Some Stats to Think About.

It's been a while since the last time I posted here. It's already March and we are about 75% through with the current EPL season. Leading the title race is still Manchester United, with Arsenal very close behind. Behind them, there are three teams who are battling for the remaining two Champions League spots. Liverpool is someway behind in 6th place, although unlikely, it is still possible for Liverpool to jump into 4th place by the end of the season. For that to happen, two of the teams just above Liverpool have to be dropping points while Liverpool keeps winning.

I had some spare time and did some calculations. I wanted to see how Kenny Dalglish has done so far when compared to Roy Hodgson. Roy managed 20 EPL games for Liverpool and got 25 points in total. Kenny has managed 9 so far and got 17 points:

Roy: 20 matches/25 points-------1.25 pts per match
Kenny: 9 matches/17 points------1.89 pts per match


Here are some comparison numbers from the teams directly above Liverpool:

Man U: 29 matches/60 points------- 2.07 pts per match
Arsenal: 28 matches/57 points------ 2.04 pts per match
Man C: 29 matches/53 points------- 1.83 pts per match
Chelsea: 28 matches/51 points------ 1.82 pts per match
Tottenham: 28 matches/48 points--- 1.71 pts per match

Notice something interesting? Yes! Under Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool is doing better than Manchester City, Chelsea, and Tottenham! Obviously things aren't as simple as this (ie, Kenny's Liverpool might not be average 1.89 pts per match if Kenny started as the manager right at the beginning), but it gives us a good idea of how much things could have been. And this is with a Liverpool team with relatively average strength (No Torres, No Mascherano, No Xabi Alonso, no Carroll).

If Liverpool can get some good signings during the summer, I strongly believe Liverpool can have a shot at the title in the next season.

Liverpool Back to its Best??!!

Liverpool played against Wolves in an away game a few days ago. Liverpool came away with the 3 points by beating Wolves 3-0. It was definitely a great result and hopefully this will kickstart 2011 for the team.

It was Kenny Dalglish's 4th game since taking over the manager position. Under King Kenny, Liverpool was not able to get a win for the past 3 games. In other words, it was one of the poorest starts for a new Liverpool manager. However, even though Liverpool was not able to win any games before the clash with Wolves, we have seen steady improvement from the team. In the FA cup 3rd round game against Manchester United at Old Trafford, despite conceding an early goal from a controversial penalty kick, without captain Steven Gerrard for over an hour, and playing with only 10 men, Liverpool was able to come out with a 0-1 lost.

In the next game, a league game against Blackpool away from Anfield, Liverpool had a brilliant start thanks to a superb strike at the 2nd minute from Torres. Unfortunately, Liverpool made a few defensive mistakes and conceded two goals in the match to come away with a 1-2 loss. The effort was there but Liverpool just wasn't able to create any good chances. I must say Blackpool plays really good football and it's very entertaining to watch them play.

In the 3rd game against Everton at Anfield, again, Liverpool took the lead at first. The team played really well in the first half and with a little bit of luck, they should've been 3-0 up. However, the team conceded two cheap goals early in the 2nd half. I thought that was unlucky. After watching the replay, the 1st Everton goal should not have happened. One of the Everton players was offside, but a corner kick was given. The corner kick then resulted in the goal. Liverpool, despite losing, kept their pressure up and they were able to tie the game from a penalty kick by Kuyt. Unfortunately, Liverpool was not able to get the win.

