PREVIEW-Liverpool back among the Premier League elite
http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slug=reu-england_preview&prov=reuters&type=lgnsBy Trevor Huggins
LONDON, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Liverpool could find themselves in their highest Premier League position for three years this weekend after the European champions host Wigan Athletic at Anfield.
Champions and runaway league leaders Chelsea are at home to Middlesbrough, Manchester United face struggling Portsmouth and Arsenal are away to bogey team Bolton Wanderers.
Bolton stand to help a Liverpool side who have lacked the consistency and strength in depth to keep up with Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea in the weekly grind of domestic football.
In his first season, manager Rafael Benitez succeeded in turning them into a successful cup side, winning the Champions League in May after reaching the League Cup final against Chelsea in February.
Helped by his talented imports from the Primera Liga such as Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso, the Spaniard is now adding some real resilience to a team bidding for a sixth consecutive league win on Saturday.
They have not conceded a goal in those previous five games, during which time they have accelerated from 13th to fourth in the table, or in either of the two Champions League group matches sandwiched within that run.
Liverpool have not been fourth since May 2004 and have not been any higher than that since the Merseysiders were second in the coming weekend's corresponding fixture back in 2002.
Liverpool, on 25 points, are only a point behind second-placed Arsenal and two adrift of Manchester United inthe league.
CHELSEA RALLY
Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho, whose team are 12 points ahead, albeit after playing a game more, will not be losing any sleep in their quest for a 10th consecutive home league win.
After two unaccustomed defeats, his side have won their last three games in all competitions without conceding a goal and England midfielder Frank Lampard has soared to the top of the league scoring charts.
Lampard has also finished second behind Ronaldinho as European Footballer of the Year and is on a shortlist of three for FIFA's World Player of the Year with the same Brazilian and Cameroon's Samuel Eto'o.
Middlesbrough, whose former Chelsea striker Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink should make a nostalgic return to Stamford Bridge, will have been buoyed by a midweek win over Crystal Palace which booked them into the League Cup quarter-finals.
United return to Old Trafford after an emotional night on Wednesday when tributes were paid to the memory of George Best before their League Cup win over West Bromwich Albion.
England striker Wayne Rooney, brilliant when he turned around a 1-0 deficit in last weekend's 2-1 league win at West Ham, will again be leading the charge.
Portsmouth, casting around for a new manager after the sacking of Alain Perrin, still have Joe Jordan in charge in what looks like an unenviable task. Pompey have lost their last three league games without scoring.
Arsenal will not be relishing another meeting with Bolton, having taken only one point off them last season and not having won at the Reebok in the league for three years -- despite an FA Cup victory there in March.
Most painful of all, though, was a 2-2 draw there in April 2003 which killed off Arsenal's bid for the title.
Elsewhere, the pressure is building on three other managers.
Newcastle United manager Graeme Souness, whose team lost to Wigan in the League Cup on Wednesday, badly needs a win at home to Aston Villa, whose David O'Leary is similarly under fire after their League Cup exit at the hands of Doncaster Rovers.
Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy takes his bottom-placed team to White Hart Lane to face sixth-placed Tottenham Hotspur, hoping for a change in his fortunes. Wednesday's 2-0 home defeat by Liverpool was their eighth successive defeat in all competitions.
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http://www.squarefootball.net/article/article.asp?aid=2540CROUCHING TIGER, HIDDEN DANGER
After every Liverpool result, you can almost guarantee what the headline is going to be the next day. And it will certainly be about Peter Crouch not scoring, or when he does, it will be about Peter Crouch finally scoring.
But do the newspapers think this is the one thing on Liverpool’s mind at the moment? Do they think the Anfield faithful are in a state of panic that their £7million-man hasn’t hit the net yet? Because they certainly haven’t paid any attention to the fact that they are hot on the heels of Manchester United and Arsenal, just two points from second place.
Ask any Liverpool fan and not a single one of them would swap the maximum 15 points they have picked up from the last five games for a Crouch goal. Seven clean sheets in a row has meant that it doesn’t matter that Crouch isn’t scoring. As long as someone somehow gets one in the opposition net, then Liverpool will win.
And not only have they been winning with significant ease, but Crouch has been playing a massive part in this. Look only to Wednesday’s game at Sunderland for proof of this. With Liverpool cruising at 2-0, Momo Sissoko received his marching orders for two bookings. But Liverpool still kept possession of the ball, with Crouch’s height and hold-up play the main reason. When Rafa Benitez decided to give the big man a rest, Liverpool’s ten men struggled to keep the ball. A better side than the hapless Sunderland might have looked like creating an opening in such a scenario.
Crouch may not score goals, but he keeps the ball. And if Liverpool have the ball, there’s only one team that can put it in the back of the net. Particularly with the ever impressive rearguard that is being formed at the back by Rafa Benitez. The likes of ‘keeper Jose Reina, Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia have ensured that Crouch not scoring isn’t an issue, by keeping one clean sheet after another.
