Liverpool FC: Not the start we were all hoping for
Posted by Akzoony in Liverpool, Premiership, Rafa Benitez | 18 October 2006
I think its stating the obvious to say that the season hasn’t gone as planned so far. 8 league games in, with various Champions league matches and Internationals and still the Season doesn’t feel as though it has really begun, on or off the pitch.
It’s been a strange season so far; as a somewhat obsessive fan I spend a good few hours a day reading up on the daily happenings with Liverpool and the wider football world. At the start of each new season I am always feeling a bit distant from it all; full of eager anticipation, hopes and ideas but still not quite a part of things as I wait to see how the team and wider league develops. This soon passes over time as everything settles into a rhythm and I find myself being absorbed back into the exciting ebbs and flows of a new Premiership season.
This year has been very different, post World Cup blues seemed to create a sense of lethargy and confusion throughout the Premiership. All of the tops teams seemed to stumble at the off, with Arsenal as a prime example with some terrible results early on, but most are now starting to find their feet.
Liverpool however are still looking lost; vaguely reminiscent of a world class athlete who has travelled to a meet as one of the favourites, only to be left standing around in the blocks looking faintly bemused as to where everyone else has gone.
In my opinion it is the rotation policy put in place by Benitez that is the main reason for this slow start but -unlike the sensational critics who have jumped onto this latest band wagon- I don’t think that it is a bad policy. Over the last 5 years Rafa has used this practice to great advantage; as we all know it won him two Spanish titles, the UEFA cup, the Champions League and the FA Cup and I genuinely believe that it is a policy that will win us the League.
The problem is that it has clearly been difficult for teams to gain any sort of rhythm with the World Cup and Frequent International breaks even with a relatively stable 11. Add to that a plethora of new faces and a team that changes every week and you are left with a team that is put out every week that plays as though it has never met before.
This has lead to Liverpool playing a very mechanical form of football, and even the established partnerships and formulas have been struggling to get going again. In recent weeks even two of our most reliable players Carragher and Finnan have been looking shaky and showing a lack of understanding that in previous years would have seemed impossible.
This is now starting to pass, and we are beginning to see flashes from individuals; Garcia and Agger have both had some quite impressive games and the team as a whole is starting to operate well in flashes, but there is no consistency and it is still likely to be a few weeks until we are capable of sustaining this for 90 minutes.
The Rotation system will come into its own later in the season but whether it will be enough to silence the critics depends on how long it takes for us to get into the race.
Many were claiming title ambitions at the start of this year -myself amongst them- and I still haven’t written them off- but we can’t afford to fall much further behind the leaders. This Sundays fixture against Manchester United could well end up being a make-or-break match and has the potential to kick start the season. Whatever happens the players will certainly be focussed from the off, and if enough perform we have a chance to snatch the three points! If that happens I think we can safely say our season has begun.
YNWA