TOMKINS: END TO FRUSTRATION?
Paul Tomkins 15 September 2009

I have to say that, for a number of reasons, I found the start to this season to be one of the most frustrating periods I can recall as a Liverpool fan.
That doesn't mean it was the worst spell in terms of performances or points – far from it. But so much pressure and expectation was building that, like a faulty pressure-relief valve, something had to give. Now expectations can be rebuilt in manageable increments. It seems that there is no longer any option but to win every game, or it's a disaster. A slow start, a few points dropped – you're finished. It becomes a way of thinking that's hard to resist. Never mind that United started last season slowly. Never mind that after a couple of weeks of this campaign, Arsenal were once again held up as the paragons of the sport; now they've lost back-to-back games (admittedly both in Manchester) and suddenly it's not so sunny for them. Last season Liverpool were criticised for not beating the smaller teams often enough, particularly at Anfield, and drawing too many games. This season, which is still in its infancy, both problems have thus far been remedied 100 per cent. On that score, so far so good. But it's rarely that simple; this time there was that aberration against Aston Villa – the kind any team suffers in any season, but the kind that cannot become habitual; and when it's only the third game, there are naturally fewer victories in the bag to assuage fears that this is the new norm. Now we have pundits – with memories that an amnesiac goldfish (who has just died) put to shame – saying that it doesn't matter about beating the smaller clubs, Liverpool have to beat the big boys. Eh? No wonder I sometimes sense that Rafa Benítez cannot win, and that these experts cannot lose. It seems that whatever Rafa does, he should have done the opposite – an opinion always handed down after the event by men who've never been in the same position. Another commentator said that Liverpool were still playing "two holding midfielders" against Burnley. Incredible. No matter that the captain got forward like a man possessed – the fact that it was a Benítez team led to that crass statement. I think these people often speak first and think later, prattling away in autopilot; making slips of the tongue that reveal their prejudices. Rafa could deploy Torres in central midfield and he too would be labelled a 'holder'. Ignore the reality, reiterate the stereotype. Take another example of this supposed negativity: certain pundits criticise Liverpool for bringing back everyone for a corner. Typical cautious Benítez, they imply. And yet look at how many goals the Reds score from opposition set-pieces, such as with Dirk Kuyt's goal on Saturday. Bringing everyone back tempts more opposition players forward. But it also then leaves acres of space to break into. And it can therefore be the best way to break down a negative opponent; the one time they are drawn out. If Torres stayed up front for a corner, he would be marked when possession is won, and have his back to goal. But breaking from a corner en masse makes it far harder to be picked up. And if you get a head-start, no-one can catch you; and it helps that you're running in the right direction, with acres to attack. Kuyt's goal came about with a five-v-five by the time the ball got to the Burnley area from their own corner; hardly negative! Most of the time I go to great lengths to disprove other people's certainties, rather than offer my own; not because I have no opinion to give, but because nothing is ever that clear cut. Who can be certain of anything in football? I can say this: it's not how you do against the big teams, or the little teams, or at home, or away – at least in isolation. Get points any which way you can, and if, by mid-May, you have more than everyone else, you win the league. The points you drop won't matter. As well as starting slowly, United did poorly against the big teams but still won the league last season. Two things champions supposedly can't do, they did. There were others, too, like losing more games than other teams and scoring fewer goals. They also rotated the most, another thing that supposedly only leads to failure. That doesn't mean that starting slowly, having a poor record in the big games, scoring fewer goals and losing more matches than rivals is the route to glory. It doesn't mean that making 140 team-sheet changes in a season guarantees success. It just means that anyone who says that avoiding these things is critical for success is misleading you. Some seasons the champions will have excellent away records, other seasons not so. Sometimes the top scorers win the title, other years the best defences do; then there are those occasions when it's neither the most prolific scorers nor the best defenders, but instead those who have a very steady record in both areas who prevail: not the most exciting, nor the most stingy, but the best balanced. There's no magic formula, no foolproof plan. You can address your weaknesses, as Benítez has done by bringing in Glen Johnson, but a football team is not limitless in its capacity to improve without taking a hit somewhere else. Perhaps at times it's like trying to squeeze some added flavour into a glass full to the brim (in that you can only have 11 players). You can pour some new liquid in, but another ingredient will always be forced out. Put a top-class player in, and at least something else will be lost somewhere. It's not like you can add a 12th player to the team-sheet, so that you add without any subsequent subtraction. A manager can but hope that, on balance, whatever he plumps for proves the better decision, but it doesn't prevent some drawbacks. For me, it always comes back to balance. Last season it was more-or-less spot-on for the most part, particularly in the run-in, but changes this season, along with injuries, were always going to alter that, in the short term at least. But it's getting there again now. So all in all I'm feeling happier this week, and more relaxed, but this really could be a season of an unusually high amount swings of fortune amongst the big teams. I'm now a little more prepared for that. Chelsea are currently riding the high of a new manager (and fewer injuries than in recent years) and Manchester City are riding the high of a whole new team. Sometimes change provides a spark, other times it causes a stutter. I don't know how you can tell in advance. But these teams will surely have their wobbles. There are no rules, but no team has yet had a perfect season. Arsenal went unbeaten in 2004, but they dropped more points than Chelsea did a year later. I said a couple of weeks ago that I felt Liverpool losing two games early on added pressure, and afforded less breathing space. It clearly made it harder. However, I also noted that a run of wins, and suddenly the complexion can alter radically. Sometimes defeats can crumple confidence, other times they can inspire resistance. Liverpool have shown the latter, and if that continues then a real momentum could build up. Familiar Feeling Take away the opening day defeat at Spurs, when rustiness can always be an issue (and the Reds were denied a penalty to get out of jail), and you have a run of four games that, whisper it quietly, have a lot of the hallmarks of what worked so well towards the end of last season, with some added bonuses. The three-or-more goal run the Reds went on has been matched against Stoke, Bolton and Burnley – not the most talented sides, granted, but some of the tough, in-your-face outfits that can cause problems. The famous comeback courage was in evidence at the Reebok, while Liverpool ran in eight without reply in those other two games, to show greater ruthlessness in these types of fixtures. The Villa result was the real spanner in the works, but the free-flowing, attacking football is now in evidence again. Against battered Burnley, there was a first-half moment when Emiliano Insua squared to Glen Johnson in the penalty area – but incredibly not their own! – as Liverpool's two most advanced players, up front alongside Fernando Torres. Cautious Liverpool, eh? Fluid, more like. Gerrard, Torres and Kuyt continue to score at impressive rates, with goals also now shared around with the wonderfully impressive Johnson, who has two strikes, plus four assists, already to his name. We've not seen him yet, but Aquilani can be another goal threat and creative force; his fitness could provide a timely boost, and, of course, there's no less chance of him being overtired for the run-in. Meanwhile, Andriy Voronin keeps coming off the bench to create chances and take up intelligent positions. He's not a glamour player, but he knows how to play quick one-touch football. Perhaps most encouragingly, Yossi Benayoun – the joker in the pack with his impact last season – has bagged his first league hat-trick (he just needs one in the League Cup to complete a remarkable quartet), and was unlucky not to have six against Burnley. What a display. In this form he is one of the league's best talents, and his goals can make a huge difference to the fortunes of this side. That makes five players with two or more league goals to their names already, to once again show that the goals are not limited to the pair who make the biggest headlines. So yes, perhaps Liverpool won't get as many points in the big head-to-heads as last season (repeating that trick will take some doing), but it's the overall record that determines how well a team does. And that means that the Reds could feasibly lose more games and still end up with more points. And if more than last season's 86 points still isn't enough to win the title, then you can't have too many complaints.