Liverpool 5 Fulham 1 - Prem (Mar 15 2006)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 5 Fulham 1

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Robbie Fowler, Michael Brown O.G., Fernando Morientes, Peter Crouch, Stephen Warnock Half Time - 2-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Wed 15 Mar 2006 Star Man - Didi Hamann

 

 

 

Thirteen years ago Fulham were the opponents as a young Robbie Fowler announced his arrival onto the first team stage with a smart finish in a comfortable Liverpool win. He then hit five the next time he faced them, so it was perhaps inevitable that Chris Coleman’s side would be the first victims of the ‘second coming’, as the reds went goal crazy at Anfield.

Fowler had one clear chance in this game, and he took it. No surprise, as he’s buried virtually every other clear chance he’s had since he came back. This time his celebration wasn’t cut short by a linesman, and he now lies level with Kenny Dalglish in the all time Liverpool goalscorers chart. I’m sure for a long time Fowler thought that was never going to happen, but now that he’s been handed this opportunity there’s no reason why he can’t continue scoring goals for Liverpool for a few more years.

He’s getting fitter all the time, and against Fulham he looked very sharp indeed. He’s played well in other games, most notably at home to Arsenal, but this was his best display yet. His ability to find space and link up with team-mates really caught the eye, especially in the first half when he was outstanding.

Rafa had perhaps surprisingly opted to pair Robbie with the under pressure Fernando Morientes. On paper, Morientes appears to be the least suitable partner for Fowler. I could see Robbie playing well off Crouch, feeding on the knockdowns and lay offs etc, and I could even see him forming a decent pairing with Cisse as Robbie’s vision and ability to drop deep would compliment Cisse’s pace. Robbie and Nando though, they just seem a little too similar in style to me.

Rafa clearly thinks there is something there though, as Robbie has spent much more playing time alongside Morientes than any of the others. In truth, they do seem to link up quite well and appear to be on the same wavelength, it’s just the lack of pace that worries me.

We started well, and after a long spell of pressure in which a few chances came and went and we had the obligatory goal disallowed for offside, Robbie’s moment finally arrived. A corner from the left was flicked on by Garcia, and Fowler had pulled away on the back post into space and was able to plant a header past his good mate Tony Warner.

It was a great moment, and one which has been a long time coming. A sense of delight and relief swept over the stadium, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one sat there thinking we would now go on to add a few more. Fulham are the ideal team to face in these circumstances. They aren’t the kind of team who will sit back and try and make things difficult. They are always looking to attack, and play an adventurous 4-2-3-1 formation (much like Benfica used to great effect last week). There are a lot of things to admire in the way they approach the game, but defending is not one of them.

They looked wide open at times, and Garcia and Morientes had both had good chances to score before Robbie did. Fulham's strength undoubtedly lies in their attacking play, but our strength is our defensive solidity. I believe the last time we conceded a league goal at home was in October against Chelsea, so Fulham equalising wasn’t really an option. Yet they did, and it was a very well worked goal too, even if it did come via a mistake from Daniel Agger.

The young Dane attempted to pick out Gerrard in the middle of the park, but his pass was ever so slightly wayward and Gerrard was caught on his heels a bit. Fulham swiftly worked the ball through to Collins John who advanced on Reina and slid a shot through the keepers legs.

Agger’s pass wasn’t THAT bad, but it gave us a big problem because Traore had gone forward on an overlap meaning the left side of our defence was wide open. That wasn’t Djimi’s fault at all, and it was good to see him looking to get forward whenever he could. He even put in a couple of scorching crosses, and threw in a couple of nutmegs too.

This was Traore’s best game in some time, and it came against a side who have a long standing interest in him. Fulham need a left back desperately, and they have also been tracking Stevie Warnock for a while. They have Wayne Bridge at the moment, but will be in the market for someone in the summer and Traore didn’t do himself any harm with this display.

The equaliser stunned Anfield, and was met with almost complete silence. Fulham only brought a couple of hundred fans, and you could barely hear them when the goal went in. Given how low the confidence must be in our squad at the moment, that goal could have given us a real problem, but thankfully it seemed to just make the side more determined.

Hamann was proving to be the driving force, covering acres whilst chasing and harrying the Fulham players into mistakes, and using the ball brilliantly when he had it. Didi was the best player on the park all night, and he needed to be as Gerrard had one of his quieter games.

The goal which restored the lead was very well worked indeed. It was a shame that it was a Fulham player who put it in the net, as Morientes was waiting for the simplest of tap ins had Michael Brown not got there first. Fowler did brilliantly in the build up, delaying the pass to Kewell until exactly the right moment. Kewell’s cross was perfect too, and Nando must have been licking his lips in anticipation until Brown nipped in before him. Still, we’d take any goal we could get at that stage, it didn't matter who put the ball in the net.

