0-0, and the most exciting Liverpool match of the season took place on Saturday at Spurs. I was anticipating a defensive setup by Benitez as a certainty, considering we have been fielding a 4-5-1 at Anfield this term thus far; what he decided upon however was far more attacking with a side including Luis Garcia, Djibril Cisse and the Premiership debutante Peter Crouch. Cisse played off Crouch’s shoulder and lived on his knock-downs all afternoon, whilst Garcia was once again out of position as a right winger.
What I noticed initially about the shape of the match was that the team looked nice and solid at the back, with Didi Hamann, ‘the Kaiser’, looking after the back four. Reina had a little hiccup which could have turned out far worse than it did, but went on to make up for that by keeping out the rasping drives of Michael Carrick and Edgar Davids later on in the game. A save from Aaron Lennon towards the end was particularly impressive from the Spaniard, even though Lennon was adjudged to have been in an offside position. Three matches and three clean sheets suggests to me that Rafa has certainly brought to the club a goalkeeper with the potential to keep out opposition attacks for years to come. Reina has some way to go yet and does make the occasional poor descision, yet the lad has only just switched leagues and is sure to need to adapt to the more physical Premiership; in la Liga, a forward can barely touch the keeper without giving away a foul, let alone tackle him to the floor as Jermain Defoe did in one instance on Saturday when Reina had acted as a keeper sweeper to dash from his net and clear some danger.
I’m sure we won’t see any major errors along the lines of Manchester United and Portsmouth’s visits to Anfield last season between the posts, with Reina looking commanding and assured for the majority of the time.
Gerrard was effective in what he did in the game, his energy requiring Carrick, Jenas and Davids at times to quell. The result was that the captain was cramped in his role, yet opened up space for his team-mates all day long in the centre and on the wings. Garcia preferred to float into the middle and attack the goal when he could, whilst Riise got chalk on his toes all day long. When an excellent cross reached Luis Garcia on the edge of the 6 yard box, Crouch had the goal gaping. The Spanish playmaker then hit the ball into the side netting from an almost impossible angle, prompting Crouch to scream at him something along the lines of ‘Pass the ball for once!’ Garcia responded by claiming that he had attempted to pass it and failed miserably.
It was a shot, there’s no doubt about it. Garcia is classy and flashy, yet so far this season has been making the wrong decisions at the wrong times. Benitez has told him to cut out the trickery when it simply isn’t needed, and yet at times at the Lane several silly passes came from the former Barcelona man. Whether it’s just being played on the right and not behind the striker that is affecting him, Garcia needs to sort himself out and find some form because looking at last season, his goals and assists do tend to make an immeasurable difference – just look at the Juventus and Chelsea games for examples.
Crouch did well and Cisse ran whenever a decent ball was played in front of him. A header from the £7 million Englishman flew just over in the first half and he worried the Spurs defence no end in dead-ball situations. Between big Peter Crouch and Sami Hyypia, the aerial threat is ever-present and came to the fore again at one point in the second half when Crouch loomed over his marker to power a header into the back of the net. Disallowed; Gerrard’s corner had whipped in over the goal line. Intriguingly just moments later, Rasiak’s header from a Spurs corner had also been disallowed for the same reason. Before coming off due to tiredness and slight cramp, Crouch has made an excellent impression in his first Premiership game for Liverpool, and Benitez approved of his performance afterwards.
What is so good about having him is that he wins most things in the air, and if not the ball, then a free kick. Not only that, but Gerrard could just as easily fizz in a ball to feet and the control would be immediate from the English international. A good pass is likely to then follow. Crouch is such a handful and will only get better in this Liverpool team under the guidance of Rafa Benitez on his coaches. We held the ball up well thanks to him at Tottenham, and scored a goal which would have stood had it not been for a great amount of bad luck.
For that reason, I’m not concerned about the lack of goals for Liverpool in the first three league games of the season. Against Middlesbrough, Gerrard should have had five. Cisse had a goal wrongly disallowed and missed from a yard against Sunderland. Crouch had a goal disallowed and Riise rattled the opponent’s crossbar against Spurs. We have no urgent need for a goalscorer on the evidence given so far, just a little more luck. The game at Tottenham was thrilling and exciting and could have been any number of scores, ranging from 3-0 to them to 3-0 to us.
Soon, something will click. The solidity at the back will remain and up front, something will happen and Cisse will begin tucking away chances like the one he fluffed on Saturday. It has to happen, because all of our forwards are ultimately proven in some way or another as people who score goals. Gerrard will start finishing his opportunities from midfield. Garcia should soon be getting in on the act as he did last year with a notable 13 strikes. Goals from Riise will begin going in instead of wide and perhaps Morientes will liven up and score impassioned goals as he did one time at Monaco. When this potential explodes up front, we will begin winning matches that we would previously have lost or drawn.
