Rafa Benitez has reportedly told his players that he is sick of them playing the blame game and it is time for one and all to stand up and be counted.

Liverpool have not played good and attractive football for a very long time, which has led to a number of poor and disappointing results.

This has led to many people pointing the finger of blame as the players and fans have gone in search of answers. As far as the manager is concerned, enough is enough and he wants everyone to stand up and be counted until the end of the season.

He said: “I don’t think it is right to suggest there is any lack of trust between the players. You can look at last season as an example of that when these same players were doing well, playing with confidence and winning games and there was not a problem.”

“But against Wigan the keeper (Jose Reina ) was blaming the defenders for something that was wrong and the defenders were blaming the keeper. It happens in games but I don’t like it. If you are showing your disappointment with that sort of body language it is sending out the wrong message.”

“It is not positive and I don’t want to see this sort of reaction. I accept that each player is different but it is important to show leadership qualities and the right approach to your team-mates. I have told them I want an improvement and that if an error is made the person responsible must be kept on board.”

It has not helped the club that many key players have been injured for important games and key stages of the season. It is no wonder Liverpool have been losing points if they have not been able to name their best side ever week.

One such player, Glen Johnson, hopes to return in Europe. He said: “We know they are going to have some players with pace in certain areas. They’re well-organised and will work hard, and we know they are playing very well at home. I’ve been out for a while but I feel really good, although I’m just getting my match fitness back.”

Benitez does have a very good point. When a team is not playing well, they do rely upon team spirit to try and get them through each game. This case is no different and Liverpool must stick together if they are to have any chance of clinging onto fourth spot.

There are many areas the side can improve upon but history has shown that lower quality teams can succeed if they have a good team spirit and believe in each other. All Benitez is asking for is a little togetherness at a crucial stage.

Once Liverpool get a first choice team back on the field and once the players put their squabbles to one side, they are capable of repeating the performances of beating the likes of Manchester United on their own ground last year.

Is Glen Johnson going to be the missing piece in the jigsaw to help Liverpool win the Championship or Champions League next season? Probably not but the 17.5 million pound acquisition of the England full-back from Portsmouth is certainly going to give the Reds more depth and strength. Rafa Benitez has already made it clear that we can expect one or two more important signings and though he insists Alvaro Arbeloa is still wanted at Liverpool, a bid from Real Madrid would put some extra cash into the coffers. Expect that to be on the table any day soon.

Johnson, still only 24, has made great strides over the last year or two, winning a regular place in the England team and looking a great prospect for the future. Although he was important at Chelsea, he was given limited chances but proved his worth following his move to Portsmouth in 2007.

Pompey paid four million pounds for Johnson and his outstanding season at Fratton Park pushed his price tag up more than four-fold. However, Benitez said it was well worth spending out a bit more than anticipated to bring in a player he regards as very good and still improving. Benitez told the Liverpool FC website that his first priority was to improve the team and bring in players of quality. However, it was also important for the Champions League onslaught that Johnson is English.

Benitez said his pre-signing conversations with the right-back were very impressive. He liked his mentality and described him as a winner who wants to continue to get better. Manchester City and Chelsea obviously felt the same as both had been challenging for Johnson.

On this occasion, there was no dragging of feet by Liverpool who proved just how much they wanted him by acting swiftly and without delay. The 17.5 million price tag is likely to prove quite a bargain, given today’s crazy market and should Johnson ever decide to leave Liverpool in due course, the board should get a good return for their money. However, Johnson’s deal is for four years and given no injuries and continued form, he’s almost certain to become a regular in the squad.

Arbeloa, meantime, has just one year left on his contract and must be feeling pushed out, despite Benitez’s assurances. He joined Liverpool in January 2007 for 2.6 million from Deportivo La Coruna and that price tag is going to be considerably multiplied. Fans are saying the Reds still need another big name to finalise their squad in order to take the title away from Manchester United or to lift the European Cup. What a shame David Villa has opted to stay at Valencia. Or has he?

In a somewhat bizarre outbreak of news, Liverpool manager, Rafa Benitez, has found it necessary to come out and defend the £17 million that he paid for Portsmouth right back, Glen Johnson. Benitez has been criticised for quite clearly paying over the odds for a player that is not worth that amount of money.

The reason the story is bizarre is because the amount paid for Johnson does not even get close to the amount of cash that Real Madrid are paying for a variety of players this summer. However, it is thought that Liverpool paid so much to complete the deal just because Johnson is an English product and not a foreign import.

Rafa said: “Sometimes you have to spend a little bit more. You can’t compete in the top four of the Premier League unless you spend some money. We were looking for a player of quality and also somebody who is British because of the new Champions League rules. Glen Johnson fits both categories.”

“Alvaro Arbeloa has had a very good season but he has one year left on his contract. If he signs that will be good because we will have more competition, but if we get a good offer we will have to consider it. But we have a plan. We can sign one more player if necessary, but that’s without any players leaving.”

Benitez seems to have a clear vision of what he wants to do with the club this summer. He will want to bring in Valencia forward, David Villa, to link up with Fernando Torres but this will not be possible until some first team players have sold. Furthermore the amount of money that Valencia will want is likely to be substantially more than the fee that has just been paid for Johnson.

Liverpool had their best season ever last year since the Premier League started way back in 1993. Rafa seems to know the specific areas in the team that he wants to try and address and he has already done this with the full back slot. Liverpool will need a high class quality striker to take the work load off of Torres and Gerrard but they will not be able to do this unless they bite the bullet and make a sacrifice in another place.

It is unfortunate that they have to do this but it is an eventuality that cannot be over looked. The one more player that Rafa talks of would probably not be as high in quality as the manager would have liked and he has been in the Premier League for long enough now to know how to handle the situation.

Liverpool had no choice really other than to pay what Portsmouth wanted if they thought they needed a high calibre player like Johnson to come in. It means that Rafa can now listen to offers on players such as Arbeloa in order to make the team stronger on the bigger picture. There is still a lot of work for the Spaniard to do this summer.

Portsmouth right back, Glen Johnson, seems to be on his way, but not to the club that everyone had first thought. Liverpool have had a bid of £18.5 million accepted for the England defender and he will become the first summer signing of Rafael Benitez as he looks to push for the Premier League title next season.

Both Manchester City and Chelsea had been heavily linked with Johnson and both were expected to make big offers within the next few days. However, fair play to Liverpool for not resting on their laurels and seizing the initiative to make sure that they got their man.





It is a sensible signing for both parties concerned. Liverpool have now filled what was a problem position for them; Jamie Carragher was never going to be able to play the right back position next season as he is not young or fit enough. Johnson gets the benefit of playing in a talented team with a gifted manager and Pompey get a lot of money out of the deal. Liverpool are likely to raise the funds from selling other fringe players in the squad but this is the clearest sign that Benitez is in the right frame of mind and thinking well ahead of the next campaign. A large part of the Liverpool budget went on new contracts for important players so the manager had to be precise and go for positions where his squad were clearly lacking.

He has also gone for a player that still has a lot to learn and someone who is very young. Johnson arrives at his second massive club having plied his trade and developed himself down on the south coast. His performances didn’t go unnoticed by England manager, Fabio Capello, or Benitez who has now decided to buy the first choice England right back.







It could also see an end to the rare occasions when Steven Gerrard is forced to play out on the right wing in a Liverpool shirt. Johnson is similar to Ashley Cole of Chelsea in the respect that he likes to get forward as well as being able to track back and fill in other positions for players who are still out of place. It will probably come as a nice surprise to Liverpool fans. Johnson is a very underrated player and a lot of this is due to the fact that he was not able to make it when he played at Chelsea. However, he has improved massively since then and Liverpool must be credited for creeping in and getting their man before anyone else could blink.

