Saturday, August 31, 2013

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A Big Week For Rodgers Reds

Posted: 30 Aug 2013 07:54 PM PDT

Well we are halfway through what will ultimately prove to be a defining week for The Reds. Two games and two wins behind us with a big game and the end of the transfer window ahead of us. To be honest I'm still have some doubts about our owners, our manager and this team at the moment but I expect, one way or another, we'll get some answers in the coming days.

Last weekend we continued our great start to the season with a very useful 1-0 win at Villa Park which was especially sweet considering we only played for 30 minutes. Some people say it's a good sign when you can win while playing badly but it's an even better sign when you win without playing at all! Strange the way football works sometimes. At the start of last season we played very well but the results didn't come, this season we've got the results but haven't really got going yet in terms of performance. Last weekend only Mignolet, Toure, Gerrard and Sturridge emerged from that game with any credit in my opinion, the rest of the team was in the OK to Poor range, and yes I'm talking to you Dagger and Lucas!

I actually enjoyed our performance for the first 30 minutes. While it lasted It was an excellent away display as we took control, played some really good football and capped it all off with a brilliant finish by Sturridge, who is slicker than dog shit on linoleum at the moment. Unfortunately things started to go downhill from there and we gradually got worse and worse as the game went on but thankfully we hung on and took the points.

Not to worry though because afterwards Rodgers said it was all part of his tactical plan. Apparently playing shite and constantly giving the ball back to the opposition for an hour was in fact a tactical move according to our Brendan, so it's all good. In my opinion, we over compensated defensively once we got our noses in front and handed the initiative back to the opposition, but hey what would I know. Anyway, we've got our 6 points on the board and that's better than a kick in the nuts with a frozen cowboy boot.

Then we moved on to our Capitol One Cup game at home to Notts County on Tuesday that saw us almost top Miley Cyrus for the most embarrassing performance of the week! Rodgers put out a strong side which I believe was the correct decision, firstly because without European football this season we might as well have a good go at the cup competitions and secondly because I think you've got to play the younger players alongside the experienced ones to really see how they fit in.

In fairness the team played well for most of the game, scored two goals, wasted a whole host of other chances and hit the bar more often than Paul Gascoigne! But in football you can never give a sucker an even break and to their credit Notts County hung in there and somehow managed to pull two goals back and push the game to extra time, when we finally managed to kill them off with goals from Dan the Man and Hendo.

It turned out to be an expensive victory for us though as Cissokho, Allen and the very impressive Toure all picked up injuries. Their injuries will perhaps keep them side-lined for the coming weeks, and our already thin squad is now looking practically anorexic!

Our Cup struggles against Notts County yielded us an unkind draw away to the Mancs in the next round but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it, for now we've got to focus on them coming to Anfield on Sunday. I will be at the game and I'm going with neither confidence nor dread because the truth is I just don't know how it will go. We could win 3-0 or lose 4-0, I just haven't seen enough of either side to form an opinion.

But this is definitely a big game for Rodgers. Our games against the top six sides last season yielded just one victory against Spurs and that's just not good enough regardless of the circumstances. A victory on Sunday and we'll be flying but a defeat will totally change the mood and see us go into the international break on a real downer. Questions and doubts will be raised about the manager even at this early stage in the season, I'm not suggesting that is fair but it is the reality. Rodgers needs to get this particular monkey off his back as soon as possible. He needs to mastermind some victories against the top sides this season, particularly at Anfield and Sunday's game would be an excellent place to start.

It definitely will not be easy though partially as we may be without Kolo at the centre of our defence. I said in the last blog that I thought Skrtel had been harshly frozen out by the manager and it seems that particularly chicken may come home to roost. Now Rodgers might need him and Skrtel will have to go in to the game cold and knowing the manager does not have confidence in him. This can go one of two ways, either Skrtel's head will be down or he'll go into the game feeling he has a point to prove, let us hope it is the latter!

The mancs will know all about cutting off the supply line to Coutinho and Sturridge, keeping our full backs pressed back etc, but sometimes in these games it's the lesser hyped players that can travel under the radar, get a little extra space and make a name for themselves. So someone like Aspas or maybe even Hendo could emerge as the hero for us in this game.

