I get a familiar feeling now pretty much every time I write a new blog. Sorry I shouldn’t say every time, its maybe every third time or fourth time. Its been a theme that’s been running throughout this season. It feels like I’ve written this blog before, and in all fairness I pretty much have. The Stoke game at home was another one where we dominated possesion, were barely threatened but failed to come away with the points. There were a few decisions from Kenny in this one that I couldn’t get my head around, I think most Liverpool fans would say the same. His tactics of course may have been dictated somewhat by the very tough game against Manchester City, perhaps he felt Andy Carroll couldn't do it over 90 after chasing shadows in that game. We know Bellers has to be managed carefully, Agger was injured, Maxi too and Suarez is banned of course. Still it felt like maybe we gave Stoke a little too much respect. 3 Centre halves to mark Peter Crouch seems a little excessive at least. I feel doing my usual post match blog would be, as ive said above, simply a matter of repeating myself so instead i’m going to do as I have done before. I’m going to take this opportunity to look at a few positives, from the game itself and the season. At times like this it can be hard to not get wrapped in negativity, so for readers of this blog, and probably as some form of self-therapy too here we go
GAME:
Defensive Solidity:
I know that we have one of the best defenses in the league over the last few months so you might think this is a strange thing to include, but this was very much a changed set, from 4 at the back we moved to 3/5. Out went Agger and in came experience of Carra and the youth of Coates. Playing 3 centre backs against the bustling Stoke side is nothing new of course, it was something Rafa did a few times. It was good to see Carra get a came to keep his chin up. As has been the case throughout the season Skrtel was our best defender. He dealt brilliantly with anything that came his way, the other centre half…..
Coates:
A first home start and a full 90 minutes from our young Uruguayan. He’s not the finished article by any means but its clear to see the potential he has. He looks very comfortable on the ball and strode forward to great effect at times during the game. A full 90 minutes against a strong side will help him settle and get used to life in the Premiership. Once he is acclimatised we will have a very strong defender in our hands and another to put pressure on our current first choices. On this point isn't it mad how a centre half carrying the ball up the pitch always seems to cause such mad panic to the opposing team. I mean realistically, as a defender, would you rather have Gerrard or Coates running at you with the ball? But when Coates did run with the ball, Stoke seemed to lose it with tackles flying in everywhere and defenders leaving their positions to make a challenge. You would think this would be something they would be used to but we’ve seen the panic before with Agger and when Rio does it for Utd. its the same thing, I just think its funny really.
Stevie’s road to recovery:
Our talisman and captain took another step forward in his recovery. Another 90 minutes and another good performance. Again, he’s not 100% yet but he’s getting there and he certainly has kept himself fit. We have more big games coming up and each game that goes by Stevie is improving. Its going to be a hard run in and we will need our best players to be operating to the best of their abilities, with Gerrard think that is assured. It was a pity that in this game Stevie seemed to be under instruction to sit back, but again maybe this was due to Wednesday nights efforts and he needed to conserve energy.
1 game closer to the return:
At the very least we can take comfort from the fact that this is another game of Suarez’s ban gone. We definitely miss some inventiveness and guile with him out of the side. This was exactly the kind of game were you feel he could have been the difference, It was not to be of course but we are closer to seeing him wearing red again and Reds all over the world cannot wait for that!
SEASON:
Were still in the running for 4th:
That’s the crazy thing about this eason. Weve not had a great season so far, there have been frustrations and disappointments’ and very costly decisions by the powers that be. We could be higher in the table, even without more effort just through better luck, be “would have” and “should have” have no place in football . We are were we are and that’s that. Arsenal also dropped points again and so were not out of the running yet. We need to get our performances together of course if we want to start climbing the table, but if we can do that there is no reason that we cannot get up to fourth.
Cup’s:
We have a 1 goal advantage going into a semi-final second leg at Anfield. People might say its only the Carling cup, you can say that to me if you like, I’ll tell you to fuck right off. it’s a competition that has been a favourite of ours for the last 30 years or so. We are the record holders for times won. With no European football this year I always thought it would be great to get a run in this competition, and while it doesn’t make up for Europe it goes someway to helping you cope. Like a European Cup patch if you will. We have an amazing fixture ahead and what promises to be a truly amazing night at Anfield, one which I’m proud to say I will be sitting in the Kop for. Don’t forget, this time last year we were out of both domestic cups!
Possesion football:
If the cutting edge has been lost from the team this season, one thing that has clearly been gained is an ability to control games. I think this can be perceived at times as a negative because it leads to such frustrations when watching your side dominate but not win. I’ll be honest I actually wanted to break something….. anything! after the final whistle on Saturday. That’s all part of the match though. it’s the reason why I wait a while before posting anything, particularly after this type of game. You have to cool down before making judgements. Nobody can expect to be cool headed during, or just after such a game. But when you have perspective and look at the whole picture things dont seems so bad. we’ve had plenty of big performances this season that show we are not a bad side. We’re not a great side by any means but we don't need to add much to become one. a little more inventiveness and an ability to finish if added could move us on leaps and bounds.
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