Royal Blue Jersey
Player Valuation: £35m
I’m becoming a bit neurotic. I’m becoming a little bit obsessive. I am finding myself transfixed by the biased and misleading coverage that Liverpool receive on a well know satellite network. The coverage tonight on Sky Sports was nothing short of disgusting.
For starters:
The pre-match coverage was bordering on absurd. Souness’ odd dismissal of Mascherano’s obvious abilities appeared bitter and ungenerous at best. Hoddle then chipped in to add weight to Souness’ assessment of one of the world’s most promising midfield talents. Richard Keys then labels Rafael as “silly” regarding the Gerrard substitution at Everton – this was needless and was simply digging up an old story. This was topped off with Gray criticising Voronin’s selection and the tone of Rafael’s press conference.
The match:
Andy Gray is something, else he really is. Let’s look at HIS performance tonight (because I’m dead sad I was listening out for his words as I’m becoming increasingly obsessed with his overtly anti-Liverpool witterings).
The opening half hour we were really convincing and this was plain for all to see. It was this section of the match that Andy Gray kept referring back to as an example of our good play. However, during those early exchanges Gray never once mentioned how well we were playing. We were banging the ball around with style and ease but it apparently went unnoticed by the former Everton man. In fact, his first comment on Torres’ goal was how bad the defending was.
His comments at half-time were geared towards Rafael. It was all about how he should bring Crouch on. This is a man who Gray lambasted during Crouch’s early Liverpool days. However, Gray’s great talent is to criticise you because of what you are not doing; who you haven’t picked, the system you’re not playing.
Gray’s second half performance was priceless. Yes, Liverpool were average in parts, but to listen to Gray’s acerbic bile you’d think they’d scored 8 own goals. He simply could not hide his disgust at the events of the final 15 minutes. Torres’ goal was met by the comment, “why on earth would you drop him?” It wasn’t about the great contribution Rafael’s sub (Kewell) had made. No, that would be positive. Gray was just reminding us all of the fact that Rafael is a dubious decision maker and that somehow, by hook or by crook his teams win occasionally – usually because of Stevie G, but sometimes they’re just lucky – like tonight!
As Liverpool ran away with it, listening to Gray, you’d have thought a draw was a fair result. Gray attempted to gloss over the result by repeating how much this result flattered us. He didn’t mention what great team spirit we showed in the face of difficult circumstances. He didn’t mention how over the 90 minutes Liverpool were the better team, despite an under-par second half.
Regardless of the incident, Andy Gray always seems to create a negative. Liverpool are his bete noir and he makes no effort to hide this fact. There is no sinister agenda here. The simple fact is that Andy Gray does not like Liverpool Football Club and it gets me sooo mad.
I know people will tell me to turn off or just listen to the radio, but this matters to me. It really does. Gray is an influential voice in English football and his comments serve as the drip, drip of poison. This poison is spread throughout the media and these negative vibes become the received wisdom. They become the throw-away clichés that lazy journalists throw at the team and management.
I can’t help it, I just care.
Unbelieveable. Off a red [Poor language removed] forum called RAWK, it was passed on to me, I looked at the thread and everyone in it agreed with him. The factthey have the cheek to argue about media bias, and Andy Gray who opening bums the arse off Liverpool ("youu beauty!!" e.t.c) Astounding.
For starters:
The pre-match coverage was bordering on absurd. Souness’ odd dismissal of Mascherano’s obvious abilities appeared bitter and ungenerous at best. Hoddle then chipped in to add weight to Souness’ assessment of one of the world’s most promising midfield talents. Richard Keys then labels Rafael as “silly” regarding the Gerrard substitution at Everton – this was needless and was simply digging up an old story. This was topped off with Gray criticising Voronin’s selection and the tone of Rafael’s press conference.
The match:
Andy Gray is something, else he really is. Let’s look at HIS performance tonight (because I’m dead sad I was listening out for his words as I’m becoming increasingly obsessed with his overtly anti-Liverpool witterings).
The opening half hour we were really convincing and this was plain for all to see. It was this section of the match that Andy Gray kept referring back to as an example of our good play. However, during those early exchanges Gray never once mentioned how well we were playing. We were banging the ball around with style and ease but it apparently went unnoticed by the former Everton man. In fact, his first comment on Torres’ goal was how bad the defending was.
His comments at half-time were geared towards Rafael. It was all about how he should bring Crouch on. This is a man who Gray lambasted during Crouch’s early Liverpool days. However, Gray’s great talent is to criticise you because of what you are not doing; who you haven’t picked, the system you’re not playing.
Gray’s second half performance was priceless. Yes, Liverpool were average in parts, but to listen to Gray’s acerbic bile you’d think they’d scored 8 own goals. He simply could not hide his disgust at the events of the final 15 minutes. Torres’ goal was met by the comment, “why on earth would you drop him?” It wasn’t about the great contribution Rafael’s sub (Kewell) had made. No, that would be positive. Gray was just reminding us all of the fact that Rafael is a dubious decision maker and that somehow, by hook or by crook his teams win occasionally – usually because of Stevie G, but sometimes they’re just lucky – like tonight!
As Liverpool ran away with it, listening to Gray, you’d have thought a draw was a fair result. Gray attempted to gloss over the result by repeating how much this result flattered us. He didn’t mention what great team spirit we showed in the face of difficult circumstances. He didn’t mention how over the 90 minutes Liverpool were the better team, despite an under-par second half.
Regardless of the incident, Andy Gray always seems to create a negative. Liverpool are his bete noir and he makes no effort to hide this fact. There is no sinister agenda here. The simple fact is that Andy Gray does not like Liverpool Football Club and it gets me sooo mad.
I know people will tell me to turn off or just listen to the radio, but this matters to me. It really does. Gray is an influential voice in English football and his comments serve as the drip, drip of poison. This poison is spread throughout the media and these negative vibes become the received wisdom. They become the throw-away clichés that lazy journalists throw at the team and management.
I can’t help it, I just care.
Unbelieveable. Off a red [Poor language removed] forum called RAWK, it was passed on to me, I looked at the thread and everyone in it agreed with him. The factthey have the cheek to argue about media bias, and Andy Gray who opening bums the arse off Liverpool ("youu beauty!!" e.t.c) Astounding.