As for the Mancs, we know they have a lot of attacking threat and the team will just have to remain focused and cope with it. A key man for us will be Lucas but since returning from his injury you just never know which Lucas will turn up. Sometimes he looks back to his old self but other times he looks about as much use as a soap salesman in Newcastle! We will badly need the good version of Lucas on Sunday to help snuff out the manc threat. If we get the bad version, the version that gets booked after 5 minutes, gives away lots of needless free-kicks in dangerous areas, gets caught in possession while dwelling too long on the ball, we could be in big trouble.

Anyway, as I mentioned earlier I just don't know how this one will go. I desperately hope we can win it but with both managers under pressure not to lose, it could turn out to be a draw. So I'll put my money on a 1-1 draw but I'll be keeping fingers, legs, toes and just about everything else crossed that we can nick a win and go into the international break with the massive boost of having 9 points and a 100% record.

But perhaps even more important than the game on Sunday is the transfer window closing on Monday. We simply must get more bodies in before that window slams shut. The transfer business we do, assuming we do any, will ultimately determine our possibilities and the ambition of the club for this season. For me it's a simple one to one proposition, no business – no chance, a little business – a little chance, big business – big chance, you get the gist.

I can understand the owners want to be careful with the purse strings given the money that has been wasted on transfers in the past and I agree that it is wise to be prudent, but they've also got to be careful they don't overdo it. There is no doubt they were badly advised in paying way over the odds for the mediocre players recruited when Dalglish was in charge, but they hired those advisors and must accept at least partial responsibility for that debacle.

It certainly wasn't the fault of Brendan Rodgers or his team and they shouldn't have to suffer because of other peoples past mistakes. At the end of the day Rodgers is their appointment and I think he could be a good one but they've got to give the guy a chance by backing him as much as possible in the transfer market.

I said at the beginning that I still had some doubts about the manager but that comes from the fact that I don't think he has had the opportunity to fully implement his plans yet. In his short time at the club he has had to oversee the offloading of a lot of over-priced/over paid players that didn't fit the profile and make space for the recruitment of players that do in the transfer windows that have followed.

So there has been a lot of necessary squad transition going on and he has managed that quite well. Almost all of the deadwood has now been moved on but our squad is now a little too light and a few more bodies are required before this transfer window closes. I like Rodgers and think he could be the right manager for us but we can't really make a fair judgement on him until he has been given the right tools to do the job.

I believe we need to bring in another three or four decent quality players in the remainder of this transfer window to give him the squad he needs to fully implement his ideas and it is only then that we will truly know if he is the man that can lead us to the Promised Land. Thankfully recent reports suggest this is happening with Sakho and Illori reportedly on their way to us. I'd be well pleased with those two quality signings added to our defence.

There is also talk of a loan signing of Moses for our left wing and as we've already had God, Jesus and a Saint, he should fit right in at our place! I'd also like to see another good quality central midfielder recruited but we'll see what happens.

So I've got my fingers crossed and may even sacrifice a chicken or two in the hope that we can get a good result on Sunday and an even better result on Monday to successfully complete what could prove to be a season defining week for the club.

Keep the Faith

Thursday, August 22, 2013

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Liverpool Must Multiply To Go Fourth!

Posted: 22 Aug 2013 05:10 AM PDT

Sorry I'm a bit late with this blog, but I'm as busy as an Egyptian road sweeper at the moment. Anyway I don't know anybody else but I'm as happy as a dog with three testicles. I don't remember the last time we got a win on the opening day of the season but it's brilliant to get off to a winning start and particularly sweet after the Suarez media sideshow we've had to endure in recent weeks. A good performance, three points and a clean sheet, life is good!

It was a good performance overall but as ever with Liverpool they just don't do things the easy way and almost managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of victory. We played some really good football at times, had enough shots to start a war but only managed to score one goal and had to endure a nervy end to game that really should have been put to bed long before the final whistle.

Strange the way football works sometimes. Simon Mignolet spend most of the game flapping about like an epileptic pigeon but his brilliant double save from Stokes last minute penalty secured us the points and now he is a hero. Let's hope it is the shot in the arm his confidence needed for him to kick on from here because there is no doubt in my mind that he is an excellent keeper, he just needs to settle down and do his stuff.

