Hotdog fears Liverpool will be doomed by Jermaine Pennant

Match Report: Liverpool 2, Aston Villa 1 (Saturday, August 11, 2007)

Sure we came away with the victory, but after watching Liverpool’s opening match I’m afraid it will be more of the same and another third place in the EPL (or, actually, we are supposed to call it the BPL – Barclay’s Premier League).

The main problem which doomed ‘Pool in the Champions League final last season – namely the lack of a winger who can threaten on the right side – still remains unsolved and it showed on Saturday. Jermaine Pennant, who plays with the energy of a warm corpse and appears unable to cross with either foot, plodded aimlessly down the wing for a seemingly endless 73 minutes before being relieved by the Dutchman Ryan Babel.

With Pennant manning the wing, the Scouse skipper and all-around perfect Human Steven Gerrard happily moved back into his natural playmaking position in the center of midfield. It appears as though Rafa has given up on playing Stevie on the right, where he was admittedly less effective.

Gerrard rewarded his manager with a cracker of a free kick in the waning moments to seal the three points. (Home side Aston Villa are right to feel hard done by – there wasn’t a lot in the foul that led to Stevie G’s breathtaking winner.)

And while playing Gerrard in the middle is the right move for him, it causes a massive logjam in the middle of the park, where five world-class central midfielders must battle for minutes: Gerrard, Xabi Alonso, Momo Sissoko, Yossi Benayoun, and of course the Argentine Javier Mascherano. (Another new signing – the Brazilian Lucas – is also an attacking midfielder and was rated by the Brazilians as the best prospect in their entire squad at the year’s U-20 World Cup.)

I love all those players (with the exception on Benayoun) but I can’t help but wish we would have grabbed a dangerous winger in exchange for one of them. Those players – no matter how good they are – can’t help you win games from the bench.

The Attack

Up front, I’m thrilled to pieces after watching new signing Fernando Torres team with one of my favorite players, Dirk Kuyt. Kuyt’s a special player to be sure – perfectly suited for the English game – and the movement between he and the Spaniard was scintillating. No doubt the goals will come for the both of them – I think 25-30 between them isn’t an unrealistic mark. It’s just so amazing how well they played off each other.

Even the Aryan Assassin, Andriy Voronin, got some burn at the end of the match and troubled the Villans with his energy. I love the way the Liverpool strikers pressure opponents – you don’t see a trace of the laziness endemic to so many modern strikers (Tottenham’s Dimitar Berbatov and Eddie Johnson come to mind). It was Torres’ pressure and Kuyt’s persistence that forced the first goal in Saturday’s match.

Welkom, Ryan Babel

As I mentioned before, Pennant was a huge letdown again on the right wing. One would have thought the sales of Luis Garcia, Bellamy, and Djibril Cisse we could have gotten a serviceable winger, but no dice.

Babel, however, looked extremely dangerous in his 20 minutes on the field. The last time I saw Babel was at the U-20 World Cup in the Netherlands and I could immediately see the improvement. (This not to say he was a poor player in 2005 – quite the opposite, in fact. He stood out in a tremendous group of attackers from the host nation.)

It’s a mixed bag – we’re loaded in the center of the park and up top, but the wings will trouble us. (Riise manning the left wing in front of Arbeloa will be less of an issue – he will provide a steady stream of ferocious Viking crosses and berserker free kicks.) The defensive pairing of Agger-Carragher had its shaky moments, but together they compare favorably with the best center-backs in the world.

After the game, I was left with this daunting conclusion: if the Reds are to have any chance of challenging Chelsea and Man U, I believe Babel on the wing must be the key player. That’s too much to ask from the young man and so I fear in the end, the lack of solid right winger will prevent us from challenging for the top spot.

My prediction is second place if things go right, with another third place finish the more likely scenario. But hey, that’s not too bad – it’ll be four or five spots higher than that flash-in-the-pan scum from Everton!

Going Forward

We’ve got Toulouse up on the mid-week – and we all know what that means. Crouchie Boy will feature up front! Yes, the European punisher Peter Crouch will likely start tonight against the Frenchies. A poet on the ball with the lanky good looks that drive the British women batty with desire, Crouch will be at the double tonight as the Merseysiders pile up the away goals, 4-1.