"A scrappy 1-0 win is just what we need right now" That was what Gerard asked for, and that's what he got. But was THIS really just what we needed? I doubt if most of the 23,000 or so hardy souls who attended this game would say so.
I'd take a scrappy 1-0 win on Sunday against Sunderland, but a home game against opposition as poor as Vitesse should be yielding more than just a single goal victory. It wasn't even as though their keeper had a blinder and we were unfortunate. In fact, had it not been for a goalpost at the Kop end, and the agility of young 'Kirky', we may have drawn this game or even worse.
I realise that complaining after a victory leaves me open to accusations of being a moaning bastard, but that's a risk I'm willing to take. I was more disheartened after this than I was after defeat at the Valley last Saturday. It's easy to criticise after a defeat, but sometimes you have to look beyond the result and look at performances too, which was why I wasn't particularly scathing after the Charlton game.
We've played much better this season and lost, and had we been up against any half decent side, we'd probably have lost again. Thankfully, we weren't, and we're still in the competition.
If we're too stay in it though, we need to show a massive improvement on this display, and I'm sure we will. This was a strange occasion to say the least. With a one goal cushion from the first leg, and the knowledge that Vitesse were about as potent as Pele without his Viagra, many fans chose to give this one a miss.
The fact we're coming up to Christmas, it's freezing cold, the game was on BBC and a UEFA Cup tie with Vitesse is a massive comedown from Champions League clashes with the likes of Barca and Roma also contributed to the paltry turnout, and the players seemed to be affected by it.
The game was completely flat, there was no atmosphere, and to be honest I can't ever remember being as bored at a game as I was at this one. It was just completely uninspiring, and only Danny Murphy seemed capable of bringing any flair or excitement to the evening.
Murphy didn't have a great game by any means, and by the end he'd been dragged down to the level of everybody else, but for the first hour or so he was comfortably the best player on view.
He created the only goal of the game with a brilliant ball to Owen, who finished at the second attempt after a feeble initial shot. Murphy has been supplying Owen with some great service recently, but Michael isn't making the most of the chances right now. Perhaps that's why Danny isn't getting anything like the recognition he deserves, because this season Murphy has arguably been our best player (Hamann and Henchoz are the only ones running him close).
Chris Kirkland also comes out of this game with credit, as he made saves when he needed to, and without his intervention this could have become a very uncomfortable evening, instead of just an extremely dull one.
There's not much more to add to this. Baros came on and nearly scored, and he simply has to play against Sunderland as right now he's our most dangerous looking forward. Diouf does some nice things, but all his best work is coming in his own half. He's got undoubted talent, but fitting him into the side is proving to be a problem for GH.
The main thing of course is being in the hat for the next round, but even though we won, I doubt if the team's confidence will have been boosted by this. In fact, it may have taken even more of a knock, as there's no escaping from the fact we were piss poor tonight.
Sunderland are next, and they are in a shambolic state right now. Whether this is a good time to play them or not is debatable, but I suppose we'll now on Sunday evening.
