COLUMNIST KEN BUCKLEY

From my seat: Liverpool (A)

By Ken Buckley :  06/02/2010 :  Comments (21) :

Another ritual over for this season with the Blues left with no bragging rights, no points and no punch as our lovable neighbours complete a double from two games that should have seen the positions reversed but for some inexplicable performances that seemed to exude fear where non was visible to the onlooker.

A game that will laud Kuyt as the man of the match for Liverpool but from my seat their man of the match was Kyrgiakos who although sent off after a only a third of the game also took with him Fellaini, injured in his two footed lunge, which even with the introduction of Arteta cost us the best player on the field and with his departure an inexplicable lack of purpose descended on those left to battle on culminating in a game that saw us create only two realistic efforts on goal even though we enjoyed a man advantage. We just didn’t have the player to take on the Fellaini mantle

The game started in typical derby fashion and within seconds Carragher floored Pienaar, an obvious foul that the ref. Mr Atkinson let go, it set the tone for more over-physical stuff from both sides that ultimately spoiled the game as a spectacle. No-one likes to see an over fussy ref and good fierce tackles are the lifeblood of derbies but some of the stuff on view was over the top and due to the ref’s inexperience in such games his leniency saw the game get out of his control and culminated in red shown to a Liverpool player and the services of Fellaini denied to us.

In that first half Pienaar could have been sent off for one high tackle on Mascherano and Carragher was booked for a scything tackle through the back of Pienaar yet after all this it seemed petty when Kuyt was booked for a mere trip on Donovan. Among all this very little football broke out in that 45mins and chances were scarce, for the Blues Baines had a free kick tipped over and right on the half time whistle our best move of the game saw Donovan put in a cross that was headed back across goal only for of all people Cahill to get a header wrong and head over when well placed, maybe not the easiest of chances but for an exponent such as Cahill better could have been expected. Liverpool’s best effort of the half was a free kick from Gerrard that clipped the top of the bar.

Half-time and the chat, in-between exchanging insults with our cousins, was that against ten we should prevail.

The second half was most disappointing for all Blues assembled as we seemed clueless in how to break down two banks of four, instead we seemed more fearful of them getting a breakaway and that fear led to uncertainty in making passes in the final third which in turn led to errors that did indeed allow them to break. This they did and just 10 mins in forced a corner that Gerrard put in with pace but arcing straight to our keeper who seemed to no more than flap at it and the ball found the net via the head of the outnumbered Kuyt. The Reds were now encouraged even more and easily mopped up anything that we could muster,

Arteta was back to orchestrate but to me he looked well off the pace required in games such as this and ended up being nice and tidy but without the drive and presence of Fellaini which always seemed to give our opponents time to regroup and break and at times it was hard to tell which team was playing with ten men. One of these breaks saw Heitinga booked for a foul to halt a Maxi run which led to a free kick which Gerrard hit straight at Howard.

Our lack of threat led the manager to replace Saha and Osman with Yak and Big Vic, these two had little impact save for one trademark Yak turn in the box and an instant hit that the keeper did well to turn over but Big Vic’s sole contributions were of one delayed cross that could have brought us a chance instead of a corner and then picking a fight with amongst others Gerrard who was booked for his initial kicking of Pienaar which saw Big Vic also booked for his intervention.

5mins of added time was shown which saw no further invention from the Blues and in the last of the minutes added Pienaar added insult to injury when he saw red for a second caution when he jumped into Gerrard, considering what the ref had let go in the first third of the game he can count himself unlucky.

Overall a thoroughly disappointing afternoon which I thought was caused by our players getting caught up in the hype of a derby instead of concentrating on the joined up stuff, keeping cool heads and not allowing themselves to get caught up in a brawl. No doubt Liverpool set out to unsettle us, my gripe is we let them and never recovered. I can only hope Fellaini is not to badly injured as today he demonstrated just how much we need him. Arteta needs games to become the force he was. Pienaar will miss the next game but on his current form will not be that big of a miss. On looking for a MotM for the Blues all I can say is that Heitinga looked as steady and assured as anyone after the loss of Fellaini.

Wednesday will come quickly and the team will need to quickly put this local difficulty behind them and get on with the steady improvement they have been showing of late and let some joined up stuff resurface. Chelsea may look daunting from our standpoint tonight but no two games are the same and I expect a reaction.
See you there

UP THE BLUES

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