All You Need Is Green Grass and a Ball

It's a simple game.

You need something to use as a ball(actual soccer ball, tennis ball, bunch of rags tied up as a ball, whatever), some players and some space, preferably with some grass.

These are the essentials that every coach and player needs to edify, etch permanently, tattoo and chisel into their brain.

Without these three elements you cannot play the game.

Let's talk about the key elements of places where you can play.

Anywhere. It only need be relatively flat, not on a hill, and preferably not near a cliff. I have played in tennis courts, back yards (I destroyed my parents barn door practicing free kicks), pastures, driveways, streets, parking lots, and all classes of fields, from muddy swamps, to unbelievably green and pleasant. It should be clear of obstructions, although minor ones like large rocks and shrubs help you pat attention to your surroundings and keep your head up. One guy I played with used his parents shrubberies as a "wall" to shoot over and around. After he nearly killed them by consistently hitting it for a couple of months, he became quite good.

Nets. Got a couple of shoes, rocks, jackets? Well put them on the ground and use them. Be prepared to argue that it went in when it didn't and vice versa. Arguing is part of the game.

Balls. Get them anywhere. They are cheap. Even the worst ones will last a month or so. If not use a basketball, volleyball, European handball. Just make sure it has some bounce and will roll a bit.

Players: Anybody who wants to play. From 2 to 200, who cares. Get them on the field. Just pass and move. Shoot and score. Stop and save.

Just play the game.

haters gonna hate.......YNWA Liverpool FC

In the words of the great post modern philosopher, Taylor Swift, "haters gonna hate hate hate".

Well stop it.

Liverpool FC sucks. We all know it. And picking on us is like a pack of hyenas going after a wounded three legged rhino. It's just mean.

Every club, team or squad (other than those with infinite bank accounts accumulated through oil wealth and political influence, or banking, real estate and television stations). The Boston Red Sox and pork belly futures can only take you so far.

So how does a coach or manager  get a team back on track. Or even near a track they should be on?

Amateur coaches like me are faced with this challenge every season. Every team is new and needs to be examined and evaluated as to what its potential is at the start of a season, to see what has to be done to make them a good team and better players.


Here is the "Barefoot Scousers" approach to the start of the season:


1. Get the players together for their first training session. Do a FIFA 11+ style warm up. make the course about 30 to 40 metres in length. This will allow you to assess player focus to instructions, fitness, attention to detail and attitude. Detail and attitude are important. Are they maximizing the benefits from the warm up, are they "cutting corners", do they care? A very good initial fitness assessment can be done at this time and used a yardstick for the balance of the season. If they are huffing and puffing at the end of the warm up, they are out of shape. make note of it and work it into your future practice sessions.

The link to FIFA11+ is as follows:  http://f-marc.com/11plus/manual/


2. Run a couple of game based training drills. Use passing and movement, or possession as the objectives. This allows you to focus on the single most important aspect of technique. Touch. You can see how a player receives a ball, how they pass a ball, and how they move in relation to the ball when they aren't in possession. Fitness comes into play here  as well.

3. Lastly, run a larger game, using keepers if you have two, or multiple small target goals ( such as PUGG or Kwik Goal), and assess tactical ability, competitiveness, physicality and desire.


Take from this session all the information that you can, and develop a short and medium term training plan to address short comings and enhance strengths.


Next post will be about a short and medium term plan to develop passing and fitness.

And Liverpool FC transfer goals that don't include Chelsea FC loanees.

YNWA

Hal White

The Barefoot Scouser

Why Always Us?

This is a little riff on Super Mario's infamous under shirt at Man City. It isn't reality, it's just how it feels. We are in a new reality. New(ish) manager, new players and worst of all new expectations.

New(ish) Manager.

Brendan is not really new, but he is a stranger in a strange land. Three English competitions and the Champions League. This is not an incremental difference, it is exponential. The challenge is to stay in the top four AND to stay in the Champion's League as long as possible. League Cup and FA Cup? Well, as far as money and players are concerned, they don't matter. To achieve the results the Club needs Rodger's has to train and play on a 3-4 game schedule and balance and rotate his squads to achieve the maximum results. He has, in my opinion the players, he has yet to truly work out the balance, especially with the numerous injury challenges he has faced all season. It is as much art as science to determine the proper balance and rotation.

New Players

This is a touchy subject. Luis Saurez cannot be replaced. Full period stop. This means that the new players cannot be expected to play like Saurez, nor can Liverpool play like they have sure in their ranks. They must play their 2014-2015 game with the very good horses they got. This will take time, and maybe more time than this season alone. It may be two seasons to get the right mix of training, playing and players to get the squad playing like a perennial Champion's League qualifier and contender. Again, art and science.

