From the sublime to the ridiculous. On Friday we were comfortably disposing of the best team in Europe. Three days later we were being humbled by the worst team in the Premiership (forget what the league table says, by May Wanderers will be bottom or very close to it). If there's anyone that's offended by bad language, then please don't bother reading the rest of this report, as events on the pitch, plus how the police treated the travelling reds after the game mean that I won't be holding back at all, and there'll be a fair few expletives in here. Firstly, the game itself. Personally speaking, this is one of the worst defeats I can remember in a long time (maybe because I'd forgotten what it feels like to lose a game!). It's right up there with the successive derby defeats at Anfield, losing away to Boro last year (after having just beaten both the mancs and Arsenal in successive games), losing three in a row to Leicester at home and the defeat at White Hart Lane last season.
There's differing reasons why these particular games stand out for me, but last night is right up there with the worst of them, for several reasons. a) once again we proved that we can beat the best, but we'll struggle to beat the shite, b) we'd been laughing at the mancs all week and taken huge pleasure in their 'problems' - but the fact is that United would have hammered what is a piss poor Bolton side, and c) I really thought that this year we were well equipped to break down sides with a ten man defence.
Actually, we are well equipped to break these sides down now, but unfortunately our manager cocked up in a very big way with his team selection and tactics. It may seem churlish to criticise the great man, as after all he's just brought the club five trophies in six months, but seeing as how I'm the first one to sing his praises when he gets it right, it's only fair that if he gets it wrong he should not be above criticism.
Most people appear to be blaming Westerveld for this defeat, but even though it was an awful mistake, Sander isn't the one who should carry the can for this, Houllier is. No doubt this statement won't do my popularity any good, but I'm simply calling it as I see it, and for me Houllier blundered in a very big way. My reason for saying this can be summed up in just two words: 'Jari', and 'Litmanen.' Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't the whole reason for bringing Litmanen to Anfield, to help us break down packed defences?
We've struggled for years against sides who get men behind the ball and make it difficult for us, and Litmanen is one of the worlds best at unlocking a defence. Jari is a genius, and in games where we are expected to be doing most of the attacking, he should surely be utilised behind TWO strikers. Gerard has made it clear that he doesn't feel that width is that important to our style of play, and if that's how he wants us to play then fine. But having Hamann, Murphy, McAllister (and to a lesser extent) Gerrard all standing on eachothers toes playing ten yard passes to each other in front of a packed defence is not going to win us games against shite teams like Bolton.
Frankly, the team selection was poor. I have nothing against Danny Murphy, but it is becoming irritating now that he is starting so many games (particularly on the left of midfield). Maybe this isn't such a bad policy in tough games when we'll be doing a lot of defending, but when we're expected to make the play, then we'll get found out. I don't think Danny had a particularly bad game, but he just wasn't good enough and his presence unbalanced the side. I like Danny, but he's just a squad player, and we had better options available. If someone could explain to me how he managed to stay on the field for the full ninety minutes whilst a world class performer like Jari was left rotting on the subs bench, I'd be most grateful.
I think the reason why this defeat has hurt me so much is simply because it proved that nothing has changed. This game was like so many from last season, and it suggests that Houllier hasn't learnt from those games. Maybe I'm being harsh, and maybe it's because I'm writing this report whilst the anger is still festering from last night, but it's how I feel, and with some justification I would say.
When it comes to playing the top teams, GH is usually 100% spot on with his tactical approach. Playing four central midfield players in these games is actually a good ploy. However, when it comes to playing the dregs of the Premiership, Houllier's tactics are simply not up to scratch. The lack of width becomes a huge problem, as teams will bottle up the middle of the park and stop us getting through. We end up relying on the brilliance of Owen to get us out of trouble. Mickey was excellent again last night, and looked sharp as a tac once again. However, he was fed on scraps and this time even he couldn't rescue us.
