….any time now, Jova and Poulsen

We’re about to head into August and we’re about two weeks away from our first Premier League match against Sunderland.

Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen are still-STILL-on the squad. Certainly no Liverpool fan would have had it that way at the start of this summer.

Jova has had one foot out the door for the whole summer and it looks like his wages are a sticking point for teams interested in taking him on. His wages are currently £60k p/w and he needs to be honest with himself right now: There is nothing that he has done at Liverpool that makes him worth that. Nothing. I’ll give him credit for coming and giving a consistently high effort but all that effort was really without much quality. He’s just not a Liverpool player, plain and simple.

It’s harder to find Christian Poulsen’s wages but he’s probably getting paid something similar to Jovanovic. I can only hope it isn’t higher.

He was signed to be a replacement for Javier Mascherano and failed massively. He turned 31 last season and it seems as though the game has passed him by. We ended up doing Juventus a huge favor by taking his wages off of their hands and paying £4.5 million for him. We would have been better off keeping Damien Plessis in the long run, the man whose shirt Poulsen took.

Poulsen, too, has been linked with a few teams for a move away from Anfield. When his former club FC Copenhagen were interested in him, Poulsen’s agent Jorn Bonnesen said that there would be no move to Copenhagen and proclaimed that Poulsen’s future was at Liverpool.

No, it’s not. He’s not good enough. He could help at a team like Fulham but for a team that is pushing to get back into the Champions League in England, he just can’t bring anything to the table.

I would have thought that Paul Konchesky-one of Roy Hodgson’s worst deeds at Liverpool-leaving would have prompted the other two to switch. Konchesky realized that the payday was not worth rotting on the bench. If Jovanovic and Poulsen had the sense, and maybe an agent to give them a nudge, they’d realize the same thing.

Joe Cole and David N’Gog are different, at least to me. They can give us something. For Cole, it might be a little bit of neat passing and fresh legs as a sub, and he’s versatile enough to play a few spots. He’s not the star that we thought we signed but he could be a threat from the bench. David N’Gog has shown some promise as a 22-year old striker. Sometimes he looks the part, sometimes he doesn’t. His wages can’t be that expensive at this point and the position depth for less important games like early Carling Cup and FA Cup games would be beneficial for resting our starters. Adam Morgan might be another striker that we could use in this role but I would hate to see N’Gog go and finally realize his potential for another team.

International Reds in action [video]

Daniel Agger, Christian Poulsen, Glen Johnson & Dirk Kuyt featured for their respective countries yesterday.

Daniel Agger scored a beauty for Denmark, Glen Johnson set up Ashley Young for a goal while Dirk Kuyt scored a penalty for the Dutch.

In other games:

Danny Wilson featured for the final two minutes for Scotland as they beat Northern Ireland 3-0.

Lucas Leiva played a full game for Brazil however the samba boys lost to France 1-0.

Raul Meireles played the entire 90 for Portugal as they lost to Argentina 2-1.

However the best news for us Liverpool supporters is the fact that they all will all return to Melwood in one piece as no injuries were reported.

England – Denmark

Netherlands – Austria

If you’re betting on Liverpool to win on their next match then make sure you compare the latest free betting from top UK bookmakers at freebets.com.

The Daily Antoine: 3rd Feb 2011 – Liverpool F.C. News update

In case you missed it, I was interviewed on Goal.com more…

Have you seen the new El Pistolero shirt from the EOTK shop?

On Twitter, I have now tweeted more than 50,000 times @empireofthekop

We have two new writers on EOTK, welcome aboard Kaushal, his first posts here
& Yudistiro his first post here.

Luis Suarez scored on his debut in front of the Kop as the Reds win 2-0 more…
(Fernando who?)

