Emmo’s Blog

Qualification from the group stages of the Champions League is going to be hard. We need 3 wins and a favour from someone. It don’t look good. Lose on Sunday and the season as far as the Premier League is over. To be 10 points behind Man Utd in October is unthinkable. But after getting so close last season what has gone wrong at Anfield?

Some say the sale of Xabi Alonso has caused the red machine to derail. But I don’t buy that.
While yes it’s obvious we miss Alonso he wouldn’t have stopped the 11 goals conceded from set pieces so far this season.
The reason why we are doing so badly is that we have no quality in depth when we talk about our squad.

The first 11 is a good team and with the inclusion of Aquilani when fit it will be a great first 11 but after that we are struggling. While the other 3 from the big 4 can call on players whose names might not set the world alight they can do a job. Get them through the games that they are needed for. Liverpool Football Club don’t have that.

It was obvious that as soon as Gerrard and Torres either got injured, suspended or had a loss of form then we would struggle. Who from the squad can replace them? When I say replace I mean come in a do a job. No one can replace these 2 players as they are probably the best in the world in those positions.

For example if Utd lost Rooney, Scholes and Vidic then they could bring in Owen, Fletcher and Brown. All good solid pros who can step up to the plate. Who can we bring in for our best players?  Babel, Voronin and Ngog. It’s not good is it? When I look at our bench there is no one who can take the game by the scruff of the neck if brought on. The quality just isn’t there.

From the moment pre-season began it was plain to see that our squad wasn’t good enough. Especially up front. Think of all the forwards we have let go over the years. Bellamy, Crouch & Keane to name three. How many of them would you have at the club now? All of them is the answer. It was a massive gamble leaving Torres as our only top class forward. One severe injury and we would be in big trouble.

We know that Rafa wanted Voronin out and was hoping to sell him but after Hertha Berlin (where he was on loan last season scoring 14 goals) baulked at the £5m asking price no one else came in for him. There was talk of Hull making a bid but even they weren’t that desperate. So we are stuck with him.

David Ngog is 19 and just not ready for first team action. He looks better every time he plays but he couldn’t play 20 games on the bounce if Torres was badly injured. He just doesn’t have the body and stamina yet to deal with the physical side of Premier League football.

While no transfer can be a guaranteed success Rafa has signed a fair few poor players. For every Riena, Agger, Alonso, Macscherano and Torres there has been an Istandje, Dossena, Babel, Reira and Morrientes.

We have wasted a lot of money but people say that this is Rafas squad and these are the players he wanted but are they? You rarely get world class players for under £15m and most of the squad cost less than that. Rafa wanted Silva and Villa but was told there was no money despite the owners telling us that they hadn’t taken the £32m from the sale of Alonso to pay off debts. So where did £32m go? Not on Aquilani and Johnson who despite what the press told you cost roughly £13m and not £40m.

Has Rafa lost the fans? Not yet but I think a few crazy decisions like subbing Benayoun for Voronin in Tuesdays defeat against Lyon won’t help. Benayoun has been LFCs best player this season and on Tuesday night so this decision was total madness.

So its Manchester United up next and as tough as this game might be I think there’s no better team to try and change your luck against. We beat Utd twice last season and at Anfield we done it without Torres and Gerrard. I have a feeling this will be the game that could turn things around for us. But what if we lose? Could it be Rafas last game in charge?
I doubt it. The Americans say that his job is safe and the main reason for that is he signed a new 5 year deal only a few months ago. It would cost nearly the owners £15m to sack him and another £15m+ to get a replacement better than him.

But what if Rafa was sacked. Many LFC want legend Kenny Dalglish back in charge. I don’t agree with this. King Kenny has been out of the game for over 10 years and football has changed massively. He may be a temporary option while we wait for the new man to arrive. If Rafa was to be sacked there’s only 1 man that can replace him. Jose Mourinho.
Love him or hate him Mourinho would make us great again. He done it with Porto, Chelsea and now Inter Milan so I would have no worries if he took the job should it become available.

I personally feel that Benitez should step aside. He has been at the club for 5 years and we have won the CL, FA Cup & Super Cup under his management. We have also been to another CL final and Carling Cup final. Last season we finished 2nd in the league but this season we have gone backwards. We are meant to build on what we had last season but have somehow not done that.

