Come the end of the season, it's looking increasingly likely that we'll be looking back on the last few weeks as the time when the title slipped away from us. Of course it's still too early to write off our chances completely, but right now we are looking nothing like a side which is capable of taking Arsenal's Premiership crown.
The defeat at Charlton provided further proof of the failings of this side at the moment. It wasn't all bad, and some of the football played in the second half was as good as we've produced all season. However, poor finishing and defensive frailty have plagued us all season, and yet again it proved to be our undoing.
The most infuriating aspect of this defeat however, was that once again we didn't start playing until we went behind. I don't have the stats to hand, (it's probably a good job too as they'd make for pretty alarming reading) but in the last three season I'd guess that you could count on one hand the amount of times we’ve fallen behind and come back to win.With that in mind, when Charlton took the lead, we should have known the writing was on the wall.
Quite why this is I don't know. I wouldn't say that the side lacks character or guts, so presumably it has to be tactical. Speaking of tactics, Gerard once again sprung a surprise, leaving out Milan Baros, despite having rested him in midweek for the Worthy Cup game with Ipswich. El Hadji Diouf was handed a surprise start, with Emile Heskey once again perplexingly selected on the left wing.
Diouf has looked good in the Worthy Cup games, but seems to do all his best work out wide on the left when he can get defenders isolated one on one. So wouldn't it make sense to start him on the wing? He tends to get bogged down when he plays centrally, and can often run into trouble, but the Senegal man is clearly talented, particularly when he can find some space and take defenders on.
In the opening half, Diouf should have done better with a free header, Owen missed a couple of chances and Hamann side footed wide when well placed. Had any of those gone in, then it would have been a different story, but at the other end the home side also had their opportunities, and Chris Kirkland needed to be at his best to keep the score down.Sami Hyypia was awful.
His form of late has been alarming, and he seems to be getting exposed on a weekly basis now. In Sami's first two seasons I don't remember him having ANY uncomfortable moments. I thought his performance level dropped ever so slightly last season, but he was still a rock.
This season though Sami has not looked good. His lack of pace had never caused him any problems in the past, but this season he's been skinned on numerous occasions. Jason Roberts, Mark Viduka and Ruud Vanuglytwat (amongst others) have all exposed it, and Jason Euell left Sami trailing in his wake at the Valley.It seems like an astonishing thing to say, but right now Djimi Traore and even Igor Biscan are in better form than our skipper.
The rib injury he picked up on international duty may have contributed to it, and fair play to big Sami for playing through the pain, but his poor form had started way before that injury.Alongside Sami, Henchoz was as impressive as ever, and it was largely down to the Swiss star and young 'Kirky' that we managed to keep the Addicks down to just the one goal at half time.
The goal we did concede could have been avoided, but on the balance of play we couldn't really have too many complaints.Heskey had been replaced by Riise immediately after the goal. It looked like Emile had pulled a muscle in the act of shooting (understandable given that he doesn't do it that often), but his departure hardly weakened the side to be fair.
Whatever was said in the dressing room at half time had the desired effect, as Liverpool immediately took control of the game. Danny Murphy was the inspiration, turning in a brilliant 45 minutes and driving the side forward with great skill and determination. Unfortunately it wasn't enough to get us back into the game, but Murphy really didn't deserve to be on the losing side.
He went close with a purposeful run and shot which went inches wide, and also laid on a great chance for Owen, who opted to try and clip the ball over Kiely with the outside of his right boot. It went horribly wrong.It just wasn't a good day for Michael, and he later saw a miscued shot turned in on the line by substitute Baros, who was clearly offside. Owen didn't look best pleased with Milan, but the shot was going wide, and had Milan not got a touch it would have come to nothing anyway.
At this stage we were totally dominant. The passing was crisp and purposeful, and we were creating chances seemingly at will. The disallowed goal from Baros proved to be a turning point, as within two minutes, the game was over when Konchesky lobbed the ball over the unfortunate Kirkland, who had produced several fine stops as Charlton hit us on the break.
We have enough problems overturning a one goal deficit, so there was no hope with two. The spirit visibly drained from the side, and worryingly, some of the players began to argue amongst eachother. Gerrard and Henchoz had words, and you know something isn't right when you see Steph lose his cool, which is what happened in stoppage time when he reacted to a bad challenge by Svensson and went charging after him. Thankfully the ref saw sense and only produced a yellow, but on another day Stephane may not have got away with it.
A three match ban for him, especially given the form Sami is in, would have been the last thing we needed.Over the course of ninety minutes, we did not deserve to lose. But lose we did, and ultimately that's all that matters. We were puniched for sloppy finishing and poor defending. We also paid the price for starting the game so sluggishly.
It seems we only start to play when we go behind, and that's something which we need to address quickly. We have to be positive from the first whistle, and not be so cagey. This needs to come from the manager, but the players are also responsible for what is happening right now as well.Steven Gerrard had a good first half, but the longer it went on, the more his confidence seemed to ebb away.
Against Ipswich Stevie looked to back to his old self, but at the moment we still don't know what we're going to get from him. The same can be said for others, such as Riise, Smicer, Heskey and Diouf. Until we get 9 or 10 players producing consistently good form, we're going to have problems.
That's the dilemma for GH. He needs to get a settled side, without all this chopping and changing. However, how can you keep picking a settled side when there are so many players producing such inconsistent performances? Only Hamann, Murphy, Carragher, Diao and Henchoz have been consistently good every week. Owen has generally played very well, but has also missed a lot of chances at vital moments, whilst the good progress of Baros and Traore has been a welcome bonus.
There is no one single reason for this slump, it's a culmination of things, but we need to snap out of it before it's too late. The damage may already have been done of course, but Arsenal's run is not that much better than ours right now, which is why the gap is only four points. If that gap is not to get any wider, we have to start winning games again, and soon.
TEAM: Chris Kirkland; Jamie Carragher, Stephane Henchoz, Sami Hyypia, Djimi Traore (Milan Baros); Danny Murphy, Steven Gerrard, Didi Hamann, Emile Heskey (John Arne Riise); El Hadji Diouf, Michael Owen:
