All Things Red - Issue 2

If somebody had taken a rubber stamp and smashed it over Liverpool’s performance against CSKA Sofia, the ink would have read something along the lines of ‘totally and dolefully complacent.’

For the second year running the Kop witnessed the Reds lose at home to an outfit which they had plentifully outclassed just two weeks ago. Benitez did gamble slightly on a match which could have cost us an extremely important £13 million windfall, selecting a team which included Scott Carson, Josemi and Darren Potter and lacked Xabi Alonso and Jamie Carragher. Gerrard sat it out, injured, and I’m afraid that at times, Liverpool looked hapless without that essential scouse core to our team; the captain makes such a sweeping difference to our midfield that nobody could help but notice his absence.

Whereas on Saturday against Sunderland we were dominant for nearly 95% of the match, on Tuesday the team was decidedly disjointed. The midfield pairing of Hamann and Sissoko on their own is one that I hope never to see again; where is the attacking presence, the offensive intelligence? Benitez may have just been resting Alonso to avoid any injuries occurring to his passmaster. However, it was unnecessary to field such a defensive centre to the team, and perhaps Bolo Zenden could have been more apt in the middle for an increased liveliness going forward. Sissoko, for what he did, was yet again excellent and did deserve a goal at the end. He’s no attacking midfielder however, and to expect him to carry our team at just 20 is unreasonable to say the least.

Having little support behind the two frontmen, who put in maximum effort only to have little luck with the ball, was dangerous and made the entire team sit back and watch whilst CSKA took advantage of utterly complacent defending on 15 minutes. A swing of a fully unmarked boot and in goes the goal – more chances followed for CSKA whilst Hamann was looking uneducated in his attempts to push forward and defend at the same time. Yet CSKA, a side of excellent technical ability but little urgency, failed to capitalise on our sudden nerves.

The match went on and we should have scored, without a doubt gaining in confidence but still looking as though we knew we were the Champions of Europe. The fact that no goal came from either side just added to the evidence that neither side actually felt anything strongly about this match; whilst Liverpool seemed to assume that these tricky lads from Bulgaria couldn’t possibly put three past them, the Bulgarians thought the same of themselves, allowing Liverpool to arrive in the second half with slightly more purpose. Morientes was just one of the players who came close before the team walked off the pitch to an eerie silence after a fairly ordinary showing.

It must be remembered that this team was not our first choice eleven, and also that there were a few positives to emerge at the end of 90 minutes. Josemi proved a selection of critics wrong with an established performance at centre-back in place of Carra. Whilst his pace is not made for a right back slot in England, perhaps we have been missing a beat all along and Josemi is actually better in the middle than as a full back. John Arne Riise pulled the right strings and went consistently close, reminding Anfield that he was a key member of the squad last season and that he is one of the players with Liverpool truly in his heart. His lack of confidence in some areas can easily be pinned down to his being dropped by the boss, who preferred to catch a glimpse of Zenden in the opening matches of the season. Sissoko’s energetic display was another plus point, with the engine fast emerging as an Anfield favourite and our very own, very young version of Papa Bouba Diop at Fulham.

Benitez, for his part, wasn’t concerned about the result and instead commented, "I want to look at the positives. I felt we created enough chances to have won the game, all that we lacked was luck.” The apparent complacency and odd emptiness at times was explained by the manager as well. “They scored early on and it made it difficult, but it was hard to my team to play at 100 per cent know that they had a big game on Friday and were already 3-1 up from the first leg.”

But the Kop could sense after the match that this team knew all along that it was going into the Champions League proper, no matter how many times it had to be scared along the way. The overall display was not what is expected at Anfield, lacking hard effort and certainly needing improvement if the Reds were to go on later in the week and defeat the arguably superior CSKA of Moscow in the Super Cup Final. Yet the job had been done: Liverpool Football Club will be represented in this year’s Champions League after 6 modestly tricky matches alongside friendlies and league games – we couldn’t ask for more in truth.

This year Liverpool fans have heard countless contradictory comments about the club’s finances, culminating in being told in the last few days that we don’t have enough money to sign who we want – without selling our players first. This is after fans were told in the summer that Rafa Benitez would be handed a fine, healthy war chest by the board.

Milan Baros needed to be sold in order to make room for Crouch’s signature, and also to balance the books in order to allow for further additions to the squad. Yet Liverpool won the Champions League last season, which brings in not only prize money but also a considerable amount more in television revenue. Add to that the prize money and television revenue from the Premiership and League Cup, plus the relief to the wage bill of several moderate-to-high-earning departures – Diouf, Biscan, Baros, Smicer and Pellegrino included… What you’re left with is a lot of money. In simple terms. In transfers out, Liverpool have earned around £10 million in immediate fees, not including those wages mentioned before. Yet more money.

The players signed in the past few months by Rafa have cost us, including signing on fees, around £20-22 million. Now, two seasons ago we were £16 million in debt, so logically some money will have gone to paying that bill off. Some money goes to shareholders, chairman, wages of existing players and signing on fees for new contracts – with Gerrard’s demands thought to be particularly high. Also, money must be set aside for our new stadium (when it is finally given the green light).

It is acceptable then that the club may not have excessive amounts of funds remaining for Benitez, which is maybe why he refuses to move for Michael Owen when the money would be in the region of £16.5 million. But we have some, otherwise no centre back or right winger would be on the cards either; the club is obviously in a very tight situation, being under pressure from the fans to buy Owen but also needing decent players to fill other positions.

All of this infuriates me immensely; it should anger anybody involved with the club. For some significant amount of time now, Liverpool FC has needed investment from an outside source. I read reports this week that we are looking in Dubai for some money, and think of clubs such as Tottenham, Chelsea, even United who needn’t sell to buy decent players. I really can’t believe now that Djibril Cisse, a striker on whom we admittedly spent a formidable £14 million on, is in the firing line because we can’t afford to buy Michael Owen. Benitez has ducked questions about Cisse’s future quite clearly because he knows that Cisse may need to be offloaded – without ever really having the chance to prove himself.

Liverpool FC is the biggest club in Europe when you look at our past and even our recent achievements. Now, because the big wigs running the club can’t capitalise on that success and inject some revenue back into buying big players, Liverpool is looking more and more like a selling club with an ambition hampered by a broken bank. That’s no future for us; it’s a disaster. Get your act together - whoever is responsible - and strike a deal before it is too late.

Friday night was an abnormal one; I didn’t personally expect a bravura performance from the boys, and we certainly didn’t get one.

Liverpool set out to dominate CSKA with possession in the middle, five men stretching across the pitch with the objecting of numbing Moscow’s attack. That was achieved early on, but the cutting edge simply wasn’t there when the time for a final, searching pass or finish arrived. Zenden is not a player who strikes me as a winger anymore I’m afraid, and I sincerely hope that the Dutchman has not been brought in as a serious solution for that position on the left. Several times he was asked to deliver a killer ball, and several times the bloke failed.

Same with Luis Garcia. Whilst I rate him highly, the little Spaniard’s game was poor in the European Super Cup Final, leaving his total lack of confidence exposed. As usual Garcia frustrated for the entire match before popping up with the goods when they were needed, heading in a decent goal to wrap the trophy up. But he needs to be playing now consistently behind a striker, not over on the right where a tremendous amount of vision is wasted. If the club is to get a full repayment on the £6 million spent on the former Barcelona man then Luis Garcia needs to add a new party trick to his current entourage: consistency. That will come with plenty of games.

In a first half covered with Red possession, Morientes showed flashes of what the footballing world knows of him and he was involved in setting up Garcia for one of his guilt-edged misses. Poor service was provided for the man who Benitez sees as his lone ranger, but in honesty Fernando was on the periphery for much of the game. Goals are one thing but your all round game needs to be there too; at the moment Morientes simply appears to be playing in an introverted style and to be totally uninspired by the team around him. Something good must happen soon for the Spanish veteran.

One mistake was made between Hyypia and Riise at the back during the first half, and Pepe Reina streaked out of his goal in a slight panic as CSKA took the lead against the run of play. From there on in, our team was set to have to force the issue against 10 men behind the ball for a third match in a row, and once more Liverpool looked idle in their attempts.

In came Sissoko and Pongolle for the second half, with the former simply stitching things up defensively in midfield and the later largely incompetent in second-striker and right wing roles. Before their introduction, Xabi Alonso was his usual superlative self once more, spreading the ball around with such splendour that the lad was a class apart. I felt sorry for him that every time a pass was made, the recipient did very little with it or simply lost it. Gerrard was once more sorely missed and Hamann is no substitute going forward.

It wasn’t until the last ten minutes of the final that Liverpool had any real impact on the game. Djibril Cisse was thrown on as a last resort by Rafa, who did not make eye contact with his striker all night, even whilst talking to him.

The Frenchman blasted onto the pitch and with uncanny fortune lobbed the keeper with his forearm, thus taking the game on into extra time. The celebration? A sprint over to his manager who did not congratulate or even glance at him. The journalists must have seen this and literally drooled all over their notebooks. Next, Cisse is put through one-on-one and, as I expected, missed. Luckily the rebound fell directly to his right foot and the man about whom speculation has been mounting prodded the ball home to put the Reds ahead.

Irony. Is there any more ironic game than football? With minutes remaining, Cisse then set up Luis Garcia for the third with a brilliant cross, reminding the fans that they may not actually have seen the best of their striker yet. In the next chapter of bewildering events, Benitez watched Cisse celebrate with the cup and told reporters who asked him about the Frenchman’s future that ‘I am now going to celebrate the cup.’

It would appear that Cisse is on the chopping block and Benitez has the axe in his hands; will this last minute turn of match-winning masterclass persuade him to remove the Frenchman from his plans or give him a real chance to develop in English football? Only time will tell, but for Cisse, who scored two very fortuitous goals yet obviously has the club in his heart, the signs aren’t looking good.

Finally, just a word on the speculation that Rafael Benitez doesn’t want to entice Michael Owen back to Liverpool whereas Rick Parry does. The mere suggestion is so preposterous that I’m amazed so many respectable newspapers have picked up on it and proclaimed it as truth.

Benitez left Valencia after a bust up with the club’s version of Rick Parry, who controlled transfer deals. The partnership worked perfectly, with the boss telling the club what kind of player he wanted and the high-ranking officials going out to bring in the best possible signing – all until an occasion when Rafa asked for an established attacking player yet was given an unknown centre back. The ensuing feud was key to the manager’s departure from Spain.

One promise given to Rafa Benitez when he came to Anfield, it was revealed, was that he would choose who to sign and not the chairman, as is the norm at Liverpool. Parry is always very supportive of our managers with what money the club has available and has proven that with the players Benitez has been allowed to purchase as of yet. Would our chairman really risk losing the virtuoso that is our manager by telling him that Michael Owen must be bought?

No.

Oh, and the idea that Benitez doesn’t rate the England centre-forward is also ridiculous; sure, he sold him a year ago, yet his hand was forced by the player’s weighty ambitions. When the option comes about to sign a 25-30 goal a season player comes up, you take it, no matter how elusive you are about the matter in the press.