Sunday, September 28, 2008

Big 3 win while Arsenal sliped up

Liverpool, Chelsea and Man United all won their respective matches by 2-o. The early kick-off saw Liverpool traveled to Goddison Park to face Everton. A superb double by Fernando Torres sealed a comfortable 2-o win for the Reds. The Spanish hitman has not find the net since he scored the winner in the opening fixture against Sunderland and struggle with his form due to his injury. However, like what the commentator said after he scored, "form is temporary, but class is permanent." He will always remain as a world class striker whatever the situation. Meanwhile, Chelsea also cruise to a convincing 2-0 win over Stoke City. Their new promising signing showed what is he all about by smashing in his first goal for the Blues after a magnificent built-up play. Anelka then came off the bench and scored the second goal.

He has done it again!
Cristiano Ronaldo is back! He is back and he has done it again. Scored from the spot after a 'dive' inside the box. Bolton's Samuel slides and gets the ball but amazingly Styles points to the spot. The Bolton players cannot believe it!!!!! Does he need to go to the ground after he saw the ball was intercept? But for him, Yes! as always. On the other hand, what is wrong with Gunners? Before the match, pundits were trying to predict how many goals can the gunners score in this game. In addition, recently there were on fire, beating Bolton convincingly and even their young guns gave Sheffield Utd a 6-0 thrashing, but I wonder how their fire power can be shut down so suddenly?

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Robbie Keane another Shevchenko?

"His goal will come".... "Once he scored he will keep scoring". "He will become a super star and form a formidable partnership with Fernando Torres"..... However, for now, I can't see that is going to happen for Liverpool's new GB20 million striker Robbie Keane. He is yet to score a single goal for Liverpool since his arrival and that streak has stretched to 8 matches. The new star striker for Liverpool reminds me about Sheva in Chelsea not long ago. Where the Ukrainian performed poorly for the Blues that does not worth his sky high price.

Robbie Keane was tipped to open his account against newly promoted Stoke City. He actually had his chance to score but he took them poorly. Also, Liverpool could have won all their EPL matches if he performs at his level. In the game against Aston Villa where ended o-o, Robbie Keane was clean through in an 1 on 1 situation with the keeper in the second half. He could have controlled the ball and finished it to win the game but he waited and waited for the ball to bounce and the ball was cleared by a Villa player in the end. I was surprised he wasn't confident in front of the goal, he did not take his chances confidently in the games so far and also wasted a couple of opportunity in the game against Stoke.

So, how can he find his form and confidence back? How long will he take to actually adapt to the style of Liverpool? In my opinion, he is now really unsure of a place in Liverpool's starting line up unless he starts scoring. Andriy Shevchenco in Chelsea was a good example. He definitely won't want to spend his time on the bench and being criticized for the remaining season. As we can see Rafa Benitez has a lot of faith in Dirk Kuyt and started him almost every match, Ryan Babel is also another option to play as second striker behind Torres.

Sunday, September 14, 2008

Finally, Liverpool get it right


Liverpool 2-1 Manchester United

Some people said that Liverpool cannot produce good football & they lack quality to trouble Manchester United's defence. While there are also people said that the home game against the Devils is going to be their time to revenge and they will win it in some styles. Yes, they have done it! And they have done it in STYLE! They dominated their opponent throughout the game with variety of movement and sharp passing, they restricted their rival to only very few chances. They came from 1 goal down to beat their opponent and they have done it without key players like Torres & Gerrard(only played for 20+ min).

Many people also said that without Torres and Gerrard, Liverpool are not a good team. Then aren't Alonso, Mascherano, Kuyt, Babel, Riera and Keane quality players as what they have shown in the game yesterday? Dirk Kuyt, who has been criticized for lack of quality, worked extremely hard and it was a stunning performance by him. Running all over the pitch, provide precise deliveries and linked well with his teammates. The super sub - Ryan Babel, was magnificent as he scored the winning goal, and troubled the Man United defence all the time after he came on.

It is interesting to see how good Liverpool actually are when Gerrard and Torres return to full fitness. They are going to form a fearsome attacking line up with rock solid defence. But first they must not play too defensively and they must play like how they did yesterday against Man Utd. As we can see from the match, the Reds were very well organized going forward with high tempo but lacked a bit of cutting edge. However, with their captain Steven Gerrard & golden boy Fernando Torres returning to the starting line up soon, I can only see the team scoring more goals and causing more of troubles to other team's defence. So, can they keep up their form or improve further?