Liverpool 4 Bolton 0 - Prem (Dec 2 2007)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 4 Bolton 0

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Sami Hyypia Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard (pen), Ryan Babel Half Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sunday 2 December 2007 Star Man – Steven Gerrard

 

 

 

 

There was a time not so long ago that Rafa would have really taken great personal pleasure in thumping Bolton. He’ll obviously have been happy with this, but beating Bolton won’t have been quite as sweet without Fat Sam and his shitty headset patrolling up and down the touchline. Still, a 4-0 win is a 4-0 win, and after all, Rafa stuck it to Allardyce last week.

The Newcastle boss has big problems at his new club, but his old club are suffering badly as well. Sammy Lee tried to get them playing football instead of the alehouse shit they’ve become synonymous with, but it didn’t work and he was given his p45. Gary Megson has come in, and on the evidence of this display he’s gone back to the long ball approach.

Last weekend Bolton somehow managed to beat the mancs. Difficult to believe when you see how truly dreadful they were at Anfield, but apparently it did happen. I guess Danny Guthrie must makes a big difference to them! Obviously Danny was ineligible for this game, and they really missed him, as well as skipper Kevin Nolan. A midfield trio of Gavin McCann, Ivan Campo and Gary Speed is never going to provide anything in a creative sense, and it was apparent from the early exchanges that Bolton’s gameplan was going to be to try and defend and play for set pieces.

We’ve often had problems with sides like that, but we’re in a really good run of form at the moment and the Trotters were simply blown away. It could and should have been more than four, but Bolton will argue that the game turned on Anelka’s missed sitter when the score was only 1-0. They have a point, but the form Torres and Gerrard were in I honestly don’t think it would have mattered even had Nico scored as we just had too much for them.

Rafa once more named a forward thinking side, bringing in Lucas for Mascherano, Kewell for Babel and Crouch for Voronin. Riise returned for the injured Finnan. The inclusion of Lucas is pretty significant I think. He’s now moved ahead of Sissoko in the pecking order, which surely means Momo will now be sold in January. Perhaps it should have been done in the summer when there was a reported £12m offer from Juve on the table, but maybe Rafa wanted to see how Lucas adapted before making that decision.

Things are looking bleak for Momo right now though, and the only way I can see him staying is if we fail to tie up the signature of Mascherano (and if that happens then there are other people who should be shown the door, and I’m not talking about players or manager). Lucas looks like he was born to be a Liverpool player. He passes and moves, he keeps things simple and he works like a Trojan.

He’s a good foil for Gerrard, as he’s disciplined and will sit in the midfield whilst his skipper charges forward. I reckon there’s a lot more to his game than that though, and if he were to be paired with Alonso or Mascherano I could see him playing the role Gerrard does (not as well, obviously, but he does seem like an all rounder).

The youngster was up against some very experienced players in Bolton’s midfield, but along with Gerrard he completely bossed them. He was good with the ball, and probably even better without it, as he closed people down and got his tackles in. He provided the solid base that allowed Gerrard to do what he does best, and the captain was brilliant. He’s had more spectacular individual performances than this, but that’s not what we need from him these days. We need him to do exactly what he has been doing, making the team tick. He’s scored eight goals in his last nine games, but that doesn’t tell the story. I’d guess he has at least as many, if not more, assists.

Gerrard was involved in everything against Bolton. His free kick set up the opener for Hyypia, his slide rule pass released Torres for the second, he scored the third from the spot after Crouch had been felled as he attempted to get on the end of his cross, and finally it was his through ball that saw Kuyt’s shot parried into the path of Babel who had a tap in. In addition to that, he was also denied what would have been a brilliant goal by the feet of the tramp in goal for the visitors.

It’s difficult to think of a time when Gerrard has played better as part of a team than he is right now. It’s a far cry from the disappointing form he was in a couple of months back, that’s for sure. Having him playing at the level he is, coupled with the form Torres is in, has really lifted the side to the point where at this moment in time I’d fancy us to beat anyone.

A few weeks ago when Arsenal came to town, we were in a rough patch. I said after that game that I was pleased with the performance because it was a bad time to play them. They were flying, we weren’t. If we were to play them this weekend, it’d be a completely different story, we wouldn’t be getting passed off the park the way we did at times that day.

We weren’t actually THAT good against Bolton, we can play much better than this. The first half especially was a bit patchy, but we’ve got a lot of in form players in attacking areas at the moment, and it makes a difference, Even if we aren’t on top form, we’ll still create chances.

The first opportunity fell to Crouch, after Kewell picked out Benayoun’s clever run. Yossi went round the keeper, and cut the ball back to Crouch who’s instant shot was cleared off the line. Some have said Crouch should have scored, but I don’t think he could have done any more than he did really. The ball was a bit behind him, on his weaker foot, and he had two defenders on him. All he could do was make decent contact and send it goalwards, which he did. Good defending for me.

It wasn’t a great day for Crouch. Handed a rare start alongside Torres, this was a chance for him to really stake a claim. He wasn’t at his best, but he still could have had a couple of goals, and he won the penalty to make it 3-0.

He was involved in the opener too, as he won the free-kick that Hyypia scored from. I didn’t actually see Hyypia score, as I was focussing on Kewell as it looked like he was going to score. He completely missed the ball though, but before I could look to see where it ended up, it was in the net and big Sami was wheeling away in celebration.

It was no more than he deserved, as he’s produced some really top class performances lately. Around the time of the Spurs game, some people were saying he’s washed up and can’t hack it any more. There was no doubt we were missing Agger back then, but in the past month or so, Sami’s displays have been as good as ever. There’s always the worry that at some point he will throw in a stinker (playing twice a week can catch up with him sometimes), but he deserves great credit for the way he was played this season. If there was a Liverpool Hall of Fame, there’d be a place in it for Sami as he is without question for me, a Liverpool legend.

His goal should have opened the floodgates, but although we continued to threaten and played some good stuff, it was in patches and we never really hit top gear. Torres was looking very menacing however, and he almost made it two when he collected a sloppy pass from Campo, and raced past two defenders before dragging a shot just past the far post. Crouch was actually not far from getting on the end of it as he’d covered a lot of ground to get there, which is encouraging to see.

Torres is just electric though, and he’s the country’s most in form striker right now. He trails Nicolas Anelka in the Premier League scoring charts however, and he should be a further goal behind after this game. Not even Anelka will be able to explain how he missed after Reina and Carragher had collided to present him with an open goal. The angle wasn’t bad, and he had loads of time, but he seemed to snatch at it and never got his body shape right. He actually missed it by a few feet, it was unbelievable.

Bolton would say it was a turning point, and technically I guess it was, as we made it 2-0 not long after and never looked back. I still maintain we’d have gone on to win even if Nico had scored, but who knows? He missed, we went on to win at a canter and that’s all that matters really. I’ve always liked Anelka, and even more so now.

On the flip side to that, you have the reprehensible El Hadji Diouf. If he isn’t spitting or diving, he’s committing scandalous challenges like the one that almost broke Arbeloa’s leg. I thought it was bad at the time, mainly because I heard a loud crack when it happened, but it was only seeing the tv replays later that night that I realised just how horrific it was. Arbeloa is lucky not to be facing a lengthy spell on the sidelines. It’s sickening to think that Diouf wore our legendary number nine shirt.

Thankfully, we now have a more worthy individual wearing it. Torres has made a great start to his Liverpool career, and has had absolutely no problems adjusting to English football. In fact, he looks as though he’s played here all his life. The physical side doesn’t bother him, he thrives on it. The pace of his game suits him too, as he has lightning pace and he knows how to use it.

That’s one of the main differences between Torres and the likes of Bellamy and Cisse. The goal he scored against Bolton brought back memories of the Gerrard/Owen telepathic relationship. Torres’ movement was brilliant. He spotted one of their centre halves had been drawn out of position and left a gap, and he swiftly moved into the space, staying onside, and indicated to Gerrard where he wanted the ball played.

Predictably, Gerrard delivered the ball exactly where he needed to, and Torres raced onto it before gently clipping the ball over Worzel Gummidge in the Bolton goal. Some have compared it to Dalglish’s goal against Bruges, but for me it had Michael Owen in his heyday written all over it.

That goal killed the game, as Bolton were never coming back from that, and I honestly thought we would go on to get six. We should have really, as the second half saw us lift the tempo and create a lot of opportunities.

Not even the departure of Carragher through an injury he picked up in the collision with Reina hampered our performance. Jack Hobbs came on and was brilliant. He defended stoutly when he had to, he used the ball intelligently, producing a couple of superb long passes and looked very assured in everything he did. He’s going to be a good player is Jack, he just needs experience.

Crouch should have made it 3-0 with a free header from a great Riise cross, but the ball went inches wide. Gerrard surged through only to see his shot hit supertramp’s foot and go just over, and Yossi had some opportunities too but didn’t get his shot away in time. Torres went close to the goal of the season with a stunning run that took him from the halfway line on the right wing, into the inside left spot in the penalty area. He beat three defenders on his way, but couldn’t keep his curling shot down. A shame, as it deserved a goal.

It was too easy, and Bolton offered nothing but long balls seeking out rugby ball head Kevin Davies. Riise generally coped with that well, avoiding the flailing elbows and not letting him win too many headers. This was Riise’s best game in a long time. I thought he played very well, until he decided late on that he was going to shoot any time he got in the Bolton half.

Kewell had been lively, and is getting sharper all the time, but he can only really play for an hour at the moment. That works out nicely, as it means Babel can do what he does best - come off the bench and wreak havoc.

He came on, and once again looked a threat whenever he had the ball. His decision making needs a lot of work, but he’s really beginning to look like a dangerous player, and he’s a great weapon to bring off the bench.

He wrapped up the win with the fourth goal after Gerrard’s penalty had made it 3-0, and Babel will be wondering how he didn’t make it 5-0 late on when his shot was cleared off the line by a defender. That came at the end of a stunning move, and it would have been one of the best goals scored anywhere that weekend had he finished it off.

Being able to beat the likes of Bolton 4-0, whilst never really hitting top form is very encouraging. We’re battering teams at the moment, and we’re doing it comfortably without really having to extend ourselves too much. Had we been in this kind of form a few months ago we’d be well clear at the top of the table, instead of chasing Arsenal. Every team has a bad spell at some point though, and if we have had ours already then we’re in great shape.

I can’t help but think an injury to Torres though and we’d be up against it. He’s so important to any hopes we have of winning anything, it’s vital he stays injury free.

Star man had to be Gerrard, who was involved in absolutely everything.


Team: Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher (Hobbs), Hyypia, Riise; Benayoun, Gerrard, Lucas, Kewell (Babel); Crouch, Torres (Kuyt):