Site update - 10 July 2008
Much to the disappointment of the 'Liverpool-Kop sucks!' brigade, this site is still very much alive. The lack of recent articles is purely down to the fact that there is simply nothing interesting to write about at the moment!
It's hardly been an inspiring summer so far; Gareth Barry saga? *yawn* Dossena and Degen sign on? *yawn*. As usual, Rafa is trying to sign players we don't need and ignoring the real problem areas, i.e. Wingers and creative, attacking link-men.
But there's still hope for some excitement. Liverpool are after all linked with the likes of James Milner and Robbie Keane! Who could not be excited about qualilty signings like that?! JK
Liverpool legend Sami Hyypia is (hopefully) set to sign a new contract at Anfield, and when he does, it will be a hugely satisfying moment in an otherwise torrid season.
On the subject of Sami’s possible new contract, Rafa Benitez commented: "Rick Parry is due to talk to Sami's agent this weekend and hopefullly everything will then be finished."
Earlier this year, Hyypia said: "It would be very nice to get to ten years at the club but I'm just concentrating on playing well. Whether I stay wouldn't depend on how many games I play. I'm not like that. I'm not interested in somebody promising me something. If we have four centre-backs then everyone fights for their place and performances should determine who plays”.
Such a refreshing attitude! In my view, Sami is the current player at Liverpool who is deserving of the title 'Liverpool Legend'. He is a bona fide world class defender and he embodies everything that makes Liverpool great.
Quite apart from being one of the greatest defenders ever to grace the Anfield turf, the big Finn oozes real class and is completely unaffected by the egocentric excesses of the modern game.
Sami has arguably been Liverpool’s most consistent player over the last 10 years and an outstanding ambassador for the club, with his superb ability being an integral component in making Liverpool the most successful English club of the noughties.
This does not stop people jumping on his back at regular intervals complaining that he has ‘lost his pace’ and other such nonsense. This is simply not true – Sami never had any real pace to begin with!
His game is not based on pace - it was and is based on intelligence and unparalleled positional excellence. Sami continues to perform admirably when called upon, and a fair analysis of Liverpool’s performances so far this season will back this up.
Sami's imperious ability on the pitch is not the only reason he should stay - he symbolises Liverpool values of old such as humblesness, humility, grace and modesty in victory and an unshakeable winning mentality.
He brings maturity and wisdom to the team and is the perfect countrerbalance to the preening, overpaid, primadonnas ruining the modern game.
If anyone in the current team deserves a testimonial, it is Sami, and I personally hope he stays at the club until he retires and then takes up a role on the coaching staff somewhere.
Tragically though, Sami is part of a dying breed – the true footballing gentlemen: affable, unassuming, approachable, friendly and the consummate professional. He is and has been my favourite Liverpool player for years and it will be a sad day indeed when he finally leaves the club.
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Liverpool’s wretched season reached its nadir against
Havant and
Waterlooville last weekend, with the non-league minnows embarrassing
Anfield's lumbering
primadonnas and once again exposing the obvious truth: Liverpool are as far away from winning the premiership as they've ever been, and the club's deadwood is dragging the team into oblivion.
Four years into Rafa’s reign, and the rebuilding process is only just beginning. People may not accept that, but it is depressingly self-evident. In my view, the signing of Fernando Torres heralded the start of the real rebuilding process. Until players of Torres’ standard are consistently bought and developed, Liverpool will continue to wallow in premiership mediocrity.
There are, apparently, 60 players on Liverpool’s books. 60! Unfortunately, 95% of them are not good enough. To my mind, Liverpool have only 8 players who are capable of being part of a premiership winning squad - by that I mean they:
1. Are good enough in terms of quality and technique.
2. Have a positive, winning mentality
3. Do not unbalance the team.
4. Can form part of an effective 4-4-2/3-5-2/4-1-3-1-1 system.
5. Do not symbolise the counter-productive, ultra cautious 'safety first' approach so entrenched in Rafa Benitez's Liverpool.
