A decent article from Maddock?

[Bailo]

Mirror

 

You know, if I see that bloody stupid meerkat advert one more time, I'll scream.

 

For a start, can anyone tell me why he's got an eastern European accent, when the damn creatures are from the Kalahari Desert? And why the hell would anyone confuse them with a search for car insurance?!!

 

What about those kitchen towels that absorb a local-swimming baths full of water? Or the soap powder that get clothes covered in (unlikely) stains so white you'll need sunglasses? Yeah. Right. Or those after shaves that have women fainting around you? I wish. No really, I do wish...every night.

 

Every single stupid shampoo advert, washing up liquid. Batteries. The list is endless, and they all make my blood boil (and not just because I could easily audition for a role in the Grumpy Old Men TV series).

 

I'm a literal sort of person, and it annoys me when things are so stupidly wrong, and yet people still fall for it blindly, and repeat it as though it is a fundamental truth. Like the idea that Liverpool are a two man team, which is a theory so widespread, it's become gospel.

 

For a start, how can any side be a two man team? You need at least seven to constitute a game under FA rules. And you wouldn't get very far with only two players would you? It'd be a bit one-sided, even if the opponents were as bad as my local pub team.

 

Getting away from the literal for a second though, it is misleading, and indeed, downright insulting, not to say palpable nonsense to suggest that the only two players Liverpool have are Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres.

 

Yep, the pair of them are world class, and any team would rather have them in their line up than not. And it's not exactly rocket science to work out that if you took two of the best players in the world out of the line-up, then it would be diminished somewhat. That though, is a truism that applies to every single other team in the world.

 

But even a cursory look at the rest of Rafael Benitez's first choice side tells you that they are hardly a two man outfit. For a start, Liverpool have the captain of Argentina, one of the most powerful footballing nations in the world, at the heart of their midfield.

 

Javier Mascherano has played for his country since he was 19 years old, and already has 55 caps, so he's hardly a duffer. He has been the one constant in the maelstrom of Diego Maradona's regime, and has shown world-class leadership for his nation at a crucial time, taking them into a World Cup spot in qualifying, against the odds.

 

Then there is Pepe Reina. As a goalkeeper, there is no doubt he is amongst the top three or four in the world, and arguably on his day - even set against the competing claims of his countryman Iker Casillas - is the best. Put it this way, he would walk into the England team right now.

 

Jamie Carragher has been the most consistent defender in the Premier League over the past five years, and that includes John Terry. Even Jose Mourinho once said he sometimes wished he could have a team of Carraghers.

 

Ok, he's had his difficulties this season, but that is as much because of the different tactical emphasis Liverpool have employed so far, as any failings on his part. Ask any manager in England, and he would be on their team-sheet. Still.

 

Dirk Kuyt has 56 caps for Holland, again one of the finest footballing nations on the planet, and anyone watching them play will see just how important he is to their line up.

 

When Kuyt went off at half time during the European Championship quarter final against Russia, his country's chances of reaching the semis went with him. His energy and positional intelligence is almost unmatched in the Premier League, which makes him a unique player.

 

Glen Johnson is the best right back in England, and one of the most exciting players in that position the Premier League has seen. Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel are regarded as two of the most promising young centre halves in Europe. Even young left back Emiliano Insua has just won his first Argentina cap.

 

Don't forget too, that last season, Liverpool won at Chelsea without Torres, drew at Arsenal without him, and beat Manchester United at Anfield with him and Gerrard on the bench. In the Champions' League, they managed a 4-4 draw at Chelsea without their skipper, too.

 

It is just lazy to say that Liverpool are a two man team, because the reality is, they have a perfectly respectable first XI, with many of their players coveted by other top sides. They have a team capable of challenging the best, evidence of which came last season, when they beat Chelsea and United home and away in the league.

 

But the problem at Anfield isn't the quality of the side, rather it is the depth of the squad. They are not a two-man team, but they are not far short of being a one-team club, which these days is a fatal flaw for any side harboring genuine title aspirations.

 

Liverpool don't really have any quality cover at goalkeeper, right back, right wing or left wing, and little depth to their forward line or in even central defence, given Agger's tendency towards injury. Presently, they don't have any back up in central midfield either, with summer signing Alberto Aquilani still to recover from the injury he arrived with.

 

That is their weakness, and it is a fundamental one. If they don't win the league this season - and from the first kick, I have suggested they will need a fair bit of luck with injuries to do so - it will be because they don't have the depth of cover in their squad to compete over the grueling length of a Premier League campaign.

 

It is not for the want of trying. If you include the many youngsters he has brought in to bolster the youth structure, in his five and a half years at Anfield, Rafa Benitez has signed close on 100 players for Liverpool, at a net outlay (that is, money spent minus money raised) of figures quoted variously between £90m and £125m, with perhaps the most accurate assessment being offered in The Times recently, of £111.39million.

