I wrote a blog this morning to put down in words my feelings towards the start of the season. It was entitled Under Starters Orders with every intention of following it up with the post called They're Off. Little did I know at the time that it was likely to be the most apposite title I could come up with for a blog post.
So the season is up and running and we have gained a creditable draw. This season I have decided to forgo my armchair fr a view from the bar stool in an attempt to save money on a Sky Sports subscription. Maybe I'll even get a view from the stands occasionally.
Today's pub of choice was not as full as in previous visits but still with plenty of atmosphere. A few anti Liverpool (as opposed to pro Arsenal) voices were around but in the main it was a Reds pub. Plenty of TVs and yet still plenty of places not to get a good view.
So the game. Well I suppose I was as disappointed at the end as most reds fans, although looking back in hindsight I would think that a draw was probably a fair result. Arsenal dominated posession but didn't produce anything particualrly incisive, wheras we played well on the break but let ourselves be put under too much pressure for my liking.
What I was most disappointed with was the fact that we didn't start playing like we can until we were down to ten men. I was very optimistic when I saw the starting line up. It looked suitably attack minded. yet we didn't retain possession well at all and therefore didn't make the impact that we should have.
The best chances fell to us in the first half, but they should have been more bountiful. Ngog can score goals but he needs a higher ratio of chances than Torres so we need to be able to ceate them for him.
The Cole sending off was the turning point of the game. Should he have gone. I can see why he was sent off. It is one of those challenges that if you don't get it right it can look terrible. He had his foot raised and from a distance that can look dangerous. He wasn't helped by the Arsenal right back making the most of the tackle but it was achallenge he didn't have to make.
The second half was a football game of its own. It had twists and turns, a stunning strike by Ngog to put us into the lead and a terrible blunder by Pepe to conced two of the three points. Reina is still the best keeper in the Premiership and now he has his seasons blunder out of the way we can go from strength to strength.
So the positives from today were many. The attitude was excellent, particularly in the second half. Jovanovic looks a class signing, Ngog will gain confidence, our bench looked as strong as any we've had for a long time, we started to see the positiveimpact that Roy has had on the training ground (no zonal marking).
Negatives? - Well Cole will miss 3 games (pending an appeal) and he didn't really show what he can do. And we did take time to come out of the traps. With our next game against the financial muscle of Manchester City, it will take a 90 minute performance to put our first win on the board at Eastlands. But there were enough signs today to show that we shouldn't fear anyone.
Sunday 15 August 2010
Under Starter's Orders
On the 4th July this year I was among a throng of people stood on the concrete plateau in front of St George's Hall in Liverpool joining a growing voice that wanted to ensure a better future for our club. At that point, it looked like our squad was disintegrating, we were nowhere near finding new owners and the future looked particularly bleak. Whilst the thought of a relegation scrap wasn't mentioned, I did have dark thoughts.
Six weeks later and things have changed significantly. We now know that the sales process is making progress, although maybe not as quickly as we would like, but let's be realistic, it's more important to get the right owners than to get different owners. I don't want to be in the same place 12 months down the line, so I would rather take a couple of extra weeks and get the right investment for the club.
The transfer window so far hasn't been the disaster zone it could so easily have been.The outs have pretty much been the ones that most fans would have allowed to go, and although it still looks like Mascherano will go, out of the three star players rumoured to have been disillusioned at Anfield, he is probably the one that most fans would sacrifice.
Gerrard and Torres have reaffirmed their commitment and on top of that, we have two free signings that would be well worth a few million quid. Milan Jovanovic looks every inch a Liverpool player and who with a Liver Bird on their chest is disappointed at the arrrival of Joe Cole?
In addition we have a new manager. He isn't Rafa Benitez, who built up a tremendous rapport with the fans, but Roy does seem to be saying the right things at the right times and more importantly doing things that we can believe in.
This is our first opening day fixture at Anfield since Gerrard Houllier was in charge and the opponents couldn't be much more difficult. We beat Arsenal in our first home game in 1996 and 1994 whilst in our record breaking season of 1988/89 when we went 29 games unbeaten from the straight of the season, we started with a 2-1 win at Highbury. Two years earlier, the last time we had an opening day game at Anfield against the Gooners, we triumphed 2-0.
So the history books shine brightly on Liverpool today, and, as with all football fans on the first day of a new season, my optimism has returned. Come six o'clock this evening I expect to be sitting proudly at the top of the EPL (OK Chelsea did quite well but they were playi9ng the mighty WBA. we've only got to get past the lowly Gooners).
Hopefully reality won't smack me in the face tonight.
Six weeks later and things have changed significantly. We now know that the sales process is making progress, although maybe not as quickly as we would like, but let's be realistic, it's more important to get the right owners than to get different owners. I don't want to be in the same place 12 months down the line, so I would rather take a couple of extra weeks and get the right investment for the club.
The transfer window so far hasn't been the disaster zone it could so easily have been.The outs have pretty much been the ones that most fans would have allowed to go, and although it still looks like Mascherano will go, out of the three star players rumoured to have been disillusioned at Anfield, he is probably the one that most fans would sacrifice.
Gerrard and Torres have reaffirmed their commitment and on top of that, we have two free signings that would be well worth a few million quid. Milan Jovanovic looks every inch a Liverpool player and who with a Liver Bird on their chest is disappointed at the arrrival of Joe Cole?
In addition we have a new manager. He isn't Rafa Benitez, who built up a tremendous rapport with the fans, but Roy does seem to be saying the right things at the right times and more importantly doing things that we can believe in.
