I stated on this very forum I thought is was the wrong direction for Liverpool Football Club to go down. To bring the fans back on-side I thought we needed a young, more expansive manager, Like Mark Hughes who is working wonders at Fulham. So well in fact former red, now Fulham skipper and Hodgson fan boy has already stated “Mark asks us to play a higher line than Roy did”. Surely with our attacking talent Torres, Gerrard, Cole, Kuyt we should be playing that higher line, that more expansive football that even the likes of West Brom are attempting to play.

Now when I said the I thought Roy was the wrong man for the job, I was told I was mad, mental, needed my head tested to use just a few phrases, but listening to the radio and reading the forums I see that people are now jumping on my bandwagon. Sacking him may be a bit too much of a knee-jerk reaction (we aren’t QPR after all), but at the minute the poor fella looks like he’s a rabbit caught in headlights.

I admit and have admitted I was impressed with him to start with. He was saying all the right things, he had the players on-side, and signed Joe Cole. Good start. But this is a results business, 6 points from 7 premier league games and a ‘Good Result’ for a nil-nil at those giants of European Football Utrecht is simply not good enough. Another argument I heard when Roy signed was “He’ll play players in their correct positions”….. REALLY…….. I hadn’t realised  that Raul Meireles, a Top Class (Not World class – as many of you know I fell that phrase is banded about FAR to often and usually on good players, whereas it should only be reserved for the absolute BEST world football has to offer) Central Midfielder with attacking tendencies was really a right winger/playing behind the front man, I actually thought we’d signed a Central Midfielder who liked to push on, so we wouldn’t have to play 2 holding midfielders….. How wrong was I!!!!!!

But one thing I have discovered is that Hodgson is actually a TIME-TRAVELLER! Yes, he was that impressed with Lucas he jumped in his DeLorian and  went 10 years in the Future to bring his future self back tot his time, to speed up his progression….. no wait, he actually just signed his slower, equally as bad at breaking up play Danish brother, and paid around £6million pounds for the privilege .

Meireles looks a decent player to be honest, but his best game has been….. yes his FULL debut where he player…… YES CENTRE MIDFIELD (Square Pegs in Square Holes Roy) If he wants to stick with the 4-2-3-1 type of formation, surely putting Meireles in there with Lucas, Poulson or Even Stevie is a better option than player slow and slower (Lucas and Poulson just  incase no-one got it) we have an abundance of player who CAN play in those wide positions, Kuyt, Cole, Jovanovic, Babel, Pacheco, Amoo, Eccleston and Stevie is a decent wide man too. For example:

Reina

Johnson Carra Skrtel Agger

Kuyt Meireles Gerrard Cole

Pacheco Torres

Looks a hell of a lot better and potentially more productive than the dross that has been happening under Cautious Roy. I’d even go as far as dropping some of the ‘Established Internationals’ and give the kids a Chance. Now from what I’ve seen, some of these kids look exciting, eager and actually give a shit about the club. What’s young Wilson done to offend Roy, he was one of the only ones from the Northampton debacle who came out with any praise. We needed a left-back for the latest debacle (Blackpool……. urgh) and he plays Carra…. who’s not played there in bloody years.

Wilson, Kelly (who has been very impressive) Shelvey, Amoo, Eccleston and especially Pacheco…. throw them in….. give them a chance…………. PLEASE……………

One thing I have noticed is how we always perk up in the second half. Now I have been wondering if it’s something to do with the training methods, cause all I’ve seen the fellas do is cycle in the same spot, laughing and joking and rolling around on those fucking great big over-sized beach balls…… I thought these were meant to be high-paid top-class PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALLERS not training to be red-coats at Butlins in the Summer!

I have never been so disheartened as a Liverpool fan. I see absolutely nothing to excite me. Does the manager need to go? In my opinion he was the wrong choice in the first place. Can it be turned around? Yes it can, BUT we need to stop playing so cautiously. We have 6 points from 7 games, we have absolutely nothing to lose. Can we PLEASE just start going for the jugular, taking the game to the opposition and looking like we give a shit!

