Liverpool 4 Portsmouth 1 - Prem (Dec 22 2007)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 4 Portsmouth 1

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Yossi Benayoun, Sylvain Distin OG, Fernando Torres (2) Half Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Saturday 22 December 2007 Star Man – Javier Mascherano

 

 

 

 

Fernando Torres ensured it will be a relatively merry Christmas for Liverpudlians, as his double strike helped to end Portsmouth’s impressive run of away results in a strange game at Anfield on Saturday. We started and finished brilliantly, but in between it ranged between mediocre and poor. It was almost as though going into a quick 2-0 lead hurt us more than Pompey.

We flew out of the traps and really want for Harry Redknapp's side. Gerrard and Torres were brilliant in the opening 15 minutes, ably supported by Kewell, Benayoun, Arbeloa and even the much maligned Kuyt and Riise. We were coming at Portsmouth from all angles, but mostly it was down the left side that we had the most joy.

Maybe Rafa had targeted bog seat stealing former Chelsea full back Glen Johnson as a weak link in Pompey’s generally sound defence? We didn’t really get the chance to see if Rafa was right to do that, as Johnson picked up an injury early on, ironically with a magnificent piece of defending to deny Kuyt.

Torres played a great little 1-2 with Yossi and sprinted into the box before squaring the ball to Kuyt who looked set for a tap in until Johnson got across to make a superb block. He injured himself in the process though, and required lengthy treatment. He stayed on until half time, when he was replaced by Lauren, but his side of the field was a productive area for the reds in the first half.

Torres kept pulling out to the left flank, and he was giving Sol Campbell nightmares. His pace and directness threatened to unlock their defence several times in the opening minutes, and it was hardly a shock that he was involved in the opening goal.

A devastating burst of speed left Campbell for dead, but Distin got across well to make a covering tackle. The loose ball fell to Kewell, and with both centre backs out of position he cut the ball back to the edge of the box where Yossi was waiting, and the little man - sporting a new haircut - expertly volleyed the ball into the corner of Jameo’s net.

A good start became a great one when Torres ran clear again, and although this time Campbell did well to get a foot in, he succeeded only in striking the ball against Distin, and it rebounded past a helpless James into the net.

Any hopes we may have had of seeing another Derby County or Besiktas type scoreline were soon dashed as the players began to get sloppy and complacent. Silly little things began to creep in. Gerrard attempted one ridiculous backheel in his own half which summed up the attitude of the team at this stage. I’m not singling him out, as he wasn’t the only culprit by any means, but that one incident was typical of how things went after we went two up.

Portsmouth were incredibly negative though, which meant that despite us taking our foot off the accelerator, we never looked in any kind of danger. They’re a good side, and they’ve got a lot of good players. One of them, Papa Bouba Diop, was lucky to stay on the field after an ugly two footed lunge on the once again outstanding Mascherano. ‘The Wardrobe’ can consider himself lucky he was playing Liverpool and not Chelsea, or he’d have been off. That fat fuck Avram Grant and his cry baby players would have made sure of it.

Benjani up front is a good player, but he was really isolated and Carra and Sami had no trouble dealing with him. They have a lot of pace in the side, but I thought their tactics were very negative on the day, and even in the second half they didn’t really go for it. At 2-0 down they seemed more concerned with keeping it that way rather than throwing a few extra men forward to try and get back into the game.

Redknapp made two changes at the break, Lauren replacing Johnson, and more significantly, Kanu coming on for the disappointing Utaka. Kanu was brilliant I thought, he really made a difference to them. They still seemed more pre-occupied with defence than attack, but Kanu’s ability to get hold of the ball and find his team-mates certainly gave us a fresh problem to deal with.

It was his ability that unlocked our defence and allowed Benjani to blow the game wide open with an excellent finish. The finger will be pointed at Riise as Benjani was technically his responsibility, but it was a difficult one for the Norwegian as he had tucked inside to help out Hyypia in the middle. I wouldn’t be too critical of him in this instance.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who was a bit concerned at this point. We’d gotten complacent, and now we were faced with the possibility of being pegged back to 2-2 if we didn’t liven up. Thankfully, it served as a wake up call and we re-asserted our authority.

Babel replaced Benayoun, a move that surprised me a little as I’d have brought Kewell off. I thought Harry struggled, and although his touch was generally good, his lack of pace was really apparent at times. He worked hard enough, and of course he created the opening goal. I just thought once again he looked a little off the pace.

Babel was lively again, and he was involved in the third goal when Mascherano tried to pick out his run, but a defender just about got a toe on the ball. Babel looked like he would get there ahead of James, but for some reason he jumped out of the way and the ball was half cleared. Torres was following up and calmly stroked it into the bottom corner. It was the only spot in the goal he could have put it, and it was a terrific finish.

His second was another neat finish, and it came about following a corner that he had won with a devastating show of pace and skill. He gave Campbell several yards before blowing past him and back heeling the ball onto the defenders shins to win the corner. It was half cleared, but Carra picked out Gerrard superbly and the skipper nodded it down for Torres to hit a snapshot past James.

Was 4-1 was a fair reflection overall? Well Pompey’s lack of ambition meant they didn’t deserve anything from the game. Reina had nothing to do, although saying that I don’t remember James making too many saves either. Maybe 4-1 flattered us a bit, but we were certainly a couple of goals better than them.

The league table suggests we are closer to the level of Portsmouth, City and Everton than we are Chelsea, Arsenal and the mancs. In reality though, we are a class above these sides and this game was proof of that. We didn’t play that well but won comfortably. The reason we are scrapping with these sides for fourth place is because we drop stupid points to sides we should be hammering, and more crucially because we get nothing from games with the big boys.

That’s the area we really need to address in 2008, and with away games at Old Trafford, the Emirates and Stamford Bridge to come, we’ll have the opportunity to do that. Until we start beating the top sides we won't be able to stay with them in the table.

Star man for me was a toss up between Hyypia and Mascherano. Others did well, such as Carra and Arbeloa, whilst Torres’ contribution was obviously huge. Mascherano was just superb though. He dominated the massive Diop, and he was just everywhere. He’s rapidly becoming my favourite player these days.

Mascherano loves it here, we love him, and the little Argentine and Liverpool were made for eachother. There’s not a club in Europe that wouldn’t want him, but he wants to be a Liverpool player. That’s all that should matter, but the mess the club is in off the field means there’s a real danger we could lose 'the Chief'. If that happens I think I’ll personally take myself off over the pond and exact some kind of brutal revenge on those two cowboys.


Team: Reina; Arbeloa, Carragher, Hyypia, Riise; Benayoun (Babel), Gerrard, Mascherano, Kewell (Aurelio); Kuyt, Torres: