I have difficulty in defending this "performance"…hhhmmm, "difficulty in defending" – I wonder who I could have got that from. Sami? John? Stevie? Take your pick. This was a bad day and it seems as though this season is going to be a long one.
I should have known this was going to be bad day from the outset. Charlton hadn't won at home all season and you could sense they were after a big scalp. Thing is – Charlton are, how shall I put this? – shit.
United won there in a canter, and City won there too. As John G said to me after the game, "Even the Shite got a draw here!" Some were willing to give Gerard a clean slate this year on the basis that we changed the style of play and started challenging. On that latter point – challenging – based on what we've seen so far (admittedly only 7 games), we are going to be a long way off the pace.
What's another year though, eh? Nobody is even talking about First and when we are talking about Fourth in September (it took until January last year), it's time to sit up and take notice of how downhill (or are we still on that "plateau" Gerard?) things have gone.
All that said, at least it's a bit more exciting this season. Nobody likes losing, but if we are to lose games it's better to lose when "having a go" than it is to lose when sitting back and doing nothing about it. You sense with Gerard that he's changed to this attack-minded style à contre-coeur (prententious, moi?).
That's best evidenced by what happens when we go a goal up – we sit back and don't try to put the game away. If we did, things would be a lot better. Charlton aren't a patch on us, yet after scoring, we handed the initiative right back to them.
I really like the formation (although you feel that with Didi there, everything would be more secure – how to accommodate him is the question): Vladi has been given a role in which he can flourish and we're beginning to see the benefits now. HK continues to get better and Diouf keeps producing good displays – although he has to start adding goals.
To the game, and the Reds started off brightly and the goal was deserved when it came. HK and Vladi are linking up really well now and the finish was delightful. The rest of the first half is best forgotten. At the back, things were calamitous, bringing back memories of the early 1990s.
I thought those days were behind us. To be fair, this doesn't happen that often and once Steph is back in there with Sami, things should be steadier. Igor hasn't done badly, but Sami needs Steph alongside him – last time he was this bad was in Basle last year when we conceded three. In any case, it looks like Sami's days are numbered and Boumsong and Steph will be the pairing from next year on.
Kevin Lisbie (who he?) got the first after a stray pass from Sami went to Graham Stuart. To be fair to Lisbie, he finished well, although Jerzy was caught in no-man's land. Then, three minutes before half-time, Charlton got a corner after Jerzy had fumbled a free-kick and scored their second from it.
Even though it was Jerzy's error, there was ample opportunity to clear it before they scored. Despite going in at half-time one down, you always felt there was another goal (or two) in the team so nobody was too bothered.
Early in the second half, we, ahem, "won" a penalty after Chris Perry held on to Emile. Once again, Michael stepped up and tucked it away. That's 4 out of 4 this season and I still don't trust him fully!
Vladi took a knock midway through the second half and came off soon after. Danny came on and did well, always looking to get involved just off the front two. Why he still gets torrents of abuse from some, I don't know.
Liverpool chased a winner and went close through Heskey and Sami. HK and Diouf looked dangerous again in the second half and HK had one great effort which was heading for the top corner. That was until that big, ugly, toothless, plastic Paddy twat Dean Kiely got in the way of it. I hate that prick. Once again, he refused to acknowledge the Reds when he came out for the second half.
Lisbie got Charlton's (and his) third after running unchallenged half the length of the field. That's worrying and although Finnan has done okay up to now, he was caught out badly on Sunday. However, it's a bit unfair to point the finger after once suspect display. It's not Finnan who worries me – stand up John Arne Riise and Emile Heskey (if you're not feigning injury).
Don't know where to start on these two. Riise first. This lad needs a hoof up the arse (if he could hoof himself up the arse, all the better, as he'd land somewhere in the North Sea). He has been shit for over a year. If stories coming out of Melwood are to be believed, he's an arrogant bastard too.
He's not a left-full back, but that doesn't excuse his stink attitude. He never looked interested in helping HK out and it's obvious that he thinks he has a free ride now till Carra gets back. This has to be dealt with as otherwise he's going to cost us lots of goals.
And as we're making the efforts to play it on the deck now, why does he insist on launching it every time he gets it? Ewood is proving very costly and it's only now people realise what a key player Carra was. Riise on the bench as midfield back-up – that's the very most he deserves at the moment.
There's not much point in wasting my time talking about Heskey. I thought after Ewood that maybe there was some way back, but after today, it's time to say "enough is enough". I'm not even buying this shit that he works hard any more. He's a lazy get and a big fraud who cheats us week in, week out.
Michael has already reached the end of his tether with him and it's about time that we put ANYONE but him in there. He brings nothing to the team and there's more movement in Demento's bowels.
All in all then, a pretty shitty day in a shitty ground (the away end is called The Jimmy Seed Stand for Christ's sake!) in a shitty part of London surrounded by shitty Charlton fans who were heard four times all day.
The atmosphere in the away end wasn't too bad, but hopefully "You can stick your fucking groundshare up yer arse" will get a bigger airing in 202 and around the ground on Saturday.
Nobody stood out for us on Sunday and too many below-par performances (especially at the back) made life difficult. HK was probably the star man. The hope is that Gerard will persist with this formation and loosen the shackles even more. Nothing is likely to happen in terms of trophies this season, but it seems as though there won't be the sterile shit we saw for most of last season.
The bar has been lowered and it seems that there is a grudging acceptance of second-best now. 4 points out of a possible 9 at Anfield and two defeats before the end of September suggest a long winter ahead.
All we can hope is that there are bright spots (like Blackburn and Everton) as well as the inevitable difficulties of "Change". One thing that we should plead for is the same style of football. The wins should come in time…
Team: Jerzy Dudek; Steve Finnan, Igor Biscan, Sami Hyypia, John Arne Riise; El Hadji Diouf (Anthony Le Tallec), Steven Gerrard, Harry Kewell, Vladimir Smicer (Danny Murphy); Emile Heskey, Michael Owen:
