zigackly

Down But Not Out

2006-10-17T00:50:00.000+01:00

Well Blackburn was a gutter of a result. Same mistakes from our defence we've seen too many times already this season, namely a soft cross coming in from our left and the defence getting sucked over, leaving a man spare. Didn't help that Pepe was out of position, but I count three errors in their goal, and not one of our back five came out smelling of roses.

We should have done enough afterwards to take the game back, but we didn't unfortunately, which leads to our next problem, which is our conversion rate. At around 7%, we're apparently something like 17th in the league on this stat.

At least Bellamy is off the mark, but from the moment the fixture computer did it's dirty work, very little seems to have gone right for us this season.

I refuse to believe our challenge is over, but we've got a lot of hard work to do and will have to exceed the two runs last season if we want to keep it alive.

Hopefully we can repeat what Arsenal did and start a run against the Mancs. Otherwise we may end up looking to qualify for Europe and take some silverware in another competition. Eleven points would be far from insurmountable, but we are making it hard for ourselves, and if we come away with a loss then the pressure will really be on.

I've not been one of those who has said we will definitely win the league this season: I think we need to overtake the Mancs first and close the gap on Chelsea as a platform to challenge them, but at this moment we are staring down the barrel a bit. Never say never though, as stranger things have happened.

Let's not forget Bordeaux away first. I wouldn't be surprised if Rafa picks a weakened lineup, looking for an away draw, so we can concentrate on the game at Old Trafford. Let's hope that doesn't bite us in the arse if I'm right, as I would hate to drop the ball in Europe and then not make up for it in the following fixture.

Bordeaux will be defensive even at home, and they will be looking hard at our left-back area for an advantage. I think we've got the quality to get a result, whatever lineup Rafa picks, but the next two games could prove crucial and we have to start taking our chances if we want to take something from this season.

Lack of Updates and Bellamy's Form

2006-10-11T23:24:00.000+01:00

Apologies about that. I've had a monster flu, and been busy at work as well. Not to mention the disappointment of letting in two in the second half against Galatasaray and then losing to Bolton. Combine that with International week and I'm not a happy Zig.

Something has managed to lift my spirits though, and it's Bellamy's assist and goal for Wales. Not that I give a stuff about Wales. I'd usually rather them lose, but Bellamy has looked short of confidence in a Liverpool shirt of late, and when Wales got roundly trounced in his first game as Captain, I thought it could only get worse.

I watched the Wales game tonight, and he looked sharp and grew in confidence as the game went on. Blackburn's defence are in a different league to Cyprus, but playing against his former club, on a high from todays showing, hopefully he can net one at Anfield on Saturday and get on a run of form.

I wasn't exactly keen on the signing of Bellamy. His scoring record, apart from a purple patch last season, has always been woeful. In mitigation, that has coincided with perpetual injury, but he played quite a few games last season, and if he stays uninjured and finds his rhythm, I can see him getting fifteen to twenty goals for us this season.

What I've found to like about him since he joined the Mighty Reds is his willingness, his pace, his game intelligence and surprisingly his attitude, which has been little short of exemplary on the pitch. Perhaps he needs to bring back a bit more of the nasty streak, without losing his rag, and perhaps under Rafa he can improve his understanding of the offside trap, but there's potential there and I think he could well turn out to be more important for us than Cisse at less than half the price.

I hear you saying that Cisse scored nineteen goals last season, but to be frank I never felt he was likely to score playing though the centre, and apart from his goals he rarely gave us what we needed on the right wing. The jury is still out on Pennant in that position, but Bellamy looks a better bet than Djibril as a striker to me.

Hopefully Blackburn will be the game where he rids me of my pre-season doubts completely and finds his feet for LFC.

Newcastle Undone

2006-09-21T08:23:00.000+01:00

If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million. So I won't spend too many trying to describe the major incidents of the match against Newcastle when you can watch them instead:

Video courtesy of Youtube.

It was great to see Kuyt get off the mark, and we'll gloss over the small matter of the Newcastle defender getting the last touch on the ball, as Kuyt's initial touch had ensured it was goalbound anyway. The Dutchman has already proved popular with the Anfield faithful for his workrate and attitude, and now he's in the scoring my bet is that he'll go from strength to strength.

Alonso has hit efforts from his own half with either foot within the space of nine months, and must now hold the world record for the most distance travelled by the ball in two consecutive club goals (his last effort being the left-footed strike against Luton from his own half).

Most of all though, it's great to see the team getting a scrappy three points. We didn't play well: we regularly squandered possession and looked far too nervous. But after a run of bad form, it was just what the doctor ordered, and with more of our team looking like they're returning to form and fitness it's a good time to face two more home ties against Tottenham and Galatasaray.

If we can get a run of form going, hopefully it will snowball into the kind of form we saw in two great runs last season. If that happens then our season will have started a week or two earlier than last term. Progress of a kind.

If we can avoid the mini-dip we suffered after new year as well then we will undoubtedly be closer to the title than last season. Whether that will be enough remains to be seen, but looking at our last seven fixtures compared to Chelsea, there is still a slim hope ...