I don't want to dwell on Fowler (as no doubt the press will be more than happy to do that), so I'll be brief. Robbie has been pissed off at the lack of opportunities he's had, and feels he should be playing more. Many fans (myself included) would say that he had a point. Tonight was his big chance to prove a point, but let's be fair, he stank the place out. He looked to be well lacking on both match sharpness, and more worryingly, overall fitness. He was fortunate that he even came out after half time, as I would have hauled him off there and then and got Heskey on straight away. His reaction when he was subbed was not the best. If he was pissed off with his own display, then fair enough. If he was pissed off with being subbed, then he's living in cloud cuckoo land. He needs to get himself fit, and if that means playing in the reserves and doing extra training, then so be it, but at the moment he isn't up to playing Premiership football.
The marvellous Stevie G apart, we had no penetration from midfield whatsoever. Gary Mac had one of his poorer games, it just wasn't happening for Murphy, and Hamann was okay but as we know is more of holding player, and isn't going to create too much. The game was screaming out for Litmanen, and it was almost criminal that he wasn't introduced. Maybe I'm over simplifying things, but when you're struggling to break down a packed defence, and you have one of the world's most creative players sitting on the bench, surely it's common sense to bring him on?
We've seen this type of game so many times over recent seasons, and there's simply no excuse for the way we don't seem to be learning from it. Losing to Bolton is bad enough, but when it's Dean Holdsworth scoring the winning goal then it becomes hugely embarrassing. I haven't felt this embarrassed about a result since Ian Marshall scored Leicester's winner at the Kop end a few years ago. We pay these shit teams far too much respect, and unless we start being more adventurous and ruthless, it will cost us any chance we have of winning the Premiership.
This is not a knee jerk reaction to bad defeat. Had we played well but lost this game 4-3 due to defensive howlers, it wouldn't have concerned me. The reason I am concerned is that we were made to look ordinary by a very poor side. We approach games against these sides the same way we would a game at Highbury, and it's ridiculous. These are teams we should be hammering. Not just beating them, but fucking hammering them. Riise or Vignal should be at left back, with instrructions to get forward as much as possible, Jari should be behind two strikers, and we should have the likes of Gerrard, Berger (when fit) or McAllister supporting the attack, with Hamann protecting the defence. The line up that faced Haka in Finland, that's how we should be approaching these games.
Instead, we've got this cautious approach, which means that the opposition will always have a chance of beating us if they can just nick a goal and then sit on it. Sander will be blamed for costing us the game, but even if he hadn't made that cock up, we'd still only have drew, which is not good enough. Westervaled's blunder cost us one point, Houllier's selection cost us three. At least that's how I see it.
There is another possible explanation for our failure to win this game, and it's a much more alarming one. During the great run we've been on, virtually every game was a must win encounter. Quite simply, if we lost there was no coming back from it. When Leeds won at Anfield, the player knew they had to win almost every single game to have any chance of getting a top three spot. The Cup games were all win or bust affairs too, and it brought out the best in the side. Could it be that they're taking their foot off the gas now? After all, they know that if they lose a game now, there's always next week. I don't think that this isn't the case, but it's a possibility. I guess we'll find out one way or another in the next couple of months. I should point out though that I certainly didn't see anything to suggest a lack of commitment against Bolton.
The players tried (none more so that Murphy, but it just wasn't happening for the lad), but the side was unbalanced, and the tactics weren't right. For that, Gerard has to take the blame. I hope people don't take this criticism of Gerard the wrong way. I love the guy, I think he's done a fantastic job and I can't speak highly enough of him. But even the greats aren't perfect, and Gerard's achilles heel is unquestionably his inability to select and organise a side that can trounce the sides who just want to defend. Bolton had three chances last night. Two ended in goals and the other was cleared off the line. How many times did that happen in the early part of last season? Every away game wasn't it?
