THE euro was plummeting this week (blame those feckless Greeks and Irish) but in football terms it's the English Premier League that looks the devalued currency.
A mire of dismal ineptitude characterises the entire lower half of the table. Just above them lie the plucky but unremarkable battlers, Sunderland, Birmingham, Fulham and Liverpool.
Liverpool's supporters will be dismayed to be grouped with those clubs, but perhaps they should be grateful, given the character of their team's recent performances. Liverpool's league position, a humble seventh, flatters them. Their recent unbeaten sequence in the league shows a side getting through on a wing and a prayer. They were clueless about how to break down a dully predictable Blackburn. They were both lucky and embarrassingly reliant on Jose Reina to win against a dominant but despondent Everton. They were lucky again to draw against a dominant Manchester City. They were very lucky to get a penalty to draw against Birmingham.
This dismal streak of fortuitous results was punctuated by a deserved exit from the Champions League, which Rafael Benitez attributed to the misfortune of conceding a couple of last-minute goals against Lyon. Another last-minute winner for Fiorentina at Anfield this week suggested that phenomenon was not down to the caprices of fate, but attributable to a familiar failure of mental acuity on the part of Liverpool defenders.
Received wisdom has it that the difference between the swaggering, goal-grabbing Liverpool of last season, and the dismal strugglers of this year amounts to the regular presence or absence of Fernando Torres, pictured, and Steven Gerrard. That is misleading. Liverpool managed to perform creditably last season when one or both of those talismans was unavailable, and have contrived to look dismal this season even in the presence of those supposed geniuses. Explanations must be more far-reaching.
It is true that Xabi Alonso looks a greater player with every week that passes since his departure to Real Madrid, but his departure cannot be the sole explanation for Liverpool's comprehensive loss of invention, composure and confidence.
This is a disjointed team playing without belief. Its character can probably be best appreciated in the players whose form has been half-decent. Glen Johnson, vilified by many for a defensive laxity that recalls Rio Ferdinand at his most nonchalant, was nevertheless one of Benitez's more inspired signings. He brings an urgency and directness down the right, and provided a significant attacking threat, until his injury in late autumn. He returned to a Liverpool side demoralised by their European failures.
Yossi Benayoun has been assiduous and inventive in the team's cause without being rewarded with the manager's confidence. Deployed, usually as a substitute, in a variety of positions, Benayoun seems to be regarded by Benitez as a stop-gap until something better comes along. Meanwhile, the earnest but unimaginative plodder Dirk Kuyt still seems to bask in his manager's inexplicable loyalty.
Torres remains Liverpool's key player. His return to the attack against Fiorentina on Wednesday immediately made Liverpool look more focused and menacing. The summer of 2008 belonged to him, with that insouciant winner against the Germans in the European Championship final. Next summer the World Cup offers the opportunity to make his mark as one of the great international forwards, but in the meantime he has to shoulder the burden of expectation at Liverpool, while his fitness is under close scrutiny. Christmas is the fulcrum of the season. Liverpool are now sifting through the wreckage of their campaign, looking for scraps to salvage, with a qualifying position for next year's Champions League, and possibly a cup run to keep them interested.
Sunday’s game against Arsenal at Anfield is the latest crisis point for Benitez. A win, and Liverpool can restore a little credibility, and briefly exalt their status to join Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa as flawed but sporadically useful challengers for a top four finish.
Nostalgists will cast their minds back to the scintillating match at Anfield last April, when Andriy Arshavin's four goals earned Arsenal a point, and put a spoke in Liverpool's hitherto healthy title challenge. Torres and Benayoun were superb for Liverpool that night, but defensive lapses undermined their pretensions to be champions.
Arsenal's meek submission to the might of Chelsea at the Emirates two weeks ago served to diminish their own title credentials. Arsene Wenger has become the footballing equivalent of one of those mature artists who had a few smash-hits in the past but is now more interested in exploring the limits of artistic invention. His work is imaginative and critically-acclaimed, but commercial success looks unlikely.
It might be up to the players to remind the manager of the obligations of delivering some silverware. Cesc Fabregas, who has become inordinately fond of his own pronouncements, has suggested that Wenger buy a big burly lad in January to protect Arsenal's plethora of diminutive geniuses.
Wenger has already expressed a degree of interest in Marouane Chamakh the Moroccan striker currently at Bordeaux. Chamakh is 6ft 2in but not quite the archetypal bustling target man (even if Wenger would ever countenance anything as vulgar). Wenger still seems fatally distracted by the flair of his youth players. He fielded eight or nine of them against Olympiacos on Wednesday, and purred at their potential (you wonder if he even noticed they lost the match).
