Report by John Gallagher at Carrow Road

This was the final fixture of a busy Festive Period for the Reds as they sought to go in to the top five and get the Chelsea defeat out of their system.

Predictably, Rafa made changes. Warnock came in for Traore, Diao for Hamann, Mellor for Pongolle and Nunez for the injured Alonso as the Reds went with a 4-5-1 with Garcia just behind Mellor.

This was my first visit to Carrow Road and I was impressed with the tidy ground that they have, and Delia's pies were an absolute delight.

Liverpool started the game okay, trying to put Norwich on the back foot early on and exert their authority. Riise went close with an effort that he hit wide from about eight yards out with his right foot, but he really should have buried it.

As the half wore on passes and crosses started to become misplaced, most notably by Diao, Garcia and in particular Nunez who got in to several good crossing positions only to hit them way to hard or put them out of play for a goalkick. It was shocking stuff.

Norwich rarely threatened except on the odd occasion Huckerby managed to isolate Finnan using his pace, but for the most part the full back proved to be up to the task, more than matching the Norwich player.

The first half was awful on the whole, with both sides struggling to play any fluent football and it was only the flu-stricken Gerrard that provided anything of note with a couple of rasping shots which flew wide.

The second half continued in the same vein, although Diao at least improved (although he couldn't have got much worse than he was in the first half to be honest). I was actually screaming for Garcia and Nunez to be brought off, as they were both woeful.

Then out of nothing Riise played a diagonal ball to Garcia, who scored an excellent goal lobbing the young Norwich keeper Green from a tight angle. It seemed to take an eternity to actually hit the net, and initially the Norwichj fans were mocking Garcia as it look like he'd made a mes of it. Then the ball dropped in and they fell silent.

Straight after the goal Mellor suffered his obligatory substitution, as Flo came on for him. He didn't play well but he got absolutely no service all game. He was taking up good positions in the box but not once did he get any quality off the midfield. It was inevitable he would be brought off, as it seems Rafa just can't when to get him off if he hasn't scored.

Mellor was unlucky to come off when it should have maybe been Garcia, but most definitely Nunez.

We wrapped up the points a few minutes later when Flo when clean through only for Green to parry his shot for Riise to convert for his third goal in four games with an easy tap-in. We then proceeded to try and see the game out by bringing on Hamann for Nunez and Djimi for Riise.

Norwich got a lifeline late on when their young sub Ryan Jarvis cut inside Djimi and curled a great effort which Dudek got a hand to but couldn't prevent from going in. They tried playing a few long balls late on but the defence stood firm to collect the three valuable points.

In truth it was an awful game, but having said that hopefully we are beginning to master the art of winning whilst not playing well. That's twice in a week now we've done it, as we did the same v Southampton at home.

Another positive sign is we didn't need Gerrard to be at his best to win either game which bodes well for when he goes to Chelsea.

The flip side of it is we lack quality in vital areas of the squad and with the injuries we have to two of our three most important players (Alonso and Baros) we will have to really dig in over the next few weeks.

I personally think myself that the likes of Nunez and Josemi and MAYBE even Garcia are short term buys to put extra bodies in the squad until we get the funding to bring extra class and quality into the squad.

Houllier did the same in his early reign, with the likes of Ferri, Song etc being purchased. Just cheap buys to see us through for the time being.

I feel sorry for Nunez. It is blatantly obvious he is not good enough but deep down I think most fans knew that when we signed him that he wouldn't be. We tried convincing ourselves that he wasn't in the Madrid side due to Beckham and Figo being there, but it's fairly obvious now he just hasn't got it.

People who are judging Rafa on these signings are being unfair and until he gets some serious money we should reserve judgement.

On the whole he is doing okay, despite his occasionally baffling team selections and substitutions, or sometimes lack of them.

I am convinced that by next New Year we will be in a much better state squad wise than we are now.


Liverpool: Dudek, Finnan, Carragher, Hyypia, Warnock; Nunez (Hamann), Diao, Gerrard, Riise (Traore); Garcia, Mellor (Sinama-Pongolle):

Agree or disagree? Email me at johng@liverpoolway.co.uk

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