Football News
Liverpool Red Diary - part 18
by Joel Rookwood
Newcastle
I'm still not quite sure why we travelled to Hartlepool on New Years day for a 1.00pm kick off in the third division, with my resolution to stop making ridiculous trips to see football matches lasting all of thirteen hours. With Liverpool playing Newcastle at 19:45 I had persuaded the lads to begin the trip to the North East early and get there in time to see Carlisle play Hartlepool. For some reason I thought it would be a laugh to see the New Year in with two games of footy in a day.
|
|
| Click On The Image For A Range Of Liverpool Products |
I arrived home from the New Year's Eve festivities at 4.20, with three alarms set to wake me up at 4.30. I spent the majority of the ten minutes in between deciding whether or not to take the forty winks (literally) available. With two minutes to spare I decided against the idea, and set off, shattered, for the North East.
We arrived in Hartlepool mid-morning, with the three of us stupid enough to make the trip wondering why we had bothered. If Liverpool is 'Naples without the Sun' (which it is if the ramblings of former Everton player Marco Materazzi are anything to go by), then Hartlepool is Kabul without the Taliban. It really is that bleak - even worse than Middlesborough I'm tempted to say. But I won't.
After the highly agreeable people at the ticket office refused to sell us tickets for the game, (apparently on account of our indifference regarding who we were supporting) we got in the away end and sat with the Carlisle fans. They're Cumbrians, don't you know, and aren't exactly shy about letting you know, as they mocked their 'Geordie Wanabe' rivals at every opportunity. As we entered the ground a lady was curiously handing out black masks, which all six hundred hearty Carlisle fans wore for the entire length of the game. It was a decent show of unity, but even after asking numerous fans, I must admit to being no closer to finding out the reason for the collective disguise. All I could muster from the talkative Geordies - oh sorry, I mean Cumbrians is that is was meant as an act of protest against the host club.
Regardless of our bemusement we wore them for most of the day, which was particularly amusing after the game, when we were stopping the car and asking locals where the nearest bank was. One woman actually gave us a serious answer, informing us that the banks were closed on account of it being New Year's day. It seems when humour travelled from Liverpool to Glasgow it drove straight through this God forsaken city.
The game by the way was bad, really bad, with Carlisle, having gone a goal ahead, eventually succumbing to a 2-1 defeat. We couldn't care less.
We spent the afternoon in a pub in central Newcastle, where one of the lads fell asleep for a whole twenty minutes, much to my amusement, and that of every Geordie I showed. As night fell, we managed to wake him up, before heading for The Black Bull, a cracking alehouse in the shadow of the mighty St James' Park. We met up with various other fans wise enough to only go to one game that day, and after swapping stories of the day's events, and more importantly, those of the previous night, we got down to business, with an old fashion singing war. Twenty or so Scousers were in cracking voice, as we more than held our own against a small army of locals. It remained good-natured throughout, before we said our goodbyes and made for the stadium in time to make the epic journey (bettered only in my experience by the Nou camp) up the seemingly endless flight of stairs to our seats before yet another must win game for my beloved Liverpool began.
We were in good voice, as unsurprisingly were our hosts. Now I'm not a big fan of Middlesborough or Sunderland fans, or their respective clubs, but Newcastle is a club I admire, chiefly for it's fans. They're loud, supportive and loyal and know a thing or two about the game, even if I can't understand a bloody word they say.
And they may have had twenty thousand come out of the woodwork since their rise from obscurity to the dizzy heights of Champions League football, (hence cries of Íwhere were you when you were s*!t' from the travelling fans), but the hard core element of the Toon army are good fans. And anyway, it's all very well for us because the nearest we've come to being s*!t since the 1950s was under the stewardship of the one man demolition job that was Graeme Souness in the early Í90s, who was sacked before he took us any lower than the soul- destroying level of mediocrity.
However, ironically we're currently on our worst run in the league since the 1950s, and believe me, it's not been pretty. After an impressive outing at Highbury a few days earlier though, the travelling Kop seemed buoyant as the game got underway, confident in the most part that we had turned a corner, that our luck and form was changing. Little did we know we were about to witness one of the worst Liverpool performances any of us had ever been subjected to.
Newcastle took the lead early in the game, with Laurent Robert's free-kick deflecting off Milan Baros in the wall before nestling in Chris Kirkland's net. Already, after only thirteen minutes I knew the game was beyond us. Baros isn't exactly flavour of the month with the coaching staff for his performance, notably his cowardly leap in attempt to avoid the path of the ball from the free kick. Someone obviously needs to explain to the Czech striker the point of having a wall, because it seems he hasn't quite grasped it.
It was Salif Diao however who earned himself the idiot of the match award, again proving he's incapable of making a tackle and staying on his feet. Two bookable offences saw the Senegalese midfielder granted an early bath with nearly half an hour on the clock. Thereafter Newcastle made the ball, and us do the work, as the men in red looked lost, simply chasing shadows, unable to cope with the movement of the Magpies.
It has to be said that the pitch was awful, though there's no way that can be used an excuse, because Newcastle had to play on it too, and handled the conditions better than us. In truth, had we played on a perfect service, I doubt the score line would have been much different. We were outplayed, outthought and outrun by a side who looked hungrier than ours. In fact short of Ste Gerrard, I'd be hard pressed to name a Liverpool player with any appetite for the game.
At Anfield in September the Geordies earned themselves a point late in the game thanks in no small part to substitute Craig Bellamy. The little Welsh striker took his place in the starting line up this time, and was no less of a threat. With the pace of Bellamy and the strength and guile of Alan Shearer, we were always going to struggle. Not to mention Newcastle's invention in midfield. After a torrid opening period we could have been four goals down by half time. Easily. But somehow we survived with only the one-goal deficit. And while we had more efforts on goal in the second half, notably through Neil Mellor who made his Premiership debut, replacing Milan Baros, Newcastle never really looked in any danger.
People may say that Newcastle weren't particularly deserving of the victory, having not created an abundance of chances, but did they need to? Liverpool presented an almost non-existent attacking threat, and the home side approached the game in exactly the same way we have done over the past two seasons, a period that brought us considerable success. They secured an advantage, and were confident in their ability to defend the lead, so didn't risk losing it by charging up the field in search of a second goal. This boring, predictable display is exactly what I want to see from Liverpool. It is evident however, that I could be waiting some time.
The fact that the plight of our great club dominated the front pages of the following day's Liverpool Echo served to illustrate the perceived magnitude of the mini disaster the club is currently experiencing. A picture of manager Gerard Houllier and Ste Gerrard both displaying augmentative expressions was accompanied by the following headline:
"Just four points from a possible thirty underlines a simple brutal truth. Liverpool are not good enough."
We went to Middlesbrough way back in early November unbeaten with thirty points in the bag from twelve games. Ten games on, and we've dropped from being four points clear to twelve points adrift of current leaders Arsenal. Only West Brom, certainties to finish bottom of the league are below us in the form table.
Back in November I predicted the title would be a two horse race, and I suspect it still will be. One thing is for sure though - we won't be in it. Man United will fancy themselves, but champions Arsenal, in my opinion will run out comfortable winners. Not that the destination of the league title really matters to me now. We simply must finish in the top four - that is our priority. A cup would be nice, but if we don't qualify for next season's Champions League, then the two or three additions that would turn us into the best side in the country and one of the favourites for the Champions League will not arrive due to a lack of funds.
Because I genuinely believe that the reason for our downfall is not the system we play but the players we've got. I've heard talk of Liverpool being one- dimensional and having no width. Well that's true, but it hasn't been a problem for us over the last two seasons. Houllier rightly answered such critics by pointing out the fact that in the world cup there was only one winger in thirty-two teams. And he has also said that as a team, you make your own width, an assertion to which I would certainly subscribe. But it's not about width or shape anymore - it's about quality.
When Arsenal won at Anfield last season with ten men, I left the ground disappointed, but knowing that we had been beaten by a better side. Our midfield simply wasn't good enough to compete with theirs. I was confident that the manager would rectify the problem in the summer, though the sad thing is, if anything our midfield is worse than it was last year. In Gary McCallister we had a player who wasn't a driving force in the team, yet could maintain possession like no one else at the club. He is a hero of mine, but I felt it was best for both parties when he went back to Coventry in the summer.
Yet he simply hasn't been replaced. Salif Diao is learning how to play football in this country, and will need time to settle. Bruno Cheyrou at the moment doesn't look suited to English football. We got rid of one player in the shape of Litmanen who's tackling and work rate weren't exactly impressive, and replaced him with a younger model. Bruno has an abundance of ability, but like Diao should not in my opinion be playing in the first team.
And then there's Diouf, the £10M Senegalese striker. Apparently he was dubbed 'serial killer' for his goal scoring exploits in France. Let's hope Auxere's defence is as generous when Liverpool play them next month as those defences Diouf came up against last season in France obviously were. He started well, and after a dip in form, is improving every week, but he is simply not a player who will score twenty goals plus a season. Heskey isn't exactly prolific so if Michael Owen's form is suffering, that leaves our goal scoring duties in the hands of unproven and inexperienced duo Neil Mellor and Milan Baros.
