Pre-season
As I mentioned in last seasons year end report, a world class striker was the key thing that I needed to buy over the pre-season. Luckily for me, the new board gave me a transfer kitty of GBP62 million which I promptly raided for GBP52 million on Sergio Aguero.
Check out those stats! If Torres isn't careful, Aguero is going to steal his thunder
I also made two stupid mistakes over the pre-season. I completely forgot that Milan Jovanovic was joining on a free transfer so I signed Victor Obinna (a 23 year old backup with fast pace) on a free transfer as extra cover for my strikers. I went from not having enough strikers in 2009/10 to having too many strikers in 2010/11! Ah well, I guess its lucky I signed Obinna as a backup so he didn't complain too much when I ditched him in the reserves.
Milan Jovanovic - nice piece of business by Benitez to capture him as he has some good stats
The other mistake I made was in forgetting that I would need 8 players who trained in England starting from 2010/11 (due to new rules). Unfortunately, the Liverpool squad is mainly comprised of foreign players and it meant that, in order to accommodate Aguero, Jovanovic and Obinna, I had to drop both Kyrgiakos and Degen. Luckily, I had managed to sign some young up and coming talent as cover.
Despite the mistakes, it was a good preseason which saw the side strengthened in a couple of key areas. This good feeling lasted until the board set their expectations for the year ahead. As usual, they didn't care about the League Cup but they did expect me to challenge for the premiership as well as reach the final of the FA Cup and the Champions Cup.
Really? I was expected to reach the final of the Champions Cup?
No f'ing pressure then...
FA and League Cup
The League Cup has been a funny experience this year. I planned to mainly play my second stringers in the League Cup this year but came up against Everton early on. What could I do? There was no way I was going to risk the wrath of the fans by being knocked out of a cup competition by Everton so I ended up playing my first team players for that game.
After Everton, we came up against Chelsea. The interesting thing was that 3 days after the League Cup game with Chelsea, we would then face Chelsea again in the 5th round of the FA cup. I stuck with my youth policy and played my second stringers so that I could save my first team players for the FA cup match with Chelsea. Somehow, and I don't know how, we managed to win the League Cup game but lost the FA cup game (albeit on penalties after ET).
We then had a couple of relatively easy games in the League Cup which gave us another cup final to look forward to. I played my first team again and we managed to retain the League Cup. Small recompense for not getting to the final of the FA cup but there you go.
Premiership
Liverpool started the season extremely well and took an early lead in the Premiership. Unfortunately, my team continued to struggle against "lesser" teams and it wasn't long before we started to drop points. Luckily for us, other teams dropped points as well and by the end of the season, the top of the table was pretty congested with Liverpool, Man City, Chelsea and Tottenham all within 3 points of each other.
Game 37 would see Liverpool take on Man City. At this point, Liverpool were top of the table and ahead of Man City by only 1 point. What a chance for Liverpool to seal off the Premiership!
Alas, we bottled it. We lost 1-0 and the Liverpool dressing room became very unwelcoming as the manager told his players exactly what he thought of them. All appeared lost as the only hope left was for Liverpool to win their last game against Middlesbrough while hoping that Stoke, who were close to relegation, somehow managed to beat Man City.
Game day 38 started with football fans the world over wondering how the season would end. Despite Liverpool starting brightly against Middlesbrough, they were unable to break down the Middlesbrough defence. Meanwhile, Man City had a player sent off and miraculously, Stoke were leading by 2-0!
As expected, the Liverpool dressing room at half time was witness to another expletive filled tirade as the manager tried to get his players to react and take advantage of Man City's misfortune. The second half started much as the first half ended - with Liverpool laying siege to Middlesbrough but unable to find a way through.
Meanwhile, Stoke shut up shop and, with an extra player on the pitch, managed to see out the win and save themselves from relegation. Could the bunch of bottlers at Liverpool take advantage of Man City's gift?
Well, could they?
The final league table - what a way to finish the season
Also - lets all laugh at Man Utd
Champions Cup
This is the big one. The most prestigious cup competition in the world (for clubs) with the biggest and best teams around. And I was expected to reach the final.
We managed to get through the group stage without any problems. We were also really lucky in the knockout stages as well as we managed to avoid the best teams until the semi-final where we came up against Bayern Munich. Despite that, we didn't exactly coast through as we generally only managed a 1-1 draw away from home before getting the home win which sent us through to the next round. Bayern Munich would be a much tougher nut to crack though.
And sure enough, Bayern Munich immediately showed their class by completely outplaying us in the first leg and beating us 3-2 at their home ground. Although we managed to get 2 away goals (2 lucky away goals completely against the run of play), I was furious at how badly we played. Still, it put us in a good position for the home leg (provided we could up our game that is). In the end, the home leg proved anti-climactic as Bayern had a defender sent off in the first half which ultimately gave us an easy victory.
And with that little piece of luck, we managed to get to the final of the Champions Cup and meet our Board expectations. Of course, the story wasn't quite over yet. We still had to play the Champions Cup final against .... Chelsea.
Chelsea? Again?
Blimey. Not only do we have an all English final but this will make it 5 games this season where we have faced off against Chelsea. The last time we played Chelsea was in the FA cup which went to ET and penalties before we got knocked out. And would you believe it - the Champions Cup final also went to ET and penalties. Not exactly a good omen for Liverpool.
Good thing I don't believe in Omens!
In the end, Reina did a Reina special and won us the Champions Cup! What a way to end his Liverpool career!
I guess now is a good time to mention that halfway through the season, Reina decided he wanted a new challenge and wanted to leave. Bastard.
The Squad
Here is a snapshot of my squad as at year end.
As with last year, Stevie G was my best player in terms of his average rating. However, Aguero was my best attacking player as he managed to score 22 goals as well as get 19 assists. What a purchase! Well worth the GBP52 million.
I also played Torres a lot more sparingly this year which meant that he spent less time injured. Overall, he ended up playing more as a result and ended up with a much more respectable 21 goals. I also noticed a theme in that Torres tends to only play well when he is the lone striker. If he has a strike partner, he tends to do poorly.
Key themes
Expectations - Despite what I felt were unrealistic expectations from the Board, we managed to do extremely well and win both the Premiership and the Champions Cup. By any definition, this has been a good year. Given that, can anyone explain why the pissant fans aren't happier?
Lesser teams - My team continues to struggle and drop points against lesser teams. I really need to find a way to deal with this as it almost cost us the Premiership this year. I have no idea what I can do though.
Torres - Torres actually struggled with injuries at the start of the year in a similar fashion to last year (ie couldn't last 3 games without an injury). This was particularly worrying as Aguero was still settling in at that time. Ultimately, once Aguero settled, the whole team benefited as I was able to rotate players a lot more which probably ultimately resulted in less injuries overall.
HG squad - Another problem facing my squad is the lack of home grown players (ie players who trained in England). I'm going to have to be really careful about who I sign in the pre-season until the hot prospects which I've been signing left, right and centre graduate from the academy and into the first team.
Transfer targets - Unfortunately, my superstar GK wants to leave. Signing a replacement for him has to be a top priority over the pre-season. Assuming I get enough money, I also need to buy a right winger who can hug the touchline on the right side of the pitch. On the left, I have Babel and Riera which is a good mix of one player who cuts inside and one who hugs the touchline. Unfortunately, on the right side of the pitch, I don't have anyone who can swing a decent cross and I will need to rectify this to give me some more options in attack.