King Kenny is delighted more…
(Of course he would)

Andy Carroll was paraded at Anfield more…
(YNWA)

Kenny believes that the new boys can fire us back into the Champions League more…
(YNWA)

The King believes that the new owners will continue to spend more…
(Excellent)

Andy Carroll vows to bring Silverware to Anfield more…
(Yeah Baby)

Aquilani might return to LFC more…
(Humm)

Christian Poulsen talks about the ‘fresh new start’ at LFC more…
(YNWA)

Suarez talks about how the hand of God belongs to him more…
:-)

Unfortunately it looks likely that both Suarez and Carroll with miss our Europa League fixture more…
(Bummer)

Aldo predicts more arrivals at Anfield more…
(Great News)

Skrtel is not surprised by Torres moving away more…
(Interesting)

Paco says that Torres was right to leave more…
(Oh Paco! Why do you say that? )

Terry is buzzing over Torres’ arrival more…
(No comment)

And Gary Neville has retired from football more…
(Oh! was he a football player?)

And finally a Scunthorpe guy changed his name to Fernando Torres more…
(Oh boy!)

On Twitter @empireofthekop

Your time is up Mr Hodgson, please just leave.

We did have dreams and songs to sing. Only two seasons ago we were right at the top flight of English football, we were the team to beat. This time in 2008 we were leading the English Premier league. Now, less than a season and a half later, we are slumped in the bottom half of the table wallowing amongst the likes of teams who have recently been in the Championship.

How many of the players that were playing in the starting eleven today actually deserved to wear that Liverpool shirt with the way they played.

Reina- Does look like he plays with desire but still lacks confidence. Looked very shaky when he came to close down at the goal they scored. Such a top keeper shouldn’t be this unconfident.

Glen Johnson- looked woeful at the back. Never looked like he wanted to have the ball and gave very panicky passes at the back.

Konchesky- The reaction when he was substituted said it all. He is too slow and doesnt add anything to the team. Must go in January to hopefully free up some transfer funds (if he is worth anything)

Skrtel- Just wasnt strong enough today. Unfortunately just offside for the dissalowed goal. You would have thought that we might have studied their tactics at defensive free kicks a bit better, surely we must have known they would have played for the offside.

Meireles- Should have scored early on in the game. Didnt make an impact so was rightfully substituted

Gerrard- I feel really sorry for Stevie, no one else willing around him to play. Had just come back from injury and was expected to do everything. Lacks confidence

Lucas- Showed a bit more desire than many other players on the pitch. Still, could do plenty more. Lacks confidence

Torres- His body language is awful. Has no confidence and he needs some badly.

Kuyt- Kept running but unfortunately didnt get himself into the game enough. Lacks confidence

Ngog- Was not good at all, again just no desire

Subs used:

Aurelio- looked much better than Konchesky, would really like to see him start.

Cole- I didnt really get a feel of him doing anything and think he could have done with more time on the pitch

Babel- Looked a bit threatening at first but didnt do anything really after. Unlucky to be given offside at one point.

Now onto Mr Hodgson:

Things are going wrong everywhere. Firstly, I disagree with his selection. Konchesky shouldnt be starting, Aurelio should. Agger should be starting instead of Skrtel and when Carragher is fully fit the Centre backs will be much stronger. Very strange putting Meireles on the wing and it showed that he was clearly out of position. These are basic selection issues that he should easily be able to change but still hasnt. He has insisted to play Konchesky when all he has done is consistently performed badly.

Secondly, it is obvious that there is something going wrong in training. Roy says that they have been sharp in training and that the 18 day rest has been fine because they have been able to train the whole time. As Andy Gray said, they do look like they havn’t played for 18 days. They certainly don’t look like they are a side that have been sharp in training. This is possibly because there is no real insentive. There is no real competition for places and this links in with people not being fit to wear the Liverpool shirt. They don’t look as if they have any desire or will to win. We need to change the way that we are training to get some belief back into the team.

I have never seen such a bad performance from a Liverpool team. Things have to change otherwise we are going to struggle to bring any decent players in and to win any games.

This so called ‘corner’ we are turning is extremely long, or just non existent.

Your time is up Roy Hodgson, take Christian Poulsen and Paul Konchesky with you as well.

