Liverpool 2 Newcastle 0 - Prem (Sep 20 2006)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 2 Newcastle 0

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Dirk Kuyt, Xabi Alonso Half Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Wed 20 Sep 2006 Star Man - Xabi Alonso

 

 

 

 

When you're in a bit of a bad spell and desperately need three points, a home game with Newcastle is a Godsend. It's not that the Geordies are terrible by any means, but Anfield is not a happy hunting ground for them and the reds usually turn them over without too much trouble. And so it proved once more, as Dirk Kuyt's first goal for the club was followed up by another Xabi Alonso wondergoal in a comfortable victory for Rafa's boys.

Lady Luck has not been smiling on the reds of late, but it can also be said that we haven't helped ourselves by squandering numerous clear cut openings. We hadn't scored for three games prior to Newcastle's visit to L4, yet the woodwork had been struck five times and numerous clear chances had gone begging. There wasn't too much wrong, at least nothing that a bit of luck and a bit more clinicalness wouldn't solve.

We got both in this game, as the first goal was clinical, the second had a touch of luck about it. Don't get me wrong, it was a wonderful piece of vision from Xabi, and it was expertly executed. Had Harper not lost his footing though, it wouldn't have gone in.

There is a very fine line between success and failure sometimes, and in the previous couple of league games we didn't get that kind of rub of the green. Had that happened in the derby, no doubt the keeper would have slipped, only for the ball to hit him on the back of the head and bounce up into his arms. That was 'one of those days'. This wasn't, and hopefully we're back on track now.

We played really well for large periods of this game. We can play better, and no doubt we will, but there were a lot of encouraging performances against the Geordies. Much has been made of Rafa's rotation policy, but only two changes were made to the side that played well in defeat at Stamford Bridge, and one of those changes was enforced as Pennant missed out with a hamstring injury.

The other change saw Aurelio coming in for Warnock at left back, a decision I wasn't too happy with as the Brazilian hasn't shown much at all in recent weeks. This was his best performance to date however, and he fully justified his selection with an energetic and skilful performance at left back. The overlapping of both full backs was a feature of a lively first half in which the reds played well without forcing the keeper into too many saves.

Alonso was back to his imperious best in the middle, Gerrard was lively, the front two caused problems and Garcia enjoyed his best performance in a long time. The little man was a constant menace to Newcastle, and there was a real intelligence to his play. He kept it simple when he needed to, and when the time was right for a trick he did it. Often they don't come off and everyone gets really pissed off, but not in this game. I can hardly remember Luis losing the ball at all, although I can remember him winning it on plenty of occasions as he never stopped working.

He had a couple of decent efforts on goal in the first half. One was a snap shot after the ball broke to him in the box. He hit it well, but it was straight at Harper. The other effort came when he cut in from the left and hit a shot which was blocked by the outstretched hand of Parker, who promptly collapsed to the floor holding his face to hide his crime. I'm sure the referee saw it hit his hand, as it was obvious, but he awarded a corner.

Bellamy had a good chance to score his first league goal for the club when he went scampering clear in the inside left channel. He cut in and tried to find the far corner with his right foot, but Harper made an easy save. The Welshman will have been desperate to score against his old club, and he was given loads of stick from their fans. One threw a water bottle at him, but rather than get angry he casually walked over, picked it up and took a swig out of it before throwing it off the pitch. I hope for his sake they hadn't pissed in it.

It would have been nice for Bellamy to have scored, but it was probably more important for Kuyt to get off the mark, which he did. It was a great goal, beautifully created. Alonso split the defence with an inch perfect ball into the run of the overlapping Finnan, and his low cross was turned in from six yards by Kuyt.

The goal was as significant for Alonso as it was the Dutchman. Much has been written about Xabi's form this season, a lot of it totally exagerrated rubbish. For example, Dave Prentice mentioned in the Echo how poorly Xabi had been playing, and sugested that maybe his head wasn't right because he didn't get to move to Real Madrid this summer! A scandalously inaccurate thing to write, as firstly Xabi hasn't been playing that badly and secondly he's completely happy here and has no wish to leave. Still, Prentice is a blue....

Xabi hasn't been at his brilliant best this season, but his worst performance came for Spain, not Liverpool. He's done ok for us, and I thought he played well at Chelsea and showed signs that he was coming back into form. He was majestic against Newcastle, which was just as well as Momo had one of his least impressive games in a long time.

Defensively he contributed as much as always, constantly chasing people down and stopping them playing. When he had the ball himself though, he wasn't at the races in this game was Momo.

Luckily it was only Newcastle, and he didn't need to be at his best. As an attacking force, Newcastle offered very little. Ameobi was the main threat due to his height and strength. He and Agger had a good battle, it was a good contest to watch. Parker competed well in midfield, but was let down by those around him.

