Training Games
Seeing pictures of Darren Potter slapping Rafa Benitez on the training pitch – possibly the reason the youngster no longer seems to be considered for selection at all – made me literally laugh out loud and also made me glad that there’s a good enough rapport in day-to-day training to engage in such activities. Yet whilst reading Danny Murphy’s comments recently about the lack of unity amongst the players due to the curtailment of a lot of English lads, the immediate images springing to my mind were those of a glum, despondent kind of place where people simply keep to themselves and generally dislike the players with whom they are ‘forced’ to work.
However, I’d say the humorous comments emanating from Steven Gerrard about the Boss’ idea to do a little shadow boxing ‘like Muhammad Ali’ (masterstroke, in my opinion) show two things: one, that there’s truly plenty of fun to be had around the place and two, perhaps Benitez and Stevie are coming round to actually liking each other as people, men, now, as opposed to just respecting each other’s footballing ideas. The revelation that the two blokes didn’t actually get on very well in their first season, culminating in Gerrard’s admittance of that very fact right after agreeing to stay on at Anfield after all, was disheartening for all fans; surely manager and captain should be close, at least seeing eye-to-eye on the majority of things discussed between each other and with the press. That simply wasn’t the case until this year.
Gerrard’s further admission this week that he’s willing to play anywhere for club or country surely shows how much he is gaining in the sort of maturity as a person and player that he was simply lacking before Benitez came along. Their relationship may not have clicked straight away, but I believe Stevie G has learned a lot under Benitez already and is now much happier to learn some more, whereas before I think a little reluctance was there for all to see. Things do seem to be at least looking better between the two men who, it can easily be argued, matter the most to Liverpool Football Club at this point in time; hopefully, their relationship shall only continue to improve.
The Match vs. Portsmouth (h)
Portsmouth are a poor team and have been for some time now. I remember last season when we all thought the same thing and expected to hand out a hammering at Anfield, only to be bored for about 85 out of 90 minutes and then see Lua Lua capitalise on a Jerzy Dudek shocker in the final minute to share the points. The Reds played 4-5-1 that day and Baros looked incapable up front of doing absolutely anything, let alone scoring; yesterday, Benitez opted for this season’s new favourite, 4-4-2, and the team looked like a free-scoring, flowing mastery with strikers looking as sharp as knives. Liverpool’s season is really beginning to gain momentum now after 4 straight wins and no goals conceded – also, we are 7 points up on last season if you compare results in terms of fixtures, with Fulham away being our only little step back.
Crouch and Cisse were to partner each other up front, with Garcia returning from his international heroics to go wide right and Zenden looking to tread the left touchline. After lamenting the lack of Didi Hamann in our midfield in last week’s issue, the German returned on Saturday with great aplomb, looking so solid up against the 5 midfielders Pompey were trying to use to suffocate the match. He held the ship steady whilst Gerrard looked dangerous and utterly scary in the tackle, enjoying himself immensely on an afternoon when his opposite numbers just looked a bit scared of the might put in front of them.
Crouch started well and reacted first to a cross with a powerful header which Ashdown saved excellently. A few more dangerous moments occurred in the penalty area as Liverpool clambered all over Portsmouth for the opening twenty minutes – well, it was the entire 90 in truth – before Bolo Zenden looked to come inside for a shot. The Dutchman showed tremendous skill and went down after a quick push from a panicked Griffin, who was perhaps a little unlucky to concede a penalty. The realisation sank in that Peter Crouch would be brave enough to step up and take the spot kick and the Kop went nuts, cheering his name and urging him on to get that elusive first Liverpool goal. In fairness, the resulting penalty wasn’t bad but Ashdown’s save from Crouch meant that when Bolo Zenden headed in the rebound well, the cheers around the ground were more sympathetic than celebratory.
Every credit to our £7 million man, he just apologised and got on with it, trying an overhead kick in audacious fashion in front of the Kop. It was blocked, and again big Crouchy kept on plugging away, whilst every single one of his team-mates worked tirelessly to make an opening for him in any way possible. Garcia took a kick and was taken off for Morientes, prompting Cisse to move out on the right. The Frenchman’s direct running and constant attempts to make opportunities paid off towards the end of the half when his cross loomed over the head of Ashdown and nestled neatly into the corner of the net; he was modest enough to admit that it was a mistake, and Anfield laughed along with its team.
