There’s only one thing worse than playing in a 3-0 defeat – not playing in it. So it’s not the result against Espanyol that should give anyone cause for concern ahead of the new season – it’s the fact that Jamie Carragher might not have one of his main defensive partners alongside him to take on Tottenham’s strikeforce a week on Sunday.
It’s typical that in the summer Liverpool let Sami Hyypia go that injuries to Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger have disrupted the pre-season preparations.
It seems that Agger will be okay for the beginning of the campaign which is a relief. But pre-season is like your revision – you need it to be ready for the tough examination. If you don’t do it, you struggle.
And having an experienced, established centre-back who is fully on his game and ready for the real business of the Premier League is vital.
Put two such defenders on the sidelines during those precious weeks of pre-season and suddenly White Hart Lane in less than two weeks time looks a very tough proposition.
At least Carragher will have no problems – in fact, he will be out of the traps like a greyhound after the amount of running he has had to do in these friendlies.
But even if Agger recovers as he is expected to, missing such a good test like the one Espanyol gave Liverpool on Sunday night is so unfortunate.
You don’t want your players to come in and play catch-up at the start of a season and I think Rafael Benitez can count himself unlucky to have injury concerns before the campaign has even started.
The fact is Degen and San Jose are unproven and neither can deliver the kind of automatic reliability you got when you could bring Hyypia in to plug the gaps at the back.
But let’s look at things positively. Benitez is currently going about solving his issues very well, especially in the case of Xabi Alonso.
I said here last week how important it was to get the cash in for the player as swiftly as possible and getting close to a conclusion of the deal with four weeks of the transfer window left is a good bit of business.
And one thing is also for certain – losing 3-0 to Espanyol in a pre-season friendly should not cause Benitez or anyone else sleepless nights.
I remember at Anfield that we always used to be notorious bad starters in the summer warm-ups - and the lads in the boot room couldn’t have given a monkey’s.
They might have given us stick for playing badly in a friendly but privately they’d be laughing about it.
They, like I’m sure Benitez is this week, were delighted we had been stopped from getting carried away and they knew that all the running we were doing chasing the ball was getting us primed for the important stuff.
Because a good competitive 90 minutes, even one when you lose 3-0, is worth far more than anything you can do in week on the training ground.
So Sunday night was great for everyone involved – and I feel a real setback for those who weren’t.
It’s typical that in the summer Liverpool let Sami Hyypia go that injuries to Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger have disrupted the pre-season preparations.
It seems that Agger will be okay for the beginning of the campaign which is a relief. But pre-season is like your revision – you need it to be ready for the tough examination. If you don’t do it, you struggle.
And having an experienced, established centre-back who is fully on his game and ready for the real business of the Premier League is vital.
Put two such defenders on the sidelines during those precious weeks of pre-season and suddenly White Hart Lane in less than two weeks time looks a very tough proposition.
At least Carragher will have no problems – in fact, he will be out of the traps like a greyhound after the amount of running he has had to do in these friendlies.
But even if Agger recovers as he is expected to, missing such a good test like the one Espanyol gave Liverpool on Sunday night is so unfortunate.
You don’t want your players to come in and play catch-up at the start of a season and I think Rafael Benitez can count himself unlucky to have injury concerns before the campaign has even started.
The fact is Degen and San Jose are unproven and neither can deliver the kind of automatic reliability you got when you could bring Hyypia in to plug the gaps at the back.
But let’s look at things positively. Benitez is currently going about solving his issues very well, especially in the case of Xabi Alonso.
I said here last week how important it was to get the cash in for the player as swiftly as possible and getting close to a conclusion of the deal with four weeks of the transfer window left is a good bit of business.
And one thing is also for certain – losing 3-0 to Espanyol in a pre-season friendly should not cause Benitez or anyone else sleepless nights.
I remember at Anfield that we always used to be notorious bad starters in the summer warm-ups - and the lads in the boot room couldn’t have given a monkey’s.
They might have given us stick for playing badly in a friendly but privately they’d be laughing about it.
They, like I’m sure Benitez is this week, were delighted we had been stopped from getting carried away and they knew that all the running we were doing chasing the ball was getting us primed for the important stuff.
Because a good competitive 90 minutes, even one when you lose 3-0, is worth far more than anything you can do in week on the training ground.
So Sunday night was great for everyone involved – and I feel a real setback for those who weren’t.
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