There has been something absent in this squad ever since:
1) Paco's departure
2) Alonso's and Agger's injuries
I think 2) has had a lot more influence than 1) TBH. I think everyone knew we were gonna miss Agger when he got injured, but not so much Alonso. A lot of people on here were too quick to slate Alonso earlier this season IMO, I stuck up for him at the time saying he does a lot that goes unnoticed in the game, and it only seems to be in his abscense that people acknowledge this fact.
Going back to last nights game, I've had a bit of time to reflect on things now. Reina didn't have a chance with the own goal but could maybe have done better for the second, apart from that & one other save I can't recall him having to do anything else all night. I completely agree with donrafael that Hyypia can't play this many games in succession anymore and it showed last night, if Agger or Arbeloa isn't back for Sunday it will have to be either Jack Hobbs or play someone out of position (Mascherano possibly?). I feel sorry for Sami cos he's inevitably gonna take a lot of stick, but I feel Rafa should've known he was asking too much of him to start with. Carragher's performance was hard to judge as he was having to do a lot of covering for Sami, not his greatest game but I think this had a lot to do with it. He needs to learn sometimes though that he was the one at fault, a couple of occassions he was screaming at his colleagues for something he had done. Both our fullbacks were poor, but for different reasons. In terms of skills like passing and tackling Riise pretty much got it right, but tactically he was all over the place, his runs were mistimed and he was caught too high up the pitch on a number of occassions. Finnan too was unusually poor, everything he did just seemed to go wrong last night, most notably the bizarre chain of events leading to the first goal. His passing was wayward & some of his tackling left a lot to be desired, let's just hope normal service is resumed from 'Mr Reliable' on Sunday.
In midfield, Gerrard is starting to get back to his usual self but I thought he was trying a bit too hard last night, attempting something fancy when the simple ball would have been easier & just as effective. Babel showed a lot of endeavour, ok he might not have got everything right but he was one of the few that was actually trying to make something happen. There were times I actually forgot Macherano was on the pitch, he didn't seem to be very involved in the game, but I can't recall him doing anything in particular wrong. I think this was the wrong game for him TBH, his strength is breaking up the oppositions attck, and there was never gonna be too much of that in this game. Pennant was poor, he didn't really get anything wrong going forward but that was because he didn't try anything, I'd much rather he tried & failed half the time as that would mean he was successful the other half. Defensively he offered absolutely nothing though, and definitely helped contribute to Finnan's poor performance. The difference was plain to see when Benayoun came on, he offered a lot more both going forward & in defence, and was a lot of peoples contender fo man of the match.
Up front I feel if Torres is out then Babel has to move there from the wing. Kuyt & Voronin just doesn't work, neither has that unpredictability about them that it takes to trouble defences. Either one of them would be good alongside a creative player, but together they become mundane & easy to defend against. I was surprised at the number of people calling for Crouch to come on considering that most people seem to want him sold in January, the poor lad must be wondering what he has to do to get a bit of gametime though, 10 minutes was nowhere near enough.
In terms of tactics & selection the only real mistake I think Rafa made was playing Hyypia, apart from that the way we setup should've won the game. The players just didn't play well enough, the amount of shots we had we should've buried them. Seems like the same story as last season, lots of shots but no goals to show for them, I still maintain we should've bought an out and out goalscorer in the summer. One thing the team definitely needs to work on is getting on the end of crosses. Near enough every cross, corner or free kick from a wide area was met by a Besiktas player, this has been an ongoing problem for a while now, you have to wonder if we actually practice this in training?
All in all a very bad night, and I'm still just as pissed off today, but it's done now & we have to look forwards. I hate to say it but I think the Champions League could well be beyond our reach now, so we'll have to focus on domestic competitions. Here's hoping to a better result on Sunday to put the smiles back on our faces.
