That was more like it wasn't it? I don't like Leicester. Most people I know have a soft spot for them as they have been pretty successful despite being a 'small' club. They've replaced Wimbledon as many people's Ðsecond teamŽ. Well I didn't fucking like Wimbledon either, and my Ðsecond teamŽ is Liverpool reserves! Our recent results against Leicester have been unbelievably bad, and I have this recurring nightmare that causes me to wake up in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. In my worst dreams, I see Ian Marshall lumbering down the left wing bearing down on the goal at the Kop end. I look around at our defenders, thinking ¿it's only Ian Marshall, even I could catch himî, but as much as they try to gain on him, they all seem to be going backwards, and Marshall, despite running as though he's carrying a bag of spuds on each shoulder (and one down the back of his shorts too), is accelerating away. ¿Oh well, he's on his left side, surely he won't beat our keeper from thereî I think. Then hey presto, the ball hits the back of the net and I wake up screaming ¿Nnnnnooooooo!!!!!!î
Confused, I try and tell myself ¿It was just a bad dreamî, but then I realise, it isn't just a bad dream, it actually happened. It really did happen. Ian Marshall outpaced our defence and ran from the half way line to score at the Kop end. No wonder I hate Leicester. Having won at Anfield three years in a row, it was payback time.
This was the most convincing 1-0 win I think I've ever seen. We absolutely slaughtered them, yet they could have easily sneaked a point at the end. That's the lesson that the players need to take from this game. Heskey could have finished them off on at least three occasions, and only Danny Murphy knows how he managed to totally miss his kick in front of goal (that will teach me to laugh at Andy Cole). Flowers was magnificent, but then again Leicester keepers always are when they come here. Remember Pegguy last year? This performance was probably just as good as the win over Derby last week. The scoreline wasn't as convincing, but we played just as well.
Gary Mac again ran the show, and Heskey and Robbie look to have a useful partnership. Gerard is going to have a real problem when all his strikers are fit. Owen and Fowler are the two top forwards at the club, but they're most definitely not the best partnership. Owen/Heskey works well, as does Camara/Fowler, and now the Heskey/Fowler one is showing a lot of promise. I said when we signed Emile that he could recreate the Fowler/Collymore partnership that was so successful while it lasted, and from what I've seen in the last two games that could be the case.
In fact, the only permutation that I don't think works between our front four is Owen/Fowler. The point is often made that when they play together one of them usually scores, but that doesn't make a successful partnership. Maybe one of them will score, but how many goals come as a result of the partnership? Very few. Still, who plays up front is Gerard's problem, not mine, although I would like to know how come Titi can't even get a place on the subs bench these days? He's been fit for ages now, yet hasn't been included at all this season. This worries me, as Titi isn't going to hang around forever being treated like this.
But back to the game. Heskey was tremendous again, but he really needs to work on his one on ones. The first two he missed can be put down to good goalkeeping, but the third one was just awful. The worst part of it was that you just knew he was going to miss. He had too much time and his arse went. He panicked and didn't know where he was going to put it. That's where Owen and Fowler both excel, but it's nothing that a lot of hard work on the training ground won't fix, and other than that I thought Emile was great. And after all, he did score the winner, although that seems to have been overlooked by a lot of people who prefer to concentrate on the ones he missed rather than the one he scored.
It was disappointing to see Hamann walk straight back into the side, although to be fair I thought he did okay. I felt for Murphy though, as I thought he'd done enough to keep his place, and once again when he did get on he was used as a fifth midfielder and he stank. I've said before that Danny has been unlucky in that he is never used in his correct position, centre midfield. He doesn't have the pace or ability to play just behind the striker, but he is a good orthodox midfield player, as he showed last week at Pride Park. If Gerard wanted to bring someone on to operate behind the striker, why not use Smicer? That's his best position after all. It seemed like Gerard was trying to reward Danny for his performance last week, but if that was the case he should have allowed him to keep his place.
The reason I'm so pissed off about this is that whilst I was selling outside after the game, I heard loads of reds slaughtering Murphy and saying that he almost cost us the game. That's unfair, as it couldn't have been easy for Danny to come off the bench and pick up the pace of the game straight away, especially in a position that doesn't really suit him. The reason Leicester almost grabbed a point had nothing to do with Murphy's presence. It was just that they started to throw men forward in the closing minutes, and they forced a series of dangerous corners which Guppy delivers as well as anyone in the country. Which reminds me, why the hell isn't Ziege taking our corners? Gary Mac takes a decent corner, but Ziege is right up there with the best in the business, yet we aren't utilizing this talent. Why the hell not?
It would have been a real sickener if Leicester had escaped with a point after the hammering we'd given them, and they so nearly did, with one near post header ricocheting of Ziege and over the bar. That could have gone anywhere, but thankfully we enjoyed a bit of luck for once, and the bogey of Leicester was laid to rest. Hopefully my nightmares will be a thing of the past too!
TEAM: Sander Westerveld; Steven Gerrard, Markus Babbel, Sami Hyypia, Christian Ziege; Nick Barmby, Dietmar Hamann, Gary McAllister, Patrik Berger; Robbie Fowler, (Danny Murphy) Emile Heskey:
