14 March 2009 will be remembered as one of the most remarkable days in the history of Liverpool Football Club for sure as they humiliated defending champion Manchester United 4-1 at what is called “Theater Of The Dream”, their own turf, having trailed 0-1. Having defeated Real Madrid 4-0 earlier in the second leg of first knock out round of Champions League, the victory came as moral booster to the squad. On their day, they can beat anybody. But the problem is that how they can sustain this kind of performance to go all the way to clinch the Premier League trophy.
The biggest problem with Liverpool Football Club is consistency. On their best day, they can thrash Madrid, scoring 4 goals for fun (if it had not been Casillas in the goal, the score line would have been bigger), they can inflict the worst home defeat for Manchester United in so many years, scoring 4 goals past Edwin VanderSar who just recently broke the record of minutes not conceded, but on other day, they struggled against the likes of Wigan, Hull City, Fulham, Middlesbrough and West Ham.
The sign of the champion is consistency in getting results, even though the squad is not playing well, as shown by numerous 1-0 victory by Chelsea and Manchester United in the past couple of years. The team should get good result against other big-4 team as well. Well, Liverpool Football Club might not win the league this season, but yesterday result, first win against Manchester United under Rafa Benitez’s helm was priceless. To do double against Chelsea and Manchester United this season is massive. Liverpool’s problem in the past couple of years was bad results against other big-4. But his very season, they struggle against lesser teams. Well, if this could be solved, then I reckon Liverpool would be a major force in the competition for the title. They have certainly improved a lot under Benitez.
Of course when speaking about consistency, we should take a look at the squad depth as well. Liverpool first 11 is strong, but the depth of squad is not comparable against Manchester United and Chelsea, in which you can have multi million pound rated Berbatov, Tevez, Nani, Anelka on the bench. Torres and Gerrard is the backbone of the team. I do hope that in the coming summer, Liverpool can get a clinical striker (Aguero or Villa), a pacy right winger (Ribery), and a versatile right full back (Daniel Alves alike) to complete the squad. Well, hopefully..
To all Manchester United fans : Liverpool might not win the league this season (well, that’s how you consoled yourself in dealing with yesterday’s blow), but the result was massive and priceless. You may win the title again, but watch out the resurgent Reds.. Hopefully Liverpool can continue the challenge and you indeed need to be worried about the force of Liverpool Football Club. 🙂
Hendro Santoso's Hut 