This is our first opening day fixture at Anfield since Gerrard Houllier was in charge and the opponents couldn't be much more difficult. We beat Arsenal in our first home game in 1996 and 1994 whilst in our record breaking season of 1988/89 when we went 29 games unbeaten from the straight of the season, we started with a 2-1 win at Highbury. Two years earlier, the last time we had an opening day game at Anfield against the Gooners, we triumphed 2-0.
So the history books shine brightly on Liverpool today, and, as with all football fans on the first day of a new season, my optimism has returned. Come six o'clock this evening I expect to be sitting proudly at the top of the EPL (OK Chelsea did quite well but they were playi9ng the mighty WBA. we've only got to get past the lowly Gooners).
Hopefully reality won't smack me in the face tonight.
Monday 2 August 2010
The Emporer's New Clothes
Today has seen us catapulted into the media spotlight for non footballing reasons once again. I had quite liked putting the TV on or logging into Twitter to discover who we had been linked with in the transfer market, and even one or two of the rumours coming to fruition, Joe Cole and Fabio Aurelio being the notable inclusions in this list.
But today we are the talk of the city again. Who, how, why and when are the questions on all supporters lips tonight.
Who? - Well the first to put their head above the parapet seems to be Kenny. No not the King but from Hong Kong. Kenneth Huang has been outed (by his spokespeople I presume) as putting together a bid for The Reds. At first this morning, it looked as though Kenny was in the box seat and would have the deal tied up in a few days. Liverpool fans were immediately buoyed by the prospect of Statdler and Waldorf vanishing from the boardroom, never to darken our doors again.
How? - Well it sees that Kenny has a cunning plan. Instead of giving the yanks their dollars, he intends to do what all good bailiffs would do. Buy the debt, force a payment default on the owners and send in the heavies to remove anything of value that they own and ... well that is my problem. Normally the bailiffs see what they can get their hands on so that they can sell it on to recover the debt. Which brings us to the why.
Mr Huang has said all the right things today. Completion of the deal in time to invest in the squad. Build a new stadium. retain our best players. But where have we heard all this before? Oh yes, I seem to remember a certain Muppet saying that there would be a spade in the ground within 60 days. Pledges mean nothing to me any more.Only action is good enough. And any investor will be judged on what they do, not what they say.
So when? Well the sooner the better. The one thing that can be guaranteed is that there will be no investment coming from Uncle Sam. So hope needs to spring eternal.
Over the course of the day the story has developed and it now seems that Kenny's wasn't the only pound in the frame. Up to 6 bidders have made offers depending on who you believe and we do seem to have had some concrete word from our Blue chairman on the subject who believes a deal could be done by the end of next week.
Meanwhile it looks as though Kenny is the front for the Chinese government investment arm (cue the repeat of the moral dilemma when it looked as though Thaksin Shinawatra was about to buy the club). George Gillette has a preferred bidder who may just be able to thwart Kenny's cunning plan by showing as a credible buyer to RBS and the whole thing rumbles on until H&G get their thirty pieces of silver.
So the next week or two promise to be interesting to say the least. I foresee claim and counterclaim, offer and counteroffer. Will we have new owners by the end of the transfer window? Possibly. Will they be the right owners is more to the point. We've worn the Emperor's New Clothes once. I'm not prepared to do it again.
But today we are the talk of the city again. Who, how, why and when are the questions on all supporters lips tonight.
Who? - Well the first to put their head above the parapet seems to be Kenny. No not the King but from Hong Kong. Kenneth Huang has been outed (by his spokespeople I presume) as putting together a bid for The Reds. At first this morning, it looked as though Kenny was in the box seat and would have the deal tied up in a few days. Liverpool fans were immediately buoyed by the prospect of Statdler and Waldorf vanishing from the boardroom, never to darken our doors again.
How? - Well it sees that Kenny has a cunning plan. Instead of giving the yanks their dollars, he intends to do what all good bailiffs would do. Buy the debt, force a payment default on the owners and send in the heavies to remove anything of value that they own and ... well that is my problem. Normally the bailiffs see what they can get their hands on so that they can sell it on to recover the debt. Which brings us to the why.
Mr Huang has said all the right things today. Completion of the deal in time to invest in the squad. Build a new stadium. retain our best players. But where have we heard all this before? Oh yes, I seem to remember a certain Muppet saying that there would be a spade in the ground within 60 days. Pledges mean nothing to me any more.Only action is good enough. And any investor will be judged on what they do, not what they say.
So when? Well the sooner the better. The one thing that can be guaranteed is that there will be no investment coming from Uncle Sam. So hope needs to spring eternal.
Over the course of the day the story has developed and it now seems that Kenny's wasn't the only pound in the frame. Up to 6 bidders have made offers depending on who you believe and we do seem to have had some concrete word from our Blue chairman on the subject who believes a deal could be done by the end of next week.
Meanwhile it looks as though Kenny is the front for the Chinese government investment arm (cue the repeat of the moral dilemma when it looked as though Thaksin Shinawatra was about to buy the club). George Gillette has a preferred bidder who may just be able to thwart Kenny's cunning plan by showing as a credible buyer to RBS and the whole thing rumbles on until H&G get their thirty pieces of silver.
So the next week or two promise to be interesting to say the least. I foresee claim and counterclaim, offer and counteroffer. Will we have new owners by the end of the transfer window? Possibly. Will they be the right owners is more to the point. We've worn the Emperor's New Clothes once. I'm not prepared to do it again.
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