Well that’s a load off my chest…. but does it make me feel any better?  Does it bollocks.

Yours,

A most dejected Lord Luis

P.S. I would like to congratulate Blackpool and the legend that is Ian Holloway on their victory at Anfield. I wish our boys had even half the passion of yours. They are a credit to you and the Premier League. If only our team was as honest……. one can dream.

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Let’s look at the In’s first (I’ll look at the leavers over the weekend) -11 in total but 10 realistically given the boomerang signing of Aurelio:

Shelvey, Suso and Hadju have all been signed with the future in mind rather than week in/week out first team action (presumably, that is) – I won’t pretend to know anything about anyone other than Shelvey – highly rated for his 40+ performances for Charlton and now as a England U19 player, he definitely seems on his way to better things and can be regarded as a positive.

Both Shelvey and Jovanovic were both signed by Benitez and as such have a lot to prove to the new boss. Jovanovic has impressed so far but I worry that he’s the left sided Dirk Kuyt – no bad thing but he doesn’t seem to be the speedy, tricky winger that we’ve needed for a while? But what he has done he’s done well – another positive.

Joe Cole is without doubt our biggest signing of the summer – I’ve covered my thoughts on his signing here previously and my opinion hasn’t changed – he really could have done without getting sent off on his debut but once he’s back and fit he’s going to be a great asset to the team, with his versatility if nothing else.  Positive number three.

Wilson has come from Rangers – a bonus as he won’t have to ‘settle into the English game’ as foreign players always have to, he used to the pressure of playing big games for a big club and he’s got Champions League experience. He can also play left back or centre back, something which could come in handy as the other player in the squad that can do that, Danny Agger, has little to no luck with injuries.  Another improvement to the squad.

Which brings me on to Fabio – an immensely talented player with great control and technqiue and a very quick footballing brain, he’s also immensely injury prone – I can’t really count his return as a positive until he’s had a run of games in the side injury free.  Not a positive but not a negative either.

Poulsen and Meireles are established internationals with European experience joining from big name clubs – it’s going to be interesting to see how Woy balances his midfield – he’s got to fit Cole, Poulsen, Meireles, Kuyt, Jovanivic, Lucas and possibly Stevie in there somehow.  I won’t porestend that Poulsen is an improvement on Mascherano technically – Masch is probably the best in the world at the spoiling game at the moment – but I’d rather have a less gifted player that wants to play for Liverpool than one who doesn’t.  More on Masch in the Outties section over the weekend but the addition of these two players can only be viewed as a plus.

Brad Jones – presumably only bought to ensure that the reserve keeper space on the bench is kept warm by a home-grown player and therefore probably no better or worse than Cavalieri.  Another neutral signing.

And so to finish on Konchesky – I’m not going to pretend that he’d be the first left-back I’d want to be at Liverpool (I can’t actually think of many – there aren’t many going) but he’s played for Woy before and therefore has the managers full trust.  He’s an established Premier League player and played his part in Fulham’s relative success last year.  Insua has gone out on loan, leaving only Aurelio as our only dedicated left back.  I’m not expecting the second coming of Paulo Maldini but I do expect a fully commited performance from Konchesky every time he plays and he can therefore be viewed as a positive (albeit a limited one).

So a slightly mixed bag but I think overall the squad has improved with the transfers in – a smattering of internationals, mixed with some promising talent and some versatilty, all in all a good perfomrance from the new manager given the limitations placed on him financially.

Over the weekend I’ll have a look at the players who have left the club – the outties!

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Skip to the start of August – we’ve gained a sensible manager coming off the back of a successful season, two of the three world-classers have publicly declared they are staying at the club (and Masch must be having a re-think?), we’ve signed an England international on a free and apparently there’s a queue of buyers stretching round the ground like the first day the European tickets go on-sale.  Laughing!

It’s enough to make you start getting carried away but I retain the right to keep my healthy cynicism, especially regards the takeover – we’ve been on the brink before and nothing has ever come of it.  Kenny Huang seems to have a very good PR machine – every single paper and website has been screaming his intent over the past couple of days – and his supposed willingness to get the take over completed before the transfer window bodes well.  We shall see – apparently there are six (count em, six) offers for the club so we’ve got to have faith that the board (not Statler and Waldorf) act with the club’s best interest at heart.  We shall see!

Todays interview with Fernando Torres on the main site can do nothing but warm the heart of any Liverpool fan – to be fair, Fernando owes the club at least another season, especially given the club’s sympathetic attitude towards his injuries during the run-up to the World Cup.  It’s still great to see him smiling and that “My commitment and loyalty to the club and to the fans is the same as it was on my first day when I signed.” - fingers crossed for a injury run free for him.

With regards to the Joe Cole transfer – personally I’m chuffed to bits, if only to stop him scoring against us – I remember him ruining a perfectly good weekend away in Newcastle in 2004

I’ve seen a lot of comments in mailboxes, forums etc that seem to suggest that we’re welcome to him, he’s past his best etc.  Plenty of those dishing out these comments would have been happy to have signed him at the start of the summer – Arsenal fans, Spurs fan, even some United fans but now we’ve signed him apparently he’s not worth it?  I’d struggle to find a Chelsea fan who’d say they were happier with Yossi than with Cole (not with a straight face, anyway.)  Effectively, we’ve got a experienced international for Yossi and £5-6m to us.  I  can live with that.  Like I said, I’m chuffed to bits – Roy Hodgson has got form for transforming players seemingly past it in Duff and Zamora and I’ve every confidence he can work his magic with Joe.

We’ve even managed to go from having no left-backs to having two….hmm.  Odd situation this one, as I was pretty ambivalent about both left-backs going – both have their strong points (Insua came on leaps and bounds last year and is only young, Aurelio is undoubtedly a highly technical and imaginative player and more than handy from a set-piece)  and their weak (Insua is prone to concentration loss and ball watching and Aurelio is unfortunately mostly made of balsa) so it’s a mixed bag.  Anything that keeps Paul Konchesky from pulling on a red shirt can’t be a bad though!

If you’re a Liverpool fan and you’re on Twitter, you really need to start following @notlucasleiva21 – genuinely hilarious stuff from Liverpool’s most under-rated midfielder.  If you are on Twitter, please also follow us – @poorscousetommy.  Like the blog, it’s been a tad neglected but we’ll be adding and interacting more on there.  Look forward to hearing from you!

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Milan Jovanovic’s protracted transfer is now complete and he has been given the number 10 shirt to wear – the official site mentions previous iconic number 10s such as Barnes, Molby and Luis (and Voronin) – no pressure then! Having said that, I watched him closely in the World Cup and big games obviously don’t seem to bother him.  Anyone who can take the pressure from Torres and N’gog is welcome.

Interesting picture on the front page of the official site this morning – the best photo you’ll see all summer – Fernando Torres parading the World Cup in a Liverpool scarf.  You’d like to think that this would put paid to some of the mad speculation concerning Torres and his future but it won’t – the value of the Chelsea and City bids continue to increase every week – having read various articles over the weekend, the amounts have varied from the mid-30m area to upwards of 75m and beyond.

That’s just the British clubs – Barcelona continue to be linked despite being apparently potless and just having signed Villa. With such wide differences in the quoted sums, you’d almost think the papers didn’t really have a clue and we’re just wildly speculating

After a long break, we’re now going to be updating the site on a more regular basis – Lord Luis has started the ball rolling with his post from Friday, backing the new manager but asking for realistic expectations from the fans and a bit of speculation about potential new signings. Have a read and leave a comment if you agree/disagree with Luis.

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Changes

“I’d like to start off by saying a big thank you to Mr.Benitez and wish him all the best on his new adventure in Serie A.  Not of all of his decisions may have been popular but I think we all know he had the clubs best intentions at heart.

I personally feel it is a great loss to the club and under different ownership we would have been steering the right way towards a title.

