Many in the mainstream media (especially the British media, but that's for another time) will look at Liverpool's 15 points from 9 games as a major disappointment, while also taking shots at Liverpool's American owners and Luis Suarez. A couple of thoughts on this, first of all, what Suarez is doing on the soccer field is absolutely incredible, he is easily the most exciting Liverpool player I have watched in my life time. His talent isn't even the best thing about him, if there was an NBA season you would hear me bitch about guys who get paid and don't care, with Suarez it is the exact opposite. He approaches games with the intensity of a starving wolf, he is genuinely pissed when he (or the team) is playing poorly, and hates being subbed off. He really, really cares, we can't say the same thing about players like Tevez and Torres who always put themselves before the team, which by the way is something Suarez has yet to do (and in my opinion he wont). It's too bad that if you are a supporter of another team you wont notice these things because every major British tabloid and sportscasting company is trying to convince us that Suarez is the Antichrist Look, I get it he sometimes goes to ground too easily and does complain quite a bit; you know who else complains? Wayne Rooney, Xavi, Iniesta (the Barcelona guys way more than anyone else) Why do these stars complain so much? Because they don't feel the ref protects them enough. Against Norwich, Peter Walton decided that the media was right and chose to ignore the numerous incidents of Norwich players tugging at and grabbing Suarez around the neck area because hey, he dives and bitches! I would be fine with this were it not for the same media blowhards never treating Christiano Ronaldo like this. Compare how Suarez and Ronaldo behave on the pitch, they wont be far off. To the media's credit they eventually started treating Ronaldo like they are Suarez now only after the former got Rooney sent off in the World Cup, gee I wonder what caused them to start hating the guy all of a sudden? I will avoid getting too much into Sir Alex Ferguson's (Phenomenal coach, putrid human being) hypocritical rant about Suarez's antics, keep in mind that this same man has Nani and Evra on his squad but I digress.
As for criticizing Liverpool's American owners and the management of Kenny Dalglish I just have two things to say: first, Under Roy Hodgson, Liverpool, at this same point last year had a whooping 7 points! Roy also refuses to be blamed for his brutal tenure as Liverpool coach and never stood up for his players, something Dalglish does regularly. I also have never heard Dalglish say he was 0% at fault for a loss, which is something Roy would never admit. Secondly, under Tom Hicks and George Gillet Liverpool spent over 20 million for a player just once. Thank you goodbye. As for the actual reason I'm not upset by Liverpool's league form right now, I will just leave you with this: Yesterday they created 25 chances and scored once (hitting the frame of the goal 3 times), this is a common theme of this year for Liverpool, lots of quality chances with no finishing. The reason I am not worried is that everything regresses to where it should be, once Liverpool starts finding the net they will also start putting up a lot more points. The goal of the club after last year was to improve, as a fan I know that Liverpool wont become contenders overnight. I refuse to judge them and Dalglish now, I will judge them after this stretch from February 4th to March 3rd; where they will play Arsenal, Everton, Tottenham, and United all one after another, that will tell me if I should be worried or not, but for now I definitely am not. Who should be? Everyone not named Manchester City I mean, they just annihilated the 'best team' so far 6 to1! A friend of mine (a Man-U fan) tried to convince me today that this loss ultimately wont matter because City wont be able to finish, a part of me thinks he is more upset by the fact that Manchester United played some unreal soccer so far and are somehow 5 points behind their city rivals, this is not a good sign for them (to Ferguson's credit, his teams usually peak after Christmas so until then everyone should hold off on crowning City). After today Manchester City is officially the favorite, whether or not they can live up to the hype and lift the Premier League crown remains to be seen, some other interesting story lines from the EPL that are not getting enough attention:
Newcastle United: They are only 6 points behind first place, no one saw this coming after they lost the controversial but immensely talented Joey Barton and Andy Carrol, speaking of Carrol
Andy Carrol: the disappointing. He has yet to make a significant contribution to Liverpool, and more disturbingly he seems to play the same way Vince Carter did in his last days with Toronto. He is a quality player and can turn it around, but patience from fans is wearing thin, especially with his teammate Luis Suarez performing so well and so passionately at half the price.
Arsenal's Revival: We all know how poorly and injury ravaged their season started, but Arsene Wegner has righted the ship and Arsenal has subsequently won 6 of their last 7 games. Many already wrote them off in terms of Champions League spots, but I am not convinced. They will battle for those spots until the last day of the season.
Lucas's emergence: Actually, I wont explain this one, its better if other teams don't know.
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