Bleacher Report - Articles by Martin Skyba

Why Liverpool won't be Champions, by a Liverpool Fan.

Martin Skyba — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:52:26 -0400

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.

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.

The lack of transfer funds makes it impossible to challenge United and Chelsea, whose squads are still superior to ours. Our policy of having to sell players in order to buy puts us way behind those teams in terms of transfer muscle.

When we are scraping the funds to buy Keane and Barry, Chelsea are preparing a world record bid for Robinho after already splashing £16m on Bosingwa and £8m on a 30-year-old Deco.

United won't need to spend much this season, maybe just £30m or so on Berbatov, which is of course small change to them! They did their major work last season when they sunk £60m into the Nani, Anderson and Hargreaves signings.

This means our realistic expectations should be a challenge for the title, at least being in the hunt come March and April but ultimately finishing below the top two. I haven't mentioned Arsenal much as I feel they will struggle due to the widespread departures of their top players recently, they may make it into fourth but it will be tough.

Another successful Champions League campaign could be on the cards, qualifying should be a formality and I'd hope to at least make the Semi's again, hopefully avoiding other English teams along the way.

It's hard to admit that we won't win the Premier League but until we can compete for the very top players we will struggle.

If money were no object I'm sure Benitez would have put David Villa and David Silva at the top of his wish list, the Barry transfer would have been a done deal long ago and a top quality right back would be earmarked early on.

The reality is that Rafa has the toughest job in the Premier League, trying to win a Premier League title on a comparative shoestring budget.

Peter Crouch Out... Who's coming in?

Martin Skyba — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 13:10:24 -0400

With the imminent departure of Peter Crouch to Portsmouth, Rafa Benitez now needs to add a striker to the Liverpool squad. Crouch has been a good player for Liverpool, sure he started with a dry spell but more often than not he looked a threat to the opposition.

He was frozen out last season due to the amazing success of Fernando Torres, who showed that he is one of a few strikers in the world who can lead the attacking line on his own! The only possible problem I see, lies with the formation that Benitez will choose to play, the 4-5-1 was almost stumbled upon last season and Steven Gerrard played a huge part in making it successful, his intelligence and attacking instincts worked perfectly with Torres, the style suited them both.

I believe Gerrard needs to be moved back into a more central role however to really make his influence and leadership count. This frees up a role as either a supporting striker or a strike partner for Torres.

Already at the club we have Andriy Voronin, he hasn't set the world alight and I can only imagine more bit part appearances for him. Ryan Babel is predominantly a winger but many people feel he can play the striker role, I personally prefer him as a winger though.

Dirk Kuyt hasn't made the impact we expected in goal scoring terms but has managed to get his name on the team sheet by working very very hard, his work rate is astonishing at times but we paid over £10m for a striker, which we haven't quite gotten!

The press has been littered with stories about possible signings, some good and some bad... some just ridiculous. Robbie Keane's name has been mentioned this last week as being interested in a move, another boyhood fan who would no doubt thrive at our club. His price may be a stumbling block and Spurs would be very foolish to let him leave having already sold Defoe and Berbatov non-committal to anything, I doubt the Keane move will happen.

David Villa would be out of our price range unfortunately, he's a player we'd all love to see come in but again I don't see it happening. So where do we look? The best strikers around all seem to be in the Premier League, the best of the La Liga and Serie A may be hard to pry away from their clubs.

Samuel Eto'o looks certain to leave Barca so he will undoubtedly be linked with us, but I don't think he fits the shape of our team very well at all, he plays in a similar style to Torres and his addition would disrupt the balance. Euro 2008 didn't really show me anything I didn't already know with regards to strikers either.

As you can tell by the way this is going, there aren't many options out there! Which makes me think Rafa will try to spend the cash on a right sided winger. This will no doubt leave Dirk Kuyt on the bench as cover for Torres should the worst happen (God help us if it does!).

