Cardiff through to Carling Cup final

Cardiff have beaten Crystal Palace to reach the Carling Cup final after winning 3-1 on penalties at the end of a 1-0 win and a 1-1 aggregate draw tonight.

A seventh minute own goal by Anthony Gardner and the dismissal of Palace captain Paddy McCarthy just over ten minutes from time were the main highlights of the game, watched by new Wales manager Chris Coleman.

However Cardiff were unlucky not to win the match with three shots hitting the woodwork and Speroni pulling off some decent saves. The pick of the efforts was a Kenny Miller swivel and left footed shot in the first half that ricocheted off the post, while Gunnarsson hit the bar from a free header with barely a minute left of the 120 for Cardiff.

Miller blazed a penalty horrendously wide with the first effort and I was beginning to think the £20 I invested in Cardiff to qualify in the second half of extra time was a goner. But Heaton was the hero in the Palace goal with two fine saves.

Zaha. All arms and legs. (pic from the Daily Mail - Getty Images)

In truth, Liverpool and Man City won’t be too worried. Palace with the likes of Zaha (see below),  Scannell and the right-back who looked really bright (and has been linked with a move to Man Utd) Nathaniel Clyne could have posed a few unforeseen problems and a bit of trickery. Cardiff were better, but will play more into the other semi-final winner’s hands.

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I watched to see what to make of Wilfried Zaha, the Palace youngster who’s been linked with Liverpool. He looks handy, strong enough despite getting a kicking, but seems to get his head down too much when looking up and spotting the right ball to play would set him apart from the rest.

He has skill, pace and looked one of the fresher players towards the end despite being at times triple-marked and playing in a side with ten men for almost 40 minutes. Think £10m is a bit steep, but he was brave and could be shaped into a good player.

Again, not sure Anfield is the place for him to do that though. Touch of the Ryan Babel about him in that he probably needs a club who’ll let him play, give him space and a chance to get a regular run of games to show what he can do.

Personally I preferred Clyne at right-back. Looked a real player, current England U-21, and out of contract at the end of the season.

 

Where does the buck stop at Anfield?

Kenny Dalglish did the only thing he could on Saturday to deflect from the criticism that was bound to come his way following the poor defeat at Bolton.

The buck doesn’t necessarily stop with the manager if players are underperforming, but it does hint at something wrong with man management at the very least.

Dalglish had his finest successes in an era before Wenger, Zola, Cantona even, excluding his efforts at Blackburn. The foreign, modern influx of player that made the Premiership faster, fitter, was a rarity in his 80s glory days with British staples Rush, Barnes and Hansen the main men, but the signings of Carroll, Downing, Adam and Henderson are fast proving the moves of a man who is out of touch.

Dalglish has reverted to the old ‘Boot Room’ philosophy passed down across generations from the time of Shankly to Roy Evans when it fast became apparent that times had changed and that Liverpool needed to bring in a foreign coach in Gerard Houllier to show they were moving on from resting on the laurels of the glory days.

Criticism has been kept in-house. Suarez has been defended, to the detriment of the club’s image around the world. Carroll has been defended despite being criticised to the point of ridicule and regularly finding himself on the bench. Dalglish even went so far as to say Downing is ‘better than he thought’. A real head-scratcher that one.

Stewart Downing in happier times (around July)

Mistakes don’t get criticised. It’s all about the team and about Liverpool being the best football club in the world. A fortress. Siege mentality like the one Ferguson built around him to survive in the early 90s and turn into the most successful period in the club’s history.

But that changed at Bolton in an act of unusual outspoken criticism from the Scot. Players like Carroll, Downing and Adam to a slightly lesser extent are surely already worrying about their long-term places at the club. The Suarez incident needs sorting.

How he will fit back into the team and respond to the constant abuse he will receive at the hands of opposition players and fans only he will know. The smart money says it won’t be pretty. Dalglish has a massive battle on his hands keeping morale going at Anfield for the remainder of the season.