YNWA, Hugh

hugh@empireofthekop.com

The Daily Antoine: 22nd Dec 2010 – Liverpool F.C. News update

Rafa has been fired from Inter more…
(YNWA Rafa)

Pepe Reina “Liverpool will fight for title next season” more…
(YNWA, love his attitude)

Roy “Liverpool are looking more like my team” more…
(Someone is happy)

The gaffer warns the fans that we might be out of Champions League for a while more…
(With that kind of negative attitude for sure)

We have signed a 15 year old keeper from Millwall more…
(Ok, Roy when they said young players they did not want you to raid the Kindergarten. Just kidding, no pun intended :-) )

Alex Kerzhakov snubs Liverpool more…
(Go away then)

And Cassano will join AC Milan more…
(That is another off the list)

Jay Spearing is set for a new contract more…
(Great News)

Aldo talks about Fabio’s return more…
(I would really like to see him start over Konchesky)

Segura has set first team targets for the young players more…
(Excellent, glad to see the focus back on the youth)

Rafa insists that he hasn’t been fired from Inter yet more…
(The former gaffer is spending Christmas in Liverpool)

Aldo believes that Euro glory is round the corner more…
(Is this because Rafa is so close)

Christian Poulsen is a West Ham target more…
(Didn’t they mention Lucas to West Ham 2 weeks ago?)

And more talk of Adebayor joining LFC more…
(Humm)

And here is a good one, according to a report we are selling Glen Johnson to buy Shaun Wright Phillips more…
(Bullocks)

And more talk of Glen Johnson leaving as Tuttosport claims that Juve are in the chase too more…
(Selling Momo?)

Also more talk of Chamberlain  more…
(This kid is great)

More stuff to make us proud to be Reds more…
(YNWA)

And finally Nicolas Anelka wants to end his career in the MLS more…
(So the MLS will become a retirement place like the old NASL was)

Follow on Twitter @empireofthekop

Mid-season report : Liverpool F.C.

Off the field the season so far has been great for Liverpool F.C., our despised former owners are gone and have been replaced by responsible ones who want bring back the glory days. In typical L.F.C. fashion it was not easy, however at the end we prevailed and Tom Hicks and George Gillett were sent packing to their little corner of the world.

The new owners (N.E.S.V.) under the leadership of John W Henry and Tom Werner have been very cautious in their approach so far, this is understandable. They have bought a club with great history and traditions in a sport that they didn’t know much about. We (Liverpool fans) maybe sometimes get a little ahead of ourselves and see what they did right after they purchased the Boston Red Sox. In Boston they fired the coach just after a few days of taking over. This hasn’t happened at Liverpool and instead they have backed Roy Hodgson and brought in Damien Camolli as Director of Football to assist Roy with the transfers.

We (The fans) would like to see the changes as soon as possible and you can’t blame us. Lack of investment by the previous owners and a sacking of Rafa Benitez has left us with an unpopular manager and a squad with quite a few average players. There are some that argue the case for Roy Hodgson to be allowed to stay until the end of the season giving him a chance to “sign his own players” in the January transfer window. Roy has already had the summer transfer window however with the exception of Raul Meireles none of his recruits have impressed. The argument is the same as the ones who backed Rafa had used, “Hicks & Gillett” didn’t give him enough money.

We are currently in 9th place on the Premier League table, with just 22 points we are closer to the bottom three than we are to the top four, our goal differential of -1 speaks volumes. It has been a horrible first half of the season and our away form has been disastrous, we have only been able to pick up 5 points on the road from a possible 27. Many of us fans agree that Roy is not the right man for the job, he never was. Our opposition hasn’t been that great either which makes it more painful that we didn’t pickup more points. Based on all our games so far I would say Blackpool were the best opposition we have faced. Of our players I would say that Lucas Leiva and David Ngog deserve some special recognition while at the other end of the spectrum I think Paul Konchesky and Christian Poulsen have become the symbol for everything that is wrong.

Moving forward:
Christian Poulsen, Paul Konchesky and Milan Jovanovic would be the ones that I would like to see sold in January while Ryan Babel and Joe Cole should be given until the summer to prove themselves. Top of my signing list is Eden Hazard however we really need a winger and a second world class striker to partner Torres. If Roy stays I predict a difficult rest of the season and we have to face the possibility of no European football next season.

Y.N.W.A.
-Antoine

On Twitter @empireofthekop