Red watch: Wide areas are cause for concern

Aug 27 2008 by Andy Proudfoot, Liverpool Daily Post

ONE of the frequent maxims trotted out by fan and pundit alike is that, in order to win a championship, you have to win while playing badly.

However, no-one seems to have told Liverpool that this does not apply to every match.

Two wins from two games, against sides that deserved at least a point for their efforts, seems to have convinced many optimistic observers that the Premier League is ours for the taking.

Throw in the abysmal performance at Standard Liege, and it’s clear we’re going to sweep all before us.

I don’t know why the others don’t throw in the towel here and now.

Sadly, the reality is that we’ve started the season in dreadful form, unable to string more than a few passes together, creating few chances and looking vulnerable down the flanks.

We’ve ridden our luck and relied once again upon the side’s stalwarts to dig us out of the mire, and if we don’t sort ourselves out soon we’ll be out of Europe, and have our championship prospects firmly shown up by Aston Villa and Man Utd in the next 10 days.

Of course, the players we have in the squad are more than capable of mounting a convincing challenge; they’ve been telling us about it all summer.

What’s needed now is the realisation that it’s time to walk the walk, not just talk the talk.

You can’t ease yourself into the season anymore; Chelsea raised the bar on that one years ago.

You have to come out of the blocks flying, and not let up until the fat lady collapses from exhaustion in May, unable to squeeze out one more breath, let alone burst into song.

What’s particularly frustrating is that the faults evident to all for several years have yet to be eradicated.

We’ve built a formidable spine to the side; and I’m convinced that Robbie Keane will strengthen this still further once he’s settled in.

Keane’s a notorious slow starter to the season, and new surroundings will exacerbate this.

He’ll come good, I’m sure.

I wish I could be as confident about our flanks.

How many more wingers and full-backs are we going to buy and try before we get it right? You don’t need the benefit of Match-of-the-Day graphics to see our lack of width is going to let us down again, and it’s been this way since Houllier’s time.

Zenden, Gonzalez and Nunez have all arrived and departed, while Pennant, Kewell, Garcia and Smicer have all been tried and ditched.

Kuyt and Benayoun may soon be added to that list; Ryan Babel be warned.

At full-back it’s worse; with Arbeloa, Aurelio, Kromkamp, and Josemi average players at best (yes I know that’s flattering one or two of them).

Are Degen and Dossena going to break this mould?

Far be it from me not to give a man a chance, but if you were there on Saturday I bet you’re not buying a number two shirt just yet are you?

Rafa has been at pains recently to praise the hard work our network of scouts are putting in to identify the right players at the right price.

It’s tempting to conclude that Baden-Powell himself must head up this particular troop.

So it looks like we’ll have to hold our breath while the likes of Darby, Insua, El Zhar and Leto develop sufficiently for us to see if they’re made of the right stuff.

In the meantime those currently occupying the flank positions might want to ponder that the truism at the head of this article is a post-match rationalisation, not a pre-match instruction.