Despite that a Wembley final looms with a home semi final and a 1-0 advantage over Man City to come on Wednesday. Then Manchester United on Saturday, when the booing of Evra will bring up more problems in them media. And Liverpool remain within sight of Chelsea in fourth despite a wretched series of performances. The season can be salvaged, but after the performance on Saturday it’ll take one of the greatest feats of King Kenny’s  Liverpool career to-date.

2 X 6-pointers = Title decider?

If Manchester City beat Spurs and Arsenal beat Manchester United the title will be switching sides in for once in a blue moon.

That opening statement is a little controversial, but hear me out. The loss of Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure and David Silva in recent weeks, coupled with a tough, and strange, run of fixtures that saw City play twice in 48 hours at one point and then once in nine days afterwards, has left them in a rocky patch.

The linesman wondered why Platt and Mancini were singing opera – Pic from Daily Mirror

Don’t mind what Mancini or the players say. They have lost to Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester Utd in recent weeks. That can’t do anything but leave a niggling doubt as to their ability to consistently beat the big boys. Now it’s time for Spurs. This is a crucial game.

Adebayor is a massive loss for Spurs, despite Defoe’s better goal tally in spite of fewer games. Kompany’s absence would leave City vulnerable to Adebayor’s strengths and in particular his new-found attitude to playing for the team, from which Spurs have gained considerable reward this season.

Defoe is Defoe no matter who’s in defence. Might smack one in from 30 yards. Might smack six wide and keep on trying his luck…Savic will be happier competing against the man linked with a move away from White Hart Lane. His struggles against Carroll in the Carling Cup against Liverpool were washed away by a capable performance against trickier customers at Wigan in Rodallega and Moses.

So if City were to win on Sunday, in the earlier kick-off, piling the pressure on Manchester Utd as they travel to the Emirates, it would be a crucial result without their captain and would bring his league suspension to an end, before Everton the following Saturday with the Carling Cup second leg in between.

Man City V Spurs. 1.30. Sky Sports 1
Arsenal V Man Utd. 4pm. Sky Sports 1

And in other news…

(1): Manchester United’s trip to Arsenal fills me with a sense of foreboding for gunners fans. Maybe it’s because the last time these two teams met Ferguson’s troops racked up almost a goal a minute. Kind of. And Arsenal don’t have a defence to speak of.

(2) Joey Barton on Twitter (Jan 20):

“If I talked about Neil, he’d do well to get another job. Twitter cost him his job???? I can think of a million other things! #shutitwarnock“

And: “Lost his job and the guy is blaming everyone but himself! Embarrassing, time to look in the mirror mate. Last thing we need right. Big week.”

And: “Not a big fan of people that try to make scapegoats out of others. If u live by the sword, u die by it.”

QPR manager Neil Warnock on Barton’s arrival (August 26)

“We’ve got a very, very good player on our hands, he’s very enthusiastic. People will say one or two things about him, but they’ve said stuff about me in the past too, so I won’t worry about that.”

Warnock on QPR chairman Tony Fernandes (Aug 27)

“I’ve been speaking to him (Fernandes) most evenings, I’ve never had that kind of support anywhere. I’ve given him the names and he’s said go for it – you can’t have any more than that as a manager.”

For the record Neil Warnock will be appearing on BBC’s football focus tomorrow.

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(3): Carlos Tevez. I’ll give you a fiver to piss off.

Andy Carroll – Where’s the support?

In his defence…..

Andy Carroll is widely regarded as the biggest flop of the Premiership season to-date. Fernando Torres, pound for pound, perhaps deserves the title, but pundits have grown tired of taking him to task after each 12 minute cameo in the blue of Chelsea.

But every game the Spaniard starts (usually against weaker opposition) you think to yourself, Torres could get a couple today. In fact, he could get a couple any day. But he probably won’t until Roman Abramovich orders Villas Boas to make the Spaniard penalty taker (and even then I’m not sure I’d bet on him finding the net).

Pic: Andy Carroll in training ahead of the clash with Stoke (Pic from www.liverpoolfc.tv)

The problem with Andy Carroll is, you don’t ever start a game thinking, this could be his day. But rather than bash him for his lack of touch, pace, fitness, finesse, whatever the various criticisms are, let’s consider for a minute that he’s lacked the right support to blossom at Anfield.

