Ballotelli business better than Man United & Falcao

I will probably never be happy that Mario Balotelli is part of our club.  Three years from now, if he's still a productive member of the squad, I'll eat my words, but his track record speaks for itself.  He grows tired of his manager, the staff, his teammates, club officials, the press and the supporters and starts acting out in the third year.  It happened at Inter, it happened at City, and most recently, it happened at Milan, where they got rid of him before he became a cancer.  If he breaks the cycle, great, but don't hold your breathe.  Let's not wait like City did, if he starts costing us matches by his behavior either on or off the pitch, I hope whomever in charge, hopefully Rodgers, puts him in the reserves dungeon and throws away the key until he can be shipped off elsewhere.  Madrid will probably come knocking by then anyhow.

No matter how it plays out though, £17.6m to sign Balotelli is a much better deal than acquiring Falcao on a year-long loan for £6.7m plus £10m salary and an option to buy him at the end of the season for an additional £40m.  Super Mario is basically a younger, faster, stronger, and more skilled verison of Falcao.  If anyone complains, like myself, that all Ballotelli can do is score goals, well, Falcao can only score less.  Plus the Italian can physically impose himself on the opposition and worry their defence to no end, creating space for teammates.  I don't see the 177cm (5'10"), 72kg (160lb) Colombian with no Premier League experience having much presence, wait until they play Stoke.

Their career club league stats are quite comparable:

	npg90	ap90	gc90	cc90	ccv	pass%	sacc%	shot%	sdr90	tti90	gopd
Balotelli	0.47	0.14	0.77	1.33	0.1	0.757	0.382	0.121	2.14	14.6	-0.46
Falcao	0.57	0.08	0.75	0.90	0.05	0.797	0.492	0.305	0.79	11.21	0.06

First things first, Falcao is four-and-a-half years older than Super Mario.  Which means he's probably at his peak and won't improve much more, not to mention he'll have to make the adjustments for the English game.  Quick, name a 28-year-old South American and/or La Liga player who came to the Premier League and made a significant impact? Don't even try to say Valencia, he's been in the league for eight years now.  The closest is probably Coloccini, but he was 26 when he signed with Newcastle and he's a defender.  Maybe Falcao will make history, but I doubt it.

Mario is a better team player and that says mountains, since we all know what kind of a 'team player' he is.  The thing is, Balotelli has the ability to be a great asset to the club as a whole, while I don't think Falcao has the capacity to do so, because if he did, he would have already done so with Porto or Atletico or Monaco.  He has never been a significant 'defending forward' and forget about setting up others on goal.  When Balotelli cares and tries, which honestly, this is his last chance to do so before he becomes a true pariah, he is eons better than his Colombian counterpart.

In the end, it won't matter though.  If Falcao scores goals and does nothing else, even have the worst efficiency in the league, the Mangoloids won't care.  I honestly think the EPL is too physical for him and can see an injury-riddled season where he gets sent packing back to Monaco in the end.

(Oh and just a quick point because I can see it coming, 16 of Falcao's last 63 league goals since joining La Liga have been penalties compared to 15 of 55 for Balotelli, so save that rubbish for your pub trash bin banter.)

Javi Manquillo would be a project not a resolution

Javier Manquillo doesn't show much promise as a full back, at least not going forward.  In his few appearances in La Liga and Europe the last two seasons, The 20-year-old Atletico Madrid defender has shown to be a less-than mediocre passer, especially dreadful at specialization, and has a hard time holding on to the ball.  His career passing success average is 75.8%, nearly four points lower than the 79.6% of players in all competitions combined.  He has connected on just 1 of 24 career cross attempts, has never even attempted a throughball, and has a 30% conversion rate for long balls.  Glen Johnson, coming off a poor year by most accounts, still posted better numbers, succeeding on 5 of 51 crosses, 54.2% long balls, and was 1 for 3 on throughballs.

