Defensive Transfers: The Low-down
Jan Kromkamp (signed)
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This tall and powerful Dutch full back made his name in his homeland whilst playing for AZ Alkmaar on the right-hand side. His qualities are centred on being sufficiently solid whilst covering his defensive duties and also having the ability to play further up the pitch and offer support to a team’s attacking play, either overlapping from defence or starting in midfield. Kromkamp was unable to pick up Spanish during his time in the country, but already speaks excellent English as is the norm with many Hollanders.
Why buy?
Well, he was nominated for this year’s UEFA team of the year and was very nearly snapped up by FC Porto before Villarreal stole in to take him for a whopping £7 million last summer. Before January, not many people had cited right-back as a position in which a signing was desperately needed, but considering Josemi clearly has not settled in England after more than a year and Kromkamp was similarly having problems in Spain, Benitez surely snapped off Villarreal’s hand when the Dutchman was offered in exchange. Josemi, unconvincing and problematic when played ahead of Finnan, cost us £5 million less than Kromkamp cost the Spaniards and now we can surely look forward to the right-back spot being fought for by two excellent internationals. Finnan’s lack of aerial presence was recently exploited by Everton and, despite him being consistently superb for some time now, perhaps Kromkamp shall offer the team a more physical option when needed and will also allow for Finnan to take a break without having to worry about his replacement. The big Dutchman will also offer Rafa another option for right midfield, just in case we miss out on that much-revered winger.
Did you know?
Kromkamp was originally a right midfielder but has become more defence-orientated since being played at right-back for the first time by coach Co Adriaanse at AZ.
Daniel Agger (reports suggest that deal in near)
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Agger, already having kop songs invented by eager Liverpool fans to the tune of Agger Do, has risen and risen through the Danish ranks since joining Brondby in 2004 from his childhood club, Rosenhoj. He is a tall – 189 cm – centre-back with excellent heading ability and a professional composure on the ball, talents which contributed to Agger winning the 2004-05 Danish Premier League in his first season at Brondby. The Great Dane established himself as a first-team regular at Brondby in his first season and twice walked away with the PFA ‘talent of the year’ before reportedly agreeing terms with Liverpool in early 2006.
Why Buy?
Sami Hyypia and Jamie Carragher are both superb centre-backs and are also both at the club for a good few years yet - the only difference is that Carra will remain in the first team for years to come whilst big Sami is likely to drop to the bench after this season or even just before the end of it. As Liverpool fans witnessed last year with the introduction of Pellegrino in January, Benitez reckons Hyypia needs a break from time to time and will probably use Agger when necessary in order to rest the Finn and give the Dane some experience of Premiership football. Agger’s experience in Denmark’s top league is valuable, yet many observers doubt that a good showing in such a weak competition is enough to result in a call-up from Europe’s footballing giants; the element which is likely to have pushed this deal on is Agger’s emergence on the international stage and his solid showings at the heart of the Danish team’s central defence. Likely to cost up to £6 million, Agger offers some (but not a lot of) pace and considerable power, along with brilliant aerial ability and clever positioning; surely the perfect partner for the future with Jamie Carragher at Liverpool? Time will tell, but at this moment in time Agger’s potential is simply too exciting to ignore.
The Match – vs. Luton (a)
Three goals in eleven minutes is a little bit slow for a comeback from Liverpool, their previous record of 6 against the might of Milan remaining totally untouched against lowly Luton. But that comeback, desperately needed, did at least arrive in order to sooth the frayed nerves of both the fans and manager; at one point every Liverpool fan has had it in their head that Saturday night might have been a repeat of last year’s disastrous away defeat to Burnley. That would have been unacceptable, and if they were to avoid a nationwide press mauling, Liverpool’s players each had to do something special in that second half in Luton. Luckily, they did.
