Taking Sides: Liverpool vs Everton

A Liverpool-supporting friend has seen the video and it is as described in the article. He thinks it looks like they're just having a laugh, but that it all looks a bit too suspicious to write it off as such, particularly in light of the size of alleged gambling debts incurred by a certain ginger Norwegian.

Tacky-looking thing, isn't it? The ribbon in particular makes me want to barf.

This bit confuses me, in relation to the Chumps League final in Istanbul:

"Even before the story was out properly they had diagnosed me and decided I had quit," he added.

"Do people know I was the number one penalty taker on the pitch that night in Istanbul?

"So why would I want to walk off in a game when I had a real chance of getting on the scoresheet?"

Eh? Doesn't that only make sense if Liverpool intended to play for penalties FROM THE KICK-OFF? Although I suppose if that is your strategy then going 1-0 down (as the score was when Kewell left the pitch) might put a dent in your plans.

It's odd, though, that anyone would think that any player would choose not to play in the biggest match in European football. I don't really understand that theory.

He's not blown it with me, but he's certainly on probation. I do want him to succeed in a Liverpool shirt, but I'm not sure what chance he'll get.

Everton midfielder Mikel Arteta:
"The defeat by Bolton should never have been anything like 4-0, we were really disappointed and sad."

Sick but not stumbling-about-in-a-daze sick. Defeat was expected and the manner of it was close to anticipated too. There have quite a few 3-1s over the years where we've looked, for a 15-20min spell at least, to be likely to get something from the game but by the end seem comprehensively beaten (Anfield 10/00, Goodison 9/01...Christ, there's loads...Goodison 3/82, Anfield late '81...curse my memory).

There's usually a "turning-point" or somesuch hindsight-enriched moment of relative inconsequence that bitter Blues obsess over - this time it was the disallowed Beattie header. It was significant only in the sense that 1-2 with 8-10min to go to the break would've been a lot tastier than 1-2 with 3-5min to half-time, especially in the light of what happened on 46:14.

At 0-2, there was that queasy feeling that we hadn't really been inferior in any department other than finishing yet, from here, we could very quickly be four or five down and no one would be terribly surprised. The Everton response was admirable if, in a footballing sense, fairly half-arsed.

We're just not very good and we need van der Meyde back very quickly. Liverpool are superb defensively but Gerrard remains the only attacking player who genuinely scares me when he's on the ball.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/4701024.stm

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Gerrard must be thinking again about moving on

Steve Bierley at the JJB Stadium
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian

As much as it was possible to admire just about everything Steven Gerrard attempted against Wigan Athletic, even if hardly anything quite came off as he would have wished, the overriding feeling was one of watching an increasingly unfulfilled player. The winning of the European Cup persuaded him to stay at Anfield, but since then the progress of the squad under Rafael Benítez has slowed to a snail's pace, with the return of Robbie Fowler a potentially alarming retrograde step for management and club alike.

[etc]

seems harsh to describe Fowler's return as retrograde. i doubt Rafa has plans for him beyond throwing him on now and then when other people are crocked (as they frequently are).

"Diddums" is my considered response to this. Everton, as I never tire of telling people, played 63 games in 84-85 (winning 45 of them and scoring 126 goals, fact fans) with a vastly smaller squad and only really started to show fatigue in May (Cup final defeat, lost three of last four league games). The great Liverpool teams of the period also didn't wither mid-season under a similar avalanche of fixtures.

I don't think Rafa's lot are, either (more's the pity). Recent form might suggest a swift end to their Cup campaigns in the next week or two and a loosening grip on 3rd spot. Ain't gonna happen. They're flattering to deceive - getting my hopes up.

It's true, you never tire of it - it must be because of your meticulous pre-season - the way you start off in late June on exercises involving telling different people about individual games for no more than 5 minutes, then work up gradually by 5 minutes a week with a different statistic added unpredictably to keep things fresh. It's at this stage, amid the dirty keyboards and clogged threads of February, that that training really pays dividends in posts like the one above. Ray.

For example, i've seen reports that modern players have much less time on the ball, so they must control and pass in the same thought process. I thought of this watching the 1979 ECWC final between Barca and Dusseldorf, and it was, well, shocking. It was the moment where you realise that football has moved on. I knew, for example, that the era of matthews and finney was one I couldn't relate to, but I left in the respectful category instead.

Seeing this match, I realised that it was close enough to the football I knew to mean I couldn't write it off as part of the olden days, but couldn't escape the fact that it was a bit bobbins.

Taking this together - if players today have less time on the ball, have less opportunity to decide what to do, then modern football time is compressed, and so simple comparison to back in the day aren't appropriate at all are they?

< / pissed on train home>

However, Liverpool revealed on their website that a deal has now been finalised, subject to a medical.

Paletta, who turns 20 on Wednesday, helped Argentina win the Under-20 World Cup in 2005.

He has made 33 appearances for Banfield and scored five goals.

Paletta's arrival will further boost Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez's defensive options following the recent acquisitions of Daniel Agger and Jan Kromkamp.

Recent reports have suggested that Mr Villalonga could head a consortium looking to invest in Liverpool.

On Monday, he was quoted by the Daily Express as saying: "I want Liverpool to change from a domestically-focused club into a global force."

Oh great, a global force.

Brian Labone was right, you know, about Liverpudlians.

I believe he was appointed to Telefonica because he was friends with then president Aznar. I could be getting my cronyisms muddled up, but just to be on the safe side let's assume he is a right wing psychopath.

I'd like to think Xabi would leave in protest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/e/everton/4941542.stm

Everton have responded angrily to Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez branding the Toffees a "small club".
The Spaniard said after Saturday's 0-0 Merseyside derby: "When you play against the smaller teams at Anfield you know the game will be narrow."

Everton chief executive Keith Wyness responded on the club website and said: "Benitez is in a minority of one in believing Everton is a small club.

"Somehow we just expect more of a Liverpool manager."

"Somehow we just expect more of a Liverpool manager."

I don't. I don't expect anything else. No class.

Manchester City midfielder Barton, called up by England for the first time, said in January that Gerrard and Lampard could not play together in the same midfield as they "needed a ball each to succeed".

He also condemned some England players for bringing out autobiographies after the dismal showing in the World Cup last summer, of which Gerrard was one.

But Gerrard added: "I haven't seen Joey yet but I'll give him a knock on his door and present him with a signed copy of the book so he can read it over the next couple of days.

Actually it is not witty at all, but it will have to do.

At ease.

I was surprised to read, during the transfer window, that Joey is an Evertonian - considering the stick they gave him about his half-brother.

If his complaint had finished here I'd back him to the hilt but otherwise he just sounds like a moany douche who can't find the point