With the massively under-praised Steve Finnan keeping things quiet in his right back slot, and with whoever is selected between John Arne Riise, Stephen Warnock and Djimi Traore doing soundly on the other flank, Carragher and Hyypia have been comfortably patrolling the Liverpool defence. In Reina they have a goalkeeper who seems to install confidence in his backline, while Sami Hyypia – despite those ageing legs – will win anything in the air.
And as for Carragher, what can you say? Does this man ever have an off day? With Sven Goran Eriksson dithering between Rio Ferdinand and Sol Campbell as to who should partner John Terry for England, the answer is right before his eyes. Carragher has been far more reliable, steady and consistent than either Ferdinand or Campbell over the past two years. How Carragher still gets overlooked baffles the mind. Maybe a much publicised wage-dispute or a controversial transfer to Liverpool’s arch rivals would get him the press to bring him a much warranted place in the middle of England’s defence. Instead, he is used as the ‘fill in’ man at the back, with his versatility arguably counting against him.
Even with Carragher’s contribution towards seven consecutive clean sheets, Liverpool haven’t become ‘one nil’ merchants. Of those seven games, Liverpool have scored two or more in five of them. And despite Fernando Morientes and arguably Djibril Cisse joining Crouch in failing to find consistent goals, Liverpool are still winning with significant ease. A lot of credit for this must go to Benitez. Before his arrival, goals from midfield was Liverpool’s Achilles heel. Now it seems to be their specialty, with Xabi Alonso, Luis Garcia and Steven Gerrard all regularly contributing. This again eases the pressure on Crouch and allows him to do what he does best – join in the build up play and help cause problems and create opportunities.
Benitez is also due credit for one very bold move that has been another instrumental factor in Liverpool’s rise up the table. Not too many managers would risk messing about with their biggest-named players position, but for the good of the team Benitez moved Gerrard – one of the best central midfielders in the world – out to the right wing. The idea of doing this “to add balance” may have come across as crazy and a waste of Gerrard’s natural talent in the middle of the park, but look at the results since. Five wins out of five in the Premiership, a comfortable win, a draw and qualification for the knock-outs in the Champions’ League, without conceding a goal in any competition. This is a far cry from the team that whimpered out of the Carling Cup to Crystal Palace eight games ago.
The whole “Gerrard to Chelsea” saga makes Benitez’s decision even more impressive. After Gerrard’s last minute u-turn decision to stay at Liverpool, you would think the manager would do anything to keep his inspirational captain sweet. But in proving beyond doubt who is in charge, Benitez happily moved his prize-asset out to the right wing. It is also a testament to Gerrard that – despite being the best central midfielder at the club – we haven’t heard a word of complaint from him. And the fact that he can still dictate matches when played out of position and the thick of the action just shows what a great player he is. And because the team is winning, Gerrard is kept sweet at the prospect of Liverpool climbing the table.
Gerrard’s move out wide has also opened the gateway for two of Benitez’s signings to form an impressive partnership in the middle of the park. Alonso has looked worth every penny of the £10million Benitez paid for him over a year ago, while Sissoko is showing it wasn’t an over-exaggeration to be dubbed “the new Patrick Vieira” by Benitez. Liverpool fans can be forgiven for being sceptical about this comparison, having had Bruno Cheyrou compared to Zinedine Zidane and Salif Diao also compared to Vieira by previous manager Gerrard Houllier. While Sissoko is by no means Vieira yet, he has an incredible engine and work rate, while looking very comfortable on the ball. At 20-years-old, maturity should help ease out the over-enthusiastic reckless challenges that got him sent off against Sunderland.
Reina, Sissoko and Alonso are all looking like great signings, Luis Garcia has been hit and miss but is looking ever-more at home in the Premiership while Peter Crouch – despite the criticism – has contributed massively to Liverpool’s run of form. Free transfer Bolo Zenden has also played his part as Liverpool have climbed the table. Suddenly the manager who “doesn’t know the English game” is looking very astute and is winning the kind of games Liverpool would have lost a few years back.
Maybe now that Arsenal and Manchester United are within touching distance, the press will start to take notice of the fact that Liverpool are becoming a very strong team once again. Five Premiership wins on the bounce speaks for itself, and its time people started to take notice. They’ve tried their best to ignore the fact that Liverpool are the European Champions, and they perhaps haven’t even noticed the Anfield outfit’s quiet rise to the Champions’ League spots. They’ve been far more bothered about the fact that one player in a big squad hasn’t scored yet this season.
If Liverpool extend their run to six league wins on the trot against Wigan at Anfield this weekend and Peter Crouch doesn’t score, listen to the reaction of the fans. Will they be gutted that their big-man hasn’t scored again? Or will they be delighted that they are the form team of the Premiership? The answer isn’t really in doubt.
Simon Cole
1 December 2005
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