As you all know Rafa is fast approaching his 100th consecutive game with a changed starting XI. In honour of that feat LFC Vancouver is starting a ‘Guess the Starting XI Contest’.

RULES:

• Only open to paid LFC Vancouver Members.
• You list the names of the players you think will start the next LFC match.
• You must submit your list to lfcvancouver [at] gmail.com at least 12 hours before kick-off.
• This contest will include every match that LFC plays this season. Starting with Blackburn.
• The member(s) that correctly guess the starting XI will be awarded 5 points.
• At the end of the season the player with the most points will win the prize.
• What is the prize? It is a surprise!
• The standings will be included in each week’s newsletter.

You can send comments or questions to the Andy [at] lfcvancouver.com.

YNWA/JFT 96,

Andy Neumann

By LFC Vancouver member Keith Perkins, 24 October 06.

My shift was coming to an end, earlier than usual as 4:00 am approached, and it was time for me to head for the shower. A quick refreshing douse, a change of clothes, and I’m ready to go. The excitement was building as the big match kick-off was getting closer. These early morning starts can be a problem, especially for those who might have been out late on Saturday night. For me, it was simply a problem of timing. My shift would normally be ending around 5:30am, which would give me just about enough time to get down to LSPH to see the second half. But, my relief was on his way early to let me leave work with enough time to be there for the start.

I sometimes ask a lot of my co-workers. Just imagine being asked to come to work by 4:30am on a Sunday morning so that someone else can leave early, just to go and watch a game that means absolutely nothing to you. But this isn’t just a game, and bless them all my co-workers know what it means to me, and how much I appreciate their efforts to accommodate me. May the spirits of Shankly, Paisley, Fagan, et al., shine on them for their understanding (I can’t think of any higher compliment than that).

Shortly after 4:00am I’m sitting there dressed in my Liverpool shirt, scarves at the ready, and then I’m surprised when my relief shows up even earlier than I had asked. The shift changeover went smoothly, and I’m soon on my way downtown through the early morning fog. There’s not much traffic on the roads at this time of the morning, and along the way I see a few stragglers still making their way home from their Saturday night out. When I arrive at LSPH, Pete has already opened up the doors and a few members are already there waiting for the kick-off. Quite a few bleary eyes are in evidence. Some, like me, had been at work until late and have come downtown without bothering to sleep. A few had been out late and just haven’t even tried to get any sleep yet. We just have a few minutes to chat before the kick off and ask ourselves one big question: Just what are we doing, going all the way downtown to a pub to watch a game at this time of the morning? Why aren’t we like normal people who have no interest in a game taking place thousands of miles away?

As the opening scenes of the satellite broadcast come up on the big screen, we can see that there’s a ceremony taking place before the kick-off. There’s Roger Hunt, Ian St.John, Tommy Smith, Ian Callaghan; all legendary players from the Shankly era. If you’ll forgive me reminiscing for a few moments, I’d like to take you back to a few of my childhood memories. There is a point to this, which should become clear later.

I was only about ten years old when I became a frequent member of the Anfield Road crowd. I was usually right near the fence at the front with all the other kids. We were there to see our heroes up close, and we were seldom disappointed. One of those earliest memories is of the bright red colours and the larger than life look of the players in the flesh compared to the drab black and white images that we were used to seeing on television. You can only imagine how it felt to see the likes of St.John and Callaghan coming towards us in full flight, heading for the goal to our right. The looks on their faces, and the steely-eyed determination were a bit frightening to be honest, but it was clear that these men were not out for an afternoon kick-about. This was serious business, so don’t mess with them. How many times did we see St. John battling away for the ball? How many times did we feel the bone-crunching tackles from Tommy Smith as he refused to let any player get past him? By the end of the match it was no wonder that so many of them appeared to be leaving the pitch with a slow motion limp. They gave it their all, week in and week out. They were our idols that we could only dream of matching up to. They were simply the best players in the country – Shanks had told us so and who were we to disagree? They played for us, and felt privileged to do so – Shanks had also told us that and we never doubted it. Those were just a few of the memories that came flooding back after seeing my heroes again, more than thirty years later. More than that, Shanks had it drilled into them that every game lasts ninety minutes, and it isn’t over until the final whistle. That was the reason for so many memorable games during that era.

