Liverpool: The Season That Was: 2008-2009 Review

Domestic Cup Competitions

There isn’t much to say about our domestic cup runs this season; we were knocked out in the fourth round of both competitions at the hands of Spurs and Everton respectively. Our performance that night down at White Hart Lane was atrocious, especially first half. Some of our defending at times was embarrassing.

In terms of the FA Cup, we really should have put ourselves into the bag for the fifth round at the first time of asking. However, another piece of questionable defending in the space of six days against the Toffees saw us fall behind in a game we dominated.

Credit to Everton for defending well, however we really should have done better in terms of breaking them down.

How delightful was Torres’ flick to Gerrard though? The second leg isn’t really worth talking about really, bar from about the socks. No real complaints about the outcome, a pretty crappy night overall. Torres injured, Lucas sent off, and out of the FA Cup in extra time.

European Cup

After just managing to qualify after the near-nightmare that was Standard Liege (Cheers Dirk!), Stevie G's hundredth goal v PSV, his screamer v Marseille, Keane’s first goal and ‘The penalty’ v Madrid were my highlights from a fairly comfortable passageway through to the second round. Next up was Real and after a job well done in Madrid, what was to happen just a week or two later no one could have foreseen.

Another special European night unfolded into what was a slaughter of Europe’s most successful club. Madrid were shell shocked. Straight from the off we took it too them. Fast, free flowing football; it was an absolute joy to watch and a privilege being there. No wonder some have described it as our best performance in recent History. What a night!

It seems to be a given nowadays that we will meet Roman’s boys somewhere or another in the competition, but after last year's heartache, we were really hoping that we could get revenge on them.

However, it didn’t exactly go to plan. At Anfield, we were well and truly beaten by an excellent Chelsea side that had been revitalised by Guss Hiddink. Walking out of Anfield that night I had no complaints over the result, although I was rather disappointed that we seemed to go down without really putting up a fight.

It seemed inevitable that we would find ourselves out of the competition a week later, however our fighting spirit decided to show up at Stamford Bridge and the boys did us proud.

We gave Chelsea a real scare and nearly another ‘mission seemingly impossible’ complete, however in the end it was just a step too far. Beaten but proud and what a fitting tribute to the 96!

The League

What a roller-coaster ride this season has been. The highs of Old Trafford and The City of Manchester to the lows of The Riverside and The Britannia Stadium. The late comebacks against Boro, Man City, Wigan and the like, showed us something that had been missing for a while; a new ‘never say die’ attitude from our players.

However, for the all the excitement of the late, late comebacks there were the disappointing draws against the so-called ‘weaker’ opposition that have seemingly cost us dear this season.

You are always going to get the odd unexpected, disappointing result, however they were just too frequent. Stoke (twice), Wigan, Fulham, West Ham and Hull, etc. No one has a divine right to win football much, however we really should have put some of these games to bed.

The January-February period killed us. We had been flying high at Christmas. Two emphatic victories over Bolton and Newcastle took us into the New Year top of the pile, however a two month period of hell (slight exaggeration maybe) was to follow which cost us.

A bitterly cold January evening in Stoke started the sequence, this was then followed by further draws at the hands of Everton and Wigan.

Late wins over Chelsea and Portsmouth lifted our spirits again, but with United picking up pace another home draw against Manchester City followed by a mind-numbingly bad performance against Middlesborough meant that many had now lost the faith.

A large majority of supporters were now questioning our managers ability and judgement, ‘we’ll never win the league under Rafa' was some people’s cry. However, what was to follow gave myself and others a new sense of hope.

A comfortable victory over Sunderland was the start of a run that would see us go unbeaten (and only drop two points in the process) in the league until the end of the season.

A fantastic run that saw us brush aside the ‘Champions of England, Europe and the World!’ (Did you get all that? They don’t tend to mention it!), Aston Villa and Real Madrid in the space of two weeks. With us on a role and United losing to both ourselves and Fulham in the space of a week, we all now started to believe again.

Despite disappointment in Europe, we were still in with a good shout for the league going into what was seen by many as our toughest remaining game against Arsenal.

Unfortunately for us all, the stats bar from the most important point to a dominating Liverpool performance, however, although this may have been the case, three individual defensive errors cost us that night in a game where Arsenal had four shots and scored them all.

The game felt like a defeat. It was extremely hard to swallow. However, as bad as I felt then, it was going to be a whole lot worse that weekend.

We managed to scrape through with a lacklustre performance against a spirited Hull City side to claim all three points, however what was to happen that evening killed me inside. The bus journey on the way home was brilliant, for an hour or so.

Spurs leading United 2-0 at half time and seeming comfortable, the bus exploded in joy when we heard Darren Bent had put Harry’s boys one up, but to hear Luca Modric had made it two just three minutes later meant that the buses roof nearly blew off.

Supporter's in cars were passing us celebrating, we were delighted. But this delight was short lived. 2-1 thanks to an awful penalty decision by Howard Webb was then followed by 2-2, then 3-2 and then so on.

My face literally sunk. I got home to find it was 5-2 and seeing the so-called ‘penalty’ of which I had only heard about on the radio, made me feel even sicker. That decision turned that game. I don’t want to say anything more because it still pisses me off now, however we must move on.

For me, that was the day I knew it wasn’t going to be our year. Wins over Newcastle and West Ham still gave us the faintest of hope, however United kept winning and winning.

