James Milner and Danny Ings, positive signings for Liverpool FC?

Liverpool new boys; Milner left, Ings right

Today, Liverpool FC have confirmed the signing of Danny Ings on a free transfer, subject to compensation, a deal that follows another free transfer signing, James Milner. Both will join the club on July 1^st when the summer transfer window opens.

In a summer where Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has to get every signing absolutely right with no margin for error, it seems his first two deals are fairly safe ones. Milner, a steady performer, who brings a wealth of Premier League experience and Ings a pacey young player with potential in a position that needs improving most, up front.

There have already been wholesale changes to the backroom staff at the club as they look to change their fortunes following a rather drab season that petered out with two embarrassing defeats to Crystal Palace, Steven Gerrard’s Anfield fairwell, and Stoke. Rodgers’ two main right hand men Colin Pascoe and Mike Marsh are the first of many (should we believe the media) to be given the boot by the Liverpool hierarchy, but have remained faithful to Rodgers himself, however I feel this is a final warning. A poor start to next season could be curtains.

Another thing that is blindingly obvious is that Rodgers needs help in the transfer market with recruitment and negotiation. Last summer we paid premium prices for average players. £26m for Adam Lallana and £20m for Lazar Markovic among others when in the same transfer market Toni Kroos, one of the worlds most coveted midfielders who had just won the World Cup, was bought by Real Madrid for between £20-25m. Unbelievable. Liverpool need to follow models of clubs such as Atletico Madrid and Juventus who have spent a fraction of the money Liverpool who spent in recent years but have had far more success. Dejan Lovren, Lallana, Markovic and Mario Ballotelli were bought for around the same money it cost Juventus to assemble their starting 11 in the Champions League final on Saturday, £85m.  When you look as figures like this, it’s obvious where Liverpool are deficient. If other clubs in Europe had Liverpool’s wealth, they would be challenging on all fronts.

However, Milner and Ings do provide an improvement to the squad with little money spent which in my mind is positive.

James Milner

With Liverpool facing their first season post Gerrard, it is important to at least replace his experience and Premier League know how, as replacing his ability will be almost impossible. Milner provides this without commanding a fee, a safe option; he’s hardly an exciting signing or a player that will get you off your seat, but a good one. I’d much rather him in the team than Joe Allen or Lucas.

In his Man City career he was an underrated player (who wouldn’t be next to David Silva and Sergio Aguero) that grafted and did the leg work that allowed these players among others to shine.  A midfield with Milner in allowed players such as Yaya Toure and David Silva more of a free role to win matches, knowing that Milner would cover them. His work ethic for the team was to be admired but was never fully appreciated by certain fans. Many Man City fans would tell you how good he was, deceptively good technical ability and a turn of pace to beat a man, who was a useful cog in the Man City midfield. It comes as a surprise that they were willing for him to leave on a free considering he made 51 appearances in all competitions last season, often being preferred over Samir Nasri. This says something about his pedigree. Coaches seem to love him, dependable, reliable and consistent, you know what you’re getting with Milner which is why Rodgers went for him, he’s a fool proof signing, almost certain to do well which is exactly what Liverpool need. It says a lot about him that he’s willing to give up Champions League football for a starting position and regular football. He should fit nicely into Liverpool’s midfield alongside Jordan Henderson and Emre Can, a player I want to see in midfield next term.

Verdict: Good signing.

Danny Ings

Ings will arrive at Liverpool with less of a reputation than Milner, however still a useful acquisition. It’s no secret that Liverpool’s front line needs strengthening as Daniel Sturridge can’t seem to stay fit and the other forwards not cutting the mustard. Ings fits the bill. Young, pacey and a decent finisher, he has the ingredients to be a good player. He performed well in a struggling Burnley side last season that were very lacklustre in attack which wasn’t really Ings’ fault; they just lacked quality in all departments. He still managed 11 goals, more than all of Liverpool’s strikers last season combined, despite playing in a number 10 role, but I see him as a number 9.

He’s a player with good technical ability consisting of an excellent first touch and dribbling ability to beat defenders, a good strike but can sometimes be wayward with his passing. The one thing I liked about him most last season was the type of goals he scored; headers, tap ins, difficult and accurate finishes, in the right place at the right time, all this in a team that created very few opportunities for him.

My hopes are high for him. It will be interesting to see how he fits in with Sturridge, providing he’s fit, and Divock Origi another new signing. He may be deployed wide in his first season but hopefully he’s played in the number 9 role from time to time.

Verdict: Decent signing.

Both Milner and Ings are useful and needed signings but if they are the best players Liverpool buy this summer, they will look distinctly average ones. Liverpool still need big players, a world class striker if we can attract one, a new right back, goalkeeper, a winger to replace the want-away Raheem Sterling.

Liverpool just need to be a little more astute with their buys. There is plenty of talent available for reasonable money around Europe, something Rodgers has failed to get to grips with in his time at Liverpool, apart from Phillipe Coutinho and Sturridge who were bought relatively cheaply in January 2013.

I just hope there is more to come.

Stalemate as Chelsea vs Liverpool ends in 1-1 draw

In a game that won’t live long in the memory, Liverpool are now effectively out of the running for the fourth and final Champions League spot barring a miracle, after a 1-1 draw with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

Newly crowned Champions Chelsea couldn't have wished for a better start when after 4 minutes Captain John Terry rose highest to head the ball beyond Simon Mignolet from a corner.

The game ebbed and flowed following the opener with neither side able to create any real chances of note, with Liverpool having the better of the play.

In a must win game for Liverpool to have any chance of a top four finish, they started sluggishly and Chelsea looked every bit worthy Champions after the early exchanges.

Liverpool improved as the half went on and had efforts from Phillipe Coutinho and Glen Johnson being saved and missing the target as they tried to find a way back into the game.

The frustration was evident with yellow cards being shown to Adam Lallana, Martin Skrtel and Rickie Lambert in quick succession midway through the first half.

However after 43 minutes Steven Gerrard headed home Jordan Henderson’s free-kick at the back post making the score line 1-1 just before half time, his second headed goal in as many games. The abuse Gerrard had received from Chelsea fans will have made the goal all the more satisfying to the Reds skipper.

The second half began in a similar manor to how the first played out with little in the way of chances being created by either side, just pop shots that rarely threatened either goal.

Willian and Coutinho had low shots that just evaded the target for their respective sides, as both Jose Mourinho and Brendan Rodgers looked to find a formula to win the match, which meant little to Chelsea and much more to Liverpool.

Mourinho obviously sensed Liverpool’s attacking threat as he brought on Nemanja Matic for the impressive young Englishman Ruben Loftus-Cheek on 60 minutes. Matic being the standout defensive midfielder in the Premier League this season.

The rhythm of the encounter didn't change much as Fabregas forged the best chance of the half for Chelsea after 73 minutes, breaking into the box but only managing to shoot straight at Mignolet. He then had a shot blocked by Skrtel three minutes later.

The draw left Liverpool six points behind Manchester United in fourth with two matches to go; consequently a Europa League place beckons barring a huge turn of events.

The pressure continues to build on Brendan Rodgers - but he's still the right man for the job

Despite yesterday’s victory over QPR, the pressure Brendan Rodgers is under has been growing for weeks and doesn't look like easing anytime soon. The discontent among the Anfield faithful, following a number of dismal performances, has led to some calling for his head in the knowledge that Jurgen Klopp and Rafael Benitez are available this summer. This led to the ‘Rodgers out Rafa in’ banner that was flown above Anfield during yesterday’s fixture. Whether the imbeciles were Liverpool fans or Man United fans having a joke remains to be seen, here’s hoping it was the latter attempting banter. Whoever it was, there’s no place for stunts like this in football.

The banner in question - allegedly made by Liverpool fans

Not long ago I wrote about the 5 reasons I thought Rodgers was still the right man for the job, and I still fully stand by this. He’s had a tough season, but he’s had more to deal with this year than any other of his career, with one thing after another seemingly going wrong.

