I'd have taken any win at all from this game. I wouldn't have cared if we'd been battered for 90 minutes and won with a freak own goal, I'd have been happy and wouldn't have complained about anything. That may seem a strange thing to say about a home against Hull City, but I was worried about this one. Very worried.
Losing two games on the bounce put pressure on the players to get a result. It doesn't even matter that both of the games they lost were ones you'd expect to lose, and it didn't matter that they'd performed admirably in defeat. You can afford to lose away at Chelsea and City, but only if you win the games that you should be winning, such as at home to Hull. Had we gone into this game having had a week off, I wouldn't have been worried at all, we should have enough to be beating Hull even with a few players out injured, and we've been hammering everyone outside of the top seven or eight at Anfield.
We hadn't had a week off though, we were playing our third game in seven days, we had several players missing and some of those we did have available we carrying injuries that would normally see them left out. We weren't in a position to leave anyone out though, if they were able to play then they'd just have to get out there and deal with the pain because we had nobody else to bring in. And even those who weren't carrying injuries had to be feeling the strain of those two huge games we had over Christmas. Throw in the fact that our opposition had battered us a few weeks earlier, were coming off a 6-0 win in their last game and were managed by Steve Bruce, a man who seems to have our number, and this one had 'letdown' written all over it.
So yeah, any win would have done me, so I was delighted with what we got from the players. Not just a win, but a comfortable win and a good performance. Hull didn't even manage a shot on target, whilst we should have scored more than the two we did manage. Brendan described it afterwards as 'our best performance of the season'. I don't necessarily agree but it's easy to see why he feels that way. It was certainly our most important win to date.
For all the kudos we'd earned from the performances over Christmas, the bottom line was that we'd slipped from first to fifth and were now six points off the leaders. Perhaps more significantly, we'd gone from having an eight point cushion over Spurs and the mancs to being just two ahead. Anything other than a win against Hull and things would suddenly be looking pretty gloomy, and to be honest everything was pointing towards this being a tough old day. In the end, this was a great win and gets us back on track again. Halfway through the season and we're fourth, within touching distance of those ahead of us and we still have to face almost all of our rivals at Anfield. We'd all have taken that back in August I'm sure.
This was a good performance but it wasn't as good as most of our previous home wins. That's perfectly understandable as it's unrealistic to expect us to be able to press Hull in the same manner we'd done to the likes of Cardiff, Norwich, West Ham etc. The players simply wouldn't have enough in the tank to do that, as unlike some of our rivals we can't make five or six changes to keep players fresh.
What we did do very well against Hull was pass the ball around and conserve energy that way. It felt like Skrtel and Agger touched the ball as much as anyone on the field, we often passed the ball backwards to go sideways and then forwards again, which was a sensible approach as if we have it, then we're not having to chase it.
Hull seemed content to keep as many men back behind the ball as possible, and for a while we found it difficult to create anything. The closest we'd come was a disallowed header from Suarez from a Coutinho free-kick. It was at the opposite end to where I sit so I had no idea if it was the correct decision or not. I still haven't seen it but apparently the linesman just about got it right. Typical of our luck at the moment though that any close calls are going against us, and even ones that aren't close are still going against us.
Sterling had a chance too when he ran clear onto a flick from Suarez (I think) but his shot was smothered by the keeper. Generally though, we had a lot of the ball but were finding it difficult to break down a physical Hull side who were taking no prisoners. I didn't think they were exceptionally dirty by any means, but they were physical and quickly realised that the official was letting a lot of things go so they continued with the rough stuff.
The ref in this game was awful. Absolutely terrible. I'd never seen him before and hopefully we won't have to see him again as he looked as out of his depth at this level as poor old Iago Aspas. I had hoped that open season on Suarez was a thing of the past, it was getting out of hand for a while but then things seemed to calm down a bit. The last couple of games though, Luis has been on the end of some rough tackles and awful decisions.
I don't blame Hull for trying to get physical with him, he's far too good to just stand off him and let him play. Opposing defenders are going to try and do all they can to stop him, it's up to referees to ensure it doesn't go too far, and this arsewipe completely failed to do that.
Suarez felt he should have had a free-kick following a heavy looking challenge near the halfway line. The ball flew off behind the goal and the referee gave a corner rather than a free-kick, much to the annoyance of Luis and the crowd. Fortunately Agger headed in from Coutinho's corner kick so there was no real harm done, but Suarez had gone into the game with a bad foot injury and challenges such as that were hardly going to help.
Alex Bruce had already been booked when he kicked Suarez in the chest, yet astonishingly he got away with that. Mind you, if Howard Webb is help up as the beacon of good refereeing by the authorities, then is it any wonder that these young refs adopt the same approach?
We should have been out of sight by half time as having gone in front we started to play some good stuff, perhaps due to Hull having to come out of their shell a little. Henderson should have scored when he ran onto a flick by Aspas but dragged his shot wide, whilst Coutinho also failed to hit the target after collecting a great ball by Hendo, killing it with a beautiful first touch and then dragging a shot wide. Coutinho's shooting is absolutely brutal, it's hard to understand how a player that can be so accurate with his passing is so wild with his shooting. It has to be down to composure, and if he can sort that out then we'll have ourselves one hell of a talent.
Suarez made the game safe just five minutes after the restart when won a free kick 25 yards out, and promptly dispatched it into the top corner at the Kop end. He's that good that I think most people would have been more shocked if he hadn't scored from there. He tried one later on from ten yards further out but it went miles over the bar, much to his embarrassment. The chant of "what the fucking hell was that?" from the Kop brought a smile to his face though.
The second half was just very comfortable, we didn't particularly look like adding to our lead but we never looked like conceding either. Even when Hull had a spell of pressure and forced some set pieces with around 15 minutes to go, we dealt with it all easily enough.
Johnson went off midway through the second half, presumably due to an injury he picked up very early on in the game. Kolo Toure slotted in at right back and made some marauding runs down that side that went down well with the fans, especially when it was followed up by a mad dash to get back into position.
Rodgers also brought Gerrard on for the hapless Aspas and Moses later replaced Sterling. Coutinho looked the most likely to add to our lead but a mixture of bad luck, bad shooting and good goalkeeping kept him off the scoresheet. The stoppage time run that saw him glide past three defenders really deserved a goal, but credit to the keeper for spreading himself and keeping it out.
All in all there were plenty of positives. I thought both centre backs were excellent, as were Lucas and Henderson in front of them. Cissokho was solid enough, he did nothing wrong and whilst he doesn't bring much to the table going forward, at least he defended well enough. Suarez was magnificent considering he was playing with a bad injury. It wasn't his best game but credit to him for even being out there, he's a real warrior is Luis.
Coutinho dazzled and frustrated, but eventually he's surely going to sort out that finishing as he's still only a kid. There are shades of Steve McManaman about him at times, and whilst Macca never really became a good finisher he certainly got better with experience and I'm sure Coutinho will too. Perhaps him and Henderson should arrange for special after training 'finishing sessions', as both are outstanding until it comes to putting the ball in the net. Imagine how scary we'd be if those two added goals to their game.
Team: Mignolet; Johnson (Toure), Skrtel, Agger, Cissokho; Lucas, Henderson; Sterling (Moses), Coutinho, Aspas (Gerrard); Suarez:
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