I’d also like to welcome Mr.Hodgson to our club and wish him all the best in what I foresee as a uphill struggle of a season, quite possibly the biggest task of his career and the most important season in our history.

As you will know  I am the eternal optimist but this season  I really REALLY feel we are up the creek without a paddle.  Mr. Hodgson has taken over a club in a worse state than we can imagine.  Little money to spend, a threadbare squad and senior squad members angling for moves, yes – a storm is a brewing.

Predictions I have heard from some Liverpool fans for the coming season include a Champions League place finish, Europa League and FA cup victories, even a shot at the title!

I personally think 7^th is realistic and anything above would be a bonus. No, I’m not joking – I am deadly serious.  If we lose 2 of the 3 big named players we are supposedly losing (I personally think Torres will stay and I’m not even going to include Mascherano when talking about squad for next season), we will be in trouble.

YES we’ll get money (or players) YES it may give us a chance to build a squad, but if this happens don’t expect to see the benefits until, at the very earliest, the 2011/2012 season.

With Citeh splashing cash like it’s water, Aresenal and Chavski looking to strengthen in key areas and Spurs still buzzing from last season it’s going to be harder than ever to break into the top 4.  Villa, the Blues and Man U will also be vying for those coveted places and I wouldn’t discount Brum either, who in Alex McLeish have probably the best young manager in Britain today (and my personal choice to have taken over from Rafa.)

Now Mr. Hodgson, or Woy as me and my mates have affectionately nick-named him, has been made Manager of our great club and I want to make one thing clear from the off – no matter what my thoughts of his appointment are I WILL BE BEHIND THE MANAGER 100%.

Through good times and bad, through sickness and in health, I will fight to the hilt to defend our new gaffer.

I just don’t happen to think he was the best choice for what our club needed.  I’ve heard the phrase ‘He’ll steady the ship’.  Isn’t that what Roy Evans did in the 90′s?  ‘He’s tactically astute especially in Europe’. Are we talking about Rafa or Woy here?  I think you’ll find that Rafa got slated for it.

His track record abroad speaks for itself, no complaints there but I’ll turn your attention to Blackburn.  He went there, a club in decline, but still in Europe.

In the 1997–98 season—his first season in charge – Blackburn finished 6th, qualifying for the UEFA Cup and appeared to be in the ascendancy.  However Hodgson’s second season with Blackburn would prove to be disastrous, both for the club and for his personal reputation within English football.  Hodgson spent £20m in the summer of 1998 to strengthen the Rovers side.

A succession of poor buys – notably the £7.5 million Kevin Davies — coupled with injuries and dressing room unrest led to a disastrous start to the season. He was sacked in December 1998 with Rovers at the bottom of the league table. His final game was a home defeat to Southampton.

Again I’m not saying it will happen here, but I just don’t get the same feeling of renewed hope and optimism I have done in the past. But I do hope to god I am proven wrong. If I am, I will be amongst the first to congratulate him and nothing would give me greater pleasure than admitting I am wrong.

Potential Line-up

If all paper rumours are true and 3 of our big boys are off, this is potentially our line up for the start of next season:

Reina

Johnson | Carra | Agger | Insua

Maxi | Lucas | Aqualani | Babel

Kuyt | Jovanovic

Potential Signings

On the plus side though I am happy to hear some of the players we are after. Van der Vaart is a must (especially if we have a massively depleted midfield as stated above) and Joe Cole could be a great attacking catalyst for us, something we’ve not had since Luis Garcia.

Others like Gilberto Silva…. hmmm not too convinced.  Still think left back is a priority and a foil for Torres (if he stays) and some midfield cover (if our midfield disappears) . If Ryan Babel finds a new lease of life under Woy he could be like a new signing and vital to our recovery.” - Lord Luis

So thanks to Lord Luis for getting us going again – what do you think of his article?  Agree?  Disagree?  Please leave a comment below either which way….

