99 red balloons floating up into the sky, panic bells it’s red alert. While the stadium of light had 98 fewer than an eighties pop classic once spoke of on Saturday, the one massive beach ball-shaped troublemaker in the Liverpool goalmouth certainly gave cause for the panic bells to ring again on the red half of merseyside.
Maybe the match should have been stopped to remove the offending beach toy from the pitch, but the incident is only masking some serious deficiencies in the Liverpool midfield. What should have been the story was Liverpool rising above this and dealing with it like the title contenders they continually proclaim to be.
Darren Bent’s 5th minute goal should never have been the only goal of the game, but Liverpool contrived to lose the match. Sunderland were impressive, no doubt, but Liverpool should have the strength in depth to win these games.
But as any player at any level will tell you, this thing does seem to happen when you are down on your luck.
I remember a couple of seasons ago, pre-billions Manchester city were defeated live on television by Sheffield United, with the first goal arriving as a consequence of there being too many balloons in the goal mouth. (this time they were put there by Sheffield United fans though). Man City were in the mire back then, and could only buy Robinho on management simulation software.
But these things happen in football. While you can’t predict when silly things like this will happen, they invariably do (Reading’s ghost goal against Watford last year another example of ludicrous occurrences). However a team with Championship aspirations should not be affected by them
Liverpool are a good, maybe great team, but Senor Benitez just can’t seem to get his first XI right at the moment. Why drop Mascherano when both Torres and Gerrard are out injured? Who is Jay Spearing? His confidence must be in tatters and I hope he can recover from this and go on to have a career.
Liverpool aren’t doing enough to reverse their early season problems, and should look to within to apportion blame for another defeat this season to supposedly ‘lower level’ opposition. The last thing they need is a big game against the league champions to play themselves into form.
Or is it? I wouldn’t be surprised if Liverpool are able to put in a performance and get some points out of the match against Manchester United at the weekend. That is the nature of Benitez’ beast at the moment – beautiful inconsistency.
I guess the point is this. Liverpool on paper are good enough to win away at Sunderland. They didn’t win on Saturday. Why can’t Benitez get his players to click? What is missing? Who is to blame? Is it just a glitch?
I’m sure by next week it will all be a different story, and we’ll be praising his tactical majesty. However, you win the league by winning your games away to Sunderland. On this evidence I think the chase is up for Liverpool in the premiership. Before the end of October, too.
