Liverpool fell to their first defeat of the new season on Saturday when we were defeated 1 - 0 at the Brittania stadium. Liverpool had started the season well and in our first three games of the season we certainly seemed to be improving with each performance. So much so that expectations for the season ahead had started to rise. From aiming for a return to the Champions League suddenly there was talk of title challenges and people were starting to consider us as only behind the 2 Manchester clubs in our aims for the season. If there is any positive to be gained from this defeat its that hopefully it will give everyone a slight reality check. Its not that optimism itself is a huge problem, but when expectations get too high, a team, at our early stage of development, can end up in a no win situation. If people start to have expectations above what is realistically achievable they can only be disappointed when the expectation is not realised. We saw this a few years back when a second place finish under Rafa somehow became painted as utter failure, regardless of the fact that we got 86 points, lost only two games in an entire season and finished behind a Man Utd team who picked up 90 points! As things stand we still in a decent position and in line with our realistic targets. We are not the only team who will come away from Stoke with nothing and the performance by the man in black (charcoal?) on the day was nothing to be ashamed of. We were in control of the game for the most part and how we didn’t score at least once on the day is beyond me. Jordan Henderson alone could have had three, alone all in the same move! The fact that the performance levels never slipped and the effort put in right until the end, shows that the players haven’t necessarily lost form, it just wasn’t to be on the day. It certainly wont knock |Kenny, or the players, confidence going into next weeks game against Spurs.
Kenny’s post game comments
I’ve heard a lot of comment over the last couple of days about Kenny’s post match comments regarding the referee. Some are trying to use them to say that Kenny is clearly in a state of paranoia and getting worried now that his honeymoon period is over. Ridiculous! What Kenny said was nothing more than the kind of statement Fergie has been making for the last 20 years when he spots a pattern of decisions going against his team. it’s a kind of mind game where he knows he cannot influence what has happened in this, or pre-ceding games, but he is trying to influence the referee’s thoughts in our next games when there is a 50/50 decision to be made. There’s nothing wrong with that, Lord knows we can use all the help we can get this season! The comments about speaking to the owners about which course of action to follow are, I believe, for effect only. I would be very surprised if there are any official complaints made by Liverpool. Hopefully the short few comments will have the desired effect and there will be no more need for discussion on the subject!
The Penalty
To be 100% honest, I think there was enough to excuse the referee giving this penalty. I’m no fan of Clattendburg, I find it very hard to read him as a ref. but on this occasion he probably got it right. Carra gets himself into an awkward position by allowing Waters to get his body between him and the ball which leads to him putting his arm around Waters. I certainly don’t believe that he pulled the Stoke man to the ground, but by putting his arm round he gives the striker the chance to go down, and gives the referee a decision to make. Put it this way, if this was up the other end I would have been screaming for a pen!
The Performance
Of course, whilst watching your team suffering a loss and immediately after the game its very easy to say it was shite and rant about the performance, once you let the dust settle a bit you can look back on the game and see things a little clearer. We didn’t hit the heights we’d been hitting recently but we were still very much in control of the game from early on. Stoke did their thing and played a solid hardworking game but never put us under much pressure. We started with a strong team. Skrtel, who had impressed in this position last time out, continued at Right Back. Caroll stayed on the bench leaving Kuyt to start up top with Suarez and Hendo moved to the right. The new boys in particular struggled in this game. Downing’s levels dropped, Henderson and Adam, even more noticeably, but we still had enough on the day to win the game, we created enough chances. The team worked hard enough, as said before, if we continue in this vein we will certainly win more than we lose.
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