Your Regularly Scheduled Pre-United Madhouse, and Other Wednesday Notes

By: Noel | February 8th, 2012

Luis Suarez has been back in action for twenty-five minutes, and he’s already lucky he hasn’t been banned two or four or seventeen more times. In related news, the buildup to a match against Manchester United is always so very much fun…

* In amongst all the excitement over Kenny Dalglish reminding the world that the club never thought Suarez’ ban was an entirely appropriate punishment, following Monday’s match there was an even more ridiculous Suarez b-plot that popped up when Wayne Rooney hopped on Twitter to suggest that the Liverpool striker should be banned for his mis-timed kick to Scott Parker’s midriff. This would be the same Wayne Rooney who most recently on the boot-on-opponent-violence front was seen having his three-match UEFA ban for intentionally lashing out at Montenegro’s Miodrag Dzudovic argued down to two by the English FA. Unsurprisingly, most outlets that discussed the matter rather glossed over the hypocrisy, instead fully shining the spotlight on Suarez and gleefully speculating about retroactive red cards.

Writing for the Echo, John Aldridge didn’t see it quite the same way:

I couldn’t believe it when I heard that Wayne Rooney had tweeted that Suarez should have been sent off. Rooney needs to focus on sorting out his own club before he worries about anyone else.

And I would have thought someone as reckless as Rooney would keep his thoughts to himself. After all, this is the player who blatantly booted an opponent up the backside playing for England last year and was deservedly sent off. The fact the FA managed to get his ban reduced from three games to two was a complete joke.

Rooney should count himself very lucky he’s even going to the Euros after what he did. What Suarez did was very different and it was never a red card.

Seems sensible on every front. Well, aside from that in the Echo it was published so that every sentence was its own paragraph. In any case, that—the sensible part, that is—surely means a three-match ban for violent conduct will be levied against Suarez seventeen minutes before kickoff on Saturday.

* Speaking of Suarez, Saturday, and Manchester United, the Liverpool striker is apparently vaguely aware that it will be his first match away from Anfield since his ban, potentially his first start since returning, and that it will likely see him going up against Patrice Evra who, if you hadn’t heard, was involved in the incident leading to said ban. Or: Circus! And a circus atmosphere is about what Suarez expects to face come the weekend, though he’s confident he can overcome anything going on in the background—or perhaps even use it to his advantage:

I know against Man United it is going to be tense because I’m going to face Evra. But I’m used to having fans whistle at me. I hope nothing unusual happens. I’ll have to forget what happened for that moment.

I do know Man United fans are going to try to make me feel uncomfortable. But I have to tell them—they are going to spur me on if they whistle at me.

At the very least what’s going on in the stands at Old Trafford should provide an interesting sideshow, though one would hope that aside from the expected garden variety vitriol United’s fans don’t too far exceed the one numpty to 45,000 supporters ratio on display at Anfield when the two sides met in the FA Cup in January.

* Back with Monday’s match against Tottenham, and a chance to point anyone who missed it towards Zonal Marking’s tactical review, which hit on a few points we haven’t given much time to in the aftermath. There’s Luka Modric’s rather understated upstaging of Liverpool’s midfield for the second match in a row, Craig Bellamy’s easy to overlook defensive contributions, and perhaps most interestingly cause to question how Dalglish chose to set up his substitutes:

When Suarez did finally arrive, for Kuyt, it meant Gerrard going to the right and Suarez going upfront. Parker now had no-one to mark and moved to a deeper role where he excelled, chasing back to make last-ditch tackles and getting into good positions to clear. It might have been nice to see Suarez on in Kuyt’s role, with Gerrard still in the middle. Then, Gerrard could have taken Parker away from that zone, with Suarez coming inside from the flank as the ’second number ten’, a little like how Mesut Ozil played well at the Nou Camp recently with Kaka occupying Sergio Busquets. That isn’t Suarez’s natural role, of course, but that seemed to the area Tottenham were vulnerable in, and he is adaptable enough to play there.

I’m pretty sure that means that at the end of the day it’s actually Kenny Dalglish’s fault that Luis Suarez kicked Scott Parker, since if Gerrard had stayed central Tottenham’s midfielder never would have ended up dropping into the back line to help cover Suarez. In fact, given his comments after the match, it was probably the plan all along. So I think what I’m trying to say is both Suarez and Dalglish deserve a retroactive ban for violent conduct. And also thoughtcrime and maybe loitering, since Dalglish in particular hangs around in one place for, like, ninety minutes on match day.

We’ll be back later on with any breaking news, but in the meantime try not to let the controversy junkies in the media drive you over the edge…

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: Miscellaneous, Premier League, Team News

« Dalglish on Suarez’ Return Blown Out of Proportion, News at 11 | Home | Video: Andy Carroll v. Tottenham »

Amtosh

The media's awash with good old fashioned British xenophobia at the moment. Some examples:

WAYNE ROONEY: "Gutted capello has quit. Good guy and top coach. Got to be english to replace him. Harry redknapp for me."
BARRY FRY: "I can’t believe any Englishman wants another foreigner as manager of our country."We want an Englishman full of passion and commitment for our country. We’ve had enough of these foreigners … all they want is the money."MICHAEL OWEN: "It never felt right knowing the manager was heading off after the Euros regardless. Surely we will stick to an Englishman as our next manager. That should run from players to tea lady."GARY LINEKER: "New man should be English. HR the man if he wants it. He can do both jobs til May."NEIL WARNOCK: "I'm delighted as an Englishman. I can look forward to Euro 2012 now, whereas I was dreading it before."Really Colin, you can now look forward to the Euros in four months time now that England doesn't have a captain or a coach?
Andrew Mackintosh

Thanks disqus, it didn't look like that before I hit post.
Tom Foolery

Disqusting.
Suarez from the car park...

