Well, I don’t know how the protest went as I unwillingly took part in it myself, because I missed the first ten minutes of the game due to me being collared to look at something on the way out of work.
From what I gather though, it was pretty ineffective, just as I thought it would be.
I’ll leave you to enlighten me on that, but I just hope it wasn’t so bad that it made us fans on the whole, look daft.
As for the important stuff, what to say?
Things looked like I pretty much expected they’d go before the game, in the first half.
Liverpool looked the total opposite of us, in that when they break forward, their attackers are all over the place and offer plenty of options, whereas we just don’t.
That said, I thought we sat back far too much and allowed them to come at us, which didn’t allow us to put any pressure on them. For me, that was a mistake, as Liverpool do look susceptible at the back.
Which co-incidentally, is something I noticed about us today.
I’m no defensive tactician. Indeed I don’t profess to know much about tactics at all, but I just hate the way we were lining up in defence in the first half. Watch the goal and there were three defenders all chasing the same player.
Surely that can’t be right?
We just looked totally out of shape at the back.
The long and short description of the first half is that we could easily have been 3 down, but only went in losing by a solitary Liverpool goal.
The second half started brighter, but not massively different from memory.
And then came the interesting part, where on the hour, Lambert took the utterly ineffective Cleverley and Westwood off to be replaced by Andi Weimann and our new signing, Carles Gil.
I see some complained that Delph stayed on, but for me it was a case of perm any two from three.
Gil’s introduction straight away massively raised the fan’s spirits and the difference was amazing, as the atmosphere and our play instantly improved, with Gil playing a great, actually threatening, “give and go” that stood out and immediately caught my eye. What a pleasant change that made.
It just goes to show, that if you give the fans something to hope for, they will strongly support the club and indeed get behind the players.
The worrying thing for me though, is that this was proof that the players are feeling the malaise that runs through the club just as strongly as we do. Even they’re hoping that Carles Gil can improve us.
And at first glance, it looks like he at least might.
The important part is that we truly put Liverpool under the cosh for a 15-20 minute period and probably could have had a couple of goals, if Benteke was in better form and we had a bit more luck.
Ricky Lambert ruined things though in getting a well taken second which took the wind out of our sails.
Yes, it’s a bad result, but not one that was unexpected really.
There are strong positives, in that Gil, (if it wasn’t a total fluke and I know it’s too early to really judge) looks a very good player who will give us options and put the likes of Cleverley and Richardson (who are far too average) under serious pressure.
And there was proof that if we can get at least another more attacking, wide player in, to give us and the players something to be encouraged about, we might still have something to cheer about this season.
I know we lost, but this was a more entertaining game today.
Man of the match?
Sanchez again, as I thought he broke up play brilliantly, even though he constantly sailed close to the wind with some of his tackles. He linked up very well with Hutton, who again was solid and often our most threatening player.
Hutton’s unlucky not to get the call, but there you go.
I’d even put Gil in with a shout, just for the impact he made.
I shouldn’t be happy and indeed I’m not, because we lost at home.
But after seeing Gil, I’m at least encouraged.
