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Steve McClaren’s Ineptness Can Influence Liverpool’s Success? Great…

Peter wishes England weren’t quite so crap.

So what does International week mean to everyone nowadays? It used to mean seeing your country battle it out with others countries in a bid to qualify for the next big tournament. The four years between World Cups felt so long but now it seems like it’s something to do during the summer. We’ve now got less than a year for another European Championships in which, there’s all the likelihood that most of the English squad will return demoralized an exhausted.

When your team doesn’t depend too much on English players (e.g. Arsenal and Man Utd – Scholes has retired and Rio doesn’t get fazed by anything) it’s not such a problem.

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Has Football Started Down A Slippery Slope?

Peter takes a moment to ponder the risk facing all professional athletes.

The past few years have seen the tragic deaths of 3 footballers yet have we ever really been given answers as to why their hearts failed? Clive Clarke recently survived cardiac arrest before Leicester’s Carling Cup game and it appears he has been luckier than Marc Vivien Foe, Miklos Feher and Antonio Puerta who all suffered heart attacks while they were on the pitch. All were young footballers in the prime of their careers with bright futures ahead of them but they didn’t get to experience the lives that they had probably planned for themselves. It’s always tragic when a young person passes away, more so when it’s so sudden and for the unfortunate trio it came as they were taking part in a game. Although I’m the first to tell the other half that it’s not just a game, when people’s lives are put in danger or in these extreme cases where life is lost you suddenly view everything in a different perspective.

Are these 3 young footballers unfortunate that they had some form of congenital disease, a case of a weak heart or is something more sinister affecting their bodies to react this way? I guess we’ll never have conclusive evidence that it was anything more than just horrible luck but one thing is for sure and that is that football is become over-developed, with players being athletes first and footballers second. I think that’s evident in that we’ve seen more cruciate ligament and metatarsal injuries in the past 15 years than we had seen before that. The body just can’t cope with the extreme speeds and pressures that are put on it and something has to give way.

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Liverpool’s Ryan Babel Needs More Time But At Least Pennant and Torres Look The Business

Better late than never as Peter chimes in with his thoughts on Liverpool’s 2-0 win over Sunderland.

30 seconds in and it looked like it was going to be another frustrating away game as Voronin broke through and could only hit Gordon in the chest with the ball. On the whole it was a case of shots hitting the keeper instead of shots that were to make him work. That said it wasn’t until Sissoko broke the deadlock that we really had another effort on goal. To be fair to Gordon he did play well, he made himself big when he needed to be and was in the right place at the right time when he needed to be. It would have taken a superhuman save to stop Sissoko’s first ever goal for Liverpool. Fitting too that it was Liverpool’s 7000th ever goal, scored by a player whose commitment could never be questioned but whose goal-scoring ability has always been questioned. On the whole it wasn’t the best game to watch and Rafa Benitez will be cursing his luck in a week that saw us lose our appeal to sign Heinze, we saw two injuries to our starting centre-backs.

Hyypia was elbowed in the face in the first few minutes and after losing sight in one of his eyes it was established he’d broken his nose and then in the 2nd half after Pepe Reina came out and kneed him in the back Jamie Carragher had to go off with a suspected broken rib. Our first fears were confirmed later with the news that he’d also suffered a collapsed lung. It now appears Rafa’s choice to sell Paletta to Boca Juniors was a tad premature. After seeing Juventus dismantle Livorno, albeit slightly fortuitously I have to say that signing Chiellini earlier in the transfer window would have been good business but leaving it so late makes things very difficult. Teams tend to add a couple of million and are less willing to part with players as they themselves need to find a replacement. We made the mistake of putting all our eggs in one basket with Heinze and even though within the laws that govern our lands he should have been able to chose which club he wanted to join, it seems Man Utd have some special power over the Premier League.

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Are Tottenham Still The Favourites To Break This Season’s Big Four?

Jason ran through the title race, but isn’t sure if Tottenham really better placed than the likes of Everton, Newcastle, Portsmouth or Manchester City to claim a place in this season’s Top Four.

A collection of able, but not brilliant players, boardroom disharmony and extravagant spending in the transfer market has long since been a feature of Tottenham Hotspur as a football club. The debate about whether they could break into the top four has been going on for a long time- perhaps originating after they led an injury-hit Arsenal side for large parts of the 2005/06 season before succumbing on the last day to finish fifth. Since then, they have never really looked like taking away that coveted fourth place from their hated rivals. While most expected them to push on last season, again challenging heavily for a top four finish, Spurs fell off the pace, finishing eight points behind their north London rivals Arsenal compared to just a single point difference the year prior.

