On Tuesday night I watched on with many others as a poor Liverpool team got brushed aside by a poor Man City team. Of course, levels won’t be at their required rate just yet but what’s certain is Man City will improve with each passing week, where Liverpool go, that’s a question for Roy Hodgson.
Before the match, Andy Gray and Richard Keys did their best Statler and Waldorf impressions by mocking Rafa Benitez before a ball had been kicked. Thinly veiled swipes at his 4-5-1 tactics and marking philosophies were cringeworthy enough. It occurs to me that it didn’t occur to them that should Joe Cole have been fit, Liverpool would’ve lined up 4-5-1. Nevermind the fact that City scored from a corner, and when Andy Gray was asked why man marking went wrong, he simply replied ‘well it happens’. Thanks Andy, your insight was outstanding, shit does indeed happen no matter what marking system you play.
The game itself was no spectacle from a reds point of view and I won’t dwell too long, I don’t want to provoke some unwanted shudders while you read. Hodgson quite simply got his tactics all wrong, his record of 4 away league wins in 2 seasons could be understood with his line up. Starting a crunch game away with 4 strikers on the pitch is only going to lead to trouble.
The prerogative for any team like us is to build on small things. A series of early defeats could be very damaging come the usual winter fixture pile up. While the loss to City was unsurprising for most, enjoyable for some and deflating for the rest, again the most worrying for me was the tactics. Lucas, while a player I like and admire, cannot hold the midfield against Barry, Milner and Toure.
Back in Muppets studio, Gray found the vocabulary to praise Hodgson for his bravery in playing 4-4-2, again reminding us that a manager like Rafa would not have done this. Well, our outnumbered midfield and wingless strikers were food and drink for a combative midfield trio in sky blue. Gerrard played in his ‘best position’ though, which was well worth the defeat.
It seems that a spot of contradiction was being served at Sky Towers, their dynamic duo in the same breath called for Gerrard to play central midfield, while drooling over the fact Gerrard and Torres could potentially be back among the goals together. Hmm, I’m sure when Gerrard and Torres were firing on all cylinders, Stevie wasn’t playing central midfield. Forget that though, this is the wonderful world of media! In HD, Yeah!
The repercussions from this defeat are not that great, in a way, I was relieved we got a reality check early on. The goal posts can be shifted so to speak, and as a club we could do a good job out of the ‘lime light’ of the fight for 1st with the new ‘Big 3’.
With Mascherano proving to be as unprofessional as he is fiery on the pitch, we must concentrate on getting our house in order off the pitch before things improve on it. On this topic, I don’t understand why the player was allowed back to training at all. His behavior has been despicable and if he truly did refuse to play, breaking his contractual obligation in the process, Liverpool should be free to dock him wages for his remaining time at the club.
The change in manager has proved to us only, thus far, that the more things change the more they stay the same. Let’s hope this ‘secret but not so secret’ bid comes through and we can attain some certainty in our future.
Our fixture list has not been kind, a win against West Brom and then Birmingham is important if we are to have any confidence enough to go to Old Trafford and then potentially on to the rest of the season.
So, the question falls to ‘Mr Roy’. Everybody expects us to take it to the likes of West Brom, especially at Anfield. The match should be a given, but will Hodgson be able to bring the big away results we need to reach the tables summit? I hope so, and I don’t doubt that he will learn fast.
At the City game the away fans were chanting Rafa’s name, I can’t see this as helpful to Hodgson’s cause (although I did raise a smile in acknowledgment), but it does raise the question, are these the same idiots who were calling for his name last year? Who knows, but Hodgson will need our full support from here on in, not to mention a lot of patience.
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