That Was The Week Then Was It?
Last updated : 02 December 2002 By Patrick Cousins
Should we blame him for our worse defeat against the enemy since, since, well, since Jamie Carragher scored two for Man Utd. a few years back? I don’t think so. It was nothing less than bloody awful, although for a second I did think Forlan may still miss.
However, you may like to ask exactly what team Liverpool were doing for the hour before the apocalypse. If we’re talking mistakes, why were we hitting long balls to a defence sitting deep with five players? Why did we not hit the target with three free kicks just outside the area? How many times did we pass straight to a white shirt? Ferguson (like so many visitors to Anfield recently) came to play defensively and hit us on the break. All it exposed was our inability to break teams down and find some invention up front.
Arsenal play with Pires and Ljungberg, Man Utd. play with Giggs and Beckham, where are our Duff and Thompson? We can defend with a back four, Hamann and either Murphy or Gerrard, leaving four players who can attack and I don’t mean Heskey playing left wing. For that matter, Riise is not a left winger either and I’m afraid Smicer just doesn’t cut it.
Every manager has their favourites and it’s no secret that Heskey and Smicer are Houllier’s. I’m a Liverpool fan and that means I support the players. I love Heskey and Smicer (In a blokey football way of course) as much as anyone but really, what is the number of games they have any real effect on? Unfortunately I feel it’s about 1 in 10. Don’t agree? Try and compare Smicer to Pires and not laugh at the same time.
Murphy and Gerrard are great players but they are not wide men. They can be good going forward but they are there to win the ball and defend. At the moment I feel it would do no harm to give starts to Berger, Diomede, Partridge or even Heggem. Owen will never score if he doesn’t get passed the ball. Practically every goal he scores is one he’s made himself. The same goes for Heskey. I do sympathise with him. When he’s on the pitch, the whole team decide it’s time to hit long balls to him. Heskey might stand a chance of success if someone made him some chances.
Sorry for the longevity of the article this week and I know I’m not usually one to rant. However, when we lose to Fergie, I tend to turn into Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
