The Liverpool Lie
Nothing bothers me more in football than when myopic TV pundits and journalists alike ignore the facts. I’m talking about facts. With the Annual Arsenal Write-Off duly shown two-fingers by the Gunners and Liverpool putting in an uninspired (to say the least) performance at White Hart Lane, you have to ask whether pundits and journalists should have seen this coming. Perhaps, it is Liverpool, not Arsenal, who should be looking over their shoulder at the likes of Man City.
While pre-season remains a dodgy indicator of how a team will perform when the Premier League starts (e.g. Man City this season, Tottenham last season), it does give us a glimpse of how a team will perform. You would like to think that pundits making predictions would maybe, just maybe, cast their eye on Liverpool’s pre-season results when tipping them to do well again this season.
Espanyol brushed a full strength Liverpool aside, Espanyol being the team that fought to stay in La Liga, let alone challenge at the top. Then Atletico Madrid got the better of Liverpool at Anfield with Liverpool fielding an equally strong team. Now, of course, this doesn’t serve as sufficient evidence to suggest that Liverpool should not be mentioned in the same sentence as “title challenge” but it does show that Liverpool were not well geared to hit the ground running.
A criticism that is still regularly (somewhat legitimately) levelled at Arsenal is a lack of squad depth. The fact that Arsenal face such criticism yet Liverpool’s surprisingly small squad does not, represents some of the blindness of current pundits and journalists. When you actually take a look at the squad list, it’s bemusing to see how this group of players are being tipped to win the league while Arsenal are being prophesised to drop out of the top four.
A simple question that few have answered is where the goals will come from. Of course, Gerrard and Torres are always liable to score around 20 goals a season each, but who else? Kuyt and Benayoun will surely chip in but then it gets to the also rans. David Ngog. Ryan Babel. Andriy Voronin. Benitez cannot be allowed to claim that injury to either Torres or Gerrard means they won’t win the title, if he does little to replenish a team that looks like it will struggle for goals.
Steven Gerrard and Javier Mascherano will remain the midfield powerhouses that they are, but the absence of Alonso was clear for all to see in the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham. Lucas Leiva, a possible heir to Alonso’s position, is a player who has failed to convince on various occasions and is simply not good enough to play central midfield for a supposedly title challenging team.
The £20m acquisition of Roma’s Alberto Aquilani also comes shrouded in questions. By the players own admission he is a different type of player to Alonso, one who likes to go forward much more often. His injury record is worrying for a 25 year old, not to mention the fact that he won’t appear in a Liverpool shirt for up to 8 weeks. Dirk Kuyt, Albert Riera and Yossi Benayoun can again be expected to put in decent shifts, but once you scratch the surface of the Liverpool midfield, the shallow squad depth is there for all to see. Players like Ryan Babel, Nabil El Zhar and a host of unproven and mostly unknown younger players (far from the calibre of Arsenal’s starlets) provide the clearly inadequate cover.
Something that has been mentioned all too often by the media mob is the relationship between Gerrard and Torres. “If they keep Gerrard and Torres fit…”, “If Gerrard and Torres stay fit…”, “With Gerrard and Torres fit for the whole season…” Let’s debunk this here and now. It’s all too easy to forget that both Gerrard and Torres were fit and firing on all cylinders in the 2007/2008 season. Gerrard played 52 games, scoring 21 goals, with Torres playing 46 games and scoring 33 goals. Yet Liverpool finished a distant fourth.
Also conspicuous in its absence is any mention of Arsenal’s injuries last season. We’ve heard about Gerrard and Torres, but what about Fabregas, Walcott, Eduardo and Rosicky who all faced months, if not the majority of the season on the sidelines.
It should also be noted that Arsenal’s demolition of Everton happened without Walcott, without Rosicky, without Diaby, without Djourou, without Nasri, without Vela and without Wilshere.
