In Luis Garcia and Xabi Alonso, manager Rafael Benitez has recruited a pair of special Spaniards and, even without Steven Gerrard, Liverpool have backbone as well as flair. When the England midfielder hobbled out of Old Trafford, his broken metatarsal gave Rafael Benitez’s Spanish revolution with its first real test.
Amid the hullabaloo over Gerrard, Benitez, already displaying an admirable knack of seeing the bigger picture, simply reinstated Dietmar Hamman and chose instead to blame his team’s second successive away defeat on lax marking.
“If you play well and do the right things, it doesn’t matter about the opposition,” maintained Benitez. “We could have had more goals. We’re at 65% now, but we need to progress and move on to the next level.”
Yesterday, against a Norwich side still without a league victory, Benitez shuffled his pack with an eye on next week’s tricky trips to Olympiakos and Chelsea.
More crucially, perhaps, Benitez abandoned the zonal marking which had served him ill in Manchester. Norwich may have barely managed to break out of their half in the first period, but when they did, no matter how many bodies they flung forward for their set pieces, a Liverpool man clung — often literally — to them like a red limpet.
City came to frustrate. David Bentley, their creative linchpin, was left on the bench and what was nominally a four-man defence often numbered double that. They needed to be strong, because Liverpool swept forward from the off, going left, right, down the centre, and high and low. Within five minutes, John Arne Riise had sliced a chance wide following an Alonso through-ball, Garcia had shot inches over Robert Green’s bar and Djibril Cisse had headed on to the roof of the net.
City surrendered territory, battened down the hatches, kicked for touch and hoped Hurricane Rafael would pass. It didn’t.
“The honeymoon is over,” admitted visiting manager Nigel Worthington. “They were sheer quality, but we have to start keeping the ball better and realise how ruthless the Premiership is.”
The overworked Green found his England credentials sternly tested. He spilled a low Steve Finnan cross but did much better with a spinning Alonso drive. Indeed, much like Gerrard at his best, Alonso was Liverpool’s fulcrum and heartbeat, changing the shape of play with each magisterial crossfield ball, all while working as hard as his absent captain. “If I was a fan, I’d pay money to see him wherever he played,” said Worthington. “He and especially his passing were a different class.”
“He is,” smiled Benitez, “a very clever player. That makes everything easier for him.”
When the opener came, the only surprise was that it had taken 23 minutes. Milan Baros, 25 yards out, cut in from the left. Youssef Safri shadowed him but unaccountably failed to make a challenge. Baros took aim and fired, low, hard and right-footed past Green’s despairing right hand.
Four minutes later, a second. Cisse’s eagle-eyed through-ball outwitted a plethora of green shirts and found Garcia, who was shackled by Adam Drury and Simon Charlton. The Spaniard turned them both and, albeit with the aid of a hefty deflection, wrong-footed Green for his second Premiership goal. Half an hour had not yet passed and City’s task already looked hopeless.
Liverpool briefly slackened and Gary Doherty hit Norwich’s only shot of the first period into Jerzy Dudek’s midriff. Soon, though, Green was foiling Baros before the break. Worthington introduced Bentley’s white-booted Premiership quality and the mobility of Leon McKenzie for the second half, but even he must have sensed the futility of it all.
Liverpool eased into exhibition mode. In the 53rd minute they should have scored a third with a move that exhibited their brawn and brain. Charlton was muscled off the ball on the edge of the penalty area by Baros. He found Garcia who, with the cunning of a fox, backheeled into Stephen Warnock’s path, only for Green to save the youngster’s first-time drive.
The Kop stood as one and applauded, just as they did moments later when Cisse ran 20 yards to chase a lost cause and tackle Charlton to set up yet another attack.
Cisse, in fact, had done everything but score. In the 63rd minute, he righted that wrong after the exhausted Craig Fleming gave away a cheap free kick on the edge of the box. Riise tapped it to Alonso, who in turn squared it for Cisse, whose first-time low drive sped past Green.
After that, Cisse and Alonso were substituted, to universal applause. Liverpool wound the clock down while City struggled in vain for a scrap of dignity. Alas for them, the second half passed without Dudek having to make a save.
“This will do us no harm,” concluded Worthington. “It’s a big learning curve for us.”
Their winter may well be bleak indeed.