One such game was an evening match against FA Cup holders Manchester City, August 12th 1969. It was only the second fixture of the season, following a 4-1 win over Chelsea. We were up 1-0 at half time after a second minute goal from Ian St. John, and looked good as we began the second half. But City had other ideas and came out fighting. Before we really knew what had happened, we were suddenly 2-1 down. What the hell’s going on here? The crowd, and especially the Kop, had gone eerily quiet when the City fans began singing the praises of Mike Summerbee: “La-la-la-la Summer-bee!” Suddenly the Kop responded with a chorus of “Who the f*&$%@g hell is he?” Whether or not that was the response that the players needed I can’t tell. But what I do know is that the Reds started to pick up the pace and take back control of the game. We knew that we were going to see a real fight back. Sure enough, Roger Hunt got the equaliser on eighty three minutes and at least we were level. But that wasn’t enough, and the Reds kept attacking. Inevitably, the pressure paid off with St. John rising above the crowd in the box to nod home the winner with two minutes left. 3-2 final score and the buzz in the crowd was unbelievable. After the convincing demolition of Chelsea, followed by this come-from-behind win against Man City, we had no doubts that we’d win the league by the following May. (Actually, it was Everton who won that season, with us in fifth place, but that’s another story.) A game like that stays in the memory for so many reasons, not least of which is seeing the spirit of determination and the never-say-die attitude from the players. Now back to this recent Sunday’s match. The kick-off came, the match proceeded, and two hours later we’re leaving there in a state of depression. I really don’t have any more than that to say about the match itself. What we had just seen must have been an embarrassment for those legendary players. To say that this was not just the same club that they had played for, but that this was supposed to be the club that Shankly built into a bastion of invincibility. Those heroes of mine from the 60’s and 70’s took great pride in wearing the shirt with the liver bird on the chest. What were these present-day players feeling while they were out there? Where was their pride?

The inevitable finger pointing is sure to escalate now. Who is to blame for the lack of scoring, who is to blame for the defensive mistakes? Who is to blame for the errant passes, and who is to blame for the look of confusion from the players who just don’t seem to know what to do once they find the ball at their feet?

Some critics have already blamed the rotation system for the lack of results so far this season. Others have pointed to the number of new players who have yet to understand how to fit their play in with all of the others. A few have blamed the club’s board of directors for not handing over the money for better quality players in this summer’s transfer dealings. Some have even suggested that Rafa might be gone by the end of this season if things don’t improve, and quickly. I won’t pretend to have the answer; I won’t even suggest that I can analyse or fully understand all of the sub-standard performances. But I do have one clue about where the problem lies, and that may just be the beginning of a solution.

As we were leaving LSPH and getting ready to make our way home, I chatted briefly with a couple of other members. It was now just a few minutes past 7am, and the sun was just starting to make an appearance over the mountains to the east. “Why do we do this to ourselves?” one member asked. “We could have stayed in bed, or gone home hours earlier, yet here we all are in foul moods for the rest of the day, or possibly the week, because of what we have just seen”. “Well,” I answered, “it’s because we are Liverpool supporters; and as Liverpool supporters we’ll always be there to support Liverpool no matter what. We don’t know any other way to be. Just think the unthinkable for a moment: suppose we end this season (or the next one, or the one after) with relegation. Will we stop supporting then? What would it take for us to say ‘no more, you’re no longer worthy of our support’? Can we even imagine ourselves saying that?” The answer of course is no. We just couldn’t do it. We’ll be there again and again no matter what the results are; it’s called dedication. It’s the pride and the passion for Liverpool Football Club that burns deeply within each one of us that keeps us going, and then keeps us coming back. What a shame that we just didn’t see any evidence of that same pride and passion from the players when it was needed most.

What do you think? Give Keith your comments at Keith [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Steven Speed, 23 October 06.

There is only one word I feel is appropriate to use right now to describe that performance against Man Utd – disgraceful. It was disgraceful to the players themselves, the manager, the city and the millions of supporters all around the world. It is one thing to try your best and lose to a better team, but it’s another thing entirely to lose without making any sort of reasonable effort. To play like we did on Sunday as though it didn’t matter is bang out of order, especially after the Scholes goal, I’m sorry but it’s just not on.