Manquillo can defend though.  Here are his career defence stats from Spain and Europe compared to Johnson's and Flanagan's from last season:

player	t90	tk%	int90	clr90	drby90	bs90
Manquillo	3.30	60.9	2.44	3.06	0.12	0.49
Johnson	2.29	55.9	1.79	2.54	0.82	0.29
Flanagan	3.8	45.7	1.9	3.6	1.9	0.2

Manquillo posted better all-round numbers than both of them, his tackle rate, dribble-busting ability, and shot-blocking capability are particularly outstanding.  He is also excellent in the air.  His career aerial duels success percentage is 78.9%, that's better than any LFC player last season as Skrtel was best at 70.1%.  These attributes are better-suited for a centre back, not a right back.  So if Rodgers was interested in the Spaniard to change his position, it's actually not a bad idea, but it seems far-fetched.  We don't need projects, we need immediate contributors and even spending £6m for Manquillo doesn't make much sense.

Arda Turan: I don't get it

There are reports that Liverpool are interested in 27-year-old Atletico Madrid winger, Arda Turan.  I'm not sure why, Turan is an average footballer at best who plays like a defensive midfielder on the wings and he's not even a good one at that.  Here are his stats from last season:

npg90	gcp90	ccp90	ap90	ccv
0.14	0.33	1.55	0.19	12.1
pass %	bp%	sacc%	shot%	TTI90
83	44.7	29.4	8.8	13.4
gap90	gsp90	gop90	tgop	gopd
0.8	1.88	1.08	1.34	-0.26

So he's a good passer, but not exceptional.  His 1.55 chances created per 90 and 12.1% chance created value aren't bad, but his own club averaged  1.01 ccp90 and 14.4% ccv.  A 13.4 TTI90 is far from impressive and when he was on the pitch his side averaged -0.26 goals per 90 minutes.

His defensive stats aren't very impressive either.  He averaged 2.49 tp90 at a 42.4% success rate, 1.4 intp90, 0.47 clrp90, and was dribbled past at least once a match.  Nothing to get excited about.

So what's the big deal about him? He's a good passer, that's it.  It's not like Atletico Madrid was so much better with him on the pitch.  In fact, the 30 matches he played, they accumulated 66 points, which is not bad, but the 8 matches he did not play, they won, earning all possible 24 points.

This is an easy one, Rodgers, just walk on...

Good riddance Suarez, we'll be better without you

If Suarez leaves, and it's looking highly likely, we'll be fine.  We still have Sturridge, Sterling, Coutinho, Gerrard, and Henderson, all but one are young and all will be improved.  We don't need to necessarily make up 31 goals, we could actually play better defense.  If we would have prevented just 5 more goals last year, we would have won the league.  Last season, we lead the league in defensive errors with 42, 13 which directly resulted in a goal, that obviously has to stop.

If there ever was an example to follow,  look no further than Ateltico Madrid from last season.  They only scored 77 goals, 27 less than Real, and 23 less than Barça.  They also only allowed 26 and committed just 17 defensive errors, which was not best in league, but only 5 off and light years better than 42.  They also lost Falcao and Martin Demichelis from the season before.

Falcao scored 28 goals for Atletico in the 2012-13 season, that was a ridiculous 43.1% of their total output of 65.  Suarez was 'only' responsible for 30.1% of our goals last season,  but his 13 assists means he took part in 42.6%.  Atletico rebounded with Diego Costa and added David Villa, we have Sturridge and added Rickie Lambert.

In fact, over the years, Atletico has lost a number of key players.  Since summer 2007, they've lost Falcao, Martin Demichelis, Eduardo Salvio, Serio Aguero, David De Gea, Diego Forlan, Jose Manuel Jurado, Simao Sabrosa, Maxi Rodriguez, Martin Petrov, and of course, Torres.  In that time they've won a Copa Del Rey, 2 Europa Cups, and 2 UEFA Super Cups.  Their progression in La Liga since 2009-10 has been consistent to say the least, they went from 9th to 7th to 5th to 3rd to winning it last season.  