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I can handle losing to Reading, I really can – I just don’t accept that they were better than us.  The telly love to use words like plucky, brave, courageous etc when a lower league side beat a Prem side – maybe it’s my red tinted specs but I don’t think that Reading really outfought us – we didn’t play particularly well but had enough chances to put the game to bed (Ngog had a fair chance with the ball dropping to him in the area and if Yossi hadn’t tried to be a smartarse and meg the keeper instead of placing it either side or chipping him then the tie would probably have been settled.) and were caught out by a avoidable penalty and the sort of cross that we can’t produce at the attacking end and don’t seem capable of defending at the other.

I don’t want to take anything away from Reading, they’ve won over the two games so fair play to them but we really, REALLY should have had enough on the pitch tonight to have won and won comfortably – Carra, Agger, Yossi, Kuyt, Gerrard and Torres are all first choice players and should have had enough class to have dispatched a side from the lower end of the league below well before half time – they all played in the side that took us to second last year.

So what is the major difference between the side knocking in goals and winning for fun at the arse end of last season and the strugglers this season?  I refuse to accept that the loss of Xabi Alonso (and his sexy beard) are the only difference – it seems to me that something behind the scenes has changed? 

A lot was made of the spine of our team last year – Pepe in goal, Carra at the back, Alonso & Mascherano in the middle, Stevie and Torres up front.   The players don’t seem to have anywhere near the same level of confidence - Pepe has had his worst season yet in a Liverpool shirt through little fault of his own, Carra is on the wane, Alonso has left to be a runner up in the Spanish league instead of ours, Mascherano has had a mare of a season, seemingly distracted by Argentina’s World Cup plight, Gerrard’s head looks elsewhere and Torres can’t stay uncrocked for more than 45 minutes at a time.

But for me, therein lies Liverpool’s problem – it’s the lack of quality (one of the boss’s favourite words) aside from the ‘spine’ that lets us down – Cavaleri was rooted to his line against Reading, Agger is quality when fit but he very rarely is, Skrtel is hit or miss, Insua got dicked for the cross tonight, Aurelio is constantly injured along with Degen (who had a rare good game tonight), Babel seems to have learnt everything he knows from Harry Kewell, Riera is God knows where, Lucas wants putting down for missing the header in extra time and so on and so on. 

When our spine players don’t turn up, there is nothing to back us up – the outgoings of Dossena and Voronin suggest that some of the dead wood maybe on the way out, coupled with the signing of Rodriguez it is most definitely a start but one signing is not going to change everything overnight – we need quality bringing into the squad and fast, the promsie of a big summer is one that may come too late.

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1. Where to go from here?

We’ve also apparently turned down £9m for Ryan Babel – personally I would have taken the hit to get rid of his unsettling influence but we don’t know the full facts behind the deal – if Rafa isn’t going to get a penny of the money to spend on transfers, he’s better off having Babel around than a smaller squad and a reduced interest bill for the owners.  There’s rumours today that we’ve held onto him to use him as a makeweight in a deal for Sunderland’s Kenwyne Jones, a massive battering ram of a player who certainly add something different to our forward line and someone who’d I’d much prefer to see at the club rather than the mooted (and almost certainly doomed to failure) return of Emile Heskey.

Or maybe he’s waiting for the Maxi Rodriguez deal to be finalised and he’ll be off then – I, like most Liverpool fans I’ve talked to, am very excited by the prospect of Rodriguez signing for the club.  A winger who’s also a goalscoring threat?  What a novel idea   And it’s not often you’ll pick up an Argentinian international for the amount being bandied around in the press, a true bargain.

It’s good to see the club wheeling and dealing in what has been an otherwise quiet transfer window – it’ll be interesting to see who else we’ll actually sign – the list of who we’ve been linked with is already as long as my arm.  The Ruud Van Nistelrooy rumour seems to have gone quiet which I’m half glad/half disappointed about, when he is on form he’s world class but the injuries he’s had in the past suggest that signing him on anything than a pay-as-you-play would be an extremely risky move (rumoured wages demands of £100k+ a week would be an inordinate amount of money to pay for a treatment table warmer).  It would have made the next United game a bit more tastier though – Owen playing for them, RVN for us – madness.

