Black Immigrant Daily News

DOUANES

France-Antilles Guadeloupe

279 mots – 23.08.2022

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Their foreheads nearly touching, Liverpool teammates James Milner and Virgil van Dijk exchanged furious words on the field. They pointed, gesticulated, looked utterly disgusted.

Liverpool had just fallen behind for the seventh straight Premier League and, amid the bedlam inside a reawakened Old Trafford, two of the team’s senior players were going after each other.

A sign that they care? Maybe.

To many people, though, that moment will be used to show all is not quite right inside Jurgen Klopp’s team.

The results bear that out, too.

It’s always dangerous to jump to early-season conclusions — only three rounds of games have been played, after all — but such have been the fine margins in Premier League title races in recent years that every point counts.

And Liverpool, already, have dropped seven of them after the 2-1 loss to Manchester United on Monday followed draws against Fulham and Crystal Palace.

The Premier League’s crisis club for the first two weeks was United. Now, much of the scrutiny will switch to Liverpool.

“The team is tight, we are a close unit but things need to be said sometimes,” Liverpool defender Andy Robertson said. “Things will get better. But we are far behind where we want to be.”

In all likelihood, Liverpool will pick up their first win of the season on Saturday against Bournemouth, a promoted team that have just shipped a total of seven goals in losses to Manchester City and Arsenal.

And it shouldn’t be forgotten that the loss to United was Liverpool’s first in the league in 2022.

Still, the first three games have highlighted some problems for the Reds.

INJURIES TAKING TOLL

Liverpool’s strength in depth has improved immeasurably in recent seasons but the glut of injuries afflicting the squad is a concern.

Klopp said he was down to “14, 15 senior players” for the United game with the following out injured: defenders Ibrahima Konate and Joel Matip, midfielders Thiago Alcantara, Naby Keita and Curtis Jones, and forward Diogo Jota. Meanwhile, Darwin N??ez, the new signing up front, was serving the first match of a three-game suspension.

So, it meant Liverpool were playing their fifth-choice forward (Roberto Firmino), their fourth-choice central defender (Joe Gomez) and a journeyman midfielder (James Milner). Klopp filled his bench with two back-up goalkeepers.

“I’m concerned about our situation,” Klopp said.

WEAKENED MIDFIELD

The midfield might be the biggest area of concern, even if Klopp maintains his options there are sufficient.

Without Thiago, Liverpool lack a player to run a game and deliver a killer ball. Fabinho, the Brazil anchorman, was dropped against United because of a middling start to the season. Jordan Henderson is a leader, sure, but rarely plays 90 minutes these days. Keita is hit and miss, yet to develop into the dynamic player Liverpool thought they were getting. Milner, at 36, has played the last two games despite being well past his best.

Liverpool’s failure to buy a midfielder in this transfer window and move on others looks to be a misjudgment, with Klopp perhaps having too much faith in players who have served him so well.

Jude Bellingham of Borussia Dortmund might be the midfielder Liverpool are waiting to get next year. Maybe the Reds should have gone all out this summer.

STRUGGLING VAN DIJK

He was turned easily by Aleksandar Mitrovic and gave away a penalty in the opening-weekend draw at Fulham. He stood like a statue as Jadon Sancho lined up his shot to put United ahead on Monday.

That’s two more errors than Van Dijk usually makes in an entire season.

If the imposing Dutchman — the player who holds the defense together — is off the pace, it is bound to seep into the rest of the team.

Van Dijk hasn’t been helped by having to start alongside three different center-back partners already this season, in Matip, Nat Phillips and Gomez.

The Reds have conceded the first goal in all three games and now in nine of their last 10 competitive games. They need to be switched on earlier in games.

MISSING MANE

Sadio Mane was a mainstay in Liverpool’s attack for six years, a regular source of goals and the provider of so much energy and thrust that it helped his teammates around him. In the second half of last season, he mostly started as a center forward and was more prolific and important than Mohamed Salah.

He is sorely missed following his move to Bayern Munich, where he sought a new challenge. Luis Diaz is a fine replacement — Klopp called the Colombian “special” last week — but it’s asking a lot of him to have the same output as Mane.

With Firmino on the decline and the tall N??ez a very different type of striker, Liverpool have a remodeled attack that requires a whole new style of play. That may take time and, after such a poor start to the season, time is already something Liverpool doesn’t really have.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Editor

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo on Monday made it clear that he would not be apologising to International Decade for People of African Descent Assembly – Guyana (IDPADA-G) Chairman Vincent Alexander, going on to challenge him to properly account for the almost $500 million that was allocated to the organisation by the State.

Alexander took part in a press conference on Monday alongside other IDPADA-G directors, where he had defended the organisation and Jagdeo’s earlier assertions that the organisation has not been utilising State funds adequately to benefit African-Guyanese.

In his subsequent statement, Jagdeo said that Alexander’s press conference left more questions than answers. Jagdeo posed the questions in his statement, such as questions on how much of the $100 million IDPADA-G received since 2019 was spent on salaries and details on those that were paid.

“First off let me state that I have absolutely no intention of apologising to Vincent Alexander and he is free to take whatever course of action he wishes. Afro-Guyanese still remain in the dark as it relates to the benefits of the close to half a billion dollars utilised. He should therefore provide details on the following.”

“How much of the $100M allocated annually since 2019 and $68M in 2018 was spent on paying salaries, who are individuals that were paid, what amounts were they being paid and how were they selected? How much of that sum was spent on rental, who owns the buildings rented, and what process was used for the selection of the buildings?” Jagdeo questioned.

Jagdeo also questioned how many persons benefitted from capacity training, the types of training offered, who conducted the training, and what process was used to select both the trainers and beneficiaries of the training.“Why was IDPADA-G registered as a private limited liability company where a number of persons (inclusive of yourself) are listed as the beneficial owners instead of a not-for-profit organisation? These are just a few questions for the moment. I will address this matter in greater detail shortly,” Jagdeo further said in his statement.

During the press conference, Alexander refuted much of what Jagdeo said at a press conference last week. Among Alexander’s assertions was that he is not paid for his work with IDPADA-G, that Jagdeo is trying to vilify the organisation and that the organisation has been spending money in the African-Guyanese community.

“We are proud of the fact that we are able to fund the night schools which have brought back children into the loop of the education system. This we do in Georgetown and in the Corentyne. So that’s another instance of the outreach.”

“And many people would know of the work that was done in the Mocha Arcadia market day, which we also funded. Many people would know of the exhibitions we have had, at Square of the Revolution and the avenue,” Alexander said, describing this as physical manifestations of their work.

The organisation also sent out a statement in which it further defended itself and detailed more of its work. While they did not deny that staff were paid $42 million in 2020 as Jagdeo had laid out, IDPADA-G explained that staff provide a myriad of services to the African-Guyanese community.

“Members of the public can walk in and be given services such as the preparation of business plans, project and grant request proposals for Government and donor funding. The sum that Mr Jagdeo did not mention goes towards projects in the sphere of education and training, disaster response, public education, entrepreneurial facilitation, and youth development, to mention a few.”

“Examples including the G$5M exercise to register persons for flood relief, will be provided on the work of IDPADA-G, by the next presenter. A more comprehensive fact sheet will be made available to you,” the organisation promised.

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