OCTOBER 18
Cole targets Reds revival

By Adrian Del Monte - Sky Sports

Joe Cole has admitted that he must rediscover his best form to help get Liverpool back on track, following their dismal start to the campaign.

The Reds are currently in 19th place, following Sunday's disappointing 2-0 defeat in the Merseyside derby against rivals Everton.

Cole remains adamant however that he and his team-mates can still turn things around this season.

"We are not playing well, I'm not playing well but I know I'm at a club that is going to help me through it," Cole said.

"I know that and I expect better from myself.

"It's disappointing to lose such a big game but in these situations, the worse thing you can do is start pointing fingers at each other. We have got to look at ourselves.

"I'll just try and do what I can do to get back to it. I need to find my form somehow. I'm sure I will and it will come soon.

"We have had a tough start and a bad start with results. We can't do anything about that now. We are where we are and we have got to change it. We have got to dig deep."

Cole also acknowledged that he is yet to fulfil his duties with the club, and that he must work harder to ensure he does.

"There are characters here. I'm looking at myself - nobody else. I need to do a lot better for the club; every minute of every day I'm thinking about how I can get there again," he continued.

"I'm desperate to do well for Liverpool. I've never had a period like this before and it is all new territory for me. But it is a challenge and life is never easy.

"The right thing to do is just try and grind out the first win and then take it from there. We are right behind the manager. We all believe in the team and in the club.

"We have just got to stick together. We are doing a lot of things right but we have just got to concentrate on cutting out the wrong things."

OCTOBER 18
Sorry Hodgson, this derby was
a stroll in the park for Everton FC

Comments by David Prentice - Liverpool Echo

Not for the first time, derby day on Merseyside produced wildly differing versions of the action which unfolded.

“I think we’ve played better in every other game this season bar Newcastle,” said David Moyes.

Roy Hodgson replied: “That’s as good as I’ve seen us play under my management.”

So was the 214th derby match another epic swindle?

Were the Reds robbed by their lucky neighbours?

Not from where I was sitting.

Derbies aren’t supposed to be routine.

They’re not supposed to be strolls in the park.

Fans fingernails are supposed to be bitten to ragged stumps, nerve ends shredded and patience strained.

Not yesterday.

The only concern Everton’s celebrating supporters had was whether the significance of their first Premier League derby win for four years would be overshadowed by the ineptitude of their opponents.

Because for 45 minutes Liverpool were comprehensively outplayed.

Perhaps Roy Hodgson was trying to defend his players when he spoke so glowingly of their performance, because if he really meant it the Reds have big problems.

The admirable Steven Gerrard apart, Liverpool were, at best, ordinary.

For 45 minutes they were run ragged – a straightforward tip over from a Fernando Torres header was Tim Howard’s only meaningful contribution – then after Everton had made it 2-0 they simply sat back and invited Liverpool to try and break them down.

They couldn’t.

Tim Howard smothered a couple of long range shots from Raul Meireles. In the 83rd minute he decisively touched the ball to prevent Fernando Torres from tapping in at the far post.

But that was about it – as straightforward a derby day success as David Moyes has ever enjoyed.

Liverpool enjoyed so much second half possession because Everton were happy to let them.

Their manager even said as much, before backtracking a little and trying to defend his managerial friend.

But there was absolutely no doubt Everton were deserved and dominant victors.

The tone was set from the opening exchanges.

Just as Jamie Carragher placed a marker for last season’s Anfield showdown with a shuddering first minute challenge on Steven Pienaar, Everton did the same this time.

Yakubu - a man usually only usually likely to make a run if a goal-chance lay at the end of it - chased down Sotirios Kyrgiakos and conceded a foul.

Leon Osman followed suit – this time legally – as he chased down Carragher trying to clear – and the tone was set in Everton’s favour.

Osman’s attitude was outstanding, and infectious – and it was a surprise that Everton took so long to score.

Only Arsenal and Chelsea have boasted greater possession than the Blues this season.

Only Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United and a Fulham side unbeaten until Saturday had made more passes in their opposition’s half all season.

