After a disappointing display, watching what can only be described as a toothless attack the game against one of their bitter rivals with a side riddled with ex-Liverpool players couldn’t be more important.
The league table before today’s game makes depressing reading with Man City a country mile ahead of the reds. With them to face at Anfield in the fixture following Chelsea, if any realistic hope of ‘challenging’ is anyone at Anfield’s minds, then 6 points from these games has to be a must. All the fans hear in pre and post match press conferences is how one day this Liverpool team will click and will give a side a real hiding. Is this what we wanted, a team showing inconsistency with the occasional good result where a team are well beaten? Most Liverpool fans will have hoped we saw the end of these days after a run of Souness, Evans, Houllier, Hodgson and to an extent Benitez made us all endure for years.
Liverpool’s owners have invested heavily into the squad and will expect the side they have paid for to be able contest any battle at any location. The worrying thing against Swansea was it wasn’t even just a case of missing chance after chance, Swansea bossed the majority of the game and we were playing second fiddle. This is not good enough. What is the problem? What is the answer? This is the task Kenny has take on, and to turn a side which on paper should be in the mix with the best in the land, from the underperforming performances we have seen so far.
Today’s task is a tough one, but a fixture in which Liverpool have done well over recent years with two consecutive 1-0 wins. The intensity of the game is added to by ex players Torres and Meireles, most fans feeling let down by both of these player’s departures. Chelsea will pose a difficult threat, but one shining light for Liverpool is the fact the Londoner’s defence is looking very frail and easily exposed this season.
In previous seasons, managers who have got success at Stamford Bridge, have played with focus on the flanks, pinning Chelsea’s attacking full backs into defensive duty rather than supporting the wide men and getting forward. This again may be a tactic employed today.
Gerrard out injured, the big question today being whether Jamie Carragher will be risked. It is a big game for players like Carroll, Henderson, Adam, Downing and Kuyt but no doubt all the talk before and hopefully after the game will be about Luis Suarez. I am hoping all this negative talk will spur the Uruguayan into a match winning display. He really could be the player to exploit Chelsea’s high defensive line employed by Villas-Boas.
Suarez was in world class form for his country becoming the first South American player to score 4 goals in a competitive game for over 10 years. Pepe Reina has come out this week in proclaiming that Suarez is a much better player than former idol Torres. Today is the day for the feisty South American to show us all just that.
Even with a win today there is a lot of work to be done to make the table better reading, but it will be a step in the right direction rather than the gloomy Sunday evening we will all have on the back of a defeat. It is to deliver to the best fans arguably in the world that deserve nothing more than a convincing victory at Stamford Bridge.