Tonight was so, so poor. I left the ground feeling cheated tonight. Preparing for the FA Cup Final on Saturday is no excuse for that appalling performance and for WBA, Wigan, Sunderland, Villa, Blackburn etc. We are Liverpool FC, one of the world’s biggest clubs and it seems year by year our levels are dropping further and further. We should have a squad good enough to beat Fulham irrespective of how many we rest.
If someone would have said at the start of the season that we would win only five league games, lose at home for the first time ever to Fulham and Wigan and to WBA for the first time in 40 odd years, draw loads against other ordinary sides but not to worry we would win the League Cup and might win the FA Cup Final, then would we have accepted that and considered that our season was going to be a roaring success. It wasn’t that long ago that Middlesbrough reached 2 finals but were relegated. Was their season a success?
As Shanks used to say, the league is our bread and butter and lets face it this season’s league campaign has been a shambles, the bread has been stale and the butter’s gone off.
You would have thought the whole squad would have been buzzing and really fired up in the last game before the Cup Final, but no, the lethargy and the sterile, one-paced football was shocking. It is difficult to say who was man-of-the-match. No-one stood out at all really.
I suppose for his effort and willingness to put in a shift, you could say that Andy Carroll was our best performer. But that is only in terms of effort, but in terms of carrying a goal threat then sadly, the big number 9, doesn’t carry any threat at all really. Maybe it’s me but I don’t think he takes up particularly good positions when balls are out wide. I would have thought he’d be better going beyond the far post instead of his normal penalty spot position.
It looks like tonight was Fabio Aurelio’s farewell. As he was subbed by another left-back (Enrique), the substitution didn’t particularly change anything so we can only imagine that he was injured or he completely ran out of steam. Either way, I don’t think we’ll see him at Anfield next season. Well not in a red shirt anyhow.
It shows how the fans seem to accept this season’s awful league form as being the norm now as there wasn’t much anger or frustration shown by the fans around us in the Kop. Just a resigned “here we go again” type of attitude. Summed up really by Jonjo Shelvey’s free kick in injury time. As the ball was placed, there was no “come on, this is it. We’ll score right at the death”, from the fans. One fan in front of me in fact said, “this will end up by us” (we’re in Row 55 by the way). Sure enough, the free kick flew about 25 yards over the bar. Did the fans by us remonstrate and moan? No, they just laughed.
The acceptance of really shocking league results is worrying really as it shows how our expectation levels have dipped. Fortress Anfield? More like an open invitation to any guests who visit to help themselves. And Fulham, like many others did. Credit to them, they were the better side by a mile and to be fair they weren’t that good particularly. It was good to see Danny Murphy get a great reception from the Kop when he took a corner at the Kop end in the first half and also great to see John Arne Riise get a chant in the second half and warm applause at the end.
Was it such a bad night after all, or another case of “same old, same old” Oh well, onwards and upwards. The Cup Final on Saturday. But which Liverpool will show up…..Dr Jekyll or Mr Hyde?
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