Normally a 3-0 win would look emphatic… but in today’s case against the Premiership’s retirement community, it could really have been 6 or 7… or even 8. Honestly. It was a complete domination from about minute 20 until the final whistle blew only a minute and a half into extra time. We hit the crossbar thrice, twice through Alonso and once through Gerrard, and each one of those strikes hit the UNDERSIDE of the crossbar, meaning that we were talking about inches rather than feet or yards. The goals from Benayoun, Kuyt and Lucas were so simple that it makes you wonder how Newcastle have even gained the 31 points they have. From my point of view, it is sad they will probably get relegated because we have outscored them by an insane amount over the past two seasons (14-2 in four matches. WOW.).
Newcastle, though, have concerns that go far beyond how they play. They are so old it is unbelievable. To quote one of my favorite chants at my newly beloved Seattle Sounders FC in the MLS (I am a season ticket holder there), “We’re so good it’s unbelievable!” We sing that when we are crushing a shite team… basically rubbing it into them that we are actually just mediocre and they are terrible. And Newcastle’s old-folk truly were terrible. When you have Viduka, Butt, Duff, Smith, and Owen in your books, you have to question your transfer policy. “Let’s sign the player from 2000 that was really good but injury prone!” And we are talking about 2009 here… YIKES.
Liverpool never needed to get out of 2nd gear today. It was such an easy route to goal on so many occasions, our players were either trying to a) walk the ball into the net, or b) score the goal of the season from 30 yards, or even c) find out how many passes we could get! There was never a need to put our attack into overdrive… it was just such a walk in the park. And from a side who is fighting relegation in a very real way, you have to wonder what they were playing at. What you DEFINITELY have to wonder is how they only mustered one attempt on goal. ONE. Relegation dogfight… or throwing in the towel… or just not good enough? Or maybe they just want to collect their retirement as their club plummets into the Coca Cola Championship.
Oldcastle are well and truly f***ed.
As for us, our goals were nice to see, but the real pleasure from my angle was that we didn’t look like getting anything but a win for yet another Premiership match. The back looked solid, Agger looked very comfortable moving forward or playing defensively, and Riera has regained that confidence he had a few weeks ago to take defenders on. Benni yet again scored a goal, as did Kuyt, and it was great to see Lucas get on the scoresheet. I’m not a massive fan of the kid, but I will say that he plays best when confident, and we all know Rafa will play him. So why not have a confident Lucas instead of a rattled one? The only downsides, and potentially awful ones, are the injuries to Alonso and Masch. My guess is that they’ll miss next week but be back for West Brom.
We’ve done our part. Now let’s just hope United slip up…
