Liverpool 1 Everton 0 - Prem (Mar 30 2008)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 1 Everton 0

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Fernando Torres Half Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 30 March 2008 Star Man – Steven Gerrard

 

 

 

Whilst it’s always satisfying to put one over on the blues with a league double, once again I found myself feeling more than a little unfulfilled at the final whistle. Yes, we won, and the three points are vital, but this was a team that were there for the taking, and once again we let them off the hook.

Beating them isn’t enough, I want to see us absolutely rip them to shreds and embarrass them by banging in a bagful of goals. For a time during the first half, I thought it might happen, only to be let down as we went into a defensive shell after the break and allowed them back into the game.

Some credit for that goes to Everton, I thought they dug in and give it a good go in the second half, but the lack of attacking options available to them made it fairly comfortable for us at the back. Having said that though, it would only have taken a set piece or freak goal to make us pay for our lethargy, and we’d have only had ourselves to blame.

I know I’m sounding like a right moaning git, but it really pissed me off the way we let them off the hook. In the first half we were brilliant. We were snapping into tackles, we were first to every ball and Torres absolutely terrorised them. Any time the ball went near him they didn’t know how to cope. Gerrard was making his presence felt, and Babel was looking lively down the left.

We scored one, hit the post, and wasted several other good openings. And then the half time whistle went and we simply stopped playing. Maybe they changed their tactics and we found it more difficult, but to me it looked like it was us who changed our tactics. We seemed to drop 15 yards deeper all over the park, and we allowed them to get a foothold in the game.

Up until the final third, I thought they played pretty well. They never had us under the cosh as such, as Pepe had little to do, but they did have enough of the ball to make me uncomfortable, and any time there was a set piece I feared the worst. It needn’t have been like that though. In the first half we were so superior to them it made a mockery of the league table and the ‘battle for fourth’.

Torres - who else - gave us an early lead, and Anfield was (literally) bouncing. It seems that around this time of every year we get a new song that starts to take off, and the Torres one is this year’s anthem. Hopefully we’ll be bouncing away in Moscow next month. The sheer volume of it at Anfield after his goal was spine tingling, and for the next ten or fifteen minutes or so I was beginning to think we’d rip them to pieces. The atmosphere was great all afternoon, but if we’d managed to take them to the cleaners it would have been something else entirely. Anothe goal at that point and maybe we would have.

Gerrard had a chance to add a quick second after Torres had been scythed down on the edge of the box by Carsley. Howard Webb - who was exceptional throughout -produced a yellow card but it could quite easily have been red given that Carsley went over the ball and his studs went right into Torres’s shin. It was a carbon copy of a challenge made by Hibbert on Garcia a couple of years ago, you remember, the one where Stubbs & co accused Luis of diving? No doubt Torres would have had the same accusation levelled at him had the big nosed prick still been an Everton player.

The challenge was similar to the one that sidelined Eduardo, the main difference being thankfully Torres’ foot wasn’t stuck in the turf as contact was made. That said, at the time I didn’t think it was a red and even now a case can be made for it only being a yellow. Tackles like that are common place, and most of the time the player stays on the field. Carsley continued to persistently foul throughout though, and he was rarely more than five yards away from the refs side all afternoon. Howard Webb isn’t Steve Bennett however, as he’s not an egomaniac and he possesses common sense.

It makes it all the more galling to think that Webb was supposed to be taking charge of the game last weekend before he was strangely ‘rested’. I say rested, as that was the reason given, but strangely he took charge of a match the day before. We got lumbered with ‘Homer’ Bennett and the rest is now history. Webb’s performance was so uncontroversial that not even the blues could blame him for this defeat.

Everton were struggling to batton down the hatches in the first half. Torres was beating Jagielka in the air and on the floor, whilst Babel was posing considerable problems for the human rat Tony Hibbert down the left. We put some great balls into the box but too often the player on the end of them -usually Babel or Kuyt - just failed to get there. Kuyt had a shot blocked after good set up play from Torres, and he forced a save from Howard with the rebound. He also shot wide after more good work by Torres.

