Liverpool 3 Sunderland 0 - Prem (Feb 2 2008)

[TLW]

LIVERPOOL 3 Sunderland 0

Report by Dave Usher at Anfield

Scorer(s) – Peter Crouch, Fernando Torres, Steven Gerrard (pen) Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Saturday 2 February 2008 Star Man – Javier Mascherano

 

 

 

 

Finally something to smile about. It’s been a really shitty start to 2008 for us, and at half time on Saturday it was not looking as though it was going to get any better. The first 45 minutes had been dire, it took 38 minutes before we even managed to get an effort on target, and even that was a tame effort that Craig Gordon could have kept out even if he’d been impersonating Paul Robinson. Thankfully the second half was better, although it has done little to lift the mood of depression surrounding the club.

Things are bad at the moment, very bad. Off the pitch we’re in deep trouble, and on the pitch things aren’t much better. The two are inextricably linked, as although it’s fair to say Rafa Benitez can be his own worst enemy, for me there’s little doubt that his job has been made much more difficult - if not impossible - due to the way he’s been undermined from above.

It’s been apparent for some time now that the players aren’t doing it for him. I don’t want to say he’s lost them, and I don’t know that he has. All the evidence on the field however suggests that to be the case. In recent weeks the only players who have been consistently good are Mascherano and Hyypia, and those two shone once again for me against the Mackems.

All the rest have been inconsistent (Reina can be excluded from that too I guess), and no-one is going to tell me this is a squad that is behind their manager. The problem as I see it, is that Rafa had his nuts cut off when the owners failed to deny the reports they were looking to sack him, and those nuts were then squashed into the dirt by Fat Tom’s cowboy boot when he admitted they’d approached Klinsmann about taking over.

Rafa has always made strange decisions, and the players had just got on with it. It was a case of, he’s the manager, he knows what he’s doing, his track record proves that. As soon as it became clear he was in trouble however, that changed. Now when he makes a decision, I suspect he is being second guessed by the players and in my opinion they no longer just accept those decisions without question. Like I say, it’s just my opinion, but I don’t think they believe in him anymore, and it’s showing in their performances.

I didn’t see it myself as I wasn’t there, but there were reports that Gerrard and Carragher were both seen to be shaking their heads at West Ham when Kewell was replaced by Lucas. If they weren’t happy about that, I doubt they’d have been best pleased to see Lucas starting the game on the left wing, and I daresay Carragher wasn’t thrilled to be back at full back. Six months ago however, I don’t think any of it would have been an issue. A lot has changed in six months though, and every move the manager makes is being analysed and scrutinised, by everybody. Fans, pundits, owners, press, players.

I didn’t particularly like the line up he named for Sunderland, but in some ways I can understand it. On the surface, playing Carra at right back was baffling, but with Arbeloa injured
and Finnan going through a bad spell the only other right back available was Stephen Darby. Personally, I’d have no qualms whatsoever about using ‘Darbs, he wouldn’t let anyone down. Rafa doesn’t seem to like giving youngsters a chance though, and perhaps he feels that now isn’t a good time to be putting any of them in because the team is struggling so much.

So, he put Skrtlel in next to Hyypia and shifted Carragher to right back. I wouldn’t have done it, and it probably wasn’t too well received by Carra (and Finnan too I’d imagine), but it worked. We kept a clean sheet, Carra created the all important first goal, and six months ago Rafa would have been hailed for the decision. A lot can happen in six months though, and praise for the manager is thin on the ground.

As for playing Lucas on the left, I don’t see too much sense in that but again, the lack of in form alternatives has probably forced Rafa’s hand. Kewell is finished, Riise is woefully out of form, Babel is generally rubbish when he starts, so that only leaves Lucas and Yossi. We only started playing at West Ham when Lucas came on, and he did well enough to deserve to keep his place. It didn’t work though, as the lad looked lost on the left flank. Even so, he probably did no worse than any of the others would have done, and that speaks volumes.

The first half was wretched. We had most of the ball as you’d expect, but did nothing with it. There was plenty of play in front of the Sunderland defence, but we never got in a position to really hurt them and they were very comfortable. Pennant seemed to be the only creative outlet we had, but he didn’t get enough of the ball in positions where he could run at the full back. When he did get at the full back, he clearly had the beating of him, and it was from a superb piece of play by him that Torres had the first real opportunity seven minutes before the break. His header was weak though, and straight at Gordon.

Torres has been hopelessly out of form in recent weeks, and when you combine that with Gerrard having another of those dips he seems to regularly go through (he hasn’t been awful, but he’s fallen from the sky high standards he was showing until the new year), you have the main reason why we’ve been so shit recently. We rely on those two far too much, and if they aren’t in form who else do we have?

