Liverpool simply had to win this one. After both Manchester City and Aston Villa won their games on Saturday, anything less then 3 points was not acceptable. Moreover, Liverpool were looking to take advantage of Tottenham's slip up at the Stadium of Light. Unfortunately, Liverpool were left frustrated and bitterly disappointed once again after yet another miserable away day.
In normal circumstances, a draw away to Birmingham would be considered a point gained, rather than two points dropped. Alex McLeish's side have performed tremendously throughout the season, especially at their St Andrews fortress. The Blues have taken points off both Manchester teams, as well as Chelsea and Arsenal at home this season, and are now unbeaten in their last 14 home games, a run that stretches all the way back to their 2-1 defeat at the hands of Bolton Wanderers at the end of September.
However, Liverpool simply had to win this game. It was always going to be difficult, but Liverpool are in a desperate situation, and have to take all available points out of every single game.
The first half was a largely dull affair, with little goalmouth action at either end. The first chance for either side fell to Fernando Torres. Kyrgiakos, who was starting in place of the rested Daniel Agger, played a long ball up the pitch towards Torres. The Spaniard headed the ball down to his countryman, Maxi Rodriguez. Maxi returned the ball to Torres with a simple pass. Torres aimed for the top right hand corner, however his curled effort failed to test Joe Hart in the Birmingham goal.
Torres was instrumental in the Reds next opening. It all started when Kuyt ran onto the ball on the left wing. The Dutchman slipped the ball to Yossi Benayoun, who then switched play out to Torres on the right. El Nino put an inviting centre into the box, however Maxi could only hit the cross bar with a shot from 6 yards out. It was a glorious chance that he really should have taken.
Birmingham responded soon after as McFadden shot inches over from 25 yards, before Gardener skipped past Insua too easily, then played Jerome through. Jerome, who scored a screamer at Anfield earlier this season, was forced wide by Insua, however he still managed to test Reina with a firm strike, that our keeper had to punch behind for a corner kick.
From the corner Birmingham had a fantastic chance to claim a vital first goal, minutes before the break. McFadden's corner travelled over Reina and to the back post, where it was met by the head of Roger Johnson. To the relief of Reds fans, he could only manage to head over the bar from yards out.
Liverpool came out for the second half determined to secure a vital 3 points. They set out with a positive mindset, and reaped the rewards after only two minutes of the second half had been played.
Yossi Benayoun headed Gerrard's corner to the edge of the box, and to Glen Johnson. England's right back completely fluffed his shot, however the ball fell to Gerrard on the left edge of the penalty area. Our skipper turned Bowyer inside and out, before curling a wonderful shot past Joe Hart and into the bottom corner. It was a delicious finish from Gerrard, and yet another example of Stevie scoring crucial goals for his beloved Reds.
For some unknown reason, Liverpool then went back into their defensive shell, and were duly punished for some diabolical defending on 56 minutes. McFadden put a cross into the box from the right hand side, and the ball travelled through to the unmarked Ridgewell at the back post, who had the simple task of converting from 2 yards out.
It was absolutely shocking, school-boy defending from the Reds back line. The whole of the back four got dragged towards the left hand side, where the ball was, leaving Ridgewell with the freedom of St Andrews. Johnson was the main culprit as the right back should have been aware of the threat from the other side of the pitch, however the whole of the defence should have been much more organised.
As regurlar readers will know, I am an ardent Rafa fan, and I'm normally unswerwing in my support for the Reds boss, however he made an unbelieveable substitution after 65 minutes. Rafa replaced Liverpool's prolific top scorer, Fernando Torres, for the inexperienced and out of form David Ngog. Steven Gerrard was clearly mystified when he saw Torres leaving the pitch, and must have felt gutted and amazed to see our best striker leaving the action at a crucial part of the game.
Rafa's justification for this illogical decision was that Torres was "exhausted" after playing for 80 minutes on Thursday, in Portugal. Whilst that may be true, it is insane to take off Torres in one of the most important games of the season. Forget about Benfica next Thursday, we had to win this game first. All manager's live and die by their decisions, and it seems like this substitution could just cost Rafa his job as, if Liverpool don't finish fourth, which is exteremly likely now, then Rafa's position at Liverpool will be at serious risk. I still think that with a decent amount of money Rafa can be a successful manager at Liverpool, however he might not be given the time (or the finances) to achieve the success that we all know he can deliver.
To be fair to Benitez, Liverpool did begin to create chances and put Birmingham under pressure after Ngog had been brought on, however it is likely that those opportunites would have been created anyway, and that Fernando Torres would have buried at least one of them, giving Liverpool the win they needed so desperately.
Ngog headed Johnson's cross just wide of the post when he should have done better. After that, Birmingham were inches away from taking the lead, as a result of even more awful defending from Liverpool. Insua had been dragged out into the right back position, where he couldn't cope as Ridgewell stormed past him with consummate ease.
Carragher and Kyrgiakos failed to mark their men, and left Bowyer free to receive the cross at the back post. Bowyer, who has been one of Birmingham's star perfomers this season, had all the time in the world to beat Reina and score a critical goal, however somehow he managed to shoot wide. Only he will know how he managed to miss that gilt edged opportunity.
Liverpool fought back, and went close to scoring themselves several minutes later. The hardworking Maxi stole possession off Bowyer on the edge of the 18 yard box, then found Kuyt with a pass. Kuyt, who was playing up front, took the ball wide of goal, before cutting a pass back to Maxi. Maxi then passed the ball back to Ngog, who shot just wide from 8 yards out.
It was a good move, however it finished disappointingly as Ngog failed to see Gerrard, who was standing in a great position to his left. All it took was a simple 5 yards pass and Gerrard would have had a clear sight of goal, and almost certainly would have scored. Ngog needs time to learn, so can be excused for this error, but you can't help feeling that Torres would have noticed Gerrard free in the area, and set him through on goal.
Gerrard curled a shot inches over the bar, before Maxi missed an open goal from 7 yards out. Gerrard's cross from the right had been beaten away by Hart, however the ball fell to the feet of Maxi Rodriguez. Stunningly, he smashed his strike over the bar, with Hart lying helpless on the ground. It was an unbelieveable miss, and one that left most supporters feeling that it just wasn't going to be our day.
Babel shot into the side netting before Ngog has the perfect opportunity to silence all his critics and score a last gasp winner for the Reds. Gerrard played an astounding 40 yard pass from deep, that cut through the home side's defence and sent Ngog through one-on-one with the keeper. Unfortuantely, Ngog's weak shot was comfortably gathered by the keeper. Once again, you can't help thinking Torres would have buried that shot, and won the game for his side.
Before this game, Liverpool had 6 cup finals left to play. I believed, and still do, that 5 wins and a draw should be enough to secure a top four finish. This is the draw, and now Liverpool can't afford to drop any more points. From now on in, nothing less than 3 points in every single game will be good enough. It will be very tough, especially considering we face Chelsea at Anfield on the penultimate weekend of the season, however the fixure list still gives us hope. Tottenham and City have a horrible run in, that could just save our season.
Hope you had a happy Easter, and, as always, YNWA
torres being replaced is not that big of a deal for me, he was exhausted, they acually had more chances to win it when he went off, but that is neither here nor there, my biggest problem is the first half display, liverpool need to come out of the blocks flying and not let birmingham settle, but with benitez if its a dull game with no chances he's happy, he thinks were controlling the game but in reality were just giving teams like birmingham confidance and for me that's the worst thing you can do, how is it when we really went for the win we created more chances in the last few minutes than we did in the whole match up to that point,that is where rafa lets us down, we are liverpool we need to go out there and show them that and that means we go for the win from start to finish.WNWA.
ReplyDeletei think away from home, especially at birmingham, it was important to defend well and be solid which, in the most part, we did in the first half. the second half was awful defensively. some of it was school boy stuff. yeh, i agree torres was exhausted, but in such a big game i think he should have just kept him on because he can get a goal from anywhere.
ReplyDeleteYNWA