Liverpool 1 - 1 Man City (Talking Points)

Prior to the game I think most Liverpool fans would have been content with a draw in this one. Everyone knew the type of form that City have been in. They were unbeaten and yet to score less than 2 goals in any of their previous games in the Premier League. They had recently recorded an astonishing victory over the reigning Champions and their fierce neighbours and they were playing the kind of attacking football that had journalists and pundits searching for superlatives to describe them. Liverpool’s form had seemed to be improving too. Fresh from a strong victory over Chelsea we were hopeful and believed it might happen rather than full of confidence that it would. The game opened with City looking the stronger of the two teams. The game plan seemed to be to cede possession with confidence that we could repel their attacks. After soaking up some pressure we would hope to hit them on the break. Suarez looked a little isolated at times as the lone front man during this opening spell. Before the half hour mark we had began to gain better possession and looked to try to take control. Unfortunately it was about this time too, when Kompany rose with his shoulder to give City the lead. It never felt like disaster though and the players clearly had belief.  Parity was restored moments later from Charlie Adam, via a massive deflection off Former Everton player the eleph....   Jolean Lescott. The second half was very entertaining. Liverpool clearly felt they could win the game and played without much restraint. City went down to 10 men when Balotelli lived up to his reputation somewhat by being sent off. There were more chances for both teams, with Joe Hart taking off a couple of brilliant saves in the dying minutes to help earn his league chasing side a point. After the game, the pre match acceptance of a point gave way to a sense of frustration that we couldn’t win the game when overall I think our performance could easily have deserved more. Its times like this though that it’s important to look at the bigger picture. A draw against this City side is no poor result. And if we look at the context of the last 2 weeks 4 points from consecutive games against Chelsea and City is a decent return. We go into a decent run of winnable fixtures and in all honesty picking up 3 points in each of our next few games will mean more than this one result. In the last few years we have struggled when expected to win and flourished against the bigger teams. This season so far has been true to form, but we now have a very good chance to correct that. Next up is the quarter final of the Carling Cup away to Chelsea but that’s followed by Fulham, QPR, Villa, Wigan and Blackburn. If we maintain our standards each of these games is winnable, but after 3 high intensity contests it will be difficult to maintain the form. Its times like this when the form might drop off slightly, hopefully Steven Gerrard will be back in during this period, and this alone can help keep the players intensity high.

The Defence

Yet again Carra remained sat on the bench, and yet again it didn’t seem like we missed him too much at all. I think a lot of people are being a bit premature in writing off his Liverpool career but there certainly has been a change in his status as an automatic pick. People have been talking of the Skrtel and Agger combination as the future of Liverpool’s defence for a while now but we’ve never really had an extended chance to witness this due to Agger’s injuries and Skrtel’s form at times. Now though we are starting to see this fledgling partnership start to blossom and I think they look better in tandem that any other possible pairing in this position. There is no doubt that Carra will return to the starting line-up soon. Probably in the Carling Cup on Tuesday night, or if not the next time Dagger breaks down but when he does at least we know that we have promise for the future in this area of the park. Sebastian Coates has looked promising in his few appearances too so there is genuine cause for optimism in this area of the park.

Substitutions

I must admit I find myself getting quite frustrated during games when were pushing to win and Kenny seems to wait an age to make a substitution. Even more so when the substation comes and its not the one I was calling for. Of course the obvious question is why do I think I know better than Kenny on this front. When it comes to these changes it’s a lot more complicated than simply saying “well player a is playing shite so bring player b on and well get the winner”. There are a myriad of things which go into these decisions, form being just one. It depends on what the other team are doing, whether a player is an injury concern, how a players been doing in training etc. In this game again, when the substitution came it was after a sending off and made sense, it also helped us keep control of the game. Carroll even came very close to netting the elusive winner with a header close to the end of the game. I would like to have seen Maxi introduced at some point as Downing seemed to put in another sub –standard performance, but all in all I think the shape helped us keep control so as ever it seems Kenny was proved right.