LIVERPOOL, ENGLAND - Saturday, August 17, 2013: Liverpool's Daniel Sturridge celebrates with team-mates after scoring the first goal against Stoke City during the Premiership match at Anfield. (Pic by David Rawcliffe/Propaganda)

I was also impressed with the other new boys Toure and Aspas. Both did very well, Toure looks very solid at the back and he is not afraid to come forward when the opportunity presents itself, which is good to see, and he was so unlucky not to score when his header came back off the crossbar. I'm really impressed by Aspas so far. He really covers the grass and was maybe a little unlucky himself not to score but I'm pretty confident the goals will come for this guy. He is almost Kuyt-like in terms of work rate but I fancy he will get more goals, double figures this season for sure, trust me!

Sturridge was also particularly impressive considering he is not yet 100% fit. You always feel this guy has a goal in him but the key is going to be him avoiding injury. If he can stay injury free this campaign he will be at or near the top of the goal-scoring charts at the end of the season for sure. The rest of the team also did well with no obvious deadwood on show, we just let ourselves down a little with our finishing and almost paid the price for that but in a strange way a hard fought 1-0 win might prove more beneficial to the team right now than an easy 3 or 4 nil stroll. Not what I would regard as a great performance overall, as I thought we were quite sloppy at times particularly in the latter stages when nerves started to show, but good enough to merit the points and plenty to build on in the games ahead.

Now for the negative stuff and my big concern at the moment is the depth of the squad. While I accept that not being involved in Europe this season means we can get by with a smaller squad, I still think we are short on numbers. Look at this team: Goalkeeper – Reina, Defence – Carra, possibly one or both of Skrtel and Coates, Robinson, Midfield – Downing, Shelvey, Spearing, Suso and an attack of Carroll and Pacheco. If you add in a right back to that lot you would have a pretty decent lower to mid table Premiership team but that is depth we have lost from our squad through sales, loans and retirements over the summer.

I don't really have a problem with these players moving on, in fact in most cases I welcome it, but it bothers me that not enough replacements have come in so far. I was happy with our four early signings but nothing followed until today's news of the welcome addition of Ally Cissokho as extra cover at left back. I was also really very disappointed to hear today that we seem to have missed out on yet another of our top targets with Willian seemingly on his way to Spurs despite the fact that Liverpool seemed to have this signing within their grasp over the weekend.

So yet another marquee signing gets away from us. The first guy, Micky Tarhead or whatever the bloody hell his name was, the club lamented the fact that they never even had a chance to talk to him, then came Diego Costa who elected to sign a new contract at Atletico Madrid. However, there was no such difficulties with Willian who was available and seemed quite keen to come to Anfield but as our guys were pissing about on terms, Spurs have apparently come straight in and taken him away from us, as they've done before. I don't think Spurs even have a scouting team, they just seem to follow ours around and pinch the players we are looking at!

We need to bring in another 2 or 3 players who are ready now to play in the first team but according to the latest reports I've been reading we are being linked with a 20yr old, an 18yr old and a bloody 16yr old FFS! They just keep getting younger, I swear one day we are going to hear the club has put a £1 million bid in for a sperm! It's getting ridiculous, we have champagne ambitions but a lemonade transfer budget!

I say transfer budget but of course the club hasn't actually spent any money yet given that the money brought in from transfer has exceeded the little that was spent, not to mention the reduction in the clubs wage bill. In fairness I think the money is there but it needs to be used on players who are ready now for the first team not more bloody kids, Jaysus it's as well we're not in the Champions League as we'd only have half a bleedin team, the other half wouldn't be allowed to stay up past 8 o'clock!

More new faces are not a luxury for us they are an absolute necessity. Consider our midfield three from Saturday's team, Gerrard, Lucas and Henderson, and the cover on the bench was Joe Allen. They are the four main men we have to cover perhaps the most important area of the team, just four men to cover three positions. Three of those four have just recently returned from long term injuries and if one or two of them get side-lined again we will be down to the bare bones. Young Luis Alberto was brought in during the summer and he looks a very promising lad but he's not ready yet and he didn't get too many minutes in our pre-season games which would seem to indicate that Rodgers doesn't think he's ready for the first team yet either. Beyond him the cupboard looks pretty bare in terms of central midfield.