(1): Stewart Downing/ Liverpool’s lack of width.

Carroll thrives, we hear all the time, on good crosses. He’ll win more than 50 per cent of hopeful balls launched at him in the air, but when he’s really attacking the ball, the percentage rises. In his games so far he’s shown that if you give him a ball to attack rather than hold up, he tends to beat defenders (though his accuracy is also questionable here).

But the one time he got a chance to do that in the recent 3-0 defeat to Man City, was from a cross from Jose Enrique. Carroll peeled away at the back post, easily beat Clichy with a perfect nod-down for Kuyt whose shot was superbly blocked by Vincent Kompany. So where’s the support from the £20m signing from Aston Villa.

When Downing signed, everyone said he would provide the ammunition for Carroll. To-date, Downing has been the biggest flop of the Premiership season.

Kuyt, Maxi and Henderson have all been tried on the right wing, none are any use to Carroll. Bellamy has been superb at driving crosses in from right and left, but tends to get to the penalty area and cut the ball back, something Gerrard is sure to benefit from in the coming weeks and that the likes of Shelvey and Maxi have already benefited from to-date this season.

The midweek game against Man City was exactly the wrong one for Carroll who played a thankless task in Liverpool’s 1-0 grind. His opportunity early in the game was on his weaker foot, however he out-muscled Savic and created space for the chance which was well-saved by Hart, the league’s most in-form keeper.

When Carroll plays, he needs support and space to make more of those opportunities to score.

(2): The Aquilani experience

Have Liverpool not learned from the signing of Aquilani from Roma? The club was arguably taking more of a risk with the Italian, not only was he injured but his move to the Premiership was bound to throw up the usual ‘foreign playmaker cant hack the rough stuff’ questions?

The signing of a half-fit Carroll in January made little sense. His role in the second half of the season was minimal and Liverpool knew signing him he would have little impact on their season.

The argument that Suarez couldn’t play in Europe was fine, but Carroll wouldn’t play for the team till March and it didn’t seem as though Europe was anyone’s priority in the early days of Kenny Dalglish’s second coming.

Another argument went that the more Newcastle demanded for the striker, the more Liverpool asked from Chelsea for Torres.

But that makes little sense from a business point of view either. Carroll had started well in the Premiership, but in the summer, once he had recovered fitness, he would hardly have cost more than the amount Liverpool eventually shelled out for him in January 2011.

There is an argument, in fact, that Carroll would have cost less as Newcastle would have had time to buy a replacement, but maybe the move was to appease Lfc fans who expected a marquee signing to replace their former idol in the number nine shirt.

Carroll has lost weight and looks fit, but seems to have lost confidence and was his touch always that bad? His goal against Oldham showed he can still turn things around at Liverpool, but against a defeated team late in an FA  Cup third round?

He has a run of games now to show his worth. The Geordie has found himself in and out of the team all season (unlike Stewart Downing who has been given every chance to prove his worth) and has mostly played without Liverpool’s best players Gerrard and Suarez (more often than not chosen instead of, rather than alongside Carroll).

At home, against so-called ‘weaker’ opposition is the time for Carroll to show he can still bully defences and can score goals like that against Oldham given half a chance. Better strikers than Carroll have been given more time to find their feet and the 23-year-old has barely 100 first team starts to his name.

Stoke at Anfield is time to show an ‘old-fashioned centre forward’ can still prove his worth. However if he fails to impress in the coming month, Andy may go down alongside Aquilani as yet another expensive Liverpool mistake.

Cesc Fabregas and kissing the badge

Much has been made today of Cesc Fabregas kissing Barcelona’s crest as he was unveiled in the Catalan shirt for the first time today, or for the first time since Puyol covered him in the famous strip after Spain’s World Cup success last year.

Fabregas gives photographers the money shot

So is kissing the badge something to get riled up over or not? In this case potentially. Fabregas and Fernando Torres for example were different breeds. For a start, though Cesc was a Barcelona lad, he left the club at 16 and has played all his senior years as a footballer for the red and white of Arsenal.

In that time he has been unlucky not to have won more trophies, but has been part of massive success as a Spanish squad member, played in a Champions League final and been involved in a team that has played some of the best football on the planet.

Without rose-tinted glasses, Liverpool fans will have realised that Torres never supported Liverpool, but loved the club not only for the way he was treated, but presumably for the fact he settled so well. A striker scoring goals is more likely to feel loved and strike up a rapport with fans. In his last season Torres was struggling for form and fitness and the disenchantment grew.

Speaking after being unveiled at Chelsea, Torres said: “I never once kissed the Liverpool badge. Never. And I never kissed the Atletico Madrid badge, even though I was one of their biggest fans.

Torres kisses, er, bites the Liverpool badge

“Some players do it within five minutes of joining a new club. That’s their way. But it’s not mine. Football is different these days. Players come and go. That is why, for me, much of the romance has gone out of the game. So no kissing from me.“

All of which is fair. He came to Liverpool, played well, scored goals, but saw it as a job, a job in which as a prized employee he deserved to be recognised with the appropriate recognition, or in this case silverware.

Meanwhile Fabregas apologised to fans today: “I’m disappointed and upset about it because I have had a great relationship with the fans over the years. It took time to build this and I’m disappointed I could lose some of them.

“All I have are words of gratitude. I’ll never forget what they have done for me, I gave absolutely everything to the club and I think they know that but it was the right time to come back here.”

And to be fair he probably means it. If, as he says, he has been denied the chance to talk about leaving, then it must be tough not to say goodbye to the fans who have helped support him for eight years and for whom he captained the club. But then the manner in which he appears to have courted the move, means it’s unfair to criticise Arsenal for forbidding him to speak about leaving before a contract was signed.

But as for kissing the badge on day one, it was probably something he was cajoled into doing by photographers. So maybe it doesn’t mean anything. But you have to wonder how Barcelona fans feel. This was, after all, a player who left them at 16 for a foreign country and for whom they are having to pay up to £40m for just to have him back, for a team that in all honesty doesn’t need him.

So kissing the badge counts for little. Perhaps if you’re born in a city and play out your days there. In the Premiership era players like Gerrard, Neville, Shearer are rarities and should be embraced for keeping a sense of the local feel about a club. For them the shirt matters most, but who cares as long as you’re winning?

Liverpool 1 Sunderland 1

All the debate post match here has been about the yellow card shown to Kieran Richardson for the last-man foul on Suarez early in the game.

Suarez missed a penalty but scored minutes later

Dalglish got it right at the start when he talked about how no-one wants to see a guy given a red card that early in the game (season) and in truth it makes a sort of sense. Had Suarez buried the penalty Liverpool could have strolled it and there would not have been a reason to look at the incident as a talking point.

Personally feel that Suarez, unlike Steve Bruce’s claim, had timed his run around the keeper perfectly, would have scored and was thus denied a legitimate goalscoring position by the foul. Did Richardson know what he was doing with the foul? Probably, but the slightest contact at full tilt was always going to send Suarez to ground, legitimately, as a tangle of legs ensues once one foot stops doing what it’s supposed to with a trip.

 

(Courtesy of Sky Sports. Video from YouTube)

That said, a yellow card and a penalty is probably the right call for the good of the game, depending on how blatant it is. Had Richardson taken Suarez  down nearer to the half way line with a clear run on goal looming ahead of the Uruguayan a red would have been justified. However Richardson did attempt to match him for pace, and did reasonably well. Once the keeper closes the striker down and the defender is back far enough to make a difference, the incident gets downplayed to a yellow in my opinion.

The £16 million pound question

The rest of the game was both satisfying and worrying for Liverpool fans. Downing and Adam looked bright, and perhaps more of a talking point was Carroll’s strike being wrongly ruled out for a push that was barely evident. How Jordan Henderson fits into the team is more of a question mark. This is a player who was called up for England in the first half of last season before being dropped by Steve Bruce when his performances dipped. He’s also not had a full summer break, having played for England u-21s in their Euro 2011 tournament, where he failed to shine.

