2007/08 Season Review

In terms of result and trophy, this season seems to be the worst since Rafa take up. But with the boardroom saga clouding for most of the season, we still managed to finish top 4 with a semi final in Champions League, and with a bit more of luck we would be in the 3rd final in 4 seasons.

This season we only lost 4 matches, but we drew too many games (13 in total, co-leader with Spurs) which really hurts. Especially at home, with the 6 draws we only get 42 points whereas Manchester gets 52. Away we are OK, and although we only win 9 games, which is the lowest among top 4, in terms of points we are not that far off except when compared with Chelsea.

In the Champions League, we had a slow start but at the end 3 consecutive wins helped us qualified. We did well vs Inter Milan and Arsenal, but when we play Chelsea we have no luck with Riise's own goal, and the tie was already lost in the 1st leg.

In the domestic cups we also faced Chelsea in the League Cup and was eliminated. Although the draw has been kind to us in FA Cup, we didn't seize the chance and lost to Barnsley.

Player Rating (Games played, Minutes played, Goal scored/conceded, Assists/cleansheets, MoM, Rating)
Goalkeepers
Itandje: 7G 630M 10GC 1CS 0MoM 6.29
Martin: 12 unused substitutes
Reina: 52G 4710M 40GC 24CS 2MoM 6.90

Reina continues to play well and won the golden glove for the third season in a row. Some critics may feel he sometimes flops in important games as shown when we play Manchester United, and this is certainly an area he can improve. Itandje also get some chances in the domestic cup games, but his performance was so-so and will not be able to challenge Reina yet.

Defenders
Agger: 9G 516M 0GS 0A 0MoM 7.08
Arbeloa: 41G 2158M 2GS 1A 1MoM 6.78
Aurelio: 29G 1971M 1GS 3A 0.5MoM 6.63
Carragher: 55G 4789M 0GS 2A 5.5MoM 7.09
Finnan: 35G 2866M 0GS 2A 0.5MoM 6.56
Hobbs: 5G 310M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.56
Hyypia: 44G 3549M 4GS 2A 0.5MoM 6.78
Insua: 3G 206M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.94
Riise: 44G 2956M 0GS 6A 0MoM 6.51
Syrtel: 20G 1662M 0GS 0A 0.5MoM 6.87

Carra is still the leader at the back with yet another impressive season. In the absense of Agger, Hyypia stood up and had another good season with 4 goals and was rewarded an extension of contract. Skrtel is a second half signing and despite a few scary moment when he first joined he managed to adapt well with 20 impressive games. On the side, however, none of the player really impressed. Arbeloa initially played very well but after an injury in the middle of the season he has yet to retain his top level. Riise is a real disappointment and he may leave us in the off season; Aurelio also did well in between his injuries, but then he has too many injuries. Finnan is getting older and slower and Rafa seems to rate him lower than Arbeloa now. The center back area is OK with Carra, Agger and Skrtel as the main players and Hyypia as backup, but Rafa will certainly be looking at strengthening both sides.

Midfielders
Alonso: 27G 2158M 2GS 1A 1MoM 6.78
Babel: 49G 2605M 10GS 7A 2MoM 6.63
Benayoun: 47G 2631M 11GS 8A 5MoM 6.83
El Zhar: 3G 105M 1GS 0A 0MoM 6.82
Gerrard: 52G 4194M 21GS 17A 15MoM 7.33
Kewell: 15G 757M 0GS 4A 0MoM 6.64
Leto: 4G 280 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.38
Lucas: 32G 1870M 1GS 4A 0.5MoM 6.71
Mascherano: 41G 3447M 1GS 1A 5.5MoM 7.31
Pennant: 25G 1494M 2GS 4A 1MoM 6.78
Plessis: 2G 180M 0GS 0A 0MoM 7.00
Sissoko: 14G 915M 1GS 0A 0.5MoM 6.34

Rafa has settled on a 4-2-3-1 formation with 2 holding midfielders and Stevie G moving up. This formation proved to be very effective. Mascherano, Alonso and Lucas take turns on the two holding role, and although Alonso was a bit off this season especially in the second half, he still have a lot to offer us. Mascherano is finally our player and he did very well except for a stupid game. With this new attacking role Stevie G shines with 15 MoM performances, 21 goals and 17 assists. The newcomers Babel and Benayoun also had good debut season with 10 and 11 goals respectively, and 7 and 8 assists. On the right Pennant had a so-so season and he may leave at the right price, especially Rafa is keen to play Kuyt or Babel on the right. Again, we have a strong spine but the sides are weak, and Rafa will be looking to strengthening the sides.

Attackers
Crouch: 36G 1957M 11GS 4A 3MoM 6.97
Kuyt: 48G 3326M 11GS 8A 3.5MoM 6.93
Torres: 46G 3590M 33GS 4A 11.5MoM 7.49
Voronin: 28G 1574M 6GS 4A 0.5MoM 6.72

With Torres we finally has a 20+ league goal scorer. He did extremely well in his debut season with 33 goals scored and broke many records. With Torres so strong we have another problem of other attackers unable to get enough games and score enough goals, but still we managed to have 7 players scoring double digits. Crouch is annoyed with the lack of games and will be sold at the right price. Kuyt rediscovered some of his magic on the right and had a better second half. Voronin was hit by injury but still managed 6 goals.

Players of the season (3204 mins or above):
(1) Torres 7.49
(2) Gerrard 7.33
(3) Mascherano 7.31
(4) Carragher 7.09
(5) Kuyt 6.93

Rafa: 6.89. Rafa still need to work hard to strength the squad especially on both sides, and next season the challenge will be to beat the other big four and convert the draws to wins.

Goal Conversion

With Torres on board goal conversion improved a lot. We have 951 goal attempts (last season: 895) and scored 119 goals (last season 90) and this equals to 12.5% goals/goal attempts (last season 10.1%).

The defense also did a good job. Despite we have more goal attempts allowed (491 vs last season 444) we conceded only 50 goals vs last season of 52 (conversion 10.2% vs 11.7%). We are the most prolific in Europe with 17.9% conversion, whereas we still find it a bit more difficult to score in the league with only 11.0% conversion. Our home games are more open with 13.4% conversion and 11.7% conceded.

Comparing with the other Big Four, we are still below them by about 2% in terms of goa conversion. Clearly this is an area that we need to improve to get #19.

Match of the season
1. 11/6/07 Besiktas (h) Champions League (8-0) : 8.15
2. 9/1/07 Derby County (h) League (6-0): 8.13
3. 12/11/07 Marseille (a) Champions League (4-0) : 8.09
4. 8/28/07 Toulouse (h) Champions League (4-0): 7.67
5. 11/24/07 Newcastle United (h) League (3-0): 7.57

Worst match of the season
1. 3/23/08 Manchester United (a) League (0-3) : 5.66
2. 10/3/07 Marseille (h) Champions League (0-1): 5.84
2. 2/16/08 Barsley (h) FA Cup (1-2) : 5.84
4. 1/30/08 West Ham United (a) League (0-1): 5.98
5. 10/24/07 Besiktas (a) Champions League (1-2): 6.02