Luis Suarez - bit of a nutcase, but probably not a racist.

Now this is a tricky one to get your teeth into.. much more than who you'd be the best option starting down the right hand side of midfield for Liverpool and a problem that will hopefully not be too much of a problem in the near future.. when we sign some young tricky winger of Barca who solves our problems and also sorts that thorny racism issue problem out as well.

Racism and the associated issues make the problems of football in general pale into insignificance.

I do find it interesting though that the Suarez case seems to have crystalised opinion, based not particularly around any facts (of which at this time seem a little thin on the ground) but around the colour of your shirt, rather than the colour of your skin.

I'm a Liverpool fan.. this is probably apparent... and whilst say Patrice Evra might make me sick. This is to do entirely with the colour of his shirt which I can tell because I hold Wayne Rooney in similar levels of contempt.One thing that is worth pointing out at this stage is that when I say Man Utd players make me sick it is on one level - in the kind of football banter - (all your players are shit, were the best etc etc) nonsense that it seems football was designed to generate, and is part of the reason we all spend our time following it I suppose.

Now we are talking degrees of sick here.. or possibly textures. I don't particularly want to follow that train of thought.

When were talking about people that are actually racist.. Nick Griffin, East Europeans with their monkey chants, whoever really. That does actually make me sick - the kind with bits of carrott in it. When it's all a bit more real and about problems have existed for as long as there have been people, as opposed to as long as there has been an FA.

I don't particularly want to get into the specifics of the Evra / Suarez case (but I probably will).. largely because there don't appear to be any. Patrice Evra says Luis Suarez said something to him.. actually Suarez hasn't denied saying it - but rather that what he has said has been taken out of context. There's been a lot of reference to this word "Negrito" which is apparently commonly used in South America. If this is what all the issue surrounds then an 8 game ban seems insane and ironically an issue based around cultural misunderstanding.

If.. there's probably a lot of "if's" going on here.. this is what Suarez said and he could see it niggled Evra, which given that Evra says Suarez repeated it a few times seems possible, if players can see an opportunity to wind up their opponent then they will more than likely take it.

Patrice Evra then reports - "Luis Suarez said a bad word, it refers to the colour of my skin. I'm personally offended."

Luis Suarez then gets hauled before the FA says - "yes I said that, but where I come from that's not a bad word."

Luis Suarez wanders into this at just the wrong time.. possibly naively, when you've got the "Kick it Out" campaign and possibly more relevant Sepp Blatter's comments about racism on the pitch being sorted out with a hand-shake - and the FA not particularly getting on with FIFA at the moment and possibly wanting to take some kind of moral high ground.

They slap an 8 game ban on Suarez.. Liverpool will appeal this because it seems over the top.. especially when you consider going over the top in football means possibly breaking someones leg and getting a 3 game ban. Liverpool appeal, the FA have given themselves sufficient wiggle room. So on appeal Suarez gets maybe a 4 game ban and told not to say anything to anyone in future an keep up the "no biting" thing as well if you could.  

This is what I think will happen.. as most parties involved will be able to deal with it.

Liverpool FC because a 4 game ban is better than 8.

The FA because they have shown that they are dealing with the racism issue.

Patrice Evra because Suarez gets a ban, which I suspect was he was after in the first place.

I might be wrong.. Suarez may have said something completely indefensible and he might deserve everything he gets. But I think the most telling point is in Patrice Evra's written statement it states : "I don't think that Luis Suarez is racist." The FA accepted that he wasn't racist in their opening remarks of this case.

We'll see how it all pans out.. I know what I want to happen, based largely on my own prejudices it must be said. It also must be said that if there was actual proof that Suarez had said or done something that actually was racist - than frankly he gets everything he deserves. But that doesn't seem to be the case here.  
 

    

Does Kenny Dalglish know what he's doing?

Here we are again boys and girls.. my weekly musings on the world, or more accurately which particular Mighty Reds should run about on the pitch and how things would be far better if I was in charge and probably would be if my career path had differed slightly and I'd been one of the greatest players in history rather than colouring in spreadsheets for a living.

Not for one minute am I suggesting that Kenny Dalglish isn't the right man to be in charge of Liverpool FC as I am not an idiot and I am not insane.. I even have the documentation to prove it.