As I said earlier it’s not all down to the selling of Alonso but signing his replacement Aquilani when injured and out for nearly 4 months was crazy no matter how good he will be. We should have signed someone on a 6 month loan deal to void the gap left by Alonso until Aquilani’s rehabilitation was finished. I also don’t like it when Lucas and Mascherano are in the same team and we have forgot the basics of defending. We lack that something that title teams have. Last season we took 14 points out of 18 points against the big four. That won’t happen again.

This season we are beating the teams who got draws against us but we also need to beat the big teams. Last season City wasn’t the team they are now and neither were Spurs. All of them have got stronger while we have become weaker with our lack of depth. I also think that some of the senior players have lost faith in Rafa and its starting to show on the pitch. In my opinion it’s time for a change. But I like Rafa and hope he can turn it around.

A win against Utd won’t solve all our problems but will certainly give us confidence going forward. plus Aquilani is set to make his debut next week against Arsenal in the Carling Cup so things might be looking brighter next weekend. A week is a long time in football….

Coming soon.
Pro Evolution Soccer 10 review
2009s albums of the year

Liverpool lost their 3rd league game of the season with a woeful display against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

In a surprisingly open game of football which is rare when these two teams meet Liverpool struggled to create anything of note.

Chelsea’s stand in keeper Hilario had one save to make in 90 minutes and that summed up Liverpool’s performance. It’s the same old story for the reds and that’s if Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres don’t play well then they have no one else who can help out.

This has to be the most average squad for years considering the amount of money spent/wasted by Benitez in assembling it.

For a team as big as Liverpool to only have one proven striker is criminal. Benitez cant think to highly of Voronin because when they were 1-0 down with 10 minutes to play who did he summon from the bench? Aurelio a left back.

Many LFC fans also were left scratching their heads when the player of the season so far Benyaoun was left on the bench for the hopeless Riera. When he came on Benyaoun showed Benitez how wrong it was to drop him as the Israeli did more in 20 minutes than anyone who played the 90 for the reds.

Without any teams looking anywhere near their best both failed to create any real chances. Then in the second half Mascherano lost the ball Chelsea broke and scored through Anelka – the player Gerrard Houllier preferred El Hadj Diouff too in 2002

Then with time running out Drogba whose broken leg from a tackle 5 minutes previous was suddenly healed and he  powered past Carragher and Aurelio to cut the ball back for Malouda to tap in from close range.

Torres missed and golden chance from six yards and then Benyaoun missed an even better chance from 4 yards with the keeper on the floor.

But it didn’t matter. Chelsea weren’t brilliant but they didn’t need to be to beat a Liverpool team that has been poor all season. Yes they have beat Hull, Bolton, West Ham, Stoke and Burnley but most of the big teams in the league will also do that. Liverpool have faced 3 good teams in Spurs, Villa and Chelsea and lost.

They need to buck their ideas up as a tricky visit to Sunderland and a game against Man Utd await them before the months out.

After the 6-1 thrashing of Hull on Saturday 3 points against an average Fiorentina in the CL looked a dead cert for Liverpool last night.

How wrong can everyone be? Liverpool were dreadful and got what they deserved from the game. Nothing.

They better forget this game quick as we visit Stamford Bridge on Sunday when we play Chelsea.
I can’t see another performance as bad as last night’s coming for a few years so I expect Liverpool to be a completely different side on Sunday.

Terry can’t handle Torres (not many can) and I would hope that El Nino gives him the round around just like every time he has faced the England Skipper. Don’t laugh. It’s true. Terry is England’s skipper. I’m not kidding honestly.

I really hope that Daniel Agger makes his comeback soon as it’s obvious that Carragher and Skrtl are playing awful at the moment. In fact the whole back four are pretty poor at the moment so Agger, our best defender, is really needed now.

Benitez has confirmed that Aquilani won’t be fit for 3 weeks so he will missing. Mascherano is expected to shake off a slight hamstring twang in time for Sunday.

Chelsea V Liverpool Sky Sports 1 HD K/O 4pm.

A Fernando Torres double helped Liverpool to a hard fought 2-3 win against West Ham on Saturday.

The reds could have been a goal behind after 90 seconds when Carragher was caught in possession on the edge of the box by Hines whose shot hit the post .

