A Famous Victory
Is what Roy Hodgson called yesterday's 1-0 win at Bolton Wanderers? This of course begs the question why?
It was of course billed as yet another of those must win games to ensure that we left the relegation zone behind, but Liverpool being the Liverpool of late, left things to the last twenty minutes, before they even looked like the team that had won against Blackburn the week before.
As the teams came out onto the pitch it was evident that Liverpool had in fact brought the 12th man with them. They were out singing the home contingent and it sounded wonderful but would it lift the team enough to ensure that the much needed victory was ours. The answer to that was an unfortunate no. From the moment the whistle was blown by Martin Atkinson to start the game, to the half time whistle, the lack of urgency in the teams play was horrific to watch. Most of the team appeared to be lethargic and that includes the club captain, Steven Gerrard as well as Torres. Stevie just did not seem to be his old self and Torres had that I don't want to be here and cannot be bothered look on his face, as he wasted balls that should have been easy to pick up and placed in the back of the net. Konchesky and Joe Cole have not yet settled into the team and again yesterday it showed.
It was down to last year's bargain bucket players , Kyriakos and Maxi to rescue the team yet again in the second half. This began with balls being wasted again by Torres and Stevie. Meireles though, who appears to have found his feet very quickly was having and a good game and opened up the second half very spritely but getting the ball into the area for Torres to try and pick up was proving very difficult. Bolton was a match on the day and to be honest at times it looked as though they would score first, but for the heroic actions of Skrtel and Lucas. They were both brought by Rafa and have finally begun to knit together as partners in defence.
But it was not until Roy Hodgson made an enforced change, caused by the hamstring injury to Joe Cole , that Liverpool seemed to realise that they had a game to win. Ngog came on and with a few of the other players moving position's, it looked like an entirely different team. The pace quickened and with Stevie back in his favoured role, Torres managed to pick up a few balls, one of which made its way to Maxi which found its way to the back of the net and with 5 minutes of normal time to go, Liverpool were winning. Bolton though was not going to give up and did all they could to try and level the score. The one worrying in factor in those final minutes was the substitution of f Meireles with Poulsen, who is too slow for the English game.
All said and done though, Liverpool won, what was in terms of play an extremely scrappy game and are now lying 12th in the premiership table. This of course is still not good enough for a team of Liverpool's stature and a lot of changes still need to be made to ensure a further move up the table.
What are these changes you may ask? The most important one I feel is a change of manager. Roy may be able to manage a mid-table team but he is seriously out of his depth at Liverpool. He appears to be unable to get the best out of the players and if reports in the media are correct, he has certainly alienated several of the players with his old fashioned training methods. He is also unable to hold a press conference without putting his foot in it - hence the comment about the game yesterday being a famous victory. Roy also gives me the impression that he really does not know what to do, which could explain the worried look that he had on his face throughout the game.
We also have players in the first team that still do not realise what wearing the red shirt means and they need to be moved on in January, Torres being amongst them sadly because as I have said he seems to have lost all appetite for the game. Is this because of his injuries or is it because promises that were in the summer were never kept he feels let down.
Why Roy will not give some the promising youngsters a chance at the moment, I really don't know , but come January, he may have too because I suspect when he meets John Henry this coming weekend, he will find out that the transfer kitty is not going to be anywhere near what he hopes it will be. There are other things that will be discussed in those meetings that I do know and I wonder if Roy will be man enough to say that he feels he should resign because he cannot cope with the pressure surrounding the Liverpool managerial position. If not the words A FAMOUS VICTORY may well mean just that, because I fear the amount of matches won this season will be miniscule.
Older/Newer
« LFC owner John Henry answers questions from fans | Latest LFC news from the Liverpool ECHO - Henry's title dream, Hodgson backing for Cole, John Aldridge column »
Latest Premier League video
