The beaten track

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by Brian Reece
twitter @oldfattoad

On the 13th August 2011 the Barclays Premiership began and so did the dreams of millions of supporters worldwide, hopes of glory and success where beaming within the Anfield faithful and the optimism has never been greater.

Will this be the year that Liverpool reclaim their place within the European upper class and finally become the challengers that we once where, or would this just be a false dawn of disenchantment and frustration.

Well for the first 45 minutes I had to say the performance was superb, the second 45 was disappointing to say the least, but in comparison to other results around the Premiership on the opening day I could not really complain a great deal, Chelsea was goalless as was Arsenals, so in the grand scale of things this result as disappointing and annoying as it was, is not the disaster that many on the social network sites had initially been reporting.

After the game had finished it was alarming to see and hear fans blaming individuals and even Dalglish for the way the match had unfolded, but in the light of day many questions must be asked by Dalglish of his players but most importantly of himself, did he make the right decisions at some pinnacle moments of the match?.

I am not hear to criticise Dalglish or any of the players who played in Saturdays match in any way, that’s for the readers to debate, but some of the choices in my opinion could and should have been better such as why play Henderson from the start and why wasn’t Maxi included in the squad? All of these issues am sure Dalglish will see and re-examine to find a proper solution.

One player who came in for abundance of mostly unfair criticism was Flanagan who in my opinion wasn’t that bad, yes he made a mistake which lead to the equaliser, but there are better and more experienced players out there who have made a mistake which has proved much more devastating and had more of an impact on his team than what Flanagan did on Saturday.

Flanagan is a fantastic young prospect who will become a brilliant player for Liverpool in a matter of time, so for some fans to ridicule the young player are simply outrageous and moronic.

Our first half performance was outstanding, it looked like the match could have been all over within the first half but for the crossbar and some luck for Sunderland, every Liverpool fan was looking forward to the second half, but when it arrived most of us wished it simply hadn’t, we didn’t play with the same conviction of the first and when you allow any team to fight back in the premiership they will.

One thing Liverpool fans must realise is that its only the first game of the season and if you look at it in an intelligent way how many times have we won the first game of the season in the last 10 years? We cannot think that just because we have Dalglish at the helm and have signed some new players that we can steamroller every team we come up against, it’s simply not going to happen, we have to walk the beaten path of the premiership and trust in the management and players we have.

We can finish in the top four and we can win silverware this year but we cannot really believe that because we have drawn our first game of the season that we can start calling for heads in the first week of the season, over the last few years Liverpool have had idiotic owners, signed overpaid players, hired a complete managerial buffoon and been the joke of European football so being in financial stability with owners who wish to spend money to enhance the team’s performance so that we are in a place to challenge and having a knowledgeable manager who understands the club and the fans sounds like an opinion I would like to keep thanks very much.

I believe Dalglish made a firm statement about some players on Saturday, the likes of Aquilani, Cole and Polusen seem surplus to requirements and the managers actions echoed by Liverpool legend David Fairclough who said that “Aquilani cannot hack it in the premiership” words I have longed to hear from someone else other than me, well I now ask all the Aquilani band to write to John Henry and Kenny Dalglish to vent your anger and question their judgement..I dare you

I honestly believe Liverpool will most certainly be better than last season simply because we have the right management team in place from owners to manager, Liverpool fans must ask questions and show their concerns on whatever they feel, otherwise how are we suppose to debate issues that affect our great club, but more importantly we must never make other fans views seem insignificant or unimportant simply on the basis that we don’t agree with them, we are lucky that we support a club that’s supported in every corner of the world, don’t lose that support though ignorance.

13 Comments

  1. Not winning many of the opening game of the season in the last ten years should not be regarded as norm.
    The first match is out of the way, there were pluses & minuses, in scheme of things we really did drop two points which we have to claim back against Arsenal.
    I hope the boys play a lot more pass & move (& don’t forget to move) game as opposed to where is Andy.
    Ps. do we know who the ref is on Saturday?
    YNWA

  2. it proved again that when ur n top u have to take the chances. on most other days we would have been 3 up at half time. i think we will have a great season. 3 points against arsenal would do nicely. suarez going off early affected us hes a great player.

