Sunderland 1 Liverpool 0

Talking to a fellow supporter as the first-half progressed or should I say regressed, about why Liverpool continue to flatter to deceive he reasoned “Einstein said, doing the same thing over and over expecting different results is the first sign of insanity.”  It about sums up our current plight, no ingenuity, no dynamism and no cutting edge.  The first time we’ve lost three Premiership games in a row since 2003 and with WBA and Everton breathing down our necks, Liverpool have now won only 10 Premiership games from 27, where as Roy Hodgson was sacked for winning 10 from 20.

The game as a whole was nondescript and that Sunderland won wasn’t to say that they were overwhelmingly the better team, but they took the opportunity when it arose and we could not create or fashion a chance of any description.

In the build-up to the game, during the week, there were statements a plenty from Liverpool players stoking the fires of suggestion that we were still capable of hunting down Chelsea, Arsenal and Spurs.  What I saw today was painful.  Sunderland were shown of their two most influential players in Cattermole and Sessegnon, serving suspensions respectively and it appeared for all the world that Liverpool’s job would be made easier, but how wrong can you be?  The performance was woeful. We looked disjointed and lacked ideas, inept wouldn’t be strong enough to describe how impotent we looked in midfield and in attack.  We needed Pele with his Viagra kit to provide a half time pep-talk.

If there was a game designated for Charlie Adam to dominate this was it.  I’ve stated time an again on here that I don’t believe that he is seen at his best in the middle as he needs a team built around him that sets him three of defencive responsibilities.  In saying that with no Cattermole and as hard as the Sunderland midfield worked, there was plenty of space for him to operate in, but he just could not dictate the tempo of the game, get his trade mark passing game going or get up the field to support the attack.  It might be the game that sees him revert to a role coming on the bench.

The enigma that is Jordan Henderson was again picked ahead of colleagues with a louder claim for start.  He doesn’t possess the pace to burst past defenders from wide positions and when he drifts inside behind the frontman, he doesn’t have the subtlety of touch to prize open defences or score (ala Meireles) and it is grossly unfair to put the player under that kind of pressure when he seems more suited to being a box to box midfielder.  The positions he tends to find himself  in gives the side a disjointed look and whether he is good enough to be a regular starter is another argument/question all together.  In the time Gerrard was on he gave Liverpool that missing brightness, but the game by then was entrenched in a mire of unattractiveness and a lack of quality from which there was no return.

The attack failed to fire for the umpteenth time this season and brings into question just what is the expectation of Andy Carroll.  How many times is the most expensive British striker in history going to come on with minutes remaining and not receive one decent cross or pass of any note and look as if penalty box is strange piece of territory?  We failed to trouble the Sunderland goal with a strike of any note for 94 minutes in what in my opinion is the worst performance of the season.

Three days from the Everton game and should we loose some pretty solid questions need to be asked.  They key ones are obviously about the transfers Dalglish has brought in.  Suarez, although, not producing the goal tally has in all other respects, apart from the obvious,  been a qualified success with Enrique alongside.  But, with an outlay of £80 million for Carroll, Adam, Henderson and Downing quartet, who are obviously key components of the squad the manager is now in a quandary.  Does he persist with the said players who are plainly not firing with the possibility of dropping out of the top seven now a distinct possibility with J W Henry having stated at the beginning the season that Champions League qualification was a priority, especially after the financially outlay.  He said post season,

'Our main goal is to qualify for the Champions League. If we don’t it would be a major disappointment,' said Henry.  'It’s too early for us to start talking about winning the league,' said Henry. 'In my opinion Manchester United are the ones to beat. They have a good squad, and look really good.

'Our main goal is to qualify for the Champions League. If we don’t it would be a major disappointment.'
 
While these words may have have calmed somewhat following the Carling Cup triumph, these are owners who understand what the holy grail of the Premiership and Champions League mean in the annals of Liverpool Football Club’s history, and his last quote after the Carling Cup win denotes that he will by no means accept mediocrity in the Premiership, he stated "We've always said that the most important thing is that we keep progressing and in the last couple of months we've seemed to progress. To progress from this? Winning other trophies is what that means, I guess.

"We're guaranteed a place in Europe now, which is where we belong, and we can now try to push on in the FA Cup and try to get into the Champions League. As long as we keep progressing.

Has Carling Cup victory given Dalglish breathing space?

Carragher consigned to the bench after his mauling by Robin Van Persie.  Despite what seemed almost a last desperate roar in the week preceding the game in where Carra stated his intention to be part of a Liverpool team in the next few seasons winning trophies, it was almost the last throes of one of Liverpool’s Lions of Istanbul.  As emotional as it is to see an old soldier leaving the starting ranks, one knows that an officer cadet is always is line as a replacement and Coates did so today.  Unfortunately, the game so lacked quality that it would be unfair to give an overall assessment on him, hence to say that he looked capable in the air.

Man of the Match: Luis Suarez – In a match lacking in any real star quality, the very little talent which shone belonged to him.