by banana » Sat Oct 16, 2004 5:57 pm
Wow! What a game. Bizarre wasn't it?
Two nil down away. Then we made the unlikely comeback. Then we were down to ten men. And suddenly we scored two more goals. Taking all three points to Anfield. Surely this calls for a celebration? No, wait. Wasn't our three points just pure luck today? Wasn't our weak spots exposed time and again? Let's just have a look at the Fulham goals. First goal. Mistake nr 1. Diao gives the ball away in midfield. Mistake nr 2. Hyypia is outpaced and beaten by the slow brian mc bride. Mistake nr 3. Kirkland leaves the line rushing for the ball at Mc Bride's feet. Three errors in a row. Kirkland perhaps making the biggest one. A sin against the ABC of goalkeeping.
Then we have the second goal. Mistake nr 1. Diao and Hamann goes for the ball and crushes into each other. Mistake nr 2. Hyypia is again outpaced and outsmarted for the n-th time in the game.
Apart from these obvious combination of errors that led to Fulhams goals. There were numerous of other errors that would have cost us dear against a top team. Best performers: Alonso, Baros, Cisse, Carragher and Traore. Worst offenders: Hyypia, (Kirkland,) Garcia, Diao
So what can we take from this game. I would focus on three things.
Lesson nr 1. We need to sort out our defence. Hyypia is a accident waiting to happen back there. He gets exposed too many times just by the lack of pace and by his positioning errors. Carragher cleared up his mess most of the times, but both goals could have been stopped if we had more pace back there. We desperately need one or maybe two new defenders. Josemi did ok. Although he should have kept his head cool after his first booking. The big positive for me in this game was Traore. He did really well. He was comfortable on the ball and sound defensively. He completely bossed his opponents and actually looked dangerous when going forward.
Lesson nr 2. We need to gat a more balanced midfield line up. First of all. Never ever play Diao again. At least not together with Hamann. Two defensive midfielders with zero creativity. That line up was a disgrace to the fans, and we almost paid a hefty price because of this. I know Diao was trying to play football, but he might as well have been practising breast strokes. Garcia was also terrible out there, giving the ball away too often and he was not contributing at all defensively.
Lesson nr. 3. Never give up. No matter how bad things look. Go on keep fighting and work, work, work work, until the referee blows the final whistle. This we did today. And I admit we had a lot of luck. But we were also fighting hard for the three points. It paid off. Hard work always pays off.
If football is banned in heaven. I'd rather go to hell.