That is one small squad (Liverpool 1-1 Hearts and Liverpool 0-2 Arsenal)

Oh dear oh dear...what on earth has happened at Liverpool since my last blog. During the Liverpool vs Arsenal game which (un)fortunately I managed to catch the subs appeared on the screen and I thought 'there is not one striker on the bench, not one'. I inevitably thought 'I wonder who's injured' but then realised 'oh my god, we don't have any more!'. I'm not necessarily blaming Rodgers, I'm not blaming anyone as such, but what on earth was that transfer window about? Regular readers will know I'm not a Carroll fan, but he provided something and was a striker. We now have, in terms of strikers and I mean strikers not wingers who have been fielded in a vaguely strikerish role - Borini and Suarez. That is it. I guess also young Adam Morgan who played against Hearts if you're being picky but that is literally it. The Strurridge move never happened nor did Dempsey although again I would call him a winger. He's gone to Spurs for £6 million which FSG were apparently unwilling to pay...you can probably predict my next sentence. Why so so so so much money on all that dross last season and not £6million on a proven quality player who scored 23 goals last season and was beaten only by Van Persie and Rooney I believe.

On one level, I like Rodgers attitude which has been to cut losses. Let's face it, we bought ridiculous players that were always going to fail because they're not very good and we paid ludicrous, outlandish and frankly shameful sums for them. To think what we could have bought with that £100 million spent last year and we ended up with Downing, Henderson, Carroll, Suarez, Adam, Coates and Enrique. Barring Suarez, of that list, only Enrique ever convinced for a period of time and he has gone way off the boil and yet to recover while Coates has certainly shown promise but is not yet the finished article and nowhere near. I really do think they were the worst raft of signings by Comolli (let's face it, we all know it was him) in the club's history. One thinks back to the Evans, Houllier and Benitez eras and there were undeniably very bad buys but actually they made more sense financially and footballing wise than that pile of crap. For instance Heskey had one superb season and other good moments, Smicer played his part in the European cup win, Biscan likewise and even the loathsome El Hadji Diouf undoubtedly had talent, just a complete lack of attitude and ability to make the most of it. But why did everyone get so excited about Downing and co thinking we were going to be title challengers? Deluded.

Anyway, like I say Rodgers attitude has been to get them out. Sod the losses, just get them out as he has with Adam for instance. And he has wisely seen that Liverpool perform a lot better without Henderson and Downing because they're shite. But whoever's fault it was, our lack of reinforcements in the window has been catastrophic and a look at our squad list is beyond terrifying. I know this might seem like a knee jerk blog after my words of encouragement from the Man City performance but I didn't expect us to have no players to choose from by the next game!

Our list of defenders is not too bad, not amazing but not bad. An improving Coates alongside Agger, Skrtel and Carragher is not a bad selection of centre backs and if Enrique could recover his form and Robinson and Flanagan fulfill their vast promise then alongside the defensively dodgy but undeniably useful Johnson and Kelly it's not a bad selection of full backs either. But take a look at our midfield. Having been overloaded with midfielders (admittedly all of them crap, but still) we now have so few it is deeply worrying. Lucas is out and may never return to his best after such an unlucky run of injuries. Joe Cole has been a disaster and again will surely never return to what he was at Chelsea even after he comes back from injury. Of the rest Spearing's out on loan and has perhaps been shown to be out of his depth against the best anyway, Downing and Henderson are awful, Shelvey while deserving of great credit for his progress is not exactly a world beater and Sterling while a mouth watering prospect is 17 and should not have his career jepoardised by being played too much too young (echoes of Michael Owen). Sahin of course is new and of good pedigree so that remains to be seen. That leaves Joe Allen who has made a seriously impressive start I think and the one and only Gerrard who while past his peak is undoubtedly still a superb player. But he gets injured and where are we then?

As for up front, it's so bleak given that none of them is a proven goalscorer. Suarez is undoubtedly a world class talent and scores outstanding goals as he did against Hearts but in that game he also missed easy chances which pretty much sums him up. I'm not writing off Borini, it's early days, but I gather even he is not an out and out goalscorer generally speaking. Morgan for all his hard work against Hearts, hardly looked like the next Michael Owen although again I'm not writing him off.

And just to sum up our misery, even the ever reliable Pepe Reina has had a nightmare week with three mistakes, two of them terrible. He is still a goalkeeper of undoubted world class talent, but his current malaise just makes it all the worse.

So what do we do then? We have to have something. I've seen the rumours about Michael Owen and I think screw it just get him. He can shoot, he's free, get him. We have to have more than three strikers especially one is 17 and played one senior game! To be fair Owen also scored 17 in 52 games for United which really is not bad when you think how many of those games came from the bench. Get Carroll back in January and for god's sake get some players in! Drogba is Drogba, I'd have him. I'd take Anelka as well and even former player Sinama Pongolle I believe is available. He's not great but he's something.

Anyway better report on the games. Hearts was a really depressing night. To toil and struggle against a mediocre team from a terrible league just sums up the present problems. Anyway here's the ratings:

Reina - 5
Awful howler for the goal, although otherwise ok.
Kelly - 6
Worked hard as ever.
Carragher - 7
Good to see him still going strong.
Skrtel - 7
Solid.
Gerrard -7
At the hub of most good things as usual.
Henderson - 5
Loathsome.
Downing - 5
About the same.
Allen - 7
Along with Suarez, best player.
Shelvey - 6
Toiled hard but struggled to create.
Suarez - 7
Full of tricks and a wonder goal, but wasteful too.
Morgan - 5
Looked nervous.

Subs:
Sterling - 7
Lively again.
Borini - 5
Struggled.

Arsenal really was depressing. Liverpool were comfortably outplayed and were desperately poor from start to finish.

Reina - 5
Another howler, oh Pepe come back!
Johnson - 6
Good going forward...you know the rest.
Enrique - 4
Desperately bad.
Agger - 6
Tried hard but little he could do about the attack he was facing.
Skrtel - 6
As with Agger.
Sahin - 5
Anonymous.
Gerrard -6
Hard working as ever but unable to exert too much influence.
Allen - 7
Impressive signs.
Sterling - 6
Lively and tricky but overawed.
Suarez - 6
Isolated.
Borini - 4
Struggled to get involved at all.

Subs:

Downing - 3
Not sure there are any words.
Shelvey - 6
Tried hard and had a couple of long range shots.

All in all, current mood is depressed.

Liverpool 2-2 Man City

Well the season is underway and Liverpool began in utterly atrocious fashion with a wretched performance against West Brom. Fortunately I didn't see it live so I shall report instead on a far better performance. It was an excellent game for the neutral against Man City and I think most would acknowledge that Liverpool played extremely well and were narrowly the better side. The fact is we played the best team in the division and bar two mistakes, the latter very bad, would have beaten them reasonably comfortably. I was also encouraged by Rodgers' positive approach with three going forward and finally got shot of Henderson and Downing and it showed.

Ratings:

Reina - 7
Helpless for the goals and as ever was dependable and kick started attacks well
Kelly - 5
A fine player but not his finest day and at fault for the first goal
Skrtel - 6
Great goal, good performance but horrible mistake for the second goal
Coates - 7
Looking better
Johnson - 7
Good going forward especially
Lucas - 6
Off injured early, hope it's not serious
Gerrard - 8
At the hub of most things going forward
Allen -7
Very encouraging home debut
Sterling - 8
What a prospect!
Borini - 6
Toiled hard but needs time to get into the English game
Suarez - 8
Superb goal and lively

Subs:

Shelvey - 7
Really improving at the moment
Enrique - 6
Solid enough
Carroll - 6
Little time but almost scored towards the end

No Beckham - so what?

Let me start this blog by saying that I have immense respect for David Beckham in lots of ways. He is one of the finest crossers of the ball I have ever seen and no-one should doubt his immense commitment to excellence as a footballer and his workrate and professional conduct can hardly be faulted. That said, I cannot understand the wave of criticism directed at Stuart Pearce for leaving him out of the olympic squad.

The man is 37 and is playing in a poor league and has been doing so for a fair few years now. He doesn't get back into the England squad so why would he be one of three overage players allowed in the team GB squad. I don't know that I'd select Ryan Giggs either, but the fact is Giggs is playing in the Premiership for the runners up and plays a pivotal role, still. David Beckham, for all his stirling qualities, is not and the olympics is a tournament that people want to win. Why pick a player on sympathy and respect for a tournament? That's what testimonials are for, or final games of seasons for an emotional send off in front of the fans. When Robbie Fowler left Liverpool second time around he was rightly left out of the European Cup final because he was not as good as the other options but was given an emotional send off in the final Anfield game of the season. That's the right way round.

Spain the best ever?

Well the Euros are over and Spain's final triumph was majestic and magnificent. The tournament was certainly a vast improvment on the tedium of World Cup 2010 and was a showcase for great football. So are Spain the greatest international side of all time? For me perhaps the biggest moment in defence of that argument was five minutes from the end of the final they had clearly already won and on comes Juan Mata for his only appearance in the Euros. Now Juan Mata is a bloody good footballer. A seriously amazing footballer in fact who would get into any international team one would think...except spain have six midfielders better and therefore a world class player was not required until five minutes from the end of a final they'd already won and they were essentially giving him a runout. And just to prove it further...he scored! Their depth is truly astounding.

I always find the argument of whether a team is the best ever utterly pointless yet I can't quite resist it. I mean when you consider that different eras mean completely different football in terms of pace, fitness etc and these teams don't get to play each other. You can't compare Brazil 1970 with this Spain team. I mean you literally can't but even analysing it is relatively pointless. But as I say I do enjoy the debate so I would hedge for Spain on the grounds of their ability to keep the ball and their ability to score the kind of team goals that other teams can only dream of. That's what defines greatness for me, the ability to do something different. I always rate Thierry Henry as the most remarkable player I've ever seen (I include Messi in that) because of his ability to do anything, almost anything.

England out

Well another tournament over for England and yet again they were exposed as what they are: a thoroughly average side leagues below the best. I say the best, Italy were not exactly amazing but they dominated possession and chances to a frankly embarrassing level. I've said it before and I'll say it again, this will happen every time until grassroots training changes and that will take time. Germany fell apart towards the end of the 90's with a dramatic world cup exit to Croatia, an awful euro 2000 and of course a certain 5-1 humbling to England a year later. They sorted it out and over time they've developed into arguably the tournament favourites.

England deserve some credit for their graft in the tournament. They worked hard and battled for their lives and fair play to them it's the first time that's been obvious in years. But the truth is, as I said in my last blog, the expectation just because they didn't do quite as badly in an average group as expected was just daft. England cannot keep the ball and haven't been able to for years. Technically and tactically they are hopeless. I would never have chosen Roy Hodgson - England played like Roy Hodgson they were dull and hopelessly limited if hard working and well organised. To be fair, I don't know that a better manager would have done better. England are so poor that a Hodgson approach was probably the only option.

Hope for the future? I'm sorry I can't see where from. Gerrard was England's best player and he's 32 and has probably had his last competition. The fact is they battled their way through to a quarter final not looking convincing and were murdered by a superior team. They played outdated tactics with a one dimensional manager because that's all they were capable of. I don't think Hodgson got all his picks right - Crouch, Richards and Adam Johnson should definitely have been in and there was no need for the frankly risible Stewart Downing or a need to persist with Ashley Young who deserved his place in the squad on the back of his club form but was atrocious in the euros. And Wayne Rooney. Why is it he has to be picked? He had a good tournament in euro 2004. Not a lot since and England looked far better balanced with Carroll and Wellbeck up front. But these are just nit picks - the truth is England would have gone out at this stage no matter what because they're just not very good.

Ratings v Italy:

Hart - 8
Did very well against an onslaught.
Johnson - 7
Battled hard and almost found a way through.
Cole - 6
A truly awful penalty in the shootout but didn't do too badly in the game.
Terry - 7
Worked hard against an onslaught.
Lescott - 6
Like Terry.
Milner - 6
Grafts hard but offers little in creativity terms.
Young - 5
A terrible performance in an awful tournament.
Parker - 7
As ever plenty of hard work.
Gerrard - 6
His quietest game of the tournament, in the shadow of Pirlo.
Welbeck - 5
Isolated and not yet up to this standard, but a decent euros.
Rooney - 5
Frankly terrible.