Gerrard will (presumably) eventually return to full fitness, while Raul Meireles, if he stays at Anfield, will expect a place and generate more of a threat going forward. Once again it seemed as if Liverpool were in decent control of the game with few Sunderland chances, but it is breaking teams down as Ashley Young just did for Manchester United that will prove crucial.

Dirk Kuyt ended the season in good goalscoring form but is not a right-winger and Dalglish seems to realise that pace is needed for Liverpool when going forward. Kuyt will have a role, potentially in more defensive formations against the bigger teams, but Meireles and Gerrard may be needed to break down weaker opponents at the expense of Henderson and Adam.

Chelsea and Arsenal both drew, getting Liverpool off the hook slightly, but both had away games. This should have been a banker for a strong Liverpool team aside from Gerrard, Johnson and Skrtel being absent. Arsenal next week shouldn’t be a crucial game but is, as the Gunners are struggling for morale and will be missing key players with Gervinho and Song expected to miss out through Joey Barton (or suspension as the FA will no doubt call it).

Expect a similarly attack-minded Liverpool team but fitness and the possible appearance of some new Arsenal players will no doubt have a bearing….

Reasons why the return of football can’t come quick enough.

Reason number one. Mario Balotelli.

Qatar 2022: Pack your sunscreen.

FIFA provoked a media storm today when President Sepp Blatter announced the winners of the right to hold the 2018 and 2022 World Cups. The announcement of Russia was, predictably, greeted with disbelief by English journalists and fans alike. However the announcement of Qatar as the host for 2022 whipped up a media frenzy which led to journalists, pundits and armchair fans tweeting furiously about the perceived injustice of it all.

Peek-a-boo.

The writing was on the wall before the 2018 announcement came through as Qatar officials were spotted doing a not-so-subtle round of hugs and kisses. Fortunately, before people start accusing the Qatar delegation of bribery or FIFA of corruption, Qatar has begun to develop relationships with some prominent leaders on the world stage. On February 24, 2010, Qatar and Iran signed a defense co-operation agreement in which the two countries stressed the need to expand their defense cooperation. Smashing. All good news so far. March 10, 2010. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani has given his support to Iran’s right to nuclear technology, and considers Iran’s nuclear project to be for peaceful nuclear energy purpose. Excellent. So from a political point of view, nothing to fear so far.

Temperatures? Well the average in June tends to be from a low of 27C to a high of 41C. So bring your sunscreen. Fortunately the chances of England or Ireland being in the final are slim so the average July temperature of a high of 46C is unlikely to affect us pasty west Europeans. Fifa president Sepp Blatter said of the decision: “We go to new lands. Never has the World Cup been in Russia and Eastern Europe, and the Middle East and Arabic world have been waiting for a long time so I’m a happy president when we talk about the development of football.”

Ah yes, the development of football. The criteria here seems to be to give it to nations that haven’t held it before. Which is ok when a country the size of Russia is awarded the rights to host the tournament. A population of 150 million in a country where football generates enormous interest means it should be held there. While the interest in Qatar may be high, the population of circa 1.4 million is not. Under Qatar’s Sharia Law, it is illegal to show alcohol or be drunk in public. Which means football fans will go from vodka for breakfast in 2018 to jail in 2022. Quite how football fans and Qatar will mix is anyone’s guess. The country has time to get infrastructure right, but that’s about it.

As for Russia, the Champions League final  between Man Utd and Barcelona, held in Moscow was a success in 2009, despite people’s misgivings. Another advantage is the country boasts an impressive football pedigree and will field a team capable of winning the competition on home soil, Qatar’s only chance of reaching a World Cup was through hosting it. Russia has impressive stadia and money to develop it further. Russian influence in football matters is growing, this writer is happy to see them stage it in what could be a fantastic tournament.

FIFA come out of this looking exceptionally bad. As do SkySports who immediately set about suggesting that the BBC’s Panorama cost England the chance to stage the 2018 competition. It’s doubtful, especially when England were out of the running early on. The BBC’s recent Panorama investigation – broadcast on Monday – accused three Fifa executive committee members of accepting “corrupt” payments and alleged that Fifa vice-president Jack Warner attempted to supply ticket touts.

