TOMKINS ENTERS THE TWILIGHT ZONE
The weirdness continues. It happened again at Upton Park: inexplicably, Liverpool once again entered the twilight zone, and the opposition disappeared into the Bermuda Triangle.
For some reason, teams in great form wilt and crumble when facing Liverpool. No matter how well they're playing in previous weeks, they roll over and give up the points.
Clearly it has nothing to do with the Reds being a top side who quash the life out of a side before (or whilst) imposing their own attacking will; it's just yet another collective off-day for the team they're playing.
It dates back to the Real Madrid game. Madrid were in superb form – and then Liverpool won at the Bernabeu, before thrashing them at Anfield. Suddenly the double Spanish champions were hailed as the worst Madrid side in eons, and were labelled rubbish in both games.
Then came Sunderland, who in fairness were on a bit of a roll coming to Anfield. But they were seen off with little concern, as the visitors' good run came to an end. Limp Sunderland, etc...
Next, Manchester United were experiencing their best run of home form for donkey's years, with 12 straight wins at Old Trafford and 11 straight league victories, yet were beaten 4-1.
Funnily enough, it was they who, for no good reason, just didn't play well, in the one game where no motivation was necessary and where confidence wasn't an issue. Of course, it had nothing to do with them not being allowed to play well.
Admittedly Aston Villa, still flying high in the league, were on a bit of a decline when coming to Anfield, although, naturally, they were only beaten 5-0 because of their own deficiencies.
Next, Fulham were in the best form of their Premiership lives, and had just put United to the sword at Craven Cottage, but for some reason they just didn't play as well as they could when Rafa BenÃtez's side visited. Weird.
In fairness, Chelsea were brilliant when visiting Anfield in the Champions League. They got due credit, too. It's fair to say that Liverpool didn't have a great second-half, but Andy Gray, no less, remarked that both sides had been excellent in the first half.
So it's not that Liverpool were rubbish, as seems to be the case with the opposition every time the Reds get a good result. It was Guus Hiddink's brilliance, ably backed by his side.
In the return, much was made of how awful Chelsea were, particularly in the first half. Liverpool did receive a little credit, but yet again, the main emphasis was on Chelsea letting themselves down rather than the Reds' attacking verve. Liverpool got some kudos for guts, but not their fair dues for quality.
In the league, Arsenal had been in sensational form upon making the trip to Merseyside. But for some reason, Liverpool's sublime attacking football was given little credit following a thrilling (if galling) 4-4 draw, the least-just result of the season. Talk about floodlight robbery.
It's fair to say that neither Blackburn nor Newcastle were in great shape when coming to Anfield, and but for the crossbar Liverpool could have racked up double figures in these two fixtures. Of course, as Liverpool confirmed themselves as the league's top scorers, the poor play of the opposition was the main story. (Oh, and some nonsense about semaphore.)
If Sam Allardyce's sides are anything, they are dogged. Detractors find his football rudimentary, but his sides rarely crumble. Except that's what they did.
Ah, because they had no fit strikers? Maybe, although Benni Mcarthy, left on the bench, is by far and away their top scorer this season. No-one asked them to play a centre-back up front, after all. It's like Rafa leaving out Jamie Carragher and playing Torres at centre-back due to an injury crisis.
And then most recently, West Ham. There had been nothing but praise for Gianfranco Zola's side of late, who have a very good recent home record, beyond hard-fought 1-0 defeats to Manchester United and Chelsea. Coincidentally for BenÃtez and his side, once again, the opposition just didn't get into their stride.
(And despite being no relation, it was weird for me watching Tomkins trying to stop Torres.)
I feel compelled to point out that if certain other teams were the top league scorers, we'd never hear the last about their attacking talents.
Part of me actually likes it when Liverpool go under the radar; it can be advantageous having the world against you, or ignoring your strengths. But another part of me finds the inequality irritating, and feels that credit should go only where it's due.
Liverpool's only two top-class attacking players (according to sundry short-sighted pundits) have started just one-third of all 2008-09 league games in the same side, and yet the Reds have scored the most goals.
And apparently Liverpool are 'cautious', with two 'holding' midfielders.
Something's not right with this picture, is it?
No change of formation has occurred in recent months, but as I argued earlier in the season, this is an excellent attacking side, and far from negative in its approach. If the stats didn't back me up at the time (often due to lax finishing), the figures now do.
Similarly, at the time Robbie Keane was sold, I argued that it was the right decision. Plenty disagreed, but it seems to have proved the case.
His place on the bench was becoming distracting (quite literally at times: the TV director for the Newcastle away game spent more time showing him than the action), and it was a chance to get in a good fee (and save on wages) in order to reinvest this summer.
This was my gut instinct. When Liverpool's goals dried up later in the winter, I admit to wobbling a little. But yet again, my first instincts were right.
