Les,
There are often a lot of teams who are thought of as lesser lights who get off to a good start, one of the main reasons for this is the fact that they have no injuries, when a key player gets injured their team usually goes tits up.
The manager made a comment in an interview, he never said Chelsea were afraid and it is easy to comment on such things after the event - what makes the best critics are those that highlight these points before the result is known.
6 games in, there are another 32 games to go, who knows what might happen. Let's recap so far.......
Draw Away at Middlesbrough - not a bad result
Beat Sunderland at Home - 3 points (same as Chelsea got from Wigan).
Draw Away at Spurs - is that a bad result?
Tactics 3965They were pretty much a lot better, yes. Point is, that isn't the first time they do that. They've been doing a lot of that this season. They may not be creating 15 chances...
Draw Home against MU - a considerable step up on recent years results.
Draw Away at Birmingham - 2 points lost, not because of the manager but because of the players.
Lost Home to Chelsea - were we expecting 3 points from this?
I'm pretty sure Cisse will be going in January to help fund a couple of wide players and a central defender.
It is obvious that Benitez hasn't got the players he wants to play the style he wants, he has tried a couple of variations and in the game against Birmingham Cisse dominated the right wing when he came on, against Chelsea from the start in his next game he wasn't good enough to do that - the manager swapped Garcia and Cisse around, it didn't work but at least we know he isn't as inept as is being made out. The deal with MG getting knocked back was blow, a guy with genuine pace and ability to take on others along with good crossing ability.
Given the above, i am glad that the manager hasn't just gone out like Houllier did and splashed 14 million on a player here and 10 million on another player there - christ if it wasn't for the champions league win last season Liverpool might of been in real financial poo, keeping Gerrard might not of even been an option.
Of course let us return to some of the minnows doing well. Charlton, 4 away wins, apart from that when they have played a team *expected* to do well they have lost. Charlton are doing well because they are having that bit of luck that is needed to compete sometimes, they aren't dominating their games but they are getting the lucky breaks needed (look at their Birmingham match for example).
Liverpools main problem atm is a lack of goals and the disgusting delivery from set pieces, surely the players should foot more of the blame for this than the manager?
Ren