The list of players Liverpool should keep is below:
Pepe Reina
Daniel Agger
Jamie Carragher
Xabi Alonso
Lucas Leiva
Yossi Benayoun
Peter Crouch
Fernando Torres
The following players should be sold and replaced:
Steve Finnan
A fine servant for the club, but does not offer enough going forward. A very good player, but needs to make way for the new breed of right-back i.e. marauding and offensive.
Sami Hyypia
My favourite player – a true Liverpool legend, but his time has passed. He should stay as cover and hopefully move into the coaching set-up too pass on his defensive genius to younger players.
Fabio Aurelio
Always injured and not reliable enough as a defender or an attacker. Great technique but too often flatters to deceive. Not the solution to the left back problem.
John Arne Riise
How the mighty have fallen. Once a potent attacking threat and a capable defender, but his form has tailed off badly over the last two seasons. Too often a passenger and a liability these days. Needs to go.
Alvaro Arbeloa
Competent, lightweight, unremarkable player who doesn’t really excel at anything, whether it’s defensive duty or attacking play. Sometimes, it’s hard to even remember he’s on the pitch. Doesn’t bring anything special to the team, and in the modern game, an effective right-back has to offer more, especially going forward.
Harry Kewell
He’s past it, pure and simple. It doesn’t matter how much faith Benitez has in him, the Harry Kewell of old died as soon as he signed his Liverpool contract. He’s lost his pace and sharpness and hardly ever beats his man these days. Liverpool don’t have time for him to ‘come good in the end’. The team needs a left wing specialist NOW, not next year.
Jermaine Pennant
Has vastly improved over the last year, but his goal return is negligible, as is his assist ratio. Pennant is a good player, but he belongs at Blackburn or Portsmouth, not Liverpool. Just compare him to a winger like Cristiano Ronaldo. Enough said. That is the quality Liverpool need on the wings. Pennant just doesn’t cut it.
Steven Gerrard
A great premiership player, but if Liverpool want to move to the next level, he needs to go. His presence restricts other players (especially Alonso) and stops Liverpool from becoming a fast moving, technically adept team. Gerrard’s positional indiscipline is legendary, and his inability to pay with his head and dictate the pace of the game is a problem.
Then there’s the perennial conundrum: Where does he play? In the centre; on the right; behind the front-man? Gerrard excels in none of these roles, and wherever he plays, the whole team has to dance to his tune. The bottom line is, if Gerrard plays well, the team plays well. If he has a bad patch, the team has a bad patch.
This needs to stop. Liverpool need all players taking responsibility instead of one player trying to do everything and overpowering the team. Just look at Arsenal after the apparently ‘irreplaceable’ Thierry Henry left. This is exactly the type of change Liverpool need.
The team is stagnating. There is no sign of forward progress in the league. Just look at the current debacle of a season: Gerrard has a purple patch of playing well, the team plays well. Gerrard’s form has dropped off again, the team can’t win!
On top of all this, he is a poor captain, and this has been proven again with the team’s diabolical performances in 2008 and his failure to motivate the team over the last few months.
Gerrard also needs to leave Liverpool for his own benefit – he is not improving as a player, and the problems with his game will not improve unless he abandons his comfort zone and tests himself in a different environment, where he feels the pressure of having to perform, instead of being guaranteed a starting place at Liverpool regardless of his form.
Javier Mascherano
In December I argued why it is madness to spend 17m on a defensive midfielder - my feelings have not changed. Liverpool's priority needs to be creative, attacking players, not more defensive-minded players. Furthermore, spending 17m on a defensive midfielder is indicative of the negative, 'safety first' culture so depressingly evident at Anfield these days.
I don't care how much Man United spend on Carrick or Hargreaves - they can do so because they already have the creative side of the team sorted out.
I have no doubt that Liverpool could find an excellent DM for 8-10m; to suggest otherwise is ridiculous. This would leave 7m left over to put towards creative players. If the club can get Mascherano for 10m all inclusive, then go for it. If not, let him go and find someone else.