Beginning with a team altered only by a change of goalkeeper, the Reds looked in control in the early stages and when Crouch neatly kept the ball in the box for Cisse to calmly lay on Gerrard, the skipper curled a terrific shot beyond the keeper to make it 1-0. Easy game ahead now? It looked like it. But, as Benitez remarked after the game, there is no place for complacency in the FA Cup 3rd Round and soon after going one-nil up, the Champions of Europe were literally chasing shadows around the pitch as Luton’s fast-paced passing game began to dominate and run the show. Sissoko was off the pace with both his tackles and passes all night and for the first half, Xabi Alonso seemed overawed by the intense aggressiveness being shown by every one of his opposite numbers. Even Steven Gerrard lost his form after that opener and seemed to stop concentrating upon what he does best – the team was losing its shape, and fast.
With Sissoko, Alonso and Gerrard all left for dead by a slick Luton move, Hyypia watched the ball squirm through his legs for the impressive Howard to round Carson and fire it into the open net. Liverpool were pegged back by lower opposition, but didn’t seem too bothered about it in all honesty. Another careless piece of play in the middle gave Luton the opportunity to play in Robinson, who fantastically turned a flustered Jamie Carragher to finish superbly and give the hosts the lead; still, Liverpool regained none of their composure and, if anything, got worse and worse as Luton continued to have chances. By the 45 minute mark, the team against which very few Premiership teams have managed to score this season were 2-1 down to the Hatters and totally off the pace of what was a frantic game. Luton, on the other hand, were on cloud 9 as they went in at the break.
Benitez was thunderous throughout this match. Things had gone so badly in the first half; we won no second balls, Crouch hardly ever held the ball up, Cisse wasn’t played in once, Kewell blasted over and wide, Carragher was played poorly, Riise hadn’t got forward at all and Liverpool failed to keep any sustained possession – and Rafa was on a knife-edge all the way. Usually composed and up tight, his thoughts to himself, the Spaniard obviously still felt the stinging criticism from last year that he “didn’t understand English football, especially not the FA Cup.” As he ripped into his players from the sidelines, I simply thought about what his half-time team talk would be composed of. Would it be the same as in Turkey? Nah – Benitez didn’t seem annoyed that night, just shocked. This time, he was a man on a furious mission, and I reckon the players will have heard about it big time in the dressing room. Whatever he said… well, it clearly worked.
Liverpool stormed into the second half and burst the Luton bubble straight away, winning a dubious penalty which should, as it was given, have resulted in a red card. It didn’t, and Benitez was fuming once more, being calmed down by the usually-angrier Paco as he came close to assaulting the 4th Official. His condition was to worsen before it got better. Cisse took an awful penalty into the arms of Beresford and moments later, Carson was booked for bringing down a Luton striker outside the box – and a penalty was given to them, which they duly scored. At this point, we were all wrong mentally and tactically and something drastic had to be done… enter Flo Po, the young French star who has the strange and curious ability to change a game when coming on as a substitute.
Indeed, Pongolle came on for Sissoko and suddenly, the team took aim once more. Gerrard came into the middle, whilst Cisse and Pongolle worked the right-hand side of attack to their advantage and Xabi Alonso sat back to have one of his best periods of play in a Liverpool shirt. Immediately, Pongolle rushed on to drive home and make it 3-2, before Alonso surged forward with intent and whacked in a tremendous, dipping 40 yard drive which lobbed over the keeper and levelled up the game in quite amazing fashion. A few minutes later, yet another thrilling comeback was complete when Finnan crossed perfectly for Pongolle to head in from 12 yards and give us the lead once more, effectively killing off Luton altogether.
As the home side pressed towards the end and ‘keeper Beresford came forward for a late corner, the fantastic Alonso, who had barely given the ball away in 30 tough minutes, pounced upon a defensive clearance to aim the ball into an open Luton net from all of 65 yards and finish the game off at 5-3 to Liverpool. Team spirit, if nothing else, had shown through in the end with a little bit of class, but if we are to defeat Tottenham next week then Liverpool must bring back the standards they set before the Bolton game and steer clear of any similar complacency or laziness in the near future.
Player Ratings: Carson 6, Finnan 7, Carragher 6, Hyypia 5, Riise 6, Kewell 6, Sissoko 5, Alonso 9, Gerrard 8, Crouch 6, Cisse 5. Subs: Pongolle 9, Warnock 6, Kromkamp 7 (great crunching tackle near the end and a good pass to pick out a team-mate in the box).