Liverpool will huff and puff, while Arsenal pick out pretty patterns. Between them they would have a decent side. Separately though, they make a persuasive case that the strength of the Premier League runs exceedingly shallow
A mire of dismal ineptitude characterises the entire lower half of the table. Just above them lie the plucky but unremarkable battlers, Sunderland, Birmingham, Fulham and Liverpool.
Liverpool's supporters will be dismayed to be grouped with those clubs, but perhaps they should be grateful, given the character of their team's recent performances. Liverpool's league position, a humble seventh, flatters them. Their recent unbeaten sequence in the league shows a side getting through on a wing and a prayer. They were clueless about how to break down a dully predictable Blackburn. They were both lucky and embarrassingly reliant on Jose Reina to win against a dominant but despondent Everton. They were lucky again to draw against a dominant Manchester City. They were very lucky to get a penalty to draw against Birmingham.
This dismal streak of fortuitous results was punctuated by a deserved exit from the Champions League, which Rafael Benitez attributed to the misfortune of conceding a couple of last-minute goals against Lyon. Another last-minute winner for Fiorentina at Anfield this week suggested that phenomenon was not down to the caprices of fate, but attributable to a familiar failure of mental acuity on the part of Liverpool defenders.
Received wisdom has it that the difference between the swaggering, goal-grabbing Liverpool of last season, and the dismal strugglers of this year amounts to the regular presence or absence of Fernando Torres, pictured, and Steven Gerrard. That is misleading. Liverpool managed to perform creditably last season when one or both of those talismans was unavailable, and have contrived to look dismal this season even in the presence of those supposed geniuses. Explanations must be more far-reaching.
It is true that Xabi Alonso looks a greater player with every week that passes since his departure to Real Madrid, but his departure cannot be the sole explanation for Liverpool's comprehensive loss of invention, composure and confidence.
This is a disjointed team playing without belief. Its character can probably be best appreciated in the players whose form has been half-decent. Glen Johnson, vilified by many for a defensive laxity that recalls Rio Ferdinand at his most nonchalant, was nevertheless one of Benitez's more inspired signings. He brings an urgency and directness down the right, and provided a significant attacking threat, until his injury in late autumn. He returned to a Liverpool side demoralised by their European failures.
Yossi Benayoun has been assiduous and inventive in the team's cause without being rewarded with the manager's confidence. Deployed, usually as a substitute, in a variety of positions, Benayoun seems to be regarded by Benitez as a stop-gap until something better comes along. Meanwhile, the earnest but unimaginative plodder Dirk Kuyt still seems to bask in his manager's inexplicable loyalty.
Torres remains Liverpool's key player. His return to the attack against Fiorentina on Wednesday immediately made Liverpool look more focused and menacing. The summer of 2008 belonged to him, with that insouciant winner against the Germans in the European Championship final. Next summer the World Cup offers the opportunity to make his mark as one of the great international forwards, but in the meantime he has to shoulder the burden of expectation at Liverpool, while his fitness is under close scrutiny. Christmas is the fulcrum of the season. Liverpool are now sifting through the wreckage of their campaign, looking for scraps to salvage, with a qualifying position for next year's Champions League, and possibly a cup run to keep them interested.
Sunday’s game against Arsenal at Anfield is the latest crisis point for Benitez. A win, and Liverpool can restore a little credibility, and briefly exalt their status to join Tottenham, Manchester City and Aston Villa as flawed but sporadically useful challengers for a top four finish.
Nostalgists will cast their minds back to the scintillating match at Anfield last April, when Andriy Arshavin's four goals earned Arsenal a point, and put a spoke in Liverpool's hitherto healthy title challenge. Torres and Benayoun were superb for Liverpool that night, but defensive lapses undermined their pretensions to be champions.
Arsenal's meek submission to the might of Chelsea at the Emirates two weeks ago served to diminish their own title credentials. Arsene Wenger has become the footballing equivalent of one of those mature artists who had a few smash-hits in the past but is now more interested in exploring the limits of artistic invention. His work is imaginative and critically-acclaimed, but commercial success looks unlikely.
It might be up to the players to remind the manager of the obligations of delivering some silverware. Cesc Fabregas, who has become inordinately fond of his own pronouncements, has suggested that Wenger buy a big burly lad in January to protect Arsenal's plethora of diminutive geniuses.
Wenger has already expressed a degree of interest in Marouane Chamakh the Moroccan striker currently at Bordeaux. Chamakh is 6ft 2in but not quite the archetypal bustling target man (even if Wenger would ever countenance anything as vulgar). Wenger still seems fatally distracted by the flair of his youth players. He fielded eight or nine of them against Olympiacos on Wednesday, and purred at their potential (you wonder if he even noticed they lost the match).
Liverpool will huff and puff, while Arsenal pick out pretty patterns. Between them they would have a decent side. Separately though, they make a persuasive case that the strength of the Premier League runs exceedingly shallow
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