Liverpool 3 Newcastle 0 - Prem (Mar 8 2008)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 3 Newcastle 0

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Jermaine Pennant, Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard Half Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 8 March 2008 Star Man – Steven Gerrard

 

 

 

 

I don’t know what was more surprising, the fact that Jermaine Pennant scored one, or that Fernando Torres ONLY scored one. Torres has been scoring for fun of late, whereas I don’t even remember the last time Pennant had a shot. He scored against the Geordies, but even then he still didn’t shoot. With Newcastle’s hapless defence in town though, anything can happen. Titus Bramble may be gone, but he’s left plenty of heirs to his throne.

The thing with Newcastle, is that no matter how well they might be doing, you know at some point there’ll be a defensive howler. They’ve turned it into an art form. Some will say our opening goal was lucky, and from our perspective it was. If I was Kevin Keegan though, I wouldn’t be putting that goal down to bad luck. It was a defender failing to follow the most basic rule of defending. Play the way you are facing.

When Torres tried to slip a ball into Pennant, there was no danger as the full back had gotten goal side and was comfortably reaching the ball head of Jermaine. He even had a look to see where Pennant was, and then chose to blast the ball against him when he should have either played it back to the keeper or taken the safest option of all and just conceded a corner. He did neither, and he paid the price as the ball hit Pennant’s shin and looped over Harper into the net. From that moment on, the points were safe.

We’d not played especially well up to that point, and Newcastle had been fairly comfortable. They’d offered nothing in attack other than once corner kick that was missed at the near post and somehow smuggled away by Reina. At the back though, they’d not been bad. We’d had a couple of decent efforts from Torres and Gerrard that had brought good saves out of Harper, but we hadn’t gotten out of second gear

As soon as we got the lead though, their heads dropped, and within a minute or so we’d doubled our advantage with a breathtaking goal courtesy of Torres and Gerrard. Those two are now looking so good together that I’m struggling to think of a better double act anywhere. The link up for the second goal was something very special, and it was a priviledge to have been there to see it.

The athleticism, intelligence, pace and skill that both possess make them a formidable combination, and their understanding seems to be growing by the week. When Torres went up for a header in the centre circle there appeared to be no danger to Newcastle. He won the header, and directed into the path of Gerrard, but there was still a lot to do to even create a chance, let alone score.

Gerrard collected the ball and took off down the left, as Torres hared through the middle. The pass from Gerrard was simply stunning, especially coming from his weaker foot. Torres still had a bit to do, with Harper racing out at him and a couple of defenders trying to get back. When he dummied the ball I thought he’d blown it, and that the chance had gone. He knew exactly what he was doing though, and he got there before the covering defender and slotted home yet another quality goal.

Two quick goals just before half time killed Newcastle. They were never coming back from that, the question was how many would we score? I fully expected Torres to get his hat-trick, but he was more of a provider than finisher after the break.

Our third goal was similar to the second, in that it started with a header won on the halfway line. Torres collected the ball and set off towards the Kop end. Gerrard also set off and sprinted ahead of El Nino. For a second it looked like he would run offside as the pass didn’t arrive, but he checked his run, stayed onside and when the pass came he deftly lifted it over Harper for his 19th goal of the season.

19 goals and still plenty of games left. With Torres’ exploits making most of the headlines it’s easy to overlook Gerrard’s achievement. He’ll surely top the twenty goal mark for the second time in three years. Some going that. Of course, barring injury, he’ll most likely be behind Torres, but the way it’s going so will everyone else in the country. Gerrard and Torres are flying at the moment, and you can see how much they are starting to love playing together.

Torres’ pace and ability to go at people gives us a weapon we haven’t had in a long time. We’re dangerous now even when the ball is in Reina’s hands, because one quick clearance upfield can result in a goal for us. We’ve seen it already this season, and it almost happened again in this game.

Reina threw the ball upfield to Torres, and he allowed the ball to run past him which wrongfooted the defender. He surged into the box, but was half stopped (by Taylor I think). He looked up and saw Gerrard charging forward (he covered a hell of a lot of ground to get there) and rolled it back to him. With everyone either expecting the shot or for him to shift the ball to his right side, Gerrard surprised everyone by cleverly taking it onto his left side past the last defender, but Harper made a brilliant save to deflect the ball over the bar.

With the game safe, Rafa predictably opted to rest his two key men with the game at San Siro in mind. Gerrard went off first, replaced by Kuyt. Torres followed not long after, making way for Crouch, and finally Pennant was brought off with Hyypia coming on. Bit of a strange one that, as Babel was on the bench and would have been a more logical replacement. I took that decision to mean Babel was being held back for Inter, where his pace could prove to be crucial.

