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And Now for Something Completely Different …

Posted on October 21st, 2009 2:35pm by Jeff Miller
Filed under Soccer, Tom Hicks

(Before discussing English football, the headline honors the 40th anniversary of the great English import Monty Python, subject of a new documentary.)

This has been more than simply a forgettable week for Tom Hicks’ Liverpool FC. It has been bad, bizarre and getting worse.

The Reds have lost four consecutive matches for the first time in 22 years, fallen well off the pace in the English Premier League only nine games into the season and are in danger of failing to advance out of opening-group play in the Champions League. They lost in stoppage time on Tuesday at home against Olympique Lyonnaise, and that wasn’t the worst of their week. Try losing when you give up a goal off a beach ball.

Last Sunday, Liverpool lost to Sunderland 1-0 with the goal by Darren Best eluding Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina after it caromed off a beach ball sitting a few feet in front of him. (Seems the YouTube shot has been removed, but here’s a slide show of the episode.) The daffy defeat leaves Liverpool with five wins and four losses after losing only twice all of last season in the EPL. Next up? Manchester United at Anfield this Sunday.

Then came Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to Lyon. Liverpool took a 1-0 lead into the second half despite opening without injured starters Fernando Torres and Glen Johnson, then losing captain Steve Gerrard in the 25th minute due to an aggravation of a groin injury. Lyon tied the score in the 72nd minute and won in extra time, both goals scored by substitutes. Here’s a match report if you’d like to pore over the details. The Reds are stuck in third place in four-team Group E halfway through round-robin play, and manager Rafa Benitez is predictably under attack.

I didn’t expect a kind of Spanish Inquisition.

3 Comments to “And Now for Something Completely Different …”

SoonerBorn @ October 21st, 2009 at 3:25 pm

More misery for a Tom Hicks owned team, I Love It!!! He is an albatross to any team he is associated with. I hope he stays with Liverpool so that ManU has a clear path to the title every year, but I cannot wait for him to sell off the Stars and Rangers so the winning can begin.
WacoGreg @ October 22nd, 2009 at 4:05 am

Extremely depressing start of the season for Liverpool. Still if they can win on Sunday they will only be 3 points behind Man U who is sitting on top of the table. Champion’s League is far from over from them as well, we have seen them pull miraculous comebacks in the group stages before.
NorthTXGunner @ October 22nd, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Hicks and Gillette are certainly in over their heads. Hicks may be used to indifference when it comes to winning (Ranger and Stars), but the Kop will eat him alive. There are two ways to succeed in Euro football, either develop a club culture with youth (see Arsenal), or spend ridiculous amounts of money to buy the best players at inflated prices (Chelsea). Liverpool seems to be stuck in the middle by not having a strong youth program and by not shelling out tens of millions of Euros for top players. Torres was the last solid big buy, and he was before the current ownership regime. There are already questions about Liverpool’s financial stability, and now they are underperforming on field too. That’s not a good mixture for turning things around. We’ll see in January if Hicks and co. will cough up the money needed to strengthen the team.

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