The End of the World As We Know It?

2006-09-18T15:07:00.000+01:00

Much has been said of Liverpool's league season being over, but when all of the three sides mooted as title challengers have lost one game, with Liverpool only having lost two, it seems a silly statement to be making after just four league games have been registered, in a season where we have brought in six new players after a nearly twelve month run of games for some of our players who featured in the world cup over the summer.

As far as yesterday's game goes, and it's hard to be definitive with Chelsea playing forty minutes with just ten men, it was our best performance in the league against Chelsea in the Benitez reign. Still something was missing, and we seemed to lack drive and confidence. Chelsea were willing to run at us with the ball and create far more movement, whilst we seemed to want an extra few seconds on the ball during our attacks, and often looked bereft of ideas with Chelsea getting nine or ten men behind the ball after they went one up through a Drogba wonder goal.

Our finishing still appears to be suffering from the same malaise as in previous seasons, but with two new forwards trying to gel into the team this was perhaps to be expected at this stage. Still, on another day Gerrard might have taken another touch or sidefooted his best opportunity past the keeper, instead of blasting it straight at him, Kuyt's sizzler might have crept in under the bar, Crouch's header might have been two foot either side of the keeper, we may have been handed a penalty for Lampard's shove on Gerrard in the box, and we would not have such hysteria in the press or from Liverpool fans.

To the same extent that we handed Chelsea six points on Sunday, we could take those six back at Anfield on the return fixture. With Man Utd dropping points to a struggling Arsenal, perhaps their run has also been overhyped against weak sides this season.

I don't see anyone tipping Pompey for the title, so perhaps we should take it like we did in the old days pre-Sky, and wait until ten games have passed before pronouncing judgement on the season.

We have now played two of our hardest away fixtures, and though the results have not been encouraging, there is still time for this side to click and go on another unbeaten run like the two last season, especially with two notionally easier home games coming up where we can hopefully pick up maximum points and make our league position look more realistic.

p.s. for fair comparison, here's my reaction immediately after the match on RAWK, which has been tempered somewhat since through time and alcohol:

When Drogba scored, my reaction after the initial disappointment was "at least we'll have to have a go at them now". When Ballack was sent off, I thought "ok, so now we can really attack them". Ten minutes later I was still waiting for it to happen. We had our chances, and on another day we might have scored. But I never really felt that we attacked them with urgency.

That's what has disappointed most. We didn't really unsettle them with pace and movement for me, even when we went one man up. I think it's probably the best performance we've seen at Stamford Bridge in the last few seasons, and perhaps our best performance this season, but it was still some way short. People will say our finishing let us down, but I thought it was our drive. Every time they got the ball they ran right at us and moved it, whereas I felt we always paused for a second or two when we regained possession.

Gutted after that because I felt we had a real chance to take at least a point. Time for a drink.

YNWA

2006-09-14T00:00:00.000+01:00

This is an absolutely outstanding montage. A must watch:

Youtube

Results And Expectations

2006-09-13T23:11:00.000+01:00

I haven't trusted myself before to write about the Derby result and I still don't, so I won't.

Last night's Champions League fixture away against PSV was a source of some concern. PSV have an excellent home record in European competition. Koeman fancied himself to get a result for them after guiding Benfica past Liverpool 3-0 on aggregate last season, and to top it all Rafa started the game with a largely second string outfit.

I was pleased in a way to see him so obviously focussing on the league this season, with a huge away game at Stamford Bridge coming up which could shape our season's expectations. But to the extent that you're only as good as your last game, there was a worry that we could turn in another poor result and leave ourselves short of confidence for an important fixture.

An away point then, in possibly our toughest tie of the group, represented a good, if not an outstanding result. If you can win your home games in Europe and draw your away games, you're going to the final. We likely won't manage that feat this season, and frankly I would rather improve our league performance anyway, but it's a good start to a campaign which has value in terms of a good run bringing in some cash to improve the squad in January or next summer.

A clean sheet was vital going into next weekend's game, and another outstanding performance from Agger, along with the makings of a partnership between Kuyt and Bellamy stand us in good stead, as well as the fact that our first team for the Chelsea fixture will have had a longer rest than our opponents.

Seasons are rarely made or broken in the first few fixtures, but with the Reds misfiring in our opening games, we need a good result on Sunday to galvanise our form.

I'm not going to try too hard to predict the exact lineup, except to say that the fittest players should probably start. Happily these will also likely be our better players, and if we can start to click against a side we've already had a decent result against this season, we might be able to put them on the back foot and sneak it.

A draw would be an acceptable result at this stage, but obviously a win would turn our slow start on it's head and could fire us on a charge up the table. Let's hope Benitez and the lads are up for showing the world what they're made of and re-igniting our pre-season title-challenging hopes.

We Love Yer Baldy Head

2006-09-07T00:25:00.000+01:00

Youtube.