The technicalities of the deal will probably be taken care of during the week but the move now looks a full on certainty. Unless Chelsea or Manchester City poach in with an absolutely stupid offer then Johnson will be playing at Anfield at the start of next season and he can rest safe in the knowledge that it is a terrific move and the right one for him.

Manchester City have made another move in the summer transfer market with the news that they have approached Portsmouth with a view to signing Glen Johnson. Johnson has come on leaps and bounds over the past season and his regular first team performances even earned him a place in Fabio Capello’s England side.

He is also a traditional full back that likes to get forward and can get in a few decent crosses but at the same time he also has the ability to track back and fill in for other defenders. His early big move to Chelsea did not pay off and now could be about the right time for Johnson to have another stab at playing for a growing club.

The Manchester City revolution seems to be developing on a daily basis and if Johnson signs then it will mean that Mark Hughes is slowly building an impressive team. They could well go for a lot more high calibre full backs in the game but City won’t be able to attract these players until they start getting more success on the pitch.

Johnson would fit in nicely to the City side and would certainly help them to become a lot more balanced. Furthermore the fact that Fabio Capello clearly sees enough in him to warrant a first team slot in the England side says a lot about the nature he is showing as a player.

Johnson was often criticised in the early part of his career at West Ham United for never actually making good of all the talent he had. It seemed as though football was not the first thing on his mind and when you are a professional player at a club with the history that West Ham has, it should be. This could have been why his move to Chelsea did not go as many anticipated it would. He could not get into the first team there and he was subsequently told to move on.

However, he has developed into quite a mature young man and looks comfortable playing at the highest level. What a move to City would subject him to would suit him as opposed to if it was a season or two back. The wealth and fortune won’t faze him one bit nor will the fact that he will be playing with some of the best players in Europe.

You have to questions the theory of the move though. Pompey have just been taken over by the same person that led the bid for Manchester City. Therefore you would scratch your head and wonder why the new owners would let one of the best players go. Although it is highly doubtful there is any thing dodgy in the move, it does make you feel rather confused.

If Johnson moves to City or whether he stays put at Pompey, he is slowly starting to build himself a reputation, one of which he can be proud. He has to maintain all of the consistency he has developed, whichever club he is at, if he wants to keep his England chances high and have a chance at becoming a great player.

As the saying goes, “You can’t win the lottery if you don’t buy a ticket.” Well, England are one win away from their ticket to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, and it would be a disaster of monumental proportions to blow it now.

They almost guaranteed next summer’s trip with a 6-0 whitewashing over Andorra today (June 10th) at Wembley Stadium in London in their group six qualifier. And once again Wayne Rooney led the way by banging in two more goals. He now has 24 in 52 England matches, 10 in his last seven games for England and eight in seven World Cup qualifying matches. It looked like he could have had a hat trick in the first few minutes if the ball had bounced his way.

Manager Fabio Capello made a few changes from the squad that started last Saturday as David Beckham made played a full 90 minutes and Peter Crouch started up front for a change.

England did something unusual for them as they got off to a good start finally and the Manchester United star opened the scoring in the fourth minute with a fine downward header after being left alone just yards in front of the goal and being picked out by Glen Johnson.

Frank Lampard made it 2-0 in the 29th minute. Johnson then laid in a lovely cross for Rooney in the 39th minute and he met it beautifully and guided it into the net for a 3-0 lead. Johnson set up three goals and was the man of the match.

Capello brought on Ashley Young, and Jermain Defoe at half time for Steven Gerrard and Rooney. While Young didn’t make much of a difference, Defoe showed why he’s a lot better option up front than Heskey.

Wayne Bridge came on for Ashley Cole in the 64th minute and England put the ball in the net a minute later but it was ruled offside. Defoe was denied by an excellent save from Andorra’s keeper Alvarez in the 69th minute as the England striker met a cross just a couple of yards in front of the net.

However, Defoe made sure he got on the score sheet just five minutes later and then he doubled his output in the 76th minute as Alvarez couldn’t hang onto David Beckham’s long-range free kick and Defoe pounced on the rebound and tucked it home. But Defoe wasn’t finished there. He made a great run into the box in the 80th minute, but mistimed his shot, however, it fell right into the path of  Crouch and he just tucked it over the line to make it 6-0. It was Crouch’s 14th goal in 17 starts for his country.

