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LIVERPOOL 0 Everton 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 5 May 2013 Star Man – Steven Gerrard Well that was pretty drab and uninspiring. It was unquestionably one of the worst Anfield derbies in a long time, by the end of it neither team looked like they wanted to win it and the lack of urgency from both sides in the final 15 minutes was surprising - and from our point of view extremely disappointing. A draw was a great result for the Blues as it all but guaranteed finishing above us for a second season in a row, so their approach was understandable. Ours on the other hand, was not. I don't know if it was fatigue or disinterest, but either way it's alarming how we ended this game. We hadn't played especially well in the 75 minutes that preceded it, but at least we were trying and the intent was there to win the game. Towards the end it looked as though we'd just accepted that we weren't going to score and were ok with it. The amount of times we had throw ins only for Johnson and Enrique to have nobody to throw the ball to said it all for me. It was the same when Reina claimed a cross and wanted to launch a quick counter. Not enough people were showing for the ball. We were not going all out to win this game, and to me that's very disappointing. The substitutions made by Rodgers certainly didn't help, we looked worse after the first change and much worse after the second. However, it's not as though we had much quality on the bench to change things and at least he was trying to do something different to try and find a breakthrough. Until we have better options to bring on from the bench, it's going to be difficult for the manager to make match winning substitutions. The sight of Borini and Skrtel coming on was pretty demoralising. I know Borini is a striker and he cost a fair few quid, but if I'm honest I've got zero confidence in him changing a close game for the better and as for the Skrtel for Downing change? Well that was just pretty bizarre, and presumably it was done in part to help us out defending set pieces because I'm struggling to come up with any other logical explanation for that one as both full backs were getting forward anyway (especially Enrique) and we didn't need to go three at the back to do that. But then if it was about height at set-pieces, surely Coates would have gotten the nod? A strange one that. Neither side really did enough to win the game, but if we had sneaked a winner I wouldn't have said it was undeserved as we were marginally less shit than the Blues on the day. Don't get me wrong, I thought defensively they were excellent, in particular the two centre halves who were both very impressive, but they offered zero threat at the other end other than the occasional set-piece. It's weird really as the one thing I wasn't expecting from this was a goalless draw. Considering the trouble we've had defending corners, I thought it was nailed one we'd concede a goal in that manner. Conversely, given how irresistible Coutinho and Sturridge looked last week I thought we had goals in us. We started the game quite brightly, and it was apparent that a big part of our gameplan was for Sturridge to pull wide any time their full backs went forward and for us to hit him early in the space left behind. Gerrard did it twice with trademark 60 yard passes, whilst Henderson also got in on the act with a ball that the skipper himself would have been proud of, absolute top drawer it was. They came to nothing but it was encouraging to see Sturridge involved and looking lively. A pity it didn't last. Chatting to the lads before the game, I'd singled out Sturridge as the key to us winning this game. If Suarez had been available I'd have expected us to win this one by a couple of goals, but his absence levelled things up considerably for me. For us to win, Sturridge needed to be at the kind of level he was against City, Chelsea and Newcastle. If he wasn't, I couldn't see us having enough to win the game as I was convinced we'd concede. It's fair to say he wasn't at that level, although he started brightly enough. Overall though his performance was ok but nothing special and as a result so was the team's. He did a lot of things well but his decision making let him down on occasion and Suarez was sorely missed. * insert your own 'lacking in bite' or 'toothless up front' gag here * Moves of any real quality were few and far between, but those that did come were from the men in red. The clearest opening we had in the first half came when Downing made a good run in behind to collect a pass from Johnson. He skinned Baines and chipped to back post where Henderson was waiting. Coleman couldn't clear properly and Hendo collected and cut it back to Gerrard who's goalbound shot was blocked by Jagielka. It was typical of Everton's defending, any time we had a sight of goal a blue shirt appeared to snuff out the danger, usually one of the centre halves. A nice move involving Enrique and Coutinho saw the Brazilian find Henderson running though, he probably should have gone himself but tried to square to Sturridge only for Distin threw himself in the way and kill the attack stone dead. Downing then picked out Henderson who produced a lovely flick into the path of Sturridge. He was tightly marked by Jagielka and couldn't get a shot away, and although the loose ball fell to Coutinho he was thwarted by a terrific block challenge (by Gibson I think although it could have been Jagielka again). Everton had just one serious attempt in the first half, when Fellaini prodded wide from a free-kick that should have been awarded to us when Pienaar blocked off Johnson. The only real concern our players had in the opening 45 minutes was trying to avoid the wild elbows being throw by Fellaini. He got away with murder at Anfield last season and at the Pit this year and he was at it again here. In the first half alone he elbowed Agger in the face and narrowly failed to connect with Lucas and Gerrard. Skrtel copped for one in the chops late on too. He knows exactly what he's doing, anyone gets close to him and the elbow comes up and into the face, and yet referees allow him to do it time and again. What's it going to take before he gets pulled up on it? A broken jaw? Fractured cheekbone? Dislocated eye socket? It's only a matter of time before this microphone headed goon seriously injures somebody. Lucky for him he isn't Uruguayan. We started the second half very brightly, within two minutes of the restart Coutinho's wonderful ball put Sturridge in but Howard did well to force him wide and smother his shot. He probably should have taken it first time but I can't be too critical over it as it was a split second decision and Howard deserves a lot of credit for how well he dealt with it. Seconds later Sturridge flashed a shot on the turn into the side netting as we threatened to get on top. We were playing with a better tempo now and another flowing move ended with Enrique whipping in a cross that just eluded Downing and was claimed by Howard. Then came the most contentious moment of the game when with ten minutes gone in the second half, Distin headed in a Baines corner at the back post a second or two after Michael Oliver had blown for a foul by Anichebe on Reina. The replays showed it to be a very soft decision, and I'd say we got away with one there. Playing devils advocate for a second here though (and it's easy to do that when we're the ones who benefitted from the decision!), from the refs point of view he was warning Anichebe about impeding Reina before the kick was even taken. That suggests to me that this was an ongoing thing he'd picked up on, and despite popular opinion that 'the keeper ran into Anichebe' that's not the whole story, as Anichebe knew what he was doing and made a point of ensuring there was a collision. He wasn't going for the ball, that had gone well over his head. His job was to get in front of the keeper to make it difficult for him. It was clearly a rehearsed set piece and that was his job. Having said that, it wasn't enough of a 'foul' for me and like I say, there's no question we got away with one and if Oliver hadn't blown his whistle I very much doubt I'd be complaining of a foul on the keeper. I'm just saying I can see what the referee was thinking, and Anichebe wasn't as 'innocent' as Moyes is making out. Besides, he didn't 'disallow a goal' as he blew the whistle as soon as he saw the contact between Pepe and Anichebe. What happened after that was irrelevant to Oliver as his decision had already been made. Distin (who ironically, had committed more of a foul on Carragher than Anichebe had on Reina) could have headed that ball ten yards over the bar for all Oliver cared. Sorry to disappoint Moyes and his 'Anfield consiracy theories', but Oliver wasn't 'disallowing a goal', he was awarding a free-kick and the Blues just happened to put the ball in the net after that free-kick had been given. That decision may have cost Everton a goal, but it's stretching things wildly to say it cost them two points. Why? Because had it stood there were 35 minutes left for us to push for an equaliser, who knows what would have happened. This wasn't like the wrongly disallowed Suarez goal at the Pit, which came with the last kick of the game and absolutely, categorically cost us two points. We've fallen behind to Everton before and come back to beat them, in last year's FA Cup semi final for example. A lot can happen in 35 minutes, but to listen to Moyes you'd think that decision cost them a guaranteed win. After what happened at Goodison earlier in the season you might think he'd not make too much of this one, but then this is David Moyes we're talking about. "People are quite quick to remind me that I have not won here at Anfield but if you don’t get any decisions it is very hard to win here. And that is quite a regular occurrence when we come to Anfield." Hahahahaha yeah THAT'S why you've never won at Anfield. Nothing to do with shitting your pants very time you come here. Moyes is just so incredibly small time. For two years the league table has been tapping him on the shoulder and saying, "you're actually better than these you know" but he just can't buy into it. He can't shake the inferiority complex he has where Liverpool are concerned, it manifests itself every derby game, but especially the ones at Anfield. I'm not kidding myself that we're miles better than Everton and in a false position. On our day I think we're superior, but we don't have enough of those days and they are more consistent, which is why barring some unforeseen set of freak results they will have finished above us for two years in succession. What I'm saying is that Moyes obviously can't bring himself to believe they're better, and it shows any time he puts a team out to face us. He talks like finishing above us isn't even on his radar, when really it's his number one priority at the start of every season. He'd probably take that over winning a trophy. I've watched the Blues play some brilliant football at times this season, but you can't blame Steven Gerrard for making that Stoke comparison a while back because the fact is, when we play Everton we don't see that brilliant football because Moyes won't let them play. When the derby comes around, he goes full on alehouse, especially at Anfield. There was nothing more certain than Jelavic being on the bench and Carragher and Agger having to deal with the twin towers of Anichebe and Fellaini. Nothing more certain. Every time their defenders had the ball, it was launched in the direction of Fellaini or Anichebe, and as a result we barely saw their ball players, Pienaar, Mirallas, Osman, Baines…. Players who've looked top quality this season but who were anonymous at Anfield. That's the Moyes effect, he can't bring himself to believe that his side are actually good enough to take the game to us on an equal footing and let his players express themselves. There was no chance of that happening, and all week I'd been telling people exactly what we should be expecting from them. I'm not psychic, I don't have any mole in the Everton camp, I've just been watching Moyes operate in derby games for long enough to know how his weasely little mind works. The only threat to us was only ever going to be set pieces. Nothing else, just set-pieces. I could have told you that before the game, and that's exactly how it panned out. The disallowed 'goal' came from a corner, and the only other chance they had was the one that 'Screech' prodded inches wide following a free-kick. The Blues are capable of playing excellent football and they've shown it for a lot of the season, but if all we ever see from them is alehouse, they can't get all precious when one of our players compares them to Stoke. Everton play much better football than Stoke, they just don't do it against us. And that's not because they can't do it, it's simply because of Moyes. The table suggests that Everton have no reason to feel inferior to us at this moment in time, yet they clearly do. Why else are they celebrating a 0-0 draw? Why else are they singing "we're looking down on the Redshite". It is a big deal to them, they see it as some kind of anomaly, a break from the norm (because let's face it, it is). It's like flicking through the channels on sky and finding extra sports channels you're not supposed to have. You can't believe your luck but you know it's only a matter of time before they realise and cancel them on you but until normal service is resumed you're going to make the most of those channels and enjoy it to the max no matter what kind of shit they put on there. That's Moyes and the Blues right now. He can say whatever he likes about how finishing above Liverpool isn't his priority and they are 'thinking bigger than that'. He's fooling no-one though, if that was the case he'd have showed up to Anfield and tried to win the game as opposed to not losing it. Instead of pointing the finger at the referee, he should be looking in the mirror (metaphorically, not literally, I wouldn't wish that even on him) because it's his own shithousery that holds Everton back at Anfield. It says a lot that we're all incredibly disappointed with our side's performance whilst they seem made up. And yet despite not playing well we still had far more openings than they had. It's all about what standards you set for yourself, and we still have higher standards than the Blues. The problem is we aren't consistent enough to reach those standards. 6-0 one week, 0-0 the week after. Sums us up, and we'll probably get beat by hapless Fulham next week too. Like I say though, we had our chances to win this. Just not enough of them. The closest we came to a winner was when Sturridge got in through the inside left channel and advanced into the box. Gerrard made a lung busting run to get ahead of him and the striker did well to hold the ball up and release the pass at just the right moment into the path of the captain who went around Howard but as he adjusted his feet couldn't get enough purchase on his left footed shot and Distin was able to clear off the line. There were other half chances too, Agger had a couple of headers from set-pieces that he should have done better with, Coutinho put one shot straight at Howard and another high and wide, whilst a lovely ball from Sturridge saw Enrique drill a ball across the face of goal just out of the reach of Borini. I've noticed that Enrique has been getting absolutely ripped by many for his performance. I actually thought up until the final 15 minutes or so he was one of our better players. At that point desperation seemed to kick in and his decision making went out of the window, getting his head down and not passing when he should and generally just running into trouble through trying too hard. He was much better than our other full back though, who just isn't himself right now. Johnson's form the last couple of months has been really erratic. I don't know what's going on with him but there's been times where he's played with his head up his arse, he's been completely indecisive in the final third and just really hesitant. Earlier in the season that wasn't the case, he was brilliant going forward, but recently he's been very inconsistent. It could just be a case of him needing a bit of a rest, he's played a lot of games in the second half of the season especially. At times he's been world class, at other times he's been average and there have been occasions when he's been terrible. His form mirrors that of the team as a whole. This result pretty much seals our fate in terms of league position. 7th, which is a slight improvement on last season although we haven't had any significant cup runs to get in the way of league form this year. Then again, you could argue that last year we didn't have European competition to disrupt our early season league games, so you can interpret it however you choose. Personally I feel like we've significantly improved our performances and our first eleven is very good. The biggest problem we have is when we haven't made a breakthrough after an hour and we need to change things, we've not had the quality to bring on. We need more game changing players, but unfortunately we also need to rebuild the defence as Carragher and (probably) Skrtel are going to need replacing. It's going to be a big summer for Rodgers, there's plenty to be done but we have a good base on which to build and with the right signings we could be very good. How many years have we been saying that though? The 'right signings' never seem to arrive, regardless of how much we spend. I can accept finishing below both Manchester clubs, Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs. We've got no right to EXPECT to be finishing above those sides as they've been above us for a number of years now, if we overhaul one or more of those then we've punched above our current weight. I did think we would finish above the Blues this year though, but two things have prevented that. One is our own inconsistency, and the other is that Everton have performed better than I thought they would. Credit to them for that, they've had a good season and deserve to be where they are. No complaints, no excuses, they deserve to be ahead of us. It's now up to us to get our act together next season and ensure they won't be coming to Anfield and singing about 'looking down on the redshite'. We can't stop them singing about Gerrard's baby, or Rodgers' son being 'a nonce' and we can't stop them telling us we're "always the victim" and how it's "never our fault". We can stop that 'Looking down on the redshite' chant though, and we better fucking had do, as another year below them would be completely and utterly unacceptable. As for the star man, Carragher and Agger both impressed and stood up to the physical barrage very well indeed, whilst Coutinho had his moments too. Everyone else needs to be doing better though, with one notable exception. Steven Gerrard was just phenomenal in everything he did, he was comfortably the best player on the field which speaks volumes about him considering the shoulder injury he's been carrying and has now sadly ended his season. Gerrard has been brilliant this season, second only to Suarez, and now we have to play the final two games without both of them. And it's hard to believe Carra and Stevie have played their last game together. It really is the end of an era. Team: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Enrique; Lucas, Gerrard; Downing (Skrtel), Coutinho, Henderson (Borini); Sturridge: