I was enjoying an excellent Saturday last weekend. Went out in the morning. Had a good breakfast. Excellent sunny weather. Went out with my family to Ikea to get some of those scandinavian designer house stuff. Amazingly the traffic around there at around 11am wasn't too bad. Then played street soccer with my mates for two hours, leaving me very much knackered but very much more satisfied with myself after some decent displays on the courts, in my opinion, although some other people would say i was absolutely horrible, but what the hell. I think i played OK. Not Zinedine Zidane-esque, as i dont think i am that type of player, but more of a Stevie Gerrard sort. Ha ha ha. Yeah right!! Went back and had dinner with my better half. Had a really good time although i spent most of the time complaining about the aches on my body from football. Yes. I must be getting old. Sent her back at around 10-ish and headed back home to catch the Liverpool match on the telly. I found out the moment i reached home that Man Utd actually lost to Wolves (Ha Ha!!), and my day just could NOT be any better. After around half an hour goading and teasing my sister while laughing and rolling around on the floor, i went to the telly to get myself ready for the match. We were playing Spurs and it can't be any worse than what happened to Man Utd, could it?
What an absymal result. I am so very dissappointed and just can't seem to get past the trauma of watching us loose to the Spurs on Saturday. Here is a low down of how our players played.
jones - Almost saved the penalty as he got a hand to it and could do much about the second. Looked quite dodgy with some of his kicks though, but pretty solid otherwise. 6/10
henchoz - He did OK as a right back but was caught out of position on a few occassions. Looked much MUCH more confortable once he moved to the center of the defense along side Hyypia, his natural position. 6/10
biscan - Useless piece of Croatian arse. Was at fault for both goals. I must admit that I was starting to think that he was probably a decent defender, but after this shocking performance, i would be very very surprised and extremely annoyed if he gets the nod ahead of Henchoz for the spot beside Hyypia. Useless piece of Croation crap gets -1 gazzillion / 10
hyppia - Had a relatively OK game, but was partly at fault for the 1st goal though, playing Keane onside as he was late coming up to get the offside trap up. 5/10
traore - Another useless piece of trash. Fell on his arse too many times that the White Hart Lane faithful started to goad him. Never contributed anything going forward and was shaky defensively as well. Djimi "fall on my arse" Traore gets a measly 1/10
hamann - Played his normal, simple game and cleaned up the shit for everyone else in the midfield. Mr Consistently gets on with his job gets a 7/10
murphy - I think someone needs to buy for him a pair of glasses as he just failed to see the difference between red and white, judging from the amount of times he passed straight to someone in white, and not red. He should be benched. Period. Person who should be benched get 0 poitns /10. You deserve it!!
cheryou - To think that when he first arrived, i was actually excited with the hype that came with him as "The Next Zidane". Too many people were optimistic that after the Chelsea goal, he would start to show us the true Bruno Cheryou. Although me, being the pessimistic basterd that i am, laughed my evil laughter inside of me, i was still willing to give him another chance. After the match, while i was gathering my thoughts for the match, and saw the lineup again, only then i remembered that he was actually playing. Can someone tell me what on EARTH he was doing on the pitch, as i can't seem to remember anything meaningful. Absolute horse crap. The ex-"Next Zidane" gets a 0/10 for his Houdini-esque dissappearing act during the whole match.
kewell - Other than his absolutely superb goal, he was agonizingly anonymous again. It seems that he just doesn't seem interested in playing nowadays. He should get the ball and run with it more often, rather than trying to pass it all the time. 6/10 points and most of 'em points are for the goal.
heskey - It doesn't bode well for the team when people say he played relatively well compared to the rest! It seems that there is speculation that Middlesborough was eager to sign him for 5 million pounds. On any other time i would have bitten their arms off for that sale. However, i don't think that Gerard will sell him off now as i think it would be absolute suicide as we don't have any ready made replacement. If he goes, although not a total loss, who would play up front? Owen (Just recovering from injury), Baros (Recovering), Ponggolle (Too young and inexperienced and too similar to Owen), Kewell (Dip of form), LeTallec (midfielder who can play forward, but too young). The most likely and best case scenario would be for Heskey to go in the summer, unless we can get Cisse in before the transfer window (Big if, and i am still unconvinced by Cisse in the first place). 6/10 just for his effort. He might not have that much skill, but at least he shows that he wants to play.
