Will the Scottish 'magic' ever return?

Liverpool's history is deeply sown with Scottish footballers.  The first squad ever was made up entirely of Scots.  Alex Raisbeck, an English-born Scottish International, is widely considered Liverpool's first 'star' player.  Some of the club's greatest players are of Scottish descent: Kenny Dalglish, Ian St. John, Graeme Souness, Billy Liddell, and Alan Hansen.  Not to mention 'legends' like Steve Nicol, John Wark, Ron Yeats, and Gary McAllister.  Last but not least, one of the greatest managers in all of football, Bill Shankly, was born in Glenbuck, East Aryshire.

For a club so woven with Scottish influence, it's been quite some time since we've had a Scottish player worth renown.  It hasn't been since the aforementioned Gary McAllister that there's been a Scottish footballer of note.  Charlie Adam was signed by Dalglish in July 2011 after inspirational performances with Rangers and Blackpool.  The following summer, he was deemed excess to the cause by newly-hired manager, Brendan Rodgers, and sold to Stoke.

Prior to Adam's signing, centre back Danny Wilson was acquired from Rangers by Hodgson in July 2010.  The 19-year-old was a highly regarded prospect and signed a three-year deal.  He made just two Prem league starts and was loaned out to Blackpool, Bristol, and lastly, Hearts.  He wound up signing with Hearts after his contract with Liverpool expired.  The now 22-year-old is still considered to have a bright future and has started for Scotland five times.  A future return to Liverpool is highly doubtful though.

The level of play and talent coming out of Scotland is just not what it used to be.  Gary Mackay-Steven, a 24-year-old winger for Dundee United and a one-time Scottish International, wet his feet with the Liverpool Academy and Reserves in the late 2000s.  Deemed to be quite the talent, injuries prevented him from proving his ability and he was released.  He made the 2011-12 PFA Scotland SPL Team of the Year and though his future seems promising in Scotland, he probably won't ever reach a higher level than the English Championship at best.

Are there any Scottish players who could one day play for Liverpool? Well, I've already revealed my love for Stevie May, but the 21-year-old probably doesn't have what it takes to be more than a third-choice striker.  Still, I can't see him doing much less than Rickie Lambert has done so far.  The big name everyone will say is Ryan Gauld.  I just don't think he has the physicality to make it in the Prem and the 1.68m lad has already struggled at his new club, Sporting Clube de Portugal.  He was demoted to the B team before ever playing for the first.  He lacks the pace, quickness, strength, and stamina of a Raheem Sterling to offset his diminutive size.

Another player on the map, who does have the physical attributes to make it in the Prem is Celtic's James Forrest.  The 23-year-old 'naturally-talented' winger has featured for the Hoops 129 times in all comps, scoring 24 goals and assisting on 21 more.  He has been compared to Everton's Aiden McGeady, whom I have followed since his days at Celtic.  I would say Forrest is more advanced than his fellow Scot at this point in their careers.  The problem with Forrest is there isn't really room on the Liverpool squad for him and at his age, if he's ever going to leave Celtic, it'll have to be sooner than later.  I'm not sure it's in his plans though.

The smart thing would be to go young and defence, which brings up John Souttar.  The 17-year-old Dundee United centre back was a regular starter for his club last season.  He is commanding in the air and makes good decisions on the ball.  Here's a video display of his talents:

I wouldn't be against Liverpool signing him next summer, we are going to need depth in defence and he's already got the size to compete in the Prem.  Not sure if he's 'ready' just yet though, but a solid Scot in the squad would be a start.

Second place has been a 'bad omen' for Liverpool

In the 22 seasons of Premier League history, 11 times the previous season second-place finisher has won the league.  For those of you who are mathematically-challenged, that's 50% of the time.  Unfortunately, this has happened the last two seasons, but never three seasons in a row.  Also, Liverpool have finished 2nd twice before, in 2001-02 and 2008-09, but faultered to fifth and seventh in their respective following seasons.

In 1992-93, the inaugural Premiership season, Aston Villa finished second.  Featuring Liverpool greats Ray Houghton and Steve Staunton, as well as a young Dwight Yorke, the Villans lead the table late into March before only managing 10 points in the final 8 matches.  It was their best campaign in a dozen years and their best since.  They would finish 10th the following year.