Liverpool took the lead halfway through the first half when Torres picked up the ball on the left hand side. He turned his marker inside out before poking the ball high into the net from a tight angle.

A few minutes later the hammers were level when Carragher who was having a nightmare was judged to have used a bit too much force on the livewire Hines and the ref pointed to the spot. Debutant Diamanti scored the resulting spot kick with the help of both feet and the teams were level. The penalty should have been retaken.

It didn’t seem to matter when Dirk Kuyt then restored Liverpool’s lead when he poked home a goal bound Steven Gerrard header. But the lead was again given away cheaply when sloppy marking from a corner lead to Carlton Cole heading home unchallenged to make it 2-2 and the teams were level at the break.

The second half started with Liverpool coming out of the traps a bit quicker than their hosts. The game seemed to be heading for a draw with no real chances being created. Benitez then brought on Babel for Kuyt and it was he who put in a perfect cross for Torres to out jump marker and power home a header that would seal the points.

Torres now has 5 goals in 5 Premiership games. It was also his 5th goal against the Hammers in 4 games.

The win saw Liverpool climb to 3rd in the table and the reds now have 4 wins on the bounce.

Next up sees a much changed Liverpool travel to Leeds United for the 3rd round Carling Cup tie. This game is live on Sky Sports 2 HD and K/O is 8pm.

Liverpool have a tricky Premier League fixture tomorrow afternoon at Upton Park.

Last season this match saw Liverpool cruise to a 3-0 victory with the game effectively over after 90 seconds when Gerrard powered through to slot home. When Liverpool score first they rarely lose. A Gerrard penalty and Ryan Babel header sealed the points that day.

Liverpool still only have 1 main injury and that’s to Italian Aquilani who is still yet to make an appearance after his summer move from AS Roma. The squad has been boosted over the last week with the return of Aurelio and Mascherano who made cameo appearances in the midweek victory over Debrecen.

The reds will have to put on a better performance than Wednesday if they want all 3 points tomorrow. The Merseysiders go into this game on the back of 3 wins on the bounce and 2 clean sheets in the last 2 games.

The trouble is with West Ham is consistency. They can be good one week and poor the next. The fans just don’t know what West Ham will turn up each week..

But Upton Park isn’t an easy place to go and I expect West Ham to give a good performance in front of their home fans.
Carlton Cole is looking a different player under manager Zola and he should keep Skrtl and Carragher busy.

That said I think Liverpool will have too much for the east Londoners and will claim all 3 points to carry on their good form of late.

My prediction: West Ham 0-2 Liverpool (live on ESPN K/O 5.25pm)

Anyone think that the Champions League needs a revamp?

The group stages are nothing short of a boring farce and fans are now letting the empty seats do the talking.
Liverpool and Chelsea’s games this week were well short of selling out. The “official” attendance of Liverpool’s game with Debrecen was just over 41000 but judging by what I saw on the TV that figure was way too high.

For Champions League games the home team has to keep empty the first two rows of seats all the way around the stadium. They then have to have a few rows of seats separating the home and away fans. I also noticed last night at Anfield that the side of the stadium that you see due to camera placing was nearly a quarter empty. The Kop also had a few spaces.

The reason for this? Liverpool were playing Debrecen.
Who?
Exactly.

For those that don’t know they are the Hungarian Champions. But they are a poor opposition for a top European side.

Liverpool laboured to a 1-0 win. The crown couldn’t be bothered to cheer (or turn up) and the team couldn’t be bothered to break sweat. This resulted in a dull game with no atmosphere. This happened not just at Anfield but in most of the Champions League games played this week.

The fact is that fans don’t want to shell out hard earned money to watch teams like Debrecen. There is a common myth that Anfield rocks on a European night. It does but only from the knockout stages. Teams in the group stages have chance after chance to still get through so there is no excitement. What’s a draw or defeat matter when there’s another 5 games to come?

Last season Liverpool lost 2 and drew 1 of their first 3 games. They still got through by winning the final 3 games. There is no excitement in the group stages until maybe the final game where a team has to win to go through. It’s all about getting to the last 16 where the real football starts as one error and you could be out.

