No Pace, No Cutting Edge, No Goals

Liverpool's repost to the Independent Regulatory Commission on the Suarez/Evra affair was to leave its football team bereft of the talents of Luis Suarez, which left Andy Carroll to lead the line, with Dirk Kuyt and Stewart Downing to provide the support and tasks alongside Adam with creating opportunities for Carroll.

By the end of the game it was a case of what ifs. What if Stuart Downing had scored? What if Liverpool had defended for their lives if he had scored? Quite simply we were set up to either steal a goal or hold hang on until Gerrard and Bellamy could ride to the rescue, but with Man City scoring early from a rear Pepe Reina slip up, it forced us to come out and for a while dominate possession, which conversely highlighted our lack of a cutting edge which time and time again we've seen this season.

We all know the strengths of Carroll at his barnstorming best, but with Downing patently out of form and enable to deliver crosses of any quality and with Dirk Kurt and Charlie Adam not able to get past a strong and pacey Man City midfield and back-line the only clear chance barring Downing's one on one was Kuyt's blogged shot from Carroll's knocked-down.

Our previous matches where we lacked a clinical nature showed us as wastrels. This match showed up the lack of ability to create chances, because we lacked the pace and strength to hustle Man City. It underlined that for Liverpool to break into top four, requires a fit Gerrard and Craig Bellamy. But here lies the problem. Apart from Suarez, the most potent players, in terms of goal threats this season have been Bellamy, Maxi and even in his short spells on the pitch Steven Gerrard. Bellamy, who has been sublime, is restricted to the amount of games he can play following a history of knee problems; Maxi, Kenny seems to be saying that we have to be careful with the amount of games because of his age and then obviously we have Gerrard coming back off long-term injuries.

This underscores a serious and fundamental problem within the Liverpool squad, in that our main goal scoring threats are either incapable of playing successive games in a week or just not fit enough at the moment. Add to that the fact these players are all thirty-something's and that another of that club Dirk Kuyt who has consistently been a main source of goals since his arrival in the 2006-07 season has been unable to add to his tally of 49 league goals, leads one to wonder whether the popular Dutchman will be part of the Dalglish's plans at the end of the season.

The fact that no young attackers haven't been brought into the squad, has left a gaping hole in the absence of Suarez and the need for wide man to instil pace into the line-up if Bellamy is not available. There is a huge dependency on Adam to create and he had shown encouraging signs of recapturing last season's stupendous stirrings at Blackpool, but since Lucas's injury he seems to have been asked or has adopted a more deeper role and his lack of pace was accentuated against the midfield power-house of Yaya Toure and struggled against Gareth Barry which disappointing.

Charlie Adam's form has dipped since Lucas injury

Jay Spearing shone brightly in a struggling midfield and critics will cease upon Carroll's lack of mobility or inability to create chances, but as I alluded to above and as Gerrard stated at the end of Newcastle match, its for fellow players to provide quality ball for the 'Big Man' to feed off and we are palpably failing to do so. Džeko delivered a poor performance yesterday, but with the ammunition City have his lack of an offering barely mattered.

I've said time and time again on this blog, before our problems in front of goal that we needed to buy a different type of striker so as to offer a different type of option to the English No 9 and the skilful flamboyance of Luis Suarez and right now Liverpool are crying out for that. Hopefully that crying doesn't cause us to go and buy a striker which doesn't fit into what we are offering.

In the meantime could Adam Morgan fill a breach from bench to the pitch? Could we find some pace from the ranks for a wing berth? Do we need a top class holding player? Questions which I'm sure the manager and Damian are pondering.

Kop Post Man of the Match: Jay Spearing – Tigerish in the tackle and didn't stop from the first to the last minute.