Hmm………… What will the next few weeks hold ??

It appears that as the season is nearly upon us the silly season is about to start again.  And it makes me wish it was 1st September already as we will have a lot fo the answers by then.  I am trying not to get too excited at the moment as a Liverpool fan, with all this talk of quick take overs and millions of pounds to be given to Roy the boy before the window shuts it makes your heart start to race.  But I have experienced all to often these false dawns and I am just hoping that this time these rumours pan out to be a little more than just that. 

We will get to see Spurs in action in the Champions League (wow that hurt to write that!) and see if Mr Redknapp and co are up to the task of top tier European football or will they fall at the first hurddle and join the rest of us in the Europa League playing against some Eastern European farmers!! We will know just how Man City are going to play 18 top class players in a formation that only allows 11, and we will know just exactly where and who for Fernando Torres will be playing. 

Alongside all that we will also no doubt be listening to managers moaning about players getting injured whilst playing for England the week before the season starts.  And rightly so!! Who on earth decided it was a good idea to play a international friendly the week before the season starts.  Idiots!!  

All in all, this month holds so much promise for a lot of banter and a lot of fun, but I wish we were already at 1st Septemeber so I knew all the answers!

Provisional England Squad – Totting Up The Numbers

England’s 30-man provisional squad for the World Cup finals:

Goalkeepers: Joe Hart (Manchester City), David James (Portsmouth), Robert Green (West Ham).

Defenders: Leighton Baines (Everton), Jamie Carragher (Liverpool), Ashley Cole (Chelsea), Michael Dawson (Tottenham), Rio Ferdinand (Manchester United), Glen Johnson (Liverpool), Ledley King (Tottenham), John Terry (Chelsea), Matthew Upson (West Ham), Stephen Warnock (Aston Villa).

Midfielders: Gareth Barry (Manchester City), Michael Carrick (Manchester United), Joe Cole (Chelsea), Steven Gerrard (Liverpool), Tom Huddlestone (Tottenham), Adam Johnson (Manchester City), Frank Lampard (Chelsea), Aaron Lennon (Tottenham), James Milner (Aston Villa), Scott Parker (West Ham), Theo Walcott (Arsenal), Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City).

Forwards: Darren Bent (Sunderland), Peter Crouch (Tottenham), Jermain Defoe (Tottenham), Emile Heskey (Aston Villa), Wayne Rooney (Manchester United).

Number of players from each club:

Tottenham Hotspur: 6
Chelsea: 4
Man. City: 4
Man. Utd: 3
Liverpool: 3
Aston Villa: 3
West Ham: 3
Everton: 1
Sunderland: 1
Pompey: 1
Arsenal: 1

From this I think it is fair to say that Tottenham Hotspur are truly serving their country well. Unlike Arsenal.

I predict, however, that two of the Spurs players will drop out of the final 23-man squad, probably Michael Dawson and Tom Huddlestone. If Ledley King can’t prove his fitness, he will obviously go, but I think in that case Capello will take Dawson.

Any predictions for the final squad??

Look’s like that decision has back fired Rafa!!

It seemed like last week that Liverpool were very keen to see their Premier League game called off with Spurs.  Now when this happened I really did think that Liverpool were doing it not because of the weather, but because it gave them a few more days to build some confidence and it allowed Mascherano to serve his ban in the FA Cup and not in the league.  But as the day has unfolded today,  I think all at Liverpool will be wishing that they had done everything to get that game on last week.  Last night they suffered as dismal defeat at the hands of Reading, who were well worth the win even if Liverpool probably feel a bit ripped off in the manner that it happened.  Surely a defeat like that does not help build confidence going into an away game with Stoke followed by a home game with Spurs 4 days later.  On top of that,  within the last few hours it has been revealed that Torres is going to be out for 6 weeks with his knee injury, Gerrard is out for 2 weeks with a hamstring injury and Benayoun is out for 3-4 weeks with a broken rib.  This is not a picture that any Liverpool fan thought they would be looking at 24 hours ago.  It also goes to show, that what could have been an excellent managerial decision to get the game delayed to get players and confidence back has well and truly been blown up in Liverpool faces.  Surely 4th place is beyond Liverpool now, unless something drastic happens within the next week or so.

I don’t blame the snow, I blame litigious idiots!!!!!

Carrying on from the two posts below, which comment on the cancellation of this week’s football matches due to the snow, I wanted to share the following post by comedian Dara O’Briain, and have a little moan:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2010/jan/09/arsenal-bolton-postponed-dara-o-briain

Dara quite rightly points out the absurdity of cancelling Wednesday night’s Arsenal-Bolton game, not because the pitch was unplayable, but because ‘fans own safety’. The fact is, if fans want to brave the icy weather to try and get to a football match, then surely that is their choice. The Emirates stadium was perfectly safe, the pitch playable, it was merely the area around the ground deemed dangerous. Now, Dara makes one particularly good point, which is that with thousands of fans descended on the area around the stadium, the ‘treacherous snow’ would have been turned to slush within about 10 minutes. Danger avoided…? well, perhaps not, what about people driving to the ground?? Surely the roads were dangerous? Yes, probably, but roads can be gritted, as they have been across the country all week! This not to mention that the Emirates stadium has not one but TWO underground rail links servicing it, which would have been completely untouched by the above-ground snow.

So what was the real reasons for cancelling the game? Well, Health and Safety gone mad. While, as Dara says, it is an individuals choice to come to a game in snowy conditions, there is no doubt whatsoever that some complete idiot would probably have slipped outside the ground and hurt himself, and subsequently filed a lawsuit with “Claims Direct” or some other stupid, parasitic organisation (“Have you suffered an injury in the last three years that wasn’t your fault, here, lets sue someone for it”). By cancelling the game, Arsenal were extinguishing the danger of multiple lawsuits of this kind, and perhaps a government fine. This is a symptom of our Health and Safety obsessed litigious culture.

By cancelling games, clubs are only protecting themselves, then. Fair enough, but this is another symptom of British culture descending into legal idiocy.

(Though I do note re. the Liverpool game, that the club applied to cancel their game over 48 hours in advance, which as Dave notes in the post below, may suggest a darker and more dubious motive).

Is calling the game off the first bit of good managing from Liverpool this season??

Well, it seems that the widely anticipated games between Liverpool and Spurs has fallen foul of the weather today.  On the surface this may just seem completely normal as there are already 3 other Premier League games off this weekend.  But I wonder, have Liverpool taken advantage of the weather conditions to get the game moved to later on in the season for their benefit??  I smiled as I watched the sports news reels unfold through the day as many of them were commenting on how Liverpool had requested for the game to be called off.  The pitch is fine, but the surrounding area is “unsafe” for supporters to travel to the game.  Now knowing the area the ground is in, I can quite easily believe that it is a total nightmare around the ground and as Anfield is on top of a hill then I agree that traveling to the game would be difficult.  But something deep down inside me makes me feel that Liverpool have seen an oppertuinty here and have taken it with both hands.

The game on Sunday would have been massive,  it won’t decide who will finish in the top 4, but if Liverpool had lost it would most certainly made their job a hell of a lot harder.  Liverpool as the world knows are not in any sort of form at the moment, and after the Villa game I thought they would kick on and start to look a bit better.  But it was clear this was not going to be the case as the Reading game unfolded.   Spurs on the other hand are looking good at the moment and probably would have fancied turning Liverpool over this weekend. Liverpool would have been without Mascherano for this game as he is out serving a ban, which he will now fulfill against Reading in the FA Cup replay.  Ok, Spurs are without Lennon, which is a big loss, but I feel the Mascherano loss would have been the bigger of the two.  Liverpool are also in the final stages of signing Maxi Rodriguez who when he arrives will improve the team vastly.  But he wouldn’t have been available on Sunday.  All this adds up to me putting out the suggestion, did the management team at Liverpool see a chance to get this game moved to a later date in the hope they will be in a richer vain of form with a few new players in the side, which will give them a better chance of beating Spurs and close the gap on 4th spot.  If so, and they do go on to clinch 4th place, is this the best managerial decision by Liverpool this season ???

Was the Mascherano/Yobo goal the turning point for the Red Men??

Wow, ok, so the season up to this point has been a little on the disappointing side to say the least as a Liverpool fan.  There have been more episodes of MOTD deleted straight off the Sky Plus box than watched, and to have nothing to play for on Champions League day 6 due to being out is certainly new territory for all of us.  But the season is not a complete disaster zone just yet!! Ok, we are not playing the football we saw last season for the most part and yes we have had a lot of injuries to deal with and that has shown up the lack of depth we have, especially up top.  But I refuse to lie down and die and wait for 2010/11 season to start.  Last weekend Liverpool entered a Merseyside derby for the first time in a while not being the major favourites.  Both sides have been playing some horrific football of late and it was hard to call who was going to win it.  But as the ball deflected off Joesph Yobo’s foot and spun into the bottom corner I couldn’t help thinking is this the turning point ??  After watching the whole game on Sunday there  is no way on this earth Liverpool deserved to win the game and most probably if Mascherano’s shot had not been deflected in I think Everton would have probably gone on and won by 2 or 3 on Sunday.  But it did and they lost 2-0.  Sometimes the luck has to change for a season to be reignited and maybe just maybe Sunday was that day for the Red Men of Liverpool. 

There are some positives to be taken from the season thus far, and some things still to look froward to and challenge for.  Firstly having gone through such a bad time of late we still find ourselves only 3 points from 3rd place.  Ok, Spurs are playing some good football but their lack of ability to beat the top sides (yes I know they beat Liverpool) will ultimately I feel be their down fall again this season, and the Liverpool v Spurs game on Jan 10th will have a massive say on how the top 4 pans out this season.  Arsenal are very in and out at the moment and I am sure this is giving the like of Spurs, Villa and City some confidence about a top 4 finish, but at the end of the day, they don’t seem to be taking the chance that has been presented to them with both hands at the moment, and I feel that Liverpool and Arsenal will occupy the 3rd and 4th places come May.    The title is between Utd and Chelsea for sure, and lets hope the Blue side of London go on and take it (please, please, please).  With Gerrard back and getting stronger, Torres only a game of two away from returning and Aquilani hopefully starting soon, Benayoun and Riera fit again, Liverpool are more than capable of putting a run of 12-15 games together without dropping a point and if this does happen I feel 3rd place where they will finish. 

Europe, well ok, we are out of the Champions League deal with it, move on.  Europa League here we come, surely even playing as they are Liverpool can win this bad boy.  Turning out against teams of postmen and train drivers who are used to playing Everton and Spurs should surely be a breeze for the Reds, but seriously this is an opportunity for a trophy and hopefully Rafa will treat it correctly and we can go on and be the first winners of this new competition.  And then there is the FA Cup,  Reading away to start is not too bad.  Reading are not the side they once were and as decent Liverpool side should progress to round 4 without too much trouble. 

So, even though the season has been a bit of a nightmare so far there is still much to play for this season.  Rafa what ever you think of him good or bad is still the manager and I am quite happy to give him the support he deserves.  He certainly frustrates me at times with his tactical decisions, but he is the man the owners feel is right for the job and I will get behind that and give him my support.  I am feeling much more positive after the weekend but only time will tell if the Mascherano/Yobo goal was the turning point.  Let’s hope it was!!