AND SO TO THE BLUES

A lot of Liverpool away games this season seem to been following a slightly disturbing trend.
We start with plenty of positivity, playing good football, putting our opponents on the back foot.
We create lots of chances. We take one of them. Through a combination of goal keeping and bad finishing we mis a whole host of others, dangling a carrot in front of our opponents.
Some bite at it, others don't. Sometimes we pay the price, often we have enough in our locker to make sure we come through.
This scenario was the case for Spurs away in the league, Newcastle away and Preston in the cup on Saturday.
It's all very well dominating games and overwhelming sides with territory and possession if you don't chalk up goals.
That statement nearly came back to bite us, as a first half of overwhelming superiorty turned into a second half of backs to the wall and gritty defending to see off a revitalised Preston.
The reason they were revitalised was, largely, due to another bad day at the office for Robbie Keane.
Two gilt-egded chances missed, and another maddeningly passed up to give Alonso a damaged foot.
"Gracias Robbie."
It was perplexing as the Irishman seemed to be in form, yet his second miss from Gerrard's pinpoint cross was embarassing - almost reaching Bolton Reebok stadium levels.
The first miss, from Riera's driven cross, was more forgivable as the ball came in at great speed.
And the last before half-time showed how Keane's confidence was suffering. The ball was at feet, a few yards out, and insteaf of shooting, he chose to lay it off to an onrushing Alonso, who injured himself in the process.
A striker with confidence woul not be passing in the penalty box. It was shades of Keane at White Hart Lane again, not shooting against his old club.
All of Keane's howlers seems to have come from quick crosses played into him from the wings.
A weakness in his game perhaps? He seems fine with the ball fed through to him from a central midfield position.
Like Newcastle, our failure to kill off a team nearly let Preston back in and they had a strong 30 minutes when Agger, Hyppia, Carragher and co had to be at their very best to keep them out.
Maybe we got a bit of fortune on the Carra/Parkin incident, as The Beast was fouled by Carragher first, but a draw would have been harsh on us.
It wasn't coincidence either that we lost a foothold on the game when Alonso was forced to retire with a cut foot.

Elsewhere on the park, Gerrard shrugged off recent non-footballing woes with an all-action display.
And Riera was probably Man of the Match with a showing that was full of creation, incisiveness and good decision making.
His strike was a belter and he put some dangerous balls into the box, if only Robbie could have decided to gamble on one of them.
Insua continues to show he is the first choice left-back at the club, and surely means Dossena is shown the door this month.
If you can't be arsed to block a cross when it's being swung in, a Liverpool player you are not.
And Babel again produced a performance of very little which must be wearing Benitez's patience thin.
Strange how Rafa keeps faith continually with the Dutchman, when it could be argued that Pennant provides more product and work-rate than Babel.
Not that I'm a particular fan of Jermaine, but the Englishman is a better bet than the former Ajax man in this mood and form.
Yet, Pennant is an outcast and Ryan keeps getting the pat on the back. Just an observation.
It's never more pointedly shown than when Mascherano is running himself to a standstill, the picture cuts to Babel who is wistfully showing blank emotion to the game passing him by.
Frustrating. There's usually just one conclusion to these type of frustrations.

It will be interesting to see what happens to Keane now that Torres is back fit. I guess a period on the bench beckons, although I'd continue to play him as he's still the kind of player who wins you games.
And our welter of drawers have shown us that we have to attack from the outset if we are going to win this league.
Debate is growing about how we might buy in the January window with constant chatter about Heskey and Owen.
I'm from the brigade who forgives and forgets and so would once have welcomed Owen back at Anfield.
But with Keane bought, there's hardly any point buying a striker who would oeprate in a similar way to the Irishman.
As for Heskey, he would be a decent buy to give us a bit of height and bulldozing up front, a la Peter Crouch.
Although he'd be a soft lad for leaving Wigan as the best Rafa could offer him would be the fourth striker slot, with 30 minutes every two games.
If that's the way Heskey chooses to see out his football career, he's got a lack of ambiton above and beyond what we knew already.