Spain stunned plenty of soccer fans with their 1-0 win over Germany at the Euro 2008 in Vienna but that was six weeks ago and now the European clubs are getting into gear for the regular season. I posted a brief, opinionated view of the major transfers and manager situations for the EPL at the reborn SportsFilter but in this post I’ll focus on my team of choice, Liverpool FC.
Fernando Torres showed us he was worth every pence of his £21 million transfer fee, delivering 33 goals, second only to to Joan Laporta’s heart’s desire CRonaldo. Torres was arguably the second best player at the Euros as well and one can only hope that his goal tally was limited by the so-called adjustment that players new to the English style must go through.
Last Season’s Key Additions
- Centerback Martin Skrtel, though if Daniel Agger is healthy again the two are likely to battle all season for minutes,
- Alvaro Arbeloa and Fabio Aurelio at fullback pushed Steve Finnan and my boy John Arne Riise to the bench and then Riise last month all the way to AS Roma, but Rafa Benitez still wasn’t satisfied as he brought in two new men, Andrea Dossena and Phillip Degen, to strengthen the back line. Aurelio also added heft at left midfield on occasion in the late months.
- Yossi Benayoun made his mark mostly in Champions League and coming off the bench, the Israeli’s speed and style when defenders tire resulting in 11 goals.
- Ryan Babel had 10 goals including my favorite score of the year when the Dutch youngster used his buttocks to tap one into the Besiktas net during an 8-0 Champions League drubbing.
- Lucas Leiva is an aspiring midfield playmaker, currently on the Brazil Olympic squad, who could be the biggest loser if our owners finally come up with the dosh to buy Gareth Barry.
- Andriy Voronin is likely to find himself scraping for playing time again, despite the departure of Peter Crouch, because the team did not spend £20 million to sit Robbie Keane on the bench.
This Summer’s Changes
Here’s the BBC Sports in and out list for the Reds this summer, minus youngster loan outs:
Ins: David Ngog (Paris St Germain, undisclosed), Emmanuel Mendy (Murcia Deportivo, free), Diego Cavalieri (Palmeiras, undisclosed), Andrea Dossena (Udinese, undisclosed), Philipp Degen (Borussia Dortmund, free), Robbie Keane (Tottenham, £20.3m).
Outs: Scott Carson (West Brom, £3.25m), Peter Crouch (Portsmouth, £11m), Harry Kewell (Galatasaray, free), Anthony le Tallec (Le Mans, undisclosed), John Arne Riise (Roma, £4m), Danny Guthrie (Newcastle, undisclosed). Argentinean youngster Sebastian Leto had to be loaned out to Olympiakos, losing his work permit when his Italian passport was voided.
The significant departures are Crouch, Riise and Leto. I really felt that Rafa undervalued Crouch and Riise, neither getting enough minutes to be fully effective. Riise, to be fair, also seemed to have misplaced his booming left foot, his free kicks and shots from distance going wide or high all year. But the beanpole striker did the business when given an opportunity, unmatched on the squad in his ability to bring the ball down off long passes and keep it until a mate was in range, totalling 42 goals in 142 appearances for the Reds over three years. The only surprising aspect of Scott Carson’s deparure was the low price; early gossip had him going for nearly three times as much!
Who are the New Boys?
Robbie Keane is the known quantity, scoring 15 times for Tottenham last season, but surplus to Juande Ramos needs in the Spaniard’s first transfer window in charge. (More on Tottenham). Everyone seems to be drooling over the pairing of Torres and the Republic of Ireland captain and all-time goal scorer because Keane can create for his striking partner as well as he puts it in the net.
Degen and Dossena (Swiss and Italian internationals) as mentioned will replace Riise and Finnan in the primary fullback rotation. Finnan is still on the squad but he’s been mentioned as make-weight in more than one transfer deal or going out on his own in the £2-3 million range.
David Ngog is a hot young striker from France, only 19, but likely to be more bad news for Andriy Voronin’s playing time if he can get up to speed quickly. For sure he means that Babel and Dirk Kuyt will be mainly deployed on the wings and not their preferred place in the middle.
Cavalieri comes as veteran goalkeeper backup for Pepe Reina as apparently Charles Itandje did not suffice in the limited role allowed by Reina’s playing every minute of every EPL and FA Cup match plus most of the Champions League games.
Mendy is a young Spanish right back and hasn’t even been assigned a shirt number, meaning he’ll be playing for the reserve team at least this season. Benitez tends to sign a lot of these youngsters and so far not too many have pushed their way into the senior squad.
I’ll post some thoughts on what these changes may do for us in the upcoming season soon.
As I wrote on SpoFi, Tottenham has made the boldest money moves and the Spaniard will surely be under pressure to do better than last season’s water treading. He cleaned house, may still get a rumored $70M+ for Dimitar Berbetov from Sir Alex Ferguson and ultra-hot Russian playmaker Andrei Arshavin, and bought a lot of quality: Keeper Heurelho Gomes is a big upgrade from Paul Robinson, Luka Modric is coming into his own as a midfield commander, Giovani dos Santos showed flashes of greatness when he could get onto the field at star-studded Barcelona and David Bentley was the hottest winger available inside the EPL.
BillSaysThis 