There’s romanticism about backing Liverpool, a team with a rich footballing history, passionate fans and some true football legends. However, this is no reason to ignore the harsh reality of a Liverpool side that has been overhyped and overrated that ultimately punched above their weight last season. Arsenal have their own issues, yes, but the criticism they have faced has been incredibly far-fetched in its hostility and propensity to ignore the true facts. It’s all too easy to pick on Arsenal, but all the pundit’s backing in the world won’t help Liverpool win the title.
Halleluiah something I have been saying for the past 4 months! Totally agree.
Very true. Liverpool will be contenders but Arsenal may prove to have the stronger stronger team. If it’s all about keeping Torres and Gerard fit then they could be in trouble.
Wow, I must have dreamt all the articles and opinions in the build up to the season that stated that Liverpool still hadn’t addressed a worrying lack of depth since the summer had seen a right back and centre midfielder leave and a right back and centre midfielder join.
Some good points, but still you gloss over too many things to make your point.
Also, it would appear to be as easy to pick on Liverpool as it is to pick on Arsenal, have you seen the back pages today?
I was shocked at Liverpool’s bench. They have no depth at all. Yes, I realize that Riera, Agger, and Aquaman are missing but still. They have no depth at striker at all; they have Voronin and the largely unproven El Zhar and N’gog. Against Spurs they didn’t seem to get any flow going. what will they do if Torres gets injured or if they are behind late in the game? Put on the ferocious strike force of the aforementioned subs??
Good article. Benitez needs to remember that whilst it’s great having two of the best players in the league in Gerrard and Torres, you need credible backup options should they get injured. Looking at the weekend games it could be argue Tottenham’s squad is superior to Liverpool’s right now, even if their first team is not. But to use a poker analogy, it’s no use only having two aces if someone else has three jacks.
HAHAHA, the shitpool as title contenders, my ass, been defeated by spurs, that is funny, only Dependant on the axis of Gerrard and Torres??, Liverpool are surely out of the title, only arsenal, Chelsea and man shitty are real contenders, as for man utd , a 10% chance to grab four in a row, even i am a man utd fan
Your basic premise on why Arsenal should be considered more of a threat than Liverpool is that Arsenal has depth while Liverpool doesn’t .
However, you fail to notice how Arsenal do not have a midfielder that can bear comparison to Gerrard (no, Fabregas is far, far off) or a striker that can come close to Torres (Eduardo is good, but not that good and Arshavin is more of a midfielder).
So then look at two more things:
1. Barcelona won the treble last year with about 15 first team players: Valdes, Alonso, Puyol, Pique, Marquez, Abidal, Xavi, Yaya Toure, Iniesta, Busquets, Keita, Henry, Messi, Eto’o, Bojan. The rest were filler material. Caceres, Gudjhonssen, Hleb and Sylvinho played a good number of games, but rarely the important ones.
2. Despite incredible strengths, Arsenal have incredible weaknesses: probably the worst goalkeeper in the league (sorry), inconsistent full backs, the inexistence of a second central midfielder, lack of depth in the final third. Yes, you have more than any other team in the creative department. Fabregas, Nasri, Arshavin (especially), Rosicky, Walcott all have fantastic ability to get in behind defences, but then you are relying on Bentner and Eduardo to stick them in. Perhaps telling that out of six goals in the weekend, only one came from a striker.
So while Liverpool might have fewer players, they have a more balanced team: good goalkeeper, reliable full-backs, decent centre-backs, three (as opposed to one) good midfielders, threat from the wings (Bennayoun, Riera) and two great players (mentioned above).
That said, Chelsea and Manchester United are both better off. I still think that there is no better attacking player in the league than Rooney or a better player in the league altogether than Essien and that both teams are much more homogeneous than the other top four.
Notice you’re saying this after 1 game! Exactly your criticism of the “myopic” pundits writing Arsenal off too early.
Get a proper job mate. I am old enough to remember Liverpool as one of the worlds greatest teams in the 60s and 70s and we always had lousey pre-seasons then.
Ferguson took 7 years to win anything with megabucks United and nobody criticises him for that.
Rafa is building a dynasty and that takes time. If you can’t see past the first team then what are you doing in this job.
^^^
lol.
As a pool fan, I am regretfully agreeing with this story 100%. I am a fan of babel, but, unfortunately he isnt delivering. We are so shallow in all areas but defence. Torres is the best striker in the world, but that is contingant on getting good delivery from midfield. When u have the pathetic imp LUCAS in the midfield…u will not strike fear into any oppositions heart. The guy should be loaned out or sold. If keane was an expensive mistake, this guy is a frustrating mistake. Our line should be as it stands with availiable players…
reina
jono carra skrtl insua
masch
kuyt/ babel reira
yossi
gerrard
TORRES
There a old saying: “you play as well as you train.” well if the preseason acted as training for pool then we are in big trouble. They were terrible accept the 5-0 against highly rated…who was it again? We needed to win every single match, and win it by plenty to have some momentum going into the season. Yossi has to be the creative boss in midfield, and I would be putting a 10 goal minimum requirement out of him. He has it in him to do it. He should be granted fulll licence to score at all costs, and to leave the defensive stuff for masch. I dont expect much out of kuyt, he is serviceable but uninspiring. Johnson was a star, our best player against spurs and will be gr8 even if defensively a little shaky. Eventually I would like to see Agger playing at left back. Please rafa… loose the lucas
I think Liverpool finished top in the scoring charts last season with 77 and gerrard and torres only contributing about 30
Facts are funny things,
” without Walcott, without Rosicky, without Diaby, without Djourou, without Nasri, without Vela and without Wilshere.”
only rosicky and possibly nasri would be seen as first team the rest are not. They are rotation players.
Liverpool does have a small squad but liverpool were pretty lucky last season with major injuries coming late into the season. This season that luck is catching up to them, with injuries to pretty much their entire defense and no cover for the midfield.
Arsenal might of had a lot of injuries but so did chelsea and manU. Chelsea had essien, j.cole, deco, malouda, carvalho, drogba and ferreira out for quite a bit of the season. Thats basically an entire squad, but they kept on going. ManU had injuries to nearly their entire backline, c.ron, hargraeves and intermittent injuries to quite a few others yet they still won the title.
To win the title you need to make sure u have cover for those kind of injuries. Part of the reason arsenal seems to promote youth is that their cover are usually kids, all good and all but kids dont have the necessary experience or mental strength to play as back up. Its the same problem with liverpool now.
Okay. Good article First of all.
It shows the truth: “Liverpool are nothing without Gerard and Torres and will face the fight for fourth spot, ‘this season’”. But the Arsenal Comparison is a bit long. Well Arsenal has its problems no doubt. But the seem better of right now than any other team. Also Liverpool are Liverpool they are the team which get the most unexpected results every now and then.
@Andrei funny you didn’t mention RVP. And Pool doesn’t have reliable fullbacks, the only have fullbacks, no centre backs.
@ish hello?? Chelsea still has strong depth in the sqaud. Majority of its players are as good as first team regulars.
@ roy connoly -’rafa is building a dynasty’
hahaha. what a joke!
“building a dynasty”?……I just laughed so hard that my morning coffee shot out my nose!!!!!!
we lost to spurs last season and still came second… stop talking shi*e…… 37 game sto go.. talk to us at the end of the season
Good article, and it must be noted that hicks and gillet are not putting a dime into Liverpool, whereas Arsenal’s Board have made it clear that they will fund Arsene’s transfer targets.
The yankee muppets are trying to win the league with the club’s resources…..so __c_ them !!!
@ andrei.. arsenal have 2 of the best full backs in the league.. denilson and song did a decent job iin the centre of the park and in the final third.. we have arshavin rvp and eduardo (fox in the box) our squad is a lot better than liverpools..
@Andrei I can’t believe you decided to leave out RVP in your “analysis”. Almunia is one of the most underrated keepers in the world and certainly better than some of the slouches in the premier league.
