Liverpool’s left-footed Norwegian John Arne Riise says that Liverpool need to start banging the goals in just in case the battle for second place goes down to goal difference. Liverpool are level with Manchester United on points, but are behind on goal difference. Riise said: “It could go right to the wire and that’s why we’d like to score goals to put more pressure on them. We’ll see if United slip up or not or whether we score more in the remaining games. It’s going to be an exciting finish for second.”
Liverpool have played one game more than United and are behind by nine goals so it’s going to need some better scorelines than the recent run of 1-0 wins: “You can see defensively we’re very strong. There are clean sheets nearly every game. As soon as we start scoring more we’ll be on fire. We’ll take 1-0 wins and three points. You never know at 1-0. It only needs a set-piece or lack of concentration and the ball’s in your own net. But we proved defensively we’re very strong. We’re not conceding many goals. We’d just like to score more to kill off games.”
Riise has had an extended run at left-back in the most recent stages of
the season with the return to form of left-winger Harry Kewell. Kewell
has probably been able to get such a run in the side and the chance to
get his form up to scratch because of the injury to Bolo Zenden. The
Dutch midfielder has been out since November with a knee injury,
sustained just as he had started to show his class in the Red shirt.
Now Zenden has repeated his feeling that he might get himself fit again
ahead of schedule: “I started running on the treadmill for the first
time on Sunday. I hope I’ll be able to do some running on the training
ground sometime in the next week. It will only be running in straight
lines at this stage, but it’s a start. I still hope I’ll play again
this season.”
Meanwhile Zenden’s compatriot Jan Kromkamp has been the subject of a
bizarre attack from a whinging Dutch manager. Marco van Basten has also
complained about when he has to have his squad named by, even though
it’s the same as all the other countries. Sounding like he should be
working for a Russian billionaire, van Basten said: “The problem is
that I can only see my players at their club and can’t work with them
myself. I have to name 23 players on May 15, while our build up starts
on May 22. I believe you can make your final choice if you have worked
for a week or 10 days with each other. I would prefer it if I could
leave my choice until one day before the tournament starts, though I
understand that will be tough for the organisers.”
No doubt FIFA are going to bend over backwards to fit in with his
needs, which is so much more considerate than Jan Kromkamp. The
Dutchman was signed by Liverpool in exchange for Josemi in January, but
Rafa Benitez has kept him out of the side most of the time, helping him
to acclimatise to life in the Premiership. He’d played only rarely in
Spain since he moved to Villareal in the summer so van Basten has
obviously not had much of a chance to assess him. He says that Kromkamp
has thrown away his chances and made the wrong choices: “It is annoying
that Kromkamp, who is a good player, made the wrong choices for his
career. It is sad when someone throws away his own chances and also
doesn’t help us. It seems to us that Jan is more busy with peripheral
events.”
According to the unbelievable van Basten, the Liverpool player should
have gone to him before making any decisions: “Jan has to make choices.
I have no influence on that, but if he wanted my advice, that was
possible.” Our advice to Kromkamp is that van Basten will probably end
his time as Holland coach in July so Kromkamp will have plenty of time
to impress a more respectful national manager.