Liverpool Story — December 2013, Time For Another Trophy!

Hello everyone and welcome back to my Liverpool story! After a couple of disappointing results in November without the injured Torres, we needed to return to form now he was back. We had a tough month ahead, including the Fifa World Club Cup, which made it 8 games in a month.

We started the month at White Hart Lane, against Tottenham, who were sitting in 8th place. As has become a theme this season, we got off to a great start, in the 2nd minute Torres fired us in front after his intial shot had been saved. Tottenham then began to dominate, but they couldn’t put one away and we grabbed a crucial second goal when Sanchez came inside and beat three players before finishing. It was a truly wonderful goal and it gave us the win, but it was a harsh result on Tottenham, who deserved at least a draw.

Next up for us a home tie against struggling Fulham. We totally dominated them, Torres was at his brilliant best, he scored a fabulous hat trick, that took his tally to 22 for the season. Before the game I had decided to leave out Andre Pierre Gignac, who had been in very poor form. That meant Roman Vavilov came in because Niklas Danielsson had picked up an injury, ruling him out for 3 weeks. Torres first was his best, he beat two defenders and placed in. His second came after Vavilov’s pass, he cooly put it in, and he completed his hat trick in just 22 minutes when he finished a great team move easily. The fourth was scored by Alexis Sanchez, his second in two games, he finished from Vavilov’s pass, the young Russians third assist of the game, justifying his selection.

In the game Francesco Magnanelli got injured, keeping him out for 8 days. It was common thing this month, we had a lot of niggling injuries that threatened to disrupt the team, as it changed a lot.

The next match of this busy month was our final Champions League group game, a dead rubber, away to Portuguese side Braga. Despite the unimportance of the game, I fielded a strong side in an attempt to keep morale high with a big win. I was rewarded with a great performance, we battered them 6-0, Torres scored another hat trick, his second in two games. Goals from Silva, Sanchez and Jules Jourdain added to the score and the game finished 6-0, a result which confirmed us as group winners.

After a four day break, we were back playing again, we were facing Newcastle in the Premier League. It was quite a difficult game for us,Newcastle came and ‘parked the bus’, and it took us a while to break them down. Thankfully we did, right after half time, Torres turned on the magic, he beat three players and put it in to give us the lead. We had to wait until the very last minute to secure the victory, substitute Gignac got his first goal for a while with a tap in at the far post after great work from Silva down the left. The number of long shots we had-13- shows how we struggled to break Newcastle down, and they restricted us to just 2 clear cut chances, which was a good effort by them.

After that game we took a break from the Premiership and we went of to the World Club Cup. We were by far the strongest side there, and I expected us to win a competition that the club has never won before.

The first game was against Tampines, a very weak side from Singapore, in the Semi Final. I sent out a weakened team with no Torres, who was injured against Newcastle, meaning he will be out for 10 days to 2 weeks. It was another blow, but at least he was only going to miss these World Club Cup games, and hopefully no Premier League matches. Also missing were Silva, Sanchez, Mascherano, Johnson, Jourdain, Insua and Reina, all of them were rested. Despite the absentees we still turned out a good performance and brushed aside Tampines, a hat trick from Gignac, two from Axier Kortadi and an own goal, made it a 6-0 win for us. Unfortunately the run of minor injuries was kept up by Darijo Srna, who picked up a hamstring problem, ruling him out for 2 weeks.

So we were off to the final then, and later that day we learnt that our opponents were to be Argentinian side River Plate. They are a stronger side than Tampines, but I still was confident that we could lift our first World Club Cup. I made two changes for the final, Johnson came in for the injured Srna, and Sanchez was brought in for Wilshere, who was knackered. The game started well for us, and we went ahead in the 26th minute through Gerrard, who placed a shot in. River hadn’t threatened at all, but just before half time, they equalised after a good move. I was disappointed and felt we had switched off, and we went in at half time level. The first ten minutes of the second continued in the same way, we attacked, River doggedly defended and looked for counter attacks. That was to be there undoing, as they switched off following an attack, and allowed Kortadi space to send away Danielsson, who placed it in to put us in front. After that the match drifted out somewhat, River couldn’t break us down and we comfortably held on to secure the trophy!

I was pleased with the win, we had another trophy in the bag, and the players morale was boosted.

After that cup win, it was back to the Premier League, to face West Ham on boxing day. After the River game Glen Johnson got injured, and with Srna out as well, Havard Nystad came in at right back. West Ham did the same as Newcastle, they set up to defend and it took until the 54th minute for us to breakthrough. We did it through Alexis Sanchez, who tapped in Gignac (in for Torres who was still injured) at the back post. West Ham never threatened us, and we made in 2-0 in the last minute, substitute Vavilov with a brilliant lob over the advancing Green.

 Next up, we were again in the Premier League, we had a tough trip to the pacey Aston Villa. The fit again Srna came in at full back for Nystad in our only change. Jules Jourdain, was also injured so the 35 year old Jamie Carragher had to face Agbonlahor and Delfouneso. I was seriously worried about Carragher’s lack of pace, but at leat we had Torres returning after injury. The game was a boring one to be honest. We couldn’t break them down, and Villa failed to capitalise on Carragher’s pace (or lack of it). It took until the 85th minute for us to create a chance, and thankfully it fell to the right man, Torres scored it and we had nicked a 1-0 win despite a poor performance.

So that concludes December, and 2013, then folks. It was a good month for us, we added another trophy to our collection, and continued to set the pace in the Premier League. He is the table, and I feel sure we will secure another title, we are currently 2 points clear with 2 games in hand.

The other bit of news regards the Champions League Knockout draw. We have been drawn against Spanish giants Barcelona, we couldn’t have got a more difficult draw, but I guess we have a good chance of beating them. We have another busy month coming up, January sees us play 8 games, including consecutive matches away at Arsenal and Chelsea.

That’s all for now everyone, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read the post.