The worst finish for a previous season second place side was Newcastle in 1997-98.  In fact, Newcastle had finished runner-up to Man United for two years in a row.  Oddly enough, the Magpies were managed by Kenny Dalglish and featured John Barnes, Ian Rush, and Dalglish's son, Paul.  John Barnes led them in league goals with 6, while Rush struggled for playing time against Alan Shearer.  Dalglish would be sacked two matches into the 98-99 season.

In 2011-12, Chelsea fell victim to the 'Liverpool curse'.  With Fernando Torres and Raul Meireles in their squad (as well as Daniel Sturridge, but he doesn't count), they went from 2nd to 6th, their worst finish under Abramovich and in ten seasons.  It lead to Andres Villas-Boas being sacked in March 2012 and Robert Di Matteo being appointed caretaker manager.  Though they did win the FA Cup, 2-1 over Liverpool might I add, and Champions League that year.

Not even the 2008-09 Chelsea side that went from runner-up to third escapes the 'jinx', though the link is minor.  Former albeit brief LFC striker, Nicolas Anelka, lead the Blues in scoring, both in the league and in all competitions, but couldn't prevent their third place finish.

It's not all black cats and broken mirrors though, Liverpool have won the First Division five times (75-76, 78-79, 85-86, 87-88, & 89-90) after finishing runners-up the previous year.  Though that only makes it 5 league titles after 13 second place finishes.

It's Andy Carroll all over again!

Adam Lallana will miss the start of the season due to injury suffered in training today.  The thing I'm most disappointed about is having to wait to prove how bad of a buy he was, £25m for a player probably not worth 10.  He doesn't even have to hit the pitch before any support for his purchase can be dismantled.

Reason 1: 'He creates goals.'

True, but not as much as teammates Steven Davis, James Ward-Prowse, nor Gaston Ramirez.  Ward-Prowse at £25m is somewhat justifiable given his age and potential.  He'll probably be better than Lallana in three years, when he turns 22.  Lallana is 26, if you were wondering.

Reason 2: 'He's a great passer.'

No, actually he's not.  He posted an 84.7% passing rate last year and an 80.7% passer rating the year before, respectable, yes, but not when you consider his pass back percentage to be 50.3% and 52.4% respectively.  He's great at passing backward, that's about it.

Reason 3: 'He's English.'

Oh yes, of course, he is made of that special pedigree that once 'ruled the world'.  Lallana is such an 'English' last name, isn't it?  And let's get something straight, he's 'White English', because a player of any different skin color and posts the same numbers, regardless of his country of origin, is dreadfully mediocre.

Reason 4: 'He's a model.'

Where do I begin here? A model what, exactly? Just another check against the underlying racism of top-flight football and the market-driven money that runs it. Yes, he's a looker, quite possibly his best tribute, though not Justin Timberlake hawt, which I personally fancy.

Lallana is nothing special and he'll disappear under waves of mediocrity once he starts to see the pitch in a Liverpool kit, but not before he plays second fiddle to Beckham and trumps up his modeling career, of course.

This reminds of me of another situation, let me see... White, overpaid, Englishman... oh, yes, Andy Carroll! How could I forget quite possibly the worst bit of business in Liverpool history.  Dalglish has Suarez to thank for saving his arse though, had he not bought the Uruguayan, King Kenny might have been looked upon with more senile light.  Oh there I go again, mentioning that name... he's not supposed to participate in footballing activities which apparently includes everything on the internet involving a ball and feet.

Jordan Henderson, the would-be King

Jordan Henderson has come a long way since his Sunderland days.  When Dalglish bought him in June of 2011 for a staggering £16m, I was more than a bit skeptical.  Paying that much for a relatively unproven soon-to-be 21-year-old, was quite the risk.  Henderson displayed flashes of brilliance here and there, but was wholly inconsistent, not uncommon for a player his age.  Fortunately he has proven to be a skilled, versatile midfielder, who can and is willing to do what is ever needed to make Liverpool a better side.

year	2009-10	2010-11	2011-12	2012-13	2013-14
age	20	21	22	23	24
app (sub)	23(10)	37	31(6)	16(14)	35
mins	2187	3210	2658	1535	3129
p90	24.3	35.7	29.5	17.1	34.8
goals	1	3	2	5	4
assists	5	4	1	4	7
chances	28	45	40	33	62
npg90	0.04	0.08	0.07	0.29	0.11
gcp90	0.25	0.20	0.10	0.29	0.32
ccp90	1.15	1.26	1.36	1.90	1.78
ap90	0.21	0.11	0.03	0.23	0.20
ccv	18.3	8.7	2.2	12.1	11.2
pass %	68.4	81.2	83.9	84.5	87.1
bp %	-	-	-	43.4	41.2
sacc %	0.25	0.29	0.35	0.33	0.15
shot %	0.03	0.07	0.05	0.15	0.12
TTI90	15.9	11.1	11.1	11.5	9.7