The closest we came to a second was a brilliant volley from Gerrard that bounced back off the post. Given the usual gauntlet of abuse he took from the blues it would have been sweet for him to score, especially if rumours of him being ready to unveil an “I’m the Daddy” t shirt were true.

My cousin was sat in the Main Stand, on the very end seat next to their fans, and he reckons the only songs that came from their end all day were about us. “Murderers” “The Baby’s Not yours” “Michael Shields how wide is your arse”.. the list goes on. Thing is, they sing these things every week, not just when they’re playing us.

We’ve not even attempted to hit back at them until now, but this was the day where the Kop clearly decided they’d had enough. “Joleon Lescott - the Elephant Man” is a little cruel perhaps, but it’s not in the same league as the Gerrard stuff. Then there’s Yakubu. “You’re just a fat Purple Aki” and “Feed the Yak and he’ll get fat”. Again, cruel and unnecessary even given that we’ve got no reason to have a problem withYakubu, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary and you worse at most games around the country. I’d rather we hadn’t chanted these things, if only because it’s given them the ammunition to laughably attempt to take some sort of moral high ground. But they were hardly ‘shameful’ chants.

They’ve got some nerve though having a go at us given how their fans have conducted themselves in derbies for years now. The one thing I do agree with is that the treatment allegedly dished out to Phil Neville was bang out of order. There are claims he was spat at and punched in the back as he prepared to take a throw in. If that’s true then it’s a disgrace.

Why would anyone feel that level of hatred for Phil Neville? Is he even significant enough to feel strongly about? He’s harmless, and doesn’t deserve the stick he gets from us. He’s never slagged us off the way his brother has, he’s not very good, and he’s helped us out in quite a few derbies. What’s to hate? I just don’t get it, and the reaction towards him from our fans whenever he went over to take a throw in was baffling and embarrassing. Leave that kind of behaviour to them, it doesn’t become us.

Leaving all the ‘unsavoury’ stuff aside, the visiting Everton fans were taunted with a number of quality piss take songs, that they simply have no answer to. They reveal a banner ‘welcoming Liverpool supporters to Merseyside’, and we respond with ‘Fuck off to Kirkby, the City’s all ours”. Then there’s “We’re all going to Moscow, you’re all going to Tesco”. What can they say to that? Nothing, so they revert to ‘Murderers’ ‘Michael Shields’ etc

Of course we’ve got our share of knobs too. I haven’t heard it myself, but if reports of a chant about Carsley’s kid are true then that really does make me feel sick. Unlike the blues, it’s only a minority with us at the moment, and I pray it stays that way because the day I hear our supporters singing vile filth like that at the same volume as the blues chant about Gerrard, that’s the day I give it all up.

But back to the football, and at half time I was definitely a little worried. We’d been so comfortable and so muc h in control in that first half, yet we only had one goal to show for it and it made me nervous. I didn’t think we’d come out and play as badly as we did do though, I was more nervous that we’d continue to create chances and waste them. I didn’t think we’d come out and hardly create any more chances, but that’s what happened.

The second half was shit. We dropped deeper and deeper and stopped doing what we’d done so well in the first half. Why did that happen? I have no idea. It could have been Rafa instructing the players to keep it tight and make sure they don’t give away what they have, but equally it could just have been the players taking their foot off the pedal.

I think our main problem was the centre of midfield. We missed Mascherano desperately. Lucas was taking too long on the ball and regularly got caught in possession. The speed of the game was to much for him at times, but more surprisingly it was happening to Alonso too. I thought they were both poor, especially after the break, and that was why we weren’t ‘controlling the game’ the way we should have been.

It meant Torres was starved of service, and Gerrard was having to go looking for the ball more than he should have had to. I wrote on the blog on Friday that I’d have played Crouch rather than Lucas, and gone with a 4-4-2. It didn’t surprise me that Rafa chose not to do that, but I do think with half an hour or so left he should have made that change.

Lucas was struggling, whereas Gerrard was having a great game and was really putting himself about. He needed to be more in the thick of the battle though rather than being stranded on the outskirts. I’d have dropped him in with Alonso and got Crouch up there to help Torres. From what I’ve seen, I honestly don’t think Alonso likes playing with Lucas. They get in each others way far too much and there’s no understading there yet.

It hurt us in that second half, and it allowed Everton to get a foothold in the game. Given the number of forward players unavailable for them, I think they did as well as they could have. Moyes made the only changes he could do, but it was all dependant on Yakubu doing something. He did nothing because Hyypia and Skrtel were both outstanding.

Benitez once again had moved Carragher to right back, which isn’t something I’d generally agree with. In this case though, he surely did it to combat the threat of Lescott? He’s Everton’s best player in my opinion, and he gave us a lot of trouble at Goodison by charging froward from left back. By using Kuyt and Carragher on that side, we nullified that threat completely. Carra didn’t lose out in any duel all afternoon and Dirk once again simply never stopped running.

With three of our back four in such commanding form, that only left Riise for Everton to try and expose. They couldn’t do it, because he was rock solid at the back and very good going forward (in the 1st half anyway). When he plays like this Riise is a great option to have, the problem is these performances haven’t come regularly enough in the past couple of seasons.

The only sniff of a chance I can remember them having is an Osman header from a set piece that was narrowly wide. That’s how easily it can all go tits up though if you sit on a one goal lead. Had Osman’s header been the other side of the post, this could have been two more points thrown away and it would arguably have put Everton in the driving seat to finish fourth. We go to Arsenal next week whilst they host Derby. A draw here, and they could have gone above us next week.

That’s why I had mixed feelings at full time. I was delighted we got the points, but more than a little disappointed at how we went about it. I guess I just want to see us go for the jugular and try to humiliate them. They were there for the taking here, and we let them off the hook.

It’s not a big deal as we held on, and if it means we have kept something back for the trip to Arsenal on Wednesday then great. It’s just that it’s a long, long time since that ‘Rush scored one, Rush scored two, Rush scored three and Rush scored four’ match and I’d like us to produce another of those results some time soon.

Star man for me was Gerrard. He is often accused of going into his shell when we play the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and the Mancs, but there’s something about derby games that brings out the beast in him. He’s always up for these games, sometimes too much so, but I love the Steven Gerrard that faces Everton. It’s how I’d like to see him approach every game, as when he’s a mean bastard like this he’s very intimidating.

He crunched Lescott by the touchline with a perfectly timed challenge, and then there were two brilliant tackles on Jagielka in the space of a few seconds. Jagielka’s reaction was priceless, he looked to the referee and I thought he was gonna cry. Old school Gerrard that was, and I love to see it. It set the tone for our first half performance, and it wasn’t his fault we were poor after the break as he continued to do his bit. He went close to a spectacular strike right at the end, which would have really capped a great day for him.

Skrtel and Hyypia ran him close, they were both brilliant and didn’t give ‘the Yak’ a sniff of anything all afternoon. One tackle from Hyypia in the penalty area was sublime, whilst the dive from Yakubu was ridiculous. ‘Dees cheatin foreigners’ eh Stubbsy?

A five point cushion looks good at the moment, but this is far from over and next weekend it could easily be down to just two points again if results go the way they usually would in those fixtures. Everton have four of their last six games at home, whilst we have only two.

This win was crucial, but we can’t fall into the trap of thinking it’s over because it can turn around very quickly, especially as we have the distraction of the Champions League. Hopefully we’ll have that distraction for a number of weeks yet, and at least we’ll have a fresh Mascherano chomping at the bit on Wednesday night.


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