When will Andy Carroll pay off? The player as an investment.

When does Big Andy play?

When the boss says he does, and that won't be one second before he is fit, nor should it be.

Andy Carroll and all professional athletes are true investments for a professional sporting clubs. They make the individual club better, they draw fans and sell jerseys. In short they make money for the club/business as well as play the game. For some players business and play are equal, others not so much, but fundamentally they are assets.

How does this translate into the amateur club that we are familiar with in Canada and the United States? It is exactly the same. The player is the greatest asset a club has both playing wise and business wise.

The playing aspect is the easiest to understand. Players equal teams, teams equal games, games equal exposure. Training these players is the equivalent to investing your money in good banks. If the investment is planned wisely, it will grow. If the investment starts early then it will grow exponentially and the dividends will be large. In soccer speak, begin the training of the fundamentals early in their lives, and the players will be that much better as they get older.

Now these "investments" will make better teams, these better teams will achieve greater results, and these greater result will attract more players to the club. More players make both a larger and arguably a better club.

Larger and better makes for a more popular and "profitable" club. 

Clubs invest in their players and programs by providing well trained coaches who can provide consistency for the players over time. Parent coaches are important, but they too must be trained, and the better ones encouraged to provide the advanced coaching for the advanced players and to do so for as long as they are able. This provides consistency both to players and the consumers (the families). Consistency will also lead to success, so long as it isn't consistent failure.

Liverpool had consistent coaching from the time of Shankly until the end of Kenny Dalglish's first tenure. It was the era of the "Boot Room". The methods, the thinking, the philosophy was all consistent. There were some good spells after Dalglish left the first time, but not consistently as it had been in the past. Hopefully the future lies in the fundamentals of the past. 

Be consistent, be patient and invest in your players. It will pay off.

What happens when we shoot.

This is by no means a rhetorical question, but the answer might be clearer if the question is asked the other way; what happens if we don't shoot?

If we don't shoot, we can't score. There that is the bottom line. If you don't take a chance on goal, there is no chance to score a goal. Then the only possible way to score is for your opponent to score on their own net and that leaves too much to chance. And point is, they aren't likely to do that for you.

Now, why shoot? Simple to score goals, if not directly, but also from opportunities arising from a loose ball in the 6 yard box. Also, the thing is, the more shots taken, means more opportunities to score. Several studies done over the last three decades concluded that, on average, it took 9 shots to score one goal at the professional level. All things being equal, including shooting skills and techniques and goal keeping skills and techniques, then it really should be about the same ratio at the amateur levels as well.

Liverpool has, over the past several months, began a gradual increase in their shots/attempts at goal. This has in turn led to, surprise more goals. More goals has led to,......more victories.

With respect to my amateur sides I have tried to encourage shooting at the net upon every reasonable opportunity. Who am I kidding, I tell them to shoot whenever they are within a certain distance from the net (usually anywhere inside the arc/"D" of the 18 yard box. I don't want them to think, I want them to shoot.

This is not an original sentiment, Bob Paisley, another famous Liverpool manager put it best when he said:

If you’re in the penalty area and don’t know what to do with the ball, put it in the net and we’ll discuss the options later.


In normal speak, DON'T THINK, SHOOT!!!


In the game below the players stay in their own halves. The field should be short 25-30 yards, and wide 35-40 yards. The number 8's are goal poachers and the remaining players are to be encouraged to take shots from range, and quickly. If a ball goes out of bounds, the coach is to put a ball back into play quickly.


Walk On 

Hal White

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InthehscJ

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The Game Ball or how to score 3 goals all by yourself!!

Yesterday, April 23 I watched Tottenham draw against West Bromich Albion. It is readily apparent that the gift of Roy Hodgson keeps on giving. Not only did he set the squad up well for his departure he is really sticking it to our competition.

Harry Redknapp was playing it safe, and looking for the three points. Play with sufficient offence and take no unnecessary chances. Just get the win.

How did that work for him?

Well they blew it and have placed themselves under additional pressure in the run up to the end of the season, and a Champion's leagues position and/or a Europa League spot.

At 75 minutes they had a 2-1 lead and placed 10 men behind the ball. They limited their attacks and attempted to absorb pressure. The Baggies need the points to stay out of relegation. It was clear who was more desperate to get points. 

At 80 minutes the score was tied. Did Harry have a back up plan, not for another 9 minutes, when with five minutes (including extra time) remaining he put on Peter Crouch. Too little, too late!!

Why, when you are desperate for points do you stop attacking? Why when aspects of the season are still in doubt, do you sit back and just barely defend? Complacency? Over confidence? Nope, fear of adventure and of losing $$.

This of course isn't what happened at Liverpool yesterday. Five goals against Birmingham, they didn't defend  a lead and aggressively attacked to expand it. Who really knows why, but one thing is certain they are doing well on the goal differential calculation for the time being viv a vis Spurs.

