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Club Focus – Liverpool – It gets no easier
It’s not just Liverpool’s ego that has been battered and bruised by their poor start to this Premier League season. Fernando Torres’ poster-boy looks have been marked by a shiner of a black eye, Martin Skrtel is still punch-drunk from fracturing his jaw and Jamie Carragher’s cut forehead has forced him to sport garish headgear that is more John McEnroe than Terry Butcher. While the quality has been sorely lacking at times at the beginning of this campaign, the agony of defeat has been matched by the pain on the faces of some of the players.
How apt then, that the Reds face Bolton next. The Trotters have always, somewhat unfairly, been Premier League shorthand for a tough, ugly, physical side, and Rafa Benitez admits that he learned a lot about English football from his early confrontations with the men from the Reebok Stadium. It was only Benitez’ third league match in charge when, back in 2004, Liverpool lost 1-0 at Bolton in a match that saw Kevin Davies break Sami Hyypia’s nose, new signing Josemi look totally out of his depth and debutants Xabi Alonso and Luis Garcia pondering if English football was always played in the sky like it was that day.
Matches with Bolton have often been watershed moments for Benitez’ Liverpool. Last season’s 2-0 win at the Reebok was arguably their most complete away performance of the campaign, a late Garcia strike in early 2006 rescued a point to prolong a twelve match unbeaten run, and anyone who doubts just how far the boss has taken the club in five years need only look at the team-sheet for 2005’s 1-0 win. Steven Gerrard played as a lone striker, alongside the likes of Scott Carson, Mauricio Pellegrino, John Welsh, Anthony Le Tallec and Antonio Nunez. Djimi Traore’s cross for Igor Biscan’s late winner was perhaps the least likely goalscoring combination in Anfield history.
With Benitez already claiming that this Saturday’s meeting with Bolton is a must win affair, his current crop of players will have to stand up and be counted in what may well already prove to be a pivotal moment in their season. The likelihood of it being an uncompromising encounter means that new 6ft 4ins centre back Sotirios Kyrgiakos – who could have been an extra in Braveheart or 300 – will probably come in for a debut, and perhaps Gerrard will move back into midfield to replace the luckless Lucas, blamed by many for the Aston Villa defeat.
There is a lot of anger amongst Liverpool’s players at the moment; anger with both each other and the situation that they find themselves in. The blame game is been played on a daily basis, with fault for this season’s failings rotating in the most vicious of circles between the club’s American owners, Benitez, his senior players, his squad players, Xabi Alonso, and back to the owners again.
Despite all this, the talk of a crisis has been overblown - not uncommon during Benitez’ Anfield reign. Liverpool collected four points from matches away to Spurs and at home to Stoke and Villa last season - their best campaign for some time – compared to three from the same fixtures during this ‘calamitous’ start. While a win on Saturday is imperative to avoid any further embarrassment, difficult questions and, most importantly, any further ground being lost, if it is achieved then attention switches straight away to Old Trafford, where either one or both of Manchester United and Arsenal will drop points.
The lacklustre start to the campaign has seen many fans point to Liverpool’s lack of options in attack, a fact that has made the departure on loan of young striker Krisztian Nemeth seem puzzling. Hungarian Nemeth - who scored twice on Liverpool’s pre-season tour of Asia – will spend the remainder of the campaign in Greece with AEK Athens in a deal that was negotiated during the Kyrgiakos talks. Nemeth has a good scoring record at reserve level, but fellow forward Dani Pacheco is a more complete player, and could be the one to feature in the first team before the season is out. The lack of funds available means that in the unlikely event of a forward coming in then he will probably do so on a loan deal, and pondering if any big name strikers will join the Reds before Tuesday is a long, pointless exercise.
Speaking of which, the extensive process of the Champions League draw has been made, and the Reds will face three teams that they’ve never played before in Lyon, Fiorentina and the Hungarians Debrecen in the group stages. New challenges then, but the focus has to be on the familiar foes that they’ll face on Saturday. If they’re not up for the fight, then it could be lights out for the title challenge already.
Liverpool Club Focus The People of Thailand & Singapore vs. Xabi Alonso - July 29
Should nobody expect a Spanish acquisition? - August 5
High hopes - August 12
False start - August 18
Plenty of bets, but no slip - August 21
Three games, two defeats and one big problem - August 25
It gets not easier - August 27
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