Well there is Crouch, providing he is in the mood and providing that he is actually on the pitch. He isn’t in the same class as Torres or Gerrard, but he is a match winner on his day. He was the main reason we beat Sunderland, even though I didn’t think his all round game was anything special. Goals win games, and Crouch is one of the few players at the club who can actually find the back of the net.

He did so in some style early in the second half, when he planted a fine header into the bottom corner after some wing wizardry from Carragher. The goal had come at a time when the crowd suddenly found their voices and had started to get something going. It had been really subdued in the first half, but you can’t really blame the fans for that as there’s just nothing to get excited about at the moment.

We’ll have a attack and the fans will make a bit of noise, hoping to contribute to a sustained spell of pressure, and then fuck all happens for ten minutes. It’s a two way thing obviously, and the fans have been guilty of not making enough noise at times, but the players have a responsibility too, and too often they seem to go out of their way to quiten the crowd - our crowd.

If we see the team piling forward, snapping into tackles and putting the opposition under pressure, the crowd generally responds We just don’t see it enough. We started the second half quite well, and a few tackles went in and we put them under a bit of pressure. Suddenly the crowd got into it a bit, but then as usual, it looked as though it was going to drop off again, as a series of backward passes took the wind out of our sails.

Just as I was moaning to myself about how they’d gone and quitened the crowd again with their lack of adventure, suddenly Carragher collected the ball out wide, skipped past the full back and whipped over a brilliant cross that Crouch despatched in a manner that we don’t see often enough. People say Crouch can’t head a ball, but it’s not true. He can, and there’s plenty of evidence to support it. Unfortunately he doesn’t do it often enough.

The goal lifted him, and the team. Within minutes he almost had a spectacular second. The lively Pennant got away on the right, and hung up a ball to the back post which was met by a trademark Crouch bicycle kick. Gordon did well to keep it out, and Gerrard’s follow up was deflected wide by a defender. Crouch had his tail up now though, and it needed a goal-line clearance to keep out another towering header, this time from Gerrard’s corner kick.

Torres also began to come to life around this time, and a brilliant piece of skill saw him race onto a pass and juggle the ball twice before letting fly with a left foot volley that Gordon parried away. It would have been an amazing goal, and it seemed to give him an extra spring in his step. When Crouch flicked a ball through the centre, Torres turned on the after-burners and simply flew past the defender before blasting a shot through Gordon to make it 2-0.

Relief all round, as without that secnd goal we could quite easily have been pegged back. Not because it looked like we would concede, we didn’t. But we didn’t look like conceding against Wigan either. It only takes a second to let one in, so when Torres gave us that extr bit of breathing room I think everyone knew the points were safe.

Gerrard added a late third from the penalty spot after Pennant was sent sprawling by Johnny Evans, but you’d have to say the scoreline flattered us somewhat. It wasn’t a totally convincing display, but we did enough and given our terrible home form the three points are most welcome.

Star man was Mascherano - again. It seems like every time he plays I end up giving him the star man, or at least have him in the running. Big Sami too, he was flawless once again. Those two have been a model of consistency when all of those around them have been the opposite. Pennant did well again too, and he really should be in the team every week. It was also nice to see Skrtel put last week’s poor display behind him and he was assured in everything he did.

A few thousand fans stayed behind at full time to protest against the owners, and it was a good turnout considering it was planned at such short notice and how little time the organisers had to make people aware of it. A decision was taken not to do anything during the game as there are many fans who don’t want to do that as they feel it harms the team. That’s fair enough, but after the game is a different story.

Despite the ignorance of people like Steve McManaman (who’s comments on Setanta after the game were outrageous), we are in serious trouble if Gillett and Hicks remain at the club. We’ll have no money to spend, as even if we are in the Champions League every year and reaching the latter stages it will still be almost impossible to turn a profit given the £30m a season interest we will be paying on THEIR loans.

They need to go, and it isn’t about siding with Rafa over them. Rafa is irrelevant, his future is a complete side issue. The issue is that if we don’t get them out, our club could be irreperably harmed. I’ve heard it suggested that we could never end up like Leeds because we have a bigger fanbase and are capable of generating far more revenue. That maybe so, but it won’t stop our best players leaving if they see that we can’t compete with the top clubs.

And when that happens, will the money go back into the transfer kitty or will it go on paying off the banks? Or maybe it will go to the Texas Rangers (yeah right, as if he'd put ANY money into ANY of his teams, the tight bastard).

Team: Reina; Carragher, Skrtel, Hyypia, Aurelio (Finnan); Pennant, Mascherano, Gerrard, Lucas (Benayoun); Crouch (Kuyt), Torres: