End of season is coming near. Banyak liga2 utama eropah dah makin jelas siapa champion, siapa top four, siapa relegated dan sebagainya. Tapi bagi aku selaku fan Liverpool, tak terasa excited apa pun. Sebab? Mudah saja, Liverpool sekarang sudah teruk. Simple as that.
Let's talk about Liverpool.
It was (almost) all rosy under Rafa, sampailah satu season tu (2009-2010) tiba2 Liverpool macam kena virus. Draw, lose, draw memanjang, finally dapat nr. 7. Rafa kena pecat, ganti dengan Roy Hodgson. Ini bala. Super bala. halfway the season, Roy pula dipecat dan diganti dengan Dalglish. 'The King' as they call him. Jadi, dari pertengahan 2010-2011 hingga la sekarang, manager adalah Dalglish.
Honestly, i don't live zaman Dalglish adalah greatest player of Liverpool, so saya tak tau sangat apa specialnya dia ni. Just tahu, dia memang sangat tinggi kedudukannya dalam hati2 fan Liverpool. Apapun, back to business.
Sepanjang Dalglish jadi manager ni, ada satu benda yang saya risau. It is..British Favourtism. Why? Sebab almost all players yang dia beli waktu summer dulu, adalah Brits. Almost all. Tak lupa juga, rumours yang nak dibeli juga adalah player British. Ini sangat merisaukan aku. Sebabnya mudah. English/ British players are mostly deadwood. Diorang tak kreatif, tak skillful, tak lincah. Tak ada yang seperti Xavi, Iniesta, Aimar, Messi, Torres, Robben, Modric, Kaka, Suarez. Dalam team England sekarang ni, yang betul2 boleh kasi gerun player opponent, hanya Rooney- Gerrard(ini pun dah makin karat)-...ha tu saja. And look at England and how they play. Boring, play super safe, not creative, and long ball.
Sampaikan ada rumours, Liverpool targer Cattermole from Wigan. And entah berapa ramai lagi British yang melekat nama. Celaka apa?
All smiles in the beginning. All smiles.
Now, yang betul2 masuk Liverpool- Downing, Henderson, Adam, Carrol. Dari 4 orang ni, hanya Carrol yang bagi aku betul2 ada impak. Downing tu crap. Nak beat first defender pun tak lepas. Dribble tak boleh. Shoot pun off. Apa yang dia boleh buat? Pecut dan pecut dan pecut dan cross...
Henderson. See the potential, but too young to be the first eleven. Still only 21, and he's the England Under 21 captain. So, its a future purchase. TETAPI, clearly not a regular starter. Apa yang dia buat dalam most games? Sideways, backpass. Tu je.
Adam. Ini enigma. First 10-12 games, dia sangat bagus. Macam Xabi Alonso dulu2. Tapi lepas tu, total crap. Selalu foul2 bodoh, selalu mis pass, selalu robbed off the ball, tak creatif. Apa yang jadi kat dia, i don't know.
Carrol. Satu lagi enigma. Tapi, graf performance dia makin naik. I don't use the statistically method of evaluating performance, but from my own observations, he is getting better and better. From total deadwood kepada the Carrol that was in Newcastle. Keep it up man.
About this season.
Abysmal. Should be better. Because finishing 8th or 9th is not acceptable. Plus, spending nearly 100milion should give you a better league position than this. At least, much better purchases than Downing-Henderson-Adam. You know, Liverpool main sangat bagus pada awal 10-12 games camtu. Tapi semua mula betul2 rosak bila Lucas injured. Start dari situ, Adam main macam bangang. Creativity in attacking mula hilang. Defend mula senang bolos. Pelik sungguh. Is there no backup plan for loss of Lucas? I don't know.
Striker pula rasanya tak cukup. Cuma ada dua striker yang betul2 striker dalam team ini. Suarez and Carrol. Dan saya rasa Suarez tu bukan striker. Dia lebih pada supporting striker. Dengan kata lain, orang belakang striker yang selalu bukak space-create clear chances- assist pada main striker.
Midfield talent. Sangat sedikit. Downing is not a good winger. Henderson, macam saya kata tadi- too early and raw. Spearing? Overrated. Cuma ada Maxi sebagai backup. Itupun jarang diberi peluang untuk main. Bellamy? Hanya efektif bila sebagai super sub pad later part of the game. Gerrard? He's past his best. Got to admit that.
Defence department, for me is okay. Skrtel and Agger start to form a very good partnership at the back. Enrique is what a left back should be, cuma kadang2 dia off form bahagian defend. Johnson, sama cerita dengan Enrique. So, no problem at defence.
Jadi, apa yang perlu Liverpool buat pada season depan?
Get one out-and-out striker. Like Torres, like Villa...or Aguero, or Nistelroy. The one who knows how to bang in goals endlessly. Get one creative midfielder like Iniesta, or Modric, or Silva, or Aimar. Yang mana tahu nak dictate gameplay, tahu operate tengah space yang kecik. Dan kalau possible, one really quality defensive midfielder yang boleh ganti Lucas bila dia injured. No more Spearing please.
Admittedly, Liverpool missed Torres's clinical finishing.
And about Dalglish... saya sudah hilang kepercayaan dan kesabaran padanya. He is rebuilding the squad, the team. But with the purchases of the likes of Henderson, Adam, Downing? Cuba fikir, ada Arsenal, ManU, Chelsea atau City nak guna tak player2 ni kalau diberi peluang? Saya tahu, ada peraturan Homegrown and Nationality nanti dalam beberapa tahun akan datang, tapi...ini sudah sangat teruk. Tambah pula, keyakinan melampau pada Spearing dan Shelvey. Aih...both of them just average, sometimes below average.
My hope- Dalglish got sacked/ he resign. Then ganti oleh Rafa, atau Pep. Seriously, saya rasa Rafa sangat berkebolehan dalam bawa Liverpool ke depan. He never get the chance of 50-100 million money to spend on players. It had always been sell before buy. So, why not give him a genuine chance?
Tapi, kalau Dalglish masih kekal, pun ok juga. Cuma, please make sure season depan main betul2. Sedih rasanya bila tengok Liverpool hanya gah pada nama. Realitinya cumalah sebuah kelab pertengahan.
YNWA.
-End of story-
