Liverpool 1 Blackburn Rovers 0 (Prem) - Oct 15 2005

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 1 Blackburn Rovers 0

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Djibril Cisse Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 15 Oct 2005 Star Man - Momo Sissoko

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

He’s been in the news all week, not always for reasons he’d want, but Djibril Cisse ensured he’d be making positive headlines with the only goal as the reds edged out Blackburn in a tense encounter at Anfield. The scoreline flattered the ten man visitors, and with better finishing the game would have been over by half time.

Cisse was as guilty as anyone, missing several good opportunities before finally hitting the target with a crisp low shot with fifteen minutes remaining. Substitute Fernando Morientes then spurned a hat-trick of clear chances as the reds’ profligacy in front goal continued. It’s a worry that of the five goals we’ve managed in the Premiership, three have come from set plays, one from the penalty spot and only Luis Garcia’s strike at Birmingham has come from open play.

One of the main criticisms of the reds this season has been the lack of service to the strikers from wide areas. Rafa Benitez spoke this week of how he has been working on ways to rectify that problem, and his team selection for this game was certainly designed to get more quality in from out wide. With no natural wide midfielders, Benitez opted for three centre halves and wingbacks. Sami Hyypia was left out completely, perhaps due to injury or maybe because of his horror show against Chelsea. No doubt we’ll find out soon enough.

It’s fair to say I wasn’t exactly overjoyed when I heard Carragher would be joined in a back three by Josemi and Traore. It shows the lack of depth we have in the squad at centre half that Josemi is being used there, but in fairness I thought he actually did ok. The formation worked well enough defensively, as Pepe reina was untroubled for ninety minutes.

In terms of our attacking play, the new system yielded mixed results. Finnan got forward well on the right and linked up with Sissoko to good effect, but I didn't think the Warnock / Zenden combo on the left side was quite as effective. Warnock was his usual steady self, and Zenden looked a lot more comfortable playing one the left of a central midfield three, but the right flank offered more in the way of delivery into the box, at least in the first half anyway.

We certainly managed to get a lot more crosses in against Rovers than we have done recently, but Cisse was usually the one on the end of them rather than Crouch. Cisse had two decent headed chances in the first half, one good effort which went just over, and another which he flashed wide when he probably should have scored. Carragher had two half chances from set pieces too as the reds improvement in delivery from the flanks caused Rovers plenty of problems. A lot of the service from wide was coming from set pieces, but there was also a lot more crosses from open play than we've seen of late.

Crouch showed his usual array of nice touches, clever flicks and good knock downs, but one shot on the half volley which went well over was the sum total of his attempts at goal in the first half. He’s doing well, and I just hope he doesn’t let the lack of goals and the ridiculous treatment he got from the Ing-er-land morons affect his confidence. It’s only a matter of time before he gets off the mark, and when he does he could go on the kind of run he did last season for Southampton.

The partnership with Cisse didn’t exactly click perfectly, but both looked happier playing as a front pair and it’s definitely something that I hope Benitez perseveres with. Crouch looked a little tired to me, dare I say it, he looked a bit 'leggy'. I was disappointed to see him come off, but Rafa maybe had half an eye on the Champions League game in Belgium this week.

As for Cisse, well the jury is definitely still out on him, and there are still some very obvious flaws in his game. However, he is a goal threat and when he plays he usually gets chances. He can run, and he can strike a ball extremely well. If he's left to just get on with that and not do too much else then Cisse can be effective. If he's asked to do other things, then he will probably be found wanting.

With Crouch, or even Morientes alongside him to do the 'clever' work, Cisse can be allowed to just concentrate on running and shooting. Long term he may not have a future here, as its clear Benitez doesn't fancy him. But in the short term we need him right now, because otherwise where are the goals going to come from? He deserves a chance to prove himself.

He was the matchwinner here, despite not having the greatest of games. It was his pace which saw Rovers reduced to ten men when some guy who's name I'm not even going to attempt to spell brought him down on the edge of the box and was given his walking papers. Initially the ref pointed to the penalty spot, but the linesman rightly informed him the foul took place outside the box.

