Football conundrum for Liverpool FC - Gerrards awkward position

Arsenal 3 Liverpool 0 - This morning I watched todays game at the Emirates Stadium between Arsenal and Liverpool and can only surmise that Liverpool Football Club seem to be in a state of turmoil. Todays performance against Arsenal was woefully below what is expected of a high quality premiership side such as Liverpool.

Steven Gerrards continued role as a right midfielder is becoming more of an issue for all football commentators (BBC Sport - Benitez shrugs off Gerrard debate) and plenty have noted the folly of playing one of the best central midfielders in the country in a position that is not natural for him.

As a guide to disseminating the choice of playing Gerrard on the right hand side I would suggest putting yourself in Arsene Wengers shoes. What would Wenger be thinking (and most Arsenal fans) when they saw how Liverpool shaped up before the game today? Gerrard playing out on the right side of the field ; Wenger must have been delighted with that.

There were many strange looks from Gerrard to his bench throughout the game, showing his confusion. Rafael Benitez has a constant rotation policy for his team, but playing your best players out of position definitely is not going to win him any admirers. Especially amongst the Liverpool fans.

After the game Benitez said

"Steven was playing in the middle for part of the second half and we didn't create many chances.

"We need to improve as a team and not think about one or two players."

That’s not a great way to motivate your players and Gerrard will surely feel these remarks as criticism from his manager. Justifying his decision to play Gerrard in right midfield by questioning Gerrards lack of influence when he did play him in the Centre of Midfield does not bode well. It is as if Benitez is saying that he wasn't effective in the Centre of Midfield even when he moved him to the centre and therefore his decision to play him on the right was correct.

Well Gerrard certainly did not influence the game on the right. Troubled times indeed for Liverpool.

Arsenal on the other hand are doing their up most to keep up with the phenomenal win rate of Manchester United and Chelsea. Today they looked like a great team, playing with lots of movement, fluidity and able to break down Liverpool on numerous occasions. I hope they can hang on to the coattails of the leading 2 to make this a Premiership season to remember. I am sure we will see some great press conferences and touchline dramas courtesy of Jose Mourinho, Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger if the 3 teams can stay neck and neck through the season. Those battles/mindgames could be as exciting as the Football matches themselves and reminiscent of Kevin Keegans emotional outpouring below :



Funny Video
Totally off the topic of Football is this brilliant video in a similar vein to Trigger Happy TV. It's amazing the things people will put up with and do when you point a camera and microphone at them...enjoy

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Football - Leg Breaking, Rib Cracking, Gum Splitting Fun

Today was one of them defining moments in a football players career. This morning, looking forward to my lunchtime game, I had to search to the back of the medicine cabinet to find ibuprofen, the magic painkiller tablet. Actually anything would have sufficed but ibuprofen was the painkiller of choice at all my old football clubs, so habits die-hard.

I needed it because my back/ribs and my body were generally hurting from a little game I had during the week. But a Sunday game was too much too resist, so out came the painkillers. 2 x 200mg did the trick.

Oh for the days when my enthusiasm and a bit of arm twisting by the coach meant I would play with a broken foot, cracked ribs, and half my lip hanging off!

West Bromwich Albion was the scene of my three heroic injury ravaged games. The first was when Paul Mardon tackled me in a training session on a Monday. All week I received treatment for the excruciating pain in my foot. No chance of playing on Saturday, I thought to myself. Friday, the boss asked me to do a fitness test. Our physiotherapist watched me hobble around the field 3 times.

“How is it”? He asked me.

“Very painful”, I told him.

“You will be ok though for tomorrow”

I looked at him in disbelief. “You’re kidding”, I said

But he wasn’t. The next day I sat in the spacious home dressing room at West Bromwich Albion, wondering how on earth I could play a professional game of Football with a limp. The physio called me into his treatment room and out came the doctor and a needle. They pumped something into the side of my bony foot and a few minutes later I could have run the marathon. The injection got me through 25 minutes of the first half before the pain started to creep back into my foot. By the end of the first half I could hardly walk straight. Half time arrived and I thought I would finally get my relief. Not so, as I was given a second injection. This was getting a bit crazy, as there was definitely something wrong with my foot. I played for a short time in the second half before having to come off. The club sent me to the Hospital for x-rays, which revealed a broken metatarsal.

What is a Broken Metatarsal?

The next injury was playing with a cracked rib. Ugo Ehiogu had elbowed me in a pre-season game against Aston Villa, and cracked my rib. Apart from being extremely painful it is possible to play with this injury. The consensus of opinion at the time was that as long as you can handle the pain, then you could play. A few hefty doses (2 x 600mg) of ibuprofen and I was able to continue playing.

The last of my injury woes was splitting my bottom lip open v Halifax, away at their stadium, live on T/V, with West Bromwich Albion succumbing to the unfortunate 1st round cup exit syndrome that afflicts all Professional Teams.



I met a cross at the near post and scored. In doing so, the defender had headed my bottom jaw and knocked my top teeth into the flesh of the inside of my mouth and bottom lip. There was blood everywhere, and no chance to be substituted as we had used all of our players. We were losing so the only choice was to carry on. I held some gauze over the chunk of flesh that was hanging out of my lip and played on. The final whistle confirmed our cup exit and I was sent to the physiotherapist room to have my mouth stitched up. I always felt bad when I lost a game, but this was a shock cup exit (us being the Golliath) and a smashed up mouth. The weekend was not a good one....

Which brings me to this very funny video I found on You Tube.

Football Injury Training



Football Injury Treatment

Football Penalty Masterclass

I took quite a few penalties during my career and only missed a couple. I spent countless hours on the training ground practicing the execution of the penalty kick. A lot of this time was without the goalkeeper in the net. My theory was that if the ball was accurate enough the keeper would be unable to get the ball regardless of whether he dived the correct way. Therefore I struck 1,000s of Footballs into both corners of the net until I felt so comfortable doing this that the day of reckoning (a penalty on match day) would be relatively easy (that's the theory).



What I was not able to do, which Cantona does so well in this video is predict which way the keeper was going to dive and then decide a split second later to strike the ball into the opposite corner of the goal.

I would pick my corner before taking the kick and focus all my thoughts and energy into placing the ball in that place. Most athletes use this kind of technique (visualization) to enable themselves to focus and not to be distracted.

Visualization :

Visualization is the process of creating a mental image or intention, of what you want to happen or to feel. An athlete can use this technique to 'intend' an outcome of a race, training session or simply rest in a feeling of calm and well-being. Or in this instance a Penalty Kick in a game of Football. By imagining a scene, complete with images or movies, of a previous best performance or a new desired outcome, the athlete will simply 'step into' that feeling. It is a common technique and proven to be very successful for many top athletes.

Cantonas high level of prediction and split second timing is phenomenal. He is not even visualizing where he is going to strike the ball, although I am sure he is visualizing a positive outcome. I believe what he is doing is waiting for the keeper to move or show him a sign in which direction he is going to dive. Up until that point Cantona has no pre-conceived idea of where he will place the ball. Cantonas approach is very straight to the ball, allowing himself to open up his body and right foot at the last minute and place the ball to the right of the keeper, or continue the more natural strike of the ball to the left of the keeper.

It's a fantastic skill and if you don't believe me try it in the park. Get a friend to go in goal and wait for him/her to move and see if you are able to place the ball with ease in the other corner.....