Well thats it, its all turned around now. Kenny is the best manager we’ve had since... well.. Kenny. The glory days have returned and Liverpool are gonna win the league next year. If your sarcasm alarms haven't gone off yet, you might want to get them repaired. While we’ve not exactly achieved that, we certainly have improved, we've had a very difficult season in the league in which I accept we have under achieved, but in the cups, we've just been great. The bookies may have made us favourites for this game, but they were about the only ones who did. According to David Moyes the whole of England was behind his boys in blue, well if that was true I’m delighted we managed to disappoint the whole country. This one was certainly a game of 2 halves. I thought we started stronger, but Everton took control of the first half after 10 minutes and held that control through to the break. We came out the much stronger side in the second half though and eventually made our superiority tell to win the game late on. There was much to be happy about in this result, and performance. I’m going to try and look at some of them now.
We reminded the blues whats what.
It must be hard to be a blue. Even when they think they get the upper hand were always able to pull them back in some way. Its only 7 years ago when they finished above us in the league to qualify for the Champions League at our expense... or so they thought. We of course went and won Europe's premier competition that year and qualify by doing so. We also got the added joy of watching them fail to make it through to the their qualifier. They overtook us in the league a few weeks too, so we felt we better knock them out of the FA Cup. All I can say is thank god I’m red!
An important comeback
Of course Everton’s confidence coming into this game was only heightened by them taking the lead, I’m sure this moment seemed sweeter because it resulted from a mistake by our own ex Evertonian Jamie Carragher. I’ve got to be honest, I felt we still had a chance even when behind. It took a lot of patience and pressure to get back into the game. Where others may have panicked, we kept our cool to, in the end, force the win.
The Management.
It's clear Kenny has taken a lot of stick this season, and as I have admitted before he’s made mistakes. I was fearful that he had made another one in some of his selections to start this game but in the end he was vindicated and I was delighted to be proved wrong. Our shape was good and he made good decisions during the game to regain control when behind. If I doubted the initial selection of some I was in complete agreement with every substitution made. On the eve of the anniversary of Hillsborough it was a great feeling to see a man who has been, and continues to be, so instrumental in helping the families and the city and the city cope with such tragedy with that great big smile on his face. His face may have aged but that smile still defies his years.
Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll!
As every journo and commentator delighted in pointing out, our strike partnership for the game have taken a lot of stick this season. The reasons may differ, but they each, im sure, wanted to prove points. Well they certainly did that. Both had strong games and linked up to decent effect during the match. Andy got his second late headed winner in a week. I enjoyed Carra saying that this goal was worth 35 million on its own, but in fairness only time will tell if he ever proves to be worth the kind of money we spent. This was a decent place to start. At the very least he has secured a place in the folklore of the club and for that he should be proud. He has enough time to make some impact through the rest of the season and if he stays injury free over the summer, who knows how next season will turn out for him.
Wembley.
We waited a while before making our first appearance in new Wembley, but like the busses we've now been there twice in just a few weeks. We've secured 2 victories and who would bet against us securing a third in 3 weeks time? Anfield south, is proving to be a good hunting ground once more.
We reminded the blues whats what.
It must be hard to be a blue. Even when they think they get the upper hand were always able to pull them back in some way. Its only 7 years ago when they finished above us in the league to qualify for the Champions League at our expense... or so they thought. We of course went and won Europe's premier competition that year and qualify by doing so. We also got the added joy of watching them fail to make it through to the their qualifier. They overtook us in the league a few weeks too, so we felt we better knock them out of the FA Cup. All I can say is thank god I’m red!
An important comeback
Of course Everton’s confidence coming into this game was only heightened by them taking the lead, I’m sure this moment seemed sweeter because it resulted from a mistake by our own ex Evertonian Jamie Carragher. I’ve got to be honest, I felt we still had a chance even when behind. It took a lot of patience and pressure to get back into the game. Where others may have panicked, we kept our cool to, in the end, force the win.
The Management.
It's clear Kenny has taken a lot of stick this season, and as I have admitted before he’s made mistakes. I was fearful that he had made another one in some of his selections to start this game but in the end he was vindicated and I was delighted to be proved wrong. Our shape was good and he made good decisions during the game to regain control when behind. If I doubted the initial selection of some I was in complete agreement with every substitution made. On the eve of the anniversary of Hillsborough it was a great feeling to see a man who has been, and continues to be, so instrumental in helping the families and the city and the city cope with such tragedy with that great big smile on his face. His face may have aged but that smile still defies his years.
Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll!
As every journo and commentator delighted in pointing out, our strike partnership for the game have taken a lot of stick this season. The reasons may differ, but they each, im sure, wanted to prove points. Well they certainly did that. Both had strong games and linked up to decent effect during the match. Andy got his second late headed winner in a week. I enjoyed Carra saying that this goal was worth 35 million on its own, but in fairness only time will tell if he ever proves to be worth the kind of money we spent. This was a decent place to start. At the very least he has secured a place in the folklore of the club and for that he should be proud. He has enough time to make some impact through the rest of the season and if he stays injury free over the summer, who knows how next season will turn out for him.
Wembley.
We waited a while before making our first appearance in new Wembley, but like the busses we've now been there twice in just a few weeks. We've secured 2 victories and who would bet against us securing a third in 3 weeks time? Anfield south, is proving to be a good hunting ground once more.