Firstly, he originally had to deal with the extra pressure of the Champions League, this being his first season managing in the competition and arguably managing a team not equipped to deal with the rigorous midweek to weekend fixture schedule. This was the case as it turned out. Perhaps it was a season too soon, as silly as it sounds; I don’t think the team were ready for the enormous step up in quality. Having said that, Liverpool couldn't have drawn a better group; a clash with the Champions, the worst second seed team and unheard of minnows. Not qualifying from that group was massively disappointing.

Additionally Steven Gerrard’s decline has been a huge issue for the club and Rodgers struggled to deal with him in a respectful manner. Clearly he’s not good enough to play every week anymore but many, including myself, feel Rodgers could have dealt with the situation much better. It was just unfortunate for him that Gerrard is a club legend, a huge personality, something that Rodgers hasn’t encountered before in how to tell Gerrard in a dignified way that he’s not needed anymore. He will learn from this, but a blot on his copybook.

Raheem Sterling’s public contact issues have also been no favour to Rodgers, an extra distraction away from trying to improve the team. A team weakened by the summer departure of Luis Suarez, a player that almost single handily mounted Liverpool’s title challenge last season. Dealing with his loss was always going to be a massive task for any manager, unfortunately the summer signings haven’t come close to replacing his goals.

Suarez celebrating one of his many goals last season

Daniel Sturridge, a man who Rodgers would have pinpointed as the top striker at the club and the man to fill Suarez’s boots, has been ravaged with injury this season missing the majority of matches. Yet another massive dilemma that Rodgers has had to find a solution for, and with Fabio Borini, Rickie Lambert and Mario Balotelli as alternatives, it never looked solvable. This can be attributed to poor transfer business, considering all three are his signings.

However, despite all these problems and predicaments, Liverpool lie only four points behind Man United, who are fourth in the league, with three games to play which gives them an outside chance of Champions League qualification. However unlikely this may seem, considering everything that has happened this season and how poor Liverpool have been at times, it’s a respectable position to be in.

Therefore I still believe Rodgers should be given next season to turn it around and let his summer signings have another season under his management. After all, I am convinced those that have flattered to deceive such as Lazar Markovic and Dejan Lovren will turn it around and have a far better 2015/16.

One final point I will make is that there is no doubt in my mind that Rodgers needs help in the transfer market. His record since joining the club has been extremely poor in terms of how many bad players he’s bought. I’m not a fan of the Director of Football position that most clubs adopt, but I think with Brendan, it would be a massive help for him. However it should be considered with caution as Liverpool could easily hire someone equally inept in the transfer market who would deliver yet more disappointing signings. FSG surely have to be running out of patience, Rodgers needs a positive summer window this time around.

Whatever happens in terms of management, I will support whoever is at the helm whether it is Rodgers, Klopp or Benitez – all three I’m sure can do a great job at the club.

Jürgen Klopp and the detrimental effect money has had on football

The recent announcement that Jurgen Klopp will depart Borussia Dortmund at the end of the season was a sad day for football for many reasons. Not only is it the end of an era for everyone’s second favourite team, but it’s highlighted many other issues with football. In the 7 years Klopp’s been at the club, he has created one of the most exciting teams to watch in Europe, a reflection of his charismatic and energetic personality. However, despite the loss he will be for the club, Dortmund’s demise this season highlights more poignant problem with football, the influence of money and particularly in the Premier League.

Money has become an increasingly dominant element of football, influencing players, managers and owners alike. The prize money available is extortionate in today’s game for Premier League and Champions League participation and success which is predominantly down to TV money.  

This in turn has spiked ticket prices due to interest in the game coming from further afield than the traditional working classes that the game was once built upon in terms of fan bases. Tickets used to be affordable, even for the poorest demographic whereas now the least you’re likely to pay for a Premier League team is £30 (adult) with prices going up and over £100 at the top end. Having said that, abroad, this isn’t such an issue with some season tickets for Europe’s top clubs being cheaper that a single match day ticket at Arsenal.  

The popularity of football with the middle classes began with the success of England at Italia 90’, which captured the nation with iconic moments such as Gazza crying after a booking in the semi-final, meaning he would miss the final. Prior to the tournament football was losing its popularity with record low viewing figures both in attendances and TV figures due to the 1980’s recession where the working classes simply couldn’t afford tickets or subscription fees.

Post Italia 90’ there were calls for a breakaway of England’s top division which was finalised in 1992 with BSKYB buying the TV rights and forming the Premier League as we know it today. The deal meant that the clubs would share 50% of the money evenly and then 25% depending where they finish in the league. This is what attracted the middles classes, the increase classiness of football, with cleaner stadia and rules being changed to suit them, such as harsher punishments for ‘dirty’ play. In the most recent deal, worth over $5bn, the Premier League is an extremely lucrative attraction for potential investors. In the last 5 years there has been an increase of rich foreign businessmen buying lower league clubs, throwing some money at them in the hope of reaching glitz and glamour of the Premier League and its money.

But this has had major implications.

For a start, managers working under ambitious, money hungry chairman rarely get the time required to build a team equipped for promotion, resulting in multiple of premature sackings. Case in point being Watford and Leeds having had 4 managers each this season alone, although Oscar Garcia left Watford on medical grounds. If managers are getting less and less time, its effectively ruining the game as chopping and changing every month isn’t ethically or financially prudent. Also it leaves perfectly capable managers out of jobs at the expense of a more expensive alternative.

Managers aren’t the only ones either; players are also affected by the large sums of money injected into football. Players have become aware of the rewards for playing at the top level, and are willing to do everything to get there. Traditionally this meant playing well and earning the right to earn top money, now days it’s down to agents and the player power to negotiate every last penny from their contracts. The most recent example is the Raheem Sterling debacle where he’s reportedly rejected £100,000 a week, that I wrote a piece on, which demonstrates the ridiculous amounts of money that players are seeking to earn, having achieved very little. I’m not going to say a move away from Liverpool would harm his career, but there have been so many examples of young English players moving from a club where there playing first team football to a top club and warming the bench, in the pursuit of money.  Players like John Bostock springs to mind, a promising young player touted as a future international plucked at 16 years old from Crystal Palace by Tottenham Hotspur, probably by the money they offered. He now plays for Oud-Heverlee Leuven in the Belgian Second Division.

Examples like this highlight the influence money can have on football which potentially ruins careers if chased over success, which seems to be the case for many young players. It’s a real shame to see as in hindsight every man and his dog says they would play for free, myself included, but we don’t know their circumstances or, ahem, their agents.

The money from The Premier League and the Champions League TV deals has created a huge disparity between football clubs at the top and bottom. Champions League clubs receive huge amounts of TV and prize money which means they can buy better players, and therefore improve further. This makes it even harder for clubs aspiring for the top level, to get there in an ‘acceptable’ footballing way.

This leads me back to my original point where Dortmund have seemingly ran out of steam following there major success between 2010 – 2012 where they won back to back Bundesliga titles and the German Cup. However their lack of comparative wealth to football superpowers such as Barcelona, Real Madrid and domestic rivals Bayern Munich has caught up with them and their fantastic departing manager. The loss of crucial players such as Mario Götze and Robert Lewandowski to their main rivals Bayern has signalled their fall from grace having not been in the financial position to persuade them to stay. Additionally the pressure for a club like Dortmund to get every single transfer right has taken its toll on Klopp which is dissapointing to see. This season he has looked lost at times, not knowing what to do with a squad which is easily in the top 3 in the Bundesliga, such is the pressure to continually succeed. I fear the same will soon happen to Diego Simeone and Atletico Madrid, a club of similar size and stature battling with clubs far more wealthy.

It’s a damning predicament football finds itself in where by clubs like the Dortmund’s and Atletico’s of this world can only sustain success for 1-2 years for financial reasons, rather than footballing. 

Do stats ruin football?

Stats. They’re everywhere. All you have to do is watch football for 5 minutes and you’re bombarded with 5473 stats about pass completion, shot accuracy or how many Arsenal fans have voted in the latest poll about the quality Olivier Giroud’s hair.

