A defensive error by Kolo Toure cost Liverpool all three points against Pepe Mel’s West Brom on Sunday afternoon.
After Daniel Sturridge put the Reds ahead on 24 minutes, his 24th league goal for the club. He now has scored 7 away goals this season, more than any other player in the Premier League.
As an awkward Kolo Touré picked out an accurate pass into Victor Anichebe’s path, you just knew the ex-Evertonian would place his shot into the bottom right-hand corner of the net beyond the hapless Simon Mignolet.
Fans, like Kolo himself, were up in arms and rightly disappointed.
The pass was awful. Touré should of known better not to have played the ball across the back line, even if he was able to see Anichebe or not. You are always putting yourself and the team in danger if you play such a pass. In fact Kolo should not have even received such a ball. This shows a weakness again within Mignolet’s game; his indecisiveness in having the ball and not being totally at ease in passing the ball out to his back four.
However numerous times this, season especially in the second half, the team has not come out of the traps from the first whistle and not pushed on. Ironically this was the same starting 11 which brushed past Everton with ease on Tuesday night.
The team should be able to play two games within so many days.
After all this would be the case if the Reds qualified for next season’s Champions League.
The team should have been raring to go especially as Top 4 rivals Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur dropped points it would have been a great way to consolidate 4th place.
For me Liverpool did not want it enough, similarly to the Hull performance away we looked monotonous, with a lack of cohesion, pressing and all-round effort from the central midfield areas. We cannot expect Luis to be on fire every game but he even looked wary. Again it was a case of ‘it’s only West Brom we don’t need to play particularly well we can still win’. Rodgers really needs to work with the squad and enforce the meaning of a winning mentality and the rewards of this.
For me the most frustrating aspect of yesterday’s dispirited performance was that the stakes couldn’t have been higher. A win would have seen Liverpool just 1 point below Mourinho’s Chelsea, 4 points ahead of Everton, 5 points ahead of Tottenham and a massive 9 points ahead of Manchester United. It was arguably the most important game of the season. The team would have been breathing down the neck of the Top 3 and confidence would have been high with the upcoming visit of Arsenal this Saturday lunchtime. Instead, the team is slogging it out with local-rivals Everton for 4th place.
With a back-line of Flanagan, Skrtel, Touré and Cissokho away from home, Liverpool needed 2 goals at least to gain three points from this fixture. Due to the fact that especially as a partnership Skrtel and Toure have conceded eight goals when playing together.
The sooner Mamadou Sahko is fit the better as we need a solid partner for Sktrel while Agger is out. Don’t get me wrong Kolo has done his best when called upon recently however he just not up to scratch– A quick thinking centre forward would have a field day.
Worringly our own errors are costing us – we have made 29 defensive errors leading to a goal / attempt more than any other team in the Premier League this season. We have lost a massive 12 points from winning positions so far this season – (Those points could have made a massive difference to the standings).
When you are in front you need to press home your advantage and ensure such an eventuality is a mere irritant rather than something decisive, but too often Liverpool have had their opponent on the ropes only to step back and allow them to shake off the blows and come firing back with punches.
This is the fifth time this campaign that Liverpool has taken the lead away from home but failed to win the game. We are still to win back to back away games and we have only taken 16 from a possible 36 points (4 wins, 4 draws 4 losses)
Liverpool’s inability to kill teams off, combined with our habit of defensive lapses, is certainly holding us back. The result has to be seen as two points dropped rather than one gained. The team really needs to find a way to deliver that knockout blow away from home if we are to remain fourth.
I am hoping and Brendan if you are reading this, Liverpool needs to approach the game against Arsenal on Saturday with more vigor and persistence than against West Brom. Fingers crossed the team can achieve the three points. We CANNOT afford any more slip ups in the race for Champions League qualification.
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Yes we should have built on our slender lead, but we did not need to, as Albion was never going to score, so Toure did cost us, i was more concerned that Rodgers let his game plan continue even when it was apparent it was’nt working, took too long to make substitutions and failed to change formation.
Sometimes the next game, after a big, confidence boosting but mentally sapping match, can be a bit flat. W.Brom away is a case in point.
Against Everton although the scoreline suggests otherwise, we had to work hard in the game.
Being unable to rotate the team probably cost us but