Subs:

Carroll - 6
Offered more than the other strikers but not a lot.
Walcott - 6
Unable to get into the game.
Henderson - 6
Did nothing wrong but under the cosh.

Sweden and Ukraine games

Apologies for the delay to this blog entry, I had issues with logging in which have now been resolved.

Well everyone's getting very excited about England's performances. I would ask for a bit of perspective - the draw against France as I blogged was commendable, but beating Sweden and Ukraine is hardly the work of world beaters. Still, there's no question that Roy Hodgson's teams are usually boring as hell and hard to beat and so it proved in the mind numbing dullness that was the Ukraine game. The Sweden game was exciting and the fact that England came from behind was encouraging but there should be concerns about the sloppiness of the Swedish goals from a defensive point of view, unusual for a Hodgson team. Encourgaingly Terry seems to have rediscovered his old form and stayed out of trouble thus far, Walcott turned in an unlikely match winning cameo and Steven Gerrard has been superb finally free from the shackles of playing with Lampard in every tournament, and whatever Lampard's merits as a player, we all know they never worked together. Parker has been an excellent all action defensive midfielder allowing Gerrard the freedom to do his creative stuff. The other question is Rooney - I'd love to see a manager brave enough to leave him out. There's no denying his talent but Carroll and Wellbeck both scored and worked well in Hodgson's not very attractive football. Do England need Rooney? I felt they gelled far less well against Ukraine but who knows?

Anyway here's what I made of it v Sweden:

Hart - 6
Not as convincing as normal but solid for the most part.
Johnson - 6
Sloppy defensively (makes a change...) but good going forward.
Cole - 7
Good.
Terry - 7
Poor on the goals but otherwise solid
Lescott - 7
As with Terry.
Milner - 7
Hard work as ever.
Young - 6
Rather anonymous in the tournament so far and this was more of the same.
Parker - 8
Endless graft as ever.
Gerrard - 8
His best displays in an England shirt this tournament.
Wellbeck - 8
Very classy goal and tireless.
Carroll - 7
Great header for the goal and worked hard, especially for him.

Subs:
Walcott - 9
Never been his greatest fan but that was a match winning cameo.
Oxlade - 6
No time.

v Ukraine

Hart - 7
Played well.
Johnson - 7
Good going forward...you know the rest.
Cole - 7
Love him or loathe him, he's a good player.
Terry - 7
Solid enough.
Lescott - 6
Solid.
Milner - 6
Offered little in terms of creativity.
Young - 5
Again virtually anonymous.
Parker - 7
All action hard work.
Gerrard - 8
Excellent again.
Wellbeck - 6
Saw little of the ball.
Rooney - 6
Scored but did little else.

Subs:
Walcott - 6
Not much this time round.
Carroll - 6
Not much time.
Oxlade - 6
No time.

England 1-1 France

Finally, a performance by England that showed heart and graft. Was it exciting? No, not very. But as I have said many times England are not a great side and I felt it was a good result against a very good side that was well worked for. It doesn't alter the fact that England are going to seriously struggle to ever win a tournament and I strongly suspect that similar performances against Sweden and Ukraine are not going to go down well because they are not top sides. But that's what you get with Roy Hodgson, it's not going to be pretty and he ALWAYS plays the same way but that is undeniably quite effective against superior sides but underwhelming against worse. Anyway this blog is about this game and I salute a hard working performance. On the debit side, besides Milner's golden chance there was little in the way of goalmouth activity and the goal came from a set piece.

Ratings:

Hart - 7
Unusual error for the goal but overall a typically commanding display.
Johnson - 6
Full of running and defensively not as bad as normal but if anything lacked a bit of his usual creativity going forward.
Cole - 8
Great performance.
Lescott - 8
Terrific header for the goal and defended well.
Terry - 7
Looked solid.
Milner - 7
Tireless but missed a good chance and created relatively little.
Oxlade-Chamberlain - 6
Worked hard and handled well but looked a little short of ideas at times.
Parker - 8
Typically combative and hard working.
Gerrard - 7
Again worked very hard and did what was asked to do.
Welbeck - 7
A lot of running in a hard role.
Young - 5
I thought poor and anonymous.

Subs:
Defoe - 6
Looked lively.
Henderson - 6
Really?
Walcott - 6
Too late for any impact.