Being Liverpool manager is a tough job, the expectations of the fans are massive and the club needs to be reinstalled at the very top of the domestic game.
After showing early promise with a Champions League win in Istanbul, Rafael Benitez told us it was still going to take time to mount a serious challenge.
It's easy as a fan to get swept along with hype and not really look too deep into the harsh facts, that Liverpool simply haven't been good enough as a squad to compete with Manchester United and Chelsea.
So, as we look forward to season 2008/09, could this be our year?
After last season's failings in the league, I commented to those that would listen that there were certain members of the squad that were simply not good enough to help us win the league.
I fully believed that whilst Riise, Kewell, Crouch and Voronin were in the squad and getting games, then we wouldn't be any threat to the top two. I'm being a little harsh on Crouch as he did well for us, but he's not in the top band of strikers that you need to be title contenders.
With the above in mind I was delighted to see that Rafa let go some of the players I'd highlighted. One thing Rafa likes to mention when selling players is that he has never let a player go, that has gone on to bigger and better things, which is certainly true and goes a long way to show that the squad will be stronger for there absence.
Scott Carson has signed a deal with Albion after managing to cut his protracted transfer fee in half in the space of 12 months with some poor displays. So the replacements have started coming to the club, albeit rather slowly!
Andrea Dossena has come in as a straight replacement for Riise, he's been impressive in Serie A and on the face of it seems a good signing. His preseason debut was fairly unremarkable; it's still too early to pass judgment though. He certainly must be an improvement over Riise.
Another new full back, Phillip Degen has signed on a free transfer. I don't envisage too many appearances this season in all honesty unless Finnan is sold as makeweight for the ongoing Gareth Barry transfer.
The deal for Robbie Keane is still very quiet; I expect it to go through in the near future after Spurs admitted the player wanted to leave for Liverpool. I can only summise that the fee is the stumbling block, Deja Vu anyone?
This signing in particular has been split amongst Reds fans. I look upon it with great optimism although Rafa does have a habit of wanting to buy players who perform well against us (Yossi Benayoun in the 'Gerrard' Cup Final was immense).
Keane however is a very bright footballer who can bring other players into the game and create chances from nothing, he can also score some spectacular goals and works extremely hard for the team.
I can only imagine his enthusiasm to play for a massive club like ours will be a huge plus for the coming season, I'd expect him to drop straight into the deep striker role that Gerrard played for the tail end of last season with Gerrard himself dropping deeper into a Midfield trio alongside Barry with Mascherano protecting the back four.
This "new look" team should help us pick up points where we really shouldn't be dropping them, against teams like Wigan and Tottenham at home which will certainly move us closer to the top.
16 comments Last one added 11 months ago — Leave a Comment
Vincent Chow 11 months ago
so you think liverpool has less funds than Arsenal or do Arsenal not want to win the league? every manager in the league have equally tough jobs, they all face different problems of their own. do not stress that on your own club.
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Shyam Parthasarathi 11 months ago
Have to agree with you, it's not as if Rafa Benitez has the toughest job in the EPL.. Wenger has a tough job, Scolari doesn't necessarily have it easy either.. so, your conclusion is biased.
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K P 11 months ago
Nah I disagree. Arsenal does have extensive funds to buy players- in fact Wenger was given a lot of stick for not signing players in January despite having a reported 60m in his transfer kitty.
He also has a board that backs him to the hilt - none of the Liverpool background rubbish that Rafa had to put up with this year.
Scolari's job is only difficult because the man who pays his wages is a bit arbitrary in the way he fires managers. I think Grant did a terrific job last year.
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Gary Nolan 11 months ago
In alot of ways I agree with you about Rafa having a very tough job, mostly due to the expectations of everyone.
18 years without the title is a tough burden to wear and the constant bashing Rafa takes from the media about how we are not good enough and how Utd and Chavski are so much better than us must take some toll on the man. Now I agree that I think Wenger has to work within a budget yes but some people commenting that Scolari has it hard is a joke!! The man has endless funds to work with, I mean for christ's sake they are talking about 100 million for Kaka!!!!!!!!!!!