Had we got a penalty, I'd have been happy for the defender to only receive a yellow. In that situation, I always feel a penalty is suitable punishment for the crime. When it's outside the box and its the last man however, he has to go. As soon as it was clear we weren't getting a penalty, then a red card was the only fair outcome. That may not be the letter of the law, but as far as I'm concerned it should be.

Of course, 'Useless' got his skids in a twist over it and spent the rest of the game bouncing around on the touchline like Gordon Strachan on speed. Just like his little poodle on the pitch, Robbie Savage, Hughes disputed EVERY single decision that went against them after that.

It went on all game, and eventually late in the second half Pako had clearly had enough and leapt to his feet to mock Hughes. I can't really describe what he did, but he was sort of flinging his arms up in the air and taking the piss out of 'Useless'. It was well funny seeing little Pako lose his rag like that. Hughes had steam coming out of his ears!

The sending off didn't change the game too much in truth. Blackburn came to defend in numbers and be compact. If they could sneak something on the break, that would be a bonus. The sending off meant they had to sacrifice Dickov, but let's face it he's shit anyway. Almost as shit as Shefki Kuqi. This fella just isn't a footballer. He's just a big barrell chested bruiser who stomps around chasing everything (he's hard working if nothing else I have to give him that) but who possesses all the finesse of an inebriated blind rhino. Maybe I'm being harsh as this is the first time I've really watched him and perhaps he's usually better than this. He just didn't look like a footballer to me.

It's strange how some team's ethos and personality can be summed up by a single player. Henry is the embodiement of Arsenal, arrogant, moody, but devastingly, quick, incisive and great to watch when he's on his game. Then you have Drogba and Chelsea. Snidey, cheating, arrogant, spiteful, cheating, snidey, despicable, cheating.. well you get the picture. Kuqi is a perfect representation of his Blackburn team. Bruising, physical and not much in the way of skill.

All the sending off did was ensure that our back three had one less snarling, dirty little shitbag to worry about. David Bentley did his best to fill the void left by Dickov, and one disgusting late tackle by the on loan Gooner on Zenden after the break would have made the verically challenged Scot very proud indeed. Even Dickov himself couldn't have topped that one for snideyness.

So as I say, the red card didn't alter Blackburn's attitude, as they are naturally very defensive anyway. Nevertheless, they were down to ten and pyschologically that had to have been a blow. It almost got worse for them within seconds when Zenden's beautifully struck free kick hit the bar. The strike was perfect and deserved a goal. The Dutchman has been fairly anonymous in most of the games he's played, and at least we knew he was on the pitch in the first half of this game. That in itself is an improvement, but in the second half he disappeared again once he was moved back to the left wing.

That switch came about because Rafa opted to revert to 4-4-2. Josemi was replaced by Garcia, having had a relatively comfortable afternoon with no major misadventure. I thought he started a bit dodgy, but settled down and did pretty well overall. He did his best to push on and allow Finnan to play higher up the pitch, and he even put in a few decent crosses himself.

As seems to be customary these days, the reds were denied a blatant penatly when Warnock beat Tugay to Zenden's pass and was caught by the Turk. Referee Mark Halsey had a great view but waved it away. Interestingly, Hughes didn't have anything to say about that incident afterwards.

Cisse then missed a great chance when he was well set up by Garcia, but he dragged his shot wide. It was looking like being one of those days for Cisse, as he also saw a header well tipped over by Friedel. After the shot which went wide, Morientes appeared on the touchline ready to come on. Cisse must have feared the worst, especially after missing such a good chance. Benitez kept faith in him though, and it was Crouch who was withdrawn.

Benitez made his final change as Warnock made way for Riise. It was beginning to look like a goal would never come, and the Blackburn fans were starting to get cocky. I've never really had any issue with them before, they're a pretty inoffensive bunch, but what was the need for them to taunt Cisse about the broken leg he sustained at Ewood last year?

It's not as though Cisse is a 'Robbie Savage' type player who opposing fans love to hate. His only crime was outpacing one of their defenders and then having the temerity to be brought down. The chants of "Cisse hows yer leg" were out of order. Thankfully, after Zenden was chopped down outside the box, Djibril showed the neanderthal Rovers fans that his leg is just fine and dandy by smashing one in from 25 yards.

Understandably, he ran straight to the away section to ram their taunts back down their throats. He was perhaps lucky to escape a caution, but I'm sure he would have felt it was worth it had the ref produced a card. More significantly, he then made a point of going over to Benitez and shaking his hand.

That showed a lot of class from Djibril I thought. He knows the club have tried to offload him. He knows Rafa isn't convinced by him and he could have used that goal as a way of saying 'fuck you, try leaving me out now'. That wouldn't have been the smartest thing to do of course, but when the adrenelin is flowing footballers tend to do daft things.

I doubt if many would have been surprised had he chose to do something like that. He can come across as petulant, arrogant even, the way he waves his arms and berates his team-mates, or the way he'll throw his arms up in the air and stop playing when he doesn't get a decision.

He's a complex character though is Cisse. He says all the right things, but then his body language on the field says all the wrong things. Going over to Rafa and shaking his hand was a smart thing to do, and a mature thing to do. It was nice to see, especially after what he was reported to have said whilst on international duty.

Morientes should have wrapped up the win with ten minutes left when Finnan skipped past Gray and delivered a great ball into the box. Nando seemed to lose the flight of it however, and it just hit him and rolled harmlessly away from goal. It was a real sitter, but it wasn't to be his last of the day.

A trademark thunderbolt from Riise should also have resulted in a goal for Morientes as Friedel spilled the ball into his path. This time Nando did make proper contact but he put the ball just wide. It sums up how things are going for him at the moment.

Right at the death he missed a third great chance when he headed over following a left wing cross. He must be feeling that he is cursed. I'm still of the opinion that he's a class act who will come good, but I also keep thinking back to Jari Litmanen, another world class talent who saw very little go right for him after joining the reds. Morientes needs his luck to change, and fast.

Blackburn offered little threat even when they fell behind and had to come out and have a go. However, it was still a nervy ending to the game, largely due to the antics of Traore. He still hasn't learned that sometimes its ok to just twat the ball into the crowd and out of harms way.

One embarrassing incident where he lost possession trying to do the same type of turn which saw him put through his own net at Burnley had the Paddock and Main Stand on its feet in fury. Luckily Carragher was on hand to tidy it up. Minutes later Traore made another mess of things when he hesitated instead of clearing, and then missed his kick.

Djimi was terrific for most of last season, but this year his form hasn't been as good and the errors are starting to creep back in. He needs to get back to basics and stop trying to be friggin Pele. He needs to be more like Carragher and less like Rio Ferdinand. Cut out the risks and just defend properly.

But all in all, we got the three points and that was the only thing that mattered. After the slow start we've had, points are now more important than performances until we start climbing the table. I didn't think the display was as bad as some have suggested, although obviously there is a lot of room for imporvement.

The positives were the continued good form of Alonso, who has played really well the last few games. He was always looking for the ball, used it very well and kept us going when others seemed to be losing belief. Carragher was excellent as usual, and I thought Finnan had a very good game as well.

Star Man yet again though for me was Momo Sissoko. He was a bit patchy early on, doing some good things but also giving the ball away quite a bit. As the game wore on he got better and better though, especially after the switch to 4-4-2. His energy and drive has been a real plus for us this season, and he's been our best player so far by a mile. He's quick and covers so much ground to get his tackles in. He also managed to get through this game without a yellow card, which was nice.

In a few months time, we won't look back on this game and remember the performance, but we will look at the scoreline and know we got three points. It'd be nice to see us play better, but confidence probably isn't too high at the moment as we're strugling to score. At least we created lots of chances in this game. Eventually they have to start going in.


Team: Reina; Josemi (Garcia), Carragher, Traore; Finnan, Sissoko, Alonso, Zenden, Warnock (Riise); Cisse, Crouch (Morientes):