They also reduced their goals allowed each season starting in 09-10 they conceded 61, then 53 in 10-11, 46 the next season, and 31 the year before last.  The thing is, their goal scoring showed no such progression save last season.  Over the same period from 2009-10 to 2012-13, they scored 57, 62, 53, and 65 in each successive season.

Brendan Rodgers appears to have solved our goal scoring issues, but now he needs to focus on defense.  I think we'll be better because our defenders, Sakho in particular, should be more familiar with on another.  Communication appeared to lack last season, I just hope that changes.  Also, the addition of Emre Can gives us another option at defensive midfielder, which is the most important defender on the pitch.

Suarez leaving is far from the end of the world.  Yes, he scored and created goals, but he also gave away the ball an awfully lot.  Counter attack goals killed us last year, particularly late in the season.  We can make up for Suarez by playing smarter defense and most of all, holding on to the ball longer and making smarter passes, though we will need to add at least one more attack-minded player.  Hopefully that's Shaqiri, Sanchez, or in the very least, Memphis Depay.

Toby Alderweireld: A good signing but only at the right price

According to reports, the player in which we are latest linked is Atletico Madrid and Belgium defender, Toby Alderweireld.  The 25-year-old former Ajax player has become frustrated with his lack of playing time at Atletico and is looking to go elsewhere, despite only joining the La Liga champions last summer.  His preferred position is centre back, but has also provided cover at right back for club and country.  Here's how he sizes up statistically against Sakho, Skrtel, Agger, and Old Man Toure:

	Alderweireld	Sakho	Skrtel	Agger	Toure
age	25	24	29	29	old
app(subs)	17(3)	18(1)	36	16(4)	15(5)
mins	1576	1478	3221	1421	1443
goals	1	1	7	2	0
assist	0	0	1	1	2
chances	0	2	7	2	7
npgp90	0.06	0.06	0.2	0.13	0
gcp90	0.06	0.06	0.22	0.19	0.13
ccp90	0	0.12	0.2	0.13	0.44
pass%	81.6	92.5	90.8	89.1	86.4
bp%	24.9	22.6	23.7	18.7	20.5
sacc%	50	10	53.3	42.8	14.3
shot%	12.5	10	46.7	28.6	0
tp90	2.5	1.6	1.4	1.7	2.1
tack %	58.5	71.4	50	55.6	65.1
intp90	1.4	1.6	1.7	1.3	0.9
clrp90	6.1	8.3	11.5	7.2	9.2
dribpp90	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.4
bsp90	0.6	0.4	1.1	0.5	0.8
adwp90	1.7	2.9	3.6	2.8	2.7
adwon%	75	56	70.1	65.2	50.6
TTI90	8.5	5.6	5.2	5	5.8
avg rank	3.44	3.06	2	2.69	3.25

His overall ranking of 3.44 is last among the group, in fact, statistically the only thing that could even be deemed 'impressive' is his aerial duels won percentage. He is comparable in many fields, but do we really want to waste our time with a seemingly average player?  It's hard to use the 'potential argument' for a 25-year-old, that's the United way, but he does impress in this video, especially with his passing:

Alderweireld is valued at around £9m, but that's just too high.  Atletico bought him for £6.16m and being that they appear not to care whether he stays or not, maybe they'll take £7m or £7.5m.  We can throw in Aspas to carry the ball bags as well.  If we can get him for that, I'd say go for it, then at the very least  we'll have coverage at right back.

Roy Hodgson: the worst Liverpool manager ever?

Seems to be the sexy thing these days to ridicule Ole Roy Boy, but is he really the worst Liverpool manager ever?  Worse than Don Welsh or George Patterson? I'm not so sure, but I will say he is the worst since I've followed the club.  Let's take a look at his transfers:

Players In	Club	Fee
Joe Cole	Chelsea	Free
Danny Wilson	Rangers	£2m
Christian Poulsen	Juventus	£4.55m
Brad Jones	Middlesborough	£2.3m
Raul Meireles	Porto	£11.5m
Paul Konchesky	Fulham	£3.5m
Players Out
Albert Riera	Olympiacos	£3.3m
Diego Cavalieri	Cesena	£3m
Krisztian Nemeth	Olympiacos	£1m
Javier Mascherano	Barcelona	£17.25m
Lauri Dalla Valle	Fulham	£750k
Alex Kacaniklic	Fulham	£750k
Damien Plesis	Panathinaikos	Undisclosed
Charles Itandje	Atromitos	Free

He brought in Paul Konchesky for £3.5m and sent youngsters Dalla Valle and Kacaniklic the other way to Fulham.  Konchesky was 29-years-old at the time and Hodgson thought he could be the solution at left back? He's Paul Konchesky, he couldn't even find a place in any other Premier League side when he left. Hodgson should have been sacked for buying him alone.  The worse part is Kacaniklic turned out to be a pretty good player and Emiliano Insua, who plays for Atletico Madrid now I might add, was sent out on loan to make room.

Out of all his purchases, Brad Jones solely remains at the club and really only Raul Meireles was a good buy.  I like Joe Cole, but he was also 29-years-old and frankly past it, Danny Wilson never panned out and was sent back to Scotland where helped get Hearts relegated last season, and Poulsen was a knob.

In defense of Hodgson, which I can't believe I just wrote that, he did get rid of some dead weight.  Riera wasn't working out, there was no place for Cavalieri, Nemeth's and Plesis' potential never came to fruition, and Itandje became a pariah for his disrespectful Hillsborough display.  The loss of Mascherano was a crushing blow, but he wanted to leave and Hodgson didn't appear to care if he stayed or not.

Roy Hodgson's 41.94 winning percentage is the worst of any Liverpool manager in the last 23 years and the worst in the last 58 years save Ronnie Moran's 10 match stint as caretaker manager in 1991 and the brief Houllier/Evans joint reign in 1998. Under Hodgson, we lost to Blackpool and Wolverhampton at Anfield. Blackpool was relegated that season and the Wolves avoided the drop by just one point.  We sat in 19th place 8 matches into the season and were eliminated from the League Cup by League Two side, Northampton Town.

There's no doubt Hodgson's term was a disaster. He sums it up best when talking about our 'amazing' comeback draw with Sunderland on Semptember 25th at Anfield: "The way we came back from 2-1 down was very commendable and towards the end of the game we were creating a lot of chances. We deserved our point." It was not even a deserved draw, but Hodgson seems content with it. A good manager would have said how we played like shite, our first goal shouldn't have counted, and our performance unacceptable and didn't meet Liverpool standards, instead of 'oh well, jolly good match, we got a point.'

Hodgson is clearly past it.  His tactics that have worked for him for '35 years' don't work for big clubs.  He was a failure with Liverpool and should probably go manage in the Championship.  His beloved Fulham are right there waiting and Felix Magath would most likely be happy to step aside.

My 2007 World's Best XI

I'm pretty bored, so I thought I'd throw my irrelevant two cents into the mix. Here's who I think were the world's best XI in 2007. Feel free to flog me, I know nothing, of course.

GK - Petr Čech
Casillas, Reina, and Buffon are all incredible, but some of the saves Čech makes are just plain silly. Rarely does a side score against him without a phenomenal effort.

LB - Gianluca Zambrotta
Heinze, Thuram, and Lahm are all tremendous as well, but Zambrotta is probably the most consistent.

CB - John Terry
CB - Fabio Cannavaro
Just too many good ones, and really, it comes down to personal preference. Carra would no doubt be in the squad. I don't really want to get into it, but these are the two I would trust most if I were managing the world's best XI.