Rafa has had to deal with terrible owners who wont back him and I think if it continues he may choose to move on somewhere else. As for the title.....well I dont think this is our year and I hate people talking about it(just more crap for Utd fans to rub in if we dont)
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Angel fernandez 11 months ago
excellent and realistic article, as a liverpool fan too is very easy to get over-enthusiastic again looking forward a new year to end our 18 years wait, but the reality says that even with Keane and Barry our team still come short for competing to the title. Alonso is much better of a player than Barry i think none can deny that, but he hasn't been very consistent in the last 2 years, you can bet Barry will be,
specially in the league, i think Keane is an improvement over Crouch, nice player but too unidimensional, there wasn't any proof he was able to link with Torres at all. I also think Dossena will be an improvement over Riise and i don' neither expect Deggen to play too much, actually the right back is now our weak point, too many average players there.
My main hope to close the gap is actually Babel, if he mantains his improvement he can be very important for us, he's already our 3hd attacking threat after Torres and Gerrard if he can get closer to Gerrard's goal tally, we will be closer to the top, i think Rafa has a job to do with him, cause at the minute, he's more a very good impact substitute.
One more thing, we are doing very well with the reserves, a few of them could have a future in the club, Benitez need to incorporate them to the squad, that's our most feasible way to cut the gap.
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Jerry McMahon 11 months ago
While I agree that it's asking for trouble to predict that "this will be our year', I don't see the logic of your reasoning as to why we won't win it this year.
You say - "If those signings do happen then we are definitely stronger than last season, but is it enough to make us Premiership Champions for the very first time? In short, no." But, how much stronger will Berbetov make United, especially if they lose Ronaldo? How much stronger will Chelsea be with Robinho and Deco if they lose Drogba and Lampard?
I think United and Chelsea are standing still, but we're improving. It may not be enough to close the 11 point gap from last season, but I'm expecting a better run and with a bit of luck, who knows what might happen?
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Martin Skyba 11 months ago
Sorry Jerry, i didn't see your reply before making my last one. The main problem i see is that we do not beat Chelsea and Manchester United enough, we always seem to give them a good game but ultimately we seldom take the 3 points away from them, which when you're playing your biggest rival almost becomes 6 points!
My view about Ronaldo is that he will never perform like he did last season and so selling him may in fact strengthen United by way of spending his transfer fee in other areas. It looks like he will be staying anyway, which i'm happy with.
Chelsea have an embarassment of riches, if you add Robinho and Deco to that then i honestly see that as a big improvement. Drogba would be very difficult to replace and i would love to see him gone, he has been a constant thorn in our side since i first saw him net against us whilst playing for Marseille.
In summary we're 11 points off the top, to make those points up we need to either start beating United and Chelsea or turn the many draws into wins or ideally both. I'm not saying it's impossible at all, my heart would love us to win this year but my head is ruling and i think it's still not quite the time.
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Martin Skyba 11 months ago
In answer to the comments about Arsene Wenger, he had been offered transfer funds back in January and decided he didn't need them. Arsenal have turned into something of a feeder club and are more than happy to run the club in a way that is financially sound. This means that players will be sold for huge profits and the money used to clear off the cost of building such a great stadium as the Emirates. Arsenal fans seem resigned to not challenging as long as the style of football is good to watch, which as we all know doesn't guarantee trophies. The fact that Flamini, Hleb and Gilberto were all sold and Adebayor looking like he could leave, shows that Wenger is not pressured into challenging for the title as a top priority.
Liverpool still remain the most successful club in Britain, but with no title in 18 years the pressure is constantly mounting. The fans expectations can be somewhat unrealistic and this can only add to the pressure. Scolari has inherited the most expensively assembled squad in football and has been given more funds by the club, this makes his job much much easier.
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K P 11 months ago
Liverpool will not win it this year. But I think in the 4 years that Rafa has been with Liverpool, Liverpool have progressed considerably. This squad is not the strongest, but it is a helluva lot better than what he inherited from Houllier. And, all said and done, Liverpool is one of the strongest teams in the Champions League.
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Ismail Ayub 11 months ago
Just to clarify Wenger got 90 million this transfer window, but over 75 million of that goes on player wages and agents fees. Anywho, how can you say Arsenal will struggle for fourth, we coasted to 3rd last season.
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Martin Skyba 11 months ago
I wouldn't say you coasted to the 3rd spot at all, Liverpool's focus turned away from the league fairly early on and as a result we rested players for big matches, including at the Emirates where we were very impressive. Do you believe you can do the same without Flamini, Hleb and Gilberto? as well as an unsettled Adebayor? Kolo Toure will miss the start of the season as he has contracted malaria and Eduardo is slightly behind in his recovery from that horrible injury. I'm not an Arsenal basher at all, i just think it's hugely optimistic to hope for a strong season.
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Zahi Sahli 11 months ago
interesting read. i agree with you that winning the premiership is a bit too much for a team that has to sell in order to buy. one thing that i expected to read in this article was about the possible sale of xabi alonso. i think selling alonso would be an awful step because he has been contributing very well to liverpool.
i think they should bring in silva and forget about any other transfer target. they already have a very good defense, a reliable goalkeeper and an excellent midfield.
cheers
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Martin Skyba 11 months ago
Interestingly i tend to agree with what you're saying intitially. But dig a bit deeper and strangely enough it's our defensive side that needs improvement. We scored more goals than any other team last season in all competitions, which shows progress on the offensive side of things, Fernando Torres obviously played a huge part with his amazing debut season. The problem area may be set piece defending. Rafa likes to defend zonally as we know, this has been an overall success regardless of what Match of the Day pundits tell you, last season however things slipped a little and we need to just hone the defensive side of things, we have the personnel and the return of Daniel Agger will only help to resolve the problem. Expect a defensive pairing of Skrtel and Agger with Carragher pushed out to play right back for the main part of the season, all providing Skrtel and Agger can form a healthy partnership which i see no reason why they can't.
As for Xabi Alonso, i feel very sorry for him. He's a fantastic player with great vision and wonderful composure on the ball. I just feel he started to get found out a little at the early part of last season. Oppositions weren't giving him the time he likes and he started to give the ball away too much for Rafa's liking. This obviously led to him being dropped and it was hard for him to hold down a place. On his best form he is an asset which we should never contemplate selling, but if he cannot recapture his best form then i think Rafa is right to consider selling. Gareth Barry will be a steadying influence and he has shown consistency for a number of years now, i think Alonso's days are seriously numbered.
It's so frustrating to know that a player like David Silva is being made available, yet we don't have the mechanism in place to just go out and get him. I'm not saying he'd automatically want to join us, but the lure of playing alongside fellow Spanish international, for a Spanish manager must work in our favour.
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Michael Waddington 11 months ago
CRACKING READ Martin. I agree 100% aswell by the way mate. I'm also a Liverpool fan and can't see us winning it this season. We can always dream though.
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Martin Skyba 11 months ago
Thankyou Michael, although i don't think it's an impossibility that we can win it, i just don't see it happening this season. I just wish the protracted transfer dealings would hurry up and happen. It's looking more and more likely to me that the Barry transfer may not happen now and the Robbie Keane move is still a little quiet for my liking. I'm a little worried to say the least.
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YNWA KOP 11 months ago
liverpool will be champions or at least suitable challengers when we sign barry, keane and a world class winger thats affordable and theres probably one experienced winger out there who would jump at a move to liverpool JOAQUIN. Hes the type of winger that would relish the fast pace of the premiership with his incredible pace and delivery he is calling out for a manager and fans who can treat him with respect and train him hard and rafa and the anfield faithfull are exactly what he needs to get back to the level he was at when he made ashley cole look like a pub player.
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