I'd also like to see another wide midfielder and a striker. In my opinion, we have enough options in defence now that Cissokho has come in as another left back option. We've got plenty of options at right back and I also don't see another centre back as a priority. We've got Dagger and Toure in the team at the moment. Beyond them we've still got Skrtel who I think has been a bit harshly treated by the manager.

I know he had a dodgy spell last season but I still think it's wrong that he has been totally frozen out since then, I mean the season before he was our Player of the Season. He is still a very good player and I'd much rather go with him as cover then spend £10 million+ on an unknown quantity when that money can be used to better effect in other areas of the team. Beyond Skrtel we've got Coates who I believe has just been side-lined with a nasty knee injury while on international duty but he'll be back in a couple of months and we've also got Wisdom and Kelly who can play centre back. So I'd say fine if we can bring in another centre back without compromising the spending on other areas of the team but if not I'd say go with what we have for now.

My predictions for the season? Well last season we finished 7th in the Premier League but all things considered, new manager, difficult start, bad luck etc, I rated us as about the sixth best team in the league. Now after our pre-season and our transfer activity so far, I would still rate us as sixth and without further first team quality reinforcements I believe that is where we will finish the season.

Quite honestly I think anyone who believes we will finish above that with the current squad, is away with the fairies. The manc sides and the chavs are miles ahead of us at the moment. Gollum, the Special Needs One and Peter the Pelican have teams full of World Class players and even more World Class players sitting on the bench who they can call upon to change games in their favour when things are going against them, not to mention the fact that they have pots of cash to go and buy more. Spurs are also disappearing over the hill. They have shown ambition, invested a lot of cash in their squad and seem to have the ability to move quickly in the transfer market while our guys seem to take longer than a rich man's funeral! Arsenal are in a bit of a mess at the moment and might be catchable if that continues.

So I can't see us finishing higher than sixth at the moment but I dearly hope the team can prove me wrong and I will be delighted to eat a truck load of humble pie should that be the case. Sorry for being a miserable shit but on the plus side, when it comes to predictions I'm about as much use as a rubber crutch so don't let my opinions burst your bubble!

Anyway, we're away at Aston Villa at the weekend hoping to continue our good start to the season. It will be a tough but should be a good game. Villa are in good form at the moment after their great win at Arsenal and a narrow defeat early this evening at Chelsea so they will be well up for it in their first home game of the season.

They obviously play a more open game then we faced against Stoke which should suit us but we will need to work hard and certainly be more clinical in front of goal when the chances come our way. Our defence will definitely be tested and it will be interesting to see how Dagger and Toure cope with Benteke who is a real handful. Overall though I think we can nick the points and my money's on us coming away with a 2 – 1 win.

Keep the Faith

Saturday, August 3, 2013

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Steven Gerrard – The Last Legend

Posted: 02 Aug 2013 11:29 AM PDT

Sometimes it's tough being a blogger, even a brilliantly talented blogger such as myself who, let's be honest about it, would be just about perfect except for my modesty! Anyway I figure it's high time I posted a new blog, but then I've got to decide on a topic. Decisions, decisions it's all go here at Kopblog HQ.

So I think maybe I'll write about Pepe Reina who has gone on loan to Napoli and is definitely, probably, maybe, not really angry at the club about apparently not telling him about it. Jaysus, Pepe with such an indecisive mind I can see why you always had trouble with corner kicks! Besides, there are undiscovered tribes in the deepest, darkest parts of the Amazon who knew this move to Napoli was very much on the cards, so don't talk shite lad!

Then I thought maybe I'd write about Suarez and the fact that it's looking like he will definitely, probably, maybe, won't be leaving the club this summer. Who can say how this sorry episode will turn out? To me it's kind of like a tetanus injection, on the one hand you don't want it to happen but on the other you just want it over with as quickly as possible. But I'm a bit fed up reading about this topic as I'm sure everybody else is so let's park it until there is some fresh information.

I then decided I would write a blog full of fire and brimstone as I am so pissed off at the club's lack of activity in the transfer market. Particularly as we see Spurs bringing their transfer spending to £50 million with today's signing of Sodildo. Bloody Spurs! A team we are at the very least on a financial par with and a team we finished 11 points behind last season. Yet they are showing some ambition and investing in their side while our guys are pissing about looking to bring in mediocre players on loan deals.

Granted Spurs may well recover their investment with the possible sale of Bale but they have invested a lot of money in their squad in recent seasons and I suspect they would have spent this cash regardless of the Bale situation. So I was really pushed over the edge when I read Rodgers comments today stating that the cash is available but he may not spend it if he can't find the right quality in the market! What a lot of crap, it made me want to grab him by the throat and beat him like a red headed step child to knock some sense into him.

I know managers have to say this kind of stuff to avoid been held to ransom etc, but it does my head in because a lot of what he has been saying recently sounds a lot like the stuff he said during last summer's transfer window and we all know what a complete mess that turned out to be. But I calmed down a little when I heard the news earlier that the club have definitely, probably, maybe bid £22million for Diego Costa Fortune. So I've had to park that blog as well because if the Costa bid is real then many of my brilliantly thought out points would be about as useless as a nuns tits!

But then I was reminded that this weekend see's Liverpool playing Olympiacos in the Steven Gerrard Testimonial and this has totally mellowed me out so I figured I'd pay tribute to the Great Man. As I began to write the words seemed somehow familiar so I dug deep into the Kopblog HQ vaults and found the below piece that I wrote back in November 28th 2006 titled, Is Captain Gerrard a Superhero? I kinda like this old blog as this was written when Gerrard was in his prime and it gives a little flavor of what we were talking about back in the day.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Captain Gerrard coming to save the day. I sometimes wonder if it's time for StevieG to start wearing his underpants outside of his trousers. It's amazing how, when things seem at their most desperate, it's often Captain Gerrard who arrives to pull our asses out of the fire and I'm beginning to think of him as our very own Superhero!

Saturday was yet another example. Man City came to Anfield for a draw and they set themselves up both tactically and physically to achieve that result, and for a long time it looked as if they would be successful in that regard. Although we enjoyed the lion's share of possession, we seemed to lack the pace and width in our attack to break them down. However, once again Captain Stevie rescues the situation by rocketing in a goal from outside the box to give us a hugely important three points.

There have been many examples of Captain Gerrard's super powers over the years. In the closing months of Houllier's last season when we faced a huge uphill task to get into the last CL qualifying spot, it was Captain Gerrard who almost single-handedly drove us to victory in those final games and got us into fourth spot. The following season, saw us once again in a desperate situation, when with the clock ticking down at Anfield we needed to score one more goal against Olympiacos to see us through to the next stage of the CL, and once again it was Captain Gerrard who saved the situation with a wonderful long range strike.

Perhaps, Istanbul provided us with his finest moment. 3-0 down at half time against AC Milan in the CL final, our cause seemed hopeless and we desperately needed some inspiration from somewhere in the second half. Again it was Captain Stevie who came to the rescue by scoring our first goal and driving us forward to victory in the greatest comeback the game has ever seen.

Last season's FA Cup final with West Ham was more of the same. Gerrard had already scored one and put in a wonderful pass to Cisse for our second but we still found ourselves mere moments from defeat. However, Captain Gerrard wasn't finished yet and from absolutely nowhere he scored a brilliant 40 yard thunderbolt to put us back on level terms and we went on to lift the cup after a penalty shoot-out.

These are just several high profile examples of Captain Stevie's super-powers but there are literally dozens of others. However, throughout the World Cup for England and for the most part of this season he hasn't been at his best. A number of reasons have been put forward for this, but whatever the cause, he has often played as if someone must have slipped some kryptonite into his tea.

Thankfully, there have been some good signs recently that his super-powers may be returning. This is of course great news for Reds fans as he is such a vitally important player for us. When we find ourselves in deep shit and Captain Stevie rescues us with a long-range thunderbolt or a brilliant pass, we are all absolutely delighted. So delighted in fact, that we often forget to examine why we were in deep shit in the first place!

Despite the fact that Rafa has assembled a fairly strong squad of players, I still feel that with the exception of Gerrard, we are still a little lightweight when it comes to real quality. We have a mixture of some good and very good players, and some others with great potential. But in terms of true top class quality, then beyond Gerrard, the cupboard looks pretty bare.