So I must question the manager and his decision not to sign proven striker Nicolas Anelka on a permanent deal in favour of Diouf. Now the former might bring with him certain off-field problems, the extent of which I am not fully aware, and if Houllier thought he might be a negative influence on the squad then fair enough, but he simply hasn't replaced him. Yet if we had another striker, possibly offloading Emile Heskey to Spurs at the same time, together with a midfielder or two, we would be challenging for the title. In Sinama Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec we have two excellent prospects joining us in the summer, but they will be eighteen when they come to Anfield and should not be expected to walk straight into the first team.
Signing Overmars or Duff would have been ideal, though 'too much money' was the argument for not bringing either player in. And whilst I wouldn't want to see us build up a ridiculous debt in the same way Leeds United have, you have to speculate to accumulate. £30M we got from getting to the quarters of the CL last season. If we had signed Duff for £12M and Anelka for two more than we paid for Hadji then we'd still be in that competition without breaking the bank. And as for just concentrating on the league, well we just can't afford to. £8.8M you get for winning that. Buttons.
And now to address the final criticism of this Liverpool team - the approach. Recently Houllier came out and said he 'wouldn't change the system' despite the fact it wasn't working. But the irony is that by changing the system at Boro, playing one up, the confidence started to drain. The problem was we forced the evolvement of the team. We've been built on defensive solidity over the past two years. But then this season we thought, 'oh, and now we'll start attacking'. But that didn't work, so we tried to revert back to last season's approach. And then changing things at Boro again left players not knowing what they were doing.
We were successful with our disciplined displays over the past two years. Bollocks to the fact that 'people could read how to play against us'. If they could we wouldn't have had the last two years we've had. Managers hated playing Liverpool. Five consecutive wins against Fergie's Man United said it all.
We've been over cautious, and we've paid the price. Relying on a make shift back four that has failed us has left us with no self-belief. But with Riise coming back in at left back in front of Kirkland, we would be sound - If we kept the same back four and if we had a midfield.
It looks like we could well win nothing this year, and the idiots will no doubt call for Houllier's head, but the majority will accept the errors in judgment and give him another chance to get it sorted and bring the right players in. England is undoubtedly getting as impatient as Spain and Italy. But while five defeats spells trouble, five wins sorts out confidence issues. If we can grind out a few results simply through hard work then that's when things will change.
Going a few games unbeaten will give us the belief that we aren't going to lose games. I don't agree with the assertion that cracks were evident before the Boro defeat. We didn't look like getting beaten before then, with the exception of games against Europe's best team, Valencia. But we changed our approach and the hard work was for nothing, for our backbone had been shaken. So now it's back to basics. Work hard, stand up and be counted, go five unbeaten. Then when we go into games thinking we won't get beaten, we'll have the confidence to approach matches thinking defeat isn't an option. It's all about steady progression, something we must learn from our absurd displays early in the season, when defensive stability went out of the window.
|
|
| Click On The Image For A Range Of Liverpool Products |
If I can bring this brief flirtation with negativity to an abrupt halt, however I must say I have a feeling I'll be leaning on a Seville bar come May, bladdered and laughing about how bad we were in December. But before we lose to Lazio, we'll feel secure knowing we've got a manager with a brain. He'll know we've just Ígot through' the season, and he'll address the problem in the summer - for this is no false dawn. We are managed by the man who will bring the title and the Champions League through Shankly's gates - given time. And on Merseyside, that's one thing he WILL be given, by the board and by the hard-core support. The idiotic part timers who ring up Radio 5 calling for his head are just that. It's not blind support we bestow on our talisman. A recall of the situation we were in four years ago when Houllier arrived serves as the causality for our unswerving loyalty.
Houllier has made mistakes in my opinion, but he has made them before and subsequently redressed the balance. Ziege, Barmby and Litmanen were all Houllier's purchases, yet were sold when the manager realised they weren't right for the club. Lesser managers would have let them sit in the reserves on thirty grand a week. But Houllier is undoubtedly the man to take us forward. He knows our weaknesses and I don't doubt that he will make amends for his rare errors in judgement. Undoubtedly Liverpool's most popular ever manager, Bill Shankly once went five years without winning a trophy. But he came back strong and delivered the league title, FA Cup and UEFA Cup. We are Liverpudlians and we know when we have the right man for the job. And believe me, in Houllier, we do.
The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by Soccerphile Ltd.