owen - Owen, Owen, Owen. He doesn't seem to be interested in playing for us anymore. He STILL hasn't started negotiations on his contract, and i feel he is delaying it to see our chances of qualifying for the Champs League next year. Honestly speaking, i wouldn't put it against him if he left. Owen sometimes complains and doesn't understand why he doesn't get as much support or adultation from the Anfield faithful as, say, Gerrard, or Fowler. But to me, it's simple. Look at Gerrard for instance, saying up front before hand that he will sign a new contract irregardless, and did so. That's why we idolize him. 4/10 for doing absolutely nothing. I am willing to let him have some time to regain his match sharpness.. yes i am.
riise - Somehow, he doesn't seem like the same player that played for us like 2 years ago. He can't pass, his shots are awry, and doesn't run with the ball anymore. Very very very guilty fo just "lumping it up to Heskey". 2/10 for the "lumper".
finnan - Glad to see him back. Showed us what we have been missing on the right back berth with his forays forward. Let's hope he gets fit and plays consistently. 6/10.
Some thoughts from the match..
What on earth was Houllier thinking with the tactics? Putting two natural fullbacks on the bench and playing with FOUR centerbacks across the defense. I can see now that this would be the tactic that he would employ for tough away matches and it seemed to have worked when playing against Chelsea. Absorb all the pressure and hit them on the break. This was the tactic they used during the treble season. The only difference between now and then is that we can't seem to defend properly anymore, what with Biscan and all playing. Also, playing this sort of tactic against teams like Chelsea can be forgiven, but against SPURS?!! That's what i call giving too much respect that they deserve!
Looking at our bench, it was just soooooo god damned obvious what our tactics were. Finnan, Carragher, Dudek, Riise, and Le Tallec. I mean, 3 defenders, one keeper and one attacking midfielder. The starting eleven was so blatantly obvious that it was gonna be playing on the defensive, and the bench would suggest to ANYONE with a reasonable IQ that we would be hard up to come back into the game if we were behind and there was absolutely no one on the bench to come in and change the game to our favour. Where was Sinama Ponggolle?
It seems that most of our players, to quote a mate of mine, "Has a first touch of a rapist!". I mean of all the players out there, it seems like only Hamann and Kewell have decent control of the ball. I mean this is a Premiership club and i would have expected a premiership team to have at least some degree of control when they have their first touch the ball, but judging from the Spurs' game display, almost most of them can't trap a brick! Even Owen! Amazing!
Teamwork was virtually non existent. The fact that the Kewell goal was scored from an individual run, dribble and shoot shows the amount, or more so, lack of teamwork amongst the players. I mean, for goodness sakes, SPURS of all teams showed us how to play the pass and move game! SPURS! (Credit to them though).
Owen doesn't look interested in playing anymore. It might just be me, and it might just be that he is still getting back his match fitness. But his constant stalling on a new contract just tells me that he is waiting to see if we have any chance of getting into the Champs league next year, and if not, it'll be bye bye Owen for us. Bad, but i wouldn't blame him one bit.
The very fact that we had to complain about an un-awarded penalty kick to say that we were robbed of one valuable point just shows how desperate we are nowadays. I mean, we shouldn't be in THAT position in the first place.
I've said it so many times, maybe not here, but we've shipped out quality players from the club and brought in inadequate replacements. Out went Litmanen, Anelka, Berger (he could still do a job for us now), McAllister and who came in? Diouf, Diao and Cheryou.
Ok. Enough with the rants for now. I need to lay low and keep quiet for the time being. Been getting replies to my SMS which i sent to all my Man Utd supporting friends after finding out their results. Need to stay away from my sister as well. Serves me right. Mental note to self. Only start harassing other team supporters ONLY once my result has been confirmed to be OK.
Later.
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