  3. Two dropped points which we could have been safe in the bag with the half-time whistle! Missed far too many chances; a better team would have us punished. Personally, I feel henderson is better suited to playing in the middle of the park, for all his inability to hassle richardson, he showed some assuredness on the ball. Kenny, pls order your charges to stop hoofing the ball to andy from defence, try to spread the ball to the wingers for proper delivery into the box which brings us to another issue; our need of a natural winger to play on the right!

  4. 1st half was nice. But i think kk selection was bit questionable. Most of the guys where not match fitt. I think we putting much faith on 1 man hoping he will be great and promises are there but time wont stop for us, andy. For him to play full 90mins when we need0a win i dont c t workin in our favour. For him to be in the squad that means we putting out another great player on the side lines sucq as maxi, aquiliani who we know can score goals we need to win.

    Flannagan was great i wonder why are they blame him for 1 mistake the whole game give the lad a break he is 17 years. I feel he is goin to become our next gareth bale

  5. Why don’t you take the day off from beating up Aquilani ??? Davie Fairclough couldn’t hack it at the highest level thats why he rarely made the starting XI

    1. First of all thank you for taking time to reply, Aquilani is not the “fantasic playmaker” you seem to think he is, if he was such a great talent why is it that Dalglish and even that fool Woy dont rate him… Aquilani cannot hack it here and all I can advise you to do is to write to John Henry & Kenny Dalglish to say that Aquilani is a key player for Liverpool…when you get a reply from them please let me know..also i was not beating up Aquilani David Fairclough did that all by himself perfectly

  6. Aqualani again do you ever get bored of it? As for writing to the owners and kenny grow up or did you write to david fairclough to get him to slate aqualani? If you are going to continually slate aqualani why dont you start the empire of the aqualani slaters site?

    1. Thanks for taking time to reply.. to be honest i never get bored of letting fellow reds know about Aquilani to be honest….no sorry David Fairclough has a opinion shared by the larger number of LFC fans and ex pros of LFC also if i set up a web site about slating Aquilani it would be over loaded with supporters but its a good idea thanks

      1. If you set one up you could slate him there instead of here. Its amazing how so many people can have an opinion about a player who has never had a proper chance in the premier league.

  7. Thnx Brian for the article but I have my strong belief in Aquilani he’s an Italy international was the most best Liverpool player in Pre Season in his first season especially towards the end of that season he played wonderfully well and we all were looking forward to his 2nd Season but Uncle Roy came and shipped him out ridiculous isn’t it.Aquilani is a classy player whom attacking prowress could be utilised behind tha striker he’s good with his right and left foot see’s and produces suberb passes and can unlock stubborn defences why don’t we give him a chance to prove his worth.Putting into consideration Gerrad is out injured and we need strength in depth,in fairness likes of Joe Cole,Poulsen,Ngog aint good enough for Liverpool standard Joe Cole is finished,Poulsen is near dead and Ngog could revive his football career else where perharps pressure wouldn’t be on him to deliver all the time.We need an out and out right winger

    1. thank for your comment ….am sorry mate i just dont agree with you on Aquilani he does not want to be here and if he was wanted here he would make the bench at least, david fairclough sumed him up

  8. Great read, and at last someone who writes without hysteria. Anyone would think we were hammered 5-0, by some of the comments on this, and other sites. Think about where the club was on January 1st this year, and that puts it into perspective. This isn’t a video game, success isn’t going to be instant, its a work in progress which will probably take years to come to fruition. Have patience.
    As for Aqulani, it doesn’t matter if he is or isn’t the best player at the club, he clearly wants to leave, so just forget about him.

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