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Why Warnock's champing at the bit part
By Nick Townsend, Chief Sports Writer
Published: 30 October 2005
http://sport.independent.co.uk/football/liverpool/article323383.ece
What goes on in the psyche of those Liverpool players? What positive force
is it that, once they get a whiff of the Continent, seemingly awakens them,
their senses heightened, as revitalised as breakfasting British tourists
descending from their rooms to strong coffee and croissants?
Early-season Premiership shortcomings and the ignominy of last Tuesday's
Carling Cup exit at Crystal Palace, with performances of a nature that
would have Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley incandescent in their celestial
Boot Room, continue to exercise the logic processes of all connected with
the club. Yet belief permeates Anfield that last season's Champions' League
triumph can be repeated or, if not, closely matched.
Liverpool's left-back Stephen Warnock contributed to that remarkable
sequence of games, though he was omitted from the final squad. This season,
he harbours a desire that the club should return, and a belief that this
time he will be selected. He does not need to declare the latter. The
clear, confident eyes of this genial Ormskirk-born player betray it.
"Liverpool need to progress to the last four because we are a massive club
and we should be competing at that level, in the élite group, if you like.
We're good enough to do that," he says. "I think a lot of teams won't fancy
playing us in Europe. I don't know why, but we seem to turn it on in
Europe. The competition suits us."
On Tuesday, his team meet Anderlecht at Anfield, the second leg of a
double-header, having won 1-0 away. Victory would increase the Reds' total
to 10 points and ensure that the final two games, against Real Betis and
Chelsea, are only relevant in terms of determining the group winners. "It's
not a different challenge [from the Premiership]. It's just a different
style of football," Warnock argues. "I don't think anyone can put their
finger on why we do so well in Europe but are not doing as well
domestically, except to say that the Premiership is a very quick,
up-and-at- 'em type of league, very high- tempo, and every team's always
firing on all cylinders. In Europe, the pace is a bit slower, although once
you get to the final attacking third it picks up."
He adds: "Anderlecht are out [of contention] now, so they could go out all
guns blazing and really take the game to us. You just don't know. But we
are at home, and those European nights at Anfield are very special. The
atmosphere's outstanding."
He speaks from the experience of a former Kop-ite, a member of that
celebrated choir perpetually determined to rehearse its own version of the
Hallelujah Chorus. Those supporters will no doubt forgive him the heinous
sin that he once watched his football at Goodison. "My dad [Mike] and my
brother [Neil] had season tickets there; they're confirmed Evertonians, you
see," he explains. "I was always a Liverpool fan, but as a boy I went with
them - although I used to support all the away teams! Then my friend down
the road had a spare ticket for a Liverpool game. I went, and was hooked."
His career since signing as a trainee in 1998 has been characterised by
steady progress, punctuated by a significant hiatus, a lengthy period
during his years at Liverpool's academy when he broke his leg three times.
He has emerged as a left-sided player lauded by club and country. This
summer, Liverpool's manager, Rafael Benitez, extended his contract by two
years. Then the 23-year-old was called into the England squad to face Wales
and Northern Ireland.
"That came out of the blue," says Warnock, who as a schoolboy played for
England Under-15s with Joe Cole and Leon Osman. "I went there with a view
to just enjoying it, because it may not happen again; to work hard and take
it all in. When we went to Cardiff to play Wales, it was actually the first
England game I'd ever been to, even as a spectator."
An experience which leaves him imagining that he can be part of the
solution to that perennial England left-flank problem? "I'm not even
thinking about it," he insists. "It's just something at the back of my
mind. My first ambition is to cement my place in the Liverpool team. Yes,
I've been called up [by Sven Goran Eriksson], but I've not even got on the
bench. I'm a long way from getting in the team."
Should he do so, it will be testament to the work of the academy staff,
including Dave Shannon, Hugh McAuley and Steve Heighway. "They'll always
try to test you, even upset you every now and again to see how you deal
with things," Warnock says wryly. "Sometimes they'll just give you a bit of
a bollocking in front of the team after a game, to see how you react to it;
make you understand that that's going to happen in your career. You've got
to react to things that go against you in the right way."
Like accepting Benitez's rotation strategy, and the fact that he must
compete constantly for a place with the likes of John Arne Riise and Djimi
Traoré? The current uncertainty is in studied contrast to his loan period
at Coventry in 2003-04. "I must have played near-on 50 games that season,
and I loved it," Warnock says. "Now I can be in for a couple of weeks and
out the next. But it's something I've learnt to get used to now."
If Benitez's much-debated approach leads to another Champions' League
final, who would condemn it? Certainly not a player for whom perseverance
is but one of his qualities.
What goes on in the psyche of those Liverpool players? What positive force
is it that, once they get a whiff of the Continent, seemingly awakens them,
their senses heightened, as revitalised as breakfasting British tourists
descending from their rooms to strong coffee and croissants?
Early-season Premiership shortcomings and the ignominy of last Tuesday's
Carling Cup exit at Crystal Palace, with performances of a nature that
would have Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley incandescent in their celestial
Boot Room, continue to exercise the logic processes of all connected with
the club. Yet belief permeates Anfield that last season's Champions' League
triumph can be repeated or, if not, closely matched.
Liverpool's left-back Stephen Warnock contributed to that remarkable
sequence of games, though he was omitted from the final squad. This season,
he harbours a desire that the club should return, and a belief that this
time he will be selected. He does not need to declare the latter. The
clear, confident eyes of this genial Ormskirk-born player betray it.
"Liverpool need to progress to the last four because we are a massive club
and we should be competing at that level, in the élite group, if you like.
We're good enough to do that," he says. "I think a lot of teams won't fancy
playing us in Europe. I don't know why, but we seem to turn it on in
Europe. The competition suits us."
On Tuesday, his team meet Anderlecht at Anfield, the second leg of a
double-header, having won 1-0 away. Victory would increase the Reds' total
to 10 points and ensure that the final two games, against Real Betis and
Chelsea, are only relevant in terms of determining the group winners. "It's
not a different challenge [from the Premiership]. It's just a different
style of football," Warnock argues. "I don't think anyone can put their
finger on why we do so well in Europe but are not doing as well
domestically, except to say that the Premiership is a very quick,
up-and-at- 'em type of league, very high- tempo, and every team's always
firing on all cylinders. In Europe, the pace is a bit slower, although once
you get to the final attacking third it picks up."
He adds: "Anderlecht are out [of contention] now, so they could go out all
guns blazing and really take the game to us. You just don't know. But we
are at home, and those European nights at Anfield are very special. The
atmosphere's outstanding."
He speaks from the experience of a former Kop-ite, a member of that
celebrated choir perpetually determined to rehearse its own version of the
Hallelujah Chorus. Those supporters will no doubt forgive him the heinous
sin that he once watched his football at Goodison. "My dad [Mike] and my
brother [Neil] had season tickets there; they're confirmed Evertonians, you
see," he explains. "I was always a Liverpool fan, but as a boy I went with
them - although I used to support all the away teams! Then my friend down
the road had a spare ticket for a Liverpool game. I went, and was hooked."
His career since signing as a trainee in 1998 has been characterised by
steady progress, punctuated by a significant hiatus, a lengthy period
during his years at Liverpool's academy when he broke his leg three times.
He has emerged as a left-sided player lauded by club and country. This
summer, Liverpool's manager, Rafael Benitez, extended his contract by two
years. Then the 23-year-old was called into the England squad to face Wales
and Northern Ireland.
"That came out of the blue," says Warnock, who as a schoolboy played for
England Under-15s with Joe Cole and Leon Osman. "I went there with a view
to just enjoying it, because it may not happen again; to work hard and take
it all in. When we went to Cardiff to play Wales, it was actually the first
England game I'd ever been to, even as a spectator."
An experience which leaves him imagining that he can be part of the
solution to that perennial England left-flank problem? "I'm not even
thinking about it," he insists. "It's just something at the back of my
mind. My first ambition is to cement my place in the Liverpool team. Yes,
I've been called up [by Sven Goran Eriksson], but I've not even got on the
bench. I'm a long way from getting in the team."
Should he do so, it will be testament to the work of the academy staff,
including Dave Shannon, Hugh McAuley and Steve Heighway. "They'll always
try to test you, even upset you every now and again to see how you deal
with things," Warnock says wryly. "Sometimes they'll just give you a bit of
a bollocking in front of the team after a game, to see how you react to it;
make you understand that that's going to happen in your career. You've got
to react to things that go against you in the right way."
Like accepting Benitez's rotation strategy, and the fact that he must
compete constantly for a place with the likes of John Arne Riise and Djimi
Traoré? The current uncertainty is in studied contrast to his loan period
at Coventry in 2003-04. "I must have played near-on 50 games that season,
and I loved it," Warnock says. "Now I can be in for a couple of weeks and
out the next. But it's something I've learnt to get used to now."
If Benitez's much-debated approach leads to another Champions' League
final, who would condemn it? Certainly not a player for whom perseverance
is but one of his qualities.
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