Don’t be this rude

We have a football team here in our village. I used to be the tactician of the team. When we prepare for a game I used to tell kids that I do not care what the result is, what I want is you to give everything you have on the pitch, when I say I really mean that. Because I want, my team plays good football, even against good physical teams. I used to include tricky, fast players in midfield and attacking roles and make sure that our defenders are good enough technically and physically to see of attacks and set pieces. Often these teams will not be that fast, so that will give you an additional option. So I used to remind the defenders about the second ball, and the need of no nonsense defending.  One more thing I used to tell them is, exploit what referee offers you. (I mean some referee will be tough on you on fouls, some others will allow the game to flow, they stop the game only if it is a necessity, and normally referees will be consistent in this)

See the above said things in the light of our Stoke game. I am frustrated now, not because Liverpool fc lost, but due to the reactions of some of our so-called ‘fans’. I saw a lot of comments, IN EOTK and in our official site. Some even find time to slam Kenny Dalglish for the loss. Kenny did all the things he possibly could. His team selection was good. His substitutions were good. So criticizing Kenny was not the need of the hour. The need was unconditional support towards the team. Supporters can criticize the team, but the team should deserve it, this team played in the Stoke does not deserve criticism. Instead, we should praise for the effort they put in. It is a tuff place to go and we never played well there before, I think last Saturday we played well and controlled the game; it is for the first time in four years. We played well throughout the match; just it was not our day.

There were many positives, and the most promising was Andy Carroll. He tried to pass the ball, tried some one-two’s, totally he looked better, and I feel good about the percentage of possession in an away match. I saw many criticisms towards Adam I concede some of his passes were not reached the target but some of them were due to the heavy pitch and some other were due to the good defensive work by the defenders.

Carragher, the only thing I have a problem with him is his passing, not his defending. As someone see the whole match I feel the penalty was a mistake from the official. Kenny was angry because the referee was not consistent. First, Carragher cannot pull him down like that (human anatomy). Secondly, there were incidents like that throughout the game where referee allowed the game to continue and thirdly, if Carragher’s was a foul Skrtel could have ended up seen red card for all the things he did when we defended the corners.

Our midfielders tried to match them when there is a high ball. We closed down on them well. We were good in not allowing them to take the flick on-s and second balls. We created many chances. That is why I do not mind see my team play like this and loses the match, because if we play like this we will not going to lose many matches this season.

I feel it is just a bad day in the office, get over it. The world will not end in Stoke; Kenny had not done anything bad, our team is playing really well, we had a problem or two in the finishing though, I am sure that we will improve on that at Lane.

You Will Never Walk Alone