The Season So Far

Football fans are fickle. That’s the general view shared by many, including myself, and that means admitting that I myself am fickle. Our views change all the time depending on the current situation of our teams. In a space of one week a manager, from the eyes of the fans, can change from having god like status to the absolute clueless moron. Knee jerk reactions are often the problem for the fickle minds. We will tend to say bad things right after the team loss a game. And when we won, we tend to get way ahead of ourselves, getting excited over nothing. That’s why I have learned not to say anything immediately after a game. I will always give it sometime to cool down from watching a match.

However being fickle is still a problem so I feel it will be interesting to put my views on the record from time to time so I can re-read it and have a laugh at myself. So this is what I’m doing now. I’m going to give my assessment on the team so far.

The season is still very young, just six games played so anything can happen. In general I’m happy with how things are going but I’m keeping my feet firmly on the ground because I realise it will only takes one game to change everything.

One thing that I’m definitely happy about the season so far is the fact that Rafa is sticking to his best team most of the time. He rotated less this season and that is always a good sign as it shows that he now knows his best team and has more confidence on his players.

I'm going to do this by breaking it down to three areas;

Defense
This is the one area in which I have a full confidence on. The central defenders that we have in the squad are just superb. Right now the first choice is Carra and Skrtle, and rightly so I think. They are forming good understanding and have so far played really well. Waiting for the chance to play are Hyypia and Agger, two players who would walk into any side in the world. So great strength in depth there.

The fullbacks are doing well too. Arbeloa has been in good form of late, not just defending but also reliable going forward. Rafa will never play expensive, gung-ho type of football so Arbeloa is really suited to our style of play. If he is injured, Carra can take his place on the right with either Hyypia or Agger taking the place in the center. No problem at all. I’m also content with our left side with Dossena and Aurelio playing well. Even Agger can play there if he was needed.

Then we have Reina between the post. He is becoming one of the world’s best goalkeeper, his form this season suggested that. Many Liverpool fans have been saying he is the best in the business for quite sometime now and it’s proving to be right. His understudy, Cavalieri, the Brazilian, is the best reserve goalkeeper we have in a long time. So again, no worries there.

Midfield
In my opinion, Gerrard is playing his best football in his career at the moment. I’m not going to go in details of what I think of him, I already did that in my Everton match report. He has been superb this season, that is as far as I’ll go here. Then we have The Chief and Alonso competing for a place along side Gerrard in the heart of the midfield. Both have been playing well and I have no problem with whomever Rafa chooses to play, but for me when we play against the obviously weaker teams we have to play Alonso as he can offer more in attacking sense compared to The Chief.

The new guy, Riera is proving to be a good buy. He is giving us genuine width on the left, something we have been severely lacking in recent times. He got a good cross in him with good touch and technique. The jury is still out on him as it is still early days of his career playing for Liverpool but I’m definitely happy with him so far. On the right we have Pennant who can do the same job Riera is doing on the left. However he is very inconsistent and Rafa seems determine to offload him, that is clear with him not getting any playing time. Pennant is playing well for the reserve though and maybe, just maybe, with him playing late on in the Everton game Rafa is starting to give him another chance.

Then we have the three youngsters who are the fringe players for the squad. Elzhar, Plessis and Lucas can all come in to the squad and do decent jobs. But I want to see more from Lucas who has been poor when he played so far. Voted the best player in the Brazilian league has got to mean something, unfortunately I still don’t see anything special in him.

Forwards
This area has been the problem this season. Who would have thought that? Torres and Keane are taking forever to click as a partnership. Keane is just trying too hard for his own good, I think. He should relax more and I’m sure the goals will come. Torres scored two in the Everton match but in truth he has been poor. Hopefully things will pick up soon. Keane supplied the assist for Torres in the first goal in that Everton game so finger crossed that will give their partnership a boost it needed.

Ryan Babel has so much potential in him so I don’t understand why he can’t play well when he starts a game. He is direct with explosive pace and shot but we mostly see that when he started from the bench only. If he continued the trend he will remain forever as a super-sub. That would be a pity as he has what it takes to be one of the world’s best strikers.

Now one striker I’m happy about is Dirk Kuyt. I’m not his biggest fan. I do acknowledge the work he puts in for the team but I wanted more from him as a striker. Now, I’m seeing his true worth. He is just excellent on the right in a 4-2-3-1 formation. At the end of last season Torres described him as ‘spectacular’ and at that time I thought Torres was just being nice. Not now though, Dirk Kuyt is spectacular and I’m not surprised if he is the first name Rafa put in on the team sheet every week.

Well looking at my assessment above will make you think that everything is rosy for Liverpool but I’m still not happy with the passing and movement of the team in general. Sometimes I just wonder what they do in training because the basic pass and move is very poor. We should be doing better in that aspect, we certainly have the players to do so. Another thing that bugs me is the fact that we are so poor in dead ball situation. Our corners in particular are atrocious. How hard is it for a professional footballer to take decent corners? Surely we don’t need Gerrard to take it all the time as he is wasted not being in the penalty box or at on the edge of it looking to score from the delivery. It is mind boggling really. Rafa, please sort it out as soon as possible.

We have a tough week ahead, a Champions League game in midweek against PSV and a tough away league game on the weekend at Man City. Man City are flying right now with the two new recruits, Robinho and Wright Philips scoring and in good forms. Even without the two new players they have a good team with Jo and Petrov impress me the most.

I expect nothing less then a win against PSV as it will be a home game. It’s the Man City game that worries me. Playing in the league away after a Champions League game is always tricky. Hope we can register another win to follow up on the great victory against Everton.

Like I said in the Everton report, we have been picking up points and playing fairly well without the strikers getting in full gears. So I’m excited to think how well we can play if the strikers were back to their best.

Torres showed sign of his old self already and hopefully he won’t look back now. I’m going to put my neck on the line and say Keane with the help of Torres will score in one of our next two games. I have a really good feeling on this.

Can't wait for Thursday!