A Review of The Red Review

2006-09-05T21:37:00.000+01:00

Statistics in football are often vilified by fans without much forethought. Most of us are not trained statisticians, and so it's difficult to tell when the stats are being manipulated to deceive us. Politicians misuse statistics in this way regularly. Scientists on the payroll of various international business conglomerates massage the evidence to earn a quick buck. The latest fad diet or quack cure is pushed on us with so-called evidence that would never stand up to peer-review or thorough analysis. Yet no modern football manager would dare ignore the backing the figures can give him when collated, analysed and presented properly.

Benitez in particular is a proper statto. He doesn't just watch videos of all his opponents, he has them analysed by a computer program which puts all the information at his fingertips. Stories abound of him being able to look at a team photo of his Real Madrid youth squad of years ago and unerringly recite the height of each player, of converting Sissoko to a midfielder after realising he ran half again as far during a match as most midfielders, when trying him in the position whilst forced through injury during a friendly. Of being able to call the numbers for opposition teams and build a strategy around their weaknesses. He is a master of the detail, and this is one of the ways in which he works so hard to achieve success.

Statistics aren't the be all and end all of football analysis. We can watch a game or a number of games, and come to similar conclusions on a lot less evidence. That's one of the marvels of the human brain: it's expert at taking shortcuts to reach effective conclusions. And yet it makes mistakes. If used properly, statistics can be a powerful evidentiary weapon to back up those conclusions, and can also pull some surprising facts out of the bag which we may not otherwise have spotted.

Oliver Anderson, a statistician by profession, but also a trained football coach and an ardent Liverpool fan, has been collecting statistics on our beloved Reds for years. Paul Tomkins, who many of us know well from RAWK and other Liverpool websites, is a football writer employed by the club after spending long years writing in-depth, insightful articles on the team. His previous two books have been well received by both Liverpudlians and the neutral, also receiving favourable reviews in the national press.

The combination of Paul’s careful, yet incisive style and Oliver's outstanding analysis (often using completely new techniques to bring out the numbers in a way which simplistic Opta and Actim stats and sparse "games played, goals scored" stats cannot) combine to give an irresistible account of the Reds last two seasons under Benitez.

Each area of the team, each individual, all the combinations of partnerships used, are analysed exhaustively to present a clear picture of where we were, where we are, how we've improved, and where we have not, over the last season under Rafa.

This is not a book which simply presents dry, cold numbers in tabular form, although those numbers are there to be pored over for the statto. The evidence is clearly analysed and presented in an accessible way which should allow even the most uninterested mathematicians amongst us to see what the trends reveal and what the future might hold. I have a fair amount of statistical training, and I was delighted to find that the evidence is presented in a clear, unbiased fashion, which allows the reader to follow the conclusions of the authors without feeling they are being led down the garden path.

This book is a godsend for those of us who like to understand the state of the team and the performance of our favourite, or least favourite players. All the evidence is undeniably given to back up our reasoning and not get lost in the hurly burly of emotive reasoning.

What is Gerrard's best position on the pitch? Did Alonso have a better or worse season last year? Who is our most productive goal-scorer? Can Finnan really be described as a complete fullback? What is our best midfield pairing? Just how many of Garcia's lost passes contributed to opposition goals? How do we compare to our rivals at the top of the table in every area of the pitch, and how do we need to improve to win the title?

These questions are debated regularly on Red forums or in the pub, but without the evidence to back our arguments up, the discussions often end up going round in circles, or descending into personal insults and shaken heads.

The Red Review is the kind of book you will read once and then dip into throughout the season as you look for the real facts behind your case for the defence. Or the attack. Or the midfield. It's a book which breaks the usual genre of football writing, where we are often subjected to lazy journalism and little better than well-written personal prejudice couched as expert knowledge. It should make a number of journalists and pundits (you know the suspects) sit and think about how expert their writing or TV journalism really is. But I doubt it will, given their entrenched bias.

Still, it’s a breath of fresh air in that nothing is stated as a fact without the evidence to back it up. When the evidence is thin, or could be skewed by unusual circumstances, the writers take pains to point it out and explain why the figures could be misleading. The book produces inescapable conclusions and will be a great resource to all those fanatical fans who aren't content simply to go with the herd of opinion.

Available exclusively from www.paultomkins.com, priced £11.99. The Red Review will not be released in shops and online stores until 1st November.

The Big One

2006-09-04T20:42:00.000+01:00

Derby day on Saturday, and already the adrenalin is kicking in. I don't have much time for those who count games against Manchester United and even Chelsea (who?) above these.

The argument often goes that Everton can't be our rivals because rivals would have to be competing with us on level, or near level terms. These people miss the point, wallowing in their semantics: in footballing terms, Everton are our enemies.

There's nothing like a derby. Every pass, every kick, every crunching tackle draws a reaction from the crowd. This is more than winning trophies, for those ninety minutes. For Merseyside Reds, this is bragging rights, not turning up for work on Monday, or turning up to wonder how you're going to gloat when the other side have all stayed at home.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not based on Merseyside, but these are still the ones I look out for first on the fixture list. The passion is addictive.