I said last week that it was “so depressing to even think about the season once again being over well before Christmas”, well somebody please pass me the Prozac.

Of course, technically we all know that the season isn’t really over with three cups and a top four league finish still to play for, but it’s almost certain we now have two hopes of winning the league, no hope & Bob Hope.

The defeat on Sunday couldn’t possibly have come at a worse time for The Reds. In the last ten years I do not recall the confidence within the team ever being quite as bad as it appears to be at the moment. We are currently playing even worse than we were during that awful period early in 2005 when we were pathetic in defeats to Southampton, Birmingham and most famously Burnley in the F.A. Cup. Remember Djimi Traore’s goalmouth samba dancing? Well there is only one type of dance I think that most of our current squad should be doing and that is the redundance!

I have been to a lot of Liverpool games in my life and on only one occasion has it been so terrible I have walked out of the ground before the final whistle. That was during an appalling F.A. Cup defeat to Crystal Palace in 2003. If I had been at Old Trafford on Sunday I don’t imagine I would have bothered staying till the end. It hurt so much to see and I’m still finding it hard to believe I was watching a team containing the likes of, Gerrard, Carragher, Alonso and Sissoko. Where was the pride, the fight or the passion?

Rafa is making some strange tactical decisions this season, but the positioning of players on Sunday was clearly a complete failure. The way key players are being played out of position, it was like watching square pegs trying to fit into round holes. Pennant has been terrific on the right wing in previous games, taking on players and making a nuisance of himself, so what was he doing on the left side of midfield? Why did Rafa take Gonzales off & stick Gerrard on the left wing? Gerrard has been played out on the wing a number of times this season which is absolutely stupid. Not only do we have decent cover on both sides but playing him there takes him completely out of the game. No wonder he hasn’t scored this season and lately we hardly ever see him chasing players down.

There appeared to be only two outfield players who seemed to be genuinely trying against Man Utd. Momo Sissoko was getting stuck in but unfortunately a farcical first half booking, by that plant pot Graham Poll, possibly limited his efforts from then on. He was partnered by a lacklustre Xabi Alonso, the only contribution I can recall him making was a decent shot from outside the area in the first half. Did we win any fifty-fifty balls during the ninety minutes? If we did it couldn’t have been too many. We are missing Didi Hamman desperately this season, especially with Gerrard being played out on the flanks.

Kuyt also worked hard, as usual but unfortunately he was limited in his effectiveness due to the horrendous performance of Luis Garcia, a man who will probably be back in Spain next season. Garcia is not a striker and the game was crying out for Crouch to start. He is our top scorer this season and has looked a real handful when he has played. What effect does it have on his confidence when he wins us the game at Bordeaux and is then ‘rested’ for one of the most important games of the season?

Off the field there were more disgraceful antics. It was a shame but not a surprise to hear about the pathetic Man Utd fans in the crowd. They were singing songs implying Liverpool supporters are murderers and referring to Heysel, prompting our fans to retort with Munich songs. There always has been and always will be bitterness between Mancs and Scousers but I like to feel that we use humour to attack rather than hate and bigotry like the woolly backs do.

Anyone who was watching with us in Library Square will recall that knob-head Manc loudly singing hate songs and making ridiculous comments. He was very lucky he did not get an absolute pasting, imagine if he had done that in a Liverpool pub! I can think of more than one tasty character in my local back home that would have sent him away in an ambulance. As fellow LFC Vancouver member, Keith said afterwards “anti-Scouse chants are unoriginal and totally out of place so far away from Merseyside”. I was very proud of the behaviour of my fellow members of LFC Vancouver for not getting involved in any trouble especially when an Irishman downstairs began reacting to the Mancs stupid comments with his own threats.

I don’t think we will be able to make up the eleven points difference but let’s all try to be positive and cheer on the lads. We have far too much talent for this bad run to continue. We may not look like we have a chance of winning the title, but stranger things have happened and there is no point in letting this result drag us down.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

By LFC Vancouver member Mark Ashton, 22 October 06.

October 22nd and already 11 points behind the leaders. After a hectic off-season in the transfer market, expectations just 2 short months ago were of Liverpool pushing Chelsea hard for the title while leaving Man U and Arsenal in their wake.

I asked the question at that time “Premiership Contenders or Pretenders”? I suggested the former, but the answer is obviously plain for all to see. The stark truth at this early stage of the season is the most shocking reality of all.

So Where Did It All Go Wrong?

I’ve heard and read numerous reasons including:

• Rafa’s rotation policy
  
• Lack of desire to attack
  
• Poor defending
  
• World Cup hangovers
  
• Too many new players needing time to acclimatize
  
• Tactical formations

For me the defeat to Man U emphasized some of the shortcomings of our play. The first half started well enough. Good pressure on the ball, some good movement, and some quick passes as opposed to the slow methodical 2, 3 and 4 touch kind that we’ve been playing far too often this season.

The game plan clearly was to get Gonzalez to beat Neville with his pace and for Gerrard to provide the supply on the right. Goals would come from balls coming into the box, early ones from Gerrard, and from Gonzalez getting in behind. Support to Kuyt would come from Garcia who could move into the hole behind Kuyt to get on one of those crosses or pull backs and thump the ball into the back of the net.

Half time came and it had been an evenly contested game, with Man U taking their chance which came at the expense of a poor decision by Hyypia and Carragher to play for offside when the ball carrier out wide was already in advance of them. Not the smartest thing to do, but overall we could feel unlucky to be a goal down. Although we didn’t cut Man U apart we suggested enough menace that we might get a goal or two if we got at them a bit more.

Then came the second half. Man U with the lead played slightly withdrawn and compact, very much to be expected. Liverpool’s response? Quite pathetic, but rather insightful as to some or our problems.

Three things became very apparent for me.

The first is that our passing, almost to a man, is horrible. Statistics over the years have shown that Hyypia regularly had the highest percentage of completed passes of any Liverpool player. How times have changed. Regularly Hyypia’s passes and clearances are now a couple of yards off the mark. A couple of yards is enough so that they go to the opposition instead of starting a counter attack, leading to more concerted pressure to defend against. Hyypia, however, is clearly not alone. In fact Riise’s distribution is perhaps even worse than Hyypia’s. While high quality passing and distribution is not expected of Carra, his weakness here only adds to the problem.

This passing malaise has unfortunately spread like a virulent strain of the flu to the midfield and infected Alonso and Gerrard, supposedly world class in this department. With Garcia always susceptible to a bout of the passing flu, and Sissoko’s natural lack of passing ability (despite his other qualities) it leaves us looking more like Dave Bassett’s Wimbledon than Benitez’s Valencia.

At least Bassetts Wimbledon played to their strengths –hoofing the ball forward for a knock down. With Liverpool it leads to much more defending, and getting the ball out wide in the hope that someone will beat a player and get a cross in. This leads me to the second revelation. Still our wide players can’t beat a player and get in behind defenses. Partly this is down to poor distribution from the midfield and a lack of a quality angled balls into space to attack behind the defense, and partly this is down to lack of ability. Personally I still think that Gonzalez might, in time, develop into a dangerous attacking wideman – but not this year. Unfortunately my misgivings at the start of the year in signing Pennant (the quote I believe was ,”instead of being able to bring in a Daniel Alves or Simao – both who would have been in the £10-14M range – one had to settle for an expensive (at half the cost) Jermaine Pennant”) have proved true. Currently this appears to be one of my few correct predictions from the pre-season.

This lack of a cutting edge out wide really highlighted a third startling deficiency in our game against Man U. A complete lack of a threat from center midfield. Not only can our midfielders (or defenders) not hit the side of a barn from 10 feet, there is no attacking threat up the middle, unless you count a 50 yard lob from Alonso once or twice a season.

With Gerrard playing wide we don’t have anyone through the middle that can come storming through and create something. Alonso is sitting back much too deep relying on long wayward passes to create an opportunity and Sissoko (for all of his industry and work) doesn’t have the talent to make incisive passes or to take on defenders to create and finish opportunities.

The only player (other than a Gerrard in form and in the center of midfield) that has shown glimpses of the Hansenesque ability to come striding through the middle to beat a player and make an incisive pass has been the young and talented Daniel Agger.

These three deficiencies have also been compounded by our inability up front to score goals from half chances. A distinctive mark of a Premiership team is the ability to turn half chances and lone chances into goals. Our forwards haven’t yet been able to do that enough to help take the pressure off and help restore some much needed confidence.

So what’s the solution? I propose four things that won’t make up the ground we’ve lost but which would hopefully bring some respectability back to our play.

Firstly I personally have grave doubts that we can be the dominant team that we should be with continuing to play with Alonso sitting deep and with Sissoko playing the more advanced center midfield role. Either we need to play Sissoko deep and have Alonso play more advanced, or we need to find a combination that allows Gerrard to play in the center of midfield and have either Alonso or Sissoko take on more of the defensive duties.

Secondly when Agger gets back from injury his emergence as Hyypia’s replacement needs to be accelerated. This will certainly result in some mistakes, some goals conceded and a few lost points – however as this is happening anyway I don’t see much downside. The upside being that Agger may develop into the dominant Hansenesque center back who can provide some of the quality on the ball that we desperately need. He likely won’t emerge as that this year, but giving him more opportunities than not now will accelerate this for next year.

My third remedy is that we need to practice, practice, practice, and practice again our passing and movement. Currently our midfielders are aren’t able to play those slide rule 10-15 yard passes into space behind a defender for a forward running onto them – this is partly due to defenses being able to play compact inside due to our lack of a real threat out wide and through the center of the park. Remember the old days when all the practices were 5 a side games – lots of movement, passing, and third man running.

Finally we need to spend whatever it takes to buy the very best wide player the world has to offer. Surely Houllier’s Liverpool era proved that having 4 or 5 good players is no substitute for having 1 world class player.

Maybe this way we’ll gain some respectability and you never know we might even climb back to being pretenders again.

What do you think? Give us your comments at webmaster [at] lfcvancouver.com and we’ll make sure Mark gets them.

By LFC Vancouver member Steven Speed, 26 October 06.

Fantastic to see us score four, yes four count them, against Premiership opposition on Wednesday night. Yes it was only against Reading in the League Cup but what a boost to our confidence that is! Of course the 3 second half goals we conceded were certainly a concern and another example of our awful defending but I think I have slagged them off enough lately and there is nothing more I can say that hasn’t been said a million times already this season. Instead I think that right now I want to concentrate on something positive as there hasn’t much opportunity for that lately.

While watching highlights of Wednesday nights game I couldn’t stop thinking, where was Robbie Fowler when we needed him at Old Trafford? Age and injuries may have taken some of the pace but that isn’t needed when you were born to score goals. His instinct is as sharp as ever and it’s as though he was never away. The way The Growler took the first goal was tremendous, perfect run onto Pennants great through ball & a sublime chip over the goalie. I have watched that goal many times last night and today and it seems to get better with every viewing.

His involvement in the fourth goal from Crouch was also superb. It was brilliant vision and timing to play the one two with Crouch to put him one on one with the keeper. That was Crouch’s seventh goal of the season and he’s now scored in four different competitions (including the Charity Shield) which shows he is definitely a man for all occasions. That again just makes the decision to replace him with Luis Garcia for the Man Utd game even more perplexing.

Pennant looked good back on the right of midfield. On the highlights I saw he was running at defenders and making some great passes too.

Palletta took his goal well and that was a dream debut to score in front of The Kop. I saw him play in pre-season and he looked like he might be useful.

I hope Fowler plays against Aston Villa on Saturday, I think he can link up well with both Crouch or Kuyt. Maybe it’s just nostalgia and the fact he’s my hero talking here but I just get that feeling he’s going to score every time he’s on the pitch.

What do you think? Give Ste your comments at steSpeed [at] lfcvancouver.com.

Standings as of 27 October 06.

Rank	Member	Points
1	Glenn Whyte	0
1	Ste	0
1	Lance	0
1	Keith	0
1	Quentin	0
1	Andy	0
1	Dave Curtis	0
1	Dennis	0
1	Mark Ashton	0

It has been four matches and no winner yet! The contest is not as easy as one would hope, don't forget to email your starting XI for the Aston Villa game.

To enter the members contest see the rules above.