His progression over the past five years has been impressive to say the least, especially his passing.  What's most impressive though, is how valuable he has become on defence.  Last season, he became our most valuable midfielder when it comes to preventing goals.  His goals on pitch per 90 average was 1.18, considerably better than Gerrard (1.37), Lucas (1.28), or Allen (1.31).

To see how truly far Henderson has come I wanted to compare his stats from last season with his contemporaries, players who are of similar age (23-25) and play a similar position.  I went through each squad and found all the players that fit the criteria, they are Joe Allen, Nemanja Matic, Morgan Schneiderlin, Ashley Westwood, Fabian Delph, Sandro, Steven N'Zonzi, Ki Sung-Yeong, Victor Wanyama, Jake Livermore, and Vurnon Anita.  The stat comparison table is below.

The top 5 overall ranking:

1. Jordan Henderson                 4.73

2. Morgan Schneiderlin              5.00

3. Nemanja Matic                     5.33

4. Ashley Westwood                 5.67

5. Fabian Delph                        5.87

Not only was he top overall, Henderson was in the top five in eleven of the fifteen categories.  Among his peers, he is already king and if he continues his current progression, who knows how good he could become.

	Henderson	Matic	Schneiderlin	Westwood	Delph	Sandro
age	24	25	24	24	24	25
app(sub)	35	15(2)	31(2)	35	33(1)	10(7)
mins	3129	1365	2765	3077	3004	828
p90	34.8	15.2	30.7	34.2	33.4	9.2
goals	4	0	2	3	3	1
assists	7	4	1	2	2	0
chances	62	23	30	63	28	7
npg90	0.11	0	0.07	0.12	0.09	0.11
gcp90	0.32	0.26	0.1	0.15	0.15	0.11
ccp90	1.78	1.51	0.98	1.84	0.83	0.76
ap90	0.20	0.26	0.03	0.06	0.06	0
ccv	11.2	17.2	3.1	3.2	7.2	0
pass %	87.1	84.8	89.3	82.9	83.7	84.4
bp %	41.2	31	35.6	28.3	38.3	29.6
sacc %	32.7	15.3	25.8	25	25	23.5
shot %	8.2	0	6.5	10.7	8.3	5.9
TTI90	9.7	12.5	9.3	9.6	10.5	10.8
intp90	1	2	2.2	1.4	1.7	3.3
clrp90	2	4	1.5	0.9	1.5	2.4
tp90	2.4	3.7	3.7	1.6	3	2.6
ts%	42.8	41.5	47.8	47.6	49.4	42.6
gap90	0.86	0.46	1.14	1.64	1.62	1.63

	N'Zonzi	Sung-Yeong	Wanyama	Livermore	Anita	Allen
age	25	25	23	24	25	24
app (sub)	34(2)	25(2)	19(4)	34(2)	28(6)	15(9)
mins	3041	2196	1659	3054	2457	1443
p90	33.8	24.4	18.4	33.9	27.3	16
goals	2	3	0	3	1	1
assists	1	1	0	4	1	0
chances	32	28	7	34	38	18
npg90	0.06	0.08	0	0.09	0.04	0.06
gcp90	0.09	0.16	0	0.21	0.07	0.06
ccp90	0.95	1.15	0.38	1	1.39	1.13
ap90	0.03	0.04	0	0.12	0.04	0
ccv	3.2	3.6	0	11.8	2.9	0
pass %	87.2	90.7	84.3	83	83.8	86.7
bp %	36.8	42.1	38.9	38.9	30.7	38
sacc %	19.4	35	12.5	17.9	19	42.1
shot %	6.5	7.5	0	7.7	4.8	5.3
TTI90	10.7	7.2	12.6	11.7	10.2	9.8
intp90	1	0.9	1.8	1.5	1.6	1.6
clrp90	0.8	0.9	2.8	0.8	1	1.3
tp90	1.8	1.7	3.5	2	1.8	4.2
ts%	47.6	55.6	48.2	45.8	45	56
gap90	1.33	1.72	0.76	1.36	1.65	1.31