GREAT EXPECTATIONS

This is the elephant in the room. It's on the players backs, the manager's back, the training staff's backs and the owners backs.  Players want to succeed, and when it isn't immediate, their expectations wears them down. The Manager is expected to succeed. When he doesn't, he makes little changes and when that doesn't work he makes more, and more and more, losing opportunities for consistency and long term progress. The owners expect results and results mean money. Poor results mean change.

Fans are the baboons in the background. Howling for success that was always there, but seriously hasn't been for a long long time.

Everybody, and I mean everybody needs to lighten up. We will get there. It won't be easy, and it will take a little longer than anybody would like. We are building a foundation for long term success. Once the foundation is built, the success will follow.

I haven't written anything for more than a year because I was afraid I might jinx last years success. I was superstitious. So, for better or worse, I'm back.

YNWA

I Want Forty Million Pounds (and a striker available all season)

We need to spend. And we need to spend a little more than we would normally.

Why? Because when other teams are travelling to other hot spots in the Champions League, our players  will be spending their weeks training and hanging out in Liverpool. And as great a city as Liverpool is, if nothing else, Madrid is a lot nicer in January. And so is Rome, Istanbul and many others.

But, if we are going to ask high quality players to sacrifice a season, maybe two, not playing in the Champions League, we will have to compensate them for the sacrifice and compensate them well.

So where do we get the money?

Sell Luis Saurez. Sell him high and outside of England. Liverpool is clearly no longer going to get its money's worth from him. He doesn't want to stay, and he keeps (stupidly) getting suspended. This is a recipe for disaster. He will become the next Torres, and Liverpool cannot afford to have that situation arise.

What can we do with forty million? 3.25 Daniel Sturridges, a Micah Richards, Wanyama, an Anelka as a spare, the possibilities are endless.

We need a striker, and a centre back,  like a Robert Huth, or Vermalaen type player. We also need to find an attacking midfield play maker. We have three years before Stevie G packs it in and we need to search and invest now.

We need that new anchor, or anchors to move the team forward. We need the next Stevie G, Carra, or Torres. And we need to pay it forward. If they can't get Champion's League football, then the only thing the Club can give them is $$.

And real money, will only come from Luis Saurez.

Life is Hard for a Liverpool Fan

I love my family. Two beautiful daughters. Both outstanding players and fans of the game, except one loves Manchester United, and the other loves Chelsea. I could blame their mother, my ex-wife, but she too is a Liverpool fan. So where did a doting father and die hard Red go wrong.

I let them watch television.

I let them see other teams play, I let them see Edwin Van Der Sar (one daughter is a goal keeper), and the other one thought Joe Cole was "hot". Try as I might I couldn't convince them to see Reina and Craig Bellamy and Robbie Fowler and Grobellar in the same light.

The up side is, and there is an upside, is that at least four times per season we all sit together and watch a game and scream and shout for "our boys" and for the bragging rights for the season. Now I haven't had as much to brag about the last few years, but it's going to change. Unfortunately not before my eldest moves away to study engineering (Chelsea fan) leaving me with my youngest one ( and massive Manc fan) and all the grief I anticipate from another massive Man U season. Things go just too fast. I'll miss her, and her taunts about how good those Chelsea b*****ds are.

I guess I need to find someone who likes Chelsea to watch the games with.

Enjoy University.

You'll Never Walk Alone.

Even if you are a Chelsea fan

Hal White

Liverpool's Long Long Transfer(less) Summer

It's a little dull out there right now, but this article helps (sort of) explain where we are heading and why there is still a little hope.....

http://www.thisisanfield.com/2013/07/its-turning-into-a-long-summer-for-liverpool-fans/

WALK ON

YNWA

HAL WHITE

Luis Saurez----Should He Stay or Should He Go.....

Should I stay or should I go now

If I go their will be trouble

If I stay it will be double
So come on and let me know
Should I cool it or should I go

I miss The Clash, but more importantly I miss the loyalty of players to the Club. Steven Gerrard and Carra are probably creatures of a different century, a different upbringing.  Maybe what I really miss is directness. Where a player says something honest, like, " I want more money! That will make me stay ". 

But these are different times. Players say things like "the press are mean to me", "I'm homesick" and then their agent starts to make noise.

So Luis Saurez, what do you do?  He is a fantastic player. Scores goals, is aggressive, has great instincts, terrific pace, and disrupts the defensive lines effortlessly. He also regularly gets banned from games, causes distraction to the development of the squad, and makes noise direct and indirect about leaving the squad.

He makes about 4.5 million pounds per year, and misses on average 6 games (so far) per season. And still score more goals than most players in the EPL.

Today we here that the spendthrift Arsenal were offering €30000000 for Saurez. If true he must surely be worth double! 

My opinion, sell. Just using the Arsenal figure of €30000000 is an amount that could well set up Liverpool's financial stability for the years to come. It would allow for the acquisition , now and in the future, of solid players to get us back into Europe and, more importantly, to stay there.