I know some people may disagree with that, but I think sometimes as supporters we have a tendency to overvalue the ability of our players. We tend to base our judgement of them on what they occasionally show they are capable of doing, rather than what they actually do on a regular basis. I am certain there will be much better things to come from this squad of players when things click into place in the remainder of the season. But if we were to judge things based on what we've seen from them so far this season, then it makes for pretty poor reading.

Despite all the extra strength brought into the squad over the summer, in my view the only players who have shown any type of consistency in their performances in the season so far are Carra, Agger, Sissoko, Kuyt and Crouch. For a team that had hopes of mounting a title challenge, this really is a pitiful small number. Unfortunately, injury has robbed us of Momo but thankfully in recent games Gerrard, Reina and even Zenden have also started to kick in with some good performances.

However, as I mentioned in a previous blog my real worry is in the wide areas. For a team who often plays with two wingers, the quality of our crosses from wide positions has really been deplorable. It would be easy to hang this all on our wingers but I think we must also have a look at our full-backs. Just as wingers are expected to get back and support their full-backs, I think in the modern game it is equally important for the full-backs to get forward whenever possible to support the winger.

Riise and Finnan are two favourites of mine but I don't think they've been getting forward in support as much as they should. Recently we enjoyed an incredible 80% of the possession against Middlesboring and couldn't find a way to break them down. On Saturday, again we enjoyed the lion's share of possession but in the end we had to rely on a Captain Stevie thunderbolt to win us the points.

In our next three league games we face Pompey, Wigan and Fulham. Just like against City and Boro, these are three sides against whom we will have most certainly have a huge amount of possession. In such circumstances our full backs have got to contribute more to the attack. We really should be hitting these sides like a Red tide with wave after wave of attack. Three wins in these games are well within our capability and could see us back in the top four.

My point is, superhero or not, we can't keep relying on Captain Gerrard to come to the rescue and pull our asses out of the fire. It's high time for some of our other players to get out of their comfort zones and take some responsibility. With all the teams around us dropping points, a little winning run now, against very beatable opponents, and we could very well find ourselves in 3rd spot by Christmas. That would be an incredible turnaround after our poor start to the season and a great opportunity to rub our critic's noses in it. If some of our players are truly worthy of wearing a Liverpool shirt, surely this should be all the motivation they need.
That was a blog from 7 years ago and yet it's amazing how some of the points are still relevant today. I wrote another blog many years ago where I picked my all-time Liverpool Top 10 players and on that list I had Gerrard at number 3 behind Kenny and Barnes but I've revised my opinions over the years and if I had to write that same list again today, Gerrard would most definitely be my number 1 and the first name on the team sheet of my all-time 11.

The reason for this is that while I've seen many, many great players wearing the Red shirt in my 40+ years of support, most of the other greats were playing in sides where they were surrounded by other great players. Gerrard on the hand has spent most of his Liverpool career often surrounded by average players, journeymen and complete clowns, but despite this he has still managed to shine as a World Class player, and as I pointed out in that old blog there have been many occasions where he has carried the team on his back.

We've all been guilty at times of taken him for granted but the guy is a bloody hero and a total Legend. Unfortunately he could well prove to be our last legend. We have some talented young lads in the squad now who may go on to become World Class players in their own right but you can bet if they do they will be off quicker than a brides nightie and with the club's current transfer policy seeming to be somewhere between penny-pinching and child abduction, I don't see too many Legends emerging in our future.

So this weekend let's celebrate the one Legend we've got left and I hope him and his family have a fantastic day. I also hope/pray he can give us another few seasons because I shudder to think where we would be without him. So as I asked in the title of that old blog, Is Captain Gerrard a Superhero? Don't talk daft, of course he bloody well is!

On a final note, can I say that it is with much regret that I am currently speaking to my legal team about a possible legal action against the club. Earlier this week the club released a list of banned words and phrases to its staff. But I was shocked to see that this list which by now has appeared in most national newspapers reads remarkably similar to one of my typical blogs, it's bloody plagiarism I tell you! Cheeky Bastards, I'll see you in court Mr. Ayre.

Keep the Faith