i very much doubt the tactical capabilities of BR.
This is the sort of sentence that would be impressive if you'd posted it on the eve of the match. I might have been intrigued enough to read on in that instance. As it is I didn't read on. Maybe you come up with some blinding and frightening insight about Rodgers's fundamental ineptitude, in which case I apologise, but I suspect it's just a slightly more refined form of wailing after an unexpected defeat. You're sad and it's all Rodgers's fault.
I'm sad too. I'd mentally scratched in 3 points for this one, in readiness for the more uncertain ties to come. Mistake! I was also, for once, really looking forward to the match. I mean
really. Of course I always do, but anticipation is normally mixed with a degree of trepidation. What will happen when Kuyt gets the ball? How slow will Carragher be this week? Will Carroll show his claws or will he stay curled up on the sofa? And above all, will we start hoofing when things don't go our way? But yesterday I settled in to watch a command performance. I expected we'd have the ball and that eventually gaps would open in the opposition's lines. I expected to be delighted by Liverpool and to be able to breathe normally watching them - as I used to do in the 80s.
It looked great for 44 minutes. The Throstles (one for the oldies there) had a storming, chaotic first 3 minutes but for the next 41 we looked slick, fit, patient and skillful. We also looked in command. West Brom, the home team, started to surrender two-thirds of the pitch. The ball moved really quickly when we had it. No one hoofed.
Not that we were firing on all cylinders. Lucas did some good things but he was reminded that being fit to face a piece of shit like Gomel is not the same as being genuinely Premier League fit. Shane Long nicked it off him at one point and almost scored, reminding our lad that the best attackers in England don't believe in such a thing as a 'lost cause' and will chase anything and use muscle to get it. That was a good reminder. He needs to use muscle to defend it.
Kelly also looked out of sorts at right back. There was one dreadful Carragher-esque miscue when under no pressure, although that was untypical of the lad. What is slightly more concerning for him is that he lacks the foot-skills (as opposed to raw pace) to beat an opponent - which is precisely what the Rodgers system demands of an advanced full back like himself. On reflection it would have been better to have had Johnson on the right and the very promising Jack Robbo on the left.
I see Suarez has come in for some stick for not burying that header at the end of the first half. He did on the commentary too where it went down as 'a regulation chance' or some such bollocks. My reaction to that type of comment is that either 1. You have never played football and have no sense of what is possible in the air 2. You have played football but are clearly deluded about your own aerial skills. Suarez could never have scored that a goal from that cross. The ball was simply too high. In fact he did remarkably well to get his forehead on it at all. A less technical player would have seen the ball skim off his crown. But it was always going to be too much to ask for him to head the ball down. Even Carroll, with his extra height, would have struggled.
I won't go into the second half except to say that it was hot, we were playing with one less player than them (two less if you count old man Carragher), and the ref had a very poor game.
Of the new boys Joe Allen was excellent. Borini looked thrown out of joint by the physicality of the Premier League, but he'll come good I'm sure.
The most worrying aspect, Kelly apart, was Gerrard. He looked sadly lacking in athleticism again and you wonder if old father time is catching up to him quicker than he thinks. He was also noticeably out of sync with the rest of the team in the first half. Six or seven probing passes and the ball comes to Gerrard high up the pitch. What's needed is a boring little pass backwards to Lucas or Allen so that they can quickly get the machine moving in another direction while retaining the ball. Not for Stevie. It's as if his patience breaks. "Six or seven passes is enough", he seems to say. "If we haven't created a chance by then I'm gonna try something else". And a cross is whipped into a packed penalty box.
It's cleared of course. And the opposition get their breath back. And their shape.
We might need a proper number 10.
