A Tale Of Two Halves

By Kop-Post

The instinctive reaction having sat through the game was to denigrate the performance as inept. Having bought in £45 million of new talent in the close season the expectations levels increased on the back of King Kenny’s Midas touch.  But, stone cold realism and analytic reasoning lends one to see the performance for what is was that of a team with four new starters showing enough potential to recognise that the first-half performance was encouraging

If ever there was a game of two halves then this was it.  With Downing, Adam and Suarez prompting and probing, Liverpool were dominant almost from the kick-off.  Surprisingly, with the ink barely dry on his contract Dalglish started with Enrique left-back and with Henderson out of position on the right of midfield.  Funnily enough, talking to a Sunderland fan post match, he felt Henderson is a quality player who will been seen at his best in centre-midfield and one felt for the lad who seemed like a fish out of water.

Downing looked dangerous, with one mazy run from left to right leaving defenders flailing in his wake and ending with a scorching drive against the bar. He supplied Carroll the ammunition he and all Liverpool fans had been craving for – Carroll had 6 attempts on goal, failing to find the target, but essentially he was in the position where a No 9 should be.  He held the ball well showing some depth touches and the ability to bringing others into play.  Adam, given room to play by the tenacious Lucas, had his range finder spectacles on linking up nicely with Suarez.

The Jekyll and Hyde performance was difficult to understand, especially as it was a complete transformation from the very first minute after the break.  The balance of the side was compromised once the tired Suarez went off with Kuyt joining Carroll and Downing coming off the flanks in a more central position.  We lost the midfield in the second-half, hence our defence looked decidedly uncomfortable and the team as a whole faded dramatically.

What is did show as Livi (blog follower), keeps reminding me is we need different types of players, rather than a plethora of  central midfielders and it’s hard to disagree with his assertion when a quality midfield player like Meireles who does most of his damage through the centre ends up playing on the left.

All in all an encouraging performance (let’s not mention the penalty) with a lot to work on.  A dominant centre-half, and another wide man to provide stimulus, creativity and especially pace which we lacked is hopefully be in Kenny’s agenda.