English football season climax

This time of year is normally quite sad, because as exciting as it is, the football season is coming to an end. At least this year we'll have Euro 2012 and the Olympics in London to get us through the summer!

The Football League season came to a conclusion yesterday, with Southampton taking the final automatic promotion place to the join Reading in the Premier League next season. 
And although Wolves will be playing in the Championship next year, all is still to play for in the fight to beat the drop. I have to make special mention of Wolves and their manager Terry Connor who put on a fantastic display yesterday, even though they were only playing for pride. I think Mick McCarthy, Terry Connor, the players and the fans of Wolves have been treated despicably by the board of their club and even though things have not always gone right for them on the pitch they will go down with dignity. 

Swansea v Wolves

Terry Connor should never really have been put in the position of trying to drag Wolves out of the mire, and Wolves should have made sure they had a manager in place before sacking McCarthy. If rumours are to believed, there were managers that turned down the position on the salary alone; if the Wolves board had put their money where there mouth is, they might have had a fighting chance. 

So, any three from five for relegation from the Premier League. Although Aston Villa would seem to be in the box seat, three points and three goals from six games in April is definitely relegation form. I think they are up against it personally. They are not helped by the fact that the teams around them seem to have hit very good form at just the right time. 

Wigan have had just about their best month in their entire history according to manager Roberto Martinez; they have beaten Newcastle United, Arsenal, Manchester United and Liverpool in recent times and if it wasn't for a poor display by the match officials they would have beaten Chelsea as well. Massive credit to chairman Dave Whelan for sticking by his manager, and also for Martinez for sticking to his principles. 

Mark Hughes has got Queens Park Rangers playing some good football recently, and they have beaten Tottenham, Arsenal and Liverpool in the last month or so. The form is there, but the trouble has been keeping eleven players on the pitch, and they will need eleven players to take points from Chelsea, Stoke and Man City.

Bolton manager Owen Coyle said recently that he believes his squad would have been in the top ten if they'd stayed fit all season, which may be the case as they play an attractive game; but they will need to show heart with grit and determination to stay up. They are well capable of beating Stoke and West Brom though, so they are in with a real chance. 

Blackburn on the other hand are three points from safety at the moment, and I think if they are to even have a hope they will need three wins from three games. Unfortunately they have to play Tottenham, Wigan and Chelsea so the writing may already be on the wall. Albeit Blackburn have been in the bottom three for most of the season, Steve Kean deserves a lot of credit. Few football managers have ever had to work in the face of such adversity and vitriolic abuse from the supposed supporters. These fans should be ashamed of themselves, and I wonder if any of think that if they had got behind the manager and his team a bit earlier, would they still be in this position. 


Good luck to all, and I hope the climax to the season is as exciting as it promises to be. 

SPORT SHORTS

• I am enjoying the World Championship snooker at the Crucible so far. The highlight has been Stephen Hendry's maximum in the first round, as well as him getting through to the quarter finals by beating defending champion John Higgins 13-4. 9/1 for the title anyone?
• I think playing midweek fixtures in the Premier League three and four days before the cup final is not ideal for either team. I hope the occasion is befitting of the history of the FA Cup, and I also hope unashamedly that Liverpool win. 
• Not long until the cricket season starts; England have not been on a great run of form. Will they still be the number one test side in the world after the summer?
• The Premier League title could well be decided tomorrow in the Manchester derby. I think the score will be Man City 3-1 Man Utd. The game is at the Etihad Stadium, and I don't think Man Utd's defence can live with Aguero, Tevez and co.

Follow me on Twitter!

Where is it going wrong at Liverpool?

Kenny Dalglish in despair

After only taking eight points from eleven games in the Premier League since the turn of the year, where is it all going wrong? If you you purely look at the statistics, it is difficult to tell. First things first, we haven't scored anywhere near enough goals. Luis Suarez has consistently played well, exceptionally so at times, but has not scored enough goals; a conversion rate of 7.7% is well below par for a player of Suarez's calibre. Carroll is starting to play better and better all the time, but needs to start hitting the back of the net on a regular basis. And our most consistent striker Craig Bellamy is at the wrong end of his career to be playing twice a week. In minutes per goal, Bellamy is nearly twice as effective as Suarez.

All round, scoring less than one in ten shots at goal is not even close to being anywhere near acceptable enough for Liverpool Football Club. 1.2 goals per game is never going to win too many games in the Premier League, particularly when your defence starts to falter. Until the last few weeks we have had one of the best defensive records in the Premier League, but with mistakes creeping in at the back, our frailties around the rest of the pitch have been highlighted. I was also surprised to read that Liverpool have only scored two goals from set pieces all season. Set piece goals are your bread and butter, so if you factor that in with poor stats from open play. Dalglish suggested fatigue was a factor in yesterdays defeat to Wigan, but if that is the case then the squad is not big enough. 


Aside of the lack of goals, individual mistakes have started to happen at the back. Against Queens Park Rangers on Wednesday Jordan Henderson, Martin Skrtel and Jose Enrique were at fault for the goals in my opinion. Henderson and Skrtel should have done more to stop QPR winning the ball in the air in our penalty area, and the last goal with Enrique was just one of those mistakes that happens every now and again. Skrtel is not normally one for giving less than 100% (to our cost on the odd occasion) so that was out of character. And Henderson has never really settled. For me, he is not and never will be a right midfielder so some below par performances can be forgiven. I think he may have been bought as a long-term replacement for Steven Gerrard, but these are incredibly big boots to fill and he will need to step his all-round game up if he is to get anywhere close. 

Albeit there are things that are not quite right at the moment, there are many positives for Liverpool. We have got one trophy in the cabinet already, and we are in the semi-final of the greatest domestic cup competition in the world. We have some fantastic young players that have forced their way in to the team this season, and a few more that are waiting in the wings. Jay Spearing continues to prove that you don't have to be six foot tall to be a success in the Premier League, and Martin Kelly has performed exceptionally at right full-back when called upon. As good as he has been at full-back, I think Kelly is an ideal long term successor to Jamie Carragher. He has all the attributes as far as I can see. We also have Jon Flanagan, Raheem Sterling, Jonjo Shelvey, Sebastien Coates and Jack Robinson who have made positive cameos here and there. 

We might not be where all Reds fans want us to be, but is it all that bad? No. Is Kenny Dalglish the right man for the job? Yes. People forget that before Mr Henry and his Fenway Group took charge of the club we were hours away from RBS calling in a rather large debt that would have sent us in to administration. We also had a squad that was thin on the ground to say the least, so without doubt things are heading in the right direction. Despite early season optimism we were never really going to win the Premier League this year with bringing in so many new players, but at least we have won a trophy with the potential of another, and hopefully this will create the hunger in the squad to make bigger strides in the league next year. 

Time will tell......

Follow me on Twitter!