Expectations for the Season
Fuelled by an improved domestic performance last season including two runs of games where we showed title-winning form, a lot of the buzz amongst Liverpool fans at the moment is that this is the season Rafa Benitez will bring the Premier League title to Anfield.
Whilst I hope this turns out to be true, I think it's a big ask. In my opinion, the task for top premier league clubs at the moment must be to get as close to Chelsea as possible and be ready to take advantage if they slip up. They're able to call on virtually infinite transfer funds, with a shrewd manager who has showed before he arrived at Stamford Bridge that he's a winner, winning back to back domestic titles with Porto along with a UEFA Cup triumph and an unlikely European Cup win. Since arriving at Chelsea he's become the manager that the fans of other teams love to hate, but Chelsea's domestic form has been unassailable, dipping only once they have done the job of winning the title.
Whilst the stories of Manchester United and Arsenal's decline abound. United outperformed us (albeit by the smallest of margins) in the league last season, and Arsenal showed that they could replicate Liverpool's European form of the season before: only eventually capitulating to a Barcelona team who must be considered to be amongst the best sides in Europe over the last few seasons. In our favour, both sides have arguably been weakened in the summer, although there is still time for that to change.
There's no doubt that Benitez has worked miracles with Liverpool, and he has more than fulfilled my criteria for him of year on year improvement domestically whilst winning cup trophies where he can pick them up. If any manager is up to the task of surpassing the old guard and catching Chelsea, this is your man.
Adding to a defence which was one of the most miserly in the world last season and a midfield boasting as strong a centre as any, he has included pace and width in his squad in the close-season, as well as strengthening in depth to the point where we arguably have the second strongest squad in British football.
Additions such as Gonzales, Aurelio and Paletta have introduced strong competition to the left flank and central defence (along with the previous addition of Agger last January). On the right, he has added the type of player we have lacked at Liverpool for some time in Jermaine Pennant: a true wide player who can beat his man and deliver excellent crosses or passes from that flank. With Garcia and Gerrard also able to play more than adequately there, the competition on both flanks looks excellent, and in central midfield Gerrard, Alonso, Sissoko and Zenden provide riches which Arsenal and United can only dream of.
Our goalie won the Golden Gloves in his first season at the club and has already broken club records after an exemplary season at Villareal. In front of him we have two of the premier leagues top five defenders statistically in Finnan and Carragher, whilst Hyypia looks as good as he ever did in the air and Riise was in my opinion the best left-back in the league last season. As mentioned before, we have strong, young competition in the centre of defence and Aurelio and Kromkamp provide more than adequate competion in the fullback roles.
Our weakest area looks to be up front: although Bellamy is a pacy, cultured forward who should prove to be a better option than the oft-lamented Cisse, we have still not replaced Morientes, leaving only three senior options up front, with Crouch and Fowler providing the other two. Pongolle has proved to be an excellent option from the bench in the past, but with his wantaway comments and with the player still looking short of leading the line on a regular basis, we must hope for the addition of another striker if we don't want to have any potential title challenge threatened by injury.
The talk is that Benitez would like to add Dirk Kuijt to his squad: a strong, versatile forward who has been prolific in the Eredivisie and looks to be the perfect complement to our existing strikers. However, with Feyenoord holding out for more than ten million and Benitez apparently needing to sell in order to fund such a move, the prospect looks unlikely at the time of writing.
Even so, the squad is looking almost complete, and much more in the mould of the manager: which is what has Reds salivating at the prospect of leaving the other challengers in our wake and running Chelsea down. I must admit I've even had a flutter at odds of 19/2. A nice, long bet which will leave me flush next May if it comes off.
I still feel we're a little short in terms of personnel though, and our league form against our immediate rivals in previous campaigns has not impressed. We've made Anfield the fortress it should be once again, and addressed the problem of our away form against sides placed lower in the table, but to challenge for the title we will have to play at least as well as last season, and translate our recent cup form against the big sides into league form.
There's nothing to say we can't do it, but we need to make a flying start and keep up our winning runs for longer. Competing on four fronts will make this difficult to pull off, and if we suffer an injury crisis such as in Houllier's last term or Benitez' first then we would find it difficult to be so consistent as last season.
In short, I'll be happy if we're within touching distance in May and end up a strong second. I won't mind so much if we don't win any cups this season, as I think we need to focus on the league. Although to sustain a financial challenge we need a strong run in the European Cup, and that will hopefully start next week at home against Haifa.
