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Liverpool 1 Bolton 1 (Prem) Jan 1 2002
Scorer(s) - Steven Gerrard
Half Time - 0-0
Venue - Anfield
Date - Tue 1 Jan 2002
Star Man - Jerzy Dudek
Report by Dave Usher at Anfield
No Jari = No creativity. I could go into a detailed report about what's going wrong right now, but it's the first day of a new year and I really don't feel like depressing myself (not to mention all of you) by dwelling on what was a totally uninspiring performance.
Until GH and Thommo finally realise that we are way too predictable and simply need to have the supremely talented Litmanen in the side almost every week, games like this will continue to be the norm rather than the exception. Our home record isn't actually that bad, but the fact is that the majority of games at Anfield are tight, tense, nervous affairs and we seem incapable of winning games comfortably.
Playing Jari behind two strikers would go a long way towards changing that, but sadly I don't think we will ever see it, and that is a scandal. Throwing Jari on for the last five minutes of this game was an insult to the man. If I was Jari I'd have been tempted to tell Thommo to go fuck himself.
The guy plays out of his skin, and scores, yet still finds himself dropped for the next game in favour of Heskey. He comes on in that game and inspires his team to rally and earn a point, and he still finds himself back on the bench. Then when it all goes pear shaped again they send him on for five minutes hoping he'll rescue us. He deserves better. We deserve better.
To sum up the game, we were shit, so were they, and if it hadn't been for another excellent display by Jerzy we could have even lost. Hamann played well, and Stevie G was decent, but other than that we were very flat indeed. We've failed to beat all three newly promoted sides this season, and Bolton have now taken four points of us. The title is there for the taking, but the management are showing far too much caution. He who dares wins, so for fucks sake start playing Jari before its too late.
TEAM: Jerzy Dudek; Stephen Wright, Stephane Henchoz, Sami Hyypia, John Arne Riise; Vladimir Smicer (Nicolas Anelka), Steven Gerrard, Didi Hamann, Patrik Berger (Jari Litmanen), Michael Owen, Emile Heskey:
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