But while the same four teams featured in the Premier League’s list of shots on target, Everton were nowhere to be seen.

And the same trend continued yesterday.

Jagielka fired over, so did Distin - and when Reina was finally asked to make a save he did so competently from Yakubu.

It took the zestful enthusiasm of youth to finally fashion a breakthrough.

Seamus Coleman may suffer from the occasional lapses defensively, but going forward he is a penetrating, determined and ambitious runner.

His 33rd minute burst and cross was outstanding, and on the end of it was a man whose record against Liverpool is outstanding.

After Mikel Arteta had made it 2-0, Everton appeared to declare.

To use boxing parlance – after all Thomas Stalker, Tony Bellew and, bizarrely, Roy Jones Junior were all present – you can only beat what’s put in front of you.

And Everton did. Comfortably.

And that has to be the biggest concern for their supporters.

So many things appeared to be in Liverpool’s favour leading up to the clash. There was a feelgood factor from the takeover, influential Everton absentees like Fellaini, Pienaar and Saha, the fact that Mikel Arteta and Phil Jagielka needed fitness tests on the morning of the game.

But Everton took command.

Torres was an isolated and forlorn figure - students of his body language will have taken note of his reaction to an admonishment from team-mate Carragher, raising his finger to his lips; Joe Cole is a player still searching for his best role in the side, Lucas once again looked short on quality, Paul Konchesky’s late attempt at a right-footed shot was just plain embarrassing.

Everton had no such worries.

Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin were immense, Yakubu endlessly willing and Tim Cahill excellent.

But the fact is Everton didn’t need to have every player at the peak of his game to secure victory - and that has to be the biggest concern for Reds fans this morning.

“I think we’ve played better in every other game this season bar Newcastle,” said David Moyes. Everton fans will be reassured to hear that.

Roy Hodgson replied: “That’s as good as I’ve seen us play under my management.”

That should send tremors of concern around Anfield.

OCTOBER 18
Nightmare to replace
dreams of fairytale?

By James Lawton - Irish Independent

You didn't have to be a world-class lip-reader to gain a shrewd idea of the content of Liverpool's new owner John W Henry's occasional asides in the Goodison Park directors' box.

While reviving the Boston Red Sox, he learned quickly enough that professional sport is unique in that you can have the most brilliant business plan ever conceived without a single guarantee of success.

The imperative is a degree of belief in the project by the people who make it work and in football or baseball this will always, most importantly, concern the coach and his players.

You could see on the face of Henry -- which at the most critical moments of a catastrophic performance by his new team began to resemble a little uncannily that of George Bush Snr in the middle of tricky negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev -- that the vote of confidence he gave embattled Roy Hodgson and his men could only have been more provisional if it had been whispered in the wind.

Bush Snr, after all, had only to defend the western world. John W Henry has to remake Liverpool Football Club in something like its old image.

It is a huge task that could scarcely have been more apparent if Hodgson, fingering his collar increasingly nervously as his players meandered ever further from the proposition that they have some divine right to extricate themselves from a relegation dogfight, had sued for surrender to Everton's David Moyes some time in the second half.

Hodgson is a good football man and it may be that he will be given the time to put some flesh on the bones of what used to be a proud football organisation.

Henry, though, must surely be reflecting that his cut-price purchase of Liverpool is in need of far more dramatic surgery -- and character as well as talent investment -- than suggested by an initial transfer market outlay of £25m.

Another discovery by Henry yesterday afternoon was that reading the club's accounts gave only a partial report on the scale of the crisis. What couldn't be spelled out was something that former Kop favourite Robbie Fowler, flying in from the Indian summer of his career in Australia, latched on to with hard, professional detachment.

No, he said, there was no possible reason to presume that Liverpool, as currently constituted, will inevitably be clear of their worst relegation fears by the time the first transfer window opens in January. Nor was Fowler prepared to go along with the fiction that Fernando Torres, until recently arguably the world's most deadly, and beautifully confident striker, is making anything more than a nominal reaction to the fact that he remains one of the best paid players on earth. Torres, said Fowler, had at least a duty to look "interested".

