Reading vs. Liverpool Highlights

 

You be the judge to tell me if Kuyt really did dummy the goalie on purpose.

 

A Few Reasons Why Owen Chose United Over Hull

Capello has just announced the squad that will face Brazil, and despite calling a few unusual faces like Warnock and Huddlestone, Michael Owen remains to be left out.

Looking back now, Owen’s motive for joining Liverpool’s biggest rival was, and has always been, to gain a spot in the 2010 World Cup squad.  Now that it appears extremely likely that Owen is ranked, in Capello’s mind, after Strikers like Rooney, Crouch, Defoe, Bent, and Agbonlahor, his chances of going to next year’s World Cup as a player is slim.

In hindsight, had Owen joined Hull instead of Manchester United, in my mind, would at least give him more playing time to prove himself.  Instead, he opt for a ‘brand name’ club, which happens to be, once again, Liverpool’s biggest rival.  A high-level comparison between Manchester United and Hull, in my opinion, would be the lack of European football.  Something that Owen has already tasted, in person, as a player at Real Madrid, and also played in various UEFA Cup appearances for Liverpool.  After all, he doesn’t need ‘European’ experiences to better himself at this stage of his career.  Instead, if his objective is to get chosen for the World Cup squad, what he really needs is… ‘playing time.’  (And goals, of course!)  Something (Playing time) that I would guess he will get a whole lot more as a player for Hull, than Manchester United.

But just to play devil’s advocate, I tried to imagine what would Owen say when he was shopping for an employer when he had Hull and United available for him to choose…

• I will get better quality passes/setup from quality midfielders like Giggs, Scholes, Carrick, Valencia, Nani, etc…
• I will get less chances to get injured because I know I will not be playing 90 minutes every game… meaning I will have a higher chance to be healthy to service Capello and my Country come next year.
• I will have better coaches to know better to go easy on me during train sessions.  (This one is a long shot.)
• Defenders will be busy marking Rooney, instead of me, which will gives me more chances to score.
• I can mentor some ‘wonderkid’ strikers at United so that they will mention my name when they become the next C. Ronaldo.  (I totally made this one up with my imagination.)
• United offers me the Number 7 shirt, while Hull’s offer is Number 79 (the year he was born… like he cared!) (Yes, I made that up too!)
• I do not want to help another team to relegation.  I put in a lot of work to get injured, just to help Newcastle to get relegated!  (If you can do this to United, Liverpool’s fan will forgive you on all your stupid decisions you have ever made, and reference you as a Legend with likes of Fowler, Dalglish, etc.)
• And most importantly, I will get better Physios at United.

For a full line-up of Capello’s squad for the upcoming friendly against Brazil, please click here .

Sven-Göran Eriksson on Kleenex® TV Commercial

Check out this Kleenex® commercial which in addition to Emma Bunton, Tom Hardy, and Sir Bob Geldof, you’ll get a chance to see former England, Manchester City, and Mexico Manager Sven-Göran Eriksson making an appearance… pretending he’s ‘letting it out.’

Considering how emotional-less he was as the England Manager, I really think they had cast the wrong person to be in this commercial.  More importantly, if there’s a reason for him to ‘let it out’, it would be him getting fired more than scoring a goal.

 

You can also check out this behind the scene footage of the making of this commercial.

Insua’s Goal Against Arsenal

All White, No Red!

First of all, this is a very poor photo-shop of my head onto who-knows-who-that-is doing the volley!

Second, at least give me a bit of my neck back!

Last but not least, at least do me a favor my putting some red color stripes on this outfit.  It looks too much like a Real Madrid outfit, and if do go, I’d prefer Barcelona, please!

Gary Neville’s Nasty Tackle

I can’t believe that the Captain of Manchester United would send out such a nasty tackle!  The F.A. should impose further punishment onto him! 

Sunderland vs. Liverpool Post Game Thoughts

Folks, look at it this way.  Even if Torres and Myself were available to play, an Away visit to the Stadium of Lights under the new leadership of Steve Bruce was never going to be easy! 

On the Beach Ball

I’m not going to go into too much detail about that beach ball incident.  We have all read, by now, that it is an outside agent of the game, and the goal should not be counted.  Instead, I rather focus, once again, on how much we missed Xabi Alonso. 

On Xabi Alonso

In our last season, when was a Premiership game played without Torres, Alonso, and Myself?  I’m not talking about a game against lower league teams in the FA Cup, or the Carling Cup.  But to my recollection, I don’t remember we played any game in the top flight without all three of us.  With that in mind, I think Rafa is forced to try something new.

On Formation/Tactics

So Rafa put 3 in the back, 2 Wing-Backs, 2 Midfielders, and 3 players in ‘attacking role.’  A very Continental formation.  His thoughts?  With 3 quality Defenders, and 2 defensive minded midfielders sitting in front of the defense, it ‘should’ provide sufficient protection while allowing the offense to happen down the Wings, and maybe from the middle.  The result?  If you subtract the ‘beach-ball goal’, we really had a draw… technically!  Was the formation a success?  If you are aiming for a Draw, with the possibility of a win, then heck yeah I think it was working.

On What Went Wrong (in General)

‘Beach Ball’ aside, this team shows the same weaknesses that has been in existence since the first day Rafa took charge.  "Liverpool is a 1-man Team.’  However, please give Rafa some credit for transforming Liverpool from a 1-man Team to a 2-men Team these days.  (It would have been (was) a 3-men Team, but we didn’t realize it until it was too late.)  So from my point of view, there were 2 things that went wrong:

1. Key players get called up to International duties when their home nation has already secured top qualifying position for the World Cup… resulting in these players getting injured
2. The team lacks depth to provide coverage for the ‘G’ and the ‘T’

Obviously, there isn’t much that we can do with #1 above.  Besides, any team in the world would hope that they can acquire players who are good enough to be picked by their National Team.  So that’s just part of the growing pain for big clubs.

As for #2 above, instead of immediately point my finger at Rafa, I instead chose to look at our rivalry, Manchester United.  The fact that both Giggs and Scholes still play a role in a somewhat regular manner, tells me that Sir Alex’s purchases in the recent past years didn’t fare too well either.  Valencia, Anderson, and Nani, all couldn’t hold down a regular place like Ronaldo, Lampard, Frabegas, or Myself does, which tells me that even with lots of money, finding/buying an ‘automatic pick’ is really NOT that easy. Now if you have even less money to play with, which has been our situation all along, it makes things even more difficult. 

On an Alternative

So with limited amount of spending money, my next chain of thought is… do what Arsenal did… get the youngsters when they are very young, and cheaper.  Wait a minute!  We did take that approach!  We have Babel and Lucas!

On Babel and Lucas

Babel did not perform as expected during the game against Sunderland.  Babel’s starting position is Forward, partnering Kuyt.  He was later shifted to the sides, and eventually gotten substituted.  During the game (and I’m going to exaggerate a bit here), he failed to complete passes and he failed to finish his dribbles.  It was extremely frustrated watching him play… when I KNOW that this boy has got plenty of talents! 

Lucas, in my opinion, did a decent job during Sunderland’s game.  My general-criticism of him is his passing and (long-range) shooting.  But hey, Mascherano can’t shoot either!

On Jay Spearing

As if our Formation isn’t confusing enough, Rafa threw in another wild card… the debut of Jay Spearing.  I wasn’t perfect when I first started, but when Arsenal can put up a team of ‘minors’ to play with decent results, I have to hope that our youngsters are at least at par against theirs.  Unfortunately, looking at the performances of Babel, Spearing, and Lucas, I couldn’t say the same.

On Liverpool’s Coaches and the Academy

To continue my effort to find someone to blame, I have to look to the Training.  Here we are with so many ‘wonderkids’, why aren’t they performing?  I would bet that had Babel joined Arsenal, he wouldn’t be one of the most lethal Attacker in the Premiership.  Why is Lucas’ passing and shooting so poor?  Why did Spearing looked so out of space when playing a team like Sunderland?

Are the Coaches and the Academy to Blame?

YES!  I’m afraid!  I’m not saying that they should bare full responsibility.  The Players and the Manager, by defaults, must own up to their share of responsibilities.  However, in my opinion, the Coaches now need to step up and find a way to make these Players to perform at a level where they are capable of. 

We need these players, with or without, Gerrard and Torres!