Having said that I'm going to try and pick holes in things because I'm a bit bored and have nothing better to do...

One of the things I do find curious is Dalglish's reluctance to change things round during games. We don't seem to make many substitutions during games.. as opposed to substitutions after games which tend to just confuse matters.

Over the past 10 games we have scored a grand total of 4 goals after we've made any changes.. this is including 2 from Luis Suarez at Stoke after Jamie Carragher had gone off injured at half time.. so only 2 goals after unforced changes in 10 games really. Doesn't sound like a lot to me, although I didn't see how this compares with other sides to be honest for the sake of my sanity.. I'm going to assume this is pretty low.

It also seems that we don't make many changes and when we do they tend to be too late to really change anything - whether this 2 goals in 10 games backs this up I'm not sure.

Also, it seems rarely that we make all 3 subs and often just the one.. and this isn't really in games when we haven't needed to change things. Especially when you look at home games against weaker opposition.

It's something I've noticed anyway.. quite whether we've got the back-up to be making radical changes is something to consider. I would suggest that it ought to be given the amount of money we've spent populating it this season. It would be helpful for Andy Carroll to be given longer in games as an 'impact' player.. particularly when Plan A doesn't seem to be working.

Whether £35m should be a plan B amount of money is something that we can't really do much about now, unless Carroll scores against Chelsea and they want to buy him for £50m. Perhaps 25 minutes here and there and a few goals from the bench would help his confidence which I think is all that's really missing from Andy Carroll... and then he will hopefully start banging them in with all the finesse of a night out on the Bigg Market.

#LFC and our fast disappearing midfield.

Tomorrow we play QPR at Anfield.. you know this already.
I am a little bit worried about this one.. to be fair I'm usually a little bit worried and this is usually a good thing.

It's the games where I assume we're going to win that usually blow up in my and indeed your face.

I'm worried though about our home form.. against teams that we should be able to assume we're going win. We've dropped 6 points so far this season against Swansea, Norwich and Sunderland. Two of those teams being the promoted teams of which we play the last one tomorrow. and our form last season was well.. appalling - defeats to Wolves and Blackpool I seem to remember - I could double check this but it's something I'm trying to forget. That whole Hodgson period in general was one long nightmare.

We need to get a grip if we're going to even be involved in the fight for the top 4.. which we would be if we didn't keep spunking points away like this.

This isn't helped by the midfield situation.. Lucas is out for the season and bringing in Jay Spearing to replace him ended abruptly on Monday with a harsh red card and 3 game ban.

I think we should be OK with Adam and Henderson in their.. might even be the making of them, especially Henderson. Kenny has not really been that sure what to do with Henderson exactly so far.. and I'm not sure Henderson has been entirely sure himself.

He has a tendency to drift into the middle when he's playing on the right which unbalances things a litte.. that's clearly where he sees himself and this could be the opportunity he needs. Time to step up etc. etc.

It should be said that this time last week it was Jay Spearing's time to step up and that didn't exactly end in glory.. but this should be different.

The run of games we have coming up now looks as though we should get a decent haul of points.. QPR, Blackburn and Newcastle at home and Villa and Wigan away left for 2011.

Realistically to get back involved we need to be taking 13-15 points from those, especially when you see Spurs disappearing into the distance.

If we do that then we can go into 2012 with a bit of momentum.. and given how we clicked into gear from January last year things could start to get interesting.

Where are #LFC going wrong?

One look at the table at this admittedly early stage of the season and it’s pretty obvious. We are dropping way too many points at home and if we don’t sort this out sooner rather than later then we can forget any thoughts about getting back into the Champions League.

7 games in and 5 draws is far too many.. 10 points dropped which if we’d won all those games would mean we’d be a point off Man City which would be a lot better position to be in than we are now.

Obviously it is a bit too simple to just say we should have just won all our games and we’d be top of the league. But we have dropped some stupid points. From those 5 draws, we were winning in 3 of those.. Sunderland, Norwich and Man United all of which finished 1-1. Coupled with another 1-1 against Man City and you begin to notice a pattern. Points against the Mancs are not exactly points thrown away – but it highlights the main problem we have which is not enough goals. Home games against Norwich, Sunderland and Swansea should really have produced more than 2 goals.

