Forget all about rotation, zonal marking and ”controlling the game”. The true obsession of Rafael Benitez footballing wise is signing central midfielders. Whether it’s because of the fact the the man himself played defensive midfield in his short career or it is indeed driven by his desire to control football matches, the facts are that Rafa Benitez has on average bought a central midfielder per year to Liverpool.

The five senior central midfielders he has bought – so far – in his five years at the club are Xabi Alonso (10.7m, 2004), Momo Sissoko (5.6m, 2005), Boudewijn Zenden (free, 2005), Javier Mascherano (17m, 2007) and Lucas Leiva (5m, 2007). Read the rest of this entry »

£18m is a lot of dosh for a full back who still has certain question marks against him, but personally I’m happy with the Glen Johnson deal.  Is he overpriced?  Definitely, and all things being equal I wouldn’t expect us to be paying this kind of money for a right back, unless it was for a 25 year old Cafu.  But all things aren’t equal, and there are certain situations when you have to pay more than you would like.  For me, this was one of them.

We needed to bring in more English players, and having missed out on Gareth Barry we were running out of options.  If we sat back and said ‘£18m is too much, Chelsea can have him at that price’, what then?  Take away the need for English players, and we could certainly have done that and looked abroad for a cheaper alternative.  But we desperately need to add to our English contingent, and had we passed on Johnson we would not only have had to go looking for another right back, but we’d also still be facing the problem of having to sign another Englishman, if not at right back then in another position.  Who else is there who we could realistically go for? Read the rest of this entry »

The term ‘legend’ is a subjective one, especially when used in a footballing context.  It’s an over-used word, and is often applied to players who really aren’t worthy of the tag. The likes of Kenny Dalglish, Billy Liddell, Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan and others are widely accepted as having ‘legendary’ status, but very few players in recent times are worthy of the label.  Sami Hyypia is though.  For me, the Big Finn is right up there amongst the finest defenders to have ever pulled on the shirt, and he is unquestionably an Anfield ‘Legend’. Read the rest of this entry »

Given the events of the previous day, this was always going to be a tricky fixture for us.  West Brom had everything to play for, and we didn’t anymore.  Yes, we want to reach 86 points and secure second spot, and there’s also professional pride, Pepe’s clean sheet record etc, but still, the title was gone and there was always going to be a bit of a damp squib feel about this game for us.  We didn’t play well, didn’t look anywhere near our best, but we got the job done and that’s all that matters in the end. Read the rest of this entry »

So on the 16th May 2009, just after 2pm, our fiercest rivals did what at one time would have been considered unthinkable; they drew level with our record number of title wins. It had been eighteen for so long, who would have thought that after we spanked Coventry 6-1 at Highfield Road that we would walk into a wilderness that we are still trying to find our way out of 19 years later. I was 8 when that last title was won, I’m 27 now; when I was a kid running round in my home kit in the garden or down the five-a-side at the local sport centre pretending to be Ian Rush, I just assumed that this glory came naturally, and in a way back then it did.

But since then we’ve been asleep at the wheel, occasionally waking up to try and steer out of the way of oncoming traffic but more or less, we’ve been negligent. And all the time ‘they’ were accumulating trophy after trophy, but it didn’t matter, we still had those eighteen and soon, not this year but soon, we would add that glorious nineteenth to the list. But I’ve seen so many false dawns, so many players that have been labelled ‘the new (insert classic player here)’ and so much natural talent squandered that it’s become painful to even look back and remember them all. But I should, they are if nothing else, valuable mistakes that ought not to be repeated again. Harsh lessons learnt as we navigated the brave ‘new’ world of premier league football, a European Cup that didn’t require you to be champions, football at the command of television and players paid so much that it would fund a South American rebellion. Read the rest of this entry »

Angry Sam Allardyce has blasted Stoke City boss Tony Pulis following Blackburn Rovers’ 1-0 defeat at the Britannia Stadium this afternoon, accusing the Potters boss of not showing him any respect and making insulting hand gestures.  Liam Lawrence’s second half strike proved decisive in the relegation battle, and Allardyce couldn’t contain his fury afterwards:

“I’m angry and deeply disappointed in the actions of Tony Pulis” fumed the failed Newcastle boss.  “Clearly, everyone can see when he rubbed Etherington’s head at the end, that gesture was intended to say ‘Fuck off Sam you mashed potato faced, brown envelope taking, alehouse football playing fat headed oxygen thief’.  I don’t think there’s any doubt about it, and I’m sure anyone who looks at that footage will agree.”

Big Sam also revealed that Pulis had snubbed him afterwards and refused to explain the meaning behind the gesture.  “I tried to speak to him after the final whistle to get him to explain his actions, but he fobbed me off by saying he had a press conference or something to attend but he would be glad to have a chat with me when he was finished.  Clearly that was his way of saying ‘fuck you fatty, I’ve got better things to do than waste time talking to a loser like you’.  To say I’m hurt and disappointed is a massive understatement.”

Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson was asked for his thoughts on the matter, but refused to be drawn on the issue.  “What happens between two rival managers is nothing to do with me.  If Sam has a problem with another manager that’s unfortunate, but it isn’t my concern as I manage Manchester United, not Blackburn Rovers.  It’s not my place to get involved in anything like that.”

Never in doubt really was it?  Well ok, it was, but it shouldn’t have been as this was a terrific performance and it was a travesty we had to wait so long to finally score.  In a way though, this was the perfect way to win it.  It isn’t good for our nerves of course, but I bet Ferguson spit his scotch all over the TV when Yossi pulled that one out of the fire at the end.

Psychologically, this could be far more of a blow to the mancs than a routine 2-0 would have been, and it’s also far more of a boost to us than it would have been had we ran out comfortable winners.  Things like this make you start to think that maybe it could be our year.  We’ve scored a lot of late goals this season, eight in stoppage time apparently, but none have had the effect on our morale that this one has had.  When we scored late on at Portsmouth, it didn’t make me believe, it just made me think we’d got out of jail. This was different, we battered Fulham and looked like a side that were going for the title.  This was a performance you’d expect from potential champions.  Read the rest of this entry »

Well I didn’t expect that!  Could I see us winning? I wouldn’t have bet my house on it, but yes I did think we had a good chance as long as Gerrard and Torres were fully fit, and judging by what they produced today I think it’s safe to assume they were in pretty good shape.  4-1 though was beyond my wildest dreams, but with Torres and Gerrard anything is possible.

Those two were absolutely fucking phenomenal and terrorized the manc backline all day.  A much vaunted record breaking backline let’s not forget.  Some experts have even been putting Vidic forward as a potential footballer of the year.  Don’t make me fucking laugh.  He’s so over-rated it’s untrue, Ferdinand is miles better than him.  Hell, Skrtel is better than him.  Torres absolutely destroyed Vidic today.  Last season Nando was bullied out of this fixture, as Ferdinand and Vidic took advantage of some, shall we say ‘lenient’ refereeing from Steve Bennett to take turns in kicking lumps out of him.  Read the rest of this entry »

Normally a home game with Sunderland wouldn’t be cause for any great trepidation, but this could prove to be a very difficult game for us given the way things are going.  We’re not playing well in the league at all, we have injury doubts over key players and the fans are becoming more and more restless with each passing week.  We need a win tonight to keep the wolf from the door, and if it doesn’t come then it could get pretty hostile at Anfield later on. Read the rest of this entry »

“We make good teams look bad, and bad teams look good”.  That was the line I used to open the summary of the Real Madrid game, and it seems like a good time to repeat it given what happened at the Riverside.  Normally you’d say ‘how can a team win at high flying Real Madrid, who’d won nine consecutive games, and then lose to Middlesbrough, who hadn’t won in 14 games?’.  That doesn’t really apply with us though, and I don’t really think it was that much of a shock.

In some ways you could argue that this has been coming.  We’ve rode our luck on numerous occasions, and could easily have lost our last away game when for a while it looked like Portsmouth would turn us over.  We went into this match without Torres, and with a half fit Gerrard, and the harsh reality is that without those two what we have left in attack is little better than what most sides in the bottom half have to call on. Read the rest of this entry »