Wasted opportunities

WASTEFUL finishing and brittle defending has characterised much of Liverpool’s season so far – especially the last two games.

Five vital league points had already been squandered at home against Sunderland and away at Stoke due to a combination of the above, and the narrow victory over Wolves would have been a far more relaxed affair if several glorious chances had been converted.

Before the Everton and Manchester United games many Reds including myself speculated that four points would be a good haul, and that is what we achieved, largely thanks to a fortuitous red card decision at Goodison Park.

At the time I thought the draw against United was a frustrating but satisfactory result against the reigning champions, who set out to snatch a point with a very negative game plan and a team packed pull of defensive players.

Alex Ferguson brought three top quality performers off the bench in Wayne Rooney, Nani and Javier Hernandez to try and change the game after we took the lead, one of whom scored his team’s equaliser, and then United rode their luck as we spurned four clear chances to extend our winning run against them at Anfield.

Our impressive second half performance and domination of proceedings was of course some consolation in the immediate aftermath of the contest.  

But in the wake of their humiliating 6-1 thrashing at home to Manchester City on Sunday, I’m sure I wasn’t the only Liverpool fan thinking about why in hindsight we failed to defeat a team that were there for the taking.

United’s goal from their solitary chance of note was clearly the result of poor defending from both Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel, Carragher allowing Danny Wellbeck to win the first header and flick on Nani’s corner and Martin completely losing Hernandez, who made a trademark clever run and nodded in the one opportunity he had. What we would give for a ruthless finisher of his ability and promise at this point in time.

At the opposite end Luis Suarez missed an excellent first half opportunity, and in the final 10 minutes Stewart Downing created two great chances, with crosses to both Dirk Kuyt and Jordan Henderson, the former which Dirk stretched for, producing a good save from David de Gea, and the latter that really had to be put away by our otherwise impressive substitute, but was sent sailing over the bar.

In between de Gea made another impressive stop from a long-range Henderson effort, and a goalmouth melee which saw Rooney out jump Suarez to win an initial header eventually fell to Skrtel (which is rarely a good thing) and predictably ended up in the Kop.

I found myself wondering after the game what would have been the outcome if our aerial behemoth Andy Carroll (yes, the £35million man, to get that out the way) had taken the place of either little Luis or Jordan. Surely he would have stood a far better chance of finishing those chances late on? I’m pretty sure he would have out jumped Rooney at least. Yet despite much-improved performances from Andy against Wolves and Everton and a goal in the derby, he sat unused on the bench.

It was an omission that I presumed was mainly tactical as we had decided to play three in midfield, and one that I thought was perhaps still justified, as we controlled this zone of the pitch and even late on kept creating clear openings.

However, on Saturday against Norwich with Lucas Leiva suspended I was shocked not to see Andy back in the starting line-up. It seemed the perfect opportunity for him to get 90 minutes under his belt.

The game was similar to so many already this season. When the halftime whistle blew a scoreline of 4-0 would not have flattered us, such was our superiority, but we went in just 1-0 ahead thanks to a late deflected Craig Bellamy strike.

Bellamy was very impressive, linking well with Suarez and using his scintillating pace to penetrate their defence. And he showed more out there in one match than perhaps Downing has so far this term. After all, Downing is yet to produce either a goal or assist since his near £20m summer move, and while he has struck a crossbar and produced crosses that should have been buried, he does not look like a direct goal threat. He was disappointing on the right, and seems to currently be ahead of Maxi Rodriguez in the pecking order on reputation alone.

Dirk Kuyt laboured to little effect, having one of those days when he works harder and harder as a result of every poor final ball or touch, and then makes even more mistakes. It was hard to see why he was selected ahead of Carroll, and why Carroll did not replace him shortly after the break.

It is true that we were producing some mesmerising football, yet while Steven Gerrard and Charlie Adam both provided creativity in the first 45 minutes, the man who deserved nearly all the credit was again Luis Suarez.

The Uruguayan’s approach play is a thing of beauty, with his skill, control and ability to evade tackles and create chances from out of nothing testament to his unquestionable individual brilliance. He also possesses great vision, and tries and succeeds in doing things you would think he has no right to attempt. Until it is time to pull the trigger, he is possibly the best attacking player I have ever seen in a Red shirt.

Unfortunately, if we have learned one thing watching Luis this season, it is that he is either enduring a prolonged period of misfortune in front of goal, or that in fact despite all his positive attributes, he is not the clinical finisher we desperately need. I know he was prolific in Holland, and of course he will create and score a lot of goals. But he seems to miss a lot of chances - chances you would expect him to tuck away. I can recount many already this season, in more games than not, and we increasingly look reliant on him having a good day in front of goal to clinch victory, because few other players are proving to be a consistent goal threat.

This may sound harsh – after all he hit the woodwork twice against Norwich, and he creates the vast majority of his opportunities himself. But I read he had 11 shots on goal, and surely a player of his calibre should hit the net at least once or twice and make the keeper work more often. In this respect he is more akin to an erratic Rooney-type forward than a Hernandez - or indeed in his Liverpool days, Fernando Torres.

The obvious solution is to partner Luis with a top goalscorer, which is what Kenny suggested Andy Carroll had the potential to become, but again, he is not getting enough time on the pitch to develop his game with us. And when he did come on, and was handed the sort of headed chance I mentioned earlier, he too fluffed his lines. Last season Andy was prolific for Newcastle, scoring 11 league goals in just 19 league games for a newly promoted side. We need to find a way to get him back to that kind of form.

Harking back to our other flaw, we are now in the curious position after years of relative strength at centre back and weakness at fullback, of finding ourselves looking deficient at our defensive core and impressive out wide.

With Daniel Agger again absent Martin and Jamie did not convince with or without the ball, particularly in aerial duels, in contrast to Jose Enrique and Glen Johnson, although both fullbacks were culpable to some extent in Norwich’s goal. Enrique allowed the cross and Glen looking unlikely to win the header before Pepe Reina decided it was up to him to deal with it. Sadly even the usually unflappable Spaniard has begun to get the jitters, with an uncharacteristic mistake at White Hart Lane several weeks back followed up by a catastrophic attempt to punch clear the cross that led to Grant Holt’s headed equaliser. 

After the goal the lack of a combative central midfielder became very apparent, with perhaps Stevie yet to find full match fitness and Charlie Adam joining our captain in giving the Norwich midfield far too much time on the ball. With nobody to break up play and provide a calming influence, both resorted to audacious passing attempts, and when we did regain possession we started hitting it long. The fluid football seen earlier in the game gave way to a frantic approach during a spell that could have seen us concede yet again but for the acrobatics of Pepe. More chances went begging late on, and we recorded a disappointing third home draw out of just five games at Anfield.  

   

With our perennial bogey team Stoke City away in the Carling Cup next on the agenda, and then a trip to meet the unapologetic architect of our turgid start to last season, Roy Hodgson, and his West Bromwich Albion side on Saturday, we really need two victories. Firstly to boost morale, and secondly and more importantly to further our quest for silverware and Champions League qualification. Arsenal have now recorded back to back league wins and Spurs continue to look like the team most likely to clinch that coveted fourth spot having put their early season woes behind them.

I hope that to begin with we give Carroll an opportunity in both games, and try to solve our attacking riddle, as for now we may have to wait for a solution in central defence to emerge. If we cannot keep goals out, we must score more and ensure that we do not pay the price for defensive lapses.

This squad has so much potential, but as we approach the end of October, our team and style of play looks no more set in stone than it did on the opening day in August.