As the adrenaline gets back to normal, I finally find the senses to write my review on a mouth watering and heart thumping encounter. Liverpool to be honest before this game had very little chances to come to White Heart Lane and get a win. Poor away form and a Gerrard less team against a spurs team with amazing attacking prowess, who had sent Inter Milan the Champions of Europe packing and won away at Arsenal last week. We all wished for three away points but it always was an uphill task.
Liverpool were the better side and started with a very high tempo something Roy is trying to perfect. Good closing down and fast and good use of the ball. A midfield combination of Lucas and Raul was proving to be a very effective one, with both player knowing each others bearings. Torres and Ngog were leading the line well, Ngog specially did well with his back to goal, held the ball well, gave time to the midfielders to make runs and then distributed the ball well.
Spurs on the other hand had couple of dynamites on the wing, which only needed time to explode. From the start, it was pretty evident that, Lennon and Bale are going to try and run at the liverpool fullbacks at every given occasion. This was something that worried me the most. At start, Kuyt and Maxi came back and tracked the spurs wingers, the first have was Liverpools without a shadow of a doubt.
The second half started and the weaknesses of both teams were being exposed. Liverpool with their fullback who were getting out run but the spurs wingers and spurs whose central defense was breached on several occasions by Torres and Maxi. The game started to get open, slowly It was switching to the way spurs prefer it, ample space for fast players to exploit. Liverpool on the other hand did not have the pace to exploit it. On numerous occasions spurs wingers got behind the Liverpool fullbacks, whereas, Liverpool whenever the had space to run, were cut out by spurs fast back tracking defenders.
If we analyze both goals by Spurs we can clearly see that both Liverpool full backs were too wide and left gaps between them and the central defenders, that is what happens you have to tackle fast wingers with pace. So both goals were pretty well deserved by Spurs. This is exactly what liverpool lack, fast pacy and gifted wingers.
If there is anything which needs improvement in the tactical game of Liverpool is to make the back four more compact without the ball, Roy has worked on them to get wide but they need to be more compact without the ball, always you have to let the attacker run towards the byline rather than cut inside you. The other thing is Liverpools lack understanding and ideas on top of the opponents box. Many times in the game you could see Raul trying cheeky one touch chip balls waiting for the runs and expecting a player there. It is more of hit and wish rather than a synchronized attack like Arsenal are so good at.
The positives are ample, Raul for me is the stand out among all players. The speed of this passing and thought process is very impressive. Always calm in possession and very wise in distribution. He made the Spurs midfield look very weak. Lucas again gave a very battling performance, he is really improving of late. Torres is getting better but still a long way off. Ngog as I mentioned also did very very well.
Overall, very very improved Liverpool team performance. I always say football is a very simple game, when you do the basics right.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Saturday, November 27, 2010
The truth behind Rafa's exit.
Rafa Benitez, a manger who is still idolized by most of the liverpool faithful left LFC last summer. After a disastrous season, not qualifying for the champions league and loosing the support of the senior players, an exit was on the cards. However, it still was something most fans could not comprehend. The memories of Istanbul were still fresh, the European masterclass of Rafa was evident(ask Real Madrid), they were completely in shock.
Now as Roy Hodgson has taken over, a big segment of the fans are still missing Rafa. So I have decieded to have a look back and have identified the real factor behind departure. Which uptil now had gone unnoticed.
Do you remember when it all started? the mess I mean. It started with Rafa having a bust up with Xabi Alonso, it was all over the press. Rafa left him out of the trip away to Inter in the UCL. Well the writing was on the wall. Things between them never improved from then on. Wait a minute, this was just one incident. What really went wrong behind the scenes?
What really changed was the Homegrown Players rule, that was the biggest nail in Rafas coffin. Being a master of getting good european players and playing the european way he had a big challenge, suddenly to change his squad for the up coming seasons and trimming the foriegn players he had.
If you notice carefully, Rafa wanted to ditch Xabi for Barry and this saga left a serious dent on Rafas image inside the liverpool camp but Rafas motive was only to prepare for the Homegrown rule. Moving on, Look at Rafas next moves. Rafa knew he could spend 6-7m on a european right back, but he had to go for Glenn Johnson who is English. Who again costed Rafa too much money and Rafa could not have money for the much needed striker.
He again went for players who could have a more British history about them he went for Keane. Rather than his much more adored spanish talents coming up, his interest in Silva was much publicized but he could not go for him bearing in mind the Requirement of English players.
I only think of the fact if this rule had not been introduced, Rafa would still be bring in world class spanish talents like Torres, Reina, Alonso, Arbeloa, Reira, and south americans like Mascherano, Maxi.
This rule forced Rafa to loose his competitve advantage over his rivals which was his Basque roots. He wanted to go for English Players which have always been expensive and over priced.
Rafa wanted players like, Silva, Villa, Augureo, Mata, but the rules of the game were changing, he found himself in foriegn land, no longer could he pull rabbit out of the hat with a limited budget as England was not his playing ground when it came to scouting networks.
Its a shame , we all still miss Rafa, knowing and accepting his mistakes. I disagreed with him in many things, but still he was the one who made us dream. I know that if he was allowed to shop abroad, things would have been very different.
However in the end I only wanted to say " In Rafa we trusted"
Now as Roy Hodgson has taken over, a big segment of the fans are still missing Rafa. So I have decieded to have a look back and have identified the real factor behind departure. Which uptil now had gone unnoticed.
Do you remember when it all started? the mess I mean. It started with Rafa having a bust up with Xabi Alonso, it was all over the press. Rafa left him out of the trip away to Inter in the UCL. Well the writing was on the wall. Things between them never improved from then on. Wait a minute, this was just one incident. What really went wrong behind the scenes?
What really changed was the Homegrown Players rule, that was the biggest nail in Rafas coffin. Being a master of getting good european players and playing the european way he had a big challenge, suddenly to change his squad for the up coming seasons and trimming the foriegn players he had.
If you notice carefully, Rafa wanted to ditch Xabi for Barry and this saga left a serious dent on Rafas image inside the liverpool camp but Rafas motive was only to prepare for the Homegrown rule. Moving on, Look at Rafas next moves. Rafa knew he could spend 6-7m on a european right back, but he had to go for Glenn Johnson who is English. Who again costed Rafa too much money and Rafa could not have money for the much needed striker.
He again went for players who could have a more British history about them he went for Keane. Rather than his much more adored spanish talents coming up, his interest in Silva was much publicized but he could not go for him bearing in mind the Requirement of English players.
I only think of the fact if this rule had not been introduced, Rafa would still be bring in world class spanish talents like Torres, Reina, Alonso, Arbeloa, Reira, and south americans like Mascherano, Maxi.
This rule forced Rafa to loose his competitve advantage over his rivals which was his Basque roots. He wanted to go for English Players which have always been expensive and over priced.
Rafa wanted players like, Silva, Villa, Augureo, Mata, but the rules of the game were changing, he found himself in foriegn land, no longer could he pull rabbit out of the hat with a limited budget as England was not his playing ground when it came to scouting networks.
Its a shame , we all still miss Rafa, knowing and accepting his mistakes. I disagreed with him in many things, but still he was the one who made us dream. I know that if he was allowed to shop abroad, things would have been very different.
However in the end I only wanted to say " In Rafa we trusted"
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