Actually, when I said any other team, I was referring to the Scums (ManC, Ass-enal, ManU, Chelsea). We can take the game to them any day.
see this from the officail website== very good article by Tomkins
TOMKINS: LUCKY, LUCKY LIVERPOOL?
Paul Tomkins 03 December 2007
Liverpool must be the luckiest team in the country. After all, every comprehensive victory this season has been against opposition subsequently labelled as 'rubbish'.
Why are Liverpool playing only 'rubbish' teams, when Arsenal and Manchester United beat only good teams with their 'sparkling' football?
Toulouse were beaten 4-0; but they were rubbish. Derby were beaten 6-0; but they were rubbish. Besiktas were beaten 8-0; but they were rubbish. You see the pattern. Also rubbish were Porto, Newcastle and Bolton.
To read the majority of press reports, Liverpool have not once been excellent this season ââ often it's about how bad the opposition were. It's been "Liverpool played fairly well, but they didn't need to be great to beat ...â.
It's funny, but Liverpool are developing a nice habit of giving teams a bit of a pasting this season. Perhaps it could just be that BenĂtez's side is consistently making the opposition look bad?
Many seem to miss the point about one of BenĂtez's greatest strengths: namely that he's very good at planning to nullify the opposition, from which point his team can play their football.
He has often been criticised for paying too much attention to the oppositionâs strengths and weaknesses, and not just sticking to his own team's strengths, but this is his way; and over the years, it's worked very impressively on the whole. It doesn't mean it will never backfire here or there, but then even the 'same every week' Reds teams of yore never won every game.
Knowledge is power, and BenĂtez makes sure he knows the opposition. With rotation, he also makes sure the opposition does not know what Liverpool they will be facing, which has great benefits, particularly if they are planning on stopping the Reds playing. Liverpool are never predictable, and that's a trait that should be celebrated and not, as is mostly the case, criticised.
The counter argument is that, as a result, BenĂtez's own players don't know each other well enough. But that's where training comes in, and the many hours spent each day working together at Melwood. It's not like the players just meet up on match-day, arriving as virtual strangers.
The criticisms of rotation have been conspicuous by their absence of late, with 21 goals scored in five games to none in reply, despite four and five changes in most of these games; only the Fulham game saw an unchanged team, and it was 0-0 until that line-up was altered with three substitutions, on the way to a 2-0 victory.
And, of course, when it comes to playing only 'rubbish' opposition, there's the fact that any BenĂtez team, at its best, does not allow the other side to settle for one moment on the ball, as we first saw five years ago.
Let's not forget, Liverpool hadn't suddenly become a really bad side in November 2002, but that's what BenĂtez's Valencia made them look. In all my years as a regular at Anfield, they were the side that impressed me the most, in that they appeared as this amazing collective ââ eleven men in total unison, attacking and defending as a team; hunting in packs, attacking in clusters.
Visiting this weekend was a Bolton team unbeaten under Gary Megson, which had drawn away at Bayern Munich and last week beaten Manchester United at home. But of course, I'm forgetting something: they're rubbish.
All season long, the Reds have not had too many fixtures against teams in disarray ââ at least not before the game, anyway. (A few have ended the game that way.) A shell-shocked, Mourinho-less Chelsea stumbed about in a daze at Old Trafford, but they had a 100% record, and their Portuguese boss, when they pitched up at Anfield.
Liverpool went to Blackburn when Rovers were in a long winning-run. Arsenal were unbeaten in all competitions and on a run of 12 wins in a row. Portsmouth had already got a good result at home to Man United, and had started the campaign well, as had Everton. Sunderland had that early-season zest to their play in August, and Wigan, now in the relegation zone, were in the top-half of the table at the time.
Besiktas were an experienced Champions League team who had just beaten the Reds, while Toulouse were from one of the top-five European leagues. Porto had conceded only four league goals all season before the Reds put as many past their 'rubbish' defence last week.
Only Derby were really there for the taking, and taken-apart they were. Newcastle away, even after their previous home defeat, is never an easy fixture, but the Reds started so brightly they forced the home crowd to turn against their own.
Spurs and Birmingham remain the only league results that should definitely have been better, while those games coincided with a min-slump that also included Besitkas away and Marseilles at home in the Champions League. Even then, the Besiktas fans made their home arena a tough place to visit.
All top teams have a slump (or two) at some stage of the season, but the timing is often the crucial factor.
In terms of the league, the autumn shortfall, while frustrating, hasn't been too detrimental to the campaign. The Reds are in a great position, and averaging more than two points per game, with the joint-best goal difference, suggesting that things are right at both ends of the pitch.
