Kenny on Istanbul, Zavaglia Can’t Shut Up, and Other Friday Notes

By: Ed | July 29th, 2011

inferno Depending on who you talk to, yesterday was either the first sign of the apocalypse or the equivalent of crashing your bike into a mountain of marshmallows. It was the worst result possible and an indication that Liverpool will once again be trolling the depths of the Premier League, or mostly just a result of fielding an overmatched squad against a quality opponent in a difficult environment. Time for a complete overhaul of personnel at the helm and on the pitch, or another reminder of the basic need to offload in some areas and strengthen in others.

Reality’s somewhere in between, but if you’re not pissing someone off with a wildly divisive opinion, what’s the point? Yesterday’s better left locked away in the annals of things related to Liverpool that you’d rather not talk about, like Djimi Traore, Northampton Town, and those Fernando Torres posters you had (or still have, sadist) hanging above your bed.

Today’s a new day! Monday will be better! There’s not much to talk about today so I’m just wasting space!

* But yeah, we can’t let you forget about yesterday quite yet, as there’s a bit of reflection on the part of Kenny Dalglish to rehash. The boss on the result, who was involved, and what happens from here:

“I think they looked a bit sharper than us at the start of the game. It was the same as at the weekend in that we played a lot better in the second half than we did in the first half. But the players worked hard and they’ll benefit from the effort they put in. It won’t do us any harm for the season ahead, but we’ve got to get ourselves a bit sharper, a bit more clued up and lively when we’re not in possession of the ball.

“I think the benefit is it’s another game. They looked a bit sharper than us and are maybe a wee bit ahead of us. Their season was due to start but I think it’s been put back for a number of days. We’ve just got to get ourselves street-wise on the pitch and get up to speed with our thoughts when we’re not in possession of the ball. August 13 is a big day for us when the season starts, and we’d like to think this will stand us in good stead getting towards that date.

“It’s pre-season. We’ve another game on Monday and we’ve got to pick another team. We’ll have people back who weren’t eligible for this game. For the young boys who played it will have been a great experience for them, and for the players who played it will be good for fitness. We don’t want to lose a game, but we’ve got two games in four days and a long trip home tonight, so we had to take that into consideration when we were picking the team – and we’ll also take it into consideration when we pick the team on Monday.”

If you’re firmly planted in that camp that viewed yesterday as cue to panic, there’s little that reading Dalglish’s thoughts will change. If you’re less inclined to set your hair on fire and run screaming into a wall, it’s confirmation that there’s more than a few tea cups being balanced as the club gets nearer to the August 13th kickoff date. Two friendlies in four days on opposite ends of the continent makes a bit of triage necessary, and while it doesn’t explain away the fact that his starting eleven was doomed from the opening whistle, there is allowance for the fact that the preseason fixture list could have been scheduled a little less ambitiously.

It does create a bit of urgency and expectation around what we get Monday, though—a few of you have already outlined the names we’d hope to see, and the link above lists Henderson, Downing, Adam, Carragher, and Agger as those who stayed back to “prepare” for the Valerenga match on Monday. That’s possibly the time that we finally get a lengthier taste of what will more closely resemble Liverpool’s actual starting eleven, and, in combination with the Valencia friendly at Anfield next Saturday, hopefully enough time for the first team to develop enough cohesion to hit the ground running against Sunderland.

* Shifting from ground level to someone who operates somewhere closer to the outer reaches of the mesosphere, Franco Zavaglia, agent to oft-moving but still in the same place Alberto Aquilani, again found himself in front of someone with an audiorecorder and a functioning internet connection, this time to talk about the need for the midfielder to secure a permanent deal away from Liverpool:

“After finding out that he’s not in favour with Liverpool, Alberto would prefer a permanent solution rather than just be part of a loan. We want to find a solution so that next year the current situation will not reoccur again. The player wants to come to Italy on a definite transfer. I met (Fiorentina sporting director) Pantaleo Corvino and the club must think about it. There is a 50% chance that my client will transfer to Florence. We’re still waiting to see what will happen.”

At this point a permanent deal would be far preferable to what’s been discussed previously in terms of a loan deal, in which Liverpool would still be responsible for wages and would essentially be in the same spot as last year, just worse off. None of that is to imply that I’d rather see Aquilani leave than stay; it’s well-documented around here that we think he could have a positive impact on the squad (and still might have the chance to), but with something different being discussed every day, a move back to Italy via his agent’s rocketpack wouldn’t be surprising. And at that point, hopefully we never have to hear from Zavaglia again.