You can guarantee at the start of every season that we'll drop points to teams that will finish in the bottom three. Last year was something of an improvement, as the only points we dropped to the relegated sides was against City at Maine Road. However, we took only one point of Boro, and Derby got a draw at Anfield. It's the ability to dispose of shite such as Derby, Bolton, Leicester and Boro that separates the mancs from us. Until Gerard sorts that out, we aren't going to close the gap. The frustrating this is that we have the players to do it, but the manager won't pick them. No doubt there'll be plenty who disagree, and that's fair enough. Everyone has their own opinion, and I'm merely voicing mine here.
The game was bad enough, but worse was to come outside. I made my way back to the coach without any problems, but shortly after I got there and was safely in my seat I saw all kinds of commotion outside involving a few of the lads off our coach. I assumed that the Boloton fans had attacked them as they came out of the ground, as some of them had been goading us all game. Had Bolton lost then I'm sure that would have been the case, but the fact was that the Wanderers fans were too busy celebrating to be bothered about causing trouble. It was the police that caused the problem.
The lads say that as they came out of the ground the police just went for them. They began kicking and shoving some of our lads as they came out of the ground. One lad was dragged to the floor and kicked in the head by a policeman. Another was pinned to the floor by his throat whilst another kicked him. The lads swore they had done nothing to provoke it, and although usually I'm sceptical when I hear that type of thing, on this occasion I'm positive that was the case. The reason I'm so sure is because I was watching the fucking horrible twats provoking the fans, and inciting trouble.
I actually saw one policeman kicking a young lad of about 16, who's only 'offence' was trying to get past them to get on his coach. One kicked him, and another had a swing at him. Brave aren't they? These are the type of shithouses who'd run a fucking mile if they weren't in uniform and got caught up in a fight.
Another lad I saw was fucking furious, and was desperately trying to get at the police, but thankfully he was held back by his mates or he would have ended up in big trouble. I later found out that the reason for the lads anger was that he'd been pushed to the floor and kicked in the head for no apparent reason. The lad was sat directly behind me on the coach, and didn't say a word all the way home, he was just in shock. I really felt for him.
I've written here many times that the actions of some of our younger followers has left a lot to be desired at certain away games, but the lads who made this trip were well behaved. There were no Munich songs on the coach, and it seemed like the usual mob of scallies hadn't been able to get tickets for this game (thankfully). It's lucky they didn't, because had the police started on them then there would have been serious problems. The lads who were attacked were obviously well pissed off, but they managed to control themselves pretty well under some serious provocation, and fair play to them for that.
As for the police, their actions were fucking deplorable. These spineless cunts have no right to wear the uniform. I have every respect for the job the police do, but fucking scumbag twats such as these give the ordinary 'bobby' a bad name. Many people have no respect for the police, and this is why. Words cannot express the anger I'm feeling today towards these fucking cowards. Hiding behind the uniform, knowing that they're above the law. The fact is, they know that there's fuck all any of us can do about it. I can just imagine the cunts today, sitting in the police canteen eating fucking doughnuts, boasting about how they kicked fuck out of some scousers the night before. Fucking Pigs.
I expect there'll be people reading this and thinking 'well they must have done something for the police to react in that way.' As I said, I was thinking the same thing, but what clinched it for me was when our coach pulled away, all the cowardly fuckers were stood in a line laughing, waving and generally taunting us as the coach drove by. If the police had not caused the problem, would they be behaving like that? They were goading us, and their actions could have incited some really serious problems. Is that appropriate behaviour for police officers? One day they'll do it to the wrong set of fans, and things will get really nasty. And when it does, who will get the blame? Well it won't be the police that's for fucking sure. Spineless cunts.
TEAM: Sander Westerveld; Markus Babbel (John Arne Riise), Sami Hyypia, Stephane Henchoz, Jamie Carragher; Steven Gerrard, Dietmar Hamann, Gary McAllister, Danny Murphy; Michael Owen, Robbie Fowler (Emile Heskey):
