A wonderful season followed up by a dreadful one… it is just like the Houllier days! After losing just twice in 2008-2009 in the league, and only five times overall in all competitions, we have ALREADY lost 8 matches in our first 16… sparking horrific pieces of speculation in the media, amongst supporters, and assuredly within the dressing room. We have now lost six of our last seven, and sadly it is safe to say that Rafa’s job is hinging on the next few results. What is so baffling, though, is why we have taken such a spectacular fall from grace. We have gone from a winning machine that hardly gave up goals into a shaky, unconfident side that looks like we are incapable of lasting the 90 minutes.
What I do not want to do, though, is get into a mode of hysteria where I think we need a total overhaul. It is obvious that injuries have played a massive role, otherwise we wouldn’t have to rely on the likes of Voronin, Degen, or Lucas on a weekly basis. We’d have Gerrard, Johnson, and Aquilani instead, and those slight changes make more than just slight impacts over the course of the match, and indeed the season. Our starting XI still looks incredible, but how often have we been able to play it? However, I do think Rafa has a lot to answer for as far as some of his decision making is concerend. The substitution of Torres at Fulham is NOT what I’m referring to, either, because they guy still isn’t at 100%. It is substituting Benayoun against Lyon when he was playing them off the park. It is leaving Babel on the bench and putting Voronin on the pitch against Fulham against a team that is highly organized, therefore nullifying a player who plays deep like Voronin does. And it is consistently putting faith in a few players who have never made a consistent impact for us, such as Voronin and Lucas. Am I in the “Rafa Out” camp? ABSOLUTELY NOT. Do I think he is slightly losing the plot at the moment? WITHOUT A DOUBT. A fit Liverpool side, with the likes of Riera, Torres, Gerrard, Aquilani, Benayoun, Kuyt… we’d surely be doing better up front. In the back, I really have no idea why we’ve been so terrible. Perhaps Carragher is losing his athleticism. It could also be that Mascherano hasn’t been up to snuff, or that Alonso did much more than we realized defensively. Whatever it is, we need some adjustments.
About the match, we really did not play too badly until the last 20 minutes or so. We gave up a goal in the first half completely against the run of play, but then spectacularly equalized thanks to a 1oth goal of the season ALREADY from Fernando Torres. He smashed in Voronin’s “intentional” back-header from about 20 yards low into the near post corner. At 1-1, and right before halftime, it appeared momentum would swing in our favor. But then we got two red cards, unsurprisingly from Degen and Carragher (who were dreadful) and gave up two soft goals. Was 1-3 a fair result? Probably not. But winning also would not have been fair, and we need to do much better. What we NEED is more depth in our squad. Losing the likes of Crouch, Keane, and Alonso have all been understandable, yet these losses of players of true quality are starting to take their toll. How we could use an Arbeloa or a Sissoko right now… or even Harry Kewell and Djibril Cisse. Seems crazy, I know, but some of these less-heralded players could be so useful at the moment.
The season isn’t over, but if we lose at Lyon, we could be hunting for the Europa League at best… and maybe the FA Cup.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