Despite spending more than £40 million pounds this time round in the transfer market, Tottenham have still not looked any closer than last year to breaking into the top four with their shaky start to the Premiership season. After conceding a last minute winner to a Sunderland side that had just come up from the Championship, Martin Jol’s team then went on to be comprehensively thrashed by an Everton side at White Hart Lane. In fact, reports in the media hinted that the win over Derby County was the only thing that had kept Martin Jol his job with Tottenham. Although some would think that the recent win could be the start of a change in fortunes, it appears that the Tottenham board think differently. After publicly announcing that Jol would be staying at the club, they were left with egg on their faces after Juande Ramos revealed they had approached him with “a dizzying offer”. Hardly the best news if you’re Martin Jol, considering you were lied to and then the board went behind your back looking for replacements.

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Which Of Your Players SHOULD Steve McClaren Have Picked?

Peter runs through every Premier League club to find out who was overlooked for England duty, he even found someone at Arsenal.

Does anyone get excited anymore, waiting to hear the next England squad? I think everyone was waiting with great anticipation for McLaren’s first England squad to see whether David Beckham would be dropped. Of course we know the farce that has surrounded the Becks selection but has he surprised anyone with his selection? If I’m being honest he’s surprised me at how shockingly bad he is and how unimaginative he has been since taking the reins.

Far be it from to suggest who the man the FA have deemed to be the most appropriate candidate to take over as the manager of the England national team but if you look down the list of English players playing in the Premier League surely you can think of someone other than Phil Neville.

So here’s a quick rundown of which players from each club Steve McClaren should have picked, and let us know your demands in the comments.

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Liverpool vs Chelsea: How Does Rob Styles Live With Himself? But At Least Torres Scored…

Peter is a tad upset about how Chelsea nicked a point from Liverpool.

What is it a person does when they feel they’ve been hard done by? Swear a lot and generally be in a horrible mood for the rest of the day/week/month? Go and play football and kick lumps out of people?

How is Rob Styles living with himself? Where did he see the penalty? Where? I can maybe understand being fooled by a clever player as he’s touched and falls down claiming a foul, but Malouda jumped at Finnan. How does that constitute anything more than physical contact between two players? In such a vital game between two of the biggest teams in England, how does one man and one man alone manage to spoil it like that?

The one problem I see here though is that there is no way in hell that Styles is giving that foul for the visiting team at Old Trafford or Stamford Bridge, so why does he give it at Anfield? Of course referees are supposed to be impartial but home sides normally get the benefit of most decisions. It seems Mr Styles thought he was somewhere in London because some of his decisions were atrocious. Every time there was a foul or a questionable decision the Chelsea players were quick to pounce on the referee to put as much pressure as they could on him and in the end it paid off. No-one other than Rob Styles thought that it was a penalty and even now after seeing it on the TV he too must have come to the conclusion that he made the wrong decision. That doesn’t stop Liverpool from being robbed of two points and it doesn’t take the smug grin off of Mourinho’s face either.

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Slow Start For New Signings, Chelsea Next, But At Least Liverpool Are Above United

Peter runs the rule over Liverpool’s Champions League romp, Chelsea, and how well the American’s dollar has been spent so far.

Wednesday afternoon kick offs are rarities, but I’m always looking for an excuse to spend 2 hours in front of the TV watching my team play. There were concerns before the game that the heat was going to take its toll on the players with the Toulouse players claiming that we would wilt. Sadly for them it looked like it was their players who were suffering more, but that’s what happens when you’re chasing the ball for 90 minutes or so. I’m not going to paint a picture of a great game because it was far from that, it was quite excruciating at times and my mate who came over to watch it with me fell asleep during the 2nd half.

But with some games it’s important to get the result and not worry so much about the performance (I hope that doesn’t become my slogan this season). Crouch and Voronin combined well at times but nothing cutting edge, Babel showed flashes in the 1st half but was almost invisible in the 2nd, Benayoun was poor for his full debut and Gerrard didn’t seem like he was too bothered. Credit the lads though, they got a result away from home in a tricky tie that has made the return leg a lot easier but not exactly over. The goal that won it was a beauty and Voronin should be happy with his first competitive goal for Liverpool as it was the highlight of an otherwise stale encounter. That said, the heat did play quite a large part in making the encounter what it was, as you could clearly see the players lacked any vigor and with a home game against Chelsea this weekend you could excuse some of the Liverpool from players being slightly distracted.