Now Maxi(mus) Rodriguez, how did he score three goals? Because the whole team attacked and he was the fortunate beneficiary of that collective effort.

Training Idea


Soccer is a simple game in theory and it should be that in its execution. If one accepts the fundamental importance of passing and movement then the simplicity of the following small sided game is the soccer equivalent of the discovery of DNA. That being said I admit I am a big fan of this game because it forces the players to pass/move/defend/look/dribble/get fitter etc etc. Depending  upon how you tweak the game you can change the emphasis with ease.

It is called the "Gates Game" by my squads and is also called the "Parma Game" where it is rumoured to have been invented.

You need a 20x30 field, 4 players per side, and five gates (about 2m wide) randomly placed around the playing area. You can have more players, but their must always be one more gate than the number of players each team has (e.g. 6 players 7 gates).

The object, pass the ball through an open gate (you can also dribble through if looking to emphasize possession skills) to a team mate. The players are in constant motion looking for an open space, using wall passes, man marking, looking for an open goal etc.

First team to 10 wins.

The game will encourage long passes, changes of direction and attack and when played at high intensity, will be very physically demanding.

The layout is as below:

Here 11 passes  to 10 to score.  10 then passes to 9. 11 then moves to  receive a pass from 9 for a second goal.

Simple, fast and effective. A quick set up and easy to learn.

So do you want more goals, more movement and a hat trick like Maxi Rodriguez. Pass and move!!!

Walk On

Hal White

Maxi(mus) Maxi(mus) Maxi(mus) Rodriguez Compilation- Argentina and Atletico Madrid

Was I right or was I right

Now let's stop the Roy Hodgson bashing if there is still any out there doing it. He isn't nor was he ever incompetent. He may not have even been over matched by the Club. No it may well have been that this year (and arguably last year) Liverpool just sucked.

Harsh words from a Liverpool fan, but come on. We can beat Man Utd, Chelsea, amongst others and cannot beat Blackpool and my father in laws beloved Wolves. No depth, no desire and dwindling ambition? Is that it or is it more?

As my father used to say it isn't just one thing that is wrong it usually is five or six things.

Here are my top five things to fix.

1. Fix the Academy and start to develop more in house talent within the Club. Recruit these players from England and abroad. The next Steven Gerrad is not necessarily from somewhere on the Mersey, he might even be from, god forbid, Spain (Cesc Fabregas ring a bell).

2. Look to replace Gerrard and Carragher now. Identify their possible replacements as best a you can and train them in the style and method of these two legends. Don't wait until they are past it. Do it now.

3. Fix the platform of the squad by retooling the back four. Keep Skrtel and Martin Kelly (and Carra for the time being) and move on. Yes even get rid of Glen Johnson. Once the base of the field of play is fixed the play can start to move forward with a lot more confidence.

4. Invest in a new Stadium or drastically expand the current one. Look at the Gunners. There model is enviable and should be followed by more clubs that don't have rich Russian owners.This allows for more game day revenue and perhaps some real estate opportunities.

5. Play with a minimum of two strikers, and maybe even three. Yes, the time of the lone flash striker is done. The strength of the squad is currently in Saurez, Carroll, and Kuyt (and once in awhile N'Gog) and should be exploited.

There my top five, and it doesn't even include my thoughts on FA Cup over the league, and how to replace King Kenny.

That is all.

Oh yeah, Roy great job last weekend. We don't miss you , but I knew you had it in you.

WALK ON

Hal White

Heineken "The Pain Barrier" Commercial World Cup 2002

Welcome back welcome back welcome back........

Nothing better than an old '70's TV Theme to herald the the return of Roy Hodgson to Anfield this weekend with West Brom under his command. Now I predicted that he would be hired by Liverpool last summer and that he would do very very well. How wrong I was, or was I?

Hodgson was a manager used to scrappy teams with little or no budgets and a David of David and Goliath attitude. Here he was getting one fo the largest coach
Ing prizes of the world. Unfortunately the team was in shambles, several players wanted out, and the owners had no money and couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery. The players, although professionals, are human, and were part of this pressure and uncertainty and it showed in their play. Hodgson, by experience, was familiar with teams that absorbed lots of pressure and played on the counter attack, or for the tie (anyone say Fulham, Inter, etc ). Now Liverpool couLd and has played this style in the past as required in Champion's league games or FA Cup matches , but that wasn't the team last summer, no it was far far from it.

No Roy Hodgson received a team in psychic decline. A team that no longer believed in it's abilities and had no confidence in the leadership of the owners and consequently the manager.
So what happens this weekend? Liverpool are in for along tough afternoon
. Hodgson will have a team fighting to stay up and that plays a style more suited to
his tastes, and that chose him because they needed him, not because they were desperate but because they knew he was suited for this job, more so than he was for the Liverpool job.

So Reds you got rid of Roy at Anfield, but he is very very capable of stinging you upon his return.
Welcome back welcome back welcome back.....