What this has proved is that FIFA is potentially rotten. Fans are completely out of touch with the governing body, unlike other sports, like rugby and American football, in which progress is made to attract new supporters all the time. This blog has written about football dying while policy makers believe they’re ruling from thrones. Today proved it. Good luck to Qatar, it is hard to say what will happen as the event is 12 years away, but it is hard to see a situation where the majority of football fans are the real winners in 2022.

Barcelona: The modern greats.

Jose Mourinho is considered by many to be the best football manager in the world right now. His phenomenal success since guiding FC Porto to Champions League glory in 2004 has sparked almost a decade of non-stop winning. League titles with Chelsea and Inter Milan along with a second Champions League success last year with the Serie A winners, led to the hottest job in football, Real Madrid.

When we say hot, we mean park your arse in that cauldron Jose, hot. Galacticos and sackingos galore in the past decade have left the job as a mouth-wateringly attractive proposition to a consistent winner like Jose, but also a little bonkers. 1-0 wins earlier in the season had the Bernabeu shouting their displeasure.

Then Madrid started hammering their opposition, Cristiano started averaging two goals a game and everything seemed fine. La Liga was looking easier by the day as Madrid’s stars assembled at the top and Jose ‘I’ll take your big club and raise you’ Mourinho was looking like the saviour.

A decade of occasionally interrupted under-achievement set to be banished to history. Until that pesky little thing called Barcelona invited Madrid onto the Nou Camp and then played them off the park.

Monday’s 5-0 drubbing of Madrid was imperious. Magestic. Lots of words that you don’t use in everyday sentences come to mind. The execution of the goals was spectacular, for instance Iniesta’s ball for Xavi to open the scoring. Or Messi’s through ball for Villa’s second. However as this highlights package shows, the overall play was simply irresistible, even when Barcelona failed to turn the magic into a goal.

It’s hard to remember a time when a team of Mourinho’s has seemed so hopelessly out of its depth. A 2-0 defeat to Liverpool that was more routine than Chelsea supporters would have liked led to the end of his Stamford Bridge project. But this was simply something else.

Who would have thought that Madrid with Ronaldo, Casillas, Alonso and all could have been blown away in the manner that they were. The match will surely end the ludicrous notion that Ronaldo is a better player than Messi. While the Portugese complains about his treatment, in some cases fairly, at the feet of defenders, Real resorted to kicking Messi while Barcelona didn’t really need to afford Ronaldo the same treatment. He simply wasn’t in the same league.

Funnily enough Madrid may end up winning the league. Results have been stranger this year than in the past with Barcelona dominating the field. What is amazing though is that defenders still haven’t been able to get to grips with Messi. While many players sparkle and then fade somewhat as their tricks are learned by opposing players, Messi is still able to do the same moves at the same cost for opposition goalkeepers.

His trademark move infield from the right-wing to poke the ball with the outside of his right foot through the defence exposed Madrid again on Monday. How many times is that he’s performed the same trick? The pass infield and mad dash past the defence to retrieve the one-two seems like an old trick. But he’s still getting away with it. And above all he takes pride in his work. Every game is like his last and his desire to win still burns. Plus when he;s booked for diving, as he was on Monday, he invariably isn’t guilty. Wish we could say the same for Mr Ronaldo.

This Barcelona team has established itself as one of the greatest in modern football history. THE team of this decade. Comparable with the AC Milans of the late 80s-early 90s, Liverpool of the 80s and beyond. And long may it continue.

A long winter still lies ahead for Hodgson and Liverpool

One month ago I was one of a chorus of angry Liverpool fans calling for Roy Hodgson to be dismissed as Liverpool manager after a dismal start to the season reached a new low with a spiritless, gutless 2-0 defeat at Merseyside rivals Everton.

Yesterday there was no doubt about the story of the weekend: Liverpool’s impressive 2-0 win over Chelsea at Anfield, where the team performed admirably to a man and players who have failed to impress in recent times including Maxi, Kuyt and most impressively Lucas, were outstanding in their first-half surge and then their second half defence of the two goal lead they had built up.

I was one of the fans who ‘real’ football fans love to hate. Managers need time, they say, look at Ferguson as a classic example. Look at Wenger. Arsenal haven’t won a trophy for years but they’re still challenging. Stability breeds success. Managers can’t perform miracles overnight.

However my point was, and is, that Hodgson inherited a team in disarray off the filed admittedly, but with enough class on the pitch to be guaranteed a top-four spot. A team with a spine of Reina, Carragher, Skrtel, Johnson, Gerrard and Torres with the likes of Kuyt, Lucas and new signings Meireles and Konchesky providing support should never have been in the relegation area after the first two months of competition ceased.

I also defended Benitez during his reign despite awful times and performances. I felt he had the right ideas and the tough of arrogance to believe his team would be up there with the best in time. I don’t see the same belief in Hodgson and I think it makes the players nervous as a result.

The problem with Hodgson finally being offered a ‘big club’ deal at the age of 63 was that perhaps there is a reason why the manager had failed to be offered the big ones in his interesting career progression. That he can inspire mid-level teams is not in question, but too many managers have attempted to take on big clubs in the past and lost. And too often it has been because of the clamour of fans for so-called ‘homegrown’ managers. Sounness and Evans failed to lift Liverpool post-Dalglish in the way that Houllier and Benitez did subsequently.

Hodgson is a good manager. The win yesterday was a very good performance but most importantly, Liverpool’s players showed the type of commitment that had been lacking in the derby defeat. That day even Gerrard, synonymous with crunching tackles and 100% derby day commitment whether his team was winning or losing, looked lost. Yesterday Gerrard sacrificed his penchant for the glorious through ball or rallying goal, instead he gave 100% commitment in a professional performance where everyone knew their job and how to execute it.

That they caught Chelsea on an off day is not in question. Hodgson had spoken before the game of the hope that the opposition would fail to hit their customary heights. And herein lies the problem.

Hodgson has assumed the air of a defeated man. The spell of games that ended in dizzying disappointment seemed to take their toll. And while four wins on the trot have brought a smile back to his face, there is still a question over whether the manager has that inherent belief that his team can make it to the top. There was no question of that this year. Hodgson never believed his team could do it and he still seems unsure over whether they can challenge for a top four spot.

Too often he has made a direct comparison between the so-called first teamers and the lack of talent elsewhere in the squad. He said after the Chelsea game that the squad was looking thin due to injuries and illnesses. That can only be a comedown for the likes of Kelly after a great game at right back and the likes of Danny Wilson, signed from Rangers in pre-season and on the bench yesterday. Shelvey and Spearing are willing and able but don’t seem to hold Hodgson’s faith just yet.

This all points to what new owner John Henry spoke about recently when he said that Liverpool needed to start bringing through younger players to challenge for first team places. Shelve and Spearing are unlucky in that they are challenging for places in the overstocked Liverpool midfield but Kelly and Wilson should be pushing for first team places already and especially with three games to play in six days.

Belief starts at the top and filters down. Gerrard and Torres have shown on the pitch that the lack of belief off it affects their game. It is hard to raise your game when you are 18th and another league title challenge has gone for another year before November. Now though, there will be optimism in the side and rightly so. It is in attack and attempting to break down teams that Liverpool have struggled this year. Having Torres back in goalscoring form will help. Whether Hodgson lets this filter down to the players he has christened as perennial reserves remains to be seen.

I don’t believe Hodgson is the right man to inspire a return to glory for Liverpool, What John Henry and co are doing off the field will help though. The club needs to be run professionally off the field to allow it to blossom on the field. But no matter that Chelsea were put to the sword, away games at Wigan and Stoke look tricky this week. Hodgson’s belief seems to run from game-to-game. John Barnes claimed after Liverpool’s win yesterday that it proved Hodgson was the right man for the job. Let’s see how he fares in rallying the troops for a midweek visit to Wigan before he starts being cheered as Liverpool’s saviour in waiting.