One of those days when you're kicked around, shoved around but still manage to bang in 2 goals. The team wins by a comfortable 3 goal margin. Such a high.

And now to meeting my kiddos. Looking forward to Richmond and just some time off with the kids.

My fitness will be screwed after 2 weeks again but right now, I couldn't care less.

Another 7 days to go before my Richmond trip. Wohoo! Looking forward to taking a break from work. Man, the kids have grown.

It's amazing how the moment a player starts doing well, there are already plans to ship him out. Carroll, in my opinion, deserves a chance.

Liverpool has one of the worst management teams among the top teams. All this Liverpool way of doing things under close doors is good and all but at the end of the day, I think I can run the club better.

It's Simple

Pass and move. Liverpool, historically has prided itself in being a club that believed in this philosophy. "Tiki-taka" football, apparently glorified by Barcelona isn't really much different from "pass and move" football.

The beauty (elegance if you will) in the game lies in its implementation. A lot about how the game is played is down to the player's footballing vision --> the team's vision and ultimately if you're talking about a professional club, the manager's vision. To break this down, let me try and jot down what pass and move means. When a player passes, it is supposed to mean something in a string of passes that will/should follow. And for it to mean something, your movement after the pass and also off the ball movement when not on the ball, is extremely crucial. The concept of triangles created in tiki-taka football has its beginnings in the pass and move philosophy. Creating triangles throughout the pitch requires effort and that's where the entire team's singular vision comes into play. This concept is currently non-existent in EPL and to take Liverpool specifically, Dalglish's pass and move philosophy had one big flaw. There was no vision. Dalglish strung a team of good players (some exceptional but many ordinary) and instilled a pass and move philosophy in them but that philosophy lacked vision. Jordan Henderson being a prime example from last season. His runs reminded me of a headless chicken left out in the open and his passes, meaningless. At least for the most parts.

I see this a lot when I play in leagues as well. The intelligent/talented players know what they are doing, why they are doing and more importantly, they don't have to think about it. It's in-built. The matching wavelength is just there. They just know how to communicate and merge their styles (no matter how different it could be). At the cost of sounding arrogant, it's when you find players like these, you love the games. Football is not just about kicking and running. It's way more special than that.

Silky first touch, precise ground passing, movement creating spaces, creating triangles, weighted passes, side-foot finishing, bombing past players without losing ball control, changing flanks, creating triangles again, this is what makes the game so darn special. Brendan Rodgers understands this style of play. Remains to be seen whether he can transfer that style to the players. Success will depend a lot on how that style is emanated and one vision shared.

It's when all of these come together that the game looks so aesthetic and ironically, ridiculously simple. But then again, that's what all great players in all sports manage to make it look like. No?

Season woes

Our season is over and one to forget. It's time for Kenny to step back. He is a Liverpool legend, one of the greatest to have ever worn the Liverpool shirt. But it is time to step down and get a real manager on-board. Kenny is an awesome man-manager but he just doesn't have it in him anymore to pick the right team. On more than a few occasions this season, he has shown his preference for players who don't deserve to be above others in the pecking order. Time and again, he has proved that he has lacked the tactics to make the right call and pick the right players.

Today's FA Cup Final was a prime example. Kenny left out 3 players who are in-form. Carroll, Maxi and Kuyt and he started with Jordan and Spearing in midfield. What an absolutely pathetic call! Spearing, for all his industry and hard work, is at best an average player. Zilch creative qualities, the least you would expect him to be is a solid defensive midfielder, which he isn't. The first Chelsea goal was his mistake to begin with and to some extent the second one too. Jordan Henderson might be one for the future but he definitely isn't quite ready yet. I am stopping just short of saying he was awful today. Kenny starts these two in midfield with Maxi, Kuyt and Shelvey on the bench. Ridiculous!! I knew the moment Lucas got that horrific injury, we were going to miss him badly. As has been rightly proven, he is currently irreplaceable.

Offense. The entire season Kenny starts Carroll who was out of form then when he should have been starting Suarez and Bellamy (who was in brilliant form) and now when Carroll is finally hitting his stride, he is benched. It doesn't need too much tactical awareness to see these glaring mistakes. I want to re-emphasize that I have massive, massive respect and admiration for Kenny Dalglish. It isn't about that. It is about Liverpool Football Club. We might stick with him for the next season because we back our managers and support continuity but I don't think Kenny was meant to be our permanent manager anyways. He was brought in to steady the ship which he did brilliantly well. But for all the reasons above, I don't believe he is the one to move the club forward. I would love for Kenny to step up into the boardroom or our Academy but please o please, it's time to give a real manager the seat.

I always thought Carroll had it in him to come back. Forget about the money paid for him, that was not his fault (I would put that fault completely on Torres' last day transfer request which forced us to get in a replacement). Plus given his age (22), I think he will come good and is already showing signs. Carroll was/is never meant to replace Torres but to bring his own physical presence and heading abilities to the team. We have the brilliant Suarez to do the nutmegs. But having said that, who is our 3rd striker? Most top teams have 4 if not 5 strikers and we have only 2 established ones. How on earth are we buying midfielder after midfielder without filling up our striking department?  Kenny talks about the amount of times we have hit the woodwork this season which, even though has been unlucky, just goes to tell the story that if you don't buy strikers, you won't get goals but just a lot of attempts. Which is what has happened.

This has been a season to get a team together and gel so I don't have any complaints about that. But we need to rectify our mistakes (we have made glaring ones) and move forward. I am not expecting a big summer for us but what we do in terms of bringing players this summer will go a long way in determining which Liverpool we'll see in the coming seasons. One negative I am already foreseeing because of Kenny's bad tactics is the departure of Maxi and Kuyt (and they are more than justified to feel underused).

YNWA!

Today I was outpaced by a guy. He is probably 5-6 years younger but I didn't like it. What was worse was that he wore a Man U jersey. What followed was that guy was marked by me for the next 40 minutes till he began to tire. I know this guy is faster than me. Challenge accepted.

I cannot be second to anyone in football. At least when it comes to being a striker. I haven't had this much fun in a long time.

After a really long time, I have found a strike partner who operates at the same wavelength as me. Not that I never enjoyed football, but it's gotten that much more sweeter playing with a player of a very good caliber.

I just scored a goal that was a perfect 1-2 with my strike partner. Such a high! I am hoping to get him into my club at the denver league. I am pretty confident he will be a success there too.