But do they ruin football? Do players become so self-conscious about they’re heat map or shot conversion percentage that it actually inhibits performance? I've been reliably informed that some players actually check their stats from the previous game on a Monday morning after the weekend’s fixture. Mad? Maybe.

Of course, there are some purposes that they’re beneficial, for example I have no problem with scoring stats, or to an extent assist stats, they actually give a good indication to a players form. However it’s when the media become obsessed with stats like pass completion that I believe football is beginning to be ruined.

Since when was it not ok to fully focus on the stat that’s usually in the top left of the screen? That little thing called the score? The only stat that actually matters. The only one that determines the result of the game.

But no, it’s touch maps, distance covered and tackles won that are at the forefront of the modern pundits’ mind. Don’t get me wrong, it gives the media plenty to talk about to fill the time. Half time, full time, all the time with ‘stuff’, often irrelevant to matches.

I was in the pub recently with friends, having a group debate about football, and the age old argument about Messi and Ronaldo popped up, who’d have thought. It seems to be the case that you’re either pro Messi or pro Ronaldo, you just can’t be a fan of both. However the debate quickly turned to using stats to back those involved up. Messi has scored 108 goals in 32 games, Ronaldo has scored 123 in 38 games. Well obviously not, but the exaggeration levels were reaching fever pitch. Incredible stat after stat reeled off explaining why one was better than the other. However how many games this season had anyone watched them play? Only a handful.  How can you judge a player you’ve barely watched? Oh, of course, by using stats.

So back to the argument whether stats inhibit performance, they probably do. But it’s an immeasurable concept, something that no stat can be provided for. Players like Joe Allen and Tom Cleverley (there are others) pride themselves on their ‘ability’ to never give the ball away. The stats do back this up; Joe Allen has an 88% pass completion this season, Tom Cleverley is at 87%, which in all fairness is impressive as a standalone figure.  But it doesn't take a football genius to watch either of them and realise that they’re very ineffective in most games. Sideways pass after sideways pass, very little invention and a timid outlook looking forward paints a much more accurate picture. Maybe their passing figures are on the forefront of their mind rather that if they can affect the game.

My criticism of stats doesn't stop here. In my opinion football has been Americanised in a lot of ways, not least stats. An example of this is basketball which is far more figure and number based than football, but football is slowly catching up.

Football used to be about a grass pitch, a ball and two teams trying to score more than the other. It’s an extremely simple game. No longer it seems, certainly from an analysis point of view.

It’s players like Andres Iniesta that break away from the clutches of stat based judgement. Statistically, he’s not the most impressive, only a handful of goals and assists per season, numbers that would have players such as Gylfi Sigurdsson deemed poor. But is Iniesta one of a few players worthy of escaping stat based critique?

I would argue that most players should. I’m not going to claim that impressive goal and assist tallies mean nothing and should be disregarded when judging a player, but it shouldn't be so protruding when judging some players. It’s the overall contribution that gets ignored by stats based findings, something that’s much more relevant than perceived by many football fans.

Facts and figures miss out so many vital elements of a player and their ability, quality of first touch, awareness, football intelligence are just some of the things that can’t be quantified yet imperative to any quality player.  

Stats have become so prominent in football that even Arsene Wenger, one of the most careful and astute transfer dealers, reportedly used stats to weigh up and sign new Arsenal signing Gabriel Paulista from Villarreal. Boasting impressive duels won, tackles won and clearances made numbers, all seems well, but can he position himself defensively when containing the play? Only time will tell.

There will always be arguments that stats do indeed enhance our knowledge of football, to an extent they do. They allow us to analyse players in ways that were never accessible even 10 years ago. The rate of growth in the use of stats proves that they’re well regarded even by the most respected names in football. I’m playing devil’s advocate here by heavily critiquing their validity, however my point stands that they warp our opinion on how good players are, or aren't.

Do stats ruin football? Not entirely, but I do feel that some players are heavily influenced by them as mentioned. They should be used in moderation, without risk of sounding like your mum when talking about alcohol.