Three Thousand Versts of Loneliness

You are the manager. There's twenty minutes to go in a must win match against Birmingham City. Your star striker is on the pitch and at your disposal on the bench are several forward thinking players. One, David Ngog, has all the skills and goal-scoring threat of a block of wood. What do you do? If you're Rafa Benitez you take off the star striker and replace him with the block of wood. You also showcase your talent for signing some of the most bog standard donkeys ever to have donned a red shirt. Step forward Mr Insua, Mr Kyrgiakos and the latest pointless addition, Maxi Rodriguez. Cometh the hour cometh the man. Rodriguez ballooned a sitter over the bar in the closing moments. That said Ngog had already duffed a selection of chances which, no doubt, Fernando Torres would have had nestling in the back of the net. And whatever new depth of incompetence Rafa manages to plumb the majority of Liverpool supporters continue their perverse practice of singing his name.

Liverpool's prospects of claiming some silverware this season could end at Anfield tonight. If Rafa Benitez' side cannot overturn a one goal deficit against Lille the Europa Cup will have gone the same way as the League Cup, the F.A. Cup and the Premier League. Fernando Torres has indicated that he might have to look elsewhere to pursue trophies, Albert Riera has highlighted the manager's lack of communication with players and Steven Gerrard's recent conduct suggests that he is feeling the strain. On the pitch, a comfortable win against Portsmouth not withstanding, Liverpool's form has gone from bad to worse. Lille are a plodding, mediocre team and the 1-0 victory they were handed in France came courtesy of a deplorably negative display by the Anfield men. Liverpool couldn't muster a goal either at Wigan Athletic. Even a team as gutless as Tottenham Hotspur was able to run in nine goals against the Latics. Torres is conservative when he suggests that five ...

Paradoxically, on a night when Liverpool regained Premier League top spot, the club’s championship credentials appeared increasingly flimsy. Chelsea, who dropped home points against Arsenal on Sunday, and Manchester United, must have drawn encouragement from an anaemic Liverpool performance which failed to kill off West Ham United at Anfield. Frankly the performance was not good enough. Robbie Keane was isolated and ineffective up front and he did not receive sufficient support from Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt was brought in from the right hand side to play deep, just behind Keane, a tactic which simply did not work. Had the roles been reversed, the Irish striker might have had a less frustrating evening. Although a little fleet of foot was what Liverpool really missed last night, as evidenced by the threat eventually posed by Ngog, introduced with only 20 minutes remaining. Although Rafa Benitez insists that his side played well, my view was that the team was too one paced and predictable....

When Liverpool faced Everton at lunchtime on Saturday, Robbie Keane created Fernando Torres 59th minute goal, delivering a consummate cross from the by-line. Moments later his threaded through ball to Dirk Kuyt drew a save, before Torres’ pounced with a second, ultimately lethal strike. Last night, in the Champions’ League, ‘El Nino’ returned the favour, feeding Keane from the dead ball line. The Irishman finished with precision, putting Liverpool 2-0 ahead against PSV Eindhoven and opening his goalscoring account with the Anfield reds. Let the fireworks commence. On a less happy note, bad luck to Shakhtar Donetsk who led Barcelona, but were eventually beaten by an injury time goal. I’ve had a soft stop for the club since visiting Donetsk and being showered with free, albeit incomprehensible, club magazines by supporters eager to share their enthusiasm.

It is much easier writing gloomy posts about football rather than upbeat ones. By that rationale, I should be devoting a blog or two to the continuing woes of Ballymena United. But rather than wallowing in the ceaseless misery which accompanies every supporter of the Braidmen, I will attempt to accentuate the positive and comment on Liverpool’s remarkable week. At the outset I must confess that I was unable to catch the entirety of last Saturday’s match. Instead, I deduced its progress from a series of initially ominous and then progressively delirious text messages, before enjoying hugely the BBC’s highlights. Although I might not have watched it live, nevertheless I feel bound to offer those readers with an inclination toward Manchester United hearty and heartfelt taunts. I was fortunate enough to attend Liverpool’s previous victory against the Mancs, when Peter Crouch secured a 1-0 FA Cup win in February 2006. Prior to that match, Liverpool had last beaten United in 2004, whe...