So who else have you heard we’ve been linked with?  Is there anyone that you think we should be after that hasn’t been mentioned?  Let me know….

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Liverpool’s victory over Wolves on Boxing Day has given Rafa a bit of breathing space, as has the shenanigans down the M62 at Eastlands (I can’t help but think Rafa must have raised a nice glass of Rioja to Mark Hughes over the Christmas break!)

Although not a vintage performance, the game did give a few reasons for some hope – Stevie’s performance seemed to suggest he’d responded well to the alleged kick up the arse from the manager, Alberto finally started a match and looked tidy (if a little wasteful at times – I think that was mainly down to both the speed of the match and Wolves’ gameplan to harry and harass at every turn), Carra and Agger had a good game together, Dirk finally managed to get a break (he’s not been at his best this year – I don’t know if he’s got some sort of niggling injury but he’s constantly looked knackered, even by his standards) and the cross from Insua for Gerrard’s goal was spot on – if he can offer that sort of service on a regular basis (and Johnson can get back to the level he showed at the start of the season) then we could finally have some genuine threat from wide positions.

Negatively, Yossi went missing for periods of the game, Lucas continues to give away niggly, pointless fouls (still much improved from last year though) and Torres looks both out of shape and out of form, the finish for the offside goal aside but what a finish!  I suppose that’s why Rafa continues to play him, as even though he’s not fit and not happy he’s still capable of one moment of sheer skill that can change a game.

Truth be told, we struggled to break Wolves down until they went down to ten men but there was a determination to do well which has been missing for the past few games and a willingness to keep going with the passing – a lot more of our football was played on the floor than in the air which is something we seem to have been incorporating into our play when things haven’t been going so well this season.

A clean sheet is also always welcome – ESPN flashed up a statistic yesterday that illustrates exactly why our season has gone so badly – Pepe Reina is two goals away from conceding as many goals this season than for the entirety of last season, truly depressing!

Villa up next – if we can get a win against them then we’re back on track and climbing the table – after the start we’ve had to the season our only realistic aim for the rest of the season has to be qualifying for the Champions League – play the kids in the Europa League and FA Cup, our performance in the league now has to be our number one priority.

Related posts:

1. Doomed, we’re all doomed!
2. Balancing act

The squad is not good enough – everyone knows that.  The injury crisis the club has been through has highlighted that to the nth degree and put the available players under a microscope.  A lot of them have been found wanting but there’s no fresh news to most Liverpool fans – Babel, Voronin et al have been subject to intense scruity from the Kop and found wanting for a while.

The fact is that most top sides would struggle without the likes of Agger, Johnson, Gerrard and Torres.  It’s bad luck to lose two first choice team members at the same time, at one stage a few weeks back we were missing 11 squad members – a ridiculously unlucky amount of players to lose at any one time.  The players stepping up to replace the missing have not been good enough – the transfer window looms large for them at the end of the year.  Babel, Voronin, Dossena and possibly a couple more are due to leave the club.  Here’s hoping that the money they raise (£10m?  £15m?  I’ll go on record as willing to drive Voronin anywhere he wants to go, for free.) goes towards what the squad need – a partner for Torres and a winger actually capable of some sort of consistent creativity.

The squad as it stands is not good enough – everyone knows that.  So why not use the upcoming Europe League ties as an opportunity to blood the youngsters?  Sorry to keep making the same point in every post but the young players do not get enough of a chance at Liverpool compared to somewhere like Arsenal.

The view of the majority of the fans I’ve seen/heard talking today is that most of them aren’t arsed about the Europa League and would rather we concentrate on ensuring that we definitely qualify for the Champions League again at the end of the season – fine, that’s a sensible, pragmatic approach to take.  It therefore makes sense to keep the majority of the squad fit and focused on the league – let the kids and the players around the fringe of the team, the likes of Spearing who have already had a taste of European football, have a go in the Europa.

If they do well, fan-bloody-tastic.  If they don’t, at least they are getting relevant first-team experience at the expense of a competition that seemingly no-one really cares about (unless we do well in it, see Cup, League for past experience) and not in the league were an inexperienced mistake may cost us.