 

You might have to rub your eyes at this point, but these figures really are correct. The Spanish coach has tried incredibly hard to wheel and deal to generate the funds to increase quality, and if you look at the team he inherited in 2005, there is no doubt he has done that. There is no comparison between the squad he took over and the one he has produced now. Just take a look at the pictures of the celebrations after the Champions' League final to confirm that.

 

The money he has spent sounds a lot, but actually, it amounts to an outlay of less than £20million a season, which buys you one decent player a year...unless that player happens to be a Kaka or Cristiano Ronaldo, of course.

 

When you consider there are just two players left at Anfield now from the day the manager walked in the door back in 2005, that isn't a great deal of money to bring in close on 30 players capable of hacking it at the top level. Especially when the squad he was left by Gerard Houllier generated very little in terms of revenue.

 

It has been a tricky situation, not made any easier by the debt problems at Anfield which required the manager to effectively sell before he could buy in the summer, destroying in the process the his hopes of again adding more depth to the squad he has so carefully been constructing over the past five years.

 

It is these circumstances which prompt Benitez, in more reflective moments, to quietly admit that he feels he still doesn't have the depth to his squad he would like, even if he's not exactly about to broadcast that fact on the nine o'clock news.

 

Any sustained period of Injuries will devastate Liverpool's campaign this season, and that doesn't mean just to Gerrard and Torres, either. Both those players were on the pitch in Florence, when the absence of Mascherano meant Benitez was forced to give full back Fabio Aurelio only his second start of the season....in central midfield.

 

That sums up the headache Benitez has to face in juggling his resources to try and mount a convincing title campaign. When you consider, both United and Chelsea can comfortably field two teams that would challenge in the top four of the Premier League, then he's going to have to be pretty good at keeping the balls in the air.

 

But let's get this straight, it's not because Liverpool are a two-man team. That is just lazy, join the dots thinking. And it is annoying. Just like those bloody meerkats.

[Leo No.8]

Not just a decent article - that is a very good one by Maddock.

 

His fare hasn't been great in recent times, but that piece is spot on and might open the eyes of a few football supporters of other teams around the country.

[Raj]

but that piece is spot on and might open the eyes of a few football supporters of other teams around the country.

 

Some of our own fans could do with reading that too

[Leo No.8]

Some of our own fans could do with reading that too

 

Aye, probably right there.

 

Rafa has done an incredible job of transforming our squad over time, without having massive levels of funds available.

 

He really has wheeled and dealed to get us to where we are now. Just as an aside, its worth thinking about how much it must have eaten into his personal and family life, all the videos and reports of players who he's bought then moved on.

 

The amount of work the boss must have put into bringing those 100 players in along with his staff is incredible, when you think they must have looked at thousands and thousands of players overall.

 

His committment to the club is something to be greatly admired - I know he gets extremely well paid, but Rafa has gone above and beyond the call of duty to get us where we are now and I feel he very much deserves our patience and loyalty.

 

I still very much believe that if we can sort the ownership out and just give him close to a level playing field with the other top clubs it is more a matter of when he delivers the title than if. I still see us evolving and moving the right way as a club.

Edited October 13, 2009 by Leo No.8

[richwilks]

Pretty good that.

 

In these anti-Liverpool times it's nice to see a positive article from someone who is usually a complete t***.

[Raj]

I still very much believe that if we can sort the ownership out and just give him close to a level playing field with the other top clubs it is more a matter of when he delivers the title than if. I still see us evolving and moving the right way as a club.

 

Agree with that.

[JRC]

tbf, I think Rafa would be a 24/7 Football workaholic if he was managing a Pub Team.

[Flight]

Great article, that. If t***s like Winter would follow suit and talk more sense I might start buying the papers again.

[Stevie H]

maddock's positioning himself as the anti-cascarino? bullying that is.

[David Hodgson]

Some of our own fans could do with reading that too

 

Yes superb. Wants remembering on many levels including when every Maddock's story is routinely mocked as the work of a fantasist.

[Bailo]

Yes superb. Wants remembering on many levels including when every Maddock's story is routinely mocked as the work of a fantasist.

It's one article in the face of a million s*** ones. Some of the stuff he wrote after Fowler left was atrocious.

[Stevie H]

Yes superb. Wants remembering on many levels including when every Maddock's story is routinely mocked as the work of a fantasist.

 

ordinarily his articles are agenda-driven idiocy. that article proves that he isn't entirely an idiot.

[Raj]

ordinarily his articles are agenda-driven idiocy. that article proves that he isn't entirely an idiot.

