Liverpool 1 Blackburn 1 - Prem (Oct 14 2006)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 1 Blackburn 1

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) - Craig Bellamy Half Time - 0-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 14 Oct 2006 Star Man - Xabi Alonso

 

 

 

 

 

 

Well at least there are no more international breaks for a while. Clutching at straws I know, but I had to try and find something positive after this horrendous performance. Here’s another one, at least we didn’t lose. We would have done had Reina not made a good save late on when Bentley seemed certain to score. That would have been a bit harsh maybe, but we would only have had ourselves to blame after a toothless display lacking in any urgency.

There's no point sugarcoating it, this was an absolutely shocking performance, except for a short spell in the second half when the newly introduced Luis Garcia lifted the game. We equalised, and then stopped playing again. It was arguably our worst performance of the season.

Sissoko and Kuyt (and Agger too I suppose) were badly missed, but with the squad we have we should be able to cope. All season we’ve had people arguing about what is Gerrard’s best position. There are many who insist he should be playing in the centre because apparently he can influence the game more from there. After this game they may want to have a rethink.

Steven Gerrard is no longer the midfield enforcer he was a few years ago. Remember the Gerrard who you’d always see flying into tackles on Vieira and Keane? That’s not the Gerrard of today. That’s not a criticism, just an observation. I just think these days he’s evolved into a different type of player, who is far more use to the team when he’s getting forward and scoring and creating goals.

It’s always claimed that Stevie himself wants to play in the centre, but he’s got a funny way of showing it. Sometimes he looks like the dirty work like tackling and harrying people is beneath him, and it was depressing seeing Robbie Savage being allowed to run amok in our midfield. Savage had more influence on this game than Steven Gerrard. That would not have happened had Momo been on the field.

I don't mind Gerrard not tackling and not doing the spade work when he's playing in the attacking role. I'd rather he used his energies trying to score and create goals, as that's his job. When he's playing in the centre though, I'd rather see the old, nasty Steven Gerrard who's mere physical presence would intimidate opponents. The Gerrard of three years ago would have stomped all over Robbie Savage. This one stood back and let him do what he wanted. I wouldn't have minded that if he was posing a threat to the Rovers defence, but he didn't do that either.

I don't wish to single him out too much, but as captain you want to see him setting an example and driving his team-mates on. He didn't do that at all in this game, he was just so subdued.

Perhaps if the other attacking players were on form it would have helped Gerrard by lessening the burden on him. We always look to Gerrard to make things happen, but he should be allowed to have an off day every now and again. Had others took responsibility then it wouldn’t have mattered that the skipper wasn’t doing much. Alonso did his best, and in the second half Riise gave his all trying to make things happen, but none of the other forward thinking players did enough.

The first half was dreadful. We started ok, and had a couple of half chances that Crouch couldn’t quite convert. As soon as Blackburn scored however, our game went to pieces. Their goal was shocking from our point of view. Riise hesitated as he tried to decide whether to close down the ball or drop back into position. He did neither and got caught in no mans land as Rovers worked the ball to Bentley down the right flank.

Hyypia had to come over to cover Riise’s position, meaning Carragher and Finnan both had to shuffle across one position too. Bentley’s crossfield ball eluded all of them and found McCarthy on the far side of the box, and he took advantage of some terrible positioning by Reina to finish into an empty net. I have no idea what Reina was doing. He didn’t come for the cross, and he didn’t stay on his line. He was just walking around his penalty area leaving the goal unattended. It was a collection of errors and it was not just one player to blame. That’s actually more worrying than if it was just one player’s mistake.

Rovers used that crossfield ball to our right flank several times in the first half, and it was clearly a deliberate ploy to exploit Finnan's lack of height. They would pull one of the strikers over to Finnan's side, and then try and get a runner going off him for when they won the header. We've conceded a couple of goals this season where people have outjumped Finnan, and it would seem that Mark Hughes had noticed that and tried to exploit it.

There's not much we can do about it really, short of getting Finnan a pair of platform footy boots.

Rovers are well organised, and the one thing they do very, very well, is close down the ball. You don’t get time in possession, as they chase everything and don’t give you any time to settle. Even so, Alonso’s intelligence and passing ability meant that the widemen saw enough of the ball to have the opportunity to do something. Pennant had some decent moments and got a few crosses in, but most of the time he continued his infuriating habit of coming infield, trying to beat one man too many and losing the ball.

The left hand side was even worse. Aurelio looked uncomfortable in midfield, and Riise was a liability at left back. The Norwegian just didn’t seem switched on in the opening twenty minutes. He got caught out for the goal, and also got away with a couple of stray passes in dangerous areas. Once he and Aurelio switched midway through the first half, they both looked different players.