Andriy Voronin
A sprightly player who always tries his best but he is just not good enough for Liverpool. Even as a fourth striker, Liverpool need more quality. Taking a player on a free just to make up the numbers should not be part of Liverpool’s buying strategy.
Dirk Kuyt
Has to go. It’s that simple. Not good enough for Liverpool and will never be a free-flowing goalscorer. Who cares if he runs 20 miles a game – his job is to SCORE GOALS, and on the front, he is an utter failure. He reminds me of Emile Heskey, except Heskey (amazingly) scored goals occasionally!
Ryan Babel
Will never make it at Liverpool. The excuses for his dire performances are already verging on the cliché:
‘Thierry Henry took a year to settle’
’Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t set the premiership alight in his first season’
’He just needs time to adapt to the league’
’Next season we’ll see the real Ryan Babel’
I don’t buy it. Babel himself admits that he ‘can’t cope’ with the pace of the premiership. If he doesn’t believe in himself, then Liverpool are in real trouble. Such a defeatist attitude is not what Liverpool need. I haven’t seen anything this season that suggests Babel will be a future success. And if he was so great, why did Ajax sell him in the first place, and why did Arsene Wenger cool his interest?
Spending 11m on Babel was a mistake, as was spending 11m on Emile Heskey, and 10m on El Hadji Diouf.
Rafa (or whoever the club’s next Manager will be) needs to be ruthless - get rid of all of the above players and use the money to buy quality players (especially attacking players) who will fit into a system that will bring league success.
And it’s not just about spending huge amounts of money. Tomas Rosicky and Alexander Hleb cost Arsenal about 12m combined. They are superbly creative, technically gifted players – just the type of quality Liverpool should be buying.
It is possible to find the right players at the right place if you have an excellent scouting system in place. Liverpool clearly do not.
And it’s not even the scouting system that is most important here; Liverpool need a complete change of philosophy. At the moment, the team is built around defensive-minded players, which was also the way under Gerard Houllier.
This needs to change. Like Arsenal, the team needs to be built around attacking players and the emphasis has to be on offensive play.
Until this happens, Liverpool will never win the Premiership.
Read full article >>>
After the formational faux pas against Reading, Rafael Benitez reverted back to the 4-4-2 system clearly preferred by the the team, and as a result, Liverpool smashed four goals past Marseille to secure Champions League progress and make it 26 goals scored in the last 8 games.
Benitez dumped Liverpool’s top Champions league goal-scorer Peter Crouch on the bench yet again in another brazen indicator that Crouchy’s time at Anfield is drawing to a close. It seems that 11 goals in 13 CL games is not enough for Benitez, and his latest snub of Crouch is the worst yet given the importance of the game.
In any event, the team performed admirably, with Steven Gerrard continuing his fantastic goal-scoring run and the sensational Fernando Torres again proving that he is Liverpool’s most exciting player for years.
The outstanding performer on the night for me though was Sami Hyypia. The team struggled defensively in his absence against Reading and it is no coincidence that Liverpool kept a clean sheet on his return to the team. Sami has started 20 games this season, and 14 of them have been clean sheets.
Against Marseille, all the outstanding aspects of Sami’s game were on display as he produced a master-class of defensive brilliance: Commanding in the air; ferocious in the tackle; elegant in his distribution and imperious in his organizational and positional prowess.
Jamie Carragher may be the team’s surrogate captain but it is Sami’s experience and organizational ability that brings stability and confidence to the Liverpool defence.
Sami is a bona fide world class defender and he embodies everything that makes Liverpool great. Quite apart from being one of the greatest defenders ever to grace the Anfield turf, the big Finn oozes real class and is completely unaffected by the egocentric excesses of the modern game.
Sami has arguably been Liverpool’s most consistent player over the last 10 years and an outstanding ambassador for the club, with his superb ability being an integral component in making Liverpool the most successful English club of the noughties.
This does not stop people jumping on his back at regular intervals complaining that he has ‘lost his pace’ and other such nonsense. This is simply not true – Sami never had any real pace to begin with!