That’s it before the weekend, which at the very least will include a Sunday preview for Monday night’s visit to Norway. In the meantime, you can fritter away the hours putting your extensive domino and miniature wooden ramp collection to work on the four pool tables you have set up in the garage:

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Miscellaneous, Team News, Transfer News

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KC

Another reason why a stacked up midfield this summer is not as strange as originally thought...Gerrard is out till September.
etipok

I think you're spot on Ed when you say the reality is somewhere in between. I think a little bit of perspective is needed by our fans. Yes in the first half against Gala we were abysmal but we played kids and have-beens. Whilst some our first teamers, Gerrard, Reina etc are unavailable I'm sure Kenny could've taken Adam, Downing, Henderson, Maxi (1st teamer?) along but didn't which suggests that Kenny didn't think winning this game was imperative. Of course its never nice to lose but if the players can gain more from the work they do at Melwood then that's where they should be and KK/SC have a better idea of what will aid the players than we do from a distance.

The reality is last season we had a squad that was far poorer than the one we currently have and yet Kenny was able to put together a fantastic sequence of results including defeats of United, Chelsea, City and a draw against Arsenal. If we look at the strengthening our rivals have done so far this close season I think its fair to say we are some way ahead of our rivals.

United have bought De Gea but lost Van der Sar. Van der Sar was a good 'keeper so it will be hard for De Gea to emulate him but even if he does he won't add anything to the squad - what he brings is negated by the loss of the Dutchman. Then there's Phil Jones who I think is a fantastic player but will play second fiddle to Vidic and Twitter boy when they're fit so at most he is cover for the time being. Then there's Ashley Young. If there's one thing the scum doesn't need it's another winger, they already have Nani and Valencia and if they were going to get a winger anyway, surely it would've made more sense to get a left-footed player to add some balance to the team. United fans will argue that he can play through the middle and this is actually his preferred position which is great until they realise the only way he's going to play there is if Rooney doesn't. Will he displace Rooney? Not a chance. So a very questionable signing in my opinion when their midfield is screaming out for investment.

City have been quiet by their recent standards but have signed Aguero. This could potentially be a good signing but again is balanced out by the imminent departure of Tevez.

Arsenal have signed Gervinho and I think this is an astute bit of business by Wenger (isn't it always?) but the Frenchman prefers to play one striker up-front so it will be interesting to see if he rotates Gervinho and Van Persie or plays both of them. My money's on the former, if there's one thing we know about Wenger it's that he's bloody stubborn! Anyway Gervinho will definitely add some quality to the squad but their captain and talisman seems increasingly likely to finally return home to Catalunya and the loss of a player of Cesc's calibre would adversely affect any team and even more so when the mental state of the team is fragile at best!

So that leaves Chelsea and Spurs and you can't mention those two without thinking of Modric. Neither clubs have made any significant signings in the close season and Spurs could lose their star man which would weaken them considerably. Chelsea on the other hand could sign Modric and whilst the flair and guile he would bring would certainly add a new dimension to the machine-like Chelsea midfield, the loss of the midfield enforcer that is Essien will be significant. Yes the rentboys have signed Oriol Romeu as cover but who is this kid? If he was that good surely we'd have heard of him before he was signed.

Now if we take a look at our signings. We needed wingers and we have one in Downing so he will bring something to the squad. Since the departure of Alonso we have missed having a player who can switch defence to attack in one pass but in Charlie Adam we may have a player who can fulfill that role. Henderson is a signing that im not particularly keen on but he can play on the right wing and will track back giving Johnson the licence to bomb forward. Of course if Henderson plays on the right, Kuyt will probably be played as a striker and that means we have three decent strikers at the club. Not bad considering we're not in Europe. It seems as though Aquilani may be staying put after his return and of course this will add to the depth and quality of our squad as well.

So all in all, whilst we still have some catching up to do, I think the work done by the Liverpool hierarchy has brought us closer to our rivals and that will become clear once we actually see something close to our first team play!
CheekyFellow

What is the name of this painting/drawing?
Ed

It's by a French artist named Gustave Doré--he did a series of engravings for Dante's Divine Comedy. This one's of Bertran, who carried his head like a lantern through the eighth circle of hell, which is more or less JUST LIKE THE PRESEASON. Maybe.

And because you didn't ask, there's really no reason I chose it other than I knew the series and I was feeling dark and emotional and wished I had cut my head off after yesterday.
CheekyFellow

Perhaps you should have just tried this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

*Thanks for the info by the way
Xna

most of u fans in here does need to wake and support the blue nose or manyoo scumms,, will ya plss

Red through and through...
YNWA
Justin

In other pointless news: http://www.liverpoolfc.tv/news...

