Saturday 1 January 2011
By KP
If Roy Hodgson is to loose his job in the next week with the spectre of King Kenny in the background, he may count himself unfortunate after Liverpool became the first team to beat Bolton twice this season.
But with the crowd ten thousand down on the usual attendance, the Kop have obviously spoken with their feet in response to Hodgson critique after the Wolves match, the sudden drop in revenue may force the owners hand, in addition to the recent abysmal performances.
Bolton started well, but Liverpool had the majority of the possession without showing any intent or inventiveness. Torres, as his wont when his confidence is down, his first touch seems a million miles from that of a top class player and with the lack of pace out wide our ability to get behind seemed impossible. The game and possibly the manager’s future changed with the outcome of one tackle. Meireles, who as mentioned elsewhere on this blog, has shown marked improvement, recently picked up a foot injury tackling back.
He was replaced by Steven Gerrard who immediately set about driving Liverpool forward, inspiring as usual by example. Liverpool almost took the lead, when following a close shave from Bolton’s Matt Taylor’s magical left-foot, Maxi almost scored with a superb header back across goal following an excellent cross from Kuyt. Bolton took the lead close to the break following Aurelio’s, who had an uncomfortable half defensively, gave away a free-kick, bringing down Moreno. Kevin Davies left Glen Johnson stranded and headed in another excellent dead ball delivery from Taylor. We should have gone in all-square, after Lucas slid in on a Kuyt lobbed pass, but screwed it wide. At this point, the envelope with Roy’s P45 must have been hovering around the Chairman’s in-tray with the boos from the punters firmly ringing around the stadium.
The second half was all about Gerrard. With Bolton making a good account of themselves, he hit heights only great players can, by probing and inspiring. So much so, that within four minutes of the re-start we were level, with Gerrard clipping a glorious pass on the half-volley which floated and curled straight into the path of the on-rushingTorres who volleyed home with aplomb. Proving that if Torres is given chances in the business end of the pitch he will score and it is incumbent upon the manager and the club to provide the ammunition, in terms of formation and players, for him to feed off. He immediately looked like a different players with Gerrard on his game and his close proximity allowing Torres to suddenly increase his ratio of chances.
Everything that was good about Liverpool in the second-half went through the truly magnificent Gerrard, who is often man to man marker in these games Muamba, couldn’t get near. It came as know surprise , two minutes into injury time, when Gerrard unveiled yet another fantastically whipped cross which deflected off a Bolton defender under pressure from Maxi and into the path of the floating Cole, who had replaced Ngog to tap in.
It would be churlish to say that Hodgson didn’t have impact in turning this round at half-time, but as it has been so many times over the last decade it was Steven Gerrard whose star shone brightly in the nervous Anfield atmosphere.
KP
Saturday 1 January 2011
So did we turn the corner or are we just treading water? the cynic in me wants to believe the latter, but I'll wait to see how our away form is on Wednesday night before I give up all hope on Woy as manager of our fine club. I just hate how Woy waited until his job was on the line to play attacking futbol! And what would've happened if Raul never got hurt? would he still have put Stevie on the 2nd half? and if so, does he force Raul to the right or make a swap sub with lucas/raul for stevie instead? has he learned from his many mistakes? we still don't know the answer imo but lets hope we play this way for the rest of the year.
ReplyDeleteAlso pretty excited about the type of players we are now 'linked' too, with the natural winger Elia rumored to be already signed which is a massive upgrade from the class of players we were linked too last month (Cole, Huth etc) If we can somehow manage to get a proven strike partner for torres and some quality depth then i see no reason we cant at least compete for a top 4 spot...as long as Woy plays everybody in their natural positions!
YNWA
Sam T.
I also hope the rumours of Elia signing are true but until he is seen standing next to the manager whoever that may be - I will hold back on my excitement - I hope Joe Cole's and Torres's goals will see an upsurge in both their confidence and form.
ReplyDeleteI fear that we will lose Agger in this transfer window and we will regret selling him instead of Skrtel.