 

What you said

[honourablegeorge]

Yes superb. Wants remembering on many levels including when every Maddock's story is routinely mocked as the work of a fantasist.

 

 

Seems he can do opinion, it's just facts that he struggles with.

[David Hodgson]

ordinarily his articles are agenda-driven idiocy. that article proves that he isn't entirely an idiot.

 

 

...and that he clearly doesn't have an anti LFC or Rafa agenda. No ?

[Conrad]

Seems he can do opinion, it's just facts that he struggles with.

 

 

don't think he was far off with the Alonso's agent requesting a transfer story at the end of the season, given Rafa came out when Alonso was sold and said he'd known since May, iirc, that Alonso was leaving

[Stevie H]

...and that he clearly doesn't have an anti LFC or Rafa agenda. No ?

more often than not he's unfairly critical of the manager through ignoring reality and ploughing a populist tabloid furrow. one intelligent and thoughtful article doesn't excuse history any more than a voronin derby winner would make him the new robbie fowler.

[Chili Palmer]

On here 2 weeks ago Winter was a great Journo and Maddock was a c***.

 

a fickle world.

[_00_deathscar]

On here 2 weeks ago Winter was a great Journo and Maddock was a c***.

 

a fickle world.

 

[Mike]That's football.[/Mike]

[richwilks]

Maddock strikes again...

 

Rafa Benitez has every reason to cry foul over FA's Manchester United favouritism

 

By David Maddock

 

Published 15:05 13/10/09

 

* (1)

*

Recommend (5)

 

Steven Gerrard leaves training early due to a groin injury during an England training session at London Colney, October 13, 2009

 

It is a little known fact that Charles n Eddie, that legendary duo who were widely regarded as the Lennon and McCartney of the 90s, were Crewe Alexandra fans. Now c'mon, would I lie to you baby?

 

Which is probably what the spokesman from the Football Association was nervously humming to himself, even as he was dialling the number for Anfield to inform Rafael Benitez that his skipper Steven Gerrard was, in fact, injured after all, and would be allowed to return to Merseyside.

 

You can probably guess that Rafa wasn't exactly thrilled on Monday morning when he discovered that Gerrard would be forced to stay with the England squad, despite picking up an injury that saw him limp out of the game against the Ukraine at half time.

 

And I'm sure you don't require a fevered imagination to realise that his mood darkened somewhat when he discovered that Wayne Rooney was allowed to leave the squad on Monday morning, despite playing the entire game in Kiev. That would be Wayne Rooney of Manchester United, by the way.

 

Now, I'm not one to induce paranoia, (though can anyone tell me how the internet knows your name?!), but maybe the Liverpool manager has a point when he suggests that a certain club not a million miles down the M62 seems to get preferential treatment from a certain governing body.

 

Benitez was up against the beak on Tuesday, answering a disciplinary charge because he happened to take off his glasses and clean then when asked about the performance of a referee. He didn't speak, mind, just cleaned his specks.

 

A certain rival manager, on the other hand, who operates not a million miles down the M62, has yet to be charged even after suggesting that the entire refereeing body in England is unfit to officiate matches. It is 10 days and counting without charge, by the way.

 

If Gerrard misses the weekend league programme, I think there might just be a certain anger down L4 way. And if Rooney happens to play this weekend, then I think the FA might just have a few more "facts" to contend with.

 

And when they answer, I think Mr Benitez may be entitled to quote another line from those gifted lyricists, Charles and Eddie. "Look into my eyes, can't you see they're open wide" they sang, like the sweet-voiced angels they were.

 

As Gerrard hobbles back to Merseyside, perhaps the FA might realise that all our eyes are open just a little bit wide at the moment, incredulous at their apparent favoritism towards a certain club at the eastern end of the M62.

[David Hodgson]

more often than not he's unfairly critical of the manager through ignoring reality and ploughing a populist tabloid furrow. one intelligent and thoughtful article doesn't excuse history any more than a voronin derby winner would make him the new robbie fowler.

 

It would make him the new Luis Garcia though.

[Leo No.8]

Maddock is seeking redemption it seems.

 

The curly headed hack is rising like a phoenix from the depths of all the crap he's been writing for several years, turning out two positve, well written pieces in absolutely no time at all.

 

Not that hard was it Dave?

[Benzo-13]

He was on LFC tv last week - the Press Box. He's been converted!

[David Hodgson]

Maddock is seeking redemption it seems.

 

The curly headed hack is rising like a phoenix from the depths of all the crap he's been writing for several years, turning out two positve, well written pieces in absolutely no time at all.

 

Not that hard was it Dave?

 

lets just settle for giving credit where it's due.

[GWistooshort]

On here 2 weeks ago Winter was a great Journo and Maddock was a c***.

 

journos are only as good as their last articles Chilli