Football Soccer Goals

Milan Baros bagged a brace to help give Galatasaray a 3-0 win over his former club Liverpool in Istanbul.

Sky Sports sources understand Chelsea’s interest in Scott Dann depends on the situation with Slobodan Rajkovic.

Depending on who you talk to, yesterday was either the first sign of the apocalypse or the equivalent of crashing your bike into a mountain of marshmallows. It was the worst result possible and an indication that Liverpool will once again be trolling the depths of the Premier League, or mostly just a result of fielding an overmatched squad against a quality opponent in a difficult environment. Time for a complete overhaul of personnel at the helm and on the pitch, or another reminder of the basic need to offload in some areas and strengthen in others.

Reality’s somewhere in between, but if you’re not pissing someone off with a wildly divisive opinion, what’s the point? Yesterday’s better left locked away in the annals of things related to Liverpool that you’d rather not talk about, like Djimi Traore, Northampton Town, and those Fernando Torres posters you had (or still have, sadist) hanging above your bed.

Today’s a new day! Monday will be better! There’s not much to talk about today so I’m just wasting space!

* But yeah, we can’t let you forget about yesterday quite yet, as there’s a bit of reflection on the part of Kenny Dalglish to rehash. The boss on the result, who was involved, and what happens from here:

“I think they looked a bit sharper than us at the start of the game. It was the same as at the weekend in that we played a lot better in the second half than we did in the first half. But the players worked hard and they’ll benefit from the effort they put in. It won’t do us any harm for the season ahead, but we’ve got to get ourselves a bit sharper, a bit more clued up and lively when we’re not in possession of the ball.

“I think the benefit is it’s another game. They looked a bit sharper than us and are maybe a wee bit ahead of us. Their season was due to start but I think it’s been put back for a number of days. We’ve just got to get ourselves street-wise on the pitch and get up to speed with our thoughts when we’re not in possession of the ball. August 13 is a big day for us when the season starts, and we’d like to think this will stand us in good stead getting towards that date.

“It’s pre-season. We’ve another game on Monday and we’ve got to pick another team. We’ll have people back who weren’t eligible for this game. For the young boys who played it will have been a great experience for them, and for the players who played it will be good for fitness. We don’t want to lose a game, but we’ve got two games in four days and a long trip home tonight, so we had to take that into consideration when we were picking the team – and we’ll also take it into consideration when we pick the team on Monday.”

If you’re firmly planted in that camp that viewed yesterday as cue to panic, there’s little that reading Dalglish’s thoughts will change. If you’re less inclined to set your hair on fire and run screaming into a wall, it’s confirmation that there’s more than a few tea cups being balanced as the club gets nearer to the August 13th kickoff date. Two friendlies in four days on opposite ends of the continent makes a bit of triage necessary, and while it doesn’t explain away the fact that his starting eleven was doomed from the opening whistle, there is allowance for the fact that the preseason fixture list could have been scheduled a little less ambitiously.

It does create a bit of urgency and expectation around what we get Monday, though—a few of you have already outlined the names we’d hope to see, and the link above lists Henderson, Downing, Adam, Carragher, and Agger as those who stayed back to “prepare” for the Valerenga match on Monday. That’s possibly the time that we finally get a lengthier taste of what will more closely resemble Liverpool’s actual starting eleven, and, in combination with the Valencia friendly at Anfield next Saturday, hopefully enough time for the first team to develop enough cohesion to hit the ground running against Sunderland.

* Shifting from ground level to someone who operates somewhere closer to the outer reaches of the mesosphere, Franco Zavaglia, agent to oft-moving but still in the same place Alberto Aquilani, again found himself in front of someone with an audiorecorder and a functioning internet connection, this time to talk about the need for the midfielder to secure a permanent deal away from Liverpool:

“After finding out that he’s not in favour with Liverpool, Alberto would prefer a permanent solution rather than just be part of a loan. We want to find a solution so that next year the current situation will not reoccur again. The player wants to come to Italy on a definite transfer. I met (Fiorentina sporting director) Pantaleo Corvino and the club must think about it. There is a 50% chance that my client will transfer to Florence. We’re still waiting to see what will happen.”

At this point a permanent deal would be far preferable to what’s been discussed previously in terms of a loan deal, in which Liverpool would still be responsible for wages and would essentially be in the same spot as last year, just worse off. None of that is to imply that I’d rather see Aquilani leave than stay; it’s well-documented around here that we think he could have a positive impact on the squad (and still might have the chance to), but with something different being discussed every day, a move back to Italy via his agent’s rocketpack wouldn’t be surprising. And at that point, hopefully we never have to hear from Zavaglia again.

That’s it before the weekend, which at the very least will include a Sunday preview for Monday night’s visit to Norway. In the meantime, you can fritter away the hours putting your extensive domino and miniature wooden ramp collection to work on the four pool tables you have set up in the garage:

So much for the romantic return to Istanbul. A questionable starting eleven and even worse first-half performance, woeful defending, and non-existant attack conspired to make for one of the most insufferable forty-five minutes of Liverpool football I’ve witnessed. The curious selection and impotent display were worrying, and while it got better as the personnel and formation righted themselves a bit in the second half, we’re still left with another ineffective display and more time to wait for something that actually means something.

*

You’d have been wildly optimistic to be enthusiastic for the match after seeing the aforementioned starting eleven—depending on how you count, at least four fullbacks had a place in the lineup, with Phillipp Degen and Emiliano Insua pushing forward to flank Joe Cole in the midfield, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson at right and left back respectively, and Martin Kelly partnering Sotirios Kyrgiakos in central defense. That left Andy Carroll alone up front, Cole just behind him, and Christian Poulsen and Jonjo Shelvey in more reserved midfield roles. And poor, poor Doni on an island in goal, damned from nearly the opening whistle.

