2010/11 Season Review

Last season we finished 7th with 63 points, and this season we finished 6th with 58 points. Does this mean we did not decline as bad as other teams?

Where points and gain/lost
vs Top 5 (Man United, Chelsea, Man City, Arsenal, Spur) 4W2D4L 14GS13GC 14 points
vs 7th-10th (Everton, Fulham, Villa, Sunderland) 4W2D2L 15GS9GC 14 points
vs 11th-15th (West Brom, Newcastle, Stoke, Bolton, Blackburn) 6W0D4L 14GS12GC 18 points
vs Bottom 5 (Wigan, Wolves, Birmingham, Blackpool, West Ham) 3W3D4L 16GS10GC 12 points

It is very clear that one concern of the season is that we failed to beat the lessor teams, with only 12 points vs the bottom 5 teams. This is something King Kenny need to address next season.

Departmental Comments:
Goalkeepers
Pepe only missed 4 games in the Cups over the season and had another good season for us, claiming 20 clean sheets in 50 games. None of the other reserve goalie is able to challenge him.

Defenders
During the first half the defense looks really bad, but with King Kenny took office, he is willing to give chances to the kids, and Kelly, Flanagan and Robinson all take their chances with pride. With a switch to the left even Johnson is revived, and Carra and Skrtel also did well in the centre. It is worth noting that Skrtel has played every minute, a feat that no outfielder has achieved for us since Carra in 04/05.

Midfielders
Lucas has his best performance for us and won the Player of the Match in the official website. Notably Meireles and Spearing also did well, Kuyt also revived in the second half with 15 goals scored, with the highlight the hat trick against Man United.

Attackers
After a mad January transfer window the attacking department has greatly improved, with Suarez already claiming a place as Anfield legend. Carroll was a bit slow with injuries, but with a proper off season break he will come back stronger and score more goals for us. Maxi also did very well and scored 10 goals with 2 hat tricks.

Player Rating (Games played, Minutes played, Goal scored/conceded, Assists/cleansheets, MoM, Rating)
Goalkeepers
Cavalieri: 2G 180M 0GC 2CS 0MoM 7.00
Gulacsi: 27 unused substitutes
Hansen: 6 unused substitutes
Jones: 2G 210M 2GC 1 Cs 0MoM 6.43
Reina: 50G 4500M 50GC 20CS 11MoM 7.01

Defenders
Agger: 21G 1547M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.69
Aurelio: 21G 1066M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.56
Ayala: 1 unused substitute
Carragher: 38G 3298M 0GS 0A 3MoM 6.92
Coady: 1 unused substitute
Darby: 1G 18M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Flanagan: 7G 621M 0GS 0A 1MoM 7.22
Johnson: 35G 3068M 2GS 2A 1MoM 6.54
Kelly: 23G 1925M 0GS 2A 1MoM 6.76
Konchesky: 18G 1495M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.26
Kyrgiakos: 28G 2100M 2GS 2A 2MoM 6.52
Robinson: 2G 147M 0GS 0A 0MoM 7.27
Skrtel: 49G 4106M 2GS 1A 0MoM 6.54
Wilson: 8G 726M 0GS 0A 1MoM 6.54
Wisdom: 2 unused substitute

Midfielders
Aquilani: 2G 111M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.87
Babel: 17G 709M 2GS 1A 0.5MoM 6.54
Cole: 32G 1719M 3GS 4A 1MoM 6.46
Gerrard: 24G 2408M 8GS 5A 6MoM 6.83
Ince: 1G 15 M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.00
Jovanovic: 18G 1081M 2GS 0A 0MoM 6.49
Kuyt: 41G 3468M 15GS 7A 4MoM 6.98
Lucas: 47G 3883M 1GS 4A 3MoM 6.80
Mascherano: 1G 78M 0GS 1A 0MoM 7.50
Meireles: 41G 3240M 5GS 8A 4.5MoM 6.93
Pacheco: 7G 341M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.29
Poulsen: 21G 1471M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.22
Shelvey: 21G 726M 0GS 1A 0.5MoM 6.63
Spearing: 20G 1422M 0GS 2A 0MoM 6.91

Attackers:
Amoo: 1G 83M 0GS 0A 0MoM 7.00
Carroll: 9G 570M 2GS 0A 1MoM 6.86
Dalla Valle: 1G 7M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Eccleston: 7G 142M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.01
Ngog: 38G 1938M 8GS 2A 2MoM 6.51
Suarez: 13G 1105M 4GS 4A 6MoM 7.70
Torres: 26G 2107M 9GS 3A 0.5MoM 6.57

Players of the season (Minimum 2,445 mins (50%) played):
(1) Reina 7.01
(2) Kuyt 6.98
(3) Meireles 6.93
(4) Carragher 6.92
(5) Lucas 6.80
(6) Maxi 6.78
(7) Johnson 6.544
(8) Skrtel 6.543

Of course, Suarez only arrived at the end of January and played 1,105 minutes. But he has been a sensational player and scored an impressive 7.70 average. He will be the focus of our attack and next season is going to be exciting.

Team Average 6.74, which is a good improvement vs the first half of 6.60, but still fall short of last season of 6.81.

Other Statistics:
Goal conversion. We only played 56 games this season, two less than last season. However, we only registered 789 shots, 150 less than last season. And with this low number, goals only scored dropped from 84 to 77, mainly due to the revival in the second half of the season. In defense, we allowed 659 shots, 50 more than last season, but thanks to the superb effort of Pepe, we only conceded 52 goals which is 2 less than last season.

Match of the season
(1) 4/23/11 vs Birmingham City 7.67
(2) 5/9/11 at Fulham 7.56
(3) 4/11/11 vs Manchester City 7.50
(4) 11/7/10 vs Chelsea 7.49
(5) 5/1/11 vs Newcastle United 7.44


Worst match of the season
(1) 10/17/10 at Everton 5.92
(2) 11/13/10 at Stoke City 5.95
(3) 9/22/10 vs Northampton 6.00
(4) 10/3/10 vs Blackpool 6.03
(5) 12/11/10 at Newcastle United 6.09

May Month Report

2W2L and we failed in our attempt to chase for the Europa spot. The monthly started brightly with 2 impressive wins over Newcastle and Fulham. In the 5th place decider, however, we did not play well and a certain World Cup and Champions League Final referee made some school boy error that ensure we lose the 5th place.

Players of the Month (1) Suarez 7.69 (2) Meireles 7.39 (3) Maxi 7.35. Suarez scored two goals and was as usual making crazy runs all the time. Meireles' form improved a lot and has his best month with us. And with 4 goals from Maxi, he is making a claim in next year's lineup.

Match Report 110522 at Aston Villa: A disappointing finish to the season

0:1 and in fairness we did not do much to guarantee a win. With so many injuries King Kenny has to once again shuffle his packs, and the situation was made even worse with Spearing has to taken off early. At the end a very good goal by Downing, and the superb defending of Friedel means we have to go home empty handed.

Players Rating:
Reina: 6.5 Beaten by a fine goal.
Flanagan: 6.5 Another solid performance from the young kid.
Carragher: 7 Shown his fighting spirit again.
Skrtel: 6.5 Played every minute in the league.
Aurelio: 7 Shown us what he can do if not injured.
Spearing: 6 Did well before his injury.
Lucas: 6.5 Another solid game.
Kuyt; 6.5 A good game.
Meireles: 7.5 A good game and was unlucky not to score.
Cole: 6.5 A bit disappointed.
Suarez: 7 Many good runs but at the end his finishing let him down.

Substitutions:
Shelvey: 7 Very impressive when called upon.
Ngog: 6 Another disappointing performance.

King Kenny: 6.5 Can't do much to lift the team.

Aston Villa: 7 A good performance by the Villians, although they seems to care more about result of the Spur vs Brum game more.

Man of the Match: Meireles. Denied a goal by the superb performance of Friedel.

Finale

This is a season of 2 halves. If we have King Kenny on board at the beginning, we will now be fighting for Champions League spot. But still we are sure that the team will have great potential next season, whether we have Europa or not.

My Team Prediction:
Reina
Flangan
Carragher
Skrtel
Johnson
Kuyt
Lucas
Spearing
Meireles
Maxi
Suarez

Result 2:0

Match Report 110515 vs Tottenham Hotspur: Europa in danger

0-2 and our hope of qualifying for Europa is in danger now. We didn't start well and conceded a goal in the 9 minutes, but then we gradually picked up but couldn't score. And with Howard Webb, you know there will be referee problems, with him awarding Spur a penalty for a shoulder to shoulder challenge by Flanagan outside the box. World Cup Final referee, what a joke... Anyway, we did not do much for at least one point, so at the end the result is fair. But still, we can see the team is improving, which is what we want to see.

Players Rating:
Reina: 6.5 Not much to do and the 2 goals conceded were unstoppable.
Flanagan: 7.5 A good game and was unlucky to be deemed to have conceded a penalty.
Carragher: 6.5 A solid game.
Skrtel: 6.5 Another solid game.
Johnson: 6.5 Did not attack that often.
Kuyt: 7 Almost scored in injury time.
Lucas: 6.5 Making tackles after tackles
Spearing: 6.5 Willing to take a shot.
Maxi: 6.5 No more hat trick...
Suarez: 7 Lively as usual.
Carroll: 6 A poor game.

Substitutions:
Shelvey: 6.5 Did well when come up.
Ngog/Cole: 6 Not enough time to impress.

King Kenny: 6.5 Need to find a formation to accommodate Carroll.

Tottenham Hotspur: 7 Draw would be a fairer result, but now 5th place is them to lose.

Man of the Match: Flanagan. The kid is doing really well.

Keep the 5th place

A win today will ensure us finish 5th and Europa League, so we should make sure we win it tonight. Spurs was under a bad run recently but we still need to play well in order to win the game for our new Manager

My Team Prediction:
Reina
Flangan
Carragher
Skrtel
Johnson
Kuyt
Lucas
Spearing
Meireles
Carroll
Suarez

Result 2:0

Match Report 110511 at Fulham: Another superb performance

5-2 and it is another superb result with us scoring 18 goals in the last 5 matches. Suarez and Maxi are in particularly superb, and the whole team also did extremely well. Although we can now finish top 4, 5th place is still our priority and it is up to us to grab it.

Players Rating:
Reina: 7 Good performance.
Johnson: 7.5 Very lively with 2 great assists.
Carragher: 7.5 666 great performances.
Skrtel: 7.5 Solid performance.
Flanagan: 7.5 Good performance and almost scored.
Lucas: 7.5 Solid tackles in the middle.
Spearing: 7.5 Another good performance.
Kuyt: 7.5 On fire with 9 goals in the last 8 games.
Meireles: 7 Did well before his injury.
Maxi: 8 On fire with another hat trick.
Suarez: 8.5 Causing all kinds of troubles.

Substitutions:
Shelvey: 7.5 Solid with a nice assist and almost scored.
Cole: 7 Not enough time to impress.

King Kenny: 7.5 Another superb performance and should be absolutely thrilled.

Fulham: 5.5 A few mistakes in the beginning 7 minutes and the game is over.

Man of the Match: Suarez. Another Anfield great in the making.

Fight for the 4th place

Although it may still be a tall order, but 4th place is still achievable if we win the next 3 games and results suit us. But we need to beat the tough Fulham tonight first. It will be a tough match, so we need to be at our very best to achieve the almost impossible.

My Team Prediction:
Reina
Flangan
Carragher
Skrtel
Johnson
Kuyt
Lucas
Spearing
Meireles
Carroll
Suarez

Result 2:0

Match Report 110501 vs Newcastle United: Back to 5th place

3-0 and it is an easy win that bring us back to 5th place. So Europa is not a dream anymore, and should we win in the last 3 games, we should grab the position. The team did very well and although we sit too deep after scoring the first goal, two quick goals in 2H virtually killed off the game. Again this is another team performance, and the players are making sure that King Kenny will get a new contract very soon.

Players Rating:
Reina: 7.5 Barely tested.
Flanagan: 7 Another good performance with a nice crossing lead to the first goal.
Carragher: 7.5 665 and counting.
Skrtel: 7.5 Good performance.
Johnson: 7 Did well in his come-back match.
Lucas: 7.5 Superb tackles.
Spearing: 7.5 Another excellent show.
Kuyt: 7.5 Another coolly taken penalty.
Meireles: 7.5 Good performance.
Maxi: 7.5 Scored another goal.
Suarez: 8 Very active and awarded with a superb goal.

Substitutions:
Carroll: 7 Had a nice run vs his former team.
Shelvey/Cole: 7 Not enough time to impress.

King Kenny: 7.5 Another good performance. Need to give him the contract ASAP!

Newcastle United: 6 Did not do much during the game.

Man of the Match: Suarez. The best buy of January.

Fight for the 5th

With Spurs lost we are now only 3 point behind them, and if we win tonight we will have a great chance to overtake them. Newcastle will be eager to beat us after selling Carroll to us, so we need to be at our best again to get the 3 points.

My Team Prediction:
Reina
Flangan
Carragher
Skrtel
Robinson
Kuyt
Lucas
Spearing
Meireles
Maxi
Suarez

Result 2:0