It had been a hard-working first half, peppering the Pompey goal with shots, and with the contest basically over, the second period became more about getting Peter Crouch a goal than building on what would certainly be a good win anyway. The big man was played brilliantly in by Morientes, only to shot directly at the goalkeeper and had countless moments when the ball needed to be perhaps a couple of inches in the other direction. Luck seems to be set against the former Pompey man and yet he kept on smiling and never let his head drop, making the most of a bad situation and trying indefatigably to repay some of the support the Kop was showering him with. It wasn’t to be for Peter Crouch though and, despite a very good performance, he shall have to wait just that bit longer to score a first goal for the club.
Pompey did go close for the first time in the second half, but Liverpool wrapped it up nicely with ten minutes to go when Fernando Morientes benefited from good play by Hyypia and Crouch to finish well into the corner from 8 yards. In honesty, it was the kind of easy chance that the Spaniard has been ballooning for almost a year now and that he is now scoring a few of them (this was his first premiership goal since April, but the European record is a bit better) maybe tells us that he is finally getting used to the Premier League.
Overall, this was a very encouraging and positive performance from the boys, lacking only one vital ingredient: a Peter Crouch goal. If I remember rightly though, just a month ago we weren’t scoring at all, and since then our attacking play has improved so much that we have now won 4 in a row and conceded none. Things are on the up – and we look good for European progression against Betis in the week.
Team Ratings: Reina 7, Finnan 7, Warnock 7, Hyypia 7, Carragher 8, Hamann 8, Zenden 8, Gerrard 8, Garcia 6, Cisse 7, Crouch 8
Subs: Alonso 6, Morientes 7, Josemi 6
Kraft-work
Finally, Liverpool appear to be on the edges of an agreement which would see some solid investment injected into the club and most importantly, into Rafa’s wallet. This kind of thing has been much-needed at Anfield for some time and I’ve written about the seeming lack of effort from the board to secure some good business on several occasions; this time, I can only congratulate Parry for actually getting something truly positive done with Liverpool. There’s been a lot – too much – talk recently about the Reds going into debt and I can’t help but feel that talk such as that should be totally alien to the European Champions: the pure reality is that it is not.
I’ve read several unhappy fan comments complaining about Kraft’s use of the word ‘brand’ when referring to Liverpool, but whilst I don’t like the term myself, I accept that we won’t find many businessmen who don’t see the club as a mere brand, a business opportunity for them to make a profit. That’s their job isn’t it? If they can come in and clear Liverpool’s debts, perhaps funding a few useful transfers on the way, then I don’t care what they say about the club or what they think of it as. Parry will remain in control, that’s the key thing – this is not a takeover bid such as that over at Manchester United. If it can go further from here and the proposed investment actually happens, then yet another key piece of our disjointed jigsaw may be slotted into place.
All Things Red in Short…
Congratulations to Luis Garcia on his hat-trick for Spain in mid-week. All three were top quality – if he wasn’t already a Liverpool player, I can guarantee that our boards would have been full of requests for Benitez to try and buy the lad at any price.
Commiserations to Roy Keane who has finally been dumped by the Scum after having one foul-mouth, insulting temper tantrum too many. He played his final game for United at Anfield, with his foot breaking in a tackle with Luis Garcia.
Best international game had to be England vs. Argentina last Saturday. Full marks to Peter Crouch for throwing Michael Owen at the ball on the second goal, and for not giving up despite having a desperately hard time at the moment. Keep going lad.
Best rumour must be that Benitez will have £15 million to spend in the transfer window. Spent wisely, Liverpool’s season could really pick up from there.
Funniest comments go to Jose Mourinho for his description of Rafa’s transfer policy as ‘desperate.’ Despite the fact that it has nothing to do with him, may I just point out that to spend the amount of money the ‘Special One’ did on players such as Tiago, Essien and Drogba (over £60 million) is truly desperate and ridiculous; Benitez is simply too classy to retaliate.