Liverpool Betting
It doesn't take a football betting genius to work out that Liverpool are currently experiencing a stinker of a Barclays Premier League 2009-2010 season thus far. Neither for that matter are there many Liverpool betting fans not acutely aware of their somewhat precarious position in the UEFA Champions League 2009-2010 run of things. Although the ray of Liverpool betting sunshine that suggests that they're the favourites to lift the UEFA Europa League 2009-2010 might count for something if you really think the Reds cant salvage anything else at this sorry juncture. No, wherever you look the once mighty Reds of Merseyside appear to be in the middle of a rut that they're finding seemingly difficult to emerge from. A rut that now poses the risk of being turned into a sizeable ploughed field. Whilst by other teams standards it's (sitting 7th in the Premier League table, one win away from fourth place and only six points adrift the second placed team) not exactly tantamount to staring into a chasm, by Liverpool's traditional high expectations – equal to that of their vociferous, yet incredibly loyal fans – the present class of 2009-2010 are falling some way short of what was anticipated this season.
Having flattered to deceive for the past few seasons under the tutelage of Rafael Benitez, Liverpool's players should have been under no illusion as to what what expected of them once the campaign got under way, both domestically and across the playing fields of Europe (The Liverpool betting community didn't that's for sure as we geared up for a season when we really believed we could be quids in). Specifically to come out of the blocks with all guns blazing and put the proverbial rocket under the backsides of Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal. And Manchester City maybe. And Aston Villa perhaps. And Tottenham Hotspur just to be on the safe side. That's right, as Liverpool take one step forward and three in the opposite direction, the so-called Premier League 'Big Four' are rolling out their hitherto restrictive membership criteria and policies to prospective new subscribers.
Benitez To Be Replaced By Mourinho Or Dalglish Making All Latest Liverpool Betting Headlines
Recording five defeats in the Barclays Premier League to date (one home, four away) as well as losing twice in this year's Champions League, has precipitated calls for Benitez to be shown the Anfield door, with suggestions that he's taken Liverpool as far as he can surfacing again; although more from certain sectors of the associated sports media pack rather than Liverpool's long-suffering fan-base. Although Liverpool betting fans who'd placed money on the Reds challenging for honours this season might also have something to say on this matter too.
The Liverpool betting markets – as constantly chalked up by the online Barclays Premier League football betting 2009-2010 savvy bookies – look foreboding if your name ends in Benitez, as the Spaniard at Liverpool's helm is on average priced at 6/1 to get the chop in the coming weeks, unless he can miraculously turn things around at Anfield. Which hardly seems fair, when at the end of the day he chooses to put out the players at his disposal who he believes can perform to their optimum on the pitch.
With Benitez's position falling under close scrutiny once more, the online Liverpool betting markets researched, compiled and flagged up by the web's leading Football Betting bookies are awash with odds and prices on potential successors to the Spaniard's increasingly fragile hold of the Anfield reigns. Liverpool's Next Permanent Manager markets are throwing up the usual suspects, with Jose Mourinho, Kenny Dalglish, Roberto Mancini, Guus Hiddink, Jurgen Klinsmann and Frank Rijkaard all the first names in the hat supposedly; and in that specific order of preference it seems. Whilst we're on the subject, SkyBet are offering a unique Liverpool betting double header, relying heavily on the prospect of both Benitez And Torres To Leave Anfield Before Next season before they pay out to any canny bettors.
Liverpool Betting Predictions Dominate Virtual Bookies' November Football Sportsbooks
Meanwhile, how about Liverpool Not Winning Any Games In November? Again a SkyBet special that might appeal to the Liverpool betting fan out there. Elsewhere across the specials markets there are the following Liverpool-based predictions, with Paddy Power, Coral and Totesport being the main protagonists and those of little faith;
Liverpool Winning No Trophies (somewhat uncharitable allusions, yet being particularly short odds in their virtual (sports) books, Liverpool's End Of Season Points Tally, Liverpool's Multiple Trophy haul chances (obviously not well-starred at this stage in all competitions, so probably the best time to chance your arm), Liverpool To Win Any Major Trophy, Liverpool To Win Premiership And FA Cup, Liverpool To Win Champions League And FA Cup, Liverpool To Win Premiership And Champions League and of course, the treble of Liverpool To Win The Premiership, Champions League And FA Cup (in the region of 3000/1 shot apparently, amongst the unlikely double and treble markets around). Otherwise it's the Liverpool End Of Season Barclays Premier League Position that's creating the most Liverpool betting attention (and panic buying) in terms of Liverpool betting markets at this moment in time, with the general interactive bookies' consensus of opinion being that the Merseysiders will finish 4th of lower proving a popular call.
