Europa League preview: Napoli v Liverpool
A man on the edge, ready to run to the hills? After Roy Hodgson boarded the Liverpool plane headed for Naples ahead of this Europa League contest, it was somewhat apt that the voice of the pilot that greeted him over the tannoy was that of Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson. Would you bring your daughter to this slaughter?
Dickinson – a commercial airline pilot these days amongst other talents – will be transporting a weakened Liverpool squad to their third, and potentially trickiest tie in Group K, as the under pressure Hodgson leaves many of his big guns back on Merseyside.
Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres and Raul Meireles – among others – stay at home in preparation for the weekend, and while that is understandable with the Reds languishing in the bottom three of the Premier League – and likely to kick off Sunday’s clash with Blackburn Rovers at Anfield rock bottom of the table – Liverpool and Hodgson are still in desperate need of a win at the moment, whatever competition it comes in.
The spectre of Frank Rijkaard hovers over the Liverpool manager. News of the Dutchman’s departure from Galatasaray only adds fuel to the fire that produced the smoke that signals that the ex-Barcelona boss is about to replace the former Fulham manager, whose position at Anfield may have become further endangered by the resignation of managing director Christian Purslow – a key figure in appointing Hodgson – yesterday afternoon.
Such rumours can often be as long-winded and complicated as that previous sentence, but one thing is certainly clear, when John W Henry met groups of Liverpool supporters for the first time Monday afternoon, he would have met many fans whose initial enthusiasm at the appointment of Hodgson has severely waned in recent weeks. Everyone seems to want the 63-year-old to succeed, but he quite clearly isn’t. Henry – who sacked manager Joe Kerrigan within weeks of taking over the Boston Red Sox in 2002 – will be eager to please fans in the early days of his tenure, by any means necessary.
Such talk can wait though, for now. There is a football match in Naples to win.
And there will be a match, despite the best efforts of the six youths who broke into Napoli’s San Paolo stadium over the weekend, digging around 50 holes in the pitch and damaging both goalposts – presumably they’d seen Liverpool play recently and didn’t want to have to watch them. When the contest does get underway though, the Reds will find themselves up against skilled opposition.
Ezequiel Lavezzi is one of umpteen Argentinian footballers to have been dubbed “the New Maradona,” while fellow forward Edinson Cavani impressed for Uruguay at the World Cup – and scored a 98th-minute equaliser in Napoli’s 3-3 draw with Steaua in Bucharest last month, their second draw from two group matches.
Marek Hamšik is a gifted midfielder, Paolo Cannavaro – brother of Fabio – an accomplished defender, Hassan Yebda played for Portsmouth last season, while the familiar face of Andrea Dossena will also feature. The left-sided 29-year-old only left the Reds in January after eighteen months with the club, during which he contributed precisely nothing outside of a magical five days in which he scored in a 4-0 win over Real Madrid and a 4-1 success over Manchester United at Old Trafford.
Such scorelines here look about as possible as Wayne Rooney giving Sir Alex Ferguson a hug, with the Reds set to adopt the same pragmatic approach that earned them a goalless draw in Utrecht on their last journey into Europe.
Martin Kelly – the only Liverpool player to start, and subsequently play 90 minutes in, all six of the Reds’ Europa League fixtures this season – will feature again, with the likes of Jay Spearing, Milan Jovanović, Fabio Aurélio, Ryan Babel and David Ngog – scorer of five goals in his last four European starts – are all expected to come in.
Hodgson may be in desperate need of a result, but given the stars that he’s left at home for the trip to Italy, it looks unlucky that he’ll get it here.
For the sake of his job, he’ll need it soon though. Victories are needed – and he might like to take on board some words of advice from today’s pilot.
Be quick or be dead.
Prediction: Napoli 0 Liverpool 0
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