You never know – it might turn out some of them are actually quite good.

In other news, Ryan Babel has issued his bi-monthly newsletter on whether he intends to stay at Liverpool or not – it’s jolly nice of him to keep us informed.  Apparently he’s not happy – as shocking as this news is, please bear with me – amongst other heinous (I say, heinous) crimes, Liverpool won’t let him play in his nice blue boots (sorry, his Nike blue boots) and this is shattering his boyhood dreams (presumably his boyhood dreams revolved around how much money he would make from playing in Nike sponsored boots.).

Ryan lad, I think I can talk for the majority of Liverpool fans when I say this – don’t let the door bang you on the arse on the way out.  One or two Champions League goals a season does not a Kop icon make – we’ve been understanding whenever you come out and say that you don’t get a fair crack of the whip but petty whinging to the press doesn’t endear you to anyone, especially on the eve of a crucial Champions League tie that you’re not even playing in.  Sniping at the likes of Kuyt almost smacks of trying to engineer a move – any money we get for him will be most welcome.

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How have we gone from pushing the title down to the last two weeks of the season to giving it up before Xmas?  One of the major problems for me lies in attack – both the lack of and the quality of the available options.  David Ngog should not be relied upon to be leading the line against the likes of Citeh, not at his age.  He’s looking like a good player but he’s hardly set the world alight in the manner that Fowler or Owen did, he’s not likely to strike fear into the hearts of the opposition.  Another player that City wouldn’t have been too worried about, Ryan Babel, went off injured early on in the first half – I have mixed feelings over Babel, depending on how charitable a mood you find me in he’s either not been given enough opportunity to get a good run of games under his belt or he’s a complete waste of space and not worth a shirt.

He’s not in the squad for the clash with Debrecen (looking at that squad proves my point about the lack of attackers  – from an 18 man squad, there are 10 defenders, 3 defensive mids and 5 ‘attackers’.)  so the injury he sustained on Saturday is obviouisly serious enough to stop him from playing but at the time it just looked like he couldn’t be arsed – at the moment he’s got to be a prime candidate to be out of Anfield come January, probably for half (if not less) the money we paid for him, something which is also likely to apply to Dossena.

I don’t think that the blame for the lack of options can be laid entirely at the managers door, I’m looking a little higher.  The Americans need to free up some cash for Benitez in the January transfer window or face the fact that 4th spot and the Champions League are no longer guaranteed in England – the threat from the other side of the city has diminished but Citeh, Villa and Spurs (bloody 9-1 – where did that come from?) are all capable and willing to take that spot off us now – we need another striker and someone capable of delivering consistent danger from the left wing (Babel I’ve discussed, Riera can’t stay fit and looks out of sorts when he is, Dossena isn’t an option and Aurelio is mostly constructed of balsa wood and therefore can’t be relied upon.)

The problem with trying to attract a striker is that the current system we employ means that we only play with one striker (Torres) with Gerrard  sat behind, meaning that another striker would spend most the time on warming his arse on the bench.  This system of course worked with great effect towards the end of last season when we were scoring almost at will but so far this year it hasn’t worked at all and it won’t when you’ve got someone like N’gog up front ‘on his own’ – as hard as he tries, he’s not going to replicate the same effect that Torres has and therefore needs to have some responsibility taken away from him.

Of course the lack of attacking options isn’t the only reason we’re doing so badly – injuries in defence & a lack of guile in midfield aren’t helping.  Johnson and Agger are in the squad for Debrecen, it’d be fantastic to see both get 90 minutes under their belt and Aquilani is in too – whether he starts or not is another matter.  Is the manager ready to risk him as a starter in a game we have to win? He’s been back in training for about a month now – surely this match would be the best time to get him on the pitch?  The Champions League will be played more at the pace he’s used to and is not normally as rough as the Prem.

Why do you think our season hasn’t gone as planned?  Let me know – I’d be interested to hear more theories….

PST.

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