RED WATCH: Liverpool FC manager Benitez must wield his transfer power more forcefully
Aug 19 2009
By Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post
IN times gone by, the confused bat that dive-bombed those of us in the Upper Tier at White Hart Lane in broad daylight last Sunday would have been taken as a portent that great misfortune was about to befall us.
And so it proved as our worst fears were realised and we carried our abysmal pre-season form into the league season.
Rafa can bleat all he likes about the penalty decisions which didn’t go our way, but had we grabbed a point with that performance we’d have sneaked out of the ground as sheepishly as Harry Redknapp had in the same fixture last season.
Pre-match talk of being more ruthless than we were on our last visit proved so much hot air as we palpably failed to build any sort of pressure which might have resulted in Ruth presenting herself in the first place. But the most surprising aspect of last Sunday was that most of us were expecting it; how can the optimism of last season have dissipated so quickly?
Of course, there are mitigating factors which have disrupted our preparations for the new season.
The injuries to Agger, Skrtel and Carragher have prevented the back four from bedding in, and the uncertainty over the futures of Alonso and Mascherano has been distracting to say the least. But I can’t escape the feeling that we persisted for too long with the kids in our pre-season programme, and gave too little football to our more senior players, allowing them to bed down again after the summer break.
The late arrival of the Spanish contingent of course didn’t help, but it wasn’t until the Atletico Madrid game that we fielded our ‘first team’ and gave them any decent time on the pitch together.