Can't wait!
Whilst I hope this turns out to be true, I think it's a big ask. In my opinion, the task for top premier league clubs at the moment must be to get as close to Chelsea as possible and be ready to take advantage if they slip up. They're able to call on virtually infinite transfer funds, with a shrewd manager who has showed before he arrived at Stamford Bridge that he's a winner, winning back to back domestic titles with Porto along with a UEFA Cup triumph and an unlikely European Cup win. Since arriving at Chelsea he's become the manager that the fans of other teams love to hate, but Chelsea's domestic form has been unassailable, dipping only once they have done the job of winning the title.
Whilst the stories of Manchester United and Arsenal's decline abound. United outperformed us (albeit by the smallest of margins) in the league last season, and Arsenal showed that they could replicate Liverpool's European form of the season before: only eventually capitulating to a Barcelona team who must be considered to be amongst the best sides in Europe over the last few seasons. In our favour, both sides have arguably been weakened in the summer, although there is still time for that to change.
There's no doubt that Benitez has worked miracles with Liverpool, and he has more than fulfilled my criteria for him of year on year improvement domestically whilst winning cup trophies where he can pick them up. If any manager is up to the task of surpassing the old guard and catching Chelsea, this is your man.
Adding to a defence which was one of the most miserly in the world last season and a midfield boasting as strong a centre as any, he has included pace and width in his squad in the close-season, as well as strengthening in depth to the point where we arguably have the second strongest squad in British football.
Additions such as Gonzales, Aurelio and Paletta have introduced strong competition to the left flank and central defence (along with the previous addition of Agger last January). On the right, he has added the type of player we have lacked at Liverpool for some time in Jermaine Pennant: a true wide player who can beat his man and deliver excellent crosses or passes from that flank. With Garcia and Gerrard also able to play more than adequately there, the competition on both flanks looks excellent, and in central midfield Gerrard, Alonso, Sissoko and Zenden provide riches which Arsenal and United can only dream of.
Our goalie won the Golden Gloves in his first season at the club and has already broken club records after an exemplary season at Villareal. In front of him we have two of the premier leagues top five defenders statistically in Finnan and Carragher, whilst Hyypia looks as good as he ever did in the air and Riise was in my opinion the best left-back in the league last season. As mentioned before, we have strong, young competition in the centre of defence and Aurelio and Kromkamp provide more than adequate competion in the fullback roles.
Our weakest area looks to be up front: although Bellamy is a pacy, cultured forward who should prove to be a better option than the oft-lamented Cisse, we have still not replaced Morientes, leaving only three senior options up front, with Crouch and Fowler providing the other two. Pongolle has proved to be an excellent option from the bench in the past, but with his wantaway comments and with the player still looking short of leading the line on a regular basis, we must hope for the addition of another striker if we don't want to have any potential title challenge threatened by injury.
The talk is that Benitez would like to add Dirk Kuijt to his squad: a strong, versatile forward who has been prolific in the Eredivisie and looks to be the perfect complement to our existing strikers. However, with Feyenoord holding out for more than ten million and Benitez apparently needing to sell in order to fund such a move, the prospect looks unlikely at the time of writing.
Even so, the squad is looking almost complete, and much more in the mould of the manager: which is what has Reds salivating at the prospect of leaving the other challengers in our wake and running Chelsea down. I must admit I've even had a flutter at odds of 19/2. A nice, long bet which will leave me flush next May if it comes off.
I still feel we're a little short in terms of personnel though, and our league form against our immediate rivals in previous campaigns has not impressed. We've made Anfield the fortress it should be once again, and addressed the problem of our away form against sides placed lower in the table, but to challenge for the title we will have to play at least as well as last season, and translate our recent cup form against the big sides into league form.
There's nothing to say we can't do it, but we need to make a flying start and keep up our winning runs for longer. Competing on four fronts will make this difficult to pull off, and if we suffer an injury crisis such as in Houllier's last term or Benitez' first then we would find it difficult to be so consistent as last season.
In short, I'll be happy if we're within touching distance in May and end up a strong second. I won't mind so much if we don't win any cups this season, as I think we need to focus on the league. Although to sustain a financial challenge we need a strong run in the European Cup, and that will hopefully start next week at home against Haifa.
Can't wait!
posted by zigackly at 4:24 pm
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