Everton look to be playing well coming into this one whilst we have perhaps struggled to click into our best form, but the form book is the first thing to go out of the window in the derby. Shortly followed by decorum, sanity, any sense of reality, and the cat if we lose.

On paper, we will be at a slight disadvantage, having more players involved in the international "break", but we have a strong squad and I trust Rafa will pick a team which he thinks can do the job in hand. He likes to pick the locals for these, so expect Warnock, Gerrard and Fowler to feature, as well as Carra if fit.

The key to winning these games will be to compete at 110% in every position on the pitch. If our players can get themselves up for this as much as the fans, our quality should tell. No chance of a clean sheet in these, and expect a flurry of yellow cards to come out, accompanied by at least one red.

I'll be thinking about nothing else but this game all week. The palms are already sweating in anticipation. Can't wait!

Pongolle and Mellor Away

2006-08-30T20:13:00.000+01:00

Florent Sinama Pongolle today signed a one year loan deal with newly promoted La Liga outfit Recreativo de Huelva. Neil Mellor, meanwhile, is bound for Deepdale to play for Preston North End, after the clubs agreed an undisclosed fee rumoured to be around the £500,000 to £1,000,000 mark.

Mellor will be remembered for his match-winning goals against Arsenal and Olympiakos, a poachers goal against Newcastle, a brace against Boro in the League Cup, and a semi-final goal against his home-town club, Sheffield United, in the same competition.

Pongolle's loan deal apparently does not have a buyout clause, and therefore he will likely return at the end of the season.

Rumours suggest that Jan Kromkamp is on his way to PSV Eindhoven. Benitez has reportedly had a £2M offer rebuffed by Blackburn Rovers for Lucas Neil, who is eligible to buy out his own contract for a sum in the region of £1.7M which should ensure the signing goes through whether Blackburn like it or not, with Neil refusing to sign a renewal and reportedly eager to join the Reds. A versatile defender who can cover across the back line, Neil would be an excellent addition to the squad from a footballing perspective, even if many fans are questioning his attitude.

Another rumour has Harry Kewell linked with Tottenham Hotspurs. A well-known poster on certain Liverpool sites who is a known acquaintance of the Spurs club doctor has stated that a Liverpool player definitely had a medical with them this morning, which he is rumoured to have failed. A process of elimination suggests this was Harry, with Spurs in the chase for a left-sided player and Benitez having strengthened that flank this season.

One Flukey Goal and Three Points

2006-08-29T11:32:00.000+01:00

As you can see from this image, the allegations that Reina was out of position and Zamora's insistence that he hit his goal on purpose on Saturday are somewhat stretched! In fact the replays clearly show Zamora looking into the box before trying to hit a cross, but the ball got away from him and he sliced it towards the near post. As for Reina, perhaps he could have got to the ball better, but he had set himself for a cross, and was perfectly positioned to stop the ball going to West Ham's free attacker on the left. When Zamora mishit his cross, Pepe had to change direction to get to the ball, which wriggled in off his fingers at full stretch.

You can see from this second image, which is the last frame on the TV footage before he hits the ball, that Zamora is positioned to cross the ball, not shoot. So the record will show that one of West Ham's three "shots" on target (the other two not being worth mention) was a mishit cross which resulted in a flukey goal. The Reds meanwhile had upwards of eight shots on target, but don't let that fool you into thinking we were on top of the game.

West Ham caused us a lot of problems, over-running our centre midfield at times and getting round us at the back too often for my liking when they attacked the space behind our fullbacks.

Harewood was unlucky with a chance not long after Zamora's fluke, and late on they should have punished us when Bowyer was desperately unlucky to put one wide after beating Reina. There was nothing unlucky about Man of the Match Daniel Agger's goal however: a super, curling, 35 yard effort (I'm guessing) which would have beaten the keeper even if it hadn't moved away from him in the air.

"Dagger" is increasingly proving himself to be the best defensive find of the last few years in any league, and makes the amount the Mancs overpaid for Vidic look rather risible. A cynical person might say our "interest" in Vidic was calculated to force them down the wrong path whilst we scooped up an absolute bargain. It's early in his Anfield career, but this lad looks like the genuine thing, and in a few years I personally believe he will be one of the classiest defenders in the world. If I'm over-enthusing then it's probably because we haven't had a defender this good on the ball since Jocky, although I'm not going to directly compare the two. Jocky would never have slotted one like that ...

Crouch also netted after a delicious move involving a sweet little backflick through a crowded box from Garcia. Peter still had some work to do, but rounded the keeper and stroked the ball in between Anton Ferdinand's legs. The goal was a bit of a redemption for both, as until that point they had probably been our worst players. However, even if all a player does in a game is to set up or score the winning goal, that will be enough for me. Crouch took his chance, when it came, with aplomb. The addition of Kuyt and Bellamy seems to have worked wonders on the big lad as he's now scoring goals like there's no tomorrow. Which may be partially correct, given the quality of Kuyt's debut.