So why don’t UEFA turn the Champions League back into a knock out competition like the old days? The answer of course is money. But eventually these group stage games will see stadiums become even more emptier than they are now. There are 32 teams in the competition. Why not just chuck all the names in the hat and have an exciting 2 legged match?

Imagine if Barcelona drew Real Madrid? Surly that’s better than Barcelona and someone like Debrecen (which could still happen of course). It would be down to the luck of the draw. But again UEFA bigwigs won’t do this. They seed teams so that the big guns miss each other. UEFA would hate their showcase final to be AZ v Olympiakos for example. By seeding teams it guarantees at least 1 of the top 10 teams in Europe will be in the final.

Last Night Inter Milan put 11 men behind the ball at home so they didn’t lose. Why? Because they have another 5 games in which to qualify. They wouldn’t have done that if it was a two legged affair. The biggest Champions League attendance of the week 83000 left the stadium bored out of their brains as they watched what was in reality a training match of attack versus defence.

Eventually the Champions League will turn into the European Super League and will be played in midweek running alongside each countries own league. Top sides from Europe’s strongest teams will play in a league that will have a better standard of games each week and most importantly generate millions from TV rights and sponsorship.

People will want to watch AC Milan versus Valencia or Arsenal versus Real Madrid as its far more exciting than the Group D match which took place this week of Altetico Madrid and Apoel Nicosia. But for now we have to put up with 5 more rounds of dull football.

Wake me up in March when it gets exciting.

Dirk Kuyt scored the only goal on the stroke of half time to give Liverpool 3 points in the Champions League group stages.
The game was dire and Liverpool sensed the crowds less than enthusiastic approach to this game against a bunch of unknowns. Still 3 points is what its all about at this stage.

Liverpool travel to West Ham on Saturday in a game that will be shown on ESPN

Liverpool blitzed Burnley 4-0 in Saturdays Premiership game at Anfield. There were no international hangovers despite the loss of Mascherano to a pelvic injury as the Reds cruised to victory.

Liverpool took the lead after 30 minutes when a nice through ball from Johnson was picked up by Benayoun who turned Alexander inside out before placing the ball in the bottom corner.

The Reds went two up just before the break when from a Burnley corner a swift move involving Torres, Insua and Benayoun ended up with Kuyt putting the ball in the net after the keeper had spilled a Benayoun shot.

Just after the break Liverpool wrapped up all three points when another nice move ended with Torres feeding Gerrard who skipped a challenge before cutting the ball back for Benayoun to tap into an empty net from two yards.

Benayoun was then denied a hat-trick after Gerrard’s free kick was dropped by the keeper and was tapped home by the Israeli international. TV replays showed he was well onside.

But Benayoun wasn’t to be denied the match ball and he coolly slotted the ball home from 6 yards a few minutes later after a lovely through ball from sub Voronin.

So a nice stroll for the Reds before the Champions League game against Debrecen at Anfied on Wednesday

Liverpool take on Burnley at Anfield as the Premier League resumes after the International break.

This is a must win game for Liverpool already with them being 6 points behind leaders Chelsea.

With no fresh injuries reported (so far) from players away with their country the only players who could be a doubt are Lucas and Mascherano who have been to the other side of the world with Brazil and Argentina respectively. The duo are not due back into the UK until the early hours of tomorrow. Gaffer Benitez will assess their fitness before deciding if both will feature or not.

LFC got some good defensive news when full back Fabio Aurellio came through a reserve game in midweek and will go straight into the match squad.

Saturdays visitors Burnley played well against Utd and rode their luck but were poor against Chelsea so let’s hope they keep up that kind of form. That said, Burnley have nothing to lose so they can relax a bit more which can’t be said for Liverpool whose crowd will expect nothing less than 3 points and a hatful of goals. Burnley will come to play and wont park the bus in front of the goal which should aid Liverpool. Away goals have been hard to come by for Burnley who have yet to score on their travels but will surely fancy their chances against a Liverpool team that has uncharacteristically leaked 7 in 4 games.

Liverpool will hope to pick up where they left off against Bolton. The performance wasn’t great but it was all about the result and winning matches breeds confidence. Torres and Gerrard are playing well again and if a much needed Martin Skrtl returns to the defence that will help us improve on our poor defensive record so far.