Looks like Reina is targeting Monday for his return to match-playing. I imagine if he does feature his minutes will be limited. I think more realistically we can expect to see him against Valencia the following Saturday.

Reina also chips in with some positive reviews of our transfer window activity and a compliment to Suarez.

You're welcome Ed/Noel.
CheekyFellow

If only Aquilani was English
Mike

Nice one...
Guest

Crashing on a bike into a mountain of marshmallows sounds fun. Yesterday wasn't fun.

Anyway, RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE ALL CAPS YELLING INCOHERENTLY ABOUT MEANINGLESS FRIENDLIES KING KENNY MORE LIKE KING DUMB and you know what, I'm just not good at this type of comment.
Bidimus

"Reality’s somewhere in between, but if you’re not pissing someone off with a wildly divisive opinion, what’s the point?" - great comment, sums up the pre-season.

I still haven't really decided my view on Aquilani (but >€10m and I'd probably cut my losses) but christ above, I'd pay to see the back of his 10% man!
paul

Their "friendlies" have become a farce. We're playing kids (fair enough) and dross/deadwood. The clubs we're visiting aren't getting to see our stars, our stars aren't getting a workout and time to gel, our fans aren't interested in the rabble we're fielding knowing precisely what they represent. So what's going on? It's not as if we're trying out new and fringe players. Do we have secret matches where the decent players are working?

The "shop window" theory doesn't exactly work when the world gets to see how pants the merchandising is.

What is going on?!
Red2death

I guess there's something to be said when Utd are destroying all teams in the US (with a fair number of second stringers) and will end up in a gala showdown with Barcelona, and we're losing 0-3 to Hull. Not much of a statement of intent if you ask me. Unless it is, in which case I'm now concerned.
Then again we do have Valencia, at least. Hello Mr Mata.
Khaine

The 'stars' are getting proper fitness and formation work, likely 2-a-days, without having to make a 12-hour round trip.
paul

I hope you're right, and this is all a ruse, but shouldn't that include Carroll then?
Khaine

'Ruse' probably isn't the right word, but it appears this was a friendly the coaching team didn't really want (I've no idea when or by whom it was scheduled, nor what kind of fiscal value it had for the club), and they made the best of a bad situation.

And with only an 18-man squad, I guess a big name or two had to travel, hence Andy and Dirk. Andy didn't really wear himself out and Dirk is incapable of exhaustion. That, and they know the playbook. Most of the big names we wanna see are either recovering from injury, traveling with international squads or new signings finding their feet in the system.

Sorry, Cheeks.
paul

Good points, probably correct. I'm not too despondent, I just want to see the real team starting. Training isn't the same as matches, otherwise we'd never send out players for experience.
CheekyFellow

*Whisper* Let it go , let it goooooo...
Jake_LFC

Play our full first team (sans Suarez) and dominate. Ought to calm everyone down.
Mr Clueless

but then God forbid, if we loose to Sunderland, "fans" will be moaning about rushing back certain players. Some people like moaning and yapping and we could win games 5-0 and they will still be complaining about Lucas slipping on the ground when tracking back or will find some other retarded shit to cry about.
Loosing preseason games certainly hurt, but I would rather we loose now and win games that matter, as in when league games finally start, Aug 13th can't get here soon enough.
Sue

Rushing back which players? We've had two on international duty, one was in a very poor side that went home early, the other had 5 or 6 weeks off at christmas. Other that SG, who we all know is a crock and will be out more than in, why can we not play a decent 11?
Mike

The same Stevie that by himself beat Napoli last year? Yeah he's rubbish. No experience either. Still one of the best midfielders on the f@cking planet.
etipok

Steven Gerrard crock??? Jamie Redknapp was a crock, Harry Kewell was a crock. Very few players play over a decade at a top club and at the highest level without picking up a few injuries. Even Torres was a crock but we won't hear a word against the Captain!
Xna

did u say SG, jealous manc???

do u know who SG is???
hes the Captain Fantastic...not someone like you who just comment on these sites.. hes the complete footballer
Sue

*Was* a complete footballer. The last two years he hasn't been anything like Gerrard of old. And now we see he's back in hospital again. He's 31, past his prime, injury prone and each time takes longer to recover. It doesn't matter how great he was in the past, or how many time he carried the side, he's at the end of his career *now*.
Jake_LFC

It's impossible to disagree with your last sentence. For now, though, the only data points are the preseason friendlies. Of course, should we win our first 4 matches, no one will care that we lost to Gala 3-0.
Bidimus

yeah exactly - and im not sure i buy into the correlation between pre season friendlies and league performance thats been meantioned elsewhere cos if there's little correlation between pre season starting/finishing 11s and first 11s then its just coincidence or irrelevant