Well, I said I didn’t expect Liverpool to win at White Hart Lane and sadly I was correct. My concerns that we weren’t ready for this match proved to be spot on as we were woeful in the first half and only marginally better after the break.
Make no mistake, Spurs were not magnificent but they were better than us. Despite that, they only won because fortune favoured them on the day. Carragher’s sickening clash with Skrtel only helped Spurs who took the lead from Assou-Ekotto’s wonder strike after it had looked as though only something special would beat Pepe Reina. Liverpool improved after half-time and equalised from Gerrard’s penalty only to ruin their good work but conceding a silly and utterly preventable goal from a set-piece three minutes later. Then Phil Dowd took centre stage waving away two legitimate penalty appeals from Liverpool, the first of which was so cast-iron, even Glen Hoddle said it should have been given.
Hoddle attempted to justify Dowd’s incompetence by saying it would take a brave man to award two penalties against Spurs at White Hart Lane in the same game. Sorry, but that’s no excuse. If the laws of the game were correctly applied – and it is the referee’s job to ensure they are – Liverpool should have had three penalties. Instead, Voronin was denied a clear goalscoring opportunity by foul play from Assou-Ekotto and Liverpool were harshly treated.
The result was disappointing but I won’t be reading much into it. The opening day of the season is no real barometer for how teams will fair over the whole season. Freak results can occur – particularly if one team is better prepared than another for the big kick off. Take Everton and Arsenal for example. Everton’s preseason was disrupted like ours and they have been undermined by City’s disrespectful and ruthless pursuit of Joleon Lescott in the same way the Alonso transfer saga messed us around. They were clearly not ready for their opener against Arsenal and as a consequence they were atrocious. The pundits will rave about Arsenal but in truth, they didn’t have to do an awful lot to score their six goals. Every goal bar the first stemmed from shocking Everton defending. Arsenal were as clinical as Everton were atrocious but time will level the playing field. Arsenal are not, as the media would have us believe, suddenly serious title contenders and neither are Everton likely to battle relegation this season. Chelsea and Man Ure were fortunate to beat Hull and Birmingham in their respective home games. Chelsea had to come from behind equalising from a free-kick that should never have been awarded before Drogba’s mis-hit cross spawned into the net in the 93rd minute. Man Ure, meanwhile, won 1-0 after Rooney’s shot hit the post and rebounded extremely fortuitously to the same player to tap in the winner. Had either failed to win, no one would have been dismissing their title chances so I won't be writing off Liverpool's just yet.
Liverpool now have a 37-game season instead of 38 and the season begins on Wednesday against Stoke at Anfield. Yesterday was the final preparation game Rafa needed to assess his squad and pick the right XI to start the season for real. Hopefully, Rafa will have seen, as we all did, that Lucas and Mascherano must not be used together. Lucas will attract most of the stick from supporters but it is not his fault that he simply is not creative enough to play the deep-lying midfield role alongside another midfielder who offers no incisive passing or creativity. Lucas has a value to the squad as understudy to Mascherano but the two are too similar to play together. Until Aquilani is fit to play, Steven Gerrard has to be utilised in midfield.
There is absolutely no point having Gerrard and Torres up front if the team can’t get the ball to them. It's the equivalent of lining up a two-man firing squad and letting the condemned prisoner run around somewhere behind them. Stick the prisoner in their sights and he's dead man but otherwise you're left with two potentially dangerous guys with nothing to do. Better to have one lethal marksman and use the other to shove the target in front of the other.
Benayoun did enough at the tail end of last season to warrant a place in the first team and when he came on against Spurs, he was Liverpool's best outfield player. He can play behind Torres and Gerrard should partner Mascherano in the centre of the park.
I'm assuming Riera was unfit to play given he wasn't even on the bench but yet again Babel did nothing to stake a claim for repeated inclusion in the first team. I have to confess I have lost faith in Babel ever realising his undoubted potential at Anfield. You can fine tune talent but, as Rafa found with Djibril Cisse, you can't put a footballing brain into a head that doesn't contain one.
If Riera isn't fit to play against Stoke, Babel will get another chance but if he is as useless again, Rafa may as well deploy Dossena on the left. Dossena is a crap defender but his goals against Real Madrid and Man Ure, as well as his performance at Fulham last season suggest he can do a job with less defensive responsibility. Any job would be a step up from Babel's recent efforts.
Forget Tottenham. By the time we meet again, they will be shielding their eyes looking up the table towards us. For us, the season really starts on Wednesday and we owe Stoke a good hiding.
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