LIVERPOOL 1 SUNDERLAND 1
MATCH FACTS SCORER(S) MICHAEL OWEN
HALF TIME 1-0
VENUE ANFIELD
DATE SAT 23 SEP 2000
STAR MAN MICHAEL OWEN
Question. You begin the game with a combination of Owen and Heskey and up front. After about ten minutes or so, Heskey is forced to come off through injury. On the subs bench you have Robbie Fowler (who although lacking sharpness, must be pretty fit or he wouldn't be on the bench in the first place, would he?) and Danny Murphy. Who do you bring on? Well if you were to any one of the 40 odd thousand fans in the crowd you would get a unanimous vote for the introduction of Fowler. So why did Houllier leave Robbie collecting splinters in his arse on the bench whilst Murphy was sent to partner Owen? Can all of the fans be wrong?
As if that wasn't bad enough, the rest of the team show that there is not a single brain amongst them, by continuing to hit high balls towards the strikers. Heskey may have gone off to be replaced by Murphy, but obviously no-one told the rest of the team, as poor old Danny was left valiantly trying to win headers against huge defenders. Liverpool's midfield offered nothing in the way of creativity - the promising Bernard Diomede apart - and they also failed to offer sufficient protection to the defence.
Kevin PhillipsÈ goal should have been avoided. Hamann somehow allowed Phillips to run past him when it would have been easier to trip him up. Say what you like about Carragher but he would have stopped Phillips one way or another. And what of our keeper? Westerveld was caught on the back foot and couldn't get down to make the save. I wouldn't go as far as to say the goal was Westerveld's fault, as he was obviously surprised with how early Phillips took the shot, but nevertheless, he should have done better.
Liverpool's only route back into the game seemed to be via the set pieces of Christian Ziege, who on this evidence is the left footed equivalent of David Beckham. The ball he provided for the equaliser was terrific, but was topped by the quality of the finish from Michael Owen. Owen was so sharp in this game he could have cut himself, but sadly he was starved of service. Just how many goals would this lad score in a good, attacking side? The lad has admitted to having weaknesses in his game, such as his left foot and heading, but this season that's two headers he's scored, good ones too, and he also bagged a pair of left footers at the Dell. Obviously he's been doing extra work in training. Maybe some of his team-mates should follow his example. Learning to pass to feet would be a start, instead of the ‚WimbledonesqueÈ tactics we saw today.
When was the last time you saw a Liverpool side who's best hope of scoring was from set pieces? We were poor, yet ironically we should have claimed all three points, as Diomede's brilliant overhead kick was later proved to have crossed the line, but let's be honest, we didn't do enough to deserve three points did we?
TEAM: Sander Westerveld; Rigobert Song, Markus Babbel, Stephane Henchoz, Christian Ziege; Nick Barmby, Dietmar Hamann (Steven Gerrard), Jamie Carragher, Bernard Diomede (Robbie Fowler); Michael Owen, Emile Heskey (Danny Murphy):
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