Even including all the home games we’ve only managed 9 goals in 7 games, the only team with less home goals in the top half of the table is Everton – and if we’re only doing slightly better than Everton than clearly we have issues.

So why aren’t we scoring enough goals? Well one of the more obvious answers would be to point the finger at our £35m investment. This again is a little too straightforward. Whilst it’s fair to say Andy Carroll hasn’t exactly set the world on fire this season I think it’s a little unfair. Especially as he's managed 2 goals in the last 2 games in which he played for the full 90 minutes, against Everton and West Brom.

You would have thought he might have kicked on a bit, especially after the Everton goal as you do get the impression that he's a confidence player - like all strikers really. He is only a young lad as well so it may take him some time.. especially as you consider that he'd only actually played in a handful of Premier League games before we signed him.. and it's hardly his fault that we felt the need to spend quite so much on someone with so little experience.

I think our main problem at the moment is that we are too unbalanced.. Enrique and Downing do seem to be forming a decent partnership down the left, but it's fair to say that the same isn't happening down the right.

Dalglish has changed things round a bit.. with Kuyt, Henderson and more recently Maxi playing there but I don't think any of them link up with Johnson in the same way. Personally I think don't think it would be unreasonable to have expected another winger with the Torres & Babel money if we'd have haggled a bit with Newcastle.. quite what the rush was in January I'm not entirely sure, but this is all ifs and buts and not getting us anywhere.

Personally I would like to see Johnson moved into midfield with Kelly at full back, but again this isn't a particularly original idea. I do think that Johnson is our best option as a right winger though and I'm not too convinced of his defensive capabilities.

Quite whether he's be happy playing out of position with the Euro's on the horizon in the summer is another question.

I think that would help us stretch teams if we could attack effectively down either flank.. whether that's with Johnson or if we go spending the pennies again in January. We might even start to get our monies worth out of Carroll, but having said that if that starts happening we'll be challenging for the title by the time May gets here.         

What's wrong with Manchester?

Where to begin?

This isn't actually about Man United as they are clearly the spawn of the devil and this is well documented.. (it even has it on the badge. They're not even subtle.)

With "the lighter side" side of Manchester paying us a visit on Sunday I thought I'd discuss Manchester City and why they are the cause of everything that is wrong with football today (part of it anyway). It's going to turn into a bit of rant but you probably guessed  that.

I used to live in Manchester, did for quite a while actually, so I have a slightly different perspective than some Liverpool fans. Watching our games in Manchester pubs is a slightly odd experience although it must be said there were usually a few (proper) red shirts knocking about.

Now the prospect of City winning the league is an interesting one.. partly because I do have a soft spot for City because they are one of the few teams that have more contempt for Man Utd than we do which it must be said is impressive in itself. Plus we have the added bonus of it pissing the scum fans to a degree that I can't imagine. It will be bad enough for them when we start winning the league again (positive mental attitude) but if City win it then they'll have half the city going mental in their faces...

Plus we'd have the added bonus of Man United not winning it.. because if we don't as long as it's someone irrelevant winning it then it just gives a bit more time to get our act together - although we are beginning to take the piss a bit now though. For the record - Chelsea (4 - same as Sheffield Wednesday), Man City (2 - same as Burnley) < Irrelevant. Arsenal are a least in double figures (13) but still a way off.

The main issue I have with City.. you will not be surprised to hear is money. It is nothing new I suppose.. but if and when City do win the league then however much effort they put it in, it will entirely be to the whim of some oil rich billionaire. Arsene Wenger was quoted along the lines of "footballing success should be built on sweat not oil". Now it's not often I agree with what Wenger has to say for himself, but in this instance he has a point.

Now Chelsea started this particular ball rolling, when Abramovich decided he wanted a new toy.. the story goes that he wanted Spurs originally, but he flew over Stamford Bridge on the way and changed his mind. This is probably nonsense, but it's feasible and it backs up my oil billionaire argument so I'm going to go with it.

The other problem I have is that we nearly bankrupted ourselves trying to keep up with these idiots.. would we have gone through the who Hicks / Gillett nightmare if we didn't have to keep up with teams who suddenly had more money than Fowler... sorry God. Although Robbie Fowler is apparently minted.

This is a simplistic argument.. but I'm in the middle of cooking my tea so it will do for now.