But it proved more costly in Europe ââ lose form between December and February, or have a poor August (as United did) and you have no such worries; the same cannot be said when you have a difficult September or October.
However, playing like this, the Reds can get a result in Marseilles next week, with the French team faced with that awkward mindset of needing only a draw. I always like games where the Reds have to win, as the intensity is rarely absent in the play.
Collectively BenĂtez's side is clicking, and individuals are also finding their best form.
Steven Gerrard's form has been improving game-by-game for some weeks now. Sunday's game was the captain at about as good as he gets: winning tackles, bursting forward, and with his pass to Torres he recalled the days when he had Michael Owen as a willing runner for his 50-yard slide-rule through-balls. (Except, or course, Torres is an even better forward, with more skill and a greater physical presence, as well as a great capacity to work hard for the team.)
One area where Gerrard has been a little inconsistent in the past is in his set-piece deliveries, given the quality he possesses in that right boot.
But in the last three games the Reds have scored from three of his corners and a free-kick delivered into the box, as well as an indirect free-kick struck ferociously against Newcastle, followed by two penalties. The shape on his deliveries into the box, and the pace when whipping in the ball is perfect right now, allowing players like Crouch and Hyypia the advantage when attacking them.
Gerrard is also a good penalty taker, but he's never been up there with Matt Le Tissier, who missed only one from 49 attempts, or Jan Molby, who notched 42 from 45. His overall record is a little better than two scored out of every three.
However, he's striking some unstoppable ones right now, to either side of the keeper, and after a start to the season where the Reds couldn't win a penalty for love nor money (purely a saying, I hasten to add) and yet could concede them for merely looking at an opponent, it helps towards getting three points.
Another bonus against Bolton came from the substitutes, which is a growing trend this season. Jack Hobbs is progressing nicely, and he enjoyed an assured league debut when replacing Jamie Carragher.
I hate it when I see people suggesting throwing in the youngsters as there's "nothing to lose". There are games to lose and, if the kid in question is not yet ready, there's his confidence ââ and, subsequently, his career at Liverpool ââ to lose, too. Managers know when the time is right; they work with these players every day. They monitor their development to the nth degree.
Equally, I hate seeing youngsters instantly written off after a bad display. I couldn't believe some of the stuff that was said about Hobbs not being good enough when he struggled in pre-season a couple of years back ... at the age of 17!
Along with goalkeeper, centre-back is the position where it's hardest for youngsters, because so much of the role is about learning from experience and from not making any errors. A teenage Michael Owen could miss three sitters but if he scored a goal, it was job done; a teenage Jamie Carragher only had to make one or two mistakes in a game to see his credentials doubted.
And while it's harder to get the ball past the goalkeeper and into that small area between the posts than it is to get the ball out of harm's way (in that you can boot the ball pretty much anywhere), if a forward mis-controls the ball there's no harm done; if a centre-back does so, it can quickly lead to disaster.
Sami Hyppia was rejected by a number of English clubs in his early twenties, including Oldham. Hyypia, who has been around so long it feels like he was also born in the early '20s, is currently showing that, even with zero pace, the accumulation of experience, and how it adds to the art of positioning, can keep you at the top-level at an age when most forwards have long-since retired.
In Carragher, Agger and Hyypia, Hobbs has some excellent colleagues to learn from, and from what I've seen he has some of the qualities of each. He has Hyypia's height, Carragher's determination and leadership skills, and some of Agger's quality on the ball. It's early days, but he has the potential to one day be up there with his illustrious elders. And at this stage of his career, that's the best anyone can expect.
Elsewhere, Ryan Babel, at just 20, is looking less like a prospect and more like someone who's nearly ready to take the league by storm, while Lucas, also 20, is settling very nicely into the midfield. And I don't think that Emiliano Insua, who made his league debut last season aged 17, is that far away from pushing for a place in the first-team squad. And that's not even mentioning some of the youngsters doing so well out on loan.
It seems that, at long last, the Reds have some top-quality youngsters capable of gracing the team for years to come.
When you consider that Torres and Mascherano are just 23, Agger and Sissoko are still only 22, and the plethora of top Premiership players in their mid-20s (Reina, Alonso, Arbeloa, Crouch, Gerrard and Benayoun, to name just a few), any current optimism should stretch well beyond the end of this season.
Paul Tomkins' new book Above Us Only Sky is now available. For details about the book and how to buy click here>>
These views are those of the author and are not necessarily shared by Liverpool FC or its official website.
