What a difference in one year! We did very well last year and finished 2nd and everybody is with very high hope entering the season. However we did not perform well and after 27 games we only managed 12 wins, 4 draws and 11 defeats. In the league we have 9 wins 3 draws and 7 defeats with 30 points and are sitting on 7th place, 5 points behind Villa who occupying the 4th place and 12 points behind the leader Chelsea. And last year we were on top (P19 W12 D6 L1 with 42 points). We still beat our old rivals as Manchester United and Everton, but we failed to win in 7 games including some low teams like Portsmouth, Sunderland and Fulham. We also didn't do well in the Champions League and is already crashed out. We will play in the Europa League in the new year. In the League Cup. as usual we were eliminated by an London team.
Departmental Comments:
Goalkeeper
Although he is conceding more goals, Reina is still a very good goalkeeper with 8 clean sheets in 24 games, and Cavalieri is gradually showing he can be a decent challenger.
Defender
Although he did not played too well in the start Carragher is gradually picking up and is now getting back to his normal high level. Agger is doing very good after his early injury and is taking the other central slot. On the sides Glen Johnson and Insua are taking the franks as their own, and both have opened their scoring accounts as well. It is also good to see youngster such as Ayala get a chance and did well, but some older players are playing poorly.
Midfielder
Although he is yet to get back to his best Gerrard is still leading the team with his good performance. With Alonso left us our midfleld is weakened a lot, and Aquilani is also injured we are struggling in the middle. Mascherano and Lucas are doing OK if not too impressive, but they both lack the creativity of Alonso. On the sides Kuyt is doing well as usual, and Benayoun is also taking the other side as his own.
Attacker
Torres' season has been on and off but he still scored 11 goals in the league and is on his way to be the quickest to score 50 goals for us. It is also worth nothing that Ngog is gradually showing he is a capable player and he had already scored 6 goals in just 730 minutes of action.
Player Rating (Games played, Minutes played, Goal scored/conceded, Assists/cleansheets, MoM, Rating)
Goalkeepers
Cavalieri: 3G 270M 4GC 1CS 1MoM 7.17
Gulacsi: 2 unused substitutes
Reina: 24G 2160M 30GC 8CS 4MoM 7.04
Defenders
Agger: 14G 1181M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.84
Aurelio: 16G 861M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.66
Ayala: 3G 110M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.89
Carragher: 24G 2152M 0GS 1A 1.5MoM 6.82
Darby: 1G 90M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Degen: 5G 272M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.39
Dosenna: 5G 235M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.16
Insua: 24G 2113M 1GS 4A 1MoM 6.68
Johnson: 20G 1695M 2GS 2A 3MoM 6.90
Kelly: 1G 74M 0GS 0A 1MoM 7.50
Kyrgiakos: 6G 529M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.16
Midfielders
Aquilani: 7G 216M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.66
Babel: 14G 518M 3GS 2A 1MoM 6.32
Benayoun: 26G 1734M 7GS 4A 1MoM 7.04
El Zhar: 1G 18M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Gerrard: 22G 1767M 5GS 6A 3MoM 7.08
Kuyt: 26G 2153M 6GS 2A 2.5MoM 6.87
Lucas: 24G 2052M 0GS 1A 1MoM 6.84
Mascherano: 23G 1747M 0GS 1A 1MoM 6.74
Pacheco: 2G 20M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.65
Plessis: 1G 76M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Riera: 11G 597M 0GS 4A 0MoM 6.71
Spearing: 5G 256M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.54
Attackers:
Eccleston: 2G 14M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.07
Ngog: 15G 730M 6GS 0A 2MoM 6.88
Torres: 18G 1407M 11GS 1A 5MoM 7.02
Voronin: 12G 376M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.19
Players of 1st half season (Minimum 1,458 mins (60%) or above):
(1) Gerrard 7.08
(2) Reina 7.042
(3) Benayoun 7.041
(4) Johnson 6.90
(5) Kuyt 6.87
Team: 6.81. The team scoring is 0.13 lower than last season and is a good reflection that we are doing poorer. In general we are lacking more goals and scoring fewer goals, so we have many rooms for improvement. With 19 league games to go the priority is to get back to top 4. It is not easy, but achievable. But we first need to start another winning run first.
2H Result Prediction
League:
1st-5th place teams (Chelsea H, Manchester United A, Aston Villa A, Arsenal A, Tottenham Hotspur H) 3W2D
6th-10th place teams (Manchester City A, Birmingham City A, Fulham H, Sunderland A) 3W1D
11th-15th place teams (Stoke City A, Blackburn Rovers H, Burnley A, Everton H, Wolverhampton Wanderers) 4W1D
16th-20th place teams (Wigan Athletic A, West Ham United H, Bolton Wanderers H, Hull City A, Portsmouth H) 5W
Total for 2H 15W4D 49 points
Total for the season 79 points
With 79 points we will finish at top 4.
In FA Cup, Reading away will be a good test for the team but we should be able to get pass them. In Europa League the draw is not too tough, but our focus is to finish top 4 so Rafa should not rest some of the key players. We will see how far we can go.
And finally, with hope in your heart, in Rafa we trust.
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