Review of Liverpool Football Club Season Review 2002/03 (2 disc set)

Introduction

Liverpool had signed Diouf, Cheyrou and Diao to join an impressive side showing good results in the first half of the Premiership by topping the table. The Worthington Cup followed and Liverpool played well with goals from Owen and Gerrard. This was also the time that Owen broke Ian Rush`s record for European goals. There are all the games from the Premiership, Champions League, UEFA Cup and FA Cup too. On this DVD there are interview clips too with Milan Baros, Danny Murphy, Steven Gerrard and Michael Owen amongst others breaking up the flow of watching match after match.

If it`s instant access to individual games that you want, you get it. Match by Match lets you select from Premiership, Champions League, UEFA Cup, FA Cup and Worthington Cup. Within each competition you can select from home or away games and watch the goals in each. It`s a very well produced DVD.

Bonus Disc - Worthy Winners again (1:57:32). This features full match action and celebrations from this year`s Worthington Cup Final and runs for nearly a whopping 2-hours! Narrated by Mike Hall, winning the Worthington Cup in a showdown with Manchester United in the final was a competition that Liverpool hadn`t won for 2 years. It`s been 20-years since Liverpool last played Man Utd in a league cup final and it was edge of the seat time all over again.

Video

Presented with a full frame transfer, it`s variable throughout. The worst it seems to get is some smearing and pixellation, but thankfully it`s not a common occurrence and doesn`t obscure viewing. Colours and detail look good and you can see every goal without problem. It`s a shame that this doesn`t have a widescreen enhanced transfer as with the Manchester United Season Review, but this may be down to equipment on site not being set-up for widescreen.

Audio

Nothing fancy in the audio stakes, this is football after all! Plain old Dolby Digital 2.0 gives us exactly what we want, clarity. All the interview footage as well as football video is clear in terms of sound. No problems heard at all.

Features

Easy to navigate menus with some barely better than average extras.

• Statistics - layer Appearances table, Final League table, and Goal Scorers table. Great for all you stats fans.

• Weblink - A link to the Liverpool FC website. The link on the DVD didn`t work though.

• Extended Highlights - Three extended matches with Liverpool in winning form against Everton (8:47), Aston Villa (8:43) and Manchester City (5:34).

• Goal of the Season competition (5:29) - Vote for your favourite Liverpool goal from the 10 short listed here and you could win two tickets to an Anfield game next season. There are some top notch goals here!

• Michael Owen`s European Goals (6:28) - Exactly what it says on the tin. Owen scored 27 goals last season, 20 of those in European competition and here they are.

• Club Information - Club info covering fan club, Liverpool FC Conference banqueting and that sort of thing.

Where are the extended player interviews?

Conclusion

Despite some good matches, it wasn`t to be a silverware earning moment and they instead had to console themselves with coming 5th in the Premier League behind Man Utd, Arsenal, Newcastle Utd and Chelsea on just 64 points. In terms of wins it was a mixed bag of a season and the team could have played better. Winning the Worthington Cup is the only consolation for Liverpool so everyone will have to work harder next season. While we`re talking about the Worthington Cup, you may wonder how good the bonus disc is. All I can say is that it makes for good watching as it`s extended matches of the cup rounds and it adds up to almost 2-hours worth of action.

On the extras front these are okay, but it`s a shame there are no extended interviews with the top goal scorers or other team members. Comparable DVDs have been released for Manchester United, Arsenal and Newcastle United so this Liverpool review completes a good set of football DVDs to own.

The bonus DVD here is a good extra to have and one that boosts the value of this set. It`s nice to see attention paid to giving some value for money. With a total running time of 215-minutes this is another feature packed 2-disc set any football fan would love to have. Recommended.