Milan Baros’ first-half brace very nearly could have been a hat-trick had he converted his chance inside a minute; typically lax defending through the midfield and at the back led to the former Liverpool man getting time and space on the left side, and had he not pulled it past the post, the hosts would have had a very early lead. They wouldn’t have to wait much longer, though, as Baros finished off a fine move by volleying home Thomas Ujfalusi’s well-placed cross.

What unfolded was nigh-on total Galatasaray dominance; Liverpool were clearly out of sorts and couldn’t link any sort of meaningful possession together. Andy Carroll was isolated and anonymous, with only a poorly-struck effort from distance and a mis-controlled ball over the top from Poulsen to speak of for involvement. No fault of his own, and it had to be a supremely disappointing run-out.

The pre-determined water break gave the visitors a brief but welcomed respite, and less than ten minutes later they had their best chance of the half. Kyrgiakos headed back across the box from a free kick, which found an unmarked Martin Kelly in front of goal. As with everything else in the first half, his effort went terribly wrong, and was whistled offside to boot.

Within three minutes Baros had his second, this time from a corner in which the striker beat Poulsen to the back post all ends up. His firm header left Doni with no chance, and once again Liverpool’s back line made a complete hash of it. Liverpool saw out the half with no further damage but, with a depleted bench, there wasn’t any promise of wholesale changes to come.

As it turned out, the few changes made at the half (Dirk Kuyt and Alberto Aquilani for Phillipp Degen and Jack Robinson) markedly improved the visitors’ performance—in the opening minutes Joe Cole worked himself free and had an effort saved only to be whistled offside, and Carroll headed tamely on goal from a Cole corner minutes later.

The move of the match for Liverpool came on 64 minutes, when Cole switched play to the right for Kuyt, who skipped past a defender and crossed sharply for the onrushing Aquilani. The Italian’s low effort arrowed straight off Ceylan and away from danger, and Liverpool had their best chance of the match go begging.

Late appearances for Conor Coady and Andre Wisdom came just before Johan Elmander capped off the match with a sweetly-struck volley for the host’s third, and while the second half performance was far more encouraging than anything we’ve much of what we’ve seen in the last 180 or so minutes of preseason football, it was another 0-3 result and another chance to try to cherry-pick the positives from a largely negative performance.

*

I’m stuck firmly in some sort of preseason purgatory—I know the matches and results don’t matter much, and that it’s all about fitness and unity and whatever, but I’m also not particularly fond of watching Liverpool get embarrassed for the sake of fitness or putting up players in the shop window. We typically talk about how there’s few conclusions to draw from these matches, and while there’s a debate to be had about the correlation of results now to the actual season (excellently laid out by nate earlier in the week), there’s no arguing that Liverpool have some bad, bad footballers playing some bad, bad football right now.

You can’t imagine anybody’s improved their stock if we are shop-windowing; Poulsen again displayed a poor first touch and terrifically bad defensive positioning (which doesn’t work so well for a defensive midfielder), Degen was…Degen, and Joe Cole, even with a few flashes of competence, continued to show the selfishness and sloppiness that Liverpool supporters have come to loathe. It wasn’t any better at the back, as Sotirios Kyrgiakos looked lost and Martin Kelly struggled in a new(ish) role alongside him. Defensive lapses were again to blame for all three goals, something that, regardless of the time of year, is inexcusable.

And yet I’m not that fired up, as it’s still all tempered by the knowledge that there’s got to be something much better on the horizon. Almost half the squad missed out on today’s match, nearly all of them starters, and you’ve got to believe that the ineffectual performances over the last two matches aren’t lost on those in charge. Things need to be cleaned up relatively quickly—from the personnel at the club to the football they’re playing, we can hope for change in the next two weeks. And as disappointing as the past two displays have been (or, depending on your opinion of the preseason, haven’t been), there’s still plenty of reason for optimism in the new season.

Monday’s been promised as the start of those changes, with plenty of the missing faces from today (Charlie Adam, Jordan Henderson, Stewart Downing among them) expected to return. And regardless of the result, you can probably expect to feel ambivalence about how things play out. Unless Liverpool score five and keep a clean sheet—then we can safely say that the season’s started for real.

Today’s questions haven’t really set Anfield on fire

• Liverpool midfielder wants permanent move back to Serie A
• ‘The club must think about it. It’s a difficult deal’ – agent

The Liverpool midfielder Alberto Aquilani has a 50% chance of joining Fiorentina, according to his agent.

Reports suggested a deal to move to the Serie A club had fallen through as the 27-year-old wanted a permanent move as opposed to another loan spell like the one he had with Juventus last season.

“As Alberto doesn’t yet fall in the plans of Liverpool, we want to find a solution so that next year the current situation will not recur,” Aquilani’s agent, Franco Zavaglia, told Sportitalia. “The player wants to come to Italy on a permanent transfer.

“I met [Fiorentina's sporting director, Pantaleo] Corvino, and the club must think about it. It’s a difficult deal but let’s see.

“There is a 50% chance that my client will transfer to Florence. Last year, in August, there was ‘magic’ [Aquilani's loan deal to Juventus], let’s see if this year will be the same. There is still time.”

Hull City could re-sign Liverpool defender Daniel Ayala on loan to cover Paul McShane, who will be out for several weeks with a calf injury.

Denmark Under-21 goalkeeper Martin Hansen tells BBC Radio Leeds that he wants to take his chance of first-team football after joining Bradford City from Liverpool on a one-month loan.

Milan Jovanovic is closing in on a move from Liverpool to Anderlecht.

Liverpool midfielder Jay Spearing is ready to fight for his place in the crowded Anfield engine room.