Don't blame defence - Salah, Mane and Firmino are failing Liverpool says Paul Ince

Former Reds captain says forwards are "getting away with it"

Former Liverpool captain Paul Ince has offered an unsual assessment of his former club’s woes - and pointed the finger of blame firmly at the Reds misfiring forwards.
While Liverpool’s defending has come under scrutiny several times this season, Ince said: “Everyone is banging on about Liverpool’s defence ... but what people seem to forget is that is that in most games they have loads of chances – and good, clearcut chances – which they aren’t putting away.
 
         “I really sympathise with Jurgen Klopp, because he’s brought a philosophy into Liverpool that sees his team create chance after chance consistently.
“They’re brilliant going forward and, the thing is, if his forwards don’t take those chances they put pressure on the back five or six.

“If they’d have taken a few more of those chances this season – including against Spartak in the Champions League where they drew 1-1 – the game would’ve finished three or 4-0. And if they’d been better in front of goal, no one would be moaning about their defence.
“There’s got to be more onus on those forward players for not getting the ball in the net and being more clinical.”
Ince, writing in a column for Paddy Power, said that he felt sympathy for boss Jurgen Klopp, who has also had questions asked about a failure to address defensive deficiencies during the summer transfer window.

“They (the forwards) are getting away with it and avoiding the criticism, even though it’s those players at fault for missing golden chances,” he added.
“But while everyone bangs on about the defence, the heat is taken off them, and I feel for Klopp, because he can’t put the ball in the back of the net for them.


“Every time Liverpool concede a goal at the minute everyone goes on about their defence and I think it’s a bit unfair. Klopp will get that right, just like he has the forward line.
“But there could also be an issue with protection from the wingers and some of the midfield players too, defending should start right from the front.

    “If you allow balls to go into the box willy nilly, with wingers not doing their jobs then, yes, it’s going to end in goals. And if you haven’t been finishing chances at the other end, then obviously, it’s going to result in losses.”
Ince added: “Other than Manchester City, I’d say most teams in the Premier League wish they could create the chances Liverpool do. Those forward players need to start accepting responsibility for their actions and stop letting the defence take the flak.

            “That’s not to say there’s no defensive issues – this switching around of the goalkeeper isn’t working for a start. Switching goalkeeper between the league and the Champions League doesn’t work, and their game against Spartak Moscow proved that. Mignolet should have played, not Karius.
       “This isn’t the League Cup or the FA Cup we’re on about. It’s the Champions League. You need to take it seriously and play your number one goalkeeper.”

All Holy Things, Must Be Treated And Kept Holy:Holy Land Christians condemn wave of church desecrations

          A shattered statue of Mary and the Christ Child is pictured Sept. 26 inside St Stephen Church in the Beit Jamal Salesian monastery near Jerusalem (CNS photo/Debbie Hill)

'We get sympathy and nice words from everybody, but we are sick of that. We want convictions.'

Christians in the Holy Land, including Catholic leaders, have expressed frustration with lack of legal action against cases of desecration and vandalism of sacred places.
          Even as the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land issued a statement condemning the September 20 desecration and vandalism of a Catholic shrine in Israel, some people criticized the statement’s “weak language” and asked, “How long will we be tolerant?”
“Unfortunately, in these situations we feel how vulnerable we are,” one person wrote on Facebook.
The latest incident took place on September 19 at St Stephen Church inside the Beit Jamal Salesian monastery west of Jerusalem. The monastery is open for visitors and generally has good relations with its Jewish neighbours, including the residents of an ultra-Orthodox town, said Salesian Father Antonio Scudu, caretaker of the church. Pilgrims to the church discovered the vandalism, which included a shattered statue of Mary, broken faces of figures on the stained-glass windows, and a destroyed cross.
                   “I was shocked,” said Father Scudu. “I didn’t expect to see something like this. The church is always open. If you see what happened, you feel they did it with hate. They smashed everything.”

           It is the third time the Beit Jamal community has been vandalized in the past five years.
Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said evidence had been collected at the site and the investigation was ongoing. He denied charges of police inefficiency in vandalism investigations.
“There have been arrests in previous cases. We are looking into this case to see if it was an individual or a group. These are all separate cases,” said Rosenfeld. “People can say what they want. This kind of case is top priority.”
         He said authorities do not believe there is any connection between most of the cases nor some sort of “vandalism cell” operating against Christian and Muslim holy sites.
         As in past statements, the bishops called for better education toward tolerance and coexistence.
“While we demand the state, with all its relevant bodies, to work for punishing the attackers and educate the people not to make similar offenses, we pray to the Almighty for the retreat of the attackers and hoping that all peoples, especially at our Holy Land, learn to coexist with each other in love and mutual respect, regardless to the diversities among them,” they said.
       Wadie Abunassar, adviser to the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, said there have been some 80 incidents of vandalism against churches and Christians sites over the last decade. In most of the cases, no arrests or indictments have taken place, he said. Still, he said, arresting perpetrators would not be enough to prevent such incidents from recurring. Incitement charges must also be brought against those provoking such actions — including several prominent extremist rabbis, he said.
“We get sympathy and nice words from everybody, but we are sick of that. We want convictions, not only indictments,” Abunassar said. “It is a very sad story. People are asking why we should not go demonstrate, to protest.”
He noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to respond to several requests from the bishops to meet with him concerning the continuing vandalism.

It is the third time the Beit Jamal community has been vandalized in the past five years.
Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said evidence had been collected at the site and the investigation was ongoing. He denied charges of police inefficiency in vandalism investigations.
“There have been arrests in previous cases. We are looking into this case to see if it was an individual or a group. These are all separate cases,” said Rosenfeld. “People can say what they want. This kind of case is top priority.”
He said authorities do not believe there is any connection between most of the cases nor some sort of “vandalism cell” operating against Christian and Muslim holy sites.
As in past statements, the bishops called for better education toward tolerance and coexistence.
“While we demand the state, with all its relevant bodies, to work for punishing the attackers and educate the people not to make similar offenses, we pray to the Almighty for the retreat of the attackers and hoping that all peoples, especially at our Holy Land, learn to coexist with each other in love and mutual respect, regardless to the diversities among them,” they said.
Wadie Abunassar, adviser to the Assembly of Catholic Ordinaries of the Holy Land, said there have been some 80 incidents of vandalism against churches and Christians sites over the last decade. In most of the cases, no arrests or indictments have taken place, he said. Still, he said, arresting perpetrators would not be enough to prevent such incidents from recurring. Incitement charges must also be brought against those provoking such actions — including several prominent extremist rabbis, he said.
“We get sympathy and nice words from everybody, but we are sick of that. We want convictions, not only indictments,” Abunassar said. “It is a very sad story. People are asking why we should not go demonstrate, to protest.”
He noted that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to respond to several requests from the bishops to meet with him concerning the continuing vandalism.

Breaking: Nigeria declares UN Security Council obsolete, undemocratic

Nigeria has decried the obsolete and old-fashioned composition of the UN Security Council, and described it as undemocratic.
The Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, Prof. Tijjani Bande, told newsmen in New York that there was an urgent need to reform the body.
Permanent Representative of Nigeria to the UN, Prof. Tijjani Bandewith UN Secretary General. The Security Council is the UN’s most powerful principal organ with the primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security as well as accepting new members to the UN.
It is vested with powers for the establishment of peacekeeping operations and the establishment of international sanctions.
The Council has the authorisation for military action through Security Council resolutions and it is the only UN body with the authority to issue binding resolutions to member states.
“First of all, the fundamental question is that in the current global reality, where everybody is talking democracy, United Nations must show example.
“Clearly, it is an anachronistic notion to have a body composed of few countries that can veto the entirety of the global community through the Council is not representative.
“It is an anomaly and I think that has been recognised but the politics of the reform not just of the UN in terms of the powers of the General Assembly and its functions.”
The Nigerian envoy declared that Nigeria and some countries, currently left out, ‘rightly’ deserved a permanent seat on the Council considering the current realities.
“But this journey, at the official level, started 25 years ago. Nigeria is at the forefront of that effort and doesn’t read this as a selfish move.
“This (permanent seat) is the right of Nigeria and other serious nations to push and this is what other countries are also pushing.
“Be they small states which are pushing, be they Africa that has not any representation, this is not something that would go away.
“Nigeria and others are committed that we cannot have a democratic system which does not represent the majority of countries.
“Our continent is completely out of contention; whether we get two or three, the debate is we have to be on the Security Council,” Bande said.
The body has five permanent members – the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom, France, the People’s Republic of China, and the United States – and 10 non-permanent members, elected on a regional basis to serve two-year terms
         The five permanent members can veto any substantive Security Council resolution, including those on the admission of new member states or candidates for Secretary-General.
This, the Nigerian ambassador stressed, meant few countries overruling the entirety of the global community.
“The debate is still ongoing whether it is even right to have veto power,” he said.
The Nigerian envoy exuded confidence in the chance of Nigeria to get on board of the prestigious Council on its own global credentials or through the Africa’s continental slot.
“We have every reason to be hopeful in terms of the contributions of Nigeria to the global community since 1960. I think we have good credentials,” he said.