Liverpool betting Fans Acknowledge That Off Field Problems As Much To Blame As On Field
So just how did Liverpool find themselves in their current plight? The answer is a multitude of reasons have contributed to the crisis that the Reds find themselves in the midst of, and more worryingly, none of which are scheduled to be eradicated in the near future. Central to just about everything is the continued unrest and uncertainty over Liverpool's ownership – a bone of contention ever since Tom Hicks and George Gillette assumed the mantle – and that simply wont go away. With rich benefactors being lined up by the week to pay off Liverpool's debt and free up some serious money for team rebuilding, according to the tabloids anyway, realistically nothing concrete is set to materialise, and therefore does little to pacify fans and observers in the game as the club desperately look for some direction from the top. Allied to these over-riding money issues, effectively means that plans for a new stadium have been put on hold again.
All this perceived instability at the core of the club and its infrastructure has filtered down and unsettled those in charge of the day to day running of operations on the pitch, in a result-driven industry that measures the man in the hot-seat by the margin of the victory of the team he's charged with sculpting. So when the statistics that Liverpool are posting at the moment are published, the cold, hard facts make for grim reading to any any potential corporate sugar daddy who may have the wherewithal to come in and wave their magic wand and transform Liverpool's labouring fortunes once and for all. And just perhaps restore them to the pinnacle of football where arguably they belong.
Impossible To Bet That Liverpool's Current Decline Is All Benitez's Fault
Vicious tongues still wag under the burden that Liverpool's troubles stem from the dubious 'quality' of the team he's assembled since being the manager, with the obvious exception to the rule being the purchasing of Fernando Torres, who along with the inherited Steven Gerrard, remain the real force and the two players the Liverpool betting fans would place their mortgage on to deliver the goods above all other team-mates. Looking at the evidence there's definitely an argument, with the jury very much still out on Lucas, Riera, Babbel, Aurelio, Isuna and Veronin's individual and collective worth.
Looking beyond them, and clearly Javier Mascherano hasn't been pulling his weight, with one eye very much on a lucrative move to Barcelona on the horizon next summer, whilst most controversial notion that it is, we're not going to shy away from the fact that serious question marks hang over Jamie Carragher's faltering dependency as well, a thought that would have been bordering on the blasphemous until this season when the stalwart Liverpool defender hasn't been the defensive lynch-pin that his reputation has been built on. Which has lead some of the more harsher critics to deliberate over whether Benitez was too hasty over Sami Hyppia's moving on before the season started, with strength in depth being sadly lacking all over the field, but defence being a particular moot point.
Much has also, justifiably so, been made of Xabi Alonso's departure to Real Madrid, which has had more far reaching effects than anyone realised, with the gaping whole left by his absence in midfield remains all too telling. Whether or not this will be shored up once Aquilani regains his fitness and reports for full-time duty in a creative midfield berth is anyone's guess. And so on and so forth. In fact we could eulogize until the cows come home over the why's and where for's of Liverpool's current decline (and then some...).
Liverpool Betting Fans Would Never Have Predicted Sunderland Beach Ball Howler
And then there's good, old fashioned bad luck to figure into the equation. For example, what about that freak beach ball incident at Sunderland eh? Just when you think your luck couldn't take any further hits, a harmless looking beach ball is released onto the pitch from the crowd (a hapless and clearly unwitting Liverpool fan of course) and all hell suddenly breaks loose in the box as it latches onto a loose Darren Bent cross-cum-shot and somehow manages to deflect the match ball into the back of Pepe Reina's net. Imagine the embarrassment.
Clutching at straws now, yet a horrific injury list doesn't help matters, but then how many Premier League teams this season can also cite a long casualty list – including old city foes, Everton – if needs be. except in the middle of all this negativity and cogitating, Liverpool somehow managed to put one over their other oldest and most hostile adversary, Manchester United, to at least silence those from Stretford (and London) should they be queuing up to jump on the 'let's berate Liverpool' bandwagon that's presently doing the rounds.
Dalglish, Rush And Co Also Encountered Patchy Form In Liverpool Glory Days Under Paisley
But on a final note, and a sobering thought to end on. Liverpool's current run isn't really a crisis. It's only thanks to the media witch-hunts, whose creators and perpetrators spread their diatribe and doom-mongering sensationalism with a startling immediacy courtesy of the technical age in which we live, with social networking websites and online fan forums adding to the feeding frenzy sourced by the plethora of sports TV channels and other media platforms every few seconds on the informations superhighway.
If we cast our minds back (for the few of us who admit to being a certain vintage) to the autumn of 1981, when a dysfunctional Liverpool side had suffered a miserable two seasons before they gelled and got their act into shape and proved what doubting Thomases' there were back then that both the under fire manager and players were up to the job in hand. And just who was the man at the helm? Bob Paisley. And the players being questioned? Kenny Dalglish, Ian Rush and Graeme Souness. In the event Paisley wasn't sacked, and Liverpool went on to win the league in 1981 and the following season as they made history both home and away.