Today was England’s biggest win in a competitive game since 1999 and although they have done very well so far in the Qualifying stages, some factions of the English press are getting a little carried away already by suggesting 2010 is finally going to be the year England breaks their 44-year drought and will be crowned world champions, for the first time since 1966.

While England has just as good of a chance as anybody to win it, perhaps even a better shot actually than some teams, let’s not forget the games are won on the pitch, not on, and in the paper. They still have a lot of bad habits and sloppy play that needs to be eradicated before next summer. Assuming they make it.

It’s sometimes hard to criticize a team that wins its World Cup Qualifier 4-0 on the road after a long domestic season, but to me, England still don’t seem to be very convincing, even after today’s (June 6th) comfortable win in Kazakhstan.

The starting lineup wasn’t too bad. Although I’m not really sure how good Matthew Upson really is yet, or how good he can be. And I still don’t know what manager Fabio Capello sees in striker Emile Heskey when Jermain Defoe and Peter Crouch are sitting on the bench. Even though Heskey did score, it was his first competitive goal for England in seven years. His last one came against Denmark in the 2002 World Cup.  Crouch, for the record has 15 goals in 33 games for England. Robert Green started in goal for England as David James and Ben Foster are both out with injuries. I prefer Paul Robinson myself, but have no problem with Green getting the call.

The problem with England though, is that they usually play to the level of their opponents. Against teams like Germany, Italy, Brazil, and Argentina, they can look like a pretty good football team. However, against the likes of Kazakhstan, Andorra, and the Faroe Islands, etc. they don’t look much better than their opposition does.

It took England 28 minutes to create their first chance today when Heskey finally got a shot on goal for them, while it took Kazakhstan all of 28 seconds, and should have taken the lead when Glen Johnson gave the ball away and Alexandr Kirov sent in a low cross for Sergey Ostapenko to tap it home, only to have England captain John Terry intercept it at the last moment.

Kazakhstan then put the ball in the net a few minutes later after Kukeyez swung in a free kick from the right side of the park and Ostapenko headed it home, but he was offside by a few inches. Kazakhstan players were then off the pitch celebrating and the game should have actually carried on. Ostapenko looked like he could be trouble for England all night long, but the visitors caught a break when he was carried off on a stretcher in the 27th minute and replaced by Sabirkhan Ibrayev.

England took the lead on Gareth Barry’s header in the 40th minute as he was left all alone in the box and he converted Steven Gerrard’s cross. It was his second goal for his country and his first in a competitive match. Heskey made it 2-0 just before half time as Gerrard’s deflected shot from a distance caught the Kazakhstan keeper Alexandr Mokin off of his line and he could only parry the ball, but it came right down to Heskey’s feet, who had the empty net to deposit it in.

Theo Walcott was taken off for England at half time as he looked a little lost and Shaun Wright Phillips came on to replace him, but he wasn’t much better. Rooney managed to make it 3-0 in the 73rd minute with his eighth goal in the last six games for England, as he nicely volleyed home his rebound from in close with a scissor kick after Mokin had made a nice save.

Two minutes later David Beckham was brought on for Glen Johnson, and played a pretty good last 15 minutes. Then in the 78th minute, Heskey was brought down in the box and Frank Lampard converted the penalty with a fine shot to make it 4-0.

England now sits on top of Group 6 with 18 points in six games and takes on last-place Andorra on Wed. June 10th at Wembley. Gareth Barry will miss that game due to his yellow card in the 16th minute today. Again, it was a lacklustre performance and England has a habit lately of winning these types of games by scoring goals in quick succession and bunches, such as in the 40th and 45th minute today along with the 73rd and 78th.

I don’t really expect a much better performance from England on Wednesday, but I’m sure the scoreboard will be in their favour when the whistle blows after 90 minutes.