The Ghostly Shadow of The Swans Will Hang over Anfield For a Long Time

Swansea of course were the team that Brendan managed before he took the Liverpool managers position and he should have been well aware of the way that they are set up to play and choose the players to cope with this.  Players, that should be fit enough to play two to three games a week without any problem.  Brendan decided otherwise and included several of the younger players in the team, plus several of the senior players that now classed as fringe players because they are simply not good enough, as the first half proved.

One of those players was Joe Cole, who proved yet again that he should not have been on the pitch. Not only does he appear to be unfit, there is no effort on his part to get into the game.  He was after all last night one of the players that Brendan felt he could rely on to help the youngsters on the pitch. He did not and it quickly became evident that young Yesil and Assaidi were unable to cope with the way that Swansea were running rings around them.

Our defence also showed yet again that nothing appears to have been done to correct the mistakes that keep being made.  All too often it falls apart and as Swansea proved last night, do that and a goal is scored. Not once but three times and two of those were tap ins.

The first half was a horror story in more ways than one, with the pass and move style of football apparently away on holiday, none of the players seemed to know what formation they were playing in and who to pass the ball too, such was their lack of interest in the game.

A lack of interest that made Brendan have a re-think during half time about the team line-up.  He took off Joe Cole and young Yesil, replacing them with Stevie G and Luis Suarez.  This of course appeared to have worked at the beginning of the half, because not only did the eleven players seem to be more like a team, they began to also play a lot better.

So much so that after some great passing between Stevie G and Luis Suarez the ball found the back of the net.  Now this should have signalled to the Liverpool players that perhaps they could quite possibly claw their way back into the game. It did too a certain degree but it was Swansea who took the game by the scruff of its neck and showed Liverpool how football should be played.  So much so, that they scored their final goal in the last minute of injury time.

Liverpool were out of their first competition of the season and on their current form it does not bode well for the remaining ones

We must not forget amongst all the gloom and doom from last night that it showed us that although a lot slower than he was Jamie, had a great game and I dread to think what the score may well have been if he had not been on the pitch.  Also Brad Jones proved that he is worthy of wearing the goalkeeper jersey. Worthy enough I hope to ensure that Pepe whose form has been below par for quite some time now, has something to worry about.

Brendan as the clubs manager is still trying to find his feet at the club and needs to be given the time to put right the wrongs and I hope that in the long term he gets it along with the backing he needs. Unfortunately I have my doubts about that happening and Swansea may not be the only club whose ghostly shadow lurks around the corridors of Anfield.