Closing The Gap
When James Milner threw himself into a full blooded challenge from behind and got nowhere near the ball, I turned away in disgust and frustration. The long, painful seconds as the referee pulled out the yellow card, slowly writing his name, lifting up the card. From the instant I saw Milner go in for the tackle, panic and anger rose, and the outcome was inevitable. Milner could have no complaints, it was a poor tackle to make, an incredibly stupid thing to do, especially against a referee who was being very trigger happy with his whistle and his cards.
1-0 down, playing poorly and being outclassed with half an hour to go and a relatively simple fixture coming up for United, it looked like it was going to be a torrid day at the office for LFC. But then something odd happened. The red card was a turning point in the game. Suddenly, Dejan Lovren was winning every tackle, Emre Can was making his presence felt in midfield, Phillipe Coutinho, fresh off the bench was on slaloming runs, and we looked a strong, confident team. Going into the second half, I said that substitutions would be crucial. And so they did. The excellent Yohan Cabaye was replaced by the distinctly mediocre Jordan Mutch, whilst we were able to call Coutinho from the bench, who put in a good display in the second half, as Klopp went 3-4-2 and went for broke, with Firmino pushing up alongside Origi and then later Benteke, Klopp's other big substitute that worked a treat. For Palace, neither of their other subs (Gayle and Sako) were able to get into the game.
Crucial to the success of the bold, dynamic formation that Klopp introduced when we were down to 10 was Emre Can, playing both at center half (as Lovren was pushed out to RB where Milner had been put just moments before his second yellow) and central midfield, alongside a slightly deeper role for Coutinho allowing him to influence play.
And it was the amazing Firmino, who continues his incredible run in 2016 with his 7th goal of the calendar year who put us level, after a howler from Alex McCarthy. Jurgen is right that it was terrific high pressing from Origi and Firmino who put so much pressure on the Palace keeper that he miscued straight to Firmino, but it still required the Brazilian to finish, and finish he did emphatically.
And from there, there was only one winner to the game, but when Moreno rattled the post with a wondrous strike from range close to the end of the game, it didn't look like we were going to nick the winner. Then, Benteke stepped in.
I remain unmoved on my feelings on Benteke. His movement isn't good enough, he doesn't put himself in the right positions and in general we look less likely to score with him on the pitch. Certainly we looked more dangerous with Origi on the pitch, even though in truth Origi never looked like scoring, but his linkup play with Firmino and Lallana is much better than the big mans. But, games like today where Benteke is able to snatch a big goal (and the seven that he has in the league now have almost all been significant goals, four of them now winning goals) make me glad that at least he contributes something to this team, in a way that the likes of Balotelli, Borini, Lambert etc never really did. If nothing else, Benteke's tenure at Anfield, frustrating though it has been, will at least be littered with moments of glory.
And this was one such moment. Whether or not the penalty should have been given is up for debate. There was contact, that much is certain. That contact wasn't enough to garner the reaction that it did from Benteke, that is also true. But certainly there's a difference between a blatant dive and when a striker feels contact and goes over. 99 times out of 100 there a striker in the penalty box in the last seconds of a big game will go down when he feels the defender catch him and certainly the tackle from Delaney was incredibly stupid. None of these points for me are enough to categorically say it was a penalty but Delaney will know he made a mistake and calling Benteke a cheat is for me unfair.
In any case, we probably just about deserved the three points, and secure the three points we did, as Benteke showed his mettle. To step up with the last kick of the game to win it for your side, when you haven't scored in over two months and must be low on confidence takes bottle, and for Benteke to stagger his run up, deceive the keeper and coolly slot home showed a real temperament. As I've said before, there is a role for Benteke in this side, as an impact substitute that offers something different to our usual threat, or in certain games where we need a different dimension. The big problem is that that's not the role of a £32m striker and not one that someone of Benteke's stature would be happy with. In any case, whatever Benteke's future at the club, this was a good day for him.
And our victory was compounded as Manchester United dropped three points away at West Brom, after more insane stupidity, this time from Juan Mata. Milner, Coquelin and now Mata. After a very silly booking for blocking a deliberate free kick, about two minutes later he went into a stupid tackle where the end result was as inevitable as it was for Milner and Coq.
And down to 10 men, United never really looked like scoring. West Brom didn't offer too much in the game either in truth, but they did produce the one moment of sheer quality in the match, as Rondon was able to turn and shoot, low and hard underneath David De Gea. As the game wound to its conclusion, United resorted to hopeful balls into the penalty area, with no real penetration to speak of. Losing Mata, their most creative player, and shorn of Rooney, United's problems up top became obvious as their lack of signing a striker except Martial, coupled with the increasingly worrying form of Memphis Depay, meant that once again, the burden was on young Marcus Rashford and isolated up top, he was unable to produce a moment of magic before he came off.
But the net result is this. United started the day with an opportunity to cut the gap to Arsenal to two points, as well as moving back level on points with City. As it stands now, Liverpool are only three points behind United with a game in hand and they have all the momentum going into Thursday's big Europa League clash. Somehow, that's three league wins in a row for us now, and although anything less than 4th place would still be considered a poor season for us, and rightly so, finishing ahead of United would be a real, real boost going into next season, with all the money that LVG has spent, and certainly seems a realistic target. Top four football is still a remote possibility, with Arsenal and City still just about in touching distance, but it looks highly unlikely that either of them will slip up enough, or that we will be able to muster good enough form to test either of them, so I'm not anywhere near confident that we can even muster anything close to a late top four charge.
But we have players fit, and today was a very, very good day, so today is a day to be positive. Bring on United on Thursday.
The Hard and Fast Section
- Brilliant win for Murray in five sets today.
- Barca won 4-0. MSN have 100 goals. Insane.
- Wiggins. Cavendish. Trott. We're very good at cycling.
- Courtney Lawes is out of the Wales game. Huge.
No comments:
Post a Comment