Though he was as ground down as any of his team-mates at the end, Steven Gerrard at least performed that basic duty.

His injections of bite and class were poignant examples of an old Liverpool team before, with distressing ease, he was deprived of possession as Everton regained a grip they had brilliantly exerted in the early going.

Moyes, on a fraction of the resources enjoyed by his former Liverpool rival Rafa Benitez, may have moved, at least in terms of points, only marginally from relegation fears of his own, but what couldn't be in dispute was the vastly superior ethos of the team he has made.

This showed in the wonderful relish with which young Donegal man Seamus Coleman attacked the especially porous left side of Liverpool's defence. The burst that laid on Tim Cahill's opener spoke of a confidence that was hauntingly absent in all that Liverpool did.

Where it leaves Liverpool is surely a matter for urgent debate by the new owners.

The euphoria that has greeted the ejection of the great carpetbaggers Hicks and Gillett is understandable enough but it will not mean so much if the slide of the team, the erosion of quality and morale which was so rampantly progressive last season, continues to be lumped exclusively at the feet of the men who thought they could borrow and skim their way to great personal profit at Anfield.

That assault on the Liverpool tradition has rightly been identified, scorned and dismissed. There are, however, other strands to the breakdown which was so grimly manifest yesterday. It concerns a basic breakdown in the leadership of the team, the recruitment of too many players of insufficient ability -- and yesterday, we had to believe, competitive character -- and a chronic failure to exploit one of the best-funded academies in English football.

Liverpool yesterday looked like a football team all played out and it was little wonder that John W Henry appeared at times rather as though he had bought not a sporting dream but a nightmare to be endured for some time to come.

OCTOBER 17
Everton show Liverpool's owner
John W Henry what he could have bought

Comments by Richard Williams at Anfield - guardian.co.uk

So the optimism of Saturday night and this morning proved no more substantial than the dawn mist on the Mersey. By tea-time today all the talk of a new stability, of complete confidence in the manager, of money to spend in the January transfer window, had faded into transparency, leaving Liverpool's continuing problems in plain sight.

The club may be under new ownership but they are in real trouble on the pitch, the sort that will take more than just a change of ownership to eradicate.

"Tom Hicks and George Gillett were about leverage," Tom Werner, John W Henry's partner in New England Sports Ventures, said on the radio a few hours before the match. "We are about winning." In fairness he was speaking about the long term. But as Roy Hodgson said tonight, a Merseyside derby would have been the perfect time for the winning to start.

Despite the manager's protestations that his players had produced their best performance of the season so far, and that only one of them – Fernando Torres, of course – was suffering from a lack of confidence, Liverpool never looked like overcoming Everton today.

No one could accuse them of a lack of effort but their inability to turn desire into effective action appeared entirely unaffected by the departure of the detested Hicks and Gillett and the arrival of an apparently more acceptable set of Americans.

After watching their new acquisitions hammered into submission, however, Henry and Werner may have found themselves wondering if they had bought the club at the wrong end of Stanley Park. Everton, victors in a Merseyside derby in the league for the first time since 2006, used Liverpool as a springboard, shooting up seven places to 11th in the Premier League table with a display that shoved their neighbours down to 19th, saved from holding up the table only by West Ham United's inferior goal difference.

Hodgson spoke afterwards of the dangers of placing too much emphasis on the potential effect of activity in the January transfer window, and of the pressing need to string four or five wins together before the arrival of reinforcements. But it is hard to see where those wins are coming from after a match in which a tactically incoherent Liverpool, despite riding a wave of the emotions of the past few days, failed to overcome a team lacking Steven Pienaar, Marouane Fellaini, Jack Rodwell and Louis Saha, and with Mikel Arteta and Phil Jagielka selected despite incomplete recoveries from hamstring strains.