Liverpool have 6 games coming up in 17 days so they need to find their top form quick. The Champions League campaign kicks off next Wednesday when Debreceni arrive at Anfield.  That’s followed by games against West Ham, Hull, Sunderland and Leeds Utd in the Carling Cup.

The good news coming from Melwood is that summer signing Aquilani has been (lightly) pencilled in for the Hull game at Anfield on 26/09/09. This will be great news as Liverpool travel to Stamford Bridge the following week which is already looking a must win game. We will need as many as our first team available to take on what’s looking like a title winning side in Chelsea.

My prediction: Liverpool 3-0 Burnley

Since I’ve been away Liverpool have had 2 games. Both with different results. The first saw us lose our near 2 year undefeated home record to Aston Villa. The second saw us get back to winning ways with a 2-3 away win at Bolton.

I watched the Villa game on EPSN and although it was our second defeat in the first 3 games it was a strange match. If Liverpool had taken their chances then they could have been out of sight within the first 30 minutes. But a combination of missed chances and good keeping by former Red Friedel frustrated us.

Villa scored when an Ashley Young free kick that was going nowhere took a massive deflection of the unfortunate Lucas and sent Riena the wrong way. The second goal came when Riena was furious with the ref for giving Villa a corner kick when he thought there was no deflection on the shot. Everyone lost concentration and from another set piece we conceded again. That was the third goal conceded from a set piece this season in three games. Not good.  Half time 0-2.

With the Reds now attacking the Kop, the second half started as we all expected with Villa getting deeper and Liverpool piling on the pressure.
Torres reduced the deficit with a quarter of the match left to play with his second goal in three games and it was game on.

But Liverpool’s comeback was brought to a grinding halt a few minutes later when a poor touch from Reo-Coker in the box somehow allowed him to lose Gerrard who could do nothing but bring him down after committing to the tackle. Young stepped up and made it 1-3 from the spot.

The unbeaten home record of twenty three months was over. Two defeats in the first three games wasn’t the start we were looking for. We only lost two all last season.

The following Saturday the Reds travelled to Bolton where Benitez has an excellent record. His only defeat came in his first ever visit there in 2004. I watched this game on a dodgy internet stream from Saudi Arabia!

Liverpool again dominated the early stage but found themselves 1-0 down. From a Mat Taylor corner a knock down was tapped in by Kevin Davies. It didn’t take the Reds long to get back into the match, Johnson and Kuyt linked up well and Johnson shifted the ball onto his weaker left foot and rifled home a low drive from the edge of the box.

From the restart Bolton pumped the ball long and Davies won his ariel dual with Kyriacos and the ball fell invitingly for Cohen to smash the ball home from close range. This was Liverpool’s seventh goal conceded in 4 games.

Either side of Half Time Bolton’s Sean Davis picked up two needless yellow cards and just after they had taken the lead Bolton were down to 10 men.

From here on in it was all one way. Gerrard picked out Kuyt who chested the ball down for Torres. The lethal forward took a touch, steadied himself and slotted home the equalizer from twelve yards.
Liverpool created a host of chances but it took until 86 minutes before the winner came.
From a corner Torres knocked the ball down to an unmarked Gerrard (crazy or what?) on the edge of the box who then smashed the ball in the top corner.
Torres and Voronin then had chances to make it safe but a combination of good keeping (to deny Torres) and poor finishing (from Voronin) made sure the score finished 2-3 to Liverpool.

It’s obvious from the two games that Liverpool are missing Agger and Skrtl. I don’t buy this rubbish that we are missing Alonso. The press need to make up their mind. One minute we are a Two man team and now it’s because we sold Alonso. I don’t think if Alonso was here the results would be any different unless he could play centre half?

Any team that loses nearly all its defence through injury is bound to struggle.

After a sluggish start to the season against Spurs and Stoke, Fernando Torres seems to have got back into his stride. Three goals in four games is a great return especially after the average performances from him in the first two games.

The major plus this season is Glen Johnson. He has been superb and also chipped in with two goals. He offers us an attacking option we have lacked for a few years.

In the next few weeks we should see the return of the defence, the new playmaker Aqualini and Torres hitting his peak. We have the best keeper in the league and the best midfielder in the world and that bodes well for the rest of the season.

This weekend is the international break but on Sept 12th Liverpool host Burnley at Anfield. K/O 3pm.