Brighton. That will be tough Gus Poyet has got a good squad and plays good football, not unlike Spurs..... 

I know there will be some rotation but I would go as follows

Reina
Flanaghan-Carra-Coates-Robinson
Kuyt-Spearing-Lucas-Maxi
Carrol-Bellamy.

For the Wolves game -

Reina
Skrtel-Carra-Coates-Enrique
Kuyt-Adam-Lucas-Bellamy
Downing in the hole
Suarez


YNWA

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