It is good to see that a player tearing away from a defence at the halfway line, through to bearing down on goal and then putting the ball away with the minimum of fuss can be classed as “a mistake by Leicester’s young midfielder Matty Jones”. I am sure that there are a lot of people who were willing Emile to miss so that they could continue their chorus of booing.
I thought that Emile and Nic linked up well together, held the ball up well and moved off each-other at every opportunity. Emile’s first touch is not his strongest point but I thought Anelka controlled everything hit toward him immediately. Heskey did, however, show a bit of confidence and tried to attack the Leicester defence at every opportunity, although one cross was woefully misplaced.
The forwards worked hard but never really got the support their work deserved from the midfield. I thought that Gary Mac only looked a shadow of last seasons player, the two czechs did not provide the creativity that we need. Didi again played very well protecting the defence but is not the most creative player, so in this line up, it was the czech players we looked to for creativity.
Smmicer appears to have gone backwards, and is similar to the player we had two seasons ago drifting in and out of games with no real cutting edge around the box. The number of niggling injuries keeping him out of games for two and three weeks is a recurring theme, and whilst this is the case it is impossible to find any level of consistency. Berger appears to have been coming back from injury all season, but aside from a couple of dead ball situations I thought we saw very little of him. He worked quite hard but I feel he appears to be very uptight and nervous when he gets in attacking positions. I think it is essential that a midfield built on the destructive nature of Didi Hamman must get more out of its creative players than we saw from McAllister, Berger & Smicer last night.
I think that we are all very confident about our defensive capabilities, and this was again apparent last night with Carragher taking the opportunity to get forward a lot quicker than he has recently. Wright was impressive both defensively and offensively and must be a source of some satisfaction for the coaching staff at the academy.
There is a natural tendency to play deeper, when defending a lead, but I thought Liverpool resisted this until the last 15 minutes, and even then were never really under threat. There has been a lot of criticism of Liverpool’s long ball game, which at times I do find paradoxical. The worst offenders for taking the long ball option are undoubtedly Hyppia and Henchoz, who, as players, only rarely come in for criticism. They played similar balls throughout a successful 2001 when the team received little condemnation for it from their own fans, perhaps because it was successful.
I also find it bemusing that some fans seem to see it as a betrayal for an outfield player to “pass it back” to the goalkeeper. In my opinion, our best ever centre back (Hansen), used the goalkeeper as a passing option perhaps more than any player in the league. If you have got a goalkeeper who is confident with his feet, and who can pass a ball, then you should use this for your benefit. United always passed the ball back to Schmeical and still continue to use Barthez in a similar manner. If a player feels under pressure, and has confidence in his keeper, why not use him?
Houllier chose to spend £11 million on Heskey, the player did not negotiate the fee. At this stage last season very few people would have questioned Houlliers judgment on the issue. Heskey is a strong player who has undoubtedly been low on confidence recently. Judges as good as Houllier, Thomson, O’Neil and Errickson appear to think that he is both a good footballer and an asset to their football teams. Both Houllier and Errickson also appear to believe that Heskey is the best foil for Michael Owen’s undoubted gifts. In this illustrious company of coaches, watching the player regularly in both match and daily training situations, I would feel a little under-qualified to call him an “£11 million waste of space so called striker.”
Last night was by no means a vintage performance but I have always believed that on a night like last night it was more important to win the game than worry about the performance. The same miserable bastards who have for three years been bemused by Utd’s ability to play poorly and win three points, are now looking to attack Liverpool for doing the same, by criticising our tactics.
There is no doubt that Liverpool are not firing on all cylinders, but I also have little doubt that no other club would have shown this strength of character when without their manager for three months. If we can get through Sunday, which I believe we can, we will be in a great position- away games at Ipswich, borough, Fulham, Sunderland & Spurs to go with 7 home games.
We are in the best league position for a number of years and yet people still want to slam the team. Yes the most important thing is where you finish in May, but I have no doubt that we will finish in the top three, at least equalling last years finish. I find it ludicrous to claim that we are in a false position when we have lost two games fewer than the leaders as well as beating them home and away.
We have had a relatively successful season so far, especially in league terms, and we have every opportunity to improve on that. Criticism of the squad which has been deprived of its creator and mentor is both short-sighted and unwarranted. Performances like last night will happen to the best of teams and there is no doubt that there was a lack of creativity among the midfield. There were also positives to take from the game…..the solidity of the defensive six, the performance of Wright and thr link up of Anelka & Heskey.
There is a lot of football to be played before now and the end of the season. I hope and believe that Liverpool will be in the shake up, and would hope the fans who spend all their time bleating about the shortcomings of individual scapegoats and the tactics of the management team would put their petty prejudices behind them and support the team.