We knew after the West Ham game that United could rap up the title before we even kicked another ball, and that is exactly what they did. Wins over Man. City and Wigan meant only a point was needed against Arsenal, of which they achieved.

Fair does to them, as much as I hate them I have to congratulate them, however much it pains me to do so. What was needed now was to rap up second and give Sami the best possible send off, of which I think we did.

In a game that certainly had an end of season feel too it, there was only one man on people’s lips. Sami Hyypia, a true Liverpool legend. He deserves all the praise he gets, a fine player and a great guy.

So was this season a success? For me we have to look at our expectations prior to the season starting to determine this. I think everyone will agree that what we wanted at the least was to see our team maintain a serious title challenge which lasted until the latter stages of the season.

There’s no doubt we’ve done that so we have achieved our aim. I mean at the start of the season I would have never imagined that we’d still be in with a shout of the title with two games to go. So in terms of our expectations we have succeeded. However, rather than calling it a success, I’d prefer to call this season an improvement.

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, I am extremely optimistic ahead of next season. If Rafa brings in the right player's for the key areas of the team that need adding too, thus giving us more quality strength in depth, I think we’ll have every chance next season.

The new boys...

On the whole I think Albert Reira has had a good first season. He started every so well, making an extremely impressive debut v United and got a well deserved standing ovation when he was substituted in the second half, of which caught him by surprise a little.

Stand-out performances against Chelsea, Aston Villa, PSV and Bolton also spring to mind. Although his form over the last couple of months has been inconsistent, I think he has settled in well and is a good option to have in the squad.

Andrea Dossena: It is fair to say the Italian has had a pretty rough first season at the club. Suspect defensively, but showed a little offensively may be the kindest way of putting it, which has now seen him fall behind Insua and Aurelio in the left-back pecking order. Don’t be surprised to see him gone in the summer.

David N’gog: A raw, inexperienced striker. Whether he’ll make it or not is yet to be seen, however early signs do leave big question marks hanging over that.

Diego Cavalieri: We’ve seen very little of our number two goalkeeper this season, bar from a few appearances in the cup. Maybe I am being a little too harsh on the lad by saying that there were moments in those games where he looked rather unconvincing, however surely anyone is an upgrade on Itandje, right?

Phillip Degen: Who? I have heard some say. Yes, it is easy to forget about our Swiss sicknote because unfortunately due to injury (and not being good enough?) he did not make a single Premier League appearance for us this season. We only ever had the privilege of watching him play in the Reserves and the League Cup. Again, don’t be surprised if he NEVER makes a Premier League appearance for the club.

The game of the year…

This is a tie between Real Madrid at home and United away. Performance-wise it would have to be Madrid for the reasons explained above. Everyone played there part that night, from the players to the manager and coaching staff, to us up in the stands.

It was fantastic. However beating United (your arch enemies of whom you were battling it out with for the title) in there own back yard, by that scoreline and in that manner, well, it was fantastic.

Player of the season

Third: Pepe Reina

In my opinion he doesn’t get the credit he deserves from some people outside of the club. He may not have had as much to do as some goalkeepers in the League, some games he barely touched the ball (which I guess is to be expected somewhat nowadays), however when he is called upon, 99 percent of the time he answers superbly.

He seems to make the hard things look so easy. A fantastic shot-stopper, his distribution is top draw and one on one he is one of the best around. The best goalkeeper in the league? There isn’t much better, not just here but in the world.

Second: Steven Gerrard

When the chips are down who do you call? That’s right! 24 goals from our skipper, another marvellous return in what was a very turbulent year for him off the pitch. Went missing in a few games where we really needed him (Stoke and Boro), but the majority of the time when we needed him, he delivered.

On the whole a very good season from Stevie and only just missed out on first place...

First: Xabi Alonso

“The lad’s a midfield maestro and his passing is so delightful...” Never a truer word spoken. A man who oozes class not just with his passing, but with his ability to control a game, steady the ship and be the pinnacle to our overall play.

When he has been absent from the side this season our play has suffered because of it. Anyone still doubting this lad needs there eyes testing. Selling Alonso (unless there has been something going on behind the scenes we don’t know about), would be a travesty.

Controversy...

The ‘Rafa rant’

What a load of bull. It was just so convenient for the Media that after Rafas' remarks about Ferguson we hit some indifferent form. Putting two and two together is just so easy for them. So the whole thing was Rafa ‘cracking up’ and as usual them licking Fergie's backside branding him a master of the mind games.

Rafa said what many Premier League manager's have never had the bottle to say and if it were an attempt to take the pressure of the players and divert the attention away from them (especially Gerrard at that time), I commend him for that.

However, to say that this disrupted the teams flow is a load of crap. If THAT affected our lads then there is something wrong...

The Keane saga

The whole thing was a farce. Parry v Benitez and all that malarkey. To be honest, I felt Robbie received far too much criticism over his apparent 'poor attitude.’ Yes at times he may have been too over the top in his frustrations, but the signs I received from him was that he really did care.

I always took him as a winner. Someone who loved his football and who’d die for the shirt. When Spurs won the League Cup and they interviewed Robbie afterwards was a moment I’ll never forget.

It might sound strange, but that moment where he was nearly close to tears made me respect the man even more. This was a guy coming to his boyhood club, with a £19 million transfer fee hanging over him and eager to impress.

Things didn’t start great for him and this will have added to the pressure, that and the eagerness to succeed would have boiled over to this frustration we saw at times on the pitch, of which I think too many people built up as something major. I for one will not hold anything against Robbie.


Bring on next season!