After watching the above games, it is apparent that the style of football that Liverpool is playing is totally different than before (under Roy Hodgson). Before, Liverpool played a lot of long balls. That didn't work well most of the time. With Kenny, it's back to the old pass and move style. This style is much more pleasing on the eyes and so far it's been quite effective. This style is more suitable for Torres as well as he has been scoring more goals lately. This style was used again in the match against Wolves and it worked perfectly. Liverpool started off slowly. But as the 1st half went by, Liverpool became more dominant. Unsurprisingly, the Reds got a goal from Torres. It was a simple tab-in by Torres. However, the build-up play leading to that goal was awesome. Lots of passing and suddenly a through pass to Meireles sliced open Wolves' defence. A simple pass to Torres, who was wide open, resulted in 1-0 for the Reds. In the 2nd half, Liverpool continued to dominate Wolves and within minutes, Liverpool expanded the gap through Meireles. who has been on fire this match. The goal came out of no where. He was about 30-35 yards away from the net and somehow the ball flew to him. He controlled it a bit and volleyed it. The ball lobbed over the goalkeeper and went into the top right corner of the net. I actually couldn't believe my eyes when the ball went in. It's great to see what Meireles is capable of and I hope his excellent form will continue. After that goal, Liverpool was happy to sit back, soak up the pressure, and play counter attack. Wolves had more possession during this period but they were not able to create decent chances. As the game came to an end, Torres found the net again to complete his brace. It was, once again, a simple tap-in. However, the build-up to this goal was spectacular. The goal came from 31 consecutive passes from Liverpool. Liverpool kept the ball in possession for 2 minutes and it looked like they were toying with Wolves. In this match, Dalglish's influence to the Reds was extremely evident. Liverpool actually played like a team - they attacked as one unit, and they defended as one unit. When they were attacking, instead of sitting in the midfield, Lucas, Poulsen, Johnson, Kelly, and Meireles all joined the attack. At times, I saw 8 Liverpool players in the final third of Wolves' side. I don't recall seeing this happening when Hodgson was in charge.

The victory against Wolves was a very positive result. Even though Wolves is in the relegation zone, they are still a capable team and they DID beat Liverpool at Anfield a month ago. Considering that this match was also an away game, I think Liverpool is definitely improving and I hope their good form will continue.

FA Cup - Liverpool VS Manchester United at Old Trafford. Welcome Back, King Kenny!

Roy Hodgson left Liverpool a few days ago and Kenny Dalglish has taken over as the Reds' boss now. I feel sorry for Roy as he really tried his best to get the team going. He was not given much time to prove what he can bring to Anfield. Unfortunately, that's modern soccer and we are dealing with one of the largest clubs in the world; we cannot afford that much time for him to settle in. We need results now!

And with that said, welcome back to Anfield King Kenny! I became Liverpool fan not too long ago, so my knowledge of Kenny Dalglish is quite limited. All I know is that, he is a Liverpool legend. He played Liverpool and Celtics before. He later became a player-manager for Liverpool. Through out his career, he won many titles and trophies for the Reds. It's definitely good to see someone like that to become the manager. However, one concern is that, he has not managed a club for so long and things have changed dramatically. I hope that he will do well and bring Liverpool back on track.

Liverpool played Manchester United at Old Trafford for the 3rd round of FA Cup. Unfortuately, the Reds came away with a 0-1 loss as Giggs put away a penalty at the first minute of the game. I thought the penalty was quite controversial. Berbatov was in the penalty box, while Daniel Agger was right with him. Agger had his hand on Berbatov and soon enough, Berbatov fell to the ground. The referee, Howard Webb, quickly pointed to the penalty spot even though Liverpool players were protesting. Giggs stepped up and launched a powerful shot. Even though Reina guessed the right direction, the ball still went in. This must have unsettled Liverpool and frustrated some players as Gerrard got a red card at the half hour mark. Gerrard and Carrick both went for the loose ball. However, Gerrard had both feet up and they contacted Carrick's feet. This undoubtedly made getting back into the game impossible and Liverpool was out of the FA Cup.

After watching the replay many times, I thought Berbatov went down way too easily. Sure enough, Agger had his hand on Berbatov back. However, in soccer, I believe that physical contact is unavoidable. In fact, in the Premier League, this kind of contact in the penalty box is normal. For instance, I'm sure you have seen how in a corner kick or free kick, defending players always pull or push the attacking players in the penalty box. How often do we see a penalty being awarded in those situations? For us Liverpool fans, how many times have we seen Kyriakos being dragged down by another defender in the penalty box as he tried to head in a cross from Gerrard? I don't recall Liverpool being awarded a penalty. The way that Berbatov went down was just too weak. As a world class striker, I would imagine that he has better body balance than that. How hard can you push the other person who is running away from you? If Berbatov was not diving, then I am quite disappointed at his ability. He has to work on his balance.

I thought Liverpool did quite well in the match. Despite conceding an early controversial goal and with one man down for one hour of play, they came away only losing one goal. And they were not playing a weak team. Of all teams, they were playing against Manchester United in Old Trafford. Considering that they lost to Wolves in Anfield not too long ago, this is a dramatic improvement. Obviously, we cannot draw our conclusion in one game, but I like how Liverpool played today. I hope this form will continue to improve.

Liverpool VS Blackburn Rovers

Yet another disappointing result for the Reds......I lost count already...I think this is their 9th defeat? If I remember correctly, Rafa's worse record when he was the Reds manager was 11 losses, and that's for the whole season. We are half way through the season and we almost match Rafa's worse record.......

I thought the attacking players didn't do too bad today. They were certainly not at their best, but still better than when they were facing Wolves. I thought they were unlucky in a few occasions. However, the defense was horrible today. In particular, both Glen Johnson and Kyrgiakos were responsible for the goals.

1st goal, Johnson didn't do a good job marking Olsson. From the replay, Diouf was already given too much space and time to control the long ball, turn, and pass a through ball to Olsson.  Johnson was the closest to Olsson, and he should have known that Diouf would pass to Olsson. He should have closed Olsson down and pressure him. Instead, John stepped back and Olsson was given so much time to shoot. Poor defending.

2nd goal, Krygiakos did not do enough to block Benjani. Kudos to Benjani for scoring such nice goal. But how on earth did Krygiakos let that happen? Benjani was able to use his chest to control the ball while facing opposite to the net, then he was given space to turn and to launch a powerful shot. Krygiakos beaten quite badly here.

The 3rd goal is pleasing to the eyes if you are a Blackburn fan. However, if you are a Liverpool fan, you would ask a lot of questions regarding the Reds' defense. Again, it came from Glen Johnson's side. Hoilett was running down the flank and just where was Johnson? Skrtel had to rush from the center of the pitch to stop Hoilett, but it was too late. Hoilett left both Johnson and Skrtel in the dust and he was able to pass the ball to Benjani who scored the 3rd goal. This should not have happened. As England's 1st choice right back, this is really disappointing. It's unacceptable.

Beside the poor defending, there are other reasons for the poor performance. For some reason, Hodgson decided to make several changes to the starting line-up that got the victory against Bolton a few days ago. He replaced Aurelio, Agger, Kuyt, and Meireles with Konchesky, Krygiakos, Cole, Gerrard. There's nothing wrong with using Gerrard and Cole as they were the main contributors to last weekend's victory. However, I don't see the logic for using Konchesky and Krygiakos. Agger and Aurelio are better in defending and both offer another dimension in Liverpool's attacking play. Perhaps Hodgson didn't want to risk as both Agger and Aurelio just recovered from injuries. Or may be Hodgson was confident that Konchesky and Krygiakos were sufficient? Whatever the reason was, Hodgson's plan didn't work out.

Perhaps this loss is a good news. It means that we are getting closer to getting a new manager. We will see.

GT5 Seasonal Events 2 - NO SRF - Part 3 - Settings for Ford Focus ST and Mazda RX7 Spirit R

As promised, here are the settings I used for the two seasonal races.

For the Circuito de Madrid one with Ford Focus ST:

LSD: 25/40/20
Ride Height: -20/-5
Spring Rate: 5.5/6.5
Damper (Extension): 3/5
Damper (Compression): 3/5
Anti-Roll: 3/5
Camber: -0.5/-2
Toe: -0.5/-0.3
Brake Bias: 6/8
Aero: 0/5


For the Tsukuba one with RX-7 Spirit R:

LSD: stock LSD
Ride Height: -20/-20
Spring Rate: 16/6.3
Damper (Extension): 10/5
Damper (Compression): 10/5
Anti-Roll: 4/4
Camber: -2/-2
Toe: 0/0.2
Brake Bias: 8/9
Aero: 0/28

GT5 Seasonal Events 2 - NO SRF - Part 2 - Ford Focus ST at Circuito de Madrid

This one is another tough one. I think this is the hardest one out of the 5 events. However, I spent less time beating this than the RX-7 one. This event is the hardest because one of your opponents uses a Ford Focus RS while you are stuck with a Ford Focus ST. Basically, the RS has 300hp stock while your ST is limited to 221hp. Even though the Focus RS starts in 2nd place, it will pass the car in first place (Honda Civic Type R) at the end of the first lap or at the beginning of the second lap. You will have no problem getting 2nd place, but catching up to the Focus RS is a pita.

With the given requirements, it basically means that you are not allow to do any weight reduction and you can't add much, if any hp. So again, like the RX-7 one, tuning is very important. I bought all the parts (full suspension, full tranny, chassis reinforcement, adjustable LSD, etc). Again, I will post my settings and video up later. For now, please read below for some tips on golding this event without using Skid Recovery Force on.

As soon as you take the first few corners in the Focus ST, you will notice MASSIVE understeer. So first tip: do NOT overspeed when entering a corner. If you go into a corner way too fast, the car will simply go straight to the wall. However, you can use this as your advantage - you can go slightly overspeed as long as you can time it so that you hit one of the opponents. If you do it correctly, it will bump you into the right driving line and help you corner a bit faster. Yes that's cheating in a certain way but it works and there's no penalty. Obviously if you hit too hard, you will either lose control or you and your opponent both fly to the wall.

The first hairpin is also very important. After the starting line, just before the first hairpin, there's a slight S turn. You should be able to negotiate this S turn at over 135km/h. And as you do so, prepare to brake for the hairpin. Make sure you are slow enough so that the car would turn more quickly. Gradually apply full throttle and this should help pull the car out of the corner. I think this is an important segment of the track and if you can accelerate out of this hairpin quickly, it should help your exit speed and your thus overall lap time a lot.

For all of the other parts, you just have to make sure you follow the right line and remember to maximize exit speed. I was able to pass the Focus RS just before the final corner in the last lap. You should aim for 1:44 for your first lap, and 1:43 on average for the other 4 laps. I was able to hit 1:42 in one or two laps.

Good luck and happy racing!

GT5 Seasonal Events 2 - NO SRF - Part 1 - Mazda RX-7 at Tsukuba Circuit

After my previous post, I attempted the second set of seasonal races again in GT5. In particular, I tackled the RX-7 one first, then the Nascar one at Nurburgring, and finally I re-raced the Focus one. I will upload videos later. For this post, I will talk about the RX-7 one first.

The RX-7 one is held in Tsukuba Circuit. It's a short track and in the race, you have 10 laps to pass 11 other opponents. All of your opponents are Japanese cars. The restrictions are 394hp or less, 800kg or higher, with sports hard tires. You are also limited to using the RX-7, a list is provided in the race event screen. I am not too sure if the 800kg or higher part is a mistake my Polyphony Digital, as I have no clue how one can get even close to 800kg in a RX-7. I used the RX-7 Spirit R from the Mazda dealership and after all the weight reduction stages, it was still well above 1000kg. The horsepower limit is easier to obtain, and there are many ways to achieve it. I'm not sure if that matters or not. I think it's a personal preference. I like high revving engines, so I modified by RX-7 with more NA parts. If you like to have more torque, the best way would be to fit a bigger turbocharger. Other than engine mods, I bought all of the other mods - full suspension, full transmission, all aero parts, etc. I also bought the adjustable LSD but I ended not using it to beat this event without Skid Recovery Force on.

The actual race. This event actually took me many tries. I must have done 50 laps before finally beating it. Granted, 40 of those 50 laps were done without all of the mods, I thought I would be able to beat it without them. Anyways, there are two important points to beat this race without SRF on. First, you must tune the car properly. I am not good with tuning cars, so I researched online for some setup. I will upload my setup when I have the time. Another important point is to be patient with the throttle and modulate it precisely. The RX7 has some pretty heavier understseer. If you apply throttle too early, you might end up understeering into the grass. Obviously, if you apply the throttle too abruptly, you will end up spinning out. For most, if not all, corners, you can pretty much brake late without running off the track - take advantage of this. If you set your brake controller to have more rear bias, braking late can help or screw you up. It depends on how you do it. If you brake late and control the car well, you should be able to rotate the car more than usual, without drifting the rear end. This helps reduce understeer and you can also use this movement to help you determine when to apply throttle again for the corner exit.

Your target time for the 1st lap is 1:01 and for the other 9 laps, your target should be around 1:00 (+/- 0.5s). Remember, The GTR finishes the race in 10:06s to 10:07s. Do the math. If you are doing 1:01 or higher consistently for the first few laps, restart the race. You won't be able to beat this. You should be able to pass the R34 GTR on the 10th lap at the Dunlop corner. You will notice that the GTR is significantly slower on the 10th lap because it's being blocked by a 350Z or something (Gran Turismo AI isn't that smart after all!).


Good luck!

Liverpool VS Wolverhampton

Unbelievable. Liverpool lost to Wolverhampton in Anfield. If I remember correctly, Wolverhampton had never beaten Liverpool for 26 years. In fact, Wolves had never beaten Liverpool in the Premier League. Not only that, Wolves had never won any away games so far this season, and it was in the last place in the league as well before this game. For Liverpool, this is a really big concern. For Liverpool, they didn't have a choice but to win, yet they lost. This is unacceptable. I must give credit to Wolves though as they played really well as a team. The players and the team were on form today and their pressing game made life tough for Liverpool. But this is Liverpool we are talking about, they should be able to deal with that. They should also be dominating the game. Instead, they gave away the ball cheaply for far too many times. They spent most of the time in their own half defending and not spending enough time attacking. They didn't press the opposition enough either. With this kind of performance, Liverpool can say goodbye to Europa League qualifications, let alone Champions League.

Before this game, many people critisized Roy Hodgson and most people wanted to get rid of him. However, I didn't share the same view. To be fair, he was hired by Liverpool not too long before the season began. He also had to face the loss of Javier Mascherano. The change of ownership was also a factor. To me, it was understandable that Liverpool would not be performing at its best. But it has been half a season already. And the home form has also been very good for Liverpool as well as they have only lost to Blackpool so far. So what happened this time? The team played so poorly. Liverpool lost to a team that they should never lose to. Perhaps it's time to rethink the team formation, the strategy, the style. Perhaps it's time to change the manager. At this rate, Liverpool will never make it to Top 4 as we are 12 points below the 4th place team.

Gran Turismo 5 Seasonal Events

The second set of Seasonal Events came out about 5 days ago. I think that is perfect timing because it's Christmas and what is better than playing GT5 during your Christmas break?

