"Hull is other people" by Julian Richards

Well if one man had his own personal and professional hell last week then a lot more made the trip this time. Having never beaten Liverpool, Hull set about righting that historical narrative, shredding it like the tigers the team might soon be named after.

The news that Daniel Sturridge wouldn’t be making the trip because of yet another injury meant the side would once again be underpowered but, unable to stick with the team that started at Everton, Brendan Rodgers had changed things up front, because of the revelation that Coutinho had an ankle injury. In US sport there’s no injury more feared than the ‘high ankle sprain’. The only real treatment for it is rest or heavily strapping the ankle, neither of which is helpful to Liverpool as they have neither the time nor the ability to carry an injured Coutinho.

Despite the money that Liverpool has spent, the attacking prowess of the team is still shallow below the obvious talents of Suarez and Sturridge. When one of the two front men is missing the flaws become glaring. Fabio Borini is in exile, Iago Aspas has been injured and unconvincing, Raheem Sterling continues to circle the drain and then there’s Victor Moses.

Signed on loan at the end of the summer, he was a player that seemed to scream ‘new-Liverpool’. Underplayed at his current club with a point to prove and a career to save, he had the potential to be a stop-gap whilst the club looked for a permanent signing to offer attacking support. The signing didn’t seem a good fit to me, first because I object to the notion of Liverpool loaning a player without an option to buy at the end.

At this moment Liverpool would be crazy to exercise that option if it existed but that’s neither here nor there, the point stands that loaning a player from Chelsea with no option to buy smacks of Liverpool acting like the little brother. My other objection is that I’ve never found Moses to be that good of a player, certainly he isn’t a player of the standard of Sturridge and Coutinho, and although he was the stand out of at Wigan, they weren’t exactly setting the world alight.

Now to Hull; Liverpool were substandard all over the pitch, a week of training clearly did them no favours as they offered up a listless performance. More worrying though was the inclusion of Moses and Sterling. Did anyone see those names on the team sheet and feel confident? I certainly didn’t; you can get a feel for how a game is going to go before it even kicks off and seeing Moses and Sterling lining up screamed ‘cock-up’.

At this point it’s difficult to see why Liverpool would even continue to play Moses. He’s not the club’s player, they’re basically acting as Ebay for Chelsea; offering up a display for others to bid on. Except how long do you persist with a player who isn’t yours and isn’t contributing when he plays? If he was owned by Liverpool then you’d have to preach patience in a “we’re stuck with him” kind of way, but the club isn’t stuck with him. They probably paid Chelsea that foul modern football occurrence of the loan fee but, other than that, they’re not in deep with him.

His contribution to Hull’s first goal led Carra on Sky’s coverage to give the opinion of “that’s why he’s not getting more games for Liverpool”. Not the defensive indifference itself but his apparent indifference to anything. His obvious talents of being strong and quick aren’t being utilised and I doubt that’s because Rodgers has said go out and be slow and ponderous.

A player goes on loan to either get experience or kick start their career. It’s unusual for Liverpool to take a player like him on loan, which is to say from a rival and not obviously better than what was already on the books. Moses put in a decent showing on his debut but since then has shown nothing that warrants a first team place. Players who are on the club’s books long term have been preferred and when Moses has been offered the chance, he’s failed to grasp it.

He can point to not being played in his ideal position in some of his starts but the biggest problem is that he just hasn’t shown a spark of energy or enthusiasm. Lack of talent is one thing but a lack of interest is another. He had a glorious chance to cement a place in the starting line up (where have I heard that before?) but fluffed it and was substituted not long after (déjà vu over here).

Perhaps Moses knows that Liverpool won’t pursue his signature in the summer or perhaps he is just struggling to find his feet. With Sturridge out he’ll have more chances in December but the hour glass is running out for the player. It isn’t in the interests of Liverpool to try and play him through this slump and have him come out the other side; that sort of thing can take months, by which team Sturridge will be back.

So Moses has decide whether he wants to play himself into a move as first choice for another team high up the table, or return to the Chelsea wilderness where more illustrious careers have gone to die. Either way Liverpool can’t wait around for his form to catch up to him, there other players in the squad who aren’t getting a game who need the chance more. Moses has something to offer this Liverpool team in their weakened state, whether he will be able to do it in the time frame in which Liverpool needs it is another matter.

Julian Richards