Now I havent posted for a few days as I have been busy and trying to take my mind off football for a bit! This morning I was trying to work out what is going wrong at Liverpool and I believe it starts at the top, the problems with the board has had a negative effect on the financial side of the club - rafa has had to sell before he can buy.People will point to the £17m spent on Glen Johnson and £22m on Aquilani in the summer but Alonso and Keane were both sold recouping almost £50m. The two owners Gillett and Hicks have fallen out which is never positive for any business, the manager gets frustrated which then filters down to the players. Its the same situation at West Ham inregards to the uncertainty at the top of the club, there is no money available and all of this effects the staff of the club.
The flip side are teams like Sunderland, Man City and Chelsea - these have been backed with cash, the board back the manager and are financially stable with funds to invest in the playing squad. All of this has a postive impact on the club and the results are being shown on the pitch, the quicker Gillett and Hicks are out of Anfield and new owner is in place who has Liverpools best intentions at heart (and not to mention cash!) the better for everyone connected with the club. Its they way football in this current day age is going, you need cash to compete at the top level.
Secondly the injury crisis is very bad indeed, I know some people will see this as an excuse but it just proves the first point I made about cash as Liverpool need to invest in the squad as the fringe players are not good enough. Liverpool have had Gerrard, Torres, Aquilani, Agger and Johnson all injured recently thats over 120m/130m worth of talent at least! Any club will miss those calibre of players so its gonna effect the results and the confidence of the team which was evident in the game against Lyon and this is all before I mention a certain beach ball!!!
When these players start coming back from injury results will improve and confidence will get higher so fans should back the club and back the manager when they need it most and look at the bigger picture. The problems at board level need to sorted and quick, Gillett and Hicks out and a new owner must be found who can back the manager with the funds to build and improve the squad.
Anyway rant over and this weekend im backing Peterborough to beat Scunthorpe at home (2.38 with skybet). Scunthorpe seem to up their game against the big teams and seem to struggle when facing teams at the bottom (2-1 defeat to Plymouth) and i fear that their last two performances have taken alot out of them. Peterborough have been playing well but not getting the results (ignore the leat performance against Doncaster).
Good Luck All.
Ayr (Friday)
3 hours ago
Im sorry but Liverpools problems stem from Rafa.s lack of ability to sign a second quality striker. Because of that he has pushed Gerrard even further forward and Liverpools game plan now revolves around high pressure and long balls.
ReplyDeleteThe long ball part worked while Liverpool ahd the amazing long passing ability of Alonso but they dont have him anymore. I remember the liverpool of the 70's and 80's who would pass teams to death.
Liverpool under Rafa have become more like wimbledon, bang it ong and then put the opposition defence under pressure from hard pressing players.
Liverpool these days lack the ability to control possession, control the tempo and they seriously lack width. Its a disgrace, the whole Rafa worship thing is blinding people from the actual realities of the style of game they play.
Rafa has bought and sold a huge number of players since he has been at the club, how many more does he need to buy and sell before he gets it right.
Firstly I wouldnt call Liverpool a long ball team, maybe this was true when we had Peter Crouch or Emile Heskey and we lumped the ball forward to them as a big target man. Don't forget how well Liverpool played last year, scoring 90 odd goals and just 4 points off the title.. beating Man Utd 4-1 and several other teams by big margins as we played attacking expansive football.
ReplyDeleteThe loss of Alonso has been huge I must admit as we are lacking creativity in the middle but Aquilani is an attacking midfielder with a great first touch so hopefully he will fit in inplace of Lucas and Riera (currently also injured) does provide Liverpool with width on the left - he is not world class but I struggle to think of many world class left wingers at the moment? Kuyt works hard on the right and has Johnson overlapping so I dont think width is a big problem.
Rafa hasnt bought that well.. Torres, Riena, Mascherano, Agger and Johnson are the gems which is a poor return but I still believe he will turn things round when the injury crisis is over.
Aquilani is brilliant, I just hope that he is allowed a season to settle before people make too many judgements on him. I cant wait to see him play.
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