Liverpool 3 – 0 Sunderland

“Lacklustre” was the word used to the describe the first half on my mobile phone text update service.  “Unlucky” I can understand, but “lacklustre” – isn’t that just a fancy way of saying that we “couldn’t be arsed” in the first half??  Probably not the best attitude to take when you’ve not won in the league since Boxing Day.

Fortunately, the second half was much better.  Having watched Pennant spend 45 minutes occasionally beating a man and “crossing” the ball to no one, Jamie Carragher decided to show him how it was done – shifting the ball to give himself space to provide a great cross met by the head of – you guessed it – Peter Crouch, who hung in the air and then placed it firmly into the corner of the net.

On 69 minutes a mid-distance ball and a bit of head tennis allowed the ball to find the head of Crouch, who beautifully cushioned it on his forward-running strike partner in Torres – perfect link up play.  Skipping between the two Sunderland centre-halves, Torres passed the ball through Craig Gordon, somewhat fortuitously.

We went to sleep after the second goal and Sunderland should have had a penalty after Carragher handballed.  Was it deliberate?  No.  But my opinion is that if you raise your hands in the penalty area you’re using them as extra room to stop the ball.  Of course the rules say a handball has to be deliberate, so who knows?

Once again, the notion of “controlling a game goes out the window” – Sunderland had done NOTHING all game, yet when they finally decided to play, they could have had a penalty and missed a virtually unmissable chance soon after to score – and where would the control have been then?  What would the 60 minutes of huff-and-puff have counted for then? Am I being cynical?  No.  I’m being honest – we waste far too much time on the football field. About 60% of our play is directed at keeping the ball in our own half.  And the first half of this game had NOTHING of note.  That’s 45 minutes of nothing!  When you think we scored 3 goals against AC Milan in 6 minutes… every minute on a football pitch is precious, and the only excuse for wasting time is when you’re 3-0 up, not before!

With 7 minutes to go we needed a hard working defensive midfielder to run around and not get forward too often, so we brought Kuyt on (guess who for?)

And proving that he isn’t entirely useless, Pennant won a penalty with a minute to go and Gerrard scored, somehow.  It was a very poor penalty.  But it put a gloss on the scoreline at least.  (I’d like to see Torres take our pens personally, if only to see him get more League goals).

Another goal and assist for Crouchie.  He must start every game alongside Torres where possible from now until the end of season.

West Ham 1 – 0 Liverpool

Did we run over a whole sack of black cats? West Ham 0 – 1 L from a penalty in the 90th minute is unlucky. It’s unlucky because there was only one team that looked like winning in the last 15 minutes (which is usually when Liverpool realise that there’s a game to be won).

But the truth is, no matter how unlucky this might have been, we shot ourselves in the foot long ago. Everyone loses games in the last minute from time to time (usually use when we play United), and calls it bad luck. But drawing more games in the League than everyone else, and consistently failing to:

a) kill teams off

b) perform at any consistent level

c) play anything resembling good football

…is not bad luck, it’s bad management, and players simply not turning up.

Yet again, Crouch was on the bench after scoring in the last two games. Kuyt started again up front – why?

That “game in hand” we still have is now necessary just to get 4th and go level on points with Everton. God how pathetic is that?

All this bleating about boardroom uncertainty is nonsense; it’s an excuse, and if the most important thing in the players’ minds was winning it wouldn’t matter. It’s lack of confidence, ok, boo hoo. Get over it. Real winners, real champions, don’t complain about others – they make things happen themselves. A real winner doesn’t wait for other people to hand things to him on a plate, he wants, and ONLY wants, what he can earn himself.

We’ve spent £60m+ this season – anyone who says Rafa hasn’t been backed is talking rubbish – he has been backed, this, and previous seasons, just like Houllier was. The problem is awful signings and poor mentality, and it all stems from a bankrupt footballing philosophy: ‘defend first, avoid defeat’. Instead of ‘attack first, go to win’.

Moyes calls for “respect”

Apparently, the Premier League should take a winter break in “respect” to the Africa Cup of Nations, so that players are allowed to represent their countries without it clashing with their club duties, according to Bitters’ manager David Moyes.

Where does respect enter into it? Why doesn’t Africa “respect” the Premier League and hold its tin-pot trophy during the summer?

Does anyone even watch this competition anyway? I flicked over and I thought I was watching head-tennis – at the end of the game there wasn’t a hint of grass or dirt on the football!

If you don’t want your “key” players to be missing for a month, don’t sign them from Africa. If you’re an African player, decide between your club or country. Decide which is more important to you: the honour and privilege of representing the football association that pays your wages in the greatest league on earth, or playing hoofball in the sand to win a shiny bucket.

FA Cup 5th round draw

The Mancs get Arsenal at their place, and Chelsea get Huddersfield at Shitford Bridge.

