Early season promise, Mid-season gloom

Last updated : 10 January 2008 By Ryan Miller
At Liverpool the signings of Fernando Torres, or 'El Nino' as he's known in his homeland of Spain, and the next Dutch maestro Ryan Babel had the Anfield faithful licking their lips in anticipation of the 2007/2008 season Add the skilful Yossi Benayoun and Ukrainian forward Andriy Voronin, it seem as if Liverpool and Raphael Benitez had finally fixed all the pieces together in creating a squad that was able to challenge for the elusive Premiership title.

Let's take nothing away from Raphael Benitez. His track record in Spain proves that he has the winning mentality. It's hard to argue against two La Liga title under the machine that was Valencia plus a Uefa Cup win. Also, since taking over the reigns at Liverpool, he's won a Champions League trophy, appeared in another final, had FA Cup success and appeared in a Carling Cup final. But the desperate cry from every Liverpool fan, from young to old, is that they need the domestic league title back in the trophy case at Anfield. This season was supposed to be the season when Liverpool would at least make a challenge in the league. But dropped points at home to the likes of Wigan, Birmingham and Tottenham have damaged any hopes of the most successful club in England adding to their collection.

So what's happened since those emphatic victories against Derby County and Toulouse? Simply put, a vast majority of quality players new and old haven't produced the goods on a regular basis. They've failed to live up the expectation of the fans and manager alike. Apart from Torres, Reina and Gerrard the rest of the squad have been below par. Many people will argue that Liverpool have had bad luck with injuries. Let's look at the facts though. Jermaine Pennant who's been injured for ten weeks scored one goal last season, Daniel Agger is an outstanding defender but defender is the operative word. And then there is Xabi Alonso, who will get you a goal or two, but his game is more to do with the build up to a goal scoring opportunity. Even so, if we take a look down south at our rivals Chelsea, they've missed Drogba, Ballack, Terry, Carvahlo, Lampard and many others for lengthy periods of time throughout the season, but they're still above Liverpool!

The form that Voronin showed in the early part of the season has deserted him. He's gone from having good link up play and an eye for a pass to having a touch like a Sunday league player half drunk from the previous night before. Then there's Dirk Kuyt. Last season, there was little or no fault to his game. Maybe he could have spent more time in the box, but 14 goals to his name was a worthy return on the £9m paid for him. But for some unknown reason, he hasn't improved. Often you'll see him crossing a ball in from the right wing, or trying to link up play in the middle of the pitch, when he's best position is in the Ruud Van Nisterooy role, inside the 18-yard box.

One Benitez signing that's come out of the first half of the season with his reputation intact is Fernando Torres. From his goal against Chelsea to the one against Wigan, he's been a breath of fresh air at Liverpool. Heskey, Diouf, Cisse, Pongolle and Milan Baros have all tried fill the boots left by Ian Rush, now they've got someone who has got the whole package in Fernando Torres.

Summing up Liverpool's season so far is the fiasco between Benitez and the co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett - the manager having an outburst at his employers for not stumping up the £17m for Mascherano and sanctioning a deal to bring another defender in the January transfer window. This was petulance at its worse - a manager unhappy at the way his team was performing so he wanted to spend more money on new signings.

What doesn't help the team's performances or the position of Benitez as manager is the constant swipes he receives from every quarter of the media. The media have a knack of hitting Rafa over the head with the rotation stick, from every angle. Whether it be former players, ex-managers or so-called pundits they've decided that they'll constantly have a pop at Rafael Benitez. An example of this is our home match against Tottenham Hotspur in the league. Former Arsenal and Aston Villa midfielder Paul Merson exclaimed "for starters, he's not playing his best team week in week out, instead of Voronin it should be Kuyt, and why aint Crouch getting a run out?" Voronin went on to score the opening goal, which shows how much pundits know.

Raphael Benitez always says that his team will get stronger as the season goes on. Well Mr Benitez, the inspiration that was needed in Istanbul is needed now if you're going to turn things around.