The substitutions killed the game, as we lost our cutting edge and Newcastle began to have a bit more joy. That was largely due to the introduction of Obafeme Martin, who I can’t believe isn’t starting for them. Damien Duff contributed nothing, and although Owen was busy he was fed on scraps and didn’t threaten. Martins can make things happen on his own, and he almost produced the goal of the season when he chested the ball down, spun and sent a half volley from forty odd yards looping over Reina towards the goal. I thought it was going in, but it smacked the bar and bounced out.

It’s strange seeing Owen playing for them, I can’t get used to it. I know a lot of reds have a lot of animosity towards Michael, but I just can’t bring myself to think bad of him. He gave me too many great memories for me to wish ill on him. That said, this situation he’s in is of his own making, and I said on the forum recently that I have no sympathy for him.

But you know what, as I watched him forlornly chasing around Anfield, the venue of so many of his greatest goals and memories, I did feel sorry for him. I know it’s all his own fault for walking out on us, and for then not holding his nerve when Newcastle topped Liverpool’s bid for him, but I still felt bad for him. Maybe I’m just a soft touch, but I take no pleasure from seeing how his career has turned out.

He must wake up every day and curse the decision he made to quit Anfield. Or more likely, curse the fact he didn’t sit tight and turn down Newcastle’s offer when he was at Real Madrid. Had he done that, who knows how things would have turned out for him. He didn’t though.

Liverpool, Real Madrid, and then Newcastle. It’s like Brad Pitt leaving Jennifer Aniston for Angelina Jolie, Angelina kicking him out and him ending up with Jade Goody. Fat, thick, loud and annoying. Newcastle United and Jade have a lot in common actually.

The Toon are in big trouble. They’re dropping like a stone and Keegan hasn’t had the galvanising effect they hoped he’d have. Player for player they are a lot better than most at the bottom, but their back four is probably worse than anything outside of Derby County.

You’ve got to hand it to Newcastle, they always manage to bring in these random foreign defenders you’ve never heard of. I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve tuned in to match of the day to see some calamitous defending from some mysterious African or South American defender, only to then find out they’d paid £8m for him or something. It makes for great Saturday night entertainment though.

At least they don’t have to worry about their goalkeepers, as they’ve got a top keeper in Given and a good back up in the reliable Harper. He played very well in this game, and clearly he didn’t let what happened to him last season play on his mind. He made another great save late on from Kuyt, who’d latched onto a flick from Crouch. Kuyt was very lively when he came on, and he almost created a goal for Benayoun, but his diving header was deflected just wide by Taylor.

It was a comfortable enough win, as I’m sure most of us expected it would be. I don’t think we really got out of second gear, as we didn’t need to. Maybe we moved into third gear a couple of times with Gerrard and Torres combining, but overall it was pretty easy once we’d got the first goal.

We didn’t miss Mascherano, as Lucas did a steady job in his absence. But if there was any game where we wouldn’t need the little Argentine, this was surely it. Lucas and Alonso controlled the midfield, allowing Gerrard to concentrate solely on supporting Torres. That’s the main benefit of this formation, and if we had serious quality in the wide forward positions we’d have as good a midfield and attack as anybody.

Confidence has returned to a squad that was looking in turmoil a few short weeks ago. It’s too early to suggest we should start looking up the table rather than over our shoulders, especially as the blues are still level on points with us. But if we can despatch Reading next weekend then we can go into that tough run of games with a lot of confidence. We’ll know much more about where we stand once those gmes are out of the way.

Of course, there’s the small matter of Inter Milan first. It’s not our style to go away in Europe and defend, we always seem to go away and have a go. I expect us to try and catch Inter by surprise by attacking them early on, especially given their absentees in defence. If we can get the first goal, it will be plain sailing.

The way Gerrard and Torres are playing, you’ve got to fancy our chances of scoring over there.

Star man for me was Gerrard. He’s in brilliant form at the moment, and for the first time I’m starting to get the feeling he is growing into that number 10 role and knows what is required of him there. He’s played there a number of times under Benitez, but I’ve never been convinced he was comfortable in the role. He’d drop back into midfield too much, usually because he had struggled to get into the game as much as he likes.

Now though, he’s playing further forward, and he’s usually really close to Torres. He’s definitely becoming more comfortable with the position, and his understanding with Torres is growing all the time as well. It’s an exciting combination, and there won’t be a team in Europe that isn’t wary about facing those two.


Team: Reina; Arbeloa, Caragher, Skrtel, Riise; Lucas, Alonso; Pennant (Hyypia), Gerrard (Kuyt), Benayoun; Torres (Crouch):