RB - Steve Finnan
Yeah, I know I'll get plenty of flack for this one, but Finney was the second best overall defensive player in the Premiership last season according to Actim and his qualities are undeniable. Even at 31, he's arguably the best right wing-back in the world. Dani Alves and even Arbeloa deserve recognition as well.

LM/LW - Lionel Messi
This isn't even debatable. Not even Ronaldinho takes his spot.

CM/DM - Javier Mascherano
Simply the best defensive midfielder in the world. Dietmar Hamann is going to be hard to leave out of the squad though.

CM - Steven Gerrard
If I have to defend this pick, you're a victim of the anti-English press or your own inability to know world-class when you see it.

RM/RW - Kaká
You can pretty much start him anywhere at midfield or forward with this side. With Gerrard and Mascherano there to provide cover, he, like Messi, are just additional forwards.

FW - Fernando Torres
FW - Didier Drogba
As with CB, there's just so much quality at that spot that it comes down to personal preference.

Squad (23 total):
Pepe Reina
Jamie Carragher
Cristiano Ronaldo
David Villa
Philipp Lahm
Andrea Pirlo
Patrice Evra
Franck Ribéry
Carles Puyol
Ronaldinho
Dani Alves
Deco

I think I'm pretty fair in my assessment overall. Like I said, I think the Finnan pick is a bit controversial, as even a lot of Liverpool fans don't seem to realize his consistency and contributions though he's clearly a tremendous player. Alves is not as good as Finney defensive-wise, but he is superior in the pace and attacking aspects.

I really hate putting Pirlo on just the squad. He's probably my favorite Italian player and for someone who loathes the Italian game, he'll always be one of my favorite players of all-time. Gattuso is nothing compared to Mascherano, and I'm not having a go with that, I'm just preaching the truth.

I don't feel as if I have to defend putting Carra on the squad, but I will. First of all, go ask the Milan and Chelsea players how good he is, they'll tell ya. Second, he's also pretty versatile having played fullback for Liverpool in his earlier years, and he can even play defensive midfield, as he has with England.

I'm pretty confident that this side could go undefeated and win any league at the moment and the Champions League and domestic cup as well. There's just very little fault. They may not be as defensive-minded as even I would like, but a clean sheet against a side of this caliber would be an unbelievable effort.

Today's Banter: Rafa may sit Torres, Martin to Yeovil?, CNN needs a better fact checker, & more

- Rafa has made sure that everyone knows this is his club when he stated that Torres' performance last night doesn't guarantee him a place at Wigan on Saturday. It might be best to start him on the bench anyhow as we should have a fresh Kuyt and Voronin, both of whom should be looking to redeem themselves after Saturday's subpar performance versus Birmingham.

- It's looking less likely that a rumored loan move for keeper David Martin to Yeovil Town will come to fruition. With last night's shaky performance from Frenchman Charles Itandje, it's understandable that Rafa wants to keep the 21-year-old Reserves keeper around. If Itandje stumbles on his second outing, I fully expect Martin to get his shot. Both Martin and out-on-loan Nikolay Mihaylov gave solid performances in the preseason.

- CNN made a slight and understandable error in this report from yesterday's Sevilla-Espanyol match, unless Luis Garcia was recently loaned out from Atletico to Espanyol. I think I would have heard about it though.

- Coppell claims it's Torres' pace that sets him apart from other players. I would have to agree that El Nino has some speed and quickness, but he's also strong and how can you not deny his uncanny ability to score any which way by foot after the Chelsea goal and the phenomenal second strike yesterday? He's just so unpredictable on the ball.

- Finally, Ryan Babel and Dirk Kuyt have both been named to Marco Van Bastien's provisional Holland squad for their upcoming Euro qualifier matches in mid-October. The fixtures are just three weeks away. Cheers.

Luis Garcia nets a brace for Atletico (video)

Our Luisy scored a couple to ensure his sides' win in UEFA Cup action. What might be even more impressive is the fact that he had a part in all four goals as both the other ones for his club came off rebounds from his shots. Here are the video highlights, Garcia scores the last two. Cheers.