Valencia under Benitez worked on the principle that a clean sheet is most important; goals will eventually flow after that. I have belief in our team that we will resemble that Valencia team in the Premiership one day; already I can see similarities popping up such as our current stinginess in defence. However, as I have stated so many times already in All Things Red, patience is tremendously important in the process of things; even when we should have won on Saturday, at least we didn’t lose. Indeed, no loses so far in the Premiership and we’ve had two away games against two top ten teams; I’d say that’s fairy impressive and an essentially strong foundation for what more is to come from this team in the making.
God? No, Robbie Fowler is Human
I’m currently reading Kop idol Robbie Fowler’s refreshingly candid and honest autobiography, as I’m sure masses of other Liverpool supporters are. When I talk about a true Kop idol, I’m certainly referring to the likes of Fowler, Rush, Dalglish; Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher have the potential to join that list in the next few years. You basically have to be utterly awesome to join the list of Kop idols. Or God.
Years ago, Robbie Fowler was God to us as we watched him from the stands. Record-breaking hattricks against Arsenal, countless strikes against United and a top scouse attitude endeared him to the fans, who grew to admire and idolise the Red number 9 within a matter of half a year. One instant that forever sticks in my mind is when we were playing away to SK Brann of Norway, with Fowler and Collymore up front. His back to goal, centre-back marking him tightly from behind, Fowler has a ball played into him at about waist height. In a flash, he uses the back of his boot to flick it over the defender’s head, skins him alive and then volleys the ball past the keeper. “Only God can do that,” Collymore commented afterwards. McAteer agreed, saying “We call him God ‘cause he can do such unbelievable things like.” Quite.
But now, God is playing for Manchester City reserves, slightly overweight and still picking up injuries at a faster rate than he’s scoring goals. That’s not God; it’s Robbie Fowler, and Reds fans who call for the lad to be re-signed by the club should just remember that he is a human being. Sure, the book states that Fowler was mistreated by the club’s management, but I’m waiting to pass judgement until I’ve read Phil Thompson’s autobiography in a few months: the other side of the story. I loved Robbie Fowler when he was banging in goals for Liverpool and perhaps Houllier was too hasty in selling him on (though, £11 million was terrific business by the Frenchman). But it is now plain that Fowler, whilst still being a truly commendable bloke, is past his best on a football pitch. I do hope that he returns to Liverpool one day as a coach, but for now I’ll just wish him the best and pay tribute to the fact that he truly was an all-time great at Anfield in his day.
Three Lions on the Shirt
Watching Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher on Wednesday take on a Northern Irish team undoubtedly lacking in the quality of anything near England’s standards, I was emotionless but for the occasional rise of the eyebrows. Do I care about my national team? Yes. Do I care much about my national team? No, not really; as long as the Red players earning a cap escape the field without any injuries, I’ll be generally pleased.
However, I am concerned about the English national team in general. Simply look at the players available to the manager: Gerrard, Rooney, Carragher, Ferdinand, Owen, Lampard, Wright-Philips, and there are more. If any Premiership team signed all of these players, the consequences which followed would surely be that same team winning the league by a country mile. Yet the team hasn’t brought home any silverware for a lifetime, and come the next chance in Germany, it will have been 50 faltering years of hope, despair and under-achieving. Any squad which contains the English quality on show should be dominant on the international stage but the lads came home from Belfast this week having lost to a team over 150 places below them in the world rankings; things have gone undeniably stale, incredibly quickly.
Next couple of days and I’m watching the cricket. The English cricket team is closer than it has been for a long time to regaining their spot as the world’s number one team over the ever-dominant Australia. The English rugby team are the world champions, and deservedly so. Who can ever forget that fateful final, that match-winning drop-kick? Rare heroes such as Johnny Wilkinson and Freddy Flintoff have emerged from the ashes of English sport, and now even our tennis is looking up with teen star Andrew Murray taking some shape over in America. So what has happened to football? Why are there no heroes in the country’s most popular sport? Why can Steven Gerrard not perform in a white shirt, yet can turn an entire match whilst captaining the Red of Liverpool?
It worries me that I can’t remember the last time England put in a decent winning showing and made me believe that the team could ever do something. It worries me that there are no heroes anymore, and our manager seems to prefer picking Beckham over form players in the Premiership at the moment, just in order to fit his captain in. I won’t shed any tears in the way I would if it were Liverpool I was talking about, but I do think that if the English football bigwigs want to win anything in 2006 then they need to relieve Sven of his duties. Something fresh is needed, somebody fresh is essentially needed. If anybody disagrees, then they should watch the last three matches and point out 10 good things that the stars if England carried out.
I doubt, however, that there are many people who don’t agree with me. Let’s be rid of this uninspiring, clueless Swede and bring back the real heroes.