David Silva has been talked about but I fear he's too slight for the Premier League, he has great talent but I'm not sure he'd be a success over here where the refs aren't as protective. Ricardo Quaresma is another name brought up from time to time, but he is way too inconsistent to spend any large sum of cash on.

So as the start of the season approaches we should consider how the team will take shape, below is how I think it will look, with Gerrard slightly less advanced and the wingers acting as support for Torres. Mascherano and Barry will need to be clever enough to cover the areas left by the wingers as and when it's needed.

------------------------------------Reina----------------------------------------

Carragher-----------Agger--------------------Skrtel--------------------Dossena

-----------------------Mascherano----------Barry-------------------------------

---------------------------------Gerrard----------------------------------------

New Winger---------------------------------------------------------------Babel

----------------------------------Torres-----------------------------------------

I wait with excitement now to see who Rafa will bring in, I really believe it will be a winger, either right or left considering Babel can play on both wings. Gareth Barry will be with us soon and I get the feeling Steve Finnan will be leaving as part of that deal, which is why Carragher will more than likely find himself at right back.

I don't see Degen as anything other than a squad player, Dossena should be straight into the team now Riise has left for Roma.

I'd like to say a huge thanks to Crouchy, he did all he could for us and proved the doubters wrong! YNWA!

Please discuss who you'd like to see Rafa bring in, remember we are working to a budget though!

England's Football Problems Lie with Team Selection

Martin Skyba — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:39:21 -0400

We are constantly bleating on about 1966 in this country—the fact is that since that great victory we have no doubt produced more talented players, had stronger squads, and yet we have never looked further away from repeating the feat of winning a major trophy.

In 1990 we had what I'd call a good World Cup tournament out in Italy. Our downfall, which now seems to be the outcome at all tournaments, was the inability to take a good penalty when the pressure mounted.

Looking back at that team though shows that Paul Gascoigne aside, we had a fairly average squad. By average, I mean that if those players were at their peak today, they'd struggle to get in the squad.

Would Des Walker get in ahead of Rio Ferdinand? Would Terry Butcher get in ahead of John Terry? The former will always be remembered for being covered in blood and playing on, but was he actually that good? Not really, well certainly not in the same league as John Terry anyway.

I'm not saying that all of the players were average. In Gary Lineker we had a goal machine, who always came up with a goal when needed. We has Chris Waddle who had a trick or two. Peter Beardsley was a good creative player, who seemed to link up well with the strike force, and Bryan Robson was very workmanlike.

Looking at today's squad though, we have some of the world's top players.

Steven Gerrard consistently shows for Liverpool that he is among the top three midfielders in the world, Wayne Rooney is certainly right up there with the best of them, in central defence we have so many top defenders that Jamie Carragher put himself into retirement as he wasn't getting a look in.

Add to those the likes of Frank Lampard, Michael Owen, and Owen Hargreaves, and it's amazing that we haven't succeeded, or even looked like succeeding in winning a trophy.

In my opinion there is only one reason for this, and it lies with team selection.

It all started with the appointment of Sven Goran Eriksson. He was obsessed with getting his star players on the teamsheet regardless of the position they played in. He figured that with the best players on the pitch we would beat anybody.

This was obviously far from the truth and exposed early on when we were outplayed by Brazil at the World Cup in 2002.

People will blame the goalkeeper for being lobbed from 40 yards, but the blame should lie with the coach. His biggest mistake was picking David Beckham even though he was so far off match fitness he may as well have stayed at home.

The Steve Mclaren era should be struck off the record books—he was simply Sven's puppet boy, and things were never going to be different with him.

So along comes Fabio Capello, with a reputation for doing things his own way and not pandering to the stars. His style of play is already evident—England are retaining possession and are more patient—but i can't help thinking we are looking too Italian, with a style that says we must avoid defeat before we try to win.

Capello's only matches so far have been friendlies, but even so i've noticed a few flaws that make me feel hugely worried about the future. His team selection against the USA in particular made me tear my hair right out, and I don't have much!

Steven Gerrard has been criticised heavily for not recapturing his Liverpool form for England, yet the number of times he has been played out of position are far too many to lay blame on his shoulders—against the USA he lined up on the LEFT hand side of midfield.

David Beckham earned his place on the right hand side of midfield and Lampard and Hargreaves took up the central roles. The attack was not far from ideal, with Owen out of favour, Jermain Defoe was rightly selected to lead the line with Wayne Rooney providing support.

In truth, Defoe was fairly poor, but his lack of opportunities at this level may be the reason for it, I like the way he plays. He's an out-and-out striker.

Rooney was also criticised for his attitude and some poor tackling during the game, and this needs to be rectified by Capello. His talent is too great to be wasted, he needs to find the form the set him on his way at Euro 2004.

In defence the only weak link was at right back, with Wes Brown somehow making the starting 11 ahead of the much-improved Glen Johnson.

The goalkeeping situation has hopefully settled down with David James, for now at least, looking solid. Scott Carson needs a good season without the distraction of England to get himself back to the level that earned a call-up in the first place.

The performance against the USA was mediocre—they were a poor side in fairness, and we should have ripped them to pieces.

Gerrard was named man of the match, yet to me looked uncomfortable on the left; being right footed, he'd cut inside at most opportunites and against stronger opposition this would have been nipped in the bud from the start, thus taking him out of the game pretty much.

So the left side of midfield becomes a problem again, yet there is no reason for it. There are two players who should have been considered before Gerrard to play there.

Gareth Barry has been outstanding all season in central midfield for Aston Villa. He is a left-footed player though, and spent the early years of his career playing down the left-hand side. He would have looked far more at home than Gerrard, but even so he would have been my second choice after Stewart Downing.

The Middlesboro winger may not be "world class" in the slightest, but he is also left-footed, although his right foot is very strong too. He is very attack-minded and loves to go past his man—he gets to the touch line and puts crosses in.

Given the chance, he'd do well in this position.

The central midfield should contain Steven Gerrard along with either Barry or Hargreaves.

On the right of midfield, Beckham still deserves his place. David Bentley has been hyped to high heaven, but he simply isn't good enough. His attitude stinks and he is only worried about himself, and obviously doesn't listen to instructions! (I can't see Capello asking him to spray 70-yard passes at any opportunity, none of which landed at the intended destination).

The strike pairing has to be Owen and Rooney for the forseeable future, with Crouch and Defoe getting the nod should Owen go missing or get injured.

At the back, Ashley Cole is looking more like the Arsenal defender we remember, rather than the Chelsea defender we've come to know. Ferdinand has had a great season, and John Terry still looks strong when we need him.

Glen Johnson needs to be slotted into right back, though. He is strong, quick, and has matured into a great defender with the ability to get forward.

In goal, David James still has a few games left in him. This leaves us with a very strong bench consisting of the likes of Micah Richards, Frank Lampard, Crouch, Defoe, and many other players who could do a job if called upon.

The main point i'm trying to make is that playing a great player out of position isn't as effective as playing a good player in the correct position. A central midfielder should be played in central midfield!

If you have four players fighting for the same position, it can only be a good thing. If a player knows he'll get in the squad regardless of where, or how he plays, then this not good!

Lampard has not been as good as Gerrard, Hargreaves, or Barry, so he should accept he needs to be dropped and then push for a recall. Owen finished the season well, but Defoe could push him all the way for a place. Rooney hasn't been the same player we know, so if he doesn't buck his ideas up then Joe Cole can do his job well.

My first eleven for the next England Game would be:

James, Cole, Terry, Ferdinand, Johnson, Gerrard, Barry, Downing, Beckham, Rooney, Owen.

Subs: Kirkland, Woodgate, Joe Cole, Crouch, Defoe, Lampard.

Now looking at that lineup it seems weaker than what we have at our disposal, but it has balance, and players will know exactly what their jobs are...hopefully making the likes of Rooney, Gerrard and Co. to reproduce club form for their country!