Match Day 1 – Recap


Liverpool v Stoke (1-0)


A strong solid performance, with a few bumps on the way – although that was to be expected really. We looked dangerous from set plays – Gerrard in particular having looked to have improved at his corner deliveries – getting the ball in the back of the net (although disallowed for offside) and hitting the crossbar. Some of the clever flicks and dummies didn't come off but in time as everyone gets up to speed and get used to each other this will come. We got a good goal, and should have had a few more were it not for the quality of Begovic, defended well, and Mingolet made a great double save in the 87th minute to deny Stoke an undeserved point. All in all a good day at the office, and a great way to start the season.

Arsenal v Aston Villa (1-3)

A fantastic start to the season for the men from Birmingham! Following a poor year last year – with the exception of breakout star Benteke, and the development of Weimann – it was a shock result, particularly being at the Emirates. Arsenal have left themselves high and dry this summer with the much vaunted £70m transfer kitty not having been touched, so demoralisation of the team and fans getting on the player's backs could have been a contributing factor. Nevertheless Villa will be buoyed by the result and look to be a little bit more solid at the back so this could be a more competitive match than previously thought. With the pop-psychology out of the way, having watched the match through, Arsenal beat themselves more than Villa beat Arsenal. Last ditch defending and some luck kept Villa in it long enough to beat Arsenal down and cause them to make errors – we have to be careful not to fall in to that trap ourselves.

Match day 2

Suggested Formation

                           Mingolet


               Toure                  Agger


Johnson                                               Enrique

                         Lucas 

                                              Gerrard

               

 Henderson            Sturridge                 Coutinho


                                    Aspas



This is, roughly, how we lined up against Stoke and how I believe we will line up again against Villa. The relationship between Agger and Toure looks to be a good one, with the front 4 interchanging and keeping the Villa back line guessing. I expect Henderson to be tasked with assisting Johnson down their left as that is, in my opinion, where the majority of Villa's attacking play will come from. Antonio Luna and Andreas Weimann are both skilful, tricky players who could cause us some trouble, as shown against Arsenal, with Luna bagging a debut goal. One thing we lacked last year was someone who could stand toe to toe with the likes of Benteke, who doesn't appear to have missed a step this season, putting two past Arsenal. Judging by Toure's performances in pre season and against Stoke, I feel a little bit more comfortable than I did last year – especially considering their 3-1 win against us at Anfield last year – although it should be noted that in the second half of the season we beat them 2-1 at Villa Park.

Key Battles

Agger/Toure vs Benteke – Villa tend to play with Benteke up on his own, with Agbonlahor and Weimann cutting in from wide when needs be – although they will be mostly the responsibility of Enrique and Johnson. Benteke is technically sound, and strong as any player, causing defences across the country all manner of trouble last season and so we will need to keep close and try and stop him from getting a run on the defence, particularly at set pieces.

Johnson/Henderson vs Weimann/Luna – I would expect Weimann and Luna to line up on Villa's left side, up against Henderson and Johnson. With Johnson liking to get forward he will leave gaps that Villa will look to exploit and, as I mentioned in my write up of the Stoke game, Henderson appears to be the ideal man to close down, due to the Dirk Kuyt-like qualities that he is exhibiting.

Aspas/Sturridge vs Vlaar/Clark – We should have enough to cause them trouble, particularly if we keep up the movement and flexibility of position that we showed against Stoke. Villa looked to defend deep, but we still cut open time after time by Arsenal, and it was more down to Arsenal's profligacy that Villa did not concede more. They seemed poor in the air – Arsenal managing to get some decent chances from set pieces and so hopefully we can get some result there as well.


Predictions and Overview

Rodgers will obviously be looking at the Arsenal game, and tomorrow night's game against Chelsea for areas to exploit. I would be inclined to think that we will start with his usual style of probing and trying to go out wide and then dart inwards with Coutinho provided the killer passes through the defence for Aspas and Sturridge although, should he bit fit in time, I think we might see Cissokho on late for either Aspas or Coutinho – depending on how much of a beating Coutinho gets and whether Aspas is bossing the game – with Enrique pushing forward similar to how we played a few times last season.

Villa aren't going to come at our defence, rather they will likely sit back with Benteke on the half way line in roughly a 4-5-1 when they don't have the ball and wait for us to lose it before breaking with pace down the wings and either feeding it through to Beneteke or Agbonlahor to run on to one on one with Mignolet. I think we are better equipped to deal with this than Arsenal, but it is still something that will be closely watched.

I predict a win, but probably not a big one. I will say 2-1 like last seasons fixture as I do think Beneteke is going to be dominant, but I think we won't be as self destructive as Arsenal were. The worrying moments for me will be the obligatory 43rd and 84th minute corner/free kick as these seem to occur every game and kill us if we concede.

One down, 37 to go. Seeing old, unexpected, and new faces after 3 months away, today's was a result and performance to savour. Quick, incisive play, drama at both ends, 'keepers earning their wage, and an attempt at a wonder goal by one Charlie Adam.

1-0 against a team who we drew with at home last season is a good result. Many people write off Stoke, and expect us to walk all over them, but they have established themselves over the past few seasons as a difficult team to play.

More important than the result though was the performance that was put in by our players.

Mingolet looked generally solid over the course of the match, pulling off an absolutely wonderful save in the first half. Now he had a couple of moments of madness, such as when he tried to skin a Stoke player after receiving the ball from a throw in, but his distribution and command of the area was very good, and will only improve the more he plays within the system. Finally, he appeared to be channelling a young Pepe Reina when, in the 87th minute, he pulled off a good save from an, admittedly, poor penalty and then followed up with a fantastic save to clear the danger from the rebound.

Johnson looks twice the player he did last season. He has never been a superstar when it came to defending, but he looked very solid going back today, but more importantly he looked almost back to his old self going forward, making a number of forays into the final 3rd of the pitch and, rather than his sometimes one dimensional style of always coming inside, he would interchange in Henderson, Gerrard and at times Sturridge going outside of his man, and playing clever 1-2's and triangles to get into better positions. Enrique as well looked good going forward but did make a few errors defensively although he was assisted admirably by Coutinho and all in all I would say our fullbacks did a good job.

At the heart of our defence Agger and Toure look to be forming a good relationship. Both of them took their opportunities to move forward with the ball, and Toure in particular looked dominant in the air, nearly opening his account for us with a good header from a corner (how often do we get to say that eh?). What was pleasing to see was that we played a very high line – almost on the half way line – and still managed to keep it tight, and prevent any seriously dangerous attacks, barring a few efforts in the final 15 minutes. Agger appears to be adapting to his role as the new vice captain, and leader of the defence as well. There was a moment near the middle of the second half where Enrique and Lucas made a bit of a hash of trying to sneak a ball out of our corner after which Agger let them know what the score was and, more importantly they listened and got on with it.

In the middle, Lucas and Gerrard kept the game ticking over with some brilliant distribution, with Gerrard noticeably more restrained with his passing and Lucas looking like he was close to being back to his best. It is also noteworthy how much more work Gerrard put in defensively than he appeared to last season, nicking the ball and intercepting passes similar to how Lucas plays. They nullified the majority of Stoke's play through the middle, although N'zonzi managed to get through on or twice but was thwarted by the defence before he could cause any real trouble.

Finally, the front 4. Due to the fluid nature of their play they caused Stoke no end of trouble and, whether it was in part due to Hughes starting to change the way Stoke go about things, or through top quality passing and movement, or a bit of both, they regularly got in behind and put in pass and cross after pass and cross. If not for Begovic being the keeper he is, it could have been 2 or 3 in the first half alone. The only sour note really was the few times they were caught in a line in the box and managed to fluff getting a shot off, but you can't win them all. Coutinho is fast becoming a key player for us, Sturridge, whilst not 100% looked sharp and lively, Aspas looks to be gelling well and, although he clearly has the strength to go up against defenders such as Shawcross and Huth, he needs to realise that you can't always go down and get a freekick, but that will come with time. Sterling who replaced him looked good as well, getting behind the fullback and whipping crosses in, although there were times where he could have broken forward – this will come with experience though. Henderson is beginning to remind me a bit of Dirk Kuyt, masses of energy, covers so much ground, just needs a bit of refining. He was also very unlucky not to get a goal as Begovic made a top class save to deny him.

The key points for me to take from this are that:

1. We are pressing higher than before and this will force errors by the other teams players.
   
   
2. We look more threatening from set plays – Sturridge getting it in the goal, but being flagged offside and Toure hitting the bar.
   
   
3. Coutinho – enough said
   
   
4. Our passing and possession was fantastic, we didn't automatically look to play the killer ball when it wasn't on and our game benefited greatly from it.
   
   
5. We aren't too proud to hoof it when needs be. Last season against City, among others, we were determined to play everything from the back even when it put us in danger. Sometimes it needs to go long and we now seem prepared to do it.
   
   

Villa next weekend took a bit of a twist with their demolition of Arsenal – the 3 points I fancied being relatively safe now look in danger, but at the same time it does promise to be a much more exciting/nerve racking match.

Not an easy way to start the season, I know that much. Last season Stoke had the better of us over the two matches, drawing 0-0 at home and losing, embarassingly, 3-1 away. They played with a lot of strength and discipline at the back, keeping things tight and not letting out players get in behind them easily. Now, it has been well documented that the Stoke players got away with murder in that first game, taking it out on Suarez in particular, however they have been in the Premier League for a number of years and there are not really any excuses, we should have known what to expect and prepared for that. Tony Pulis did a very good job creating a team that were difficult to break down, tended to get a lot of points at home, and who established themselves as a fixture in the league.....

Things are different now. Mark Hughes has taken over the reins at the Britannia with the remit of developing a more forward thinking style football. Pulis started this by bringing in wingers and forwards who could play a bit, but still based his team and football around a simple 4-4-2. Under Hughes, and with the addition of players such as Marc Munesia, from Barcelona, and Eric Pieters at the back, they are looking to play a less direct style. Whilst this will make them more versatile and provide a greater number of options, it should also allow our players more space to work.

I would expect us to line us something like this:


                                             Mingolet


                                 Toure                     Agger



Johnson                                    Lucas                         Enrique


                             Gerrard


                                                               Allen

                Sterling                                                      Coutinho


                                           Aspas


I think Sturridge, whilst fit, will most likely start on the bench rather than be risked from the off. I also think it is possible that Rodgers might move Coutinho into the middle and play Alberto/Henderson out wide, substituting Allen but we will have to wait and see. 

With a high line, and the sort of pressing we saw during pre season, I expect us to come away from this with 3 points. Aspas looks to be a more natural finisher than Suarez, although not quite in Sturridge's league. 

All in all, we have had a good solid pre season, and we do now seem to be playing a much more patient, probing style of game rather than the more direct game we played at the back end of last season.

Good Luck

And the first day of the new season is finally upon us...

Every season Sky gives us the same spiel about how it is the biggest and bestest and most importantest season ever in the history of football (est 1992, owned and regulated by the Fox Broadcasting Co – isn't everything these days?). Anyway, for once they may well be right. 

This is the first time since 1986 that both Manchester clubs have a new manager. Chelsea have a new (old) manager in the form of Jose Mourinho. Outside of the top teams, we have also seen managerial changes at Everton (Moyes to Utd, Martinez in from Wigan) and Stoke (Hughes in, Pulis – after years of establishing a solid and safe premier league team- out). With all the changes at the top, and in the upper-middle, of the table this may well be the most open season of recent times. Certainly from Liverpool's perspective, if we are going to break back in to the top 4, we need to make the push – and with out signings so far we seem set to do so, but more on that later. For me, I think Mourinho may be the man to galvanise Chelsea and take them back to the top of the table, with Man City in 2nd and Utd in 3rd. Pellegrini has the experience from being at Real Madrid – getting a record 96 points yet still coming 2nd – and Moyes, although he has the same team that won the league by a long way last season, I don't have total faith in to manage the challenge at the top, but only time will tell if he will learn and develop those skills quickly enough. One thing I have to say is that Utd have a history of stability and putting faith in their manager and so I fully believe that Moyes will be given time to develop.

This has been an interesting summer in terms of transfers, or a lack thereof, particularly at the top end of the table. Arsenal – despite their very public courting of both Higuaín (now at Napoli) and Suarez (now looking to be staying at Liverpool) have only brought in Yaya Sanogo, and whilst Wenger has proved season on season that he can get his team into the top 4, sometimes by the skin of their teeth, I think it may prove to be a bridge too far. The fans are already turning – evidenced by the team getting booed midway through the first half in a friendly during pre season, and with Tottenham having strengthened considerably, as well as the teams lower down spending not inconsiderable amounts, I do not believe that we will see St Totteringham's day celebrated this year.

Utd are another team who have failed to sign anyone significant. Whilst they are in much better condition than Arsenal, and I believe that – should things stay as they are – they will, as I mentioned above, finish in 3rd. It raises the question- despite Utd being a massive club, with huge drawing power for players – 'do potential signings believe in David Moyes?'. One issue Moyes may also face is that he is not known for his fast attacking football. Now one thing he will bring, based on his teams and style of play at Everton, is strength in midfield – a place Utd are notoriously weak - hence their public pursuit of central midfielders this summer, I still think Moyes will find a way to solidify them, possibly by fully converting Phil Jones into a defensive midfielder. The issue is that the style of football may not go down well with the fans, particularly if results don't go their way.

Chelsea have made the quite brilliant signing of Schurrle from Bayern Leverkusen, and have brought De Bruyne back from his loan at Wolfsburg, along with Lukaku returning after a brilliant season at West Brom. The most important thing is that Mourinho has returned, considering the spine of the team is still the same as when he left, I think his influence on the team and the fans will be the difference this season. Yes City have spent something in the region of £100m this summer, but I think that, with the potential signing of Eto'o from Ahnzi that Chelsea will edge it. I do however expect City to finally becoming the force that they have threatened to be in Europe.

One thing that we have seen this summer in a huge influx of big name forwards to a number of top clubs around Europe. Barcelona have signed Neymar (because they need another top class South American forward?), Bayern have signed Götze  PSG have signed Cavani...the list goes on. The overarching story of the summer, the prophesied domino effect that has been in the offing, is the movement of Bale from Spurs to Real Madrid, Rooney from Utd to Chelsea and Suarez to Arsenal which most pundits have said, ad infinitum, would spark a chain reaction that will kick off a last second scramble to spend as much money as possible by the clubs selling the three players, thus freeing up money elsewhere and so on and so on. As it stands, no one is going anywhere, and credit must go to John Henry, Ian Ayre and Brendan Rodgers for their handling of the Suarez situation, with credit also going to Levy – although he already had a reputation for getting deals to go his way.

Utd on the other hand, whilst looking strong by refusing to sell Rooney, have not covered themselves in glory. It is all well and good telling Rooney in private that he is back up to RvP, but for it to be public knowledge is asking for trouble, although not to the extent most people will have you believe. Despite what the media like to tell everyone, something coming out in public likely makes little or no difference to a player's value, just like a transfer request does not oblige the club to sell a player. Agents and clubs will be kept well apprised of the situation before it hits the tabloids, and buying clubs will have sounded out the agents before they make the first bid. Rather it is from the fans perspective that this matters – which leads back to my earlier statement that fans will turn should results not go their way. Right now Moyes needs everyone onside if he is to create a legacy.

Finally, Liverpool. We moved early to bring in Mingolet, Toure, Aspas and Alberto – roughly replacing Reina, Carragher, Carroll and Shelvey respectively. We have agreed a year's loan with Valencia for Aly Cissokho, and are strongly linked with Willian at Ahnzi as part of their fire sale. If we can bring in Willian, and maybe a centre back – having been linked to Alderwield and Papadopolous at Ajax and Schalke – then we will be in a strong position to compete closely for 4th spot, realistically finishing in 5/6th depending on Arsenal. The important thing is that, having dealt with Suarez strongly and in a manner befitting the owners and managers of Liverpool FC, many fans appear to be warming to Henry and Rodgers and, as I previously noted, I consider the fan perception to be vital to a teams success. With fans being 100% behind their team, the atmosphere within the stadium should improve from the past couple of years and, whilst not having an instant impact, the players will notice it and, hopefully, find both confidence and also put that extra 10% in knowing that they cannot let down their team.

It is going to be a long hard season, there will be plenty of twists and turns (TM BSKYB) before the season is through, but I think we can all agree – it is good to be back!

So, 'Silly Season' is upon us. Sky Sports 'sources' are coming out of the woodwork. Agents are spreading rumours about clubs being interested in their players with more gusto than a 14 year old boy telling his friends about how he just got with this well fit girl who is a few years older but she goes to school in a different city and so he can't prove it to them.

From having experienced many a transfer window in my lifetime I have begun to learn to manage the highs and the lows that come with this biannual event. For those who have not adjusted from the olden days of year round transfers, this can be a harrowing experience, fraught with desperation, demand, and - usually - devastation.

Now this is all quite understandable due to the ubiquity of football in our day to day lives, whether it is checking up on the results from the weekend, engaging in banter with supporters of rival teams, or just telling some kid on the other side of the world what you are going to do, in excruciatingly graphic detail, to his mother if he dares score against you again on FIFA13. It has now become the done thing to expect more and more from your club each window, with every word from even the most questionable of sources (twitter being a major culprit, but more on that later) being hung on, and going from extolling your MD, Director of Football, manager's virtues for signing a player, but then laying them out the next second because that player who you hadn't heard of two weeks ago who was linked by @footballinsider12345trolololoXD on twitter or Sky Italia (I know which I trust more, and they aren't based in Italy) said you were interested in them, and then another team bought them.

This is all then exacerbated by TalkSport and its ilk, which tells you about a half baked rumour, then discusses it at length without ever questioning its validity, and finishes up by getting some vitriolic nut job on their phone in to talk about how, after supporting the team for 30 years, they are more qualified than the manager to decide whether a transfer is suitable and then to explain how they would do it. With the advent of social media, and propagation of tabloid radio, it is becoming easier and easier to get your opinion heard by the masses but more importantly it has created a 24 hour information dump which means that the second things go quiet, people being to panic.

I have finally managed to temper myself with regular injections of Football manager so that I can play transfer king myself to stave off the darkness that threatens to envelop my soul between every transfer, but this year Liverpool have thrown me a curve ball.....we have more or less done our business for the window! Less than a week into it and we have 4 players signed up. I don't know what to do with myself! At least I can relax I guess - no expectations so it will be harder to be disappointed. 

The thing is, what rite do I have to be disappointed? That is the issue with transfer season, the sense on entitlement. Everyone believes that their team deserves to have first pick of players, and for outgoing players to go for a fee because we do so demand it. You expect players from other teams to just up sticks and flock to you, but expect undying loyalty from your own players, unless you want them to leave in which case they are money grabbing dicks for not leaving.

To counter this, and try and put some context onto the sheer level of douchebaggery that the transfer window creates, during the January 2013 window some members of Red and White Kop - a pretty large Liverpool forum - decided to start their own rumour. We were strongly linked with Coutinho and so, to cause a bit of mayhem, a few members tweeted that Sky Italia were reporting that Tottenham had a bid of £9.5m accepted. Now there was a running conspiracy that Tottenham would just poach anyone we want so they were to obvious antagonist to cause as much trouble as possible. No sooner had this hit twitter then there were hacks from various tabloids retweeting it as fact, Yahoo's usually reliable transfer ticker fell for it, even RAWK exploded with people ranting about the temerity of Tottenham to bid for a good young player, and our incompetence. 

It took the better part of an afternoon and evening for the rumours to subside, but what it did was provide a lesson in dealing with the transfer window - you can trust no one! Don't take every half rumour as gospel, and don't expect everything to be smooth sailing. Trust me when I say that it will be better for your health to take a dim view of rumours and to take a step back and ask yourself how realistic the rumour is.  


 

So, the Confederations Cup kicked off in Brazil at the weekend, helping to bridge the gap between the league season finishing the transfer window opening. I guess it shows how much time I have on my hands that I am paying attention to it but that is a discussion for another time isn’t it.

Now, what I want to talk about here isn’t ground breaking, or even original – more or less every major news outlet has covered this over the past few days, but what happened in Tahiti’s match with Nigeria was something that genuinely inspired me and made me remember how much football meant to me and how, in an ideal world, being a fan should be.

On Monday night, Tahiti took on Nigeria in what can only be described as a squash match. Nigeria dominated the match, showed their class and ran out 6-1 winners against a team with only one professional player – Marama Vahirua of Panthakikos F.C. Now I appreciate many of you may be thinking – whats so exciting about that? It was essentially a bye for Nigeria and sure, maybe Tahiti scoring was a surprise, but is it really that big of a deal.

Well you would be right I guess. The match itself was nothing really to write home about. Rather it is the spirit of Tahiti’s players, fans and – say this in hushed tones – their football association. I myself am a Liverpool fan, and I think it is fair to say that, over the past two years we have had our fair share of run ins with the FA. This isn’t the place to discuss the merits of the FA’s descions or whether there is any bias – percieved or otherwise. No, this is a moment to comment on how there is almost a childlike wonder and excitement about their country’s appearance at the ‘warm-up’ competition for the World Cup next year.

Twitter (that bastion of brevity, domain of decency, hellish land – whatever you want to call it) went wild when, at 3-0 down, Tahiti rallied and thanks to some poor goalkeeping, pulled it back to 3-1. What really stands out though is the reaction by the Tahitian Football Association, as evidenced by these two tweets - "GOAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TAHITI!!!!!!! WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!! #NeverGiveUp Tehau HERO!!!!!!" and "@TahitiFootball: VAHIRUA IS BETTER THAN MESSI #GoTahiti" – as well are the rather heart warming "This goal was not only from Tahiti! Was all Oceania countries! @OFCfootball @tuvalufriends @Socceroos @Fiji_Football @futbolsolomon".

In the all too divisive world that football has created, particularly since the dawn of the Premier League era, and in the shadow of the ongoing club vs country debate that football fans up and down this country and, presumably, all over the world are mired in it really brought home to me how jaded I have become over the years.

I remember vividly the emotional spectrum that I went through during the Champions League final in 2005. Liverpool, the plucky underdogs, had beaten the odds to reach the final, overcoming European giants such as Olympiacos, Bayern Leverkusen – currently managed by a genuine Liverpool legend in Sami Hyypia – and Juventus, where one Igor Biscan played arguably the game of his life. Oh and we also beat some small team managed by Jose Mourinho in the semi-finals thanks to Luis Garcia’s goal ‘that never was’ (yeah right – bitter much?).

We drew AC Milan in the final and, quite frankly, we didn’t have a chance. At least that is how the match was plugged.

At half time, we were dead, buried and 3-0 down, but then something magical happened. The fans in the stadium, around the stadium and, I would hope, at home rallied. We weren’t going to take this lying down, if we were going to lose, we were going to do it with our heads held high.

The players have spoken of how they could hear the fans singing when they were in the changing rooms. A certain Spaniard, who I have heard is rather popular in Southwest London, brought on Didi Hamann, changed the formation, and the rest as they say is history.

The bloody-minded optimism of those associated with Tahiti reminded me of the belief that our fans showed that night. Now we have fans turning on each other, turning on the club and reaching the point of apathy. Admittedly the turmoil within the club since Hicks and Gillett bought the club in 2007 is a major cause of this. Fans turned on each other regarding how to deal with the ownership situation, about who should be manager, about which players should stay and go. No longer was the debate friendly but fervent, it was now devolving to personal insults, and rubbishing of people’s views that did not match your own.

It won’t be a quick or easy process that much is for sure. Opinions and beliefs are too far apart to easily reconcile. Debate will always rage over ticket prices, fan ownership, money for signings and so on. All I ask is that, once a day, week or even month, fans just take a step, look at Tahiti, and try to rekindle that primal and heartfelt love of your club and country. Maybe that way the passion and feeling that made football what it is can return.