Damien Duff is a shadow of the player he was a few years ago, and he may as well not even have been playing in this game. Milner didn't do much either, I can only remember him beating Aurelio once, but that's one more time than Duff managed to go past the ever dependable Finnan.

I thought once we went one up, the floodgates would open. It never happened though, largely due to us wasting more great chances. In the second half Bellamy went clean through but chipped the ball wide when it was easier to score. I could understand him hitting it wide if he'd gone low and tried to find the corner, but when you lift the ball over the keeper that means you've got the whole goal to aim for, so this was a really bad miss.

He played well I thought, but he appears to be lacking confidence in front of goal. That will change once he gets another goal, but with Crouch and Fowler looking to get back in he can't afford to be missing chances like this.

Kuyt missed two good opportnities after the break as well. The first was created by some fantastic play from Garcia, who cut the ball back perfectly into Kuyt's path, only for the forward to drag his shot wide. His second opportunity was a free header after great play by Aurelio had set him up. He put that wide too.

Garcia missed a chance which was almost identical to the first one Kuyt missed, when he scuffed a shot wide after good link up with Bellamy. The little man was then desperately unlucky to see an effort smash against the post after he'd shown great skill to pluck Gerrard's unbelievable pass out of the air and get a shot in.

It's been the story of our season so far, we miss way too many chances and we've been screwed by the woodwork a ridiculous amount of times. Six in the last four games now in fact.

There was a spell in the second half where we became sloppy, and Newcastle sensed they could get into it. The closest they came to an equaliser were three penalty appeals. First, when Ameobi went down under the attention of Agger. At the time I didn't think it was a pen, although we've seen them given.

The second was a handball by Carragher. Yes, it hit his hand, and some refs would have given it. But this ref didn't penalise Parker for the exact same thing, so he couldn't have given a pen. Seconds ater that, Carra handled again, but this one was never a penalty as his arm was by his side and it was blasted at him from a couple of yards away.

Newcastle feel hard done by, but what about Babayaro giving Kuyt a right hander in the box? What about the same player juggling with the ball after Bellamy's left wing cutback? Mark Halsey was not going to give a penalty for handball, unless a player deliberately stuck his hand out to stop a certain goal. Right or wrong, at least he was consistent.

It was all getting a little bit jittery though. We needed three points, and we'd played so well we should have been out of sight. Yet here we were going into the final fifteen minutes and we were only one up. No doubt the Geordies would have really gone for it in the last ten, and it could have gotten very nervous inside Anfield.

Then, out of nothing, came Xabi's moment of brilliance. He did well to win the ball not far from his own penalty area, and as he advanced forward he had runners to his right and left. Gerrard was in space, and Bellamy was looking for it over the top.

My initial thought was he should for Bellamy, and that's what I thought he was doing at first. It never entered my head for him to shoot (even though he tries one of these every game it seems!) as he was so far out. When the ball left his foot, I thought he'd badly overhit a pass to Bellamy. It was only when I looked at Harper trying to backpedal and then fall over, I realised when had happened. The ball hit the net and Anfield had witnessed one of its most special goals.

What makes it even more remarkable, is that his last goal was also from inside his own half. He'll do it again as well, I'm sure of it. He strikes a ball so well, and he's so aware of what's going on around him that it's a pretty safe bet another keeper will pay the same penalty as Harper.

With a forward as quick as Bellamy, keepers like to be around the edge of the box so they can sweep up any through balls. If they sneak out too far though, Xabi will spot it. I just hope the next time he does it, it's at Old Trafford or the Pit!

The goal meant we could all relax, as the points were safe. Kuyt was given a rest, as Crouch got the last ten minutes or so, and Gerrard was also given a breather as Gonzalez got a rare outing.

All in all, it was a good night's work. Everyone played well, and there were no passengers. Even though Momo was quiet in an attacking sense, he got through a huge amount of work and played his part in the victory. The back four were all good, Gerrard played well, Bellamy was bright and tireless in running the channels and Kuyt was a real handful.

Alonso was the star man for me, just edging out King Luis.

Hopefully this win will give us a bit of momentum, and if we can follow it up with another home win this weekend then suddenly our 'poor start' won't be looking too bad.

The dilemma facing Rafa Benitez is does he stick with the same side, or does he make changes to keep the likes of Crouch and Fowler involved. With a CL game next week I wouldn't be surprised to see some changes made, but it's a really tough call.

Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Agger, Aurelio; Gerrard (Gonzalez), Sissoko, Alonso, Garcia; Bellamy, Kuyt (Crouch):