Life is full of ifs

By KP

Life is full of ifs. If Liverpool had beaten Wigan and if we had beaten West Ham we would now be gunning for Chelsea, Spurs and Man City for the fourth Champions League place.  But, anyone watching Liverpool play Fulham and Wigan shouldn’t be surprised by the West Ham result.  We have been riding on the back of the King Kenny wave and came up against a force of nature proportions in the guise of West Ham’s all-pervading Scott Parker.

There is no point being overly critical that our unbeaten run under King Kenny was brought to an abrupt end, because the formation used by Dalglish was one which has served us well. We were overrun in midfield and maybe we could have matched up earlier, but the lack of creativity was eventually going to catch up with us and with Gerrard returning after injury and obviously not a hundred per cent fit, in addition to the loss of Aurelio and the recently very impressive Agger the detrimental effect on the Liverpool squad was a reduction in available quality and with Pacheco continually overlooked, the fall-back option is Ngog who although ever-willing, looks not short of top quality.

The quality that Luis Suarez showed in flashes lends one to believe that alongside a fully fit Andy Carroll and with Gerrard and Meireles in behind and with quality wide-men in toe a resurgent Liverpool is not far away. The turn with which he left the stunning Scott Parker for dead was that which very few could of carried off and then having the awareness to play a killer ball across the box for Glen Johnson to knock in caused us to dream of getting the match back top all square, but it was not to be.

The consternation felt by all Liverpool fans when Kelly went down clutching his hamstring late in the first-half, cannot be imagined, as he has been an illuminating presence in the revival under King Kenny and his absence was certainly felt in the second half when our failure to get behind the full-backs was disappointing.  A part from Suarez, the positives were that Stevie Gerrard finished the game strongly and Glen Johnson goal ought to intensify his attacking instincts, which have been less potent on the left hand side and will obviously come more to fore in his more natural position in the absence of Kelly.

The key is to get back to producing quality performances and that starts on Sunday against Man United by raising our intensity levels.  Being in Europe, gives us two extra games in March, which could’ve been a lean month with only Man United and Sunderland to play in the league, but now we have a chance to play a role in the destiny of the league and also propel ourselves forward into the Quarter Finals a competition which in previous years under different reincarnations we’ve had history in.  So roll on March.