Archive for the 'My Writing' Category

Comolli departure

Published on 12 April 2012 in football, Liverpool Football Club, My Writing and Transfers. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

Some thoughts after Director of Football, Damien Comolli, leaves Liverpool ‘by mutual consent’…

Comolli departure has got people playing the blame game, debating whether Comolli deserved to go because of  ’his failed signings’. This is presuming a few things:

1. That Comolli was sacked. It’s quite possible that he really did have family issues that needed attention. His departure could have nothing to do with his performance in the ‘infamous’ Director of Football role.

2. That Comolli had more of the say in what transfers were made. Kenny has just come out saying that he agreed with all the signingsand his comments suggest that Comolli was more there to capture players after Dalglish had made the decision. Even if some signings were overpriced it must be remembered that we are not in the Champions League (so asking prices naturally rise) and that a lot of money was brought in from sales (Torres) and the wage bill was cut.

3. That the signings have been bad. With such a large overhaul of players, it would be wrong to expect all of them to turn out well. Suarez and Enrique have been, on the whole, very successful and Henderson and Carroll have potential. Downing hasn’t been as amazing as we all hoped for but if it wasn’t Liverpool’s finishing, he would have a handful of assists to accompany some very good performances. Adam’s faults were really exposed when Lucas got injured, taking on more defensive responsibility which is not his strongest area at all.

Film website

Published on 25 September 2011 in Film and My Writing. 0 Comments Tags: , .

For film studies at school, I’ll be watching a lot of films and consequently recording my thoughts and writing my thoughts. All will appear on kearneyfilm.blogspot.com and the first post is up already: my reaction to Donnie Darko.

Recipe for disaster

Published on 5 September 2011 in Intelligent articles and My Writing. 2 Comments Tags: , , .

Doing the International Baccalaureate this year. Before I’d even started sixth form I was sent homework to do, but this actually turned out to be quite interesting. I had to choose a question to explore from the four that were given and write 1500 words on it. I chose “To what extent do you think society works best when each individual pursues their own best interest, or do you think this is a recipe for disaster?”

…

In the light of the recent UK riots, this seemed the most appropriate question to explore. I live in Peckham, just a few minutes walk from where smoke billowed out from an underwear shop on Rye Lane on the third night of unrest. Windows were shattered as shops were looted. Having been walking down Rye Lane that same day, it didn’t feel right. The violence shown on the news is always distant and even if just as serious, this felt so much more real. The London rioting, which spread across the UK, was a disaster but is it an example of society collapsing due to individuals pursuing their own interests?

The UK’s capitalist economic system has its upsides and downsides. Ultimately it works by having an open and free market where businesses are privately owned (as opposed to state-owned) and operate for profit. Capitalism works on the fact that people want money or at least want to live a lifestyle suited to them that money can allegedly bring. Companies in the market are motivated by money which our business, as customers, provides them with. To gain our business in a competitive market, they must supply us with quality products or a quality service we are willing to part with our money for. This causes companies to come up with innovative ideas and to constantly improve their products, in theory at least. Competition brings out the best in people and that theory is evident in our capitalist economy.

A company’s motive for money matches a customer’s desire for material things. They depend on each other. Mobile network companies, Orange and T-Mobile, came together not too long ago. This has resulted in a reduction of major companies in the mobile network industry. A committee had to decide if three major companies (Orange & T-Mobile, O2, Vodafone) were enough competition to drive the appropriate amount of innovation and  advancement to keep the service satisfactory for the customer. If there was just one company that was to monopolise the industry, then there would be no need for innovation or competitive prices as they would be guaranteed business, to a certain extent at least.

Capitalism needs customers to be investing into the economy and for customers to be driven by money and material objects. For years, businesses have sold us the idea that everything we need can be bought. That money can get us whatever we want and what we want can be found in shops. Is it any surprise then, that rioters targeted these shops when unrest began? Who wouldn’t want a product that a company has been trying to sell to us for hundreds of pounds, for free? Companies satisfied their personal interests by making our personal interests their products.

Nina Power wrote an article on the riots for the Guardian, which is on the website. She makes some good points looking at some underlying causes of the riots. She says about England:

“…a country in which the richest 10% are now 100 times better off than the poorest, where consumerism predicated on personal debt has been pushed for years as the solution to a faltering economy, and where, according to the OECD, social mobility is worse than any other developed country” ¹

Even more interesting than that, was one of the best comments at the bottom of a webpage I’ve ever read.

“There’s a widespread myth that law and order is preserved by police, politicians and other forces of authority. Not true. Never has been. If we all decide to go out and chuck a dustbin through Argos’s window and help ourselves, it would take about 15 million coppers to contain it. We actually have about 150,000.

 Law and order is kept by a collective acceptance of mutual goals. If, as a society, we look after each other, offer everyone a share and a stake in the common wealth, maintain some semblance of a Rousseauian Social Contract, then the vast majority of people will mostly stick to the rules without ever needing to see a police officer.

 When people lose that sense of being looked after, no longer feel part of society, no longer feel like they have any kind of share in any kind of collective, the ties that bind begin to be broken.

 Rioting, especially the type of vandalism & looting we’ve seen in London, is a sure sign that the social contract is unravelling around the edges. In the days and weeks and months to come, we shall see how far it has frayed.

 There are few things more dangerous to a society than a populace with nothing left to lose.” ²

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, an 18th century Genevan philosopher, wrote Of The Social Contract, Or Principles of Political Right which outlines his concept for political society. In his philosophy, he contrasts individuals with their own personal interests and desires which are largely self-serving with those same individuals as part of the state.³ He believed society needs to be united by a common goal. If society provides security and protection of life and property, then individuals have a strong incentive to collaborate and be part of society. People can be united by this common goal of desiring security and should therefore be willing to co-operate.

Citizens need to feel they have a stake in society – much like a stake holder in a business. If I had a share in a business, then it’s in my personal interest that the business do well so that I can benefit from that share. Being part of society makes it our personal interest to do what’s best for our community so we can all benefit from it.

So in the midst of the cuts, some are feeling left out of society; they’ve lost their stake. If citizens begin to think the people at the top of society are pursuing their own personal interests, the response will be, and was, one of anger. As we saw in the riots, there were a lot of angry people with nothing to lose. A very dangerous place to be. If society can no longer provide the security that we desire, then there is no longer a common goal that we can strive for.

Anyone with a stake in society is expected to contribute to it. As the gap between rich and poor widens, society splits in two. The problem with this is that the top end of society’s personal interest does not involve the security of the bottom end. The distance means the personal interest of the bottom end is unreal to the top end. Just like the riots happening in my area felt so real, compared to disasters on the news we tend to distance ourselves from. People at the bottom end of society are not even considered by someone at the top end as they pursue their personal interests – the gap is too great. The pursuit of the personal interest can then be at the cost of someone else.

Returning to capitalism, and we can draw ideas from the example of the mobile networks. All of the major companies have similar motivations. They want to be successful and make money. If one company did in fact become the only mobile network, innovation would stop. They would still be satisfying their own personal interests because more money would be coming in as they would be the only company for customers to go to. But the customer’s personal interests would be compromised as they wouldn’t be getting the best products at good prices. If there was just one company, they could charge as much as they liked for a service that we require. The balance that existed between the customers’ interest and the companies’ interest is gone. Without someone to control the company, they can make more money and become more successful but at the expense of the customer.

The balance is crucial. Individuals are always going to pursue their own interests, but responsibility is needed by everyone to make sure personal interest doesn’t come at the expense of others.

The riot events brought a lot of confusing feelings. Paradoxical feelings. Heaven and hell in one place. It was hard to believe that Poundland on Rye Lane, smashed to pieces the day before, had become a work of art. The wood chip board that was pinned up against the frame of the window was covered with post-it notes filled with feeling and emotion. “WHY WE LOVE PECKHAM” written in big letters on the derelict shop. In no time, the board was overflowing with messages of hope and love; so many message that the original lettering became illegible. People wanted their community back and were united with that common goal. The community’s interests were put first and the outcome was spectacular.

This board by no means ended some of the massive problems the country currently faces but it was an encouraging sign of what can happen when people are united by a common goal. When personal interests don’t damage anyone else. When personal interests becomes the security of others, not just your own.

So pursuing personal interests is a recipe for disaster? Not necessarily – we all do it. But selfishly pursuing our personal interests which badly effects others can be disastrous.

To end with, a message posted on the Poundland board that highlights a major imbalance in society. It read:

Loot a shop, go to jail. Loot a nation, get a bonus.