Today's Banter: Aurelio returns, What about Harry?, Rafa laughs off Reina offer, & more

- Fabio Aurelio made an unexpected early return to action today as the Reserves beat a Crewe Alexandra Reserves side, 2-1, behind goals by Xabi Alonso and Ray Putterill. The 27-year-old Left Back played an impressive 45 minutes. This is great news, if he's able to play this Saturday against Portsmouth, it allows Arbeloa to play on the right if Finnan isn't fit or even in the middle with Carra if Agger or Hyypia are fatigued.

- Despite reports that he was also set to make his return against today, apparently Harry Kewell did not line-up against the Crewe Reserves side. Hopefully there will be a mention of his status when the full match report is published on the official site. The only good news is that Kewell was included on our 23-man Champions League roster, so obviously Rafa is expecting him to return to action sometime in the near future.

- Rafa has dismissed any talk of Pepe leaving to go to Atletico Madrid or anywhere else for that matter. I kind of figured it was a load of donkey dung, but again, £10m for a keeper is not an amount to scoff at especially when you have the likes of Scott Carson available to replace him.

- A FIFA source has revealed that Peter Crouch was not singled-out by referees at the World Cup, but an incident where Crouchy pulled at the hair of a Trinidad and Tobago defender as he headed in a goal was brought to the attention of match officials. There's a picture of the incident to accompany the article and honestly, I don't see how the striker can be giving himself an advantage by being anchored down by someone's hair as he jumps. Call me crazy, but wouldn't that prevent him from jumping higher, it looks like accidental contact if you ask me.

- The U18s won on Saturday versus Nottingham Forrest, 3-1, behind a brace from German Marvin Pourie and a goal by Scot Gary MacKay Steven. 16-year-old English striker David Amoo was apparently quite impressive himself. Just taking a peek at the U18/Academy roster, we have quite the international mix with players from seven different countries, though a large majority, 13, are English.

- Finally, here's a nice piece from Liverpool Legend Ian Rush on Rafa's recent decision not to replace his number two, Pako Ayesteran. It's interesting to read what role such a person plays on a club and why it's not a good idea to replace them in haste. Cheers everyone.

Today's Banter: Carra training, Atletico want Reina, Crouch stalls contract, Cheryl Cole praises fans, & Kewell returns!!!

- Reports are that Carra returned to training today and will be ready for action on Saturday when we travel to Portsmouth. Great news considering how many players we have out on international duty including Hyypia and Agger. Hopefully everyone will return fit and rested, Pompey at Fratton Park will be no easy test.

- Apparently Atletico Madrid are keen on Pepe Reina and are putting together a bid for him in the realm of £10m to offer LFC in the January transfer window. Whether this is true or not, I wonder if Rafa would consider selling Pepe. £10m is a respectable offer and we do have Scott Carson on the books yet on loan to Aston Villa. I doubt he'd sell him in January though unless he could recall Carson.

- Peter Crouch, who's current contract expires at the end of next season, has apparently been offered a three year extension from the club. Supposedly though, he's withholding his signature to see what kind of playing time he's going to get this season. What an ass, he knows what kind of playing time he's going to get, so he needs to commit his future or gotten rid of. I've been for the latter for the past year or so anyhow.

- Cheryl Cole has praised Liverpool fans for their unconditional love of their club and players and thinks England fans should be the same way. The problem is fans of Liverpool know that the people who run their club, love LFC, while those who run England, the FA, do things that say otherwise. For starters, they would have gotten a class coach at what ever cost.

- Harry Kewell returns to action tomorrow night for the Reserves versus Crewe Alexandra Reserves. Well, that's promising. I'm hoping he'll be able to play this Saturday so we can give Babel and Yossi a little rest from International duty. Despite the rise of the new signings, we need Kewell as a key contributor this season if we want to go after all the silverware. Cheers.