The poor performance of the players was matched by that of the crowd. The first half was played in silence, and there were a lot of boo’s at half time. That really pissed me off. This was our first Saturday three o’clock game of the season. We’ve all been moaning about the early kick offs, and blaming the shite atmospheres on that. But this was the worst of the season. Some people turned up expecting to be entertained, and then voiced their disapproval when it didn’t happen.

The second half was better on and off the pitch. At least it was as soon as Garcia was brought on. I’d have done it at half time, but Rafa gave it a few minutes before deciding. Actually, Pennant probably decided it for him, with a terrible start to the second half. His decision making can be shocking at times, and there was one incident that really annoyed the crowd. Once more he ran into trouble, but this time he got a lucky bounce and the ball ended up back at his feet. He had four runners ahead of him, but he didn’t release the ball and was tackled.

Suddenly we had five players out of the game and they had a chance to break. Luckily for us it came to nothing, but that incident seemed to seal Pennant’s fate and he was given the hook not long after.

Garcia made an immediate impression, giving Lucas Neill much more to think about than Pennant had. Suddenly we looked threatening, and the crowd woke up. We forced a succession of set pieces, and from one of them Crouch headed across goal and Luis was inches away from converting in front of the Kop.

The pressure was beginning to tell, and the equaliser duly arrived when Bellamy headed in Aurelio’s corner. It was obvious that he’d score today, everything pointed towards it and hopefully he can go on a bit of a run now.

Luis had made the difference, and now we were on a high, especially Bellamy who had just had a big weight removed from his shoulders. Surely we’d go on to win the game? Well no, and this is where rafa has to take his share of the blame. Can anyone understand the logic behind switching Bellamy and Garcia? It effectively ruined our attacking play, as Bellamy didn’t get a kick on the right wing and Garcia began losing the ball in the centre. I don’t understand why Rafa did it, as we were looking good the way we were.

Garcia was finding space out wide and causing problems, but as soon as he went infield he didn’t have as much space and he kept losing the ball cheaply. Riise looked our only threat after that, as he was popping up everywhere trying to get a goal. He and Aurelio linked up well down the left flank in the second half, and I can’t understand some of the criticism that was directed towards the Brazilian on the post match radio phone in. I guess people are looking for scapegoats, and with Zenden not being on the field Aurelio is next in line.

I don’t think he’s the best defender in the world, and I don’t think he’s too clever as a winger. However, he did very little wrong against Blackburn and I thought the criticism was harsh. That said, I’d have brought Gonzalez on for the last ten to see if he could get us a goal.

You could even have made a case for getting Zenden on and pushing Gerrard further forward, as he was doing nothing where he was. Rafa didn’t make any other changes though, and the players just ran out of ideas.

Rovers made three changes, including sending on the attack minded duo of Gallagher and Roberts. The former Wigan striker is always a handful, and his bustling presence almost created a goal for Bentley when he forced Hyypia into a mistake and it needed Reina to make a crucial save to prevent us suffering what would have been our fourth defeat of the season.

We weren't helped by some poor refereeing, but that goes without saying these days. Most referees are shite, and Mark Clattenburg is no different. Savage and Neill had both been booked, yet somehow escaped second yellow cards. Neill deliberately handles a pass from Garcia which would have released Bellamy, whilst Savage crudely hacked down Alonso. Both were blatant yellow cards, but the ref bottled it.

To be honest though, even if he'd sent both of them off I doubt we'd have scored anyway. There’s something not right with us at the moment, but it’s difficult to pinpoint exactly what it is. It’s not an excuse, but it is a fact that we are always shite after international breaks. Rafa always bemoans the lack of time he has with his players to prepare for games after internationals, so at least he doesn’t have that problem for a few months.

Everyone is pointing to his rotation policy as the reason we don’t have any consistency. I don’t think it is helping, but equally it isn’t as straightforward as just blaming the rotation system. Our patchy form is down to a number of factors, the main one being that too many players are just not playing well enough.

The defence are letting in silly goals, the keeper is looking dodgy, the midfield aren’t doing enough and the forwards aren’t scoring enough goals. Throw in the international breaks, and Rafa’s chopping and changing, as well as the number of new players settling into the side, and that goes a long way to explaining the indifferent form.

We’ve had a very bad start, but it isn’t over yet. As I keep saying, the mancs and Chelsea will drop points, but we need to be able to capitalise on it. Defeat next week doesn’t even bear thinking about, but it’s a very real possibility the way we are playing.

We can win at Old Trafford, but we need the skipper to rediscover his best form, the defence to stop making mistakes and the strikers to start causing the opposition more problems. A win next week would put a totally different slant on things. Defeat would virtually put us out of the title race.


Team: Reina; Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise; Pennant (Garcia), Gerrard, Alonso, Aurelio; Bellamy, Crouch: