The Match – vs. Aston Villa
Fernando Morientes was handed a start by the boss in return for his goal in midweek against the Belgians, and Peter Crouch made way for a man who also indulged in a goalscoring performance on Tuesday, Djibril Cisse. Garcia and Gerrard looked set to start as wingers on either side of Xabi Alonso and Momo Sissoko, whilst the back four retained the same look as in the Champions League. Benitez was undoubtedly opting for a fairly attacking formation here, forgetting about his earlier 4-5-1 attempts away to Birmingham and Middlesborough and going for a few goals as the Reds marched on into what would be a testing match against a struggling midlands side.
In fairness, Liverpool began well with a fine passing move which included Morientes, Garcia, Gerrard, Finnan, Alonso and then Garcia again taking part on the edge of the Villa box, before the little Spanish playmaker drove his effort just wide of the post. The match was under control in the early stages and yet creativity was at a low, Gerrard and Cisse attempting to interlink a few times before Villa gained some more grip upon the game and pegged us about 10 yards back into our territory after 20 minutes. Without the flow of Tuesday night the team was struggling to compete against the midfield terriers employed by the opposition, a development which moved Benitez to stick Cisse wide right and move Gerrard further into the middle. Inevitable from then on, the match became a murky congestion of the middle ground and when Xabi Alonso wasted possession inside his own half, Milan Baros looked certain to capitalize and haunt his old boss with a goal.
Running with his head down towards goal, Liverpool fans could have been forgiven for missing their old frontman’s honesty and directness, but his steely determination was stopped in its tracks by the magnificent Jamie Carragher at the last minute. The scouse hero promptly stood up after a perfectly timed slide tackle on the Czech to scream blue murder at Xabi, who had wisely run in the opposite direction having seen the danger averted. Soon after, an Aston Villa free kick gave rise to a chance for little Kevin Phillips to leap above both Carragher and Hyypia to direct a header in towards Reina’s relatively untroubled goal – luckily for the Reds, his aim was awry and the ball flew wide, leaving the defence taking a heavy sigh of relief after their sloppiness.
Steven Gerrard, capitalizing on Villa’s new-found high line which appeared shaky to say the least, played Cisse in perfectly for a one-on-one with Sorensen and perhaps the Frenchman showed what happens to him when in an even slightly difficult shooting position. With at least 5 seconds and acres of space, Cisse chose to take a touch and hesitate before just blasting the ball dumbly at the goalkeeper’s outstretched palms. As the easiest chance of the half went begging, the closest the Reds came before the break after that moment was when Cisse laid a ball across the 6 yard area only to see Morientes and Garcia waiting mindlessly near the penalty spot; a real goalscorer would surely have been waiting in there to pounce, poach, whatever you want to call it. Morientes, on a return to his old ineffectual self, was simply not anticipating anything.
In the second period, the game consisted of poor possession play and Alonso and Sissoko having noticeably poor matches; Momo had been booked early on and therefore was not playing his usual, rough-and-tumble game, backing out of challenges and losing confidence by the minute as his poor ball control let him down several times. Alonso was playing in the type of match he hates and was invisible for long stretches of the half.
If anybody looked like scoring, in truth it was Aston Villa as they missed a couple of opportunities arising from goalmouth scrambles; Reina saved excellently from one whilst Hyypia dealt well with the other and ensured that the trouble was not prolonged. With Liverpool looking clueless in the final third, and Fernando Morientes’ weak effort our best chance of the half, Rafa Benitez recognized the woe and threw on Crouch with an obvious gameplan: get crosses into the box for the lanky hitman to threaten from. The boss confirmed his plans by putting our two wingers, Zenden and Kewell, on as well as a supply line for Crouch. But it was the England striker’s fine vision which set up the first good opening, big Pete stealing past the Villa defence and delivering a perfect ball for Gerrard. Even with precision and power, the skipper’s shot was stopped by Sorensen and the Liverpool fans behind the goal grew exasperated.
Miserably, the misses continued as Bolo Zenden put in any frontman’s favourite cross, only for the goal-shy Crouch to head strongly, but straight at the goalkeeper. Yet nobody can deny that Crouch caused more troubles in ten minutes than Morientes did in eighty, and when Zenden delivered another fine ball into the box, the goalless striker was tugged down by Ridgewell. Bennett the referee pointed gloriously to the spot and the celebrations erupted: penalty! Penalty! Euphoria! But who was going to take it? Would Crouch have the bottle to step up? – his penalty taking is decent you know. Or would the captain put himself forward to secure the match? In the end, it was the latter and Steven Gerrard slotted home to give the Reds the lead with only 5 minutes to go. As much as O’Leary moaned and groaned about the penalty call after the match though, he couldn’t argue with Liverpool’s second goal.
Good hold-up by Crouch gave Kewell the chance to slide in a sublime ball, but again the lanky striker was denied by, usually, the shortness of his legs as they stretched desperately. Zenden then slammed one in from the other side but Crouch wasn’t fast enough as his second effort was blocked by the centre back, leaving the ball for Xabi Alonso to let off a bit of frustration and whack the ball past Sorensen for his third of the season. Game, set and match. Liverpool had won dirty, but they had won well. Crouch didn’t score but he won us the match, whilst Gerrard had been a shining example of how to play when you’re not having the best of games technically: with your heart on your sleeve. Three more points, three wins, three clean sheets, and three steps towards building that revered points tally; we must now take advantage of our 2 games in hand and we’ll be up there at around 5th place, ready to go on and challenge the top four, perhaps not including the cockneys at the top.
Player Ratings – Reina 7, Finnan 7, Carragher 8, Hyypia 8, Riise 7, Gerrard 8, Alonso 7, Sissoko 6, Garcia 6, Cisse 6, Morientes 6. Subs – Crouch 8, Zenden 8, Kewell 7.
Did-i Do Something Wrong?
Half-time Champions League hero Dietmar Hamann is reported to have had a fall-out with boss Benitez after not even traveling with the squad on Saturday. The German allegedly trained on his own at Melwood whilst the rest of the team grasped victory, probably wondering what he’s done wrong. Now I’m a big fan of ‘the Kaiser.’ He can single-handedly suffocate the best players in the world when he’s employed correctly in the middle of the park, but Rafa appears to have favoured the more energetic but less intelligent Momo Sissoko in almost every match this season, possibly leading to Didi questioning the manager’s selection process.
I’d just like to say that if these reports are true, then the treatment of Hamann is a slightly out-of-order. He was a massive factor in winning the Champions League and was key to Liverpool’s other victories last season, for example against Leverkusen. I really feel that the club should do everything in its powers to keep the German blocker, because his experience and steel will (remember, he took his penalty in Istanbul with a broken foot) is surely invaluable around the training ground and on the pitch, no matter how old he’s getting now. He also clearly a very likeable bloke – so just what has changed to make Rafa leave him out this term? I wouldn’t mind seeing somebody quiz the boss about this sometime in the near future.