And I also never lost sight of the fact that Keane hadn't been pulling up trees before he was sold; it's not like he'd banged in 15 or so. And he's also only scored three since returning to Spurs, and with time not on his side (he's 30 this summer), I felt it was a good time to cut the losses, for a very good player who wasn't fitting in (as happens now and again).
However, my fear was less about selling Keane, and more that no replacement was sought.
I never doubted the potential of David Ngog, who had been excelling at international youth level for a top nation, but feared that it would be next season before he found his feet in the fast-paced Premiership.
Thankfully, despite only playing a few minutes here and there, he appeared to find that vital strength needed to survive as a striker in England almost as soon as I'd claimed this season looked too soon for him.
And his record of minutes-per-goal (187) is now far better than Keane's was (at 255), and only marginally behind those of Torres (165) and Gerrard (145).
In my defence, in the same blog, written at the end of January, I also touted Yossi Benayoun as someone who could do as well as Keane in the role behind the main striker; in truth, he's done even better, albeit often from a wide starting point, but with licence to roam into similar areas.
So despite a little uneasiness on my part (there was of course some risk involved in selling Keane), I feel that my optimism in January was not misplaced. The goals scored recently, even in the absence of Torres and/or Gerrard, show that the ability was in the squad all along.
If anything, I feel pleasantly surprised at seeing the Reds as the Premiership's top scorers, not to mention having thumped four past Madrid, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United in the main competitions. I didn't see that coming. And this all came after Keane left.
Then there's Krisztian Nemeth, whose quality I've never doubted since I first saw him play for the reserves, but for whom injuries have ruined this season; he's another option that didn't pan out this spring in Keane's absence – particularly after a brief loan spell at Blackpool, designed to get him match-sharp, ended with a broken cheekbone sustained within a minute of his debut. That's just plain bad luck.
But players like Ngog and Nemeth can only improve, as can Daniel Pacheco, so it's not like Liverpool are peaking this season; indeed, it's still a very young first-team squad, with an average age about to be further lowered with the exit of the evergreen Sami Hyypia (more on the great Finn next week).
Otherwise I'd expect all of the main players to still be around, and benefiting from one more year spent together.
Take into account the handicap of injuries to Torres, Gerrard and, when it came to winning more games at Anfield, Daniel Agger, and there's every reason to think that a fit squad next season (fingers crossed) will be significantly superior to this. And that's before any additions.
Despite lower resources, Liverpool need to try and match that little extra depth that United possess; after all, that's what will see them crowned champions, if they get four points from their next three games.
They've certainly not played better football than Liverpool this season (and it's been well over a decade since I've been able to say that), but eeked out the extra point here and there, often with 1-0 wins.
May finale
Remarkably, under Rafa BenÃtez, a Liverpool season has never 'finished' before May (with the narrowest of exceptions last year).
I don't mean the desperate charge to finish in the Champions League positions, but genuinely contesting trophies until the final month of the campaign.
May 2005 saw the Reds win the Champions League. May 2006 saw Liverpool win the FA Cup. May 2007 saw a better performance in the Champions League Final in a rematch with Milan, but a worse result (c’est la vie).
And last year the Reds were still in the Champions League until just a few minutes before the start of May, when getting the game back to 3-2 at Stamford Bridge in extra-time left them one away goal from yet another final. (And to shamelessly sneak it in, technically it was May 1st in some parts of the world.)
The cup success of the previous four seasons has diminished, only to be replaced with a serious title challenge: one that is still just about alive and kicking as we head towards mid-May.
However, to my mind, Liverpool were always unlikely to win their first league title in almost two decades while simultaneously excelling in Europe; if the 'first' title is universally regarded as the hardest to win, additional tough games in the run-in could hinder that, even if progress is naturally sought in all competitions.
With the title theirs to wrap up this week, United fans will rightly take heart if they win the league without playing their best football. It's a nice luxury.
But Liverpool will have pushed them down to the wire without the manager being able to field anything like his best side for two-thirds of all league games (and that's ignoring other key absences in the 12 games that Torres and Gerrard were fit to start together).
Maybe that's an even better sign.
It also seems that there are some itchy feet at United, with Ronaldo and Tevez linked with exits. It would be dangerous to assume that losing top attacking talent will see them falter; when Liverpool lost Kevin Keegan and Ian Rush, the team actually improved with reinforcements. But there's always a risk of it not quite working out, or taking time to gel.
By contrast, at Liverpool there seems to be a hunger to stick together and keep improving.
With Arsenal at times brilliant but brittle as balsa, and ageing Chelsea on the verge of serious transition (new manager and culling of some 30-somethings seem inevitable), this could be just the start of Liverpool's quest to knock United off their perch.
The race to #19 could be the big one.
I know there's a Paul Tomkins thread but I just wanted to point out the fact that I think this generally sums up our season. We've done great things and achieve great and it's a season that we should be proud of regardless if we win the league or not. I also think it tells us alot about what's in the store for next season