I finished the first set of those seasonal bonus races with relative ease. How about the new set? Well, I must say this time the races are in general more challenging. I haven't finished all of them yet because I have been busy with many dinners lately. In general, these races are very easy if you turn on Skid Recovery Force (AKA SRF, sort of like the "standard" physics setting in GT5 Prologue). The real challenge is to get gold for all events without having SRF on. There are five races in total - Mini Cooper S at Cape Ring Inside, Ford Focus ST at Madrid, Mustang GT at Laguna Seca, Mazda RX7 at Tsukuba, and Nascar at the famous Nurburgring Nordschleife Track. I haven't tried the last race. The Mini Cooper one was fine, and so is the Mustang one. However, I had trouble with the Focus and RX7 one. I had to turn SRF on for the Focus one. To be fair though, I didn't fully mod the Focus (ie. no chassis reinforcement, no suspension mod, and no LSD mod). I will go back to this one and try to beat it without SRF on later. As for the RX7 one, I spent an hour on it. My first try, I was about 10 seconds from the 1st place by the end (I didn't modify everything). I tried again, this time, I got better and cut it down to around 8 seconds - still a long way. I bought more parts and tried to tune the car a bit. This time, I was around 6 seconds behind. I tried again, and now I'm within 5 seconds. It was quite challenging. I didn't have time to try again as it was getting late at night. I figured that tuning plays a big part in these events. With the right tuning, I can cut down about a second a lap, and in 10 laps, I should be 10 seconds faster, and be able to beat the 1st place car by a good margin. I will try it later....but now, it's Arsenal vs Chelsea :)

Gran Turismo 5 Initial Impression

Finally, Gran Turismo 5 came out on November 24th, 2010. When was Gran Turismo 4 released? 2004? It's been 6 years or so already. I was still in high school when I was playing GT4. Now with GT5? I already got my engineering degree and is now working. 6 years is sure a long time and a lot of things happened in my life during this period. However, when I finally got my copy of GT5 and started playing, everything felt so...familiar. All of a sudden, it didn't feel like there is a 6-year gap between GT4 and GT5.

In fact, GT5 is pretty much an evolution of GT4. And that is a good thing for me. I enjoy playing the Gran Turismo series because of its style of gameplay. I extremely like the  GT mode/simulation mode/career mode. With GT5 though, more features have been added to make the game even more interesting. The level system is certainly a nice touch. It makes the game more like a RPG - and really, the GT mode is arguably a RPG. The Special Events are awesome. From driving Go Karts and Nascars to mastering the Nurburgring and learning how to do rally races properly, there are many different things to try here.

One part that I have always enjoyed playing in the past Gran Turismo games is the License Test section. As a result, I spent my first week doing license tests. Some are very easy to get gold, some are more challenging. In the end I was able to get all gold and it was not that bad. In fact, I thought the hardest test was the B-5 license test. The Super license test is quite easy actually.

Other notable features are weather changes and damage. The damage is quite unrealistic. However, most people won't be able to enjoy the game if the damage is realistic. Just imagine braking late for one corner, and you rear ended the car in front of you. You lose control of the car and fly right to the wall. In real life, chances are, it's game over. So it's understandable that even when you hit a solid wall head-on at 100mph, your car is still drivable. Unfortunately, weather changes is not available in every track. Nonetheless, it's quite "fun" when driving in the rain on Nurburgring. It's quite realistic too.

GT5 is a great game, and I play it almost on a daily basis. However, I'm somewhat disappointed with the game. First, the car list. Sure, it has 1031 cars in total. However, most of them (around 800) are straight from GT4. I am quite surprised that Polyphony did not add more new cars to the game. For instance, why would they include the BMW 330i, but not the newer and better 335i? This gives me the feeling that the development team was lazy. Just use the lsit from GT4, change the physics, then be done with it.

Another area that is a bit disappointing is the camera views. Basically, the game has two classes of cars - premium and standard. Premium cars have way more graphics (more detail), have interior view, you can change rims and add aero kit. Standard cars on the other hand are not as detail and they don`t have interior view. Here is the problem, why don`t they include interior view with the standard cars too? It's ok if the interior is not perfectly modeled. But at least give us an interior. It's a bit annoying to adapt to two different views of driving (some with cockpit, some without).

The game is not bad, just in case if you are getting that impression. It's just that, after that many years, I expected more. I guess the development team spent most of the time perfecting the physics engine instead, which is after all the most important aspect of Gran Turismo. And GT5 is very successful in that category. Also, the game updates the game once in a while. It's possible that my concerns will be addressed in the future. The lack of new cars can also be fixed by offering downloadable car packs or something along that line.


Anyways, that's enough talking...time to play GT5 again!