Zonal Marking

I can’t let the opportunity pass to point out that Liverpool conceded a goal from a corner in this game, and I didn’t hear one commentator or read one journalist talking about our defensive tactic as blame for giving away the chance. Cast your mind back to when Rafa was in charge, everytime we conceded from a corner the “experts” were lining up to point to Zonal Marking as the reason for this. Completely ignoring the fact that we had a superb record in relation to defending corners during this period. I’m not pointing this out to try to explain the virtues of either Zonal or Man to Man marking on corners. I’m saying it more to point out the idiocy of said “experts”. On Saturday, contrary to the lack of criticism, you could see that Man to Man marking may very well have been to blame. Dirk and Glen both make a move in the same Zone because they are following either ball or man, they trip each other up which leaves Kompany unmarked to shoulder home. Neither style of defending corners is faultless and from time to time no matter how you defend you will concede from set pieces due to excellent delivery or fantastic execution, I just thought this was a decent opportunity to point this out.

Liverpool 2 - 1 Chelsea (Talking Points)

I must admit I was nervous about this fixture. It just felt like we needed things to click in order for us to win this one. Everyone will be aware that we had suffered a few poor home results recently and our profligacy issues were getting highlighted more and more over the last few weeks. It really felt like we would need to convert our chances in this game. We haven’t been at our strongest at the back in the last few weeks. Okay, we’d not conceded a lot of goals but we had conceded a fair few chances. Chelsea would punish us if we gave them opportunities to score, so we had to make sure we took our chances. I got more confidence when I saw our starting line-up though. In was Maxi and Bellamy, out went Carroll and Downing. We started off brightly and at times in the first half I felt this could reasonably be described as one of our best performances so far this season. We dipped a bit in the second half, Chelsea got into the ascendency and pushed back hard. They took control of the midfield and controlled things for a spell which culminated in an equaliser. There were some sensible tactical changes though which restored our control eventually leading to a great winner from Glen Johnson.

Maxi, Maxi Rodriguez goes down the wing for me!

It seemed a little unfair on Maxi that he had been out of the first team picture for pretty much the whole season so far. He was one of the most dependable players available for Kenny when he took over and he scored important goals as our season turned last year. It was great to see that his time out of the frame hadn’t diminished his goal-scoring form as his fine opener took his current scoring run to 8 goals in his last 5 league starts for Liverpool. A lot more people had started to question Dalglish’s decision to marginalise the player, the theory being that his intelligence, movement, creativity and finishing ability were exactly what we were lacking from midfield. Such theories are easy to trot out in pub conversations between amateur tacticians but often prove fruitless when an opportunity to prove them are presented. But in this case, the amateur theory was proven to be correct, and how! There was a lot to be admired in Maxi’s play. His very presence seemed to give the team more confidence when passing the ball, particularly in tight situations. The interchange in the lead up to his goal showed some evidence of this. His sharpness from the off was testimony to his professional attitude, a lesser player might have become lazy or distracted when out of the side but Maxi looked fit and alert and he deserves kudos for this. He certainly tired in the second half, due to a combination of lack of match fitness and his very high workrate. All big teams need to have players who while they want to start every week, must be prepared to be out of the side and be professional enough to be 100% ready when needed. Its something we’ve struggled with over the years, but in Maxi we seem to have this quality. I hope his attitude is rewarded with a prolonged return to the team.

The battle of the Ex's

A lot of talk and focus before the game had obviously been centred on Meireles and Torres. Two successful players for Liverpool who both left in acrimonious fashion were expected to be fired up and raring to kick-start their Chelsea careers against their former club. As it turned out, neither player was deemed worthy of a start by Andre Villas Boas. I saw something come up to say Torres had been brought on as a sub, but maybe that was a mistake because I didn’t notice him out on the pitch. Instead of these two it was another player playing against his old club that stole the headlines - Glen Johnson. Johnno’s return to fitness has been progressing nicely so far, and this performance certainly showed that he is now back. He had a great game all round but his finish for the winner was fantastic. He may have been helped a little by John Terry’s poor positioning but his run, confidence and the precision of his shot was worthy of winning any game. One or two people in fact pointed out Johnno’s own poor positioning for the Chelsea equaliser but I think its fair to say he made up for that. I was a bit surprised that he got man of the match from Sky, but I certainly don’t begrudge him the award.

Changes

As I discussed last week, the pressure had been building on our new signings over the past few weeks. When the results aren’t going the way we wanted, it is easy to look for scapegoats. If the scapegoats also have big transfer fees it makes it even easier to pick on them. Carroll, Downing Hendo and to a lesser extent Adam have been the scapegoats of choice for many over the last few weeks. Regardless of the fact that it made tactical sense I thought it was a very good decision to take these players away from the limelight a bit for this fixture. We’ve all spoken about the strength in depth we have this season and this game provided some evidence to back up that claim. It provides some breathing space for those in the firing line. Hendo came on and put in a really stong performance, much the way he did against Man U a few weeks ago. With Man City up next followed by another game against Chelsea, this time in the Carling Cup, There will be ample opportunity to spread games around and hopefully the new boys can rediscover their form under the radar.

Subtle Revelations

It seems strange to say it but something which doesn’t seem to have been mentioned by many people since the game is the absence of two of our Heroes. Two men who have been the epitome of everything that Liverpool stands for over the last few years. I’m talking of course about Stevie and Carra. Stevie’s injury luck has continued to be poor this season meaning he has featured very rarely this season and he again wasn’t available to be part of the squad for this game. Carra is further along the recovery road but wasn’t considered ready for a return to the first eleven. What’s not clear is whether the decision was based on fitness or form. Certainly Carra has been coming in for stick lately where he has been untouchable in previous years. Dagger has returned to fitness (touch wood) and Martin Skrtel, to my mind anyway, has been one of the best Centre Halves in the premiership so far this year. Either way, what is encouraging is that where in previous years Carra returning to fitness would mean an immediate return to the line-up, we are now comfortable enough to bide our time and the result we achieved certainly proved this. As for Stevie, there is no doubt that he remains one of the best players in the league. When he returns to fitness I have no doubt that he will strengthen the team in any position across the midfield, or further advanced. But what’s been striking about his absence is how little people have been talking about it. We achieved a fantastic result on Sunday, and it didn’t seem like we missed our talisman at all in the game. The fact that the absence of two such legends is worthy only of a footnote, not a headline, can only be taken as another mark to prove the strength of our squad.

Current Frustrations - Talking Points

Unfortunately Saturday turned out to be another mediocre performance where we went in with a very realistic ambition to win the three points but ended the day very frustrated having tried but failed to achieve all we felt was possible. After 90 minutes on Saturday I felt very low indeed. I had seen our form dip and rise (and then repeat) through the season so far but I really felt after the very comfortable (although not amazing) performance against WBA last week that we were ready to push on, hit some decent form and keep improving. On paper a home game against a newly promoted side always looks win-able. Unfortunately, if you don’t put games like this to bed when the early chances arrive, your own confidence suffers and the opposition’s confidence rises. Of course when at Anfield this can lead to the fans getting restless and all of a sudden there is a huge uphill battle to climb. Saturday followed this pattern to a T. Andy Carroll had an early chance which he struck well but unluckily crashed off the cross bar. From that minute you get a feeling of, oh no – not another one of these games. It took me a full day to cool down after the result and try to view things more calmly. Immediately after the game I was giving out about this and that and at times like this I know the best thing to do is stay away from twitter, facebook and message boards. I’m wound up enough without listening to the poisonous diatribe of the Doom-mongers not to mention wind-up merchant fans of other clubs. There’s plenty that I’m frustrated at right now and plenty of points I’ve heard others raise. I’m going to try to raise a few of them here and give them my own sense of perspective. These are my opinions and these are the reasons why I won’t let myself get too down, or agree with the points,  about where we are right now. I hope you’ll use the comments section below the article to agree or disagree, I’m more than happy to have some constructive debate on the subjects.

Complaint:                     Suarez’ Goal Ratio

Example comment:         He’s a good player but he’s no goal scorer

I’ve been guilty of this one myself, in fact I remember a long conversation with family after the Utd game where I was making this exact point. The difference is that it’s now being used by some as a stick to beat the team or Suarez himself with. When I made the argument it was to highlight that he is a brilliant player but that is something which, if improved, could make him even better. The thing that gets me about this argument is that although Luis may miss some chances, he makes most of these chances himself. Its not like we can say “oh Micheal Owen would be scoring bagfuls if he was in that team” because its not true. MO wouldn’t because he would need the other players to make his chances. Most of the chances Luis gets are down to his own endeavour so even if he does miss them, nobody else would have been capable of making the chance in the first place. He’s also not getting a lot of luck with his finishing at times. He could have had 2 on Saturday if not for the Swansea keeper’s superb performance. Same has been true against a few sides this season. I think he has had a decent return goal-wise so far with 7 goals in 14 games (all competitions) He could have had a lot more and I’m sure he’ll start converting more of his chances soon.

Complaint:                     Kenny’s too old

Example comment:         Its been years since he’s won anything, maybe we should get rid now.

No, just No! I don’t know what people expected Kenny to achieve in his first full season in charge. I can’t help but ask myself did he possibly over achieve in his brief caretaker role for the 2^nd half of last season? Perhaps after the upturn people just thought, thats it were back now we’ll win the league next year. Quite simply that was NEVER a possibility. Kenny steadied the ship last year and lifted us out of the doldrums with a very weak squad. He is 11 league games into his role on a full time basis. The players are still learning his methods and will certainly improve with him. I certainly don’t see that age has anything to do with anything. Remember Rafa’s first season? Or Houllier’s? Inconsistency comes hand in hand with a new manager. Changes to playing staff, tactics pre-game rituals can all be unsettling to players especially when trying to bed in so many at once. I know that there are very few managers in the world who boast such an impressive CV and there are none who can command the respect of our dressing room with such ease. I think Kenny is learning more about his players week in week out. Those calling for a change in manager would quite simply want to cop on! At the end of the day.... this is Kenny Dalglish at the very least the man deserves more respect. I thought it was very refreshing that he didn’t try to make any excuses after the Swansea game. He seemed to agree with supporters that this performance simply wasn’t good enough and that improvement was needed. You can bet your last Euro/Pound/Dollar/Yen (Delete as appropriate) that Kenny will be working every waking minute to ensure that improvement happens!

Complaint:                     Disaster

Example Comment:        We’ll never get fourth place now

The thing is we have reasons to be down, that’s true. I cant argue that there are plenty of things that are frustrating me right now. But there is NO disaster at Liverpool Football Club right now. No matter what the gutter press try to say, no matter how many supporters of other clubs talk about it and no matter how many doom-monger fans throw this shite in your face. A disaster is where we were just about a year ago when the club had literally been crippled by debt by two ignominious owners who cared not one iota for the club or the fans and were prepared to see the club fall into administration rather than lose a penny of the money they hadn’t even invested in the club. Disaster was when we were sitting in the relegation zone after 10 games . Disaster was when we were under the command of a man who’s CV offered no consolation of an impending improvement. Who’s signings, tactics and weekly comments showed that he had no connection with the club, players or fans. A manager who called a 2-0 defeat to Everton one of our top 3 performances of the season.

I think most right minded Liverpool fans felt that we could hope to qualify for the Champions League this season. And if we look at things in context there is absolutely no reason to lower that ambition. We are currently in 6th place in the table, 3 points off Chelsea in 4^th. Newcastle currently occupy 3^rd place but they are about to embark on the most difficult period in their season so far, I think its reasonable to expect that they will drop some points over the next few weeks. Things haven’t quite clicked yet, but that is always the case when so many new players along with a new manager, need to bed in together. We are now on an international break so hopefully (injuries permitting) our boys will come back raring to get on a run and start stringing some wins together. We have an immediate opportunity to start clawing our way to fourth when we face Chelsea in our next game. This is followed by a game against Man City which is nearly a no lose game for us. After that we have a decent run of winnable games which, if we can start converting more of our chances, could see us make a significant climb up the table. It’s a long season, most teams will have a period when things don’t go the way they want them to but that doesn’t mean that everything has to be an apocalypse. At times you just need to keep some perspective. I know one thing, Kenny, Steve Clarke and all the players will be working 100% to ensure an improvement.

There are more points to be discussed, but as this article turned into such a long one I thought I would break it into 2 parts. I hope to get part 2 up before the end of the weekend. Be sure to sign up to receive email alerts so that you don’t miss it!

Normal Service Will be Resumed Shortly

I just wanted to write a quick note to apologise for the lack of articles over the last few weeks. Its just been mad with work and other commitments. I've got some good articles in the pipeline but nothing ready to go just yet. I'll get a few of them up early next week and normal service will be resumed from then on.

To anybody reading this, thanks for continuing to check the site...