Everton's fine performance, a judicious blend of skill and aggression, emphasised the value of committing to long-term stability and tailoring ambitions to means. They were a credit to themselves and to their manager, David Moyes, who makes no secret of his envy of the greater resources enjoyed by bigger clubs such as Liverpool but is never reluctant to acknowledge the support of a chairman who is, first and foremost, a lifelong fan of the club. By contrast Liverpool are venturing once more into the realms of external ownership, in which an unreasonable degree of faith is inevitably invested in the newcomers. All Liverpool's staff and supporters have to cling to is the knowledge of what NESV achieved with the Boston Red Sox.

Based on that example, one can envisage Henry and his associates disappointing Liverpool's local authority by abandoning the plans for a brand new stadium and choosing instead to refurbish Anfield, as they did with Fenway Park, making up for the lack of increased revenues through significant increases in seat prices.

The first World Series win in 86 years sweetened the pill for Bostonians and perhaps a successful return to the Champions League would mute the complaints of economically challenged Koppites. That will not happen, however, as long as Hodgson is forced to shield the impeccable José Reina – a more than worthy successor to Tommy Lawrence and Ray Clemence – with a defence that shames the memory of Ron Yeats, Chris Lawler, Tommy Smith, Phil Neal and Alan Hansen.

While Jagielka and Sylvain Distin were subduing Fernando Torres – not the most demanding of tasks, given the disappearance of every trace of coltish spring from the Spanish striker's stride – up at the other end Sotirios Kyrgiakos and Martin Skrtel were being led a harrowing dance by Yakubu Ayegbeni, who scattered them time and again like an armoured car sent into battle against spear-throwers.

Of course Hodgson needs and deserves more time, and in the meantime he can be expected to take the pressure off his players by shamelessly exaggerating the quality of their performances. Few managers in his position would not do the same. But although local derbies are notoriously poor indicators of underlying form, today's match suggested that Liverpool are indeed in unknown territory, with few familiar landmarks to help them grope their way to safety.

OCTOBER 17
Moyes hails Everton spirit

Sky Sports

David Moyes paid tribute to Everton following their win over Liverpool but admitted his side had played better this season and lost.

The Toffees continued to pull clear of trouble with a 2-0 victory at home to the Reds in a typically competitive Merseyside derby.

Tim Cahill opened the scoring with a fine goal late in the first half and Mikel Arteta's powerful strike then made the result safe.

Moyes does not believe his team were at their best but was delighted to pick up three points and is now looking to climb the table.

He told Sky Sports: "Their attitude was spot on and they got their reward.

"I thought we have played better in the majority of games than we did today but it was a derby and a different kind of game.

"Some of our performances (earlier in the season) were good but we did not get the result but today we did enough.

"We are getting away from the wrong end of the table. We are a good enough team to be at the top end."

OCTOBER 17
Hodgson refuses to panic

Sky Sports

Roy Hodgson admitted after the defeat to Everton that the only way to shake off the term 'crisis' was to start winning games.

The ownership of Liverpool was finally resolved this week when New England Sports Ventures seized control from Tom Hicks and George Gillett, but there are still concerns on the pitch following a poor run.

The Reds remain in the relegation zone after going down 2-0 to Merseyside rivals Everton at Goodison Park, with Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta scoring the decisive goals.

Hodgson is refusing to panic and saw signs of encouragement in Sunday's clash, but accepts that difficult questions will continue to be asked until results improve.

He told Sky Sports: "I don't think it is a crisis, I thought the way we played today was not the level of a team in the bottom three.

"On the other hand it is six points from eight games and that is a very poor return.

"We need to start winning to climb the table and until we do the word 'crisis' will continue to be bandied around."

The new owners were in attendance at Everton, having already given their backing to Hodgson as the right man to turn around the situation.

"It is always nice to get a vote of confidence," said Hodgson.

"Whenever you lose a couple of games in a row these days your position is going to be questioned, so the new owners making it clear they thought I was the right man to do the job, you are always very happy to hear that."

He added with a smile: "Whether that has changed after today I don't know."

Reflecting on the match itself, Hodgson was satisfied with the effort of his players despite the disappointing scoreline.

He said: "We fell behind to a deflected block which fell kindly for Cahill so
I thought at half-time we were a bit unlucky to be a goal down because we had got back into the game well.

"In the second half we did everything the team could possibly do, we played well, created chances, we limited them to very few and put them on the back foot."

Star striker Fernando Torres again drew a blank but Hodgson believes he is just low on confidence rather than suffering from a physical problem.

"I don't think he is physically unfit, I think he showed that today, he did plenty of work and we don't have any injury problems with him," said Hodgson.

"He got battered during the World Cup and mentally he is probably a bit low and he needs a goal or two to get it back. Certainly today I would have no qualms about his performance."

OCTOBER 17
Liverpool hit new low

The Irish Times

Having decided to turn up and sample their first Merseyside derby, Liverpool’s new owners will now be fully aware of the task that lies ahead, thanks to a devastating 2-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park.

John Henry and Tom Werner of NESV had intended to wait until next week’s home game against Blackburn Rovers to take in their first game with their new club and this afternoon they may be wishing they stuck to those plans, after the Toffees soured the end of what was looking like a good week for the Reds.

Goals in each half from Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta did the damage but just as concerning for manager Roy Hodgson and his new employers was the lack of confidence and passion from back to front in a Liverpool team, that has dropped to 19th in the Premier League for the first time ever.

Their worst start to a season since 1953/54 — when they were relegated — rattles on, regardless of who's paying the bills.

One thing is certain and that is the new American owners, who invested heavily in the Boston Red Sox when they acquired the baseball team in 2001 prior to two World Series wins, will have to come up with funds for manager Roy Hodgson to strengthen in January.

All the focus, as it had been for the preceding week, will be on Liverpool’s failure but Everton were worthy winners, ending a run of three successive derby defeats.

The opening 45 minutes were in keeping with most Merseyside derbies, with the first late tackle coming after just 11 seconds and several more proliferating the half.

Maxi Rodriguez and Raul Meireles earned themselves yellow cards while Tim Cahill was booked for Everton as World Cup final referee Howard Webb tried to exercise restraint.

The actual football action was very limited with Arteta hitting a 20-yard free-kick into the wall and Everton centre-backs Phil Jagielka and Sylvain Distin both having half-chances with shots from inside the box.

Prior to Everton’s opening goal it was the visitors who had come closest to scoring with their first attack — although it took them 23 minutes to create one.

Joe Cole’s left-wing cross picked out the fit-again Fernando Torres at the near-post and his flicked header forced Tim Howard to tip over his crossbar.

Meireles had a 25-yard piledriver blocked by a wall of blue shirts from a half-cleared corner but that was the most Liverpool threatened.

It was just after their all-too-brief best spell of the first half that Liverpool went behind.

A slack piece of defending by Lucas Leiva and Paul Konchesky in the 34th minute allowed Seamus Coleman to run to the byline and cross for Cahill to hook home at the near post.

It immediately sparked chants of ‘going down’ from the home fans.

Diniyar Bilyaletdinov replaced Osman for the second half, which was only four minutes old when Everton went 2-0 up.

Sotirios Kyrgiakos’ headed clearance only reached the edge of the penalty area where Arteta was lurking to smash home a brilliant swerving volley.

Hodgson had spoken in the build-up of his hope of seeing his side not have to chase a game — which had cost them in previous matches — but now they had a mountain to climb.

Meireles’ 30-yard shot failed to cause Howard any difficulty while Torres’ effort from inside the area landed in the top tier of the Gwladys Street stand.

Joe Cole’s inability to control a pass from Reina, allowing the ball to run out of play, summed up Liverpool’s performance.

Everton continued to create the chances and Jagielka fired over from a corner in the last 15 minutes before substitute Jermain Beckford had claims for a penalty turned down after falling under a challenge from Martin Skrtel.

By contrast, Gerrard was woefully off target when teed up by substitute Ryan Babel on the edge of the penalty area while Torres shot straight at Howard when he should worked the goalkeeper more.

Beckford had chance to finish in style in added time but drilled his shot over.

This derby was billed as the most significant in three decades, considering the clubs’ league positions.

Seasons do not succeed or fail on such occasions but it will prove a useful point of reference for Liverpool’s new owners.

Thor Zakariassen ©