Merseyside rivals Everton FC and Liverpool FC both appear poised to hit midseason in the Premier League in unfamiliar low positions, with the Reds only just in striking distance of a Champions League place in 7th and the Toffees in a dire 15th (3 points clear of the relegation zone). Both clubs, their personnel, and managers have gone to great lengths to stress that their sides are better than results have shown and that injuries are really dragging them down. While I agree on both counts to some extent, there are certainly other potential explanations for the nightmarish starts for the clubs.
Liverpool – Personnel Decision Errors
Rafa Benitez’s men have been confirmed to exit the Champions League at the group stage. They have only 24 points to show for 15 domestic league contests. Yet here I am about to claim that Liverpool’s issues stem from depth. Too much depth in fact, which has kept the side lacking at needed positions. Jamie Carragher is well beyond his best, in my opinion. Hyypia is gone. Arbeloa is gone. Liverpool’s response is to sign…. Glen Johnson (fair enough) and Sotiris Kyrgiakos (what?). It’s the moves of the latter type that leave you scratching your head. What purpose would a 30-year-old valued at two million pounds have at a club like Liverpool other than providing depth to their squad. Which, I suppose he’s doing since they insist upon playing Carragher whenever possible. It’s the defense that is currently one of the problems, and yet Liverpool have 13 backs on the books and can’t field a successful defensive line? Astonishing. Throw in the atrocious decision to sell Xabi Alonso and you have a recipe for disaster. Clearly neither Benitez nor anyone else in the Liverpool front office watched their matches carefully enough, as Alonso was the glue that held the squad together. We all see it unraveling now and many act surprised. But given the manager’s insistence on playing highly overrated nobodies (read as: Lucas and David N’Gog) Liverpool’s season will ultimately come to nothing. I’m not even convinced they can make a deep Europa League run with Kelly/Carragher as their centre-backs. As it is, up and down the pitch Benitez continues to not give any of his talented younger players much of any shot (Babel, Degen, Agger, Plessis, etc.).
The problem is an easily solvable one, too. With 34 players on the books, dish out some of these unused talent (it’s an embarrassment to be asking 23 guys to sit around and get no playing time). Surely injuries need to be accounted for in depth. But 13 defenders on the books is ridiculous. Kyrgiakos was an atrocious signing. Why pay two million for a reserve?. What Liverpool needed to do (and still does) was sell some excess (Lucas) and use all available post-Johnson funds on an immediately capable DC. Perhaps this can be done in January, but given the player movement undertaken in the past year or so by the club, I wouldn’t expect anything but more poor personnel decisions out of Anfield, and a 6th place Premier League finish at best.
An example of a lineup I would send out for the Reds, just to get their younger stars matches (N’Gog up top with Torres hurt):
——————Torres/N’Gog ——————–
——————–Benayoun———————–
Riera —– Gerrard —— Aquilani —— Babel
——————————————————-
Aurelio — Agger — Skrtel — Johnson/Degen
The money that can be made from selling on Mascherano, Lucas, and Carragher can go to a high caliber DC and a real backup to Torres. This also allows Insua and N’Gog more time to develop and be of more use to a side like Liverpool than they currently are… perhaps even sending them out on loan to slightly lesser quality Premier League clubs (similar to the Everton/Jo deal). Plus, Gerrard is more suited as a complete/all-around midfielder than as a second striker, so Benayoun is an improvement there behind the front man with his work rate and ability.
Everton’s Season of Underperforming
Everton’s issues with injuries have admittedly been much more intense than that of their rivals. In missing Arteta, Jagielka, and Neville for the majority of the season thus far, the Toffees have slunk to 15th place in the table, just three clear of the relegation zone at the moment. Looking down their remaining roster, however, it makes me wonder just how much of the problem at Goodison Park is simply health-related. Consider the names they have been able to field recently: Yobo, Baines, Hibbert, Neill, Heitinga, Fellaini, Rodwell, Pienaar, Cahill, Saha, Howard. Depth might be an issue, but in my view, there is a side that can be put together from these talented footballers that should be much higher than 15th out of 20 in the top flight. And looking at the last week or so only proves the point further. Yobo has a solid game except for two crucial mistakes that hand goals (including an own goal) to Liverpool in the 0-2 Merseyside Derby defeat. They fall behind 0-2 to Tottenham on a pair of horribly covered crosses (one being a set piece) that left you scratching your head. Admittedly the back line is a patchwork right now with Hibbert and Neill forced to play centerback, but it’s not like these veterans aren’t capable of getting the job done, despite their being typically started in the fullback position. Add to this the scoring woes of the club — Saha leads the side with 9 from 14 league matches, but no one else has more than two — and you’ve got a world of trouble. On-Loan Striker Jo may just be the epitome of Everton’s issues, having contributed exactly zero goals in 14 league appearances.
With the talent they have still available, and the boosts of some of their injured stars returning in the next couple months, the Toffees should have no problem remaining in the Premier League when things are said and done. But if they continue to turn in sub-par results against the weaker clubs (0-1 @ Burnley, 1-1 vs Wolves, 2-3 @ Bolton, 2-3 @ Hull), they could very well see themselves in a fight to avoid the bottom three at season’s end. For the quality the side has even with the many injury woes, the performances thus far this season have simply not been good enough.
Michael DiAmore is currently a play-by-play and color commentator for the Athletics Dept. of Stevens Institute of Technology, where he is a Computer Engineering major and freelance sportswriter. He can be contacted via e-mail at MichaelJDiAmore@gmail.com.
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