Season Report
This has been a long and draining season with highs like the Carling Cup final and lows like the FA Cup final.
It's hard to look at this season as anything other than an utter disaster but I'll try and find some positives.
The season started full of hope with us splashing the cash, many had misgivings right from the get go, instead of us going for more exotic signings from further afield we signed Downing, Henderson, Adam, Bellamy and Enrique all from this league with only Doni (a reserve keeper) and Coates (a young defender) being signed from aboard.
lots of posters were apoplectic with rage having seen vast sums of money wasted on players they saw as no more than average and unlikely to take us to the next level. Along with the players signed there was an exodus of players leaving as the fringe players were released en mass, Merieles leaving was a kick in the teeth but even in the early weeks of the season it was obvious he wasn't going to get a lot of playing time.
The season opened with a home game vs Sunderland and that game was to encompass Liverpool's season in microcosm.
We started the game strongly and ran out of legs late in the game and suffered as a result just as we would start the season well and then 'run out of legs' in the new year. We missed a penalty just as we would miss several penalties over the course of the seaosn. We hit the bar just as we would hit the bar again and again throught the year. Downing came close but it didn't happen for him as would be the case for the entire season.
I'm not going to review every game as that would take far to long, instead I think I will focus on the games on a whole, What I think we did right and where I personally would have made changes.
The Agger/Skrtel partnership came into effect against West Brom away (it has to be mentioned that it came about through an injury to Carra, Carra was never dropped) and right from the get go it was fantastic, strong, powerful, able to build from the back, a clean sheet to make it's debut.
Our defense is on the the few positives of this season. We need to keep the back line fit but unfortunately Agger, Johnson and Kelly are injury prone and Enrique suffered an alarming dip in form (I suspect through fatigue more than anything else). Where does that leave Carra next season? With europe next seaon Carra and Coates should get lots of games.
We missed a trick by not playing Coates in Agger's absence as we had nothing to lose with the CL places already far out of reatch. Flanno has suffered a torrid time this season with mistakes against Sunderlan on the first game of the season and an absolute shocker vs Blackburn but hopefully with time on his side he'll improve. I'd sooner we gave him (Flannotime to sort himself out than dip into the transfer market for a squad player when that money could be use in midfield and attack.
The area that had me pulling my hair out most of all was midfield. We took one step forwards with Lucas and then 3 steps back ('cause opposites attract, forget the Paula Abdul reference). Unlike many on this forum, I've never had a problem with Lucas, for me (like Henderson) he does the simple things well. He picks up the ball and then uses simplest and obvious option, it's not barnstroming or exotic but we keep the ball and if we have the ball the opposition can hurt us with it. So I was never unhappy with Lucas (although I did want him to show more adventure a home) but Lucas took my (I'll call it out, apathy) and turned it into love, when he took his game to another level and simply dominated opposition midfields the apex being the 3 game masterclass against Chelsea, City and Chelsea again in the Carling Cup. I absolutely knew the Lucas injury would hurt the team because of the inexerience of Spearing and Henderson and the indiscipline of Gerrard and Adam. I'll call it out now, Lucas is the only holding midfielder worth a shit in our entire squad and that is criminal when you consider we play a 38 game season.
With lucas' injury the creative players like Adam had a dip, more than likely because their defensive workload had increased. The absence of lucas cannot explain our utter inability to finish of teams at home. In many games we utterly dominated the opposition only for their keeper to earn a man of the match performance. Teams are coming to anfield for a point and we seem utterly incapable of breaking them down. What is the reason for this? Poor finishing? Not enough clear cut chances created? Not enough courage to gamble by commiting more bodies to the attack? This is something we have to address and quickly if we are to move up the table. Personally speaking I think it's our approach to games, we are so frightened of the counter attack we refuse to commit as many bodies to the attack as we should, so we are good enough to control game (because the opposition are more then happy to let us have the ball) but the closer we get to the opposition goal the more our play becomes stretched with us looking to individual brilliance rather than having a cluster of playes within touching distance of each other to play quick give and goes which beats offside traps and takes defenders out of the equation. It's definately a problem we have to solve quickly because 6 games won at home all season in the league simply isn't good enough, not if you want to finish top 4.