 

CITATION

1 “There is a context to London’s riots that can’t be ignored”, Nina Power. Guardian website http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/context-london-riots?CMP=twt_gu Accessed on 03.09.11

2 There is a context to London’s riots that can’t be ignored”, Nina Power. Guardian website http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/08/context-london-riots?CMP=twt_gu In the comments section by ‘AllyF’ . Accessed on 03.09.11

3 Nigel Warburton, Rousseau Social contract podcast. Listened to on YouTube, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M40waSvXwBU&feature=related 03.09.11

Liverpool 3-1 Bolton

Published on 27 August 2011 in football, football video, Liverpool Football Club and My Writing. 3 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

MotD Highlights

Fluid attacking, solid defending, intense pressuring and high-scoring. It was a sublime performance from Liverpool. Kelly’s injury and Klasnic’s late consolation goal for Bolton were slight annoyance’s in an otherwise perfect day. Suarez was up to his usual mischief, running Bolton’s defenders ragged and creating some great chances. The beautiful cross with the outside of his foot eventually lead to Henderson’s first Liverpool goal, which was expertly finished. Henderson was superb. He was good on the ball as well as off it, creating chances and taking chances. Lucas won everything in midfield, sparking off Liverpool’s attacks and bossing the middle of the park. Adam’s glorious passing was just the start as he scored a well-finished goal and got an assist when Skrtel headed in his bullet of a corner. Skrtel came off the bench to win the joint most tackles (4/5) and along with his goal, produced a fine attacking display. Downing was Liverpool’s top passer in the first half (21/22) and really deserved a goal. He linked excellently with Enrique on the left. Enrique was impressive going forward and also when defending with a solid performance. Kuyt produced an intelligent display with some great pass and moves to combine with his usual hard work (which every Liverpool player today can be credited with). Carragher was unfortunate when Liverpool conceded in the 92nd minute. Overall a fantastic team performance as Liverpool top the league, until tomorrow at least.

Some good tweets on today’s game:

Anfield Index – HT: LFC Vs BWFC – Possession: 57.8%-42.2% Pass Completion: 82%-76% Top Passer: Downing – 21/22 – 95%

Opta Joe – 6 - Six of Liverpool’s shots in the first half v Bolton were either set up (3) or fired in (3) by Jordan Henderson. Influential

EPL Index – #LFC Vs #BWFC Stats: Crosses: 30-20 | Cross Accuracy%: 20-25 | Tackle Won%: 76-68 | Ground Duels Won: 50-37 | Aerial Duels Won: 9-6 |

Anfield Index – Henderson Passing at 71% however: Tackles won: 67% Duels Won: 50% Important because he’d not won any challenges all season!

Anfield Index – Creativity for #LFC today: Kuyt: 4 (1 assist) Suarez: 3 Hendo: 3 Enrique: 2 Adam: 1 (assist)

Anfield Inex – Top Tacklers for #LFC Vs Bolton: Agger: 3/3 – 100% Enrique: 2/2 – 100% Skrtel: 4/5 – 80% Lucas: 4/6 – 67% Hendo: 2/3 – 67%

Anfield Index – Jose Enrique has now won 86% of his tackles and also won 74% of all ground duels he’s attempted this season #solid

Paul Tomkins – Was just gonna tweet that it must be almost 1,000 minutes with just 1 goal conceded by LFC with Agger in team. But Carra gifts Bolton goal

And to finish with – Liverpool have more points tonight than they did on October 23rd last year.

Analysis: Arsenal 0-2 Liverpool

Published on 20 August 2011 in football, football video, Intelligent articles, Liverpool Football Club and My Writing. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

It was an excellent win at The Emirates today – the first win away at Arsenal for over 11 years. Dirk Kuyt and Martin Kelly took the places of Luis Suarez and John Flanagan; common sense considering Suarez was tired. Kelly and Kuyt are also very physically strong and big to give us an edge. And according to the commentators on BBC Radio 5Live, Liverpool did have the edge over Arsenal. I’d say it was a bit more than an edge and it was actually quite a dominant display with more possession, more passes and more shots. Even if we did just ‘edge’ it, you have to remember we were the away team. At Arsenal. Where we haven’t won for 11 years. We took the game to them and looked more like a dominant home team than the away team underdogs Arsenal played like.

Fair enough, Arsenal were missing Gervinho and Song through suspension but is that not their own fault? Koscielny also went off injured after 16 minutes but his replacement, Miquel, didn’t do much wrong, even if he did kick the ball onto Ramsey which subsequently bounced into the goal. Anyway, Liverpool were missing Suarez for most of the game, Gerrard and Johnson were recovering from injury along with Skrtel who was back on the bench today. Not to mention that player of pre-season, Alberto Aquilani, has mysteriously disappeared.

Frimpong was rightfully sent off and despite claims that the decisions went against Arsenal in Wenger’s usual moan after the game – “It looks like both goals were offside. The referees are (supposed to be) professional” – I’d disagree. Ramsey’s own goal maybe should have been disallowed but there was nothing wrong with the second goal. Suarez was in an offside position for the first goal when Meireles’ made the pass, but he didn’t once touch the ball. Therefore the argument is whether Suarez interfered with play and since he was putting Miquel under pressure, the goal maybe shouldn’t have stood. [edit: Graham Poll claims that interfering with play means touching the ball] Suarez was also in an offside position when Lucas passed the ball to Meireles for the second goal but at this point, Suarez was not interfering with play. By the time Meireles received the ball, Suarez had got himself into position to put away Meireles’ square ball. Liverpool were the better team and deserved the goals. It would have been unjust had Arsenal scored.

Anfield Index on twitter:

Carroll V AFC Pass Accuracy:77% Ground Duels Won: 55% Aerial Duels Won: 67% Accurate Flick on: 100% Accurate Lay Off: 100%

Henderson V AFC Pass Accuracy: 90% Forward: 41% Backwards: 27% Left: 10% Right: 22% Lost all Ground Duels.. (5)

Kelly V AFC Pass Accuracy 78% Tackles Won: 100% Ground Duels won: 42% Aerial Duels won: 0% (only had 1)

Lucas V AFC Pass Accuracy: 87% Tackles won: 67% (8/12) Ground Duels won: 75% (15/20) Aerial Duels won: 50%

Adam V AFC Pass %: 81 Tackles Won: 100% (5/5) Ground Duels Won: 75% (9/12) Aerial Duels Won: 100% (1/1) Cross Accuracy: 50%

And here is a comparison of today’s game with the same fixture last season thanks to Anfield Index.

Jose Enrique was fantastic going forward as well as defending. Henderson looked sharp with 90% passing accuracy. He looks like a proper pass and move player – good one touch passing followed by instant movement creating space – and he’s still got many years to develop. Carroll did a good job of wearing out the centre backs for Suarez to terrorize when he came on. Adam was really good today with some sublime passing; you know his confidence is high when he is taking shots from the halfway line!

Speaking of shots, Arsenal took a lot more from outside the box than we would expect them to. We’re used to seeing them pass the ball hundreds of times inside the box before tapping it over the line. Is this due to Arsenal being poor or Liverpool’s tactics?

So today’s game showed the highest percentage of shots outside the box for the past four seasons in this fixture. In fact, you have to go back to the 07/08 season to find the last time Arsenal had more shots outside the box than inside the box at home against Liverpool. 58.3% of Arsenal’s shots today were outside the box compared to 31.25%, 41.6% and 33.3% in the 10/11, 09/10 and 08/09 seasons respectively. Quite a gap.

Liverpool’s defending was very good today and rather than pressuring Arsenal, the back four appeared to drop off and waited for Adam and Lucas to put in a tackle. This can often be risky as it leaves the opposition with a lot of space to run into but with two holding midfielders (and the hard-working Kuyt tracking back), Liverpool limited Arsenal’s chances. Obviously when the midfielders don’t get back in time, Arsenal could have scored a spectacular long-ranger but Reina was reasonably comfortable and the defence wasn’t too stretched. If the centre backs had stepped up and missed a tackle, Arsenal would have exploited the space with swift pass and move football so it was vital they held their position.

Up the other end of the pitch Liverpool had a much more controlled and steady tempo compared to last week’s first half against Sunderland. Still, the movement was excellent and Henderson, Kuyt, Downing were in constant rotation. The versatility of the three came in useful as they popped up on the left, on the right and through the middle, stretching Arsenal’s defence. Carroll pushed up on the Arsenal centre half pairing allowing for the flowing movement behind him. I was extremely impressed with the intelligent runs of Downing and Henderson in particular.

Overall, a very encouraging performance but unlike last week, an encouraging result to go with it. Let’s see how long we can keep it up for.

Why Lucas is needed ahead of the rest of Liverpool’s midfield army

Published on 8 August 2011 in Chalkboards, football, Intelligent articles, Liverpool Football Club and My Writing. 4 Comments Tags: , , , , .

I was at Anfield on Saturday for the final warm up match before the 2011-2012 Premier League season begins. It was a competent win against a good Valencia side. Agger was my man of the match yet others such as Downing impressed. Lucas was fantastic when he came on with a patient, intelligent and exciting performance within just 45 minutes of playing time – surprisingly sharp considering he’s only just back at training after his break following Brazil’s Copa America exit.

While newspapers and magazines have been predicting every result, outcome and formation this coming season, I’m surprised how much I’ve seen our best player last season left out of speculative starting 11s. Lucas Leiva was voted Liverpool’s player of the season and I expected him to be the first name in everyone’s ‘perfect’ team.

I’d like to draw your attention to a fantastic article on Lucas from a while ago on level 3 football. Roy Henderson outlines here the underrated magnificence of our Brazilian “steering wheel”. Noone in our team can anchor the midfield as well as Lucas.

Against Valencia, we started of with a sort off 4-3-3 with Adam, Spearing and Aquilani making up the central midfield trio, although there was a lot of rotation and movement. Spearing and Adam were the deeper of the two, both faithfully making themselves available to the back four and starting off attacks. Yet neither of them provided the same cover Lucas does.

Many have named Adam as an inferior version of Alonso. He’s got good long range passing yet his intelligence, patience and short passing is nowhere near Xabi’s level. Where Alonso is happy to pass the ball 5 or 6 times to the same few players before penetrating, Adam will prefer to go for the spectacular (and often unnecessary) long, searching ball to a forward. The typical Spanish v British comparison.

Spearing, though he is a great little midfielder, isn’t there yet to be controlling Liverpool’s midfield like Lucas. Spearing was passing the ball very well on Saturday yet he doesn’t read the game well enough to anticipate and cut out danger from the opposition. He’s more of a box-to-box midfielder with lively and dynamic movement, rampaging runs to track back and a thunderous slide tackle to top it off. A disciplined and more conservative role wouldn’t suit his style of play.

The rest of the midfield army consists of more attack minded players who are best in more advanced positions than Lucas. Aquilani (who I really hope we keep hold of) is an excellent playmaker, similar to Modric, but too weak defensively. Meireles’ off the ball movement is superb and it would be wrong to lock him up in a restricted role like Hodgson did. And despite many attempts to put Gerrard in CM he has always been at his best in a free role where his lack of discipline and lapses of concentration can’t cause any damage (saying that, with his age he may be asked to play more conservatively like his performance in Liverpool’s mauling of Man Utd in March). Henderson is very versatile and I only see him playing on the flanks or an attacking central role, not holding midfield.

Jonjo Shelvey is a fantastic young prospect in my eyes and reminds me of Stevie G with his roaming of the pitch with super through balls, a good shot and he’s exciting to watch. Again, too attacking for a holding position. And then there’s Poulsen who’s as much use as a brick.

This leaves only Adam to rival Lucas as “steering wheel”.

I found some stats using the limited resources I had from two games last season. For Lucas I chose our 1-0 win over Chelsea – some consider Chelsea a better team than Liverpool but I think they’re quite even teams for the sake of this comparison. For Adam I chose Blackpool’s 3-2 loss to fellow Championship promotion team, West Brom. Again, quite even opposition.

Straight away we see the defensive superiority of Lucas with three times as many tackles won and five interceptions to Adam’s none. The only area Adam wins in is shots. Though one of these shots was off target and the other blocked; both were from long range. He has one less unsuccessful clearance but this is irrelevant as the situation of the clearance is unknown – a booted clearance under pressure which ends up with the opposition anywhere outside the box is often deemed as a good clearance.

Passing is what I really wanted to look at and see if there was evidence in my claim of Adam’s tendency to hit it long. From the stats above, he has over three times as many unsuccessful passes as Lucas. Both completed forty each. So Adam attempted a greater number of passes but also conceded possession more often. To see where all these passes went, let’s look at some Chalkboards.


by Guardian Chalkboards

Adam’s clearly got a longer range of passing and has a lower success rate.


by Guardian Chalkboards

If we look at the ‘Heatmap’, Lucas actually covers more ground across the midfield where Adam makes a massive 32% of his passes in one area. Adam also shows up in the final third much more than Lucas, backing up my point about him being more attack minded and less disciplined. Obviously team tactics and management can have an influence on the players but we get an idea for the general style of play.

We’ve yet to see the best of Adam. I see him playing with another midfielder behind him – Lucas. So when the season get’s going and everyone is available, he can become a very good asset for Liverpool. One of Adam’s strengths is in set pieces which are generally few and far between in pre-season friendlies which are meant to be more laid back than intense league and cup matches. He can also add some much needed balance with his sweet left foot. In my opinion, no one can rival Lucas in our midfield for what he does. He’ll be one of the first names on the team sheet this coming season, though he may not be match-fit yet to start against Sunderland.