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Liverpool 2-1 Aston Villa: Poor Finishing Or A Champions Result?

Peter isn’t sure if a shaky 2-1 is a sign of lacklustre finishing, or the sort of bullish result that Premier League title winners are known for.

I can’t remember the last time I was so excited by the arrival of the new season. The summer has seemed longer, mainly because there’s not been a sub-par international tournament to keep us occupied. The weekends have felt empty. I hadn’t quite put my finger on it until Sunderland kicked off against Spurs. Premiership football was back and maybe it was all the talking in previous weeks about who we all thought was going to win the league, who was going to finish in the top four or who was going to be the surprise package but it was a special feeling to have football back. I’m sure signing up to every fantasy league I could think of didn’t help either but as the days ticked by I was worrying more and more about a first fixture of the season away to Aston Villa. As we all knew before the game started, Rafa hadn’t won an opening fixture of a premiership season during his tenure at Liverpool and this season wasn’t going to be easy for him. Martin O’Neill is a great motivator and with some decent players in the squad Villa were always going to prove to be a strong opponent. No-one likes to lose their first game of the season, especially at home.

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Spurs Will Settle For Fifth Again, West Ham Hope For Top Half While Sunderland And Wigan Will Struggle

Peter completes his Premiership preview tackling Sunderland, Tottenham, West Ham and Wigan. Click here for parts 1, 2 and 3.

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Sunderland

The motivational skills of Roy Keane will surely be put to the test this season. He proved he could lead a side to winning the Championship and although that team had won the Championship 2 years before it was still a great achievement if you consider the starting position he was given. Many people are labeling him rather prematurely, the successor to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United but winning promotion with Sunderland is hardly enough of a qualification to take over from the 2nd most successful team in England. As for transfer activity, Sunderland haven’t exactly set the world alight with the signings of Kieron Richardson and Michael Chopra but if you look at the 3 promoted sides they’ve all decided to take the Reading model and try to re-work it as opposed to over spending and having to renegotiate contracts if they get relegated. Apparently Sunderland have beaten Aston Villa to the signing of highly rated keeper Craig Gordon and although it’s a great coup for Roy Keane, a great keeper isn’t guaranteed to keep you up, just ask Watford and Charlton last season.

Prediction: Another team that will be battling the drop. As with most clubs who gain promotion it’s a bit of a lottery sometimes as to whether they’ll have early success and manage to stave off relegation and with Sunderland it won’t be any different. Finishing 4th from bottom this season should be considered a success for Roy Keane.

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Liverpool Finally Ready? Too Early For Manchester City But Too Old For Manchester United?

Peter brings you part 3 of his Premiership preview. Click here for part 1 and part 2.

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Liverpool

Probably the highest profile transfer of the summer was Fernando Torres’ switch from Spain to Liverpool (I said high profile not most annoying to, for any Man Utd fans objecting). Benitez has been under a lot of pressure to produce a high profile signing since his arrival in 2004 and this seems to be the one but how effective Torres will be is still a mystery. A lot of people have made a big fuss about Liverpool’s spending during the transfer period but the expenditure this summer has been less than that of last year as Benitez has managed to recoup money from selling unwanted players. With addition of Ryan Babel and Yossi Benayoun, Liverpool have strengthened on the creative side of things, something that was severely lacking last season and with the return to action of Harry Kewell the Reds seem to be in a strong position. One major factor for Liverpool this season will be the fact that Steven Gerrard has had a proper holiday for the first time in 4 years and will return fully revitalized and ready to lead his boyhood team to the title they so long for.

Prediction: I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard this is going to be Liverpool’s season but Benitez seems to have acquired the players he wanted in the transfer period. The squad is shaping up to be one of the strongest in every position and that’s important if you want to be challenging for the title. I know Chelsea and Man Utd fans have been trying to rule out any chance Liverpool have of winning the title this season but I think it will probably be those 3 up there come the business end of the season.

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Manchester City

Having watched Man City in the transfer period rather closely one can only assume that Sven spent most of his time during his unemployment playing Championship Manager on his PC. I have to hold up my hands and say that I hadn’t heard of half of his signings but it seems his scouts have been working hard during the summer to find the missing pieces of a squad that wasn’t the strongest in the Premier League. It’s always a risk bringing in so many players from abroad and one mistake I believe Sven has made is that he hasn’t brought in any players with experience of playing in England. He has also lost City’s best defender in Sylvain Distin, with their defence being the main reason they managed to survive last season.

Prediction: I think Sven is a good enough manager to keep his team up this season but sadly for him that’s all they’ll really manage to do. I do believe they’ll be quite comfortable and with a good dose of luck, both on the field and their players bedding in, they could break into the top 10 but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I was a City fan.

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Drogba Loss Could Cost Chelsea The Title, Everton Too Thin For Top Four, Fulham and Derby In Danger Of The Drop

Peter brings you Part 2 of his Premiership predictions. Click here for Part 1.

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Chelsea

A surprisingly quiet transfer period for Chelsea who will be trying as hard as ever to become Champions for the third time in four years. Unsurprisingly they strengthened at the back, firstly by letting Boulharouz go on loan and secondly by bringing in versatile Israeli Tal Ben Haim in but most importantly they acquired Claudio Pizarro from Bayern Munich on a free to cover for Drogba when he leaves for African nations cup duty. I think this well be a telling time in Chelsea’s season, as I find they’re still rather over-reliant on the big Ivory Coast forward. How they fare in the months of January and February will be an indication if they’re going to be challenging for the title again. One thing that Chelsea will benefit from is the stability that not many players have left or arrived and so Mourinho’s job has been made slightly easier as he’s not had to wait for players to acclimatize. Chelsea will also be helped by the fact that Petr Cech won’t have part of his skull missing and will be able to most likely play every game.

Prediction: Chelsea will definitely be challenging for the title this season again but I feel they may come a cropper in January and February when their main man will be missing.

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Derby County

I have no doubt Derby will work hard and do their best next season. They’ve bought a few players that have some Premier League experience but sadly they haven’t really bought any of any real quality. Robert Earnshaw is Derby’s main acquisition but even he and Giles Barnes can’t work miracles. It’s nice to see Derby back in the top league but sadly I don’t think there’s enough quality or experience in the squad to keep them up.

Prediction: I can’t recall the last time a team came up through the playoffs and managed to survive the drop. I’m sure some statto will tell me but I’ll go along with that hypothesis when I say that I can’t see Derby surviving. They didn’t seem to have the stamina to last the race last season in the Championship and slipped down into the playoff places where they probably should not have beaten West Brom but that’s football for you. Giles Barnes’ contribution will be vital if Derby do manage to escape the drop but sadly the gulf between the Premier League and the Championship seems to be growing and survival for promoted teams seems to be getting harder every season.

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Arsenal Only Hope For A Cup Run? Blackburn Beat Villa To Europe? Bolton Dodge The Drop?

Peter throws you part one of his season preview series. The rest will be coming Monday and Tuesday next week.

With the clock counting down now to the new season I’m surprised that the media hasn’t dubbed the clash this weekend between the champions and the FA cup winners the greatest community shield game ever, fitting for the first of its kind at the new Wembley. I guess they’ve learnt their lesson. Although admittedly you’d have to assume that this weekends game will be better than the FA cup final with neither club having too much pressure on them but then again you never know when Mourinho and Ferguson meet, neither likes to lose.

In an attempt to further excite and titillate I thought I would give a brief run down of each team in the Premier League and whereabouts they should hope to finish.

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Liverpool Jibes Hide Chelsea And United’s Fear

Peter reckons the Anfield badmouthing is a case of pulling the pigtails of the girl you like… or are worried about taking your trophies…

The new season is getting closer and closer and Sir Alex seems to be worried. The mind games have started already, the name calling seems to have returned and it can only mean one thing. The red-nosed Scotsman is worried that Liverpool will be challenging next season.

You can’t help but feel the hypocrisy of his words as he claims Liverpool are opportunists in their attempts to buy Gabriel Heinze when Man Utd are playing the exact same game with Tevez and West Ham. It’s all mind games and the new season hasn’t even started which is the surprising thing. Mourinho also had a pop at Benitez attempting to put the pressure on before the season starts, claiming that Benitez has to match Liverpool’s spending with results and trophies.

I can’t help but think that both Mourinho and Ferguson are worried and are trying to unsettle Liverpool even though both whiners have strengthened their own squads substantially without really letting anyone go (Kieron Richardson doesn’t count by any stretch of the imagination, if anything it’s strengthened United!).

I think I speak for every Liverpool supporter when I say that I hope we stuff United and Chelsea this season and to be honest we haven’t been in as strong a position as this since the summer of Diouf and Diao who were supposedly going to win us the league. Far be it from me to make predictions (yeah right) but this season Benitez seems to have strengthened substantially without really losing too much quality. Although a critic of both Voronin and Benayoun I’ve been very impressed with both in pre-season but what impresses me the most with the two other main transfers of the summer is that both Babel (19 years old) and Fernando Torres (23 years old) are not only for the short term but will be at Liverpool for a good many years. They’ve both played in big leagues and big tournaments so the switch to the Premiership won’t be too daunting and with their unmistakable class they’ll be firing on all cylinders sooner than most expect.

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Liverpool Need Less Talk, More Action In The Transfer Market

Peter is sick and tired of Liverpool not spilling sensitive information to the press.

One ray of light that came from the Champions League final loss for Liverpool supporters was that we were going to pursue our number one targets and we were going to secure them as quickly as possible. That was what Rafa led us to believe, yet it’s now been 2 weeks since his comments and no-one has arrived. Unreasonably impatient you say? Of course, with Manchester United snapping up world class youngsters left and right while we’re supposed to be the ones minted - and they’re supposed to be the ones with Glazer Debt ™.

At first a sense of frustration overcame me when we were linked to several players and nothing happened. Now I’ve come to the realization that all of our number one targets must be playing in Spain, where La Liga has yet to finish, ergo our lack of transfer activity. So I’m not the quickest bullet out of the gun but with the positive noises coming out of Anfield from the boss and owners can you blame me?

As a supporter it’s difficult to figure out what to believe when it comes to rumours but players that tend to be linked more than once to a club tend to be genuine targets. There does tend to be a lot of smoke and mirrors involved with a lot of transfers and it’s very often the case that a player in a contract year will be linked to a host of clubs so that they can get the best deal from their current employers. Rumours also tend to pop up because a team i.e. Liverpool is in need of a striker or a right winger so the papers will link them with every high profile striker or right winger in the hope they get it right. Most of the time the club will come out and deny everything the next day but with Liverpool we tend to be kept in the dark as they don’t play this specific game with the press.

This only makes me angrier. So since the club won’t help us out, here goes…

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One Liverpool Fan’s Bittersweet Champions League Journey

Apparently Liverpool’s Champions League loss was so painful to Peter, it took him over a week to remember what the hell happened.

I can’t remember feeling this numb for this long. Sure there have been disappointing defeats, last minute winners from opposing teams that didn’t deserve a point. But nothing can come close to getting to a Champions League final and getting pipped to the trophy by the hand of Pippo!

The atmosphere around Athens was awesome and all anyone could talk about was the big final. I was at an advantage as I speak Greek so I could flavour the different opinions of the locals. The general consensus was that Milan were favourites but that Liverpool were an enigma that you could never rule out. Milan knew this all too well and although Italy is only a short trip away from Greece the roads were predominantly red, not red and black. All sorts of different paraphernalia were on sale but the one commodity that was selling faster than condoms in a brothel was beer. Luckily all the store owners had stocked up so it didn’t appear anyone was going without.

The most impressive sight was in the centre of Athens though, at Syndagma Square where Liverpool supporters far and wide had gathered to sing along and celebrate this great occasion. It was truly a sight to behold as one song after the other was rattled out, and I standing smack in the middle in awe at this tremendous gathering. There was a constant drizzle lingering in the atmosphere but that did nothing to dampen the spirits of these most loyal fans who had invaded Athens and were letting the locals know exactly what it means to support Liverpool. I don’t know whether it was by accident or not but some AC Milan fans found themselves at the square and were roundly greeted by ‘three-nil, and you fucked it up’ but generally there was no agro between the two sets of fans. Greek police had done there best to separate the fans and had even gone as far as not allowing Liverpool supporters on trains from the Airport as that was the route the Italians were given. The only bit of agro I witnessed were to AC Milan fans having at it with each other, with my Italian being as good as my Mongolian (I did actually work at a Mongolian Barbeque but it wasn’t mandatory to speak the language!) I didn’t really understand what they were talking about. The only bit I managed to catch was one fan saying Gilardino but other than that it was gibberish to me.

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