Why Kenny Dalglish was (sort of) right

Liverpool manager Kenny Dalglish was roundly chastised last week for suggesting that Liverpool's season, by every other measure than Premiership points, had been a success. The Reds sit in eighth position on the Premier League table after a forgettable 2012 that has seen them take only eight points from their twelve fixtures since the turn of the year.

Although a peculiar statement, the fact is that he could be right. The Kop legend just failed to articulate his sentiments correctly – everything depends on your definition of “success”.

Broadly speaking, all sports fans want to see one of two things from their club: present success or promise for the future. There's scant, if any, middle ground. If a club isn't on the threshold of achievement (whether than be team harmony, staying in a division, avoiding liquidation or securing a title) then fans must see management putting structures into place that will realise ambition.

Those structures, as Dalglish rather ineloquently posited, could be on-field – such as new players, value-for-money signings or a team adjusting well to a new style or set of tactics. They could also come from the boardroom, like the now-infamous kit deal.

However, clubs can only trade on hope for so long before it becomes fatuous. The confounder therefore is supporter expectation, a notoriously difficult and formless concept.

Despite an improved squad and a collapsing percentage of achieved points (his ratio has decreased from last term's 61% to 45% this season), Scouse fans should feel their icon's major failing has not been mismanagement of players but of fan expectation. With the arrival of Bellamy, Carroll, Adam, Downing, Henderson, Doni, Enrique and, ultimately and definitively, Luis Suarez, Reds could well have expected a Champions League challenge – at least.

For that to occur the team would have had to have gelled instantly and avoided all controversy and injury. All three were highly unlikely. Though he's been lost/lazy/awful at times, Carroll still has the potential to the league's best big forward, and I defy suggestion that Henderson and Adam won't at least be serviceable. However, all three depend upon being deployed correctly. There remains plenty of promise for the future, if thosee talents boasting “Standard Chartered” on their chests are aptly harnessed.  

Sponsorship and stability should be prized as well - if not perhaps more so than finishing above Everton, or winning the League Cup.  Dalglish, in the immortal words of Obi-Wan Kenobi, could quite rightly say "What I said was true ... from a certain point of view".

Courtesy: dailymail.co.uk

Dalglish began trading on instant achievement when, with Carroll and Henderson struggling, Bellamy crocked and Suarez, well, controversial, the club were better placed to plug the promise of seasons to come for one more year.

How this would have gone over with his superiors is anyone's guess, but with squad expenditure since January last year topping out over ₤85 million, indications are that success had become th expectation. However, and by whoever, the suggestion that the club was placed to succeed now, rather than after a short seasoning period, has placed Dalglish's stiffening neck in a tightening noose.

Craig Bellamy - the signing of the season?

Everyone loves something for nothing.  In the high-priced world of professional football, the same is even more true.  When in August last year Kenny Dalglish asked Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini nicely for Craig Bellamy, the Liverpool icon became the proud “owner” of one very cheap, slightly-used Welsh forward.

That very cheap, slightly used Welsh forward – who spent last season on loan at his hometown club, Cardiff City – has since been one of the Reds’ best players and without question has provided the best value for money of all Liverpool’s 2011 acquisitions.  Considering the plentiful concerns about Bellamy’s physical condition –his knees are reportedly bad enough to prevent him from playing three matches in a row – the contract he signed on Merseyside is for a quite reasonable two years.

In fact, despite only a month ago crowning Sergio Aguero the Premiership’s best signing of 2011, it’s time to reconsider that honour in Bellamy’s favour.  With the difference in transfer fees paid and the disparity in the pair’s respective wages, the title is now the fiery Welshman’s to lose.

As an aside, Bellamy’s success at Liverpool, in concert with defender Nedum “You were such a nice man” Onuoha’s £2.5 million sale to QPR, makes one ponder the validity of City asking so much for sensation-magnet Carlos Tevez.  City have insisted on receiving close to market value for their pugnacious former front man (as well as for other superfluous players Adebayor and Santa Cruz) when they have essentially discarded quality EPL players like Bellamy, Onuoha and Shaun Wright-Phillips for a handful of coppers.

As Tevez has reportedly been fined over £9 million for his repeated indiscretions, his probable profit from any deal (with a signing bonus possibly a percentage of any transfer fee paid) is something City should be hoping to avoid.  This, and possible (though this sounds far-fetched) savings on his wages, mean any substantive monies they receive from his sale should be seen as gravy. 

Given past experience, he is likely to haunt them no matter what fee they may accept for his signature – so the Citizens may as well just move him on and save themselves some more Tevez-induced fiscal heartburn.

Socceroos balanced in defeating Wales

The Socceroos' upcoming World Cup campaign looks on firm ground. This morning's friendly against Wales showed the evident class of both sides' top players, but a workmanlike Australia were the superior team against a side whose Premier League pedigree belies it's FIFA ranking of 119.

courtesy: soccerwallpaper.mackafe.com

Up front, Tim Cahill and Scott McDonald (remember him?) pulled the strings for the Socceroos, while for extended periods the Aussies were able to nullify Wales' influential wide men Craig Bellamy and Gareth Bale.

McDonald, who still hasn't scored after 26 Socceroo caps, has never been faulted for effort in Australian gold and this was again the case today. He was busy up front and with Tim Cahill had a role to play in both goals. Given his 5'9 frame, leading the line in what amounted to a 4-4-1-1 hardly accentuated his gifts, but he regularly puts in Tevez-like endeavour, if without the pursuant goals.

More encouragement took the form of the central midfield matchup, where Neil Kilkenny of local Bristol City and Serie B's best bargain, Carl Valeri, more than matched the talent and experience of Aaron Ramsey and David Vaughn respectively.

It was hardly an exquisite spectacle - more an unkempt tussle in which the Australians collected themselves more quickly than their opposition. They pulled away when perpetually underrated right-back Luke Wilkshire first thundered a long-range shot against Wayne Hennessey's upright and minutes later delivered a pinpoint cross that Cahill powered into the bottom right corner.

He also curtailed Welsh WMD Bale, while the less experienced combination of Matt McKay and Michael Zullo were able to somewhat negate Bellamy's influence on the left. When Wilkshire was pulled at half time, the opposition flankers were far more able to shape the game.

As The Age's Michael Lynch has pointed out on Twitter, the blend of youth and experience should hearten the Green and Gold army.

The team is defensively sound, with Michael Zullo, Matthew Spiranovic and Rhys Williams all impressing. Williams' presence was impressive, while Spiranovic made a habit of being in the right place at the right time. McKay, though unlikely to have damaged his prospects of moving to Rangers, showed again some David Carney-esque tendencies at left back: good going forward, but was often beaten for pace and lateral movement by (very good 'uns) Craig Bellamy and Bale.

It was after Zullo, Wilkshire and Neill had all been withdrawn that a miscommunication at a set piece left Wales right-back Darcy Blake alone to score.

All appears positive for the Socceroos behind the ball. The midfield, though for the meantime shorn of the class of Bresciano and Kewell, is bustling, harrying and athletic. It is only going forward that the Socceroos don't have a good mix of experience and exuberance. When Robbie Kruse put home the rebound from a McDonald's shot, it served to contrast his fortunes with those of McDonald: when the Middlesbrough man scores his first Socceroo goal, it must be written that the earth will open and swallow him whole.

There is hope in Kruse's ability to find the net and McDonald's endeavour can begin to capitalise on delivery which has improved markedly since Osieck took over from Pim Verbeek. The team is still disconcertingly reliant on attacking midfielders Cahill and Holman to score. But this, after the Germany matches and a valiant Asian Cup, is encouragement enough for now.