We get Barnsley at Anfield.  Any comments I’ve made about the FA Cup draw being fixed I would now like to take back!

In all fairness, Barnsley are doing well at the moment and I think we could sneak a win or take them to a replay…

Liverpool 5 – 2 Havant & Waterlooville

We chuckled when the first goal went in, to H&W after 7 minutes. After Lucas equalised, I thought “here we go!”, although it took us 27 minutes to break down the semi-professionals… The next goal came shortly after, as expected. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to Liverpool! The official report gives it to Skrtel as an OG, but I think that’s harsh on the H&W player. Awful cock-up from Finnan to gift him the chance. At this point “disbelief” would be an understatement.

Yossi equalised just before half time to make it 2-2, then added two more early in the second half to complete his hattrick. Benayoun is exactly the sort of player we don’t have enough of! Tricky, skilful, great technique, can beat a man, do the unexpected, makes clever runs, and can finish – his runs from midfield are what Liverpool need to see more of, and if Gerrard doesn’t play, there’s no one else to provide them. Arriving in the box at the right time is an art, and the other “big 3″ get so many goals that way. (Having said that, they also score from set pieces every now and then too.)

Stevie came on with 5 minutes to go and set Crouch up to make the scoreline look more presentable at 5-2, even though he was offside.

Kuyt missed a very good chance to get himself a goal in what is now approaching 746 hours and 59 minutes of football…since he last had a shot on target.

Mascherano didn’t play particularly well, but Pennant looked like a world-beater in the second half – has he found his level?? If we were anywhere near top form, this would’ve been double figures, but the team looks visibly drained and short of confidence – and our inability to play through teams is very worrying. Something needs to change quickly before we come up against a half-decent side and get embarrassed.

For the neutral, this was a perfect example of the magic of the FA Cup. The H&W players lapped up every minute and the LFC fans gave them a great reception at the end of the game. They’re maybe one of my second teams now!

Pacquette (9)

Lucas (27)

Skrtel OG (31)

Benayoun (44, 56, 59)

Crouch (90)

Liverpool 2 – 2 Aston Villa

What happened there?

Started off slowly but eventually slipped into gear and started playing some good football – the first goal was well worked and Yossi scored yet again; 1-0.

3 minutes of madness in the second half later (after wasting the customary golden chances – mentioning no Kuyts, I mean names), we’re 2-1 down. Villa didn’t deserve it, but on the counter-attack they should have made it 3-1, so when Crouch equalised with 2 minutes to go, you couldn’t complain at the draw.

Yet again Crouch comes off the bench and grabs a goal with a great finish, whilst Kuyt and the (when not injured) Voronin get to play game after game, usually on the wing, running around tracking back for the team, and not looking like scoring if we played for 900 minutes.

If this doesn’t dispel the “controlling the game” myth nothing will – you can never control a football match! What is the point of “controlling” a game, whatever that means, if you don’t win? There’s only one or two teams that can rightfully claim to control a game with the way they play, and that’s United and Arsenal. Too much in football is unpredictable, and everything can change in minutes – control is an illusion. If you don’t take your chances it comes back to bite you in the arse, and Liverpool’s problem over the past decade has been killing teams off.

Yossi Benayoun x 1

Marlon Harewood x 1

Fabio Aurelio (OG) x 1

Peter Crouch x 1

Liverpool 5 – 0 Luton Town

We were probably lucky to get to a replay but if the best teams can play awful and avoid defeat then we’re world class, as the first tie performance was abysmal.

The first half here wasn’t much better, and Babel’s opener on half time eased a lot of frustration, and was probably somewhat fortuitous, as I could hear the “boo” boys warming up with seconds to go. Still, chants of “Rafa-Rafael” blasted out throughout the whole game. I don’t think he’s perfect but he’s a top man and a top manager and our support for him was brilliant.

Stevie got a hattrick, the first one a Liverpool player has scored since Collymore back in ‘95 against Rochdale. Hyypia scored his fourth for the season, and amazing enough it was from a corner, which goes to show 50th-time lucky.

Not a great match but good to see some goals; paper over cracks at the moment I feel though.

Scorers:

Babel x 1

Gerrard x 3

Hyypia x 1

Boro 1 – 1 Liverpool

I hate Middlesbrough. The football club isn’t that much better either. It’s now 5 years since Liverpool won there – and 4 years since we scored. Boro always turn it on against the big teams, including us. And if this performance was anything to go by, we’ll struggle to make the ‘Big 4′!

There’s a long way to go, but you expect to win these games, and if nothing else play better than we did.

The highlight was Torres’ stunning piledriver – he is a genuine class act.

Walk on

Welcome to Red Kop.  This is a blog for Liverpool fans, and any fans who like a laugh or rant about football in general – I’ll try to be as objective as possible, without losing any passion!