A preview of the 2005/06 English Premier League

I have been waiting impatiently for the new season to begin. With events like Vieira leaving, Gerrard’s contract problems and Owen’s possible return to the Premiership, there is just too much drama this time! One good prospect this time is that the Premiership will certainly not be a two horse race. Especially with Liverpool strengthening their side with all the spanish flavour they can get, it may not be hard to guess that Premiership might just be a four horse race.
I have decided to review some teams to see how their new signings and strategy will determine their postion in the league.

Liverpool

Rafa has been buying. A lot from the Spanish bazaar. He is an awesome manager. We all know what he did at Valencia. The kind of comments he got from his team when he left the Mestalla is a measure of his quality; David Albelda was furious at his manager for leaving. He has been buying a lot of players from the place he comes; he should, he knows them best there.
But doesn’t it look like he has got a little too much Spanish spice in his team? I mean let’s not disagree that La Liga does not even come to being called a physical league when compared to the likes of the English Premiership or the Scottish League. For instance, a Luis Garcia or a Xabi Alonso is good when it comes to being slithery, making intelligent runs on the pitch and possessing slick passing skills. The not-so-good part of this repertoire that it is incomplete, not possessing the hard, back-breaking work that is needed in an English game.

Players to watch out for

The back four in Liverpool have been monumental in the last season. Carragher’s performance in the Champion’s League just shows us that he should be given respect that is due for quite some time. Maybe it is time to put Carragher in the same lot as the Terrys, Nestas and the Ferdinands.Hyypia too has been outstanding last season, popping up rarely during their attacks and scoring the odd goal.

The Liverpool midfield is studded with stars. Gerrard, Riise, Alonso, Hamman, Le Tallec, Nunez, Garcia, Kewell, Sissoko, Zenden will have to compete for just four spots on the starting line up. Boy oh boy. Isn’t there gonna be some competition! Sissoko, in my opinion is a good signing because he can be physical as well as creative in the midfield. If Garcia can put on some more upper body strength then he can do a lot better than he is doing right now. Kewell hasn’t delivered much for Liverpool since his transfer from Leeds United. It is increasingly looking like he is past his heyday and with so much competition in the midfield, and the added speculation that Luis Figo might land his footballing boots on the same pitch might just edge him well out of the starting line up.

Up front, Rafa has quite a few options. Cisse looked quite sharp last season till he broke his leg. The signing of Peter Crouch seemed quite unnecessary to me; shelling out £7 million was a bit too much for a striker of Crouch's calibre. But there has been some rather unbelievable speculation that Rafa plans to convert him into a centre-back because of his height. This definetely will not happen but it is nice to know that things like this can be taken seriously by the footballing community! Crouch’s signing seemed to ring the death knell for Baros’ career in Liverpool. Morientes and Sinama-Pongolle might have to compete for the other spot on the field although it doesn’t seem that the latter will play any part in the Premiership or the Champions League and might just have to be content to be playing in the FA cup and the Carling cup.

Rafa along with his Spanish contingent will no doubt be difficult to beat this season especially when he has the luxory of the talismanic Steven Gerrard. We will just have to wait and watch if Liverpool can truly challenge the big guns of English football.