The Liverpool Way - First Team

Maybe we should have played the kids after all, at least they'd have looked like they gave a shit. I can understand Rafa's reasoning for putting out a strong team, but with the mancs due at Anfield in four days, perhaps we'd have benefitted more from giving some of the young lads another opportunity against Watford?

Too many of the seniors went through the motions against the first division side, as clearly the United game was in the back of people's minds and this performance was pretty dire.

They were shit, yet they were a bit unlucky not to leave with a draw. The goal summed up the performance, although. Gerrard probably deserved the goal for his display, even if he was in second gear throughout;

Steven Gerrard not going flat out is still better than anything else we have going forward, and it says a lot about everyone else's display that he was our most dangerous and creative player even though he barely broke sweat.

This report is going to be short, because what is there to say about this game? It was terrible. Maybe Rafa thought by picking his strongest team we'd be able to win the tie in the first leg, and that he would then be able to rest players for the trip to Vicarage Road.

Well that ain't gonna happen now, as we've got a tricky game coming up against opposition who will now be fancying their chances of getting something from a tie which they should never have had a hope in hell of winning. They're 16th in the table for God's sake.

The back four were ok, but going forward we were very poor until the introduction of Baros. Once more it was Mellor who made way, hardly a surprise as it's becoming a regular thing these days.

His performance wasn't great, but he was more of a goal threat than the Pong, and if someone can tell me just what the hell Garcia was doing that warranted him completing ninety minutes I'd be very grateful.

How can a player who clearly has talent, be so ineffectual and wasteful week in week out? For every good thing he does, there's ten bad ones. Should we be prepared to indulge such wastefulness every week in the hope that occasionally he will produce something special like he did at Norwich (when he was shocking up until he scored)?

Liverpool's midfield was so bad last night that Nunez actually looked like he was having a good game, so poor were the rest of them, especially Hamann. Didi was shit, but I'd be willing to be he'll be outstanding on saturday. He seems to save his best for big games now, so maybe we shouldn't pick him at all against shit teams?

Nunez didn't do badly to be fair, but you get the impression that this was him playing at a level somewhere near his best, whilst the others were all about at about 50%. That says a lot. Still, at least when he loses the ball it's because of a lack of ability, and not just an irresponsible wastefulness like Garcia.

Star man was going to be Gerrard until Traore bailed us out right at the end with a great tackle after Carragher had been beaten by Helguson. Djimi was solid in Sami's absence, and that tackle could prove to be very significant.

Riise battled hard too, and Warnock impressed in the short time he was on the field.

But this was a miserable night, and even Igor's cameo proved disappointing. A big improvement is needed for Saturday, but given how well we've played in the big games at home this season, I'm fairly confident we won't see a repeat of last night's horror show.

Credit to the fans who turned up on a horrible, cold and windy night. The atmosphere wasn't bad at all considering how little there was to get excited about.

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

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

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