His game is not based on pace - it was and is based on intelligence and unparalleled positional excellence. Sami continues to perform admirably when called upon, and a fair analysis of Liverpool’s performances so far this season will back this up.
Tragically, Sami is part of a dying breed – the true footballing gentlemen: affable, unassuming, approachable, friendly and the consummate professional. He is and has been my favourite Liverpool player for years and it will be a sad day indeed when Sami eventually retires.
Read full article >>>
Sami Hyypia has become the latest ‘fan’ scapegoat in the wake of Liverpool’s woeful capitulation to Besiktas in the Champions League…
With two own goals in as many games, Hyypia is an easy target for fans and the press when it comes to sating the unstoppable compulsion to blame one player for everything.
The personal abuse floating around various Liverpool forums is indicative of the pathetic new breed of Liverpool fan, i.e. shallow sniping halfwits, with no concept of fairness or objectivity; no sense of context and no real understanding of what Liverpool FC is all about...
These fans will try and convince you that Hyypia was at fault for both of Besiktas’ goals. Of course, to the fair minded observer, this is utter garbage. The fact is, Jamie Carragher’s comical failure to clear the ball put Liverpool under pressure for the first goal.
Hyypia reacted to Carragher’s error by trying to block Serdar Ozkan’s shot. Unfortunately, it ricocheted off him and ended up in the net. How this makes Hyypia to blame for the goal is beyond me. He would not have been in that position if Carragher had done his job.
Jamie Carragher’s form this season has been woeful, and his uncertainty at the heart of the Liverpool defence has been the main cause of Liverpool’s defensive frailty.
Of course, you cannot say this out loud because Carragher is a homegrown player and criticism of local lads is strictly prohibited.
Bona fide Liverpool legend
Irrespective of the baseless criticism, Sami Hyypia is a Liverpool Legend, it’s as simple as that. Furthermore, of the current Liverpool squad, he is the only player worthy of being labeled as such. Hyppia has joined the ranks of the elite, and sits alongside greats like Liddell, Yeats, Smith, Hughes, Dalglish, Rush, Souness and Barnes.
This contention will inevitably be greeted with ridicule, and cries of ‘but what about Gerrard!’ will reverberate. Well – In order to be a Liverpool Legend, there are certain qualities all players must possess, such as professionalism, humility and class - things Gerrard lacks. Sami has these qualities in spades and this is what makes his a ‘real’ Liverpool player.
Hyypia embodies everything that makes Liverpool great. Quite apart from being one of the greatest defenders ever to grace the Anfield turf, the big Finn oozes real class. He is completely unaffected by the egocentric excesses of the modern footballer and is fantastic ambassador for Liverpool Football club.
In addition, Sami has arguably been Liverpool’s most consistent player over the last 10 years, with his massive influence an integral component in making Liverpool the most successful English club of the noughties.
Hyypia has lost some of his sharpness and pace, but this is only to be expected with age. His game was never based on pace anyway - it was and is based on intelligence and unparallelled positional excellence. Despite opinions to the contrary, Hyypia continues to perform admirably when called upon, and a fair analysis of Liverpool’s performances so far this season will back this up.
A true footballing gentleman
Liverpool are in a terrible run of form at the moment, and the fans always need a whipping boy, bit it is the whole team that is playing badly, not just one man. Hyypia has basically been targeted to deflect criticism away from the untouchables, i.e. Gerrard and Carragher, two players who deserve the lion’s share of blame for Liverpool’s current demise. It's an all too familiar pattern and will continue as the season wears on.
It doesn’t matter though – no amount of childish sniping can change Sami Hyypia’s immense contribution to Liverpool. Tragically, Hyypia is part of a dying breed – the true footballing gentlemen: affable, unassuming, approachable, friendly and the consummate professional. A world away from selfish,'me me me' attitude of the likes of Steven Gerrard and 'Cashley' Cole.
It will be a sad day for Liverpool FC and football when the Mighty Finn hangs up his boots.
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