Peter Couch

I thought this article to be spot on re our problem areas out wide and at full back.

entitled Wide areas cause for concern.

ONE of the frequent maxims trotted out by fan and pundit alike is that, in order to win a championship, you have to win while playing badly.

However, no-one seems to have told Liverpool that this does not apply to every match.

Two wins from two games, against sides that deserved at least a point for their efforts, seems to have convinced many optimistic observers that the Premier League is ours for the taking.

Throw in the abysmal performance at Standard Liege, and it’s clear we’re going to sweep all before us.

I don’t know why the others don’t throw in the towel here and now.

Sadly, the reality is that we’ve started the season in dreadful form, unable to string more than a few passes together, creating few chances and looking vulnerable down the flanks.

We’ve ridden our luck and relied once again upon the side’s stalwarts to dig us out of the mire, and if we don’t sort ourselves out soon we’ll be out of Europe, and have our championship prospects firmly shown up by Aston Villa and Man Utd in the next 10 days.

Of course, the players we have in the squad are more than capable of mounting a convincing challenge; they’ve been telling us about it all summer.

What’s needed now is the realisation that it’s time to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

You can’t ease yourself into the season anymore; Chelsea raised the bar on that one years ago.

You have to come out of the blocks flying, and not let up until the fat lady collapses from exhaustion in May, unable to squeeze out one more breath, let alone burst into song.

What’s particularly frustrating is that the faults evident to all for several years have yet to be eradicated.

We’ve built a formidable spine to the side; and I’m convinced that Robbie Keane will strengthen this still further once he’s settled in.

Keane’s a notorious slow starter to the season, and new surroundings will exacerbate this.

He’ll come good, I’m sure.

I wish I could be as confident about our flanks.

How many more wingers and full-backs are we going to buy and try before we get it right? You don’t need the benefit of Match-of-the-Day graphics to see our lack of width is going to let us down again, and it’s been this way since Houllier’s time.

Zenden, Gonzalez and Nunez have all arrived and departed, while Pennant, Kewell, Garcia and Smicer have all been tried and ditched.

Kuyt and Benayoun may soon be added to that list; Ryan Babel be warned.

At full-back it’s worse; with Arbeloa, Aurelio, Kromkamp, and Josemi average players at best (yes I know that’s flattering one or two of them).

Are Degen and Dossena going to break this mould?

Far be it from me not to give a man a chance, but if you were there on Saturday I bet you’re not buying a number two shirt just yet are you?

Rafa has been at pains recently to praise the hard work our network of scouts are putting in to identify the right players at the right price.

It’s tempting to conclude that Baden-Powell himself must head up this particular troop.

So it looks like we’ll have to hold our breath while the likes of Darby, Insua, El Zhar and Leto develop sufficiently for us to see if they’re made of the right stuff.

In the meantime those currently occupying the flank positions might want to ponder that the truism at the head of this article is a post-match rationalisation, not a pre-match instruction.

according to the breaking news on SSNEWS julie barrys agent has said that he wont be leaving villa in this transfer window so the odds of us getting barry now are very slim im gutted aswell we gotta settle 4 second best yet again coz of the yanks!!! the scroogie bastards! even suderland has more money than we have! there spending money like its goin outa fashion! and we struggling to find the 18m for barry the yanks are a complete and utter joke!!!

Your spot on with ur post about our signings 2 date eddie to my knowlege eddie we had a 5m bid for kuyt and rafa turned it down which is a joke why he turned it down is beyond me only rafa can tell u that or maybe he's holding out 4 what he payed 4 him and we both know that will never happen! kuyt,voronin,pennant & alonso are holding us back dearly and as u say ed they are stopping the likes of nemeth,darby,insua etc etc coming through what id like 2 know eddie is when is rafa gonna draw the line with regards to playing crap like kuyt,voronin,pennant etc rafa must be blind or stuck on stupid! no wonder we cant beat the top 3 with the likes of those in our team the likes of fergie must have a good laugh when he sees the likes of kuyt or voronin in our team coz they would never ever get in there team realisticly now ed how do u think we will do in the PL this season i have my opininon but ill keep it 2 myself 4 now.

That has 2 be the worst we've played 4 a while i didnt think it could get any worse but ive witnessed 2nite it has! what is it with rafa and his below par players kuyt,aurelio,alonso,arbeloa im not giving any player any credit coz they was all shyt. kuyt had a stinker as he always does babel set up the goal but why the fcuk is he on the left side when he's right footed and rafa is suppose to be the professional! its like putting round pegs in 2 square holes! god help us this season! i really cant see it getting any better i got this feeling in my bones that rafa will be out by xmas and if rafa thinks this team is better than last yr then he needs to wake up and smell what he's shoveling! is it me or does it seem the way we play doesnt suit robbie keane? what u think of us so far and can u really see it getting any better soon?

Just when you think things can't get any worse I read today that Stevie G is out for Two weeks with a groin op, he will miss the Villa and Man U games.

So far this Season we have played poorly but got results, a lot can be said for our stickability, a game lasts ninety minutes and good teams often score late on.
Kuyt didnt have a good game last night but he kept at it and got his reward, slate him all you want but he kept going and won us the game. My concern is for how many players are playing poorly, Aurelio, Arbeloa, Alonso, Plessis, Bennyoun Kuyt and Babel (being played out of position by Rafa doesnt help them)and Keane ( who doesnt look worth 20p let alone 20m, he hasnt done a thing in Four games ), also our tactics seem all over the place even more negative than usual, it's as if our full backs are scared to cross the halfway line, have they been told not to ? why are our midfielders obsessed with passing the ball sideways and backwards ? have they been told to do so? our corners are crap why ? ( can't our backroom staff and Benitez see this week in week out ? ), our free kicks just as bad, no one gets to the byline, all of these things must be seen by the backroon staff and manager so why is nothing being done to rectify this nonsense on the training ground ? HOW HARD IS IT TO TAKE A DECENT CORNER ?
To say weve been riding our luck is an under statement.

Not a bad draw if you think about it if we play to our capabilities
we should progress to the later stages.

Who do you think are our best full backs ? My vote goes to Darby and Insua. I would normally have said Finnan but he's age is against him and I rather see us give these two youngsters there chance than watch Aurelio Arbeloa and Dossena bore the pants of me.
Aurelio is a pretty good defender but lacks any type of forward play, Arbeloa showed promise has been given a chance to make the right back position his own but is unconvinvcing, Dossena looks good going forward but is he worth 8m? time will tell, Degan is injured but will a freebie really have the class needed for the Premiership ?

Insua has done well in the games he has played, and Darby looks very solid and is definately one for the future. Neither of these players would let us down so what have we got to lose by giving them both there chance ? we know what were going to get with the others ( nothing special ) so lets see Benitez try these two youngsters if it pays off we will have players that can star for us for many years to come.

yes i also seen that wen sg told kuyt he shit also i saw rafa shouting at kuyt 2 pass the ball
by the way what was all that shouting abt between rafa & the other manager abt?? it was funny lol

ur sooo right but i dont blame crouch 4 leaving as rafa was & still is 2 stubborn always wanting his arse licker on the field instead of bringing on some1 who knows where the net is
and ur right rafa should have a well settled team now after 5 years with us but from me he is no better than houllier.we fans know rafa doesnt give a crap abt any1 but i thought it was funny last night it looked like rafa was getting ready 2 punch the living shit out of leig manager lol