In an earlier post I said that I had been advised that the newly crowned Dutch Footballer of the Year, Dirk Kuyt, was like Mark Hughes as a player. Well and good, but from what we saw on Saturday Sparky never had half so much pace as Dirk, and although forty minutes of football in a very open game is not a lot to base it on, I think this one is going to be a real star for us. A powerful forward who can finish with either foot, or his head, Kuyt can also drift wide for the ball and will be our first line of defence as he harries the opposition when they get possession.

With Gonzalez gaining momentum in the side, and rumours from RAWK suggesting that Momo was spotted out in Moods the other night strutting his funky stuff and telling people he would be fit for the Derby fixture, all I can say is bring on the Bitters ... it's just a shame that yet again the international break strikes when we're starting to hit our stride. They can't argue that it's the same situation for them, as they undoubtedly have fewer internationals involved. But I still think we'll be ready for Gollum and his legions of Orcs ...

p.s. Kudos to Murpheus from RAWK for two of the pictures I stole.

A Hundred Years of the Kop

2006-08-25T08:59:00.000+01:00

As Liverpool fans prepare to celebrate a hundred years of the Kop tomorrow against West Ham, here's a video of the last day of the standing Kop to get you in the mood.

Video courtesy of Youtube.

Champions League Group

2006-08-25T08:47:00.000+01:00

It's an auspicious group for Liverpool in some ways. The return of Vladi Smicer and our return to the Ataturk will add interest to two of the fixtures, and our first ever competitive game against Bordeaux will add another little piece of history to the pile.

PSV Eindhoven look the biggest threat for me, but a certain Dutch Liverpool striker has a great record against them for his old club, Feyenoord. I think we can win this group. It's certainly a lot less daunting than last years draw.

Our toughest fixture might be the away on 5th December. But if we have to go to the Ataturk requiring three goals then I can't think of many better places.

Liverpool Qualify for Champions League

2006-08-23T08:10:00.000+01:00

Liverpool avoided tripping on a potential banana skin last night, although we did manage to tread squarely on it and have a bit of an unsteady moment first.

The game would have been boring to anyone who doesn't follow one of the teams involved, but for Liverpool fans it was the nervous, teeth-gritting experience that CL qualification always becomes. As a Liverpool fan said to Maradona at the Ataturk stadium before kickoff: we will win the game, but we will be made to suffer.

The fixture list won't get any easier in the next few weeks and we will certainly miss Momo and Carra in the derby, but we remain unbeaten at this stage of the season and will be looking to improve from here on in now that the distracting initial European hurdle is over.

Daniel Agger is a bonus from these initial games, despite a mini-injury crisis. Handed a chance at the Charity Shield, the young Danish centre-back impressed against Drogba and Shevchenko, and with Carra's injury against Sheffield United he is likely to get a run in the side, where he is looking increasingly assured.

Pennant and Gonzales also continue to impress, and Aurelio looks like a talented addition to the squad. Bellamy only got a late runout, but has looked useful in previous appearances.

Overall it looks to have been a very satisfying transfer window, although business may not be completely concluded: according to AS in Spain, Benitez has had Lucas Lobos, a £10M rated attacking midfielder scouted, and the Independent has him mulling over a bid.

Personally I think it's more likely to be a long-term target for next summer however, as if we had an extra ten million floating around we would have likely used some of it it on Alves.

There is also a strong undercurrent of rumour that we will sign Lucas Neil from Blackburn on a free, if Benitez can offload Kromkamp. The only thing I can say about that is at least he would be breaking the opposition's legs not ours, if it's true.

Liverbird Upon My Chest

2006-08-21T23:29:00.000+01:00

Found on youtube ...

Rotation and An Away Draw

2006-08-20T12:50:00.000+01:00

Benitez's ideas on squad rotation are part of what sets him apart from other managers. He has an extreme view on the subject, which forms an important part of his strategic armoury.

Even whilst bringing unprecedented success, he was criticised for his squad rotation by the fans and the pundits at Valencia, and he has taken criticism from Liverpool fans on the same subject. For instance, Saturday's away draw against Sheffield United is being blamed by many Reds on Rafa's rotation of the squad, in terms of not fielding his strongest eleven.

Let's ignore for a moment that the strongest Liverpool sides have put in poor results against what proved to be weaker sides playing out of their skins against a top club at the start of the season. The argument goes that if Benitez had started with his strongest lineup yesterday, and continued to do so for every game, then we would win everything in sight.

Before 1965, this was a superb argument. The lack of any substitutes meant that there was less point in having decent players outside the first eleven, and the game was played at less of an athletic level so it was possible for players to recover more quickly from games.

The first subsitution made in the game was on August 21, 1965, when Keith Peacock of Charlton Athletic replaced injured goalkeeper Mike Rose after eleven minutes of their away fixture against Bolton Wanderers. The laws have since been relaxed to allow tactical substitutions during a match, and the number of substitutions and the numbers allowed on the bench have since been increased to the current three and five, respectively.

A tactical substition is one unforced by injury. A player can be brought on to change a game and get a goal: such as Liverpool's use of Davey "supersub" Fairclough during our glory days. Substitutions can also be used to effect tactical changes on the formation or system of play during a game. Adding width, changing the qualities of the forward line, bringing on a man marker or compressing the game are all common ploys.

