Ground Hog Day...?
Not really. The scoreline was the same but the team's overall performance was 100% better than the absolute dross on display at Wigan on Monday though a minority of individuals within the team showed little improvement.
Funny how Channel Five's commentator immediately switched from describing Liverpool's performance as professional to atrocious as soon as Lille scored. Suddenly "the goal had been coming". I couldn't see it coming. (In fairness I actually thought Five's commentary was one of the best I've heard in ages.)
I was disappointed with the way the second half performance had declined after a promising restart but I never thought Lille looked more likely to score than us. As with our last game in France, we were made to pay an exaggerated price for missing a first half one-on-one. In Lens it was Voronin, tonight it was Babel. Overall, a 0-0 would have been a fair result. At 1-0 to Lille it is game on at Anfield.
We failed to overturn a 1-0 away defeat at Benfica a few years ago but had our own 1-0 first leg advantage overturned in Leverkusen back in 2002 so it is certainly not game over. If Lille score, we would need a response of St Etienne or Olympiakos proportions but the fact I can make those references proves we are capable of providing one.
A win, a draw and/or an away goal would have been nice but I'm not overly concerned by the scoreline. Of greater concern for me was the performances (yet again) of certain players.
After the Blackburn game, I thought Stevie G had finally turned the corner and was about to start performing at something like the level we have come to expect over the last six or seven seasons. Instead he was absolutely atrocious at Wigan giving arguably his worst ever performance in the Red shirt and only fractionally better here in France tonight.
Similar sentiments apply to Dirk Kuyt. While he at least has experienced a spell of decent form this season (albeit a very brief one), he was beyond woeful at Wigan and dire again tonight. Overall, this has been Kuyt's worst season at the club.
While I share his frustrations, I cannot condone Fernando Torres' persistent petulence which has earned him so many yellow cards this season. It isn't right that virtually every time an opponent goes to ground he is awarded a free-kick while Torres has been constantly bludgeoned and assaulted throughout the season receiving no protection from referees but shouting abuse at them clearly is doing little to help his cause and simply encourages opposing players and fans. Meanwhile, if our No. 9 had taken his chances in our last two games, we would be talking about two wins instead of two 1-0 defeats.
Jamie Carragher... I would be quite happy to live the rest of my life without seeing another Jamie Carragher backpass from around the halfway line. I will elaborate on my views on Carra in another post coming soon.
Ryan Babel... Given another chance to impress and at least tried hard. Ran here and there. Tried to be creative and certainly added an attacking dimension to the team that has been missing. Unfortunately, he wasted a lot of possession and most of his attempts to dribble past players achieved precisely nothing. For me, Nabil El Zahr was just as effective in a brief late cameo which says it all. That said, I would stick with Babel as the challenge from the likes of Kuyt, Riera and Rodriguez for wide positions is non-existent.
Albert Riera... Just fucking shit. Needs shooting.
The morons will undoubtedly criticise the manager but it isn't the manager out there playing shit on the pitch. We have all seen the standards that Gerrard, Kuyt, Torres, Carragher, Babel and Riera are capable of. Rafa hasn't trained them to be shit but individually and collectively that is what they have been for much if not all of this season. Personally I am sick of seeing it and I would be more than happy if some of those players were no longer at the club next season.
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