Without Owen, Gerrard, Finnan, Ponggolle and playing with a starting eleven which included the likes of Cheryou and Traore, never in a million years would anyone would have expected us to give 'em millionaires a nice whooping at the Bridge the way we did! What is happening to this world?!! Can someone please, oh please explain to me what on earth happened this morning. Please! Pretty please! For once, i could see us playing with the determination, spirit and grit that has been missing all this while. This is the way we should be playing every week, with the urge to win the game, giving your 110% in everything that you do, wanting to win. This is the Liverpool i used to know. Now, only if i had put a tenner on them!
Hats off to our very own Emile IvanHoe Heskey, considering he has started to actually show us the stuff that persuaded us to part with those 11 million squid just to get him a few years back. He is actually starting to show us the form of 2-3 years ago when he was putting himself about, not falling on his arse at the slightest touch and actually scoring and making goals. Now, if only he can continue doing this for the next 5 months consistently, i would have absolutely no complains and will officially drop his nickname (to me) as the Donkey who can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo. ( Yeah, i know, these past few seasons have shown me too many false dawns of our Heskey coming back to form that i would care to remember, but give me some slack here, you can't blame me for being a tad bit optimistic after what i would say one of the best results for us so fat this season ). Okay, maybe he still can't hit a cow's arse with a banjo, but at least he looks like he wants to play and run around and actually break a sweat or two. Now all that's missing from him would be the return of the infamous Dee-Jay celebrations! OK, maybe not!
Traore, oh Traore. He shows us exactly why he is considered a much better defender than Riise. Although he offers feck all going forward, but like Carragher, he is pretty solid when it comes to the stuff he is actually paid to do, i.e. defending. Just look at his block at the end of the game. I bet Carragher taught him a thing or two about putting your body in between the ball and the goal like that. Now if only he can overcome his proneness to the odd one or TWENTY careless mistakes per game, he may actually turn out to be a good player to keep as "backup". (Hell no am i gonna have him as a first teamer, but yeah, as a backup defender, he should be OK). Come to think of it now, i quite agree on the choice of back four for today since all of them, while offering didly-squat in terms of attacking, offered us the most secure back four i have seen in quite a while already. And considering the fact that we were playing 'em millionaires at ze' Bridge, and also thinking back about the state of our defense coming up to this match, i can't blame Houllier for picking the players he picked and playing the way they played.
However, not all was fine and dandy though. Attacking wise, we still looked absolutely toothless and looked as if we had no idea what we were doing. Mr Bruno "Poncy-boots (was he wearing his white boots again? i don't remember)" Cheryou, scored us the winner, yes he did, but other than that did absolutely nothing to tell me that he needs to be chosen again in the next game. Kewell looked like he wasn't interested and was invisible as per his last few games, although i wouldn't put too much blame on him (yet?!!) as players are expected to go through some dip in form during the course of the season. I also have no idea why Diouf got himself sent off, and if the referee were to see the recordings, neither would he.
I would seriously hope Dudek gets over his injury in time for our next game against the villians this weekend. With him and Kirky out, we would have to turn to the untested Luzi to keep in between the posts. Now, i'm all for letting 'em young ones have a go, but considering the fact that we could describe our defense this season with the words "dodgy" and "freaking inconsistent", a more experienced keeper i would prefer much more. Also, the sight of him flapping at a cross, being absolutely nowhere near the ball, and being let off the hook by Mutu being infected by fits of Heskey-itis and hitting the post from a free header when it was much more difficult to miss, doens't really give someone like me that much confidence. I have no doubts that he is indeed an able shot stopper, judging by his save against Mutu a few minutes later on, but he is too inexperienced and needs more confidence, and throwing him in the deep end, especially with the state of our defence, won't really do him much good in teh confidence department and all.
I have waited so long this season to see us play as if we want to win,wanting to give it our all, wanting to get a result, just wanting to make sure that we are giving it our 110%, and for one of the very very few times this season, i am satisfied. For one of the very few times this season i feel proud of the players. It wasn't pretty, it wasn't what you would call our best performance ever, it wasn't a display of any attacking intentions, it way butt ugly. But that's more like it! Play like you wanna kick the arse out of the opponents (football wise) and open a huge "can o' whoopass". Now bring on the Villians this weekend!
You'll Never Walk Alone
Later
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