Well another home draw, and another day of frustration and bewilderment. Our home record is P9 W3 D6 - that just simply isn't good enough. 6 draws is just showing our problems in finding goals.
We couldn't beat Blackburn, in fact, we couldn't beat an injury stricken Blackburn who were forced to play a 17 year old, and their reserve keeper and they came to Anfield and got a result.
This is purely our fault and we only have ourselves to blame.
Their goal was by far the sloppiest goal we've conceded this season - a comedy of errors - Agger had plenty of time to clear the ball for a throwing and he should have, but kept possession too long and conceded the corner. Adam on the near post should have done much better; a little unfortunate because i doubt that'd happen to often, but it was still a vital mistake which cost us 2 valuable points.
We still have to give Blackburn some credit; even though they were stricken with injuries, protests from some section of the fans with an under pressure boss - they defended very well and very resiliently. But we still should have put them to the sword.
Defensively we were excellent, once again. Blackburn only had one shot on target, and they didn't offer any threat whatsoever. For the first time in a while, our defence is safe, secure and i have full confidence that we can keep clean sheets.
Our central midfield were average, Henderson looked invisible for most parts, never really tried creating anything, or making forward runs looking to take risks. He's just to passive, and anonymous. Always looking to take the safe option, which lets us retain possession - true - but it doesn't actually get us any near to scoring. He needs to start taking risks, looking to create opportunities because we know he has the talent, and the ability to create chances.
Adam was poor too, i'm getting the feeling that he needs a break. He seems fairly tired and is effecting his performance and making forwards runs. Been a shocking couple of games for him too - missed penalty, own goal, and two poor performances could shatter his confidence too.
Once Gerrard came on, the whole complexion our of team changed, we started to look a proper team and he played 3/4 fantastic passes within 10 minutes, which created good goalscoring chances that Adam is simply unable to create on a consistent bases, and Henderson just doesn't try doing often enough, in fear of making a mistake.
Our wingers were our best performers in my opinion:
Maxi had a great game. He's such an underrated player, every game he makes clever astute runs into space and into the box. He seems to be the only player who is on the same wavelength with Suarez; many times they played clever one-twos into the box. He also scored a vital goal - he has a knack of scoring and it was well positioned and set up on a plate for him.
It was defiantly Downing's best game for us in a red shirt, he had the beating of his man all game and he delivered some really quality crosses in - in which we should have done more with. Hopefully that performance can regain his confidence and start showing us why Dalglish splashed 20 million on you.
Suarez was bright too, showing a few moments of magic with his skill, then the final ball or shot just lacking. I do have one small criticism of Suarez though - he's a brilliant player, with fantastic skill but there were quite a few times where Suarez tries to get past too many players, or tries getting past a player one to many times - one time he was in plenty of space to shoot (in the box), but he tried manoeuvring past one player one too many times which causes us to loses the ball and the opportunity to score.
Carroll got into good positions to score. But the luck was against him, he had a shot from two yards, which he shot straight at the keeper - he got on the end of a few crosses and was so close to sending a header into the back of the net. He had that volley right at the death, which caused the keeper to do a wonder save. But he should have done better for that one particular shot, he hit it weak and timid and it gave the keeper a chance to save it. Really should be putting more power behind it and it'd have gone in.
Another disappointing draw, and another frustrating game with our finishing. We have a very serious problem - we cannot score and we need to find a solution. Solution being, getting Carroll into some form or by investing in January into a goalscoring striker - it really doesn't matter, but we cannot carry on missing so many chances. It's effecting us in every game we play almost.
The big positives were Downing finding his feet and some form, by far his best game and he looked very good. The other positive being Gerrard's return. We missed him badly and i hope he can find some fitness and lead us up the table.
Overall i'm disappointed, but our performance and build up play was very good. Once we find the back of the net consistently, i believe we will kick on and start demolishing teams and progressing up the league.
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