My match report.
LFC Through the Square Box - Liverpool vs Blackburn
Games against Blackburn have been unusual of late - high-tempo, mistakes-ful, high-scoring and casualty-laden. Unfortunately for us, history repeated itself again today, as we battled to a 2-2 draw at Ewood Park, and lost Cisse to a broken leg in the process. Sad
This time though, we had no villian to blame for another crushing injury to a key member of the squad. In only his 2nd major contribution to the game after having been starved of service in most of the 1st half (he'd had a good shot on target from distance well-covered by Friedel), Cisse took it on himself to drive past his defender to get to the bye-line, as he'd done in the past couple of games. As he cut in, his leg looked awkwardly balanced, and a tap at the back of his calf by the chasing Blackburn lad didn't help matters. It was clear from the replay the way his leg gave way, that it was a terrible break - you could see Cisse howling in pain as he lay on the ground, and it took quite a while before the lad could be stretchered off. I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing him well, and a good steady recovery. With a break like that, I suppose we won't be seeing the likes of Cisse in Red for a while - maybe even until next season. That's how bad it looked.
Prior to that, we'd raced to a perfect start with a stiff Riise goal (left-footed, any other guesses?) after a wonderful cross-field long pass from Xabi. It's going to be fun seeing Xabi and Stevie G having fun spreading the ball from side to side when the latter returns, but anyway, Riise took the ball down very well (left foot, of course) and finished with a well-directed grounder, after beating the off-side trap. Just before this, Friedel had stopped Cisse's shot from outside the box, and had also rushed out to close the angles and block from Baros who was clear-through into the box, but the ex-Liverpool keeper couldn't do anything about this one.
1-0 up and we were on cloud nine and passing the ball around with great confidence. Away form blues were gone, it seemed, and it seemed a matter of time before we sunk the cellar-dwellers further and piled on the goals.
Unfortunately, 16 minutes was about how long our supremacy lasted from the whistle. For Blackburn were level at that point, when awful defending by Josemi let in the Blackburn player through the backdoor for a square pass and a simple tap-in by Bothroyd, for his first goal of the season. It was appalling the way we defended, and while Carra had to take a bit of the blame for commiting himself and failing to get to the ball, Josemi had to bear the brunt of it, for his lack of awareness and focus. It was a terrible way to concede a goal, and it seemed that this so shocked the squad that we then proceeded to meekly concede the half to the opponents.
All credit to Blackburn - they'd done their homework, and left little space for Xabi and Baros to operate after they got back into the game. While they did start the game brightly, we looked easily the more enterprising side early on, but things changed with the equalizer. Our lads were having difficulties finding space, as the opponents closed down on the guys and the passing lanes early, and their physical play disrupted our game, as the likes of Xabi and surprisingly, Hamann, were subdued. Not surprisingly, we then resorted to some hopeful long balls from the back, which were never going to matter much. On the occasions when we did advance the ball to the final third of the Blackburn half - usually on the right, our crossing was woeful and wasteful.
Even then, Blackburn, in spite of their superior ball-possession after they levelled the scores, didn't really look like threatening to change the scoreline in their favour - until another woeful piece of defending by Josemi let them in for the 2nd goal. Josemi let his defender get past him like he was non-existent, and after the rest of the lads had done their job cleaning up his mess, failed to react quickly and decisively to a short outlet pass from Hyppia to him. All it needed was for him to quickly take the ball and either run with it, or clear it to safety. Instead, Josemi took his time to turn, and allowed Emerton the space and time to steer home a grounder that Kirkland couldn't get to.
2-1 and it was like Fulham all over again - only this time, I wasn't sure if we could get back in again like we did. Looking at the bench (with Cisse now off and replaced by Luis Garcia), we'd the likes of Warnock and Kewell lying in wait. Well, maybe one of these lads might help spice things up for us in the 2nd half, but it'd entail moving some guys around. My first thought was that, for all his lack of offensive outsput, Finnan couldn't do any worse defensively than Josemi in this game, and perhaps it'd be a good idea to move him back to RB - where he started and had a good game against Charlton. Josemi was, sadly, a huge liability in the first half, and you could see the eyes of Emerton and Dickov light up each time they saw the Spaniard in front of them.
I was pretty pissed off with the first half performance, especially after Blackburn had levelled, for it seemed we were all at sea, and lacked leadership to bring everybody back into focus. Our performance got worse by the minute, and by the time of the 2nd Blackburn goal, we looked like we were ready to cave in. Cisse's departure from the game probably didn't help at all, as hearts sank a notch or two, I suppose, when he went off. I remember seeing Luis Garcia come on in his place, and go straight to Baros asking "What happened"? Baros seemed to mouth something like "Broke his leg" and Garcia went, "Oh my God...". It was quite a gloomy first half overall, and all the more excrutiatingly painful as we went from the ecstacy of going 1-0 up in the 7th minute, to losing that lead, losing our striker, and then losing the game (at that point).
The game really opened up as both sides returned for the 2nd half. The harassment that Blackburn threw at our players seemed to drop a notch, perhaps understandably because the frenetic scrambling and closing down in the first half would've sapped some of their energy. As we gradually started to come back into the game, we stole a lucky break and equalized. It happened so quickly that the TV camera did not manage to swing back to catch the action as a replay of the previous piece of action was being shown. In any case, the replay of this piece of action, showed the Blackburn player stupidly and carelessly slide a horizontal, short free kick right in our half (just past the halfway line) to Garcia, who, after overcoming the initial surprise and untangling his feet, nicked a nicely weighted lob to the rushing Baros. Baros still had his work cut out, as he had to muscle off his marker, and had to contend with the looming figure of Friedel. Baros did a remarkable job holding off the defender though, and sent his shot past Friedel in the far corner, to send the Reds fans crazy. 2-2, and Baros, if anyone, deserved that goal for his hardwork.
The game opened up with the equalizer, and either team could've scored for the rest of the match. Of course, with the increased tempo, tempers started to fray as well, and Rob Styles was compelled to dish out a couple of yellows to both sets of players. What had been a physical first half threatened to boil over into a rough second half, but luckily, common sense held sway, and there were no serious incidents other than a few misunderstandings here and there.
Blackburn's pressing game was easing off now, and we were also not pressing as hard as we'd done against Charlton and Deportivo. The nett result, was that both teams had room to move the ball, pass, run, and both teams came close to scoring, but for some good last-minute defending from both keepers. Riise had to save off the line for us from a downward Craig Short header, and Kirkland had to pull off a close range save from Dickov. Friedel, on the other hand, had to deal with a Riise blaster, and Hyppia was agonizingly close in the final seconds of injury time from getting his foot to Kewell's wonderfully turned-in cross from the far post.
Overall, it was perhaps a fair result, and Blackburn should find themselves off the bottom of the table if they keep up this level of performance. For us, I've to say we dropped 2 points - not that we deserved to win today - but that we really shouldn't have conceded both goals. The good thing is that we showed good fighting spirit in the 2nd half to come back and also go for the winner, but if I were Rafa, I wouldn't have been pleased with the way heads dropped after each of Blackburn's goals in the first half.
Kirkland - Couldn't do much with both Blackburn's goals, and did a good job with a couple of saves in the second half to keep the scores level.
Traore - Save for a hairy moment in the 2nd half, when he overplayed at the back and needlessly conceded a freekick, he did well defensively, and as in the recent matches, got forward to support regularly (still room for improvement though). In fact, I thought he was the most consistent and steady defender for us today.
Josemi - Pretty much crap today, and was directly responsible for both Blackburn goals. He seemed to have a problem concentrating, and on a few other occasions, just let his man slip past him or worse still - let the ball slip through him - without ever making an effort to chase back. He seems to have put on more weight and lost more pace as the weeks progressed. Easily the most lacklustre and disgraceful performance from him this season - almost looked as if he didn't care at some point.
Carra & Hyppia - Perhaps Josemi's shakiness got to them; and Dickov's pace and Bothroyd's height added to the pressure, but the duo seemed uneasy today. Carra started off very brightly, cutting off attacks really well, but increasingly made mistakes as the game wore on, though they weren't critical ones (well, the first one kinda' indirectly led to the goal - though Josemi shouldn't have let his man slip through behind him). They looked a tad shaky today, not really their normal selves.
Riise - Good goal in the first half, a good shot attempt in the second, and really nothing much else offensively. Still waiting for him to put in a decent cross.
Finnan - Together with Josemi, really tanked this game. Cross after cross was getting nowhere, and it was wasteful of the good positions he got into.
Xabi & Hamann - Started brightly like the rest, but after we conceded the first Blackburn goal, found themselves increasingly under pressure, both physically and spatially. Hamann, especially, had a horrid time today, as he seemed a step slower or a bit lighter when going for loose balls, holding the ball, etc. Xabi's sweet cross-field pass led to our first goal, but he was too easily outmuscled in the first half. Came into the game again as it opened up in the 2nd, and showed also a physical side to his game. Was lucky not to have gotten a card for an unintentional punch as he went for the ball on one occasion.
Baros - Started off actively, but the supply to him soon stopped, and with it, his surging, defence-splitting runs. What was encouraging was that he was looking to pass early and set up his team mates early on, instead of trying to do everything himself. When the game opened up in the 2nd half, his charging game brought life to our performance. Scored a solid goal, but could've set up Garcia also in one instance, instead of trying to take on the whole Blackburn defence before slipping a pass in at the last minute. Still, I'd rather have his energy level and workrate than Heskey's fallyover performance.
Cisse - One shot on target, then got starved of service, and when he drifts out right for the first time to do damage, breaks his leg. Ouch. Speedy recovery, Cisse...
Garcia - Replaced Cisse, and didn't do much in the first half (neither did most guys after the 16th minute). Set up Baros beautifully for our equalizer, and had an okay game. With Cisse now out, perhaps he'll be used as Baros' partner, with maybe Kewell filling in on the right for now. Was looking for his shot this game after the wonder finish against Charlton last week, and looked threatening.
Kewell - Replaced Finnan, who wasn't really doing anything much this game. Went into the centre (Garcia went to the right), and added more spice to our attacks. Linked up well with Garcia, and I think with Cisse now out, and FSP maybe out for another game, the Baros-Garcia-Kewell-Xabi quartet will need to be the source of our creativity. I actually think this might work out well, though I'd personally have Kewell by the sides instead of Garcia.
Diao - Had his best game this season, by not doing any damage to the team. Okay, that's kinda' nasty of me. He did okay - nothing much to be pleased about, yet, nothing to complain about as well in those 10 minutes.
Okay, we head next to the continent, to take on Deportivo in a match we definitely should try to win, without one of our two key strikers, and with a moderately disappointing away performance (disappointing in the 1st half, improved in the 2nd). For the first time this season under Benitez, I'm kinda' worried.
Personally, after today's performance, I'd drop Josemi from the RB slot, and move Finnan back there - make Josemi earn it back again, maybe by losing some weight and gaining some more pace. Midfield quartet of Riise-Didi-Xabi-Kewell, with Garcia behind Baros. Maybe not the best lineup, having to play one or two chaps out of position, but that's the best we can do right now with this thinning squad. We must cover away from Spain with at least an away point, and anything less would make qualification a very tough task.
Again, to Cisse - hope you have a speedy recovery lad!
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