So Andrei, in your world
Johnson is more reliable than Sagna
Gerrard is now predominantly a central midfielder even though he hasnt really been used there for 4 years.
Fabregas is nowhere near as good as him as a central midfielder.
Van Persie doesnt play for Arsenal
Almunia is the worst goalie in the league
Now in the real world why dont you tell me how many players Liverpoolhave who can pass the ball well? Does Benayoun count, even though he’s too small to play 90 minutes in Rafael’s Liverpool Machine? Because I cant think of anyone else
i have been thinking it for a while, i think liverpool are the most at risk from man city, and possibly spurs. got some world class players obviously but then some that are simply not good enough plus they clearly have cash problems
I agree with what the article says. I never believed it’s
Liverpool’s year even though I am a LFC fan. One of the com-
ments was referring to the fact that Arsenal does not have
good strikers and out of the 6 goals scored against Everton,
only 1 was scored by a striker. Well, Gerrard, who I consider
as a midfielder (definitely not a striker) was by far No1
scorer last year for LFC. Both Torres and Gerrard scored most
of LFC’s goals. At the end of the day, I don’t care if LFC’s
midfielders scored 5-6 goals while Torres/Voronin scored none
As long as they score and win games. LFC heavily depends
on Torres/Gerrard that will get us nowhere. Our fullbacks
are not reliable, we change them quite frequently over the
past 2-3 years. Our center backs are ok (Skrtel still makes
lots of mistakes, Agger has been moslty injurred and Hyppia
is now gone). In the midfield, after Alonso left, there is
no one to create, except Gerrard who has to drop back to
get the ball. Benayoun is good but he does not get enough
time and he is not as talented as the midfielders of the
other top 4 teams. Kuyt, Riera are good supporting midfiel-
ders but nothing else. Mascherano is an excellent defensive
midfielder but that’s it. Lucas is mediocre even in his
defensive duties.
Torres is world-class but LFC has nobody
else to support him up front with. We will see whether Aqui
lani can play for long periods without getting injured to
provide some creativity. Last year, LFC over-achieved and
created false expectations for this year. In my opinion they
were out of the title race in late January and never really
threatened.
They took advanta-
ge of Chelsea’s drop of form before Hiddink stepped in and
stayed in the 2nd place.
Unless Ancelotti screws up I don’t see
that happening this year. And I agree that we will have to
fight to beat teams like Manch City, Tottenham and of cour-
se Arsenal for the 3rd place. I would not be surprised if
LFC is out of the race before New Year’s and struggle for
the 4th place.
I hope that at some point some new, exciting players will
come out of the academy. Benitez has been accusing other
people but I hold him accountable for the fact that there
has been no one coming from the academy ranks since he
became LFC coach.
This is hardly a revelation. Where do you come up with this rubbish? People have been saying Liverpool lack depth for ages, and they’ve also been asking where goals will come from. Groundbreaking stuff here on soccerlens…its little wonder i haven’t visited for a while.
How many Liverpool players can pass the ball well ??
Liverpool 4 Stoke City 0
Liverpool Stoke
Total Passes 564 174
Passing success 85.8% 63.8%
I think that both the downside for Liverpool and the upside for Arsenal are over-stated here. We all get way to carried away with the first few results of the season and never seem to learn from history.
Not that many pundits tipped Liverpool but those that did based it on their strong showing last season, and most tempered their comments by referring to the Alonso loss and the need to adjust for this.
I saw none who tipped Arsenal, mainly because Wenger failed to address the weakness that is obvious to the rest of the world, defensive midfiled and extra cover at the back (and cost them dearly in the past 2 season’s.)
Both could surprise us and winning the title is not beyond either but it will take everything going in their favour to get there in my opinion.
I expect Liverpool and Arsenal to be neck and neck this year…whether that’s above or below United I can’t decide yet but I think Chelsea will pip the rest.