It's a fourteen man game, not an eleven man game.

The use of substitutions I haven't discussed yet, and the point of this ramble, is substitutions for fitness reasons. During the course of a ninety minute match, players will tire. Doesn't matter how fit you are, doesn't matter how much training you've done or how many games you've played, at the end of a match you will be considerably more tired than at the start.

In fact, if you were to put a top team of eleven players who had just played ninety minutes immediately back on the pitch against a lower league team who had not played for a week, they would start at a considerable disadvantage.

Bringing on a set or two of fresh legs can change the game. Switching completely like for like forwards, or bringing on a fresh winger in the last twenty minutes can unravel a tired defence.

Even within the ninety minutes of a game there is a strong argument that, all other things being equal, rotating players through substitutions can win you matches. The eleven man team becomes the fourteen man team. If you have fourteen players of high quality and your opponent has eleven, then you have an advantage.

In the same way that a fourteen man match squad can be stronger than an eleven man match squad, a twenty two man squad can be stronger than a sixteen man squad over the course of a season. If all players are at the same level, are able to interchange seamlessly, and are happy to do so then this is inarguably true. If you field more players over the course of a season, then you will have a fitter squad at the sharp end when all the teams are more tired.

No-one can argue that the level of fitness and athleticism needed to survive at the top level of football has not increased dramatically in the last twenty years. Sport science, dietary regimes, improved facilities and better trainers have all contributed to this change.

If a footballer is running ten or more kilometres over ninety minutes, with changes in direction and a lot of short burst sprinting then this is going to be at least as physically challenging as any other sport.

If a player features in every game over the course of a season in a winning side, they are putting themselves through the mill sixty or more times with a break of less than a week in between matches. This is not going to be enough of a recovery period in between matches to ensure a consistent level of performance, so fitness levels are going to deteriorate over the course of a season. This is inarguable and can be seen on the pitch towards the end of every season.

The idea of squad rotation was hardly invented by Benitez. In it's purest form, the idea is to even out the appearances of your entire squad over the course of a season, thus gaining a fitness advantage. The other advantage is that your players will accrue experience of playing in different combinations and fringe squad members will obtain match practise, so that when changes are forced through injuries and suspension it's not such a big shock to the team.

Of course, it's nowhere near so simple as just having two teams and swapping them round every other game. Squad rotation does not imply wholesale change for the sake of it. If you change too many players then your team may lose its coherence.

It's also true to say that different positions on the pitch require more or less energy on average, so that goalkeepers use the least energy during the course of a game and wingers the most, with centre-backs, full-backs, centre-midfielders and strikers in between the two in roughly that order. Obviously the higher the expenditure of energy for a position on the pitch, the more rotation in that position is advantageous.

There is a certain amount of background rotation which will take place anyway, due to injuries, suspensions and lack of fitness. Using your subs to full advantage will also afford you a certain amount of rotation. On top of this, it's normal to keep a core squad playing together and only change a few players at a time. The idea is to average out appearances over a season, using natural wastage where possible, and making other changes where you feel you can get away with it. You can see this in operation to one degree or another in any football club in the world.

Where Benitez differs from the herd is that he embraces the idea of rotation and takes it to its extreme. He relies on more wholesale rotation as a strategy, and is not afraid to make twice the number of changes to his squad between games that most managers would. This marries well with his philosophy of tactical fluidity, where the team, formation and tactics are picked with the opposition in mind.

A Benitez squad is one without many superstars but where all the different players and combinations offer different possibilities. By concentrating on the detail and preparing to a nearly unrivalled degree, he hopes that his tactical ideas will be implemented successfully by whichever team he chooses for the occasion.

The strength of the squad Rafa inherited at Liverpool however, was not strong enough for him to fully implement his ideas in his first two seasons.

He used rotation to good effect with an injury-struck squad in his first season, winning the Champions League after sacrificing fourth place by fielding understrength teams in certain premier league matches. Glancing at the team sheet for games such as Crystal Palace away will readily confirm this.

He also started last season using a lot more wholesale rotation than previously at Liverpool, but uncomfortable with the results and the fact that his ideas were still not imposing themselves on our play, he started keeping a large core squad of players together after an indifferent start to send us on an unbeaten run before christmas. Changes were made in this period, but much less so than at the start of the season or for his Valencia team.

This season sees the first time that Rafa has a "complete" squad, in that he has two strong choices in every position. The versatility of the squad also makes for a lot of extra cover, as Benitez favours players who can play in more than one position.

It's clear that with his determination to rotate his players, and with Haifa in mind tomorrow night, Rafa did not field his strongest line-up on Saturday at Bramall Lane. Whilst it's not guaranteed that our best available eleven could have improved on the result, there will still be some blame attached for the performance to this selection decision. To counter, Rafa might say that his substitution plans were affected by two early injuries, but if the initial selection were stronger perhaps we could have won in any case.

My feeling though is to judge the strategy at the end of the season, not at the end of the first game. This game may seem like points dropped at this stage, but it's a thirty eight game campaign and the strategy is based on the long term not the short term.

