From Kopblog
Well I`ve finally managed to recover from celebrating our great victory yesterday. It`s been that long, I`d almost forgotten how good it feels to beat those bastard mancs but there`s no doubt my few pints of Stella tasted just that little bit sweeter last night. I`ve still got a grin on my face as wide as the Mersey and I just can`t wait to see a few colleagues of mine at work tomorrow!
To be honest I`d have been more than happy to take any kind of jammy old win against them, similar to the ones they often get against us, but we totally outplayed them with a great team performance and thoroughly deserved all three points. This was made all the sweeter because our so-called “two man team” did it without either of them in our starting line-up and I think Rafa Benitez has to be given a huge amount of credit for that.
I would have expected him to have at least one of them in the team and you can bet that had this result went against us he would have been given a lot of stick for not doing so. It was a brave decision but it paid of big time. Like just about everyone else, one of my big worries going into the season was how we would cope if Torres, Gerrard or God forbid both of them should be out injured for any length of time. Well my worries were eased somewhat yesterday as all of the team stepped up and gave a very accomplished performance in their absence.
I must admit I was very worried about our chances in the early stages of the game. Conceding a goal against them after barely more than two minutes was bad enough, but for about 10 or 15 minutes after that they seemed to be winning all of the 50/50 balls and looked dangerous every time they attacked. But if there is one thing we have in our team that is head and shoulders above our rivals, its character. We soaked up the early pressure, kept plugging away at them and by the end of the first half we were well on top and went on to dominate the second.
This was not only our best performance of the season so far but also our best display for a very long time with every player playing their part. Other then the goal we conceded, our back four was excellent and very well marshalled by Carra. Mascherano may have been one of the culprits that led to us conceding an early goal but he certainly made up for that in the rest of the game and I thought both he and Alonso were quite brilliant in dominating the midfield and it was a toss-up between those two for our man of the match.
And what about this guy Riera? He seemed totally un-phased at making his debut in such a big match for us and I thought he had a great game on the left. He linked up well with Aurelio and always made himself available for the outlet ball and made good use of it when he got it. I also thought he mixed it up very well, sometimes staying wide and sometimes coming inside which shows he has a good understanding of the game and to cap it all off, it was his presence that caused the panic in the manc defence that led to our equaliser. Obviously it was only his first game and you don`t like to rush to judgement but I think you can already see he is a very good player and I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.
Benny Onion also looked far more comfortable on the right than he has on the left in recent weeks and had a solid game on that side with some clever runs that gave the manc defence a few problems. Keane and Kuyt worked tirelessly for us upfront and each of them had a couple of chances that they might have done better with. The sooner Keane gets a goal the better.
There`s no doubt he`s working very hard but he`s snatching at things at the moment without his usual composure in front of goal. Throughout his career he`s always tended to score his goals in patches. Last season he didn`t score his first goal for Spurs until late September but still finished the season with 23 in total. So I think he just needs to keep plugging away and I`m certain the goals will soon come.
The other player that deserves to be saluted is Ryan Babel. Once again Rafa kept him on the bench and unleashed him into the game at just the right time, and once again he made an impact by scoring the winning goal and being a general pain in the ass for the manc defence to deal with, just when their legs would have been tiring.
Flyin Ryan scored seven of his ten goals last season as a substitute so clearly he is a very useful weapon for us to have on the bench. His pace is a real headache for tired defences to deal with late in a game and I`ve no complaints about that, but for him to take it to the next level he really needs to become a 90 minute headache for defences and hopefully we`ll see a bit more of that from him this season.
This result is worth more than just three points to us. Not only have we got that monkey off our backs by beating mancs but our victory was a convincing one and the manner in which we achieved it is sure to have given the players a lot of confidence and belief, just as it has for the supporters. What that will mean for us this season I guess only time will tell but as we`ve seen in the past, a Liverpool team with belief can be very dangerous indeed.
At the most basic level we have met one of our biggest rivals and come out of it in an improved position and made their`s a lot worse and that`s what you`ve got to do when you get the chance if you`re going to be a contender in the league. In our next league game we will face Stoke at Anfield and we certainly can`t afford any complacency in that one, but should we take those points the mancs will travel to Sham-ford Bridge under the enormous pressure of being nine points behind us and even at this early stage that`s a lot of ground for them to make up.
Provided we win our own game, we can sit back and enjoy that one because any result would suit us. Should the mancs lose it would put a big dent in their prospects of equalling our record number of league titles this season but should the chavs lose it would give us a bit of breathing space ahead of them, but maybe the best result for us would be a draw as it would see them both dropping a couple of points.
Anyway that`s a problem for another day, next up for us is a trip to Marseille on Tuesday in the first game of our CL group stage. It`s always great to get off to a winning start in these group games otherwise you put yourself under immediate pressure. I expect there will be a few changes to the side from Saturday with Gerrard and perhaps Torres returning.
Maybe Dossena, Dagger, Peanut and the invisible Degan will also make an appearance. Although we suffered a home defeat against them after a dreadful performance at Anfield last season, we had a comfortable victory over them at their place and I`d expect us to get another one on Tuesday. My money`s on us coming away from there with a 2-0 victory and if he plays I would dearly love to see Keaneo scoring at least one of them.
Keep the Faith
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