After watching Liverpool’s anaemic display in Liege last night, I rather wished I’d been watching the full-blooded Slav derby discussed below. Leaving aside a creditable performance from the Belgian champions, Benitez’s side were truly appalling. It is difficult to name one player who emerged with credit, with the notable exception of goalkeeper Pepe Reina. The Spanish keeper was called upon to save a dubious first half penalty and otherwise dealt well with spirited Liege attacks. Liverpool’s tactical deficiencies were worrying enough. The midfield was overrun whilst Kuyt and Benayoun somehow managed neither to tuck in and prevent their central colleagues becoming out-numbered nor to provide any meaningful width. Alonso was particularly isolated alongside Plessi who looked like a deer caught in a truck’s headlights. Consequently the totality of service provided to Keane and Torres consisted of hopeful long balls struck by the left foot of Agger or flighted from 30-40 yards towar...

An aberration from Jean Arne Riise has put Chelsea in the driving seat to reach the Champions League final in Moscow and may be the Norwegian’s last significant contribution at Anfield. Deep into injury time, added on at the whim of disgraceful referee Konrad Plautz, Riise’s attempted headed clearance stole victory from a dominant Liverpool side and gave Chelsea a first leg away goal in the semi-final first leg. And theft is an apt metaphor to use of a night when Chelsea attempted to cheat their way to the final deploying the dramatic skills of Didier Drogba who attempted to feign injury continuously and the knees and elbows of John Terry who persistently assaulted and fouled Liverpool players throughout the 90 minutes. Terry was eventually booked after chopping down Javier Mescherano at knee height and a competent referee would have been furnishing him with a second yellow and expelling him from the pitch. The match opened in frenzied fashion and it took some 30 minutes for Liverpo...

Liverpool supporters are quick to point out the disparity between the club’s glittering history and the relative lack of a similar tradition at Chelsea. Going into tonight’s semi-final first leg the London club will be acutely conscious, not merely of the inferiority of their record over the longer term, but of more recent history and two previous defeats against Liverpool at this stage of the Champions League. Liverpool vs. Chelsea fixtures have acquired a deeper resonance since Roman Abrahamovich’s arrival at Stamford Bridge. They represent a clash between football royalty and the game’s nouveau riche. Their character was further sharpened by the personality clash off the field between cerebral Spaniard Rafa Benitez and Chelsea’s brash Portuguese manager Jose Mourinho. Paradoxically, with the more measured Avram Grant at the helm, Chelsea may be better equipped to withstand the fevered atmosphere of a Champions League semi-final. Benitez has suggested as much and is both wary a...

Next Tuesday promises a tense quarter final in the Champions League after Liverpool and Arsenal’s first leg tie at the Emirates last night ended in stalemate. Rafa Benitez will be the happier manager as his team gained a draw and scored an away goal in a match which saw Arsenal enjoy more possession. However he will be mindful that in the previous round Arsene Wenger’s side travelled to Milan after a drawn first leg and dominated AC before running out comfortable two goal winners. Anfield is a venue to inspire awe and trepidation amongst opposition players on big European nights and it is in this competition that Benitez’s success rate is at its most formidable. Liverpool will need to be more enterprising at home than they were at times last night. For large periods of the game they were happy to cede possession. And whilst this tactic paid dividends ultimately, there were moments when Arsenal broke through Liverpool’s resolute defence and might have given themselves the advantage...

I am, and am completely aware of being, an incorrigibly gloomy watcher of football. I approach most fixtures either with an expectation of defeat, or in the firm belief that the opposition are such a diabolical outfit that anything less than a cricket score will simply obfuscate the frailties endemic within the team I follow. Confidence and enthusiasm are for me traits only exhibited in the flush of relief after a good victory. Watching games on television is a particularly agonising, purgatorial pursuit. I tend to hunch restlessly in front of the TV, maintaining a perpetual incanted commentary of doubt and complaint. Thus during Liverpool’s first leg Champions’ League tie against Inter Milan I became convinced that a lack of cutting edge would limit us to a 0-0 draw. ‘It’s no good having all this possession and not scoring’, ‘it’s got 0-0 written all over it’, ‘they’re happy to soak up the pressure’ etc etc. In contrast my girlfriend was insistent that Liverpool’s dominance would...

No matter what enjoyment you might occasionally derive from it, no matter how well things may seem to be going on one front, football will always conspire to bring its share of abject misery. Thus with Ballymena winning regularly and internationals in abeyance for the time being, Liverpool are contriving to throw away their championship challenge for yet another season in the most frustrating fashion. Rafa Benitez and his side have managed to fritter away an encouraging start due to a series of baffling decisions, inexcusable performances and failures to capitalise on territorial dominance. The stark facts are that the Reds have not only thrown away points against sides they should have beaten, they have also failed to beat all three teams with whom they should be contesting the league title. Take away three good results in Europe and a handful of convincing wins against poor opposition and Liverpool have done nothing right this season. The responsibility for this underachievement...