Suarez will be fine. No worries there.

the game will have some controversy somewhere, just because it's Old Toilet. Fortunately Webb hasn't made the squad.

This is going to be a tough game with Rooney back in the side and Scholes in midfield. We're not doing great dominating midfield these days and that's a problem if Utd have Rooney and co as an outlet, not just wingers.

We're just not the same midfield without Lucas there. Gerrard isn't a combating midfielder, Jay is passable and the other's aren't great for control either.

Well, Capello got the hump over an armband and a not terribly likeable John Terry (who criticised him at the world cup). Sounds like an excuse to me. The FA must have grilled him somewhat in the meeting to get an explanation for his public comments.

Crazy, but then he's already made £20m, he doesn't have a kick ass England side to take to the tournament and Sth Africa showed that he's tactically all over the place at this level.

Seemed to me he was not much worse off going now rather than after a Euro 2012 fiasco. Would he have left if he had put together a kick ass team?

Seemed to me that the FA dealt him a free pass.

They could take the heat for removing the armband, he could work with the players and say 'nothing to do with me, it was them, I still love you, now lets go kick A at the Euros'.

It's racist to say it but I do have problems with Italians. High maintenance, reactionary and hard work!

£20m in the bank, a big ego, someone else's national team, walking away was the easiest decision in the world. Bet he gets the last £3m aswell.
Latortillablanca

i dunno johnny, 37 year old scholes jus doesnt scare me anymore. press high and dont give him any space - chelsea did this well in the first half last week with a 3-0 scoreline as the reward. They backed off in the 2nd half and allowed him to ping passes all over the place (which he can do as well as anyone until the day he dies basically), and it helps spark the man utd comeback. rooney does that new midfield, come finisher role as well as anyone in the world right now, so that is scary. and if those wingers are on point... well, it kinda makes me want to see kelly and johnson again as our fullbacks...

i think one real advantage we could have is against that left side. evra's been weirdly wretched all year defensively and ashley young's not really dirk kuyt when it comes to covering space. could be an area of the game for bellamy/suarez/downing to exploit...
Antonio

I just hope Suarez stay very calm coming this Sat game. Any slight "rough" action from him will be under the magnifying glass. Walk away when any potential conflict araise, do not argue too much which will not change any ref decision in most of the cases. Play the normal game.I think Evra did quite well professionally in Anifeld.
I hope Suarez play a good game and we have a exciting game with Man U.
Geoff Twentyman

ZM also talked about Gerrard not pressing Parker throughout the game:

"Gerrard, for example, dropped off without the ball and didn’t pressure Parker, so he had time on the ball to play safe passes. This rather negated the point of Liverpool’s early closing down, with Dirk Kuyt, Andy Carroll and Craig Bellamy all working hard to put pressure on the Spurs defence. Parker was an easy out-ball"

I'd like to think this was to do with Gerrards ability to play close to 90 minutyes rather than a tacticall oversight.

"Jay Spearing had time to pick a pass, though his more ambitious balls were often wayward. He also lacks the positional sense of Lucas Leiva when a teammate has possession – he stands still when there is an opponent in between himself and the player with the ball, meaning a pass is impossible. The Liverpool way is ‘pass and move’, but sometimes you need to ‘move and pass’"

Note to Jay - keep it simple!

"Liverpool could have been cleverer in getting a player between the lines once Parker had been tempted up the pitch by Gerrard, but neither wide player came inside and Adam lacked the mobility and pace to storm forward"

It's indicative of our season to date really, that we're so defensively sound, but have limited offensive minded players.

"Andy Carroll looked confident here. He won balls in the air, his movement was good, his hold-up ability helped link play. He was considerably better than Emmanuel Adebayor"

Nice to get some independant validation that AC has somethingg to bring to the table.
brother jon

that bit about Jay's positioning when we have the ball is exactly what i see Charlie do/not do. either i, or ZM might be confusing 20 and 26. i'd usually claim the mistake as mine, but given their thinking that Charlie, our holding, should have been storming forward, i'm thinking they were looking at a scouse and seeing a scot. it's either that, or we have two mids that don't like to show for the ball.
Geoff Twentyman

and in other news, Jessie Paisley passed away aged 96 - RIP

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk...
Luis Suarez Dentist

Looks like Fabio is the latest to fall victim to the FA's English good, foreigner bad political agenda.
Red2death

Hodgson must be bitterly disappointed. After 35 years of managing at the highest levels, with an impeccable record of triumph upon triumph, to now be overlooked for ol 'Arry.

"Couldn't you have called in one last favour for me, Fergie? Just tell your pals at the FA to give me a chance. I gave you Liverpool, and now this is how you repay me?"
Danny

i'm sure they'll do more than 'whistle' luis boyo. up and at them.
wearing your thickest skin.
we'll be fine.
Red2death

Stick it to them, Luis. Three times, with at least two nutmegs on Evra in the process. Words can be fabricated, but goals are real.
purify_the_body

Pretty nice post until the comment about ZM, when you suddenly lost it for some reason. I think Kenny was happy to have Suarez up in front with the 2 golden chances he got and to have Gerrard on the right considering the awful play (on the ball) of Kuyt, but ZM has a sharp eye and I thought it was an interesting analysis.
Ryan

You know Zonal Marking is Woy's blog, right?
Noel

Er, I quite like Zonal Marking's analysis. That final paragraph was just tying back in to the overall theme of the entire post and wasn't a comment on anything Michael Cox said. Unless you were fully aware of that and taking me to task anyhow, in which case fair's fair, I guess.
purify_the_body

Ah yah, no worries, my posts are sometimes a quick reaction and not too well thought out. Glad to see you read ZM.
Luis Suarez Dentist

Good ol Aldo. Top man and Top player.