by bigmick » Sun Aug 27, 2006 1:33 pm
My take.
Riena: Obviously at fault for the goal, where his faulty positioning was compounded by a rare lack of spring and then weak left hand. Did really well a few minutes later though when playing the sweeper role and rushing out. As long as he continues to have dodgy games against West Ham only he'll do for me. Though he was at fault for it, the goal was a fluke and nothing to worry about 7/10.
Finnan: Thankfully him and Pennant seem to have sorted out their communication problems and both of them attacked and defended as a unit. Good solid game from the right-back who may be the player who racks up most games in a red shirt this season. 7/10.
Hyypia: Worries me a little bit as we seem to be holding a higher line even than last season this term. Having said that the zones looked better and he was never embarassed, cleverly using his experience to make up for a lack of pace. 6.5/10.
Agger: Continues to improve and is beginning to look like a steal for the money given he is twenty one years old. He really is a footballing centre-half who in terms of his creative side is out of the very top-drawer. Defensively he's not quite there yet but gets better every game. Fantastic goal and it says something about his ability on the ball that I wasn't that surprised. 8/10
Aurelio: I actually don't agree with one or two posters who have said that he was out of position for the goal. When an attacker runs accross the line like zamora did it's natural to tuck in and make the passer and the attacker go on your outside. I think he did the right thing, closed down the cross OK and was entitled to expect his goalkeeper to deal with it. I think he's a very good player who will only improve. Another good free-kick but he has to be careful with his "drawing the foul" tactic in English football. Some referees wouldn't have given the foul against Harewood and then he'd look silly. Good performance though. 7/10
Pennant: Continues to impress and looks to be gaining in confidence. Sofar I like him and think we are seeing something close to 70% of what he can be. I'd still like to see him provide more of a goal threat but so far so good. 7/10
Alonso: Some of the criticism of Xabi has been way over the top. It wasn't his best game but was by no means a poor performance either. Solid and happy to let Gerrard take the plaudits. 6/10
Gerrard: It amazes me sometimes when you see Gerrard given marks like 6 and 7 for a performance like that. He was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch, with one pass out to Pennant on the right-wing absolutely sublime in its execution. All our best moments came when he was in and around the action. We should never take him for granted. This time he was averagely unbelieveable. I still, even after that performance though prefer him on the right. 9/10
Garcia: One of my favourite players but little Luis is way off the pace right now and a shadow of the player at his best. He has always conceeded posession cheaply but there has always been flashes of brilliance and razor sharp awareness to compensate. Though a lovely little reverse pass through to Crouch yesterday enabled the big man to get the winner, I thought Garcia was very poor. This make or break season for him at Liverpool has not started well but I still think he'll come good. 5/10
Crouch: Once again I think some are overreacting. Sure a few of his layoffs to Bellamy were a bit off but the understanding will take time. Took his goal very well and continues to be an important part of the team. 6.5/10
Bellamy: I thought he was excellent. During the period of the game around the half-hour mark Bellamy went through a period where he chased half a dozen totally lost causes and got the crowd going. I felt this was a crucial period of the game because it was just drifting away from us at the time. it was nice to see a player other than Gerrard grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck for once. Though all the offside calls were probably correct, on another day he could have been given on and scored a couple. Extremely annoying performance for the opposition fans therefore a top performance for us 8.5/10.
Subs, Gonzales: Well he's certainly willing to track back and made a couple of timely tackles in his own last third. Unfortunately on almost every occasion it was he who had lost posession the first place. There is certainly more to come from the Chilean but my own feeling is that we won't see it until next season. An improvement on Garcia but not by much. 6/10.
Kuyt: well he certainly put to bed all those memories of an ineffective World Cup. A brilliant debut and further proof that when Rafa goes big, he knows his onions. Will obviously be a huge player for Liverpool. Anybody wants to give it "well it's too early to say" and I'll argue with them till the cows come home. 8/10.
Zenden: No comment.
There you go, a good performance all round I thought.
"se e in una bottigla ed e bianco, e latte".
