What a difference three weeks makes

Keown, seen here practicing his lines for Match of the Day 2

In the pantheon of absurd punditry, we must now give a special place to former Gunners defender Martin Keown, for his wonderful thought process that landed in today's Daily Mail.

You see, he's been watching Liverpool's recent run of good form (deliberately downplayed so as not to ire the vengeful soccer gods), and he's sussed out the main reason why they're not only playing well, but the reason why he reckons they'll win the league.*

Surprisingly, that reason is getting rid of Robbie Keane.

After the transfer window closed and Liverpool faltered, in no small part to the crazed, unprovoked, red-faced rantings of Rafa Benitez, the media was giddy, falling all over themselves to point to the absence of Keane as the cause for their downturn. After all, not scoring goals and suffering with injuries to Torres and Gerrard made the connection obvious.

But now that they're winning, Keown sees it very differently.

First, he approaches it tactically, you know, Xs and 0s:

"Keane was bought [for £20.3million] to play off Torres, but Gerrard was consequently pushed back into midfield which only stunted the effectiveness of their captain and contributed to a lack of fluidity. But Benitez's best team is now obvious.

Rafa's 4-2-3-1, with Gerrard pushed further forward behind Torres, is now a devastating system that maximises everything from the players he has at his disposal - as was demonstrated by the England player's superb hat-trick yesterday against Aston Villa."

Fair enough. So the Irishman's presence upset the balance of the formation? I could maybe see that.

Then, he attacks "the Keane question", aka the first thing that Rafa would inevitably have to answer after a 0-0 draw at home.

"Everyone seemingly knows their place within the squad. That clarity of thinking is at odds with Sir Alex Ferguson's United at present and I believe Liverpool will maintain this push and pip the champions because they are now playing with the belief that the Premier League title is in sight."

I think you've lost me there. After all, winning is generally the best cure for anything, Keane or no Keane.

So why post all this? It's a slow news day, the first of many now that we're in the international break. Keown's batty outburst reminds us all that when the news well runs dry, we're forced to turn to the pundits. Thankfully, they rarely disappoint.


* Again, not putting any editorial into this statement, for fear of karma

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