I think it’s probably a good indicator of where we are as a team right now that I felt like we played ok in this game - relatively speaking. We never looked like conceding but we rarely looked like scoring either until a late flurry that could, should, have won it for us. Had we put in a performance like this last season it would have been viewed as something of a stinker, but given how far we’ve fallen (for various reasons) I think this was relatively close to as well as this team can play, certainly until Sturridge returns anyway.
That’s a sobering thought, but we are what we are now and there’s no point burying our heads in the sand and pretending otherwise. It’s hard to accept but the team we were six months ago is long gone and we may as well be drawing comparisons with “Kenny’s Boys of ’88” as the ‘Poetry in Motion’ class of 13/14. I’m finding that hard to deal with but I think I’ve accepted it now. I don’t like it, it makes me miserable even thinking about it, but I’ve accepted it as what else can we do?
Judging performances based on how we played last year is futile isn’t it? I’m not saying we should be happy about how shite we’ve become in such a short space of time, but like it or not THIS is our current reality. And in the context of that current reality this performance actually represented some degree of improvement. Granted, it would have been difficult not to improve on the QPR shambles, but it was better than some our other displays this season too. It was better than Villa, and probably no worse than West Brom or Southampton other than the fact we couldn’t score.
Had one of the late chances we had gone in we’d be talking about a spirited, battling win that had kept us on the cusps of the top four and put us within a point of 3rd placed City. Instead it’s another disappointing result that adds to the air of depression around the club. Brendan described the 2nd half performance as ‘outstanding’ which is pushing it in the extreme, but confidence is low so you can’t blame him for trying to boost the morale of the players and looking for positives.
The first half was just really bland, we had a lot of the ball but almost everything was in front of Hull and they were rarely troubled. “We were a little slow” said Rodgers and it’s been a recurring problem, especially at home. Lovren had a header cleared off the line following a corner and Mario got in behind once when he ran onto a pass from Sterling and had a shot saved, but other than that there was next to nothing for them to worry about. Too much fannying around with the ball around the halfway line and no penetration in behind.
The second half was going much the same way until Brendan made a double change. Off went Allen (he was a little disappointing I thought) and Lallana (likewise) and on came Coutinho and Lambert. Initially that meant Balotelli going to the left of the front three before it was later switched to an orthodox 4-4-2. For five or ten minutes after the change we were really turning the screw and started to look good. The goal didn’t come and the spell of pressure eventually fizzled out until a late flurry in the final five minutes or so.
There were chances, there was what looked like a clear penalty not given (looked a blatant shove in the back on Mario) and the last five or ten minutes were probably the best we’ve played all season at home. Damning with faint praise I know, but it’s a straw and I’m clutching it. I’m not falling into the “look how much better we were with Lambert and Balotelli both on the pitch” trap though. It’s true, we were much better, but a similar thing happened with Borini against Ludogorets. He made a difference that night, so Brendan started him alongside Mario for the next game at West Ham and he was hopeless. If we start a game with Lambert and Balotelli in tandem I’m not expecting much. I’m not expecting much regardless of who we start with though, so from that perspective I guess you could say it’s worth a shot.
I’m not reading much into the clean sheet either. It may help the players’ confidence a little which is obviously a good thing, but it was as much to do with Hull’s lack of ambition as anything else I’d say. They barely left their own half and were more than happy to defend and play for a draw. Hernandez had very little support, especially as Ben Arfa looks to have put on about two stone since his Newcastle days. He’s gone a bit Adel Taraabt hasn’t he? Fatem Ben Arfa.
They had one corner in the entire game, and Ben Arfa only went and took it short! Steve Bruce’s giant head must have been close to exploding when that happened. Why the hell would you do that? Crazy.
Speaking of corners though, how shit have ours been this season? Last year we scored tons from set pieces but recently we’ve generally been woeful with our set plays. I noticed it after about the third or fourth game of the season, but look at what we do when we’ve got a corner. Last year (I know, I know, but this comparison is worth making as there’s no reason why we can’t still be as good in this area) we had players moving around attacking the ball. I look at us now and most of the time it’s four or five players just kind of standing around the edge of the six yard box not doing much.
Skrtel scored seven goals last season, most of them due to his movement in attacking the ball. Has he even had an effort on goal this time around? There’s just no movement from anyone in there anymore and the problem is made worse by some really erratic delivery from the set-piece takers. Coutinho is particularly bad, but Lallana isn’t great either. Gerrard’s delivery has mostly been quite good (two free kicks in this game were fantastic and should have led to goals) but there’s nothing happening in the middle, despite us having plenty of height in there.
That to me is inexcusable really. There’s very little we can do about replacing the goals we’ve lost from Suarez (and Sturridge) but there’s no reason we should have suddenly lost any threat we posed from set-pieces. Last year we were number one in that category. It’d be interesting to see where we rate right now because - aside from Gerrard’s direct shot against Everton - we have not scored a single goal from a set-piece so far this season. That’s 13 games in all competitions and not a single goal from a corner or free-kick from out wide.
You can make allowances for the overall drop off in our attacking play and the lack of goals, to some degree that was to be expected having lost our two best goalscorers while also having to bed in some new players, but the drop off in set-piece quality is a different matter. There’s no excuse for that, and what makes it worse is that this was one way in which we could have tried to compensate for our failings in other areas. How many extra points a season are set piece goals worth? With the massive drop off in production from the forwards, set-pieces would have been a good way to help make up the shortfall but we’re failing badly in that area, and it’s compounded by the number we’ve been letting in at the other end.
As Rodgers rightly pointed out, a lot of our problems can be fixed with time on the training ground, but we don’t have that time because of all the midweek games. So buckle up people, because this shit isn’t getting better any time soon. It’s going to be one long slog until we get to December and hopefully then we’ll finally see some improvement.
The one ‘positive’ (if you can call it that) I’d take from this game was Balotelli. He wasn’t anything special, he was maybe a 6 or 7 out of 10, but represents a significant improvement on what we have been seeing. He didn’t score but I just think he was unlucky this time. The first half attempt was good, he threw himself at one that Can had flicked across the face of goal and almost got there and the chance he had with more or less the last kick of the game goes in when things are going well. He didn’t do much wrong with that, he made a good run to get there in front of the defender, he made good contact and tried to steer it under the keeper who made a good save. It’s just not going for him though.
He tried to do the right thing all afternoon and one incident in particular stands out when the ball fell to him on the back post. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in fearing he was just going to smash in a shot from a ridiculous angle, but he didn’t. He got his head up, waited while he looked to see who he could pick out and then rolled it to Lovren who came up with a fresh air shot from six yards out.
I don’t even really want to be mentioning Mario because the focus on him after every game is ridiculous and unfair, and by singling him out now I’m guilty of it too I suppose. There’s a media obsession with him and the whole thing is becoming the circus Rodgers did not want. When he’s getting slammed after a performance in which he did very little wrong then I’m going to stick up for him. If we get this level from him every week then I can deal with that, although ideally he still needs to do more (such as find the net). The crowd were really supportive, especially in the second half, and we have little choice but to try and stick by him and hope he starts scoring soon.
Going back to the point I made about this being close to as well as this team can play, part of my reasoning for that is how many of them would you say played badly? I thought most of them played reasonably well. None of them were brilliant, but there was only really Allen, Sterling and Lallana who I expected better from (and the latter two had the shit kicked out of them for most of the game as Hull took advantage of the referee’s leniency). Moreno too perhaps as he never really got forward much, certainly not in comparison to Manquillo who put a hell of a shift in on the right. He’s not the most polished performer but you have to admire the lad’s effort and enthusiasm. There’s elements of Hendo’s ‘dog in the park’ act with Manquillo, he does a hell of a lot of flat out sprinting doesn’t he?
Gerrard had a decent game and looked threatening late on when he began to link up with the attack. Emre Can was ok and will hopefully continue to improve with more playing time (he should definitely start against Swansea), while Coutinho was possibly our man of the match even though he was only on for half an hour. He was terrific, the ball seemed glued to his boot at times and if he can recapture his best form that will be a massive help to a side lacking creativity. It’s a little puzzling as to why he didn’t start actually, considering he was also our best player against Madrid.
Hendo was left out too but that’s a lot more of an obvious one as he’s clearly struggling with some sort of injury and is being protected. Someone told me he was being seen to by the doc in his warm up before the Madrid game and looked to have some sort of hamstring problem. That would explain him being subbed early in that one and being left on the bench for this one. Unless there’s a similar issue with Coutinho then I don’t know why he wouldn’t be starting right now as he looks to have got his sharpness back.
So in summary, another disappointing result but it’s on to the next one now. Swansea in the League Cup is a game I really can’t be arsed with in truth, for much the same reason I can’t be doing with the Champions League. These midweek games are really impacting on our preparation for league games, but the difference with this one is we actually have a chance of winning this competition. Sterling and Gerrard will need resting but other than that I’d like to see us go with the strongest team we have, because the lack of training time may be hurting the team but playing games together will surely help compensate for that.
Team: Mignolet; Manquillo, Skrtel, Lovren, Moreno; Gerrard, Can (Henderson), Allen (Lambert); Sterling, Balotelli, Lallana (Coutinho):
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