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Posts Tagged ‘responsibility’

After going through the whole of 2011 without losing on their own ground, Manchester City have now been beaten twice in the space of four days and are beginning to look conspicuously thin around the edges. Steven Gerrard’s 13th-minute penalty puts Liverpool in a position of strength going into the second leg of this Carling Cup semi-final when it will need a significant improvement from the Premier League leaders if they are to prevent Kenny Dalglish’s team from confirming a trip to Wembley.

Rarely have City looked so devoid of imagination this season. Liverpool took an early lead, threatened more goals and then eventually settled for a backs-to-the-wall operation during a second half in which the home side’s possession was not accompanied by the wit or gumption to break down a team displaying great defensive qualities of industry and organisation. The two sides renew acquaintances at Anfield in a fortnight’s time and Liverpool, the seven-time winners, should be greatly encouraged about the way they matched and, at times, outdid a side that have managed 56 league goals compared to their own tally of 24.

City looked weary at times. They had used up a lot of energy and emotion in Sunday’s FA Cup defeat to Manchester United and they were missing their captain, Vincent Kompany, as well as two of Roberto Mancini’s other mandatory first-team picks, David Silva and Yaya Touré. The Etihad has been a formidable stadium for opposition teams on Mancini’s watch but for long spells they looked laboured and a good notch or two below what is usually seen of them on their own ground.

As for Mario Balotelli, he lasted only 39 minutes before being withdrawn. Shortly before, he had allowed a simple pass to run over his boot and go out for a throw-in. The striker, sent off in the league at Liverpool in November, took exception to one challenge from Charlie Adam and had to be restrained from taking the argument further.

It was difficult to be clear whether he was still struggling with the ankle injury that had kept him out for the previous two games, but there was something very deliberate about the way he and Mancini ignored each other on the touchline. Balotelli went straight down the tunnel and it added to the sense of a night that was not going to plan.

Liverpool, in contrast, had began the game as if affronted by the memories of their 3-0 league defeat here last week. They were quick to the ball, strong in the challenge and, even before Gerrard’s penalty, there were three separate moments when it was only Joe Hart’s goalkeeping that had kept them out.

The third of those saves, diving full length to his left to turn away a deflected Stewart Downing volley, was a truly exceptional piece of goalkeeping. Yet it was rare to see City so open and it was in this flurry of attacking that Liverpool’s pressure eventually led to Gerrard driving his spot kick emphatically into the bottom corner.

Perhaps in hindsight Mancini might regret not moving Micah Richards across from the right side of defence to partner Joleon Lescott in the centre and bring in Pablo Zabaleta at full-back. Instead, Stefan Savic was given the responsibility to stand in for the suspended Vincent Kompany and it was a gamble that backfired. Savic’s challenge on Daniel Agger was raw and mistimed, catching him just above the knee, and it was not his only mistake of a difficult evening. One misplaced pass inside his own penalty area led to voluble dissent from the crowd and, without Kompany, there was a vulnerability that does not normally exist.

Liverpool had the advantage of having two days’ extra rest and in the opening 45 minutes they seemed to be getting to every loose ball first. Their momentum was not disrupted too badly by Jay Spearing leaving the pitch with a hamstring injury and it was not until the final minute of the first half, when James Milner turned Richards’s low cutback over the crossbar, that Pepe Reina’s goal was threatened seriously.

Liverpool were obdurate opponents. Their strength this season has been in defence and they were more guarded after the interval. A misplaced backpass from Martin Kelly almost had costly repercussions, only for Reina to do enough to put off Sergio Agüero. Reina then saved a leaping header from Richards inside the six-yard area and, with Mancini switching to a three-man defence, the pressure on the visitors’ goal was increasing.

Yet the late onslaught that might have been expected never materialised until stoppage-time. Liverpool held out fairly comfortably and are now the marginal favourites to reach the final.

Carling Cup 2011-12Manchester CityLiverpoolCarling CupDaniel Taylorguardian.co.uk

• Liverpool forward fined £10,000 and warned of future conduct
• Twitter is the same as ‘a public statement’, says the FA

The Liverpool forward Ryan Babel has been fined £10,000 and warned about his future conduct for posting comments and a doctored picture of Howard Webb on Twitter.

The Holland international was charged with improper conduct by the Football Association after he used the social networking site to criticise the official.

After the Reds’ FA

• Ambitions ‘rest in your hands’, manager tells senior players
• Hodgson confirms interest in Juventus’s Christian Poulsen

Roy Hodgson has told Liverpool’s star names it is their responsibility to inspire the club’s revival and that the Anfield ownership saga is no excuse for another season of under-achievement.

The new Liverpool manager, who has confirmed his interest in a £6m move for the Juventus midfielder Christian Poulsen, yesterday welcomed Fernando Torres’s public commitment to the club following a summer of uncertainty surrounding the Spanish striker and captain Steven Gerrard.

Nevertheless, Hodgson had little sympathy for Torres’s previous declaration that Liverpool needed to sign “four or five” top-class players. He insisted the onus is on leading players “to look in the mirror” rather than blame a lack of investment by the co-owners Tom Hicks and George Gillett for the recent malaise at Anfield.

Hodgson is looking to recruit “quality signings … we are not looking at cut-price deals in any way”, despite being unsure if a takeover will be completed before the close of the transfer window and how it might affect his budget. But he is adamant the fight for control of Liverpool should not distract Torres, Gerrard and others, even if the club does not make the signings they crave.

“People on the outside will have more sympathy with those comments than me,” said Hodgson of Torres’s frustrations with Hicks and Gillett. “As a player you have a chance to change things. If you don’t think the team is doing as well as it should, as a player you can do something about it. If you are a big player, maybe you will.

“I don’t get involved in that. My attitude is that we want our big players because they will help the team to win. If they are not playing well and not helping the team to win I will be advising them to look into the mirror rather than look for excuses elsewhere and blame the owners for not having spent £500m.

“If we look at Real [Madrid] last season they spent a fortune on two or three players and it didn’t give them what they wanted. They didn’t win the Champions League or even get to the semis, and they didn’t win the Spanish league or the Spanish cup. The two most expensive players in the world par excellence didn’t help them get what they want. Are those players then entitled to say :’I should not have come here because the club lacks ambition.’ Or is the club entitled to say: ‘We spent £150m on you two, we wanted you to help us win.’”

Hodgson’s rallying call echoes the assertion Rafael Benítez made after Liverpool’s home defeat by Aston Villa last August, when the former manager said it was “up to the senior players to take the responsibility and take us forward”. That comment was frequently cited as the moment a chasm appeared between Benítez and influential figures in the Liverpool dressing room, although Hodgson does not anticipate a repeat performance.

Hodgson takes charge of his first home game as Liverpool manager tonight against FK Rabotnicki in the second leg of their Europa League third qualifying round tie. “What a coach does is to say ‘look into the mirror and do something about it’. That is our job. The players of the highest echelon do look in mirrors and analyse performances, so I am not fearful of that. I am just sceptical about comments where players are questioning the club’s ambition. I would tend to throw that back at them and say that the club’s ambitions rest in your hands, you’re the ones playing for us and you’re the ones people are paying to watch.”

Hodgson added: “The 20 or 25 big European clubs are only big clubs if they have good players. Players are the key. We pay to watch football. We do not pay to watch José Mourinho, we pay to watch his [Real Madrid] team. Sometimes I can be lured into thinking that is what fans do pay to see, that they go to see the owners in the stand, but I refuse to believe that. People go to watch players, like they go to watch film stars when they go to the cinema, not who the director was or who produced it.”

The Liverpool manager confirmed there has been no bid as yet from Internazionale for Javier Mascherano, who was not on the original squad list for the Rabotnicki tie, and that he was keen on bringing 30-year-old Danish international Poulsen to Anfield. “One of our representatives went on Tuesday to Italy to speak to Juventus. Poulsen is a legitimate transfer target if it can happen,” said Hodgson. “He’s a player I know well. I kick-started his career some years ago now [at FC Copenhagen] and I’ve followed him closely ever since.

“If we could get him from Juventus for a price I consider to be reasonable, he will be a very good addition to our squad.”

LiverpoolRoy HodgsonAndy Hunterguardian.co.uk