In Rafa's first league campaign at Valencia, he rotated the team wholeheartedly and received immense criticism from the fans, many of whom were calling for his head by christmas. His team then famously went on an unbeaten run in the second half of the season and took the title by seven points.

The Beginning is Nigh

2006-08-18T16:45:00.000+01:00

Twenty-odd hours until it all kicks off again at the delightful Bramall Lane.

It should be an interesting match. They'll be trying to make themselves a difficult team to beat and will treat this one like a cup final. I hope we'll play a strongish team whilst keeping something in our locker for Tuesday, which is also an important game.

Perhaps go for a more attacking lineup against the Blades, who despite their ranting managers fetish for strikers are likely to play five in midfield, sit back and look for the break.

It's always been difficult to second-guess Rafa's lineups, and that's part of the excitement for the coming season as he now has a squad which is going to make predicting his selection nigh impossible.

Everyone has a favourite eleven from the squad though.

Mine for tomorrow would be something like:

            Reina
   Finnan Carra Agger Riise
Pennant Gerrard Alonso Gonzales
         Bellamy Crouch

What's in a Name

2006-08-18T09:19:00.000+01:00

He looks like Iain Dowie in a blond wig, but the lad can score goals.

Someone said the other day that he's more like Mark Hughes as a player than anyone else. Mark Hughes was a Manc so it's hard to be objective, but I can see their point. Hard-working, tough and energetic, Hughes had an eye for a pass as well as a goal. Kuyt, or Kuijt, looks strong in the air as well, attacking the ball with his whole body.

Whilst we're on the subject, although this has possibly been the most protracted transfer ever, does anybody actually know this lads name yet?

I've seen it written Kuijt or Kuyt, and heard it pronounced about eight different ways. Cruyff was often spelt Cruijff seemingly correctly, so perhaps it's some wierd Dutch vowel that can be written different ways in English and we'll never clear that one up.

The pronunciation however, is "KOWT". I'd love it to be "KITE". That would make all sorts of songs and puns available. But I've been listening to Dutch radio broadcasts about the transfer online, and the closest I can get is"KOWT".

As long as the lad continues doing what he's been doing at Feyenoord though, I honestly don't give a showt.

Charity Shield and Stuff

2006-08-17T20:05:00.000+01:00

I should have written a Charity Shield entry on here before now ideally, and one on last nights Liverpool XI game at Sincil Bank, but I've just been basking in the glory for three or four days instead.

Went into Sundays game with this horrible feeling deep inside that we would lose, not for any explicable reason but just one of them random ones that usually turn out to be right. Saw who we lined up with, and who they lined up with, and thought "oh well then, we will definitely get mashed here today". Not that it's an important game by any means, but I hate it when we lose.

It all got better from then on - even when Shevchenko equalised I knew we would win the game.

I've now started to feel massively optimistic about the season. It's a strange one, since I haven't felt optimistic about winning the league for a good few years now, and I've never in my life felt this excited about it because when I was growing up there was always more of an expectation that we would win the league regularly.

So I've just been wandering randomly about the place since Sunday with a massive grin on my face, without really communicating with anyone in any way. Like I said, just basking in the glory.

I expect I'll recover soon enough.

Liverpool 2- 1 Maccabi Haifa

2006-08-10T11:11:00.000+01:00

Yesterday Liverpool snatched a slim advantage over Maccabi Haifa late in the first leg, on a night where two of our players reached European milestones.

Jamie Carragher rose to joint fourth highest European appearances in a Liverpool shirt, on the occasion of his 79th European game. If we reach the semi-finals of the competition, he could become the Liverpool player with most European appearances of all time.

Sami Hyypia is not far behind Jamie with 77 appearances, and last night became only the second Red ever to play 50 or more games in the European Cup itself.

Apart from those milestones, Steven Gerrard has notched up 67 European appearances, including 42 in the European Cup, and John Arne Riise has played 56 European games in a red shirt, including 47 European Cup games.

Considering our European experience within this squad is at such a high level, it's not such a big surprise as many claim that we were able to win it two seasons ago, and it shouldn't be a big surprise if we have a bloody good go again this season.

Beginning the qualifying leg last night, it was clear that the players are still not at 100% although it was a great improvement from the football on show in the friendly campaign and showed some positive signs for when we're fit and on form, which must happen in the next few matches.

The defence was a bit rusty: with Sami as short of pace as he always is at this stage of the season, we needed to be tight, and Riise's positional errors left us exposed at times. Haifa broke our offside trap with ease for their opening goal, using the space in between Riise and Sami to set off Bocolli, who dummied Reina to slide it into the net.

Liverpool looked out of shape in the midfield also, with Zenden struggling on the left, Alonso out of sorts and Gerrard pushed too far forward. Sissoko gave a man of the match performance however, bossing the middle of the pitch, and Pennant showed what he's about on the right, having a varied and skillful debut with some flashes of what's hopefully to come, particularly around the hour mark.

The equaliser came from Craig Bellamy, who held Steven Gerrard off to pounce on the rebound from Sissoko's saved shot and slot it into the roof of the net from an angle. Liverpool were finding it difficult to release Bellamy however, with little creativity on the left or through the centre, and Bellamy not being ideally suited for getting on the end of Pennant's crossing.

The second half saw Garcia come on to play off Crouch up front, with Zenden and Bellamy being sacrificed and Gerrard moving out to the left. This gave us a more direct, wide style, and we started to threaten their goal more, drawing a couple of saves and missing several opportunities to go ahead. Garcia also had a reasonable penalty shout turned down.

Although Liverpool saw 66% of possession in this game however, and had seven shots on target, we looked short of ideas to break the opposition down with our link man and wide men failing to get into the box enough to support the lone striker.

On 84 minutes, Benitez threw the dice and brought Gonzales on for Gerrard on the left. Two minutes later they came up sixes, as Gonzales initially stumbled over a ball which found him on the left of the box in space, from Alonso, but then recovered to scoop it right-footed over the keeper from close range.

A reasonable job done for the first half then, but not game over. They still have to beat us in the away leg however, and I fancy Liverpool to get at least one away goal when we're up to full fitness.

FSV Mainz 5 - 0 Liverpool

2006-08-05T00:11:00.000+01:00

I know my first post on here was about friendlies being meaningless, but the team didn't need to take me so seriously!

Truthfully though, all the signs are that the squad have been training very hard and heavy legs got the better of us as much as the opposition (who are weeks ahead of us in their fitness schedule), combined with a flurry of substitutions in the second half.

I'm off away for the weekend so I'm not going to think about footie until Monday, then I'll be looking forward to Wednesdays CL qualifying game against Maccabi Haifa which will be our first real test of the season.

Before I go though, I'll just mention the last time we lost 5-0, which was in a pre-season friendly in '95 against Ajax in Moenchengladbach.

Our best league result that season was 6-0, and our worst defeat was 2-1, with Robbie Fowler scoring 28 goals. I wouldn't mind a repeat of those stats, although we'll hopefully finish better than the third place we managed that season.

Classic Goals

2006-08-04T00:35:00.000+01:00

This is surely exactly what the internet was created for.

Courtesy of a link on the RAWK blog, and a subsequent search of YouTube, here are all seven goals from Liverpool's thumping of Tottenham Hotspur in September 1978:

* Dalglish: 10;
* Dalglish: 21;
* Kennedy: 30;
* Johnson: 48;
* Johnson: 57;
* Neal: 64 (pen);
* McDermott: 75.

Terry Mac's goal in particular is an all-time great. I won't spoil it by describing it - just click on it and watch. You can also read a match report at bobpaisley.com.

Expectations for the Season

2006-08-03T16:24:00.000+01:00

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!

Friendlies

2006-08-03T08:59:00.000+01:00

There was a time when friendlies weren't on TV, and the only way you could find out what had happened or how the team was warming up for pre-season was to get your arse out of the house and on the bus, or talk to one of the lads who had gone to watch.

Not any more. "You're not going to challenge us for the premier league this season: you can't even beat second class German or Swiss teams", said a Chelsea fan I know. I just shook my head, and slipped another tenner on us at 9.5/1 on Betfair.

So far our pre-season friendlies would have us believe that our defence is littered with mistakes, (except Paletta, who is apparently going to take Hyypia's starting role), Gonzales won't settle in the premier league, Jack Hobbs looks calm and confident on the ball, no he's not, he's the worst defender in history, oh ok then, he looks ok again now, Pepe Reina may feature in midfield this season, we've forgotten how to pass the ball, and Craig Lindfield will cause Rafa to stop looking for that elusive fourth striker.

Let's have a reality check. These games were never an indicator of the season to come, as evinced by the number we've lost or drawn in title-winning seasons of the past. The coaches are working off the players holiday diets, the youth team get a runout as the squad straggles it's way back at various stages, depending on how busy their international schedules were this summer, the new players are bedding in, and the manager is relaxed and clearly more interested in having a laugh than working his tactical magic.

If we must watch these games on the TV, let's enjoy them for what they are: a chance to see a glimpse of our new players and a chance for the team to get used to playing against different opponents rather than playing against each other in a predictable training match.

If we make all our mistakes in pre-season, I'll be more than happy. And so might be my Betfair account, come the end of the season.

About This Site

2006-08-03T08:00:00.000+01:00

This is a place where I can write stuff about Liverpool Football Club and you can read it and tell me what rubbish I talk.

I reserve the right to delete comments which contain spam or bigotry though. Or even if I'm just in a really bad mood.

If you want to cut and paste anything I've written here and put it on another website you can do so as long as you attribute it with a link back to the original article here and as long as you don't make any money out of using my writing.

If you need to contact me in private, you can reach me by email

Z I G A C K E R L Y AT G M A I L DOT C O M

Or via RAWK.

If you want me to link to your Liverpool website, add a comment to this page. I won't promise to add you to the links section in the sidebar, but at least you'll have a link on this page.