SUNDERLAND 1 LIVERPOOL FC 0
AS IF it wasn't hard enough to play a rejuvenated Sunderland side without our two best players.
Minus Torres and Gerrard, even random beach balls are conspiring to work against us now.
It was a bizarre goal.
And looking at the laws of the game, it shouldn't have stood. If the fans had all piled their jackets up on the goal line, do we just play on?
Of course not.
That aside, there wasn't much furore raised about the goal from sage Reds fans as the bottom line was that we deserved nothing from the game.
Bent could have bagged a hatrick, and we lived on the edge defensively, while showing precious little going forward.
There was trepidation among fans before this game, knowing Torres and Gerrard were out.
And sadly, it was well-founded.
A system of Kuyt, Babel and Benayoun providing the attacking thrust didn't bear any fruit, while Lucas and Spearing never had a command of matters in the middle of the field.
Ok, every team would be the poorer if you remove their two best players. How would Man Utd fare without Rooney and Giggs?
What about Arsenal without Van Persie and Fabregas? And would Chelsea have enough without Lampard and Drogba?
The answer in all three cases, for me, would be yes, they'd have enough strength in depth to win difficult games like this.
Players like Benayoun, Babel and Kuyt can't only perform when the garden is all rosey with Torres and Gerrard slicing teams open.
It's those three who should have enough quality to do the slicing. I like Benayoun, but he seems ineffectual away from home.
And while Kuyt is admirable in terms of work and commitment, he can't step up when he has to be the orchestra leader, not merely a trusty supporting second violin.
As for Babel, this was a chance to shine, in a fairly central role, as he has demanded, and we saw nothing.
It's not as if we're asking for quality from bit part, young, emerging players.
These are, largely, proven, international-quality, stars who cost Liverpool sums over £10m.
Yes, people rightly argue that a Liverpool side missing Torres and Gerrard beat champions Manchester United last season.
True, but that was with a barnstorming Mascherano, the class of Alonso, the invention of a sprightly Riera on debut and a Reds side playing, crucally, at home, with a packed Anfield roaring them on.
On Saturday, a midfield base of Lucas and Spearing was never going to work.
Particularly against a buzzing Sunderland side who were unlucky not to take all three points at Old Trafford the other week.
Lee Cattermole must have rubbed his hands when he saw a teamsheet that showed no Gerrard or Mascherano.
Spearing looks a half decent player, but it doesn't look like he's got the authority to run a game.
And for all Lucas' early improvement at the start of the season, It's one thing looking good at home to Hull and Stoke, but quite another showing your class away at Fiorentina, Chelsea and Sunderland.
Liverpool looked immediately better with Mascherano on the field - let's hope the fact that Argentina have qualified for the World Cup lifts a weight off his shoulders, as we need the South American performing again.
More than ever now, it's almost vital that Aquilani is a winner. The need for the Italian to be the attacking, skillful and energetic central midfielder this side craves seems of paramount importance.
How we missed Alonso on Saturday, somebody to put his foot on the ball and bring a sense of calmness to our haphazard play.
And warning signs about our lack of quality and options up front have been around for years.
I'm almost pining for the misfiring days of Keane, Bellamy and Crouch, so little do we have in the striking areas now.
Some fans are questioning why we decided to spend £18m on a full back like Johnson, who granted has performed well, when that sort of money should have instead have been invested up front.
I'd be inclined to agree on that score. Not only do we appear redundant up front, but we've hardly addressed our lack of width and attacking edge in the wide areas.
There hasn't been a effective right winger at Liverpool for years, while the jury appears to be still out on Riera.
The games that follow, Lyon at home in the Champions League and then Man Utd at Anfield, are almost must wins now.
The one thing I keep telling myself is that the strength of teams in the Premier League is better than in previous years.
Hence Sunderland can almost pull off a win at Old Trafford, Wigan can beat Chelsea at home.
Games against Man City, Spurs, Arsenal, Aston Villa, Everton and others are all tough games now and are not the gimmes which they have been for the Big Four in previous years.
Not many teams are going to pick up points away at Chelsea, Spurs and Sunderland, so let's hope there are stumbles from all the big teams along the way.
But it's a secondary hope, which can't distract from the obvious failings entrenched in Liverpool's squad.
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Spot on again. The thing that gets me about the beachball is not the fact that it scored but that it spent a while in the back of the net before passing Reina and coming on to the field of play. It should have been dealt with before the game started. That aside it was an inept performance and I hate having to admit that. We do need to strengthen. It's obvious. But if the money's not there we can't. We're doing the same as under Houllier where we'd finished 2nd and should have really pushed on the following season but didn't. I don't think it's so much the fact that Alonso went but the timing of the departure. If it had been at the start of the transfer window, it would have allowed time to a) get over it and b) get a replacement in. Coming at the end of the window, it's still in people's minds. Still, win the next 3 and we'll all be smiles again !!!
Inevitably this game draws questions from all sections about the strength of the squad. Undoubtedly the manager will come in for criticism for his lack of foresight and signings. Maybe rightly so, maybe not.
Looking back over the past decade at Anfield one thing becomes clear. We either moan about the lack of a single top quality signing, and use this as our excuse for failure - or, as we are doing now - we moan about the lack of quality understudies. One thing is abundantly clear - we simply don't have the resources or scouting talent to source both types of player.
A few years ago we blew our whole budget on Torres - a great signing but one that left nothing in the bank for top quality squad players. The same could be said of the Johnson signing this summer. In years when we haven't bought big, we've bought squad players - but as has been pointed out these all cost upwards of £7m and for that money what do we get? The likes of Pennant, Bellamy, Lucas, Josemi, Arbeloa, Yossi and Babel. Quite frankly, not the sort of players who'll win games.
Hello Luke,
Well it just gets worse, none of us could say we fancied anything pre match out of that game, we could see it coming, we were lucky it wasn’t three or four, we have six eggs in Torres’ basket and six in Stevies.
If you take Torres and Gerrard out of our side we are no stronger than any team in the bottom half of the table, if you put them in any other side they immediately are a top half team.
We have simple wasted money on players that aren’t good enough, it’s a false economy buying 4 players for £25m and having a bigger squad with average players, when one player at £25m increases the quality of the team massively, and don’t blame the Yanks, Gillet had a point last week, look at rafa and what he has bought, sold and kept hold of, we could generate £60m, Yossi, Reira, Kuyt, Babel, Lucas, Dossena, Insua, Deggam, Plessis etc etc they would be enough to get two/ three more world class players, that’s then a few eggs in 5 baskets. Add to that masha and the lads left we would be massively stronger, bringing in the likes of Spearing and co would be a lot easier as they would have four or five world class players to look to instead of players that are no better than themselves.
Reina
Johnson, Carra, Agger, Syrtel, Aurelio,
Masha
New wide player desperate / Aqualina / Gerrard / New left sided player desperate
Torres / new forward desperate
Young lads in reserves like Spearing and Darby could fill in if needed it would be easier to carry them with more quality anyway. If we don’t have enuff dosh for three players Johnson right midfield and young Darby at right back.
Seems quite simple to me but then again I don’t speak Spanish !
Lee - I agree we should buy 3 or 4 quality players rather than 10 average ones but of the list of players you've put up not all were bought at the same time and thats the problem. We are buying piecemeal. In ordcer to have a quality player rather than 3 average ones it seems we'd have to buy no one during one summer and then splurge the lot the next. You can't survive on feast and famine.
Hello luke,
reply to skyner.
But we have replaced players with players no better, why spend money with no improvement, examples include, gonzeles / kewell for reira, pennant for kuyt, warnock for three left backs, none of whom are better, we have spent £20m on left backs when we could have kept what we had and spent nothin and bought a top player at £20m. The average players are just that, average, dont buy anymore average they dont make us any better, just buy quality.
Good points Lee and many will agree but you have to look at what we recouped for players like Gonzalez and Kewell and how much we had to spend at the time on a replacement. We had £8m and that bought us Riera or nothing - what was ghe alternaive? To wait a season and play for a year without a left wing? Personally, I don't agree that Kuyt is no improvement on Pennant and in my opinion both Aurelio and Insua are better than Warnock. Dossena can never be justified.