Firstly, Sundays game. Credit to West Ham for playing better than they normally do, but that was it, they played better, they never played the greatest game of football you will ever see, Scott Parker did not turn into Messi overnight although the way the commentators carried on you could be forgiven for thinking so - he did what he tends to do for West Ham, he gave them everything, it's not like we haven't seen him do it before, not like we won't see him do it again. West Ham Played well, Liverpool played bad, the result, we made them look better, whilst that in turn made us look worse then what we are. West Ham deserved the victory. There were still too many elements of their game that would have been vastly exploited by stronger more determined opposition - Liverpool were neither on the day. The attitude they displayed will give them great chance of staying in the league but there are no guarantees.
As for Liverpool, well, the defeat was coming, no two ways about that. Following on from the victory at Chelsea performances have gone downhill, against Wigan we could have ended up losing, not the greatest display ever, then over two legs against Prague we gave the kind of displays that would have seen most of the premier league beat us with little effort, we didn't look up for it or interested and we got through only due to Prague's own lack of ambition and poor performances and it all led into the game against the Hammers. Have to say i didn't think it would be an easy game, the relegation battlers are never going to role over an take a hiding, but - i did think we would win, and, i thought this because following on from 3 poor showings i thought the team would recognise that a game against West Ham would be a good place to restore belief and get 3 points - didn't exactly go to plan.
The loss of Martin Kelly is a big one, no doubts about that. We all knew he had 'potential' but he never really got a proper chance until Dalglish threw him in against Utd and he quickly established himself as first choice right back for the club, ahead of England's own first choice right back, Glen Johnson, and that is something that deserves credit. What it does give us in terms of positives is an interesting dilemma. Who plays right back, and who plays left back, the obvious choice would be Johnson right back, Aurelio left back, or Johnson could stay left back, Carragher at right back, with the central positions being occupied by any of Agger, Soto or Skrtel. What i think will happen is a bit different. I think that Johnson will shift to right back, and Danny Wilson will take the left back role.
Now, there were a few who were quick to jump in and give Wilson criticism on Sunday, unfairly. He gave us two good, solid displays in the Europa League and he kept his place in the team on merit, he deserved it. Secondly it was a poor performance from the team all round, the midfield battle was non existent and as a result the defence came under increased pressure, and quite often he was left with no cover with Johnson playing more advanced he wasn't always eager to get back and help, which left Wilson exposed. He is only young and he will learn but he is not a bad defender by any definition. He has played numerous times for Rangers in the SPL and has also made Champions League appearances too. Now there are not many 19year old defenders who could claim to have done that. The criticism is premature and unjustified, had we decided to play as good as we can and controlled the midfield properly the defence would have been able to operate under less pressure, the team would have performed better and confidence would have improved all round, especially for a player making his first Premier League appearance and most of that spent at left back when he is predominantly a centre back - same as with Kelly on the right.
I've had a lot to say about Glen Johnson recently, still maintain that he is pretty much an average defender, nothing special at all, but in attacking positions he seems to come alive, and he is a real threat. Against West Ham he had (initially) more of an attacking role and he proved what i and other have been saying - he is a much better attacking winger than he is a defender and to be fair to him he had a good game, a full game in that attacking role would have reaped more positives but injuries and the resultant re-shaping can not be helped, although he did get the goal that on the balance of it his performance deserved. Lets hope he gets another crack in that more advanced role, would love to see him playing there more regular.
We were all annoyed at the defeat and there has been a lot of talk of 'perspective' since. One defeat in nine we are told, something to be pleased about - of course it is. On January first if you had given any Liverpool supporter the choice to be going into the Utd game on the back of a 9 game run that involved 5 wins, 3 draws and a solitary defeat i think they would have bitten your hand off, or laughed thinking it was a joke - lets be honest on January 1st it didn't exactly look likely to happen did it? But talk like this ignores the real perspective and that is that recently performances have been lacking and have gone downhill since the victory at Chelsea and if we are not careful and do not address this problem quickly we could fall out of contention for a Europa League place never mind 4th place - which we are pretty much out of.
In terms of performances we are not as fortunate as our next opponents who have been well off the boil this season yet are quite comfortably walking away with the title. The game against ManUtd is a big one, and form doesn't tend to count for much and as is always the case, the easiest thing to do is win the game, what we do after it is the hard part. A good performance and a good result will be meaningless if we do not follow it up. Earlier in the season we played Chelsea, we stepped it up, we won, and then results dipped afterwards, there was no springboard, again we have played Chelsea and results have dipped, we can not afford the same thing to happen after Sundays game.
We have 10 games left, 30points to play for, we really should be aiming to finish on a high, the target should be maximum points, realistically i would say that 24 would be acceptable, finishing with a total of 63 points which would have to guarantee us a top 6 finish and if all goes our way, Europa League football next season. In the League we have only personal pride left to play for this season, all we can do is finish as strongly as possible, but with games against Arsenal, Utd, City and Spurs all to come we might have some influence on the final positions of those above us.
For me though, our main target must now be the Europa League, we have a good chance of winning it too. I know a lot of people regard it as a second rate trophy that no one wants but after we had endured a rather barren and unsuccessfully uneventful period just over a decade ago, winning the UEFA cup in 2001 was seen as a huge triumph, and it would be a great boost to the club to claim the trophy especially as we haven't welcomed any silver wear home since 2006. And it would be a great way to cap off a season that started so badly, and looked to be getting worse only for the return of Kenny Dalglish. Wouldn't be bad either to start this decade as we did the last, although i wouldn't want another 5-4 final!
Bottom line though is that performances have to improve, if the team doesn't perform well, we don't get results, like i said, we are not ManUtd, we can not play poorly yet win every week as they do and the biggest mystery of this season is how they have actually managed to do it with what many regard as the worst Utd team in recent history.
Lets make Sunday a game they will wanna forget for years, just like that 1-4 at Old Trafford only this time the goblins can't leave after 80mins, their locked in til the very end.
Performances must improve.
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