Mid Term Report

In the first half of season 2006/07 we played 33 games, 2 games less than the same period last time. We had 20 wins 6 draws and 7 defeats. In the league we won 12 matches, drawn 4 and lost 6 with 40 points and sitting in 3rd place, 14 points behind leader Manchester United and 8 points behind 2nd place Chelsea. We are still in all the Cups, but face tough opponents in Barcelona and Arsenal. With 16 league games remaining the highest we can get is 88 points. As we have played all our toughest away games, and the new players started to get familiar with the team and the World Cup handover over, I expect we will get better result in the remaining games.

Departmental Comments:

Goalkeeper
Reina still keeps the first team place, and despite some poor games at the start of the season, he is picking up his form again and have already got 16 cleansheets, 12 of which in the League. When Dudek is called up for the Cup games he is doing fine as well.

Defender
Carra suffered a bit of World Cup handover and was not as good as he should be at the start, but is now back to his best again and even scored a league goal. Hyypia is getting less game but he is still reliable when playing against physical opponents. Agger is our biggest surprise in defense and have many excellent performances and scored 2 great goals and created another 2. At both sides of the defense Riise and Finnan still holding their places, as there is no real challenge to them. But they still perform well.

Midfielder
Gerrard is back to center midfield and have been playing very well. He is now more mature and won't go forward at any occasion to an extend he is leaving a big hole in the midfield. Alonso scored some great goals, and before he was injuried Sissoko was a rock. On the right side Pennant is still not playing as good as we expect, but he had a benchmark in the Bolton game when he was the most effective. On the left is probably our weakest position, although Luis Garcia is starting to pick up his form again. Gonzalez, Zenden etc was not playing too good, and Kewell is still recovering from injury.

Attackers
Our strikers are sharing the burden with everyone scoring. Rafa is certainly selecting the right strikers depending on the opponent. Kuyt proved he is a bargain, and despite the recent lack of chances, Crouch is still our leading scoring. Bellamy had been a sensation after his court case, and although Fowler did not play as many games as we want, he is still doing his part whenever he is called on.

Player Rating (Games played, Minutes played, Goal scored/conceded, Assists/cleansheets, MoM, Rating)
Goalkeepers
Dudek: 2G 180M 2GC 1CS 0MoM 6.50
Martin: 4 unused substitutes
Reina: 31G 2790M 24GC 16CS 1MoM 6.65

Defenders
Agger: 29G 1864M 2GS 2A 3MoM 6.94
Aurelio: 16G 889M 0GS 2A 0MoM 6.33
Carragher: 29G 2470M 1GS 0A 1.5MoM 6.83
Finnan: 29G 2610M 0GS 4A 0MoM 6.59
Hyypia: 34G 3053M 0GS 0A 1.5MoM 6.62
Kromkamp: 1G 90M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.00
Paletta: 4G 299M 1GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Peltier: 3G 254M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.32
Riise: 26G 2201M 3GS 0A 0MoM 6.63
Roque: 1G 6M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.00
Smith: 1G 16M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.00
Warnock: 6G 355M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.28

Midfielders
Alonso: 29G 2328M 3GS 2A 3MoM 6.88
El Zhar: 1G 18M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.00
Gerrard: 29G 2376M 6GS 5A 5.5MoM 7.20
Gonzalez: 22G 1039M 3GS 0A 0.5MoM 6.38
Guthrie: 5G 113 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.05
Luis Garcia: 25G 1526M 6GS 4A 0MoM 6.80
Pennant: 29G 1856M 0GS 7A 0.5MoM 6.86
Sissoko: 18G 1207M 0GS 1A 2MoM 6.87
Zenden: 17G 978M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.30

Attackers:
Bellamy: 25G 1596M 6G 5A 5MoM 6.89
Crouch: 28G 1458M 10GS 5A 2.5MoM 6.94
Fowler: 12G 492M 4GS 1A 2MoM 6.98
Kuyt: 27G 1908M 7GS 4A 4.5MoM 7.06
Sinama-Pongolle: 1G 1M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.00

Players of the 1st half season (1000 mins or above):
(1) Gerrard 7.20
(2) Kuyt 7.06
(3) Agger/Crouch 6.94
(4) Bellamy 6.89
(5) Alonso 6.88

Rafa: 6.76. He would be happy to see the defense back to our best, the new players settled and World Cup handover finally. Although it may be a tall goal to win the league this year, Rada will try his best to win one game at a time.

2H Result Prediction
League:
1st-5th place teams (Manchester United H, Chelsea H, Arsenal H) 2W1D
6th-10th place teams (Portsmouth A, Everton H, Reading A, Manchester City A) 3W1D
11th-15th place teams (Fulham A, Aston Villa A, Newcastle United A, Middlesbrough H) 3W1D
16th-20th place teams (Sheffield United H, Wigan Athletic H, West Ham United A, Charlton Athletic H, Watford A) 5W

Total for 2H 13W3D 42 points
Total for the season 82 points

And with 82 points, we will be on par of last season, and hopefully this time we will be at least second.

In the Cup games, both Arsenal and Barcelona will be tough opponents. But Rafa will provide a game plan to win all these games as well. And we really love to win the Cups.