Man City 0 Liverpool 1 - Prem (Nov 26 2005)

[TLW]

Man City 0 LIVERPOOL 1

Report by Peter Schulz at the City of Manchester Stadium

Scorer(s) - John Arne Riise Half Time - 0-0 Venue - City of Manchester Stadium Date - Sat 26 Nov 2005 Star Man - Jamie Carragher

 

 

 

 

It was a good day on the pitch for Liverpool as the team picked up 3 deserved points at the City of Manchester Stadium. But afterwards the talk was of how a few mindless idiots had tarnished the good name of Liverpool Football Club and its supporters by disrespecting the minute’s silence for Manchester United and Northern Ireland legend George Best.

Surely, the supporters of Liverpool FC should know better than to ruin the moment for everyone else? Whoever shouted “Manc twat” could certainly do with a lesson in manners. How can we ever complain about Hillsborough, and recently Michael Shields, chants from fans of other clubs, when we can’t keep our mouths shut for 15 seconds – let alone 60 – to respect one of the greatest players to have graced a football pitch?

It does make you wonder why some people watch football when they can’t appreciate its beauty and respect its finest players. George Best should be remembered by football fans everywhere as the skillfull player he was, not the vegetable we saw in the days leading up to his passing away. “I did everything I set out to do. It’s true, my friend, my life was a great life” he said in an interview shortly before his death.

The actions of a few reds left this naïve and romantic Liverpool supporter feeling downbeat on an afternoon when the team once again displayed the qualities that helped win us the European Cup last season. It is now 6 games without a goal conceded and this by a team that, according to some, has no decent fullbacks and is in desperate need of a new central defender. Oh and whose goalkeeper looks decidedly dodgy.

Not bad at all.

It did, however, also emphasise the current weaknesses, which we’ve gone over so many times already. We lack width. It was particularly obvious in a rather poor and uneventful first half. Every time we had the chance to try and get to the byline, we moved inside. Gerrard did it continually as did Finnan and when finally the Irishman did make the overlapping runs, he was left ignored.

Time and again it made our play narrow and with no particular movement up front – as touched upon in the Betis report – by neither Crouch nor the frustratingly unintelligent Cisse, we lacked imagination.

Defensively, we were very solid throughout with only Vassell’s headed chance in the first half which was typical of our away performances this season. Without having seen reactions on tv I imagine Benitez will have been talking about how we “controlled the game”. Our only chance fell to Gerrard not long before half time, when the skipper placed the ball just wide of David James’ far post.

I don’t know what Benitez said in the dressing room at half time but it worked. Leaving Cisse on until Kewell had completed his warm-up Benitez knew something had to change. The Australian changed the game completely, or the game changed at the time of his introduction at least. He did everything Cisse hadn’t done. He made himself available for passes and looked to link up with the midfield and Crouch at every given opportunity and it kick started the reds notably.

Suddenly, we looked in complete control and the reward came when Riise, who had looked very poor up to this point, was sent through by Gerrard and hammered it into the net after 61 minutes. A quality effort by the Norwegian.

From then on Liverpool did what Liverpool do best. Sit back and let Manchester City try and pass their way through. They never looked remotely like succeeding, in fact the reds were a lot closer to a second than the blues were to an equaliser. It was only in the dying minutes when a couple of set pieces, one of them strangely given away by Pepe Reina, saw Manchester City bring everyone forward.

It wasn’t enough as Liverpool defended stoutly and clung on to record the 4th straight Premiership win. Things are looking up, but there’s still room for improvement. Wins from the next few games will see us move into a comfortable position. Knowing Liverpool, no doubt we’ll lose at Sunderland on Wednesday, however….


Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Warnock; Gerrard, Sissoko, Hamann, Riise (Garcia); Cisse (Kewell), Crouch (Morientes):