Part 2 coming
This has been a long and draining season with highs like the Carling Cup final and lows like the FA Cup final.
It's hard to look at this season as anything other than an utter disaster but I'll try and find some positives.
The season started full of hope with us splashing the cash, many had misgivings right from the get go, instead of us going for more exotic signings from further afield we signed Downing, Henderson, Adam, Bellamy and Enrique all from this league with only Doni (a reserve keeper) and Coates (a young defender) being signed from aboard.
lots of posters were apoplectic with rage having seen vast sums of money wasted on players they saw as no more than average and unlikely to take us to the next level. Along with the players signed there was an exodus of players leaving as the fringe players were released en mass, Merieles leaving was a kick in the teeth but even in the early weeks of the season it was obvious he wasn't going to get a lot of playing time.
The season opened with a home game vs Sunderland and that game was to encompass Liverpool's season in microcosm.
We started the game strongly and ran out of legs late in the game and suffered as a result just as we would start the season well and then 'run out of legs' in the new year. We missed a penalty just as we would miss several penalties over the course of the seaosn. We hit the bar just as we would hit the bar again and again throught the year. Downing came close but it didn't happen for him as would be the case for the entire season.
I'm not going to review every game as that would take far to long, instead I think I will focus on the games on a whole, What I think we did right and where I personally would have made changes.
The Agger/Skrtel partnership came into effect against West Brom away (it has to be mentioned that it came about through an injury to Carra, Carra was never dropped) and right from the get go it was fantastic, strong, powerful, able to build from the back, a clean sheet to make it's debut.
Our defense is on the the few positives of this season. We need to keep the back line fit but unfortunately Agger, Johnson and Kelly are injury prone and Enrique suffered an alarming dip in form (I suspect through fatigue more than anything else). Where does that leave Carra next season? With europe next seaon Carra and Coates should get lots of games.
We missed a trick by not playing Coates in Agger's absence as we had nothing to lose with the CL places already far out of reatch. Flanno has suffered a torrid time this season with mistakes against Sunderlan on the first game of the season and an absolute shocker vs Blackburn but hopefully with time on his side he'll improve. I'd sooner we gave him (Flannotime to sort himself out than dip into the transfer market for a squad player when that money could be use in midfield and attack.
The area that had me pulling my hair out most of all was midfield. We took one step forwards with Lucas and then 3 steps back ('cause opposites attract, forget the Paula Abdul reference). Unlike many on this forum, I've never had a problem with Lucas, for me (like Henderson) he does the simple things well. He picks up the ball and then uses simplest and obvious option, it's not barnstroming or exotic but we keep the ball and if we have the ball the opposition can hurt us with it. So I was never unhappy with Lucas (although I did want him to show more adventure a home) but Lucas took my (I'll call it out, apathy) and turned it into love, when he took his game to another level and simply dominated opposition midfields the apex being the 3 game masterclass against Chelsea, City and Chelsea again in the Carling Cup. I absolutely knew the Lucas injury would hurt the team because of the inexerience of Spearing and Henderson and the indiscipline of Gerrard and Adam. I'll call it out now, Lucas is the only holding midfielder worth a shit in our entire squad and that is criminal when you consider we play a 38 game season.
With lucas' injury the creative players like Adam had a dip, more than likely because their defensive workload had increased. The absence of lucas cannot explain our utter inability to finish of teams at home. In many games we utterly dominated the opposition only for their keeper to earn a man of the match performance. Teams are coming to anfield for a point and we seem utterly incapable of breaking them down. What is the reason for this? Poor finishing? Not enough clear cut chances created? Not enough courage to gamble by commiting more bodies to the attack? This is something we have to address and quickly if we are to move up the table. Personally speaking I think it's our approach to games, we are so frightened of the counter attack we refuse to commit as many bodies to the attack as we should, so we are good enough to control game (because the opposition are more then happy to let us have the ball) but the closer we get to the opposition goal the more our play becomes stretched with us looking to individual brilliance rather than having a cluster of playes within touching distance of each other to play quick give and goes which beats offside traps and takes defenders out of the equation. It's definately a problem we have to solve quickly because 6 games won at home all season in the league simply isn't good enough, not if you want to finish top 4.
Part 2 coming
