2009/10 Season Review

It was a disappointing season in any measure, as we only finished 7th with 63 points. Many reasons contributed to this decline, namely lose of key personnel, injuries, bad luck and poor management decision. The team seems to be getting nowhere with the unclear cloud of ownership hanging around, but there is no excuse and we should do much much better next season.

Player Rating (Games played, Minutes played, Goal scored/conceded, Assists/cleansheets, MoM, Rating)
Goalkeepers
Cavalieri 4G 390M 6GC 1CS 1MoM 6.96
Gulacsi 3 unused substitutes
Reina 52G 4710M 48GC 21CS 11.5MoM 7.16

Reina once again lead the team but he himself is not enough to prevent the downfall. Cavalieri did OK when called upon, but is likely to leave next season.

Defenders
Agger 36G 3209M 1GS 0A 0MoM 6.87
Aurelio 23G 1171M 0GS 2A 0MoM 6.61
Ayala 5G 233M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.68
Carragher 53G 4724M 0GS 1A 4MoM 6.90
Darby 3G 180M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Degen 11G 589M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.35
Dossena 5G 235M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.16
Insua 44G 3905M 1GS 5A 1MoM 6.64
Johnson 35G 2999M 3GS 4A 3.5MoM 6.87
Kelly 3G 123M 0GS 0A 1MoM 7.30
Kyrgiakos 21G 1667M 1GS 0A 2MoM 6.71
Robinson 1G 3M 0GS 0A 1MoM 6.50
Skrtel 29G 2060M 1GS 0A 1MoM 6.56

With so many injuries many kids got a chance to play this season. Ayala was in particular impressive when called upon. Carra once again lead the defense and Johnson did OK in his first year, although he is better going forward than defending. But we still need to strengthen in this area, especially Carra is getting old and we are still a bit weak in left back.

Midfielders
Aquilani 26G 1213M 2GS 6A 1.5MoM 6.89
Babel 38G 1708M 6GS 3A 1MoM 6.68
Benayoun 45G 2828M 9GS 7A 2MoM 6.97
Eccleston 2G 14M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.07
El Zhar 7G 129M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.77
Gerrard 49G 4127M 12GS 12A 4MoM 6.99
Kuyt 53G 4477M 11GS 4A 4.5MoM 6.81
Lucas 50G 4166M 1GS 3A 2MoM 6.77
Mascherano 48G 3946M 1GS 2A 6MoM 7.00
Maxi 17G 1208M 1GS 3A 1MoM 6.89
Plessis 1G 76M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.50
Riera 16G 898M 0GS 4A 0MoM 6.67
Spearing 5G 256M 0GS 0A 0MoM 6.54

Stevie G's form dropped a lot this season with only 12 goals scored comparing to the previous season of 24. With Alonso left there is a big hole yet to be filled. Aquilani has been troubled by injury but at least we see some good points for him. Mascherano and Lucas did solid in the middle, but they lack attacking creativity. Maxi was perhaps the biggest surprise in the season, and quickly adapted to the England style.

Attackers:
Ngog 37G 1751M 8GS 0A 2MoM 6.71
Pacheco 7G 79M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.62
Torres 32G 2481M 22GS 3A 7MoM 7.05
Voronin 12G 376M 0GS 1A 0MoM 6.19

We are still very weak in the attacking department. With Torres as lone striker it is really difficult to find a good backup. Torres is still troubled by injury but still managed to score 22 goals. Ngog had grown up a lot of this season but it is a tough job to be Torres' acting. We definitely need to find some more firepower next season.

Players of the year (minimum 2550 minutes played, 50% of time)
(1) Reina 7.16
(2) Mascherano 7.00
(3) Gerrard 6.99
(4) Benayoun 6.97
(5) Carragher 6.90
(6) Johnson 6.868
(7) Agger 6.866
(8) Kuyt 6.81
(9) Lucas 6.77
(10) Insua 6.64

Torres, 7.05, just missed out as he only played 2481 minutes.

Team 6.85 and it is a big drop from last year's 7.01. With so many uncertainly ahead, we really don't know where the team will be heading. Can we see the golden sky?

Goal conversion
We have 939 shots this season, 36 more than last year despite playing 1 more game. And we only scored 84 goals this season, comparing to 106 and 119 in the last two seasons. Once again we deeply rely on Torres and when he was injured there is no backup, and Gerrard's form has deteriorated a lot. In defense we allowed 609 shots, 106 more than the previous year and we conceded 54 goals vs 46 last season. We struggled a lot in Europe, with only 0.8 goals scored and 1.2 goals conceded.

Match of the season
(1) 10/25/09 vs Manchester United 7.72
(2) 3/28/10 vs Sunderland 7.56
(3) 3/18/10 vs Lille 7.54
(4) 9/26/09 vs Hull City 7.53
(5) 8/19/09 vs Stoke City 7.40

In terms of rating, the best performance this match was only 5th in the previous season.

Worst match of the season
(1) 12/19/09 at Portsmouth 6.09
(2) 3/11/10 at Lille 6.219
(3) 8/24/09 vs Aston Villa 6.220
(4) 10/31/09 at Fulham 6.26
(5) 10/4/09 at Chelsea 6.30