DERBY- THE VERDICT
SO, a deserved 1-0 to the Reds and city bragging rights to us for the second time this season.
Truth be told, it should have been a lot more comfortable.
I don't think 3-0 would have flattered us.
It was one of those games in which we were clearly the dominant side, but there was always that sneaking suspicion that the lack of a second goal might come back to haunt us.
Thankfully, that didn't happen, partly because we played pretty well all told, remained solid and Everton's lack of striking options hampered them.
Hands down Man of the Match was Skrtel, the lad who ressembles Kurgan in the epic Highlander and who is fast becoming a fans' favourite.
I half expect him to size up his latest centre forward prey with an evil smile while drawling, 'Hello pretty'...before cutting them down to size.
I hope I don't put the mockers on him (a lot of Liverpool defenders have started off well to turn into puddings (Hysen, Kvarme, Babb.....), but he looks like the genuine article.
He loves a tackle, has decent pace, is great in the air and is good on the ball. An easy MOTM choice.
Sami continued to show that age is no barrier, he relishes a Derby, and is a good bet at home when his pace isn't exposed.
That tackle on Yak Attack in the penalty box rolled back the years, you couldn't get a cleaner contact (although we still had the inevitable Bluenose shouts for a pen).
We should have bagged a couple more, and we certainly had enough chances to kill this game off way before the end.
Gerrard was easily the pick in the midfield, and shut up a few of the boo boys who harshly had a pop at him for his inaction in the Mascherano affair last week.
In a direct comparison between him and the Blues' supposed maestro Arteta, it just wasn't a contest.
Lucas had a poor game, giving the ball away a lot and shirking a lot of the physical stuff, but he's only a young kid and has done enough to prove he has a lot of potential.
I don't like to turn to one of my usual rants, but yet again Alonso did nothing to show he is the world class player we once thought he was.
The gulf between him and Gerrad was huge, and I lost count of the amount of times he ushered a pointless sideways 'pass the buck' ball to one his colleagues. The clock is ticking Xabi.
Babel always looked like he could be dangerous, but his lack of end product was frustrating all game.
I hope he comes good, but the argument that he's just a young kid only goes so far. He cost a small fortune and if you're good enough, age doesn't matter. Owen and Fowler both proved that.
Riise surpised us all by having a decent game and Torres was his usual predatory self. Cracking finish for the goal. Even £21m is starting to look like a bargain now.
The decision to go with Kuyt over Crouch was debatable, and it was hard not to feel sorry for Crouchy as he was used to run down the clock with just 30 seconds to go.
With Kuyt still admirably failing (the Dutchman tireless yet again but missing two presentable chances), he must be wondering what he has to do to get a start in this Liverpool side.
His refusal to whine to the press has shown the dignity of the man. I can't see any reason why he would want to stick around for more of the same next season.
All in all, it's great to get the three points with just a tinge of disappointment that we didn't use our obvious superiority to ram a few past the Bitters, but any sort of Derby win is always appreciated.
For them, nobody really showed. Although, it was a boost for us that Johnson, Anichebe, Cahill and Vaughan were all sidelined as they had no real extra firepower to complement Yak Attack and our defence strolled it.
I think Osman's header was the only chance of note they had all game.
Precious little needle on the pitch either, the terraces, of course, was a different story.
Some typically tiresome baiting of Gerrard every time he went to take a corner. I think we can all guess the nature of the abuse.
Now, we've hopefully sown up fourth place for this year, its time for us to turn our attention to the Champions League and Arsenal.
Hats off to their comeback against Bolton, but their weak points in the first half were there for all to see.
Let's get at them.
For the Blues perspective on the Derby, visit the ECHO's Evertom blogger Greg O'Keeffe at http://gwladtidings.merseyblogs.co.uk/
Older/Newer
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: DERBY- THE VERDICT.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.luketraynor.merseyblogs.co.uk/cgi-bin/mt421/mt-tb.cgi/4668
Good stuff and another great victory over the blues. I feel sorry for Crouch not being in the team but the fact of the matter is the current system plays to the strengths of our two best players (Torres and Gerrard). The system of play more closely resembles Rafa's preferred style so it would seem the writing is on the wall. Crouch may be a better finisher than Kuyt, but arguably the sytem wouldn't work with him in the team and Nando wouldn't be scoring so many. In Rafa we trust.
I only saw the second half (I was stuck watching videos of women giving birth at an antenatal class which was...fun), though from what I saw, neither side played particularly well. There didn't seem to be that "score at any cost" passion you usually get at a derby. The match felt very defensive.
It did feel like Everton were just not able to push the ball forward for long which is a shame as a few goals at each end would have made for a much more entertaining match. As you say, we were missing a few key players which didn't help matters.
i think they'd have given us much more of a game had they more options up front. everton's build up play wasn't that bad at times and perhaps if johnson had been playing we may have found ourselves drawing 1-1 like so many times this season after failing to kill the game off with a second goal. its depressing to concede that we are so much more than 3 league positions behind united.
Matt M - how many league places behind United are we then? What do you mean?
United go out and spend 40 million on squad players every season, in Rafa's 4 years here he his net spend has been 20 million a season, yet look at us now to what we were before Rafa came, Diouf, Diao et al finishing 7th Etc.
we have had to completely rebuild and the other top teams haven't stood still. Our progress under Rafa has been good, every season we add a world class player, Torres, Masch, Reina, Alonso and Agger have been added to Carra and Gerrard under Rafa. If we keep adding world class players ever season then that is progress and will make us even more competitive in the league. I would suggest we are as close to United as we have ever been since football began in 1992 ;o)
Also, we've just won the derby, and you're depressed? Are you a blue taking the ****?
Very low key derby I thought, for the first time since I can remember Everton didn't look up for it, where as we did right from the off. We had about 4 players who were excellent, Skrtel, Hyppia, Riise and Gerrard (and good contributions from others) whilst i thought only Arteta played well for Everton.
Thought it was excellenly refereed to, as Derbies so often haven't been in recent years.
Firstly, I'm a Scouse Blue but bear with me!
You deserved the win and to be honest we were lucky to keep it to 1-0, especially after the first half performance. Although we had more posession second half, in reality we never looked liked threatening.
Okay, thats the football out of the way. Why did Benitez have to stoke the fire with his comments about the fans? Its a derby and we all get passionate. Reds gave Everton players stick and vice-versa, thats life and in my experience no difference to the past - thats what makes the derby unique. All he has done now is fire up an uneccessary argument because as expected Everton have (rightly so) retaliated (your fans are actually caught on Sky camera).
Guys you won the match but why did you have to hightlight the fact that "poor Stevie G" got shouted at when your own fans were giving as just as much stick themselves?
Maybe Rafa needs to understand the Merseyside mentality more before commenting because we were all in the pubs together afterwards anyway! Together we will defeat Manchester, not divided (viva la 80's)!