The second half didn’t start too well. We were a bit sloppy, and were struggling to kill Fulham off. It was looking like being one of those games where we are left protecting a one goal advantage and things get more and more edgy as time ticks away.

Garcia almost gave us some some breathing space with an absolutely gorgeous curling shot from the corner of the box which hit the angle of post and bar. It was such a wonderful strike it deserved a goal, and Luis' performance was much improved on what we have seen of late.

As our nerves began to show, Fulham began to get into the game a lot more, and hit the post through a Zat Knight header. I thought Reina had it covered anyway, but it was a sign of how fragile our one goal lead was and that it wouldn’t take much for it to be wiped out again. We really needed that third goal, and Rafa decided to make a change in order to get it.

When Cisse was stood on the touchline waiting to come on, I turned to the fella next to me and said: “I hope for Rafa’s sake he’s taking off Morientes and not Robbie, otherwise this won’t be pleasant” The boos which greeted the sight of the number 11 on the fourth officials board confirmed those fears, and it wasn’t pleasant at all.

Last week the fans were absolutely magnificent, prompting Benitez and Alonso to declare us the best in the world. Morientes too has often spoken of his admiration for the Anfield crowd. I wonder what they were all thinking as the boos reverberated around the stadium as Fowler went off?

It was a slight on Benitez, but what concerned me more was how Morientes must have felt. He’s low enough on confidence as it is, and he must have felt like shite when he heard that. He knew who those jeers were aimed at, and it had to hurt. I didn't agree with the decision either, but booing was not going to do anyone any good.

I wouldn’t exactly say I felt sorry for Morientes, as I’d happily stand in the centre circle and have 40,000 people boo me if I could have his weekly pay packet, but I did want him to score more than ever, just for his own confidence and to ram the boo’s back down their throats.

Within a couple of minutes he had done just that following brilliant play by Gerrard and a header by Cisse which was saved and fell perfectly at his feet a couple of yards out. It was a chance even Nando couldn’t miss, but his celebration was hardly joyous. He looked like he didn’t want to celebrate in front of the Kop, and I don’t blame him to be honest.

“Mor Mor Mor, Morientes Morientes” was the chant. Many of those chanting it were booing him only a couple of minutes earlier.

When he was subbed a bit later, he was given a warm round of applause but didn’t seem to want to acknowledge it. Again, I can’t really blame him, although I would say that not all of us booed and maybe he should remember that. Under the circumstances though I can understand him being pissed off.

Crouchy came on, and it wasn't long before he got himself on the scoresheet with a deft flick after Gerrard had volleyed Cisse’s ball across the face of goal. It was a good finish, and gave a slightly unrealistic look to the scoreline. It got worse for Fulham though, as Warnock fired home a right footed shot at the Kop end to give us our biggest home win in several years.

So what if 5-1 flattered us. After what we've been through this season with missed chances, it was inevitable someone would be on the end of a result like this sooner or later. I thought it would be Benfica last week, but that wasn't to be and we had to wait seven days until the goal fest.

The pleasing aspect is that three of the forwards scored, and the fourth made a good contribution from the bench.

The star man was an easy decision, as Didi was just class. Defensively we didn't always look completely assured, but Carragher played well as did Traore. Agger didn't do badly, but when you make changes to a settled back four occasionally you do get little problems here and there. I don't think any of the defenders played badly, but occasionally we looked a little vulnerable.

I was a bit disappointed in Kewell once again. He wasn't bad, but a few weeks ago he was starting to look like he was coming into some great form. The last few games his standards haven't reached that level. Garcia did pretty well, whilst Gerrard was in and out and looks a bit jaded to me.

The real positives on the night were the forwards. Robbie was class, Nando worked hard again and deserved his goal, Crouch notched another (is that 9 or 10 now?) and Cisse can be pleased with his contribution too.

It was a good day all round, as Rafa committed his future to the club after a few weeks of unsettling talk of Inter and Real Madrid. You can take that news as a guarantee that investment is on the way, because there's no way Benitez would be signing any new deal without that kind of assurance.

The Friday before the Benfica game, Rafa was telling a room full of journalists 'off the record' that he might have to leave if the club can't match his ambitions and give him money to spend this summer. Less than two weeks later he's signing a new contract. It doesn't take a genius to work out what's happened there.

The next couple of weeks should be very interesting, on and off the field.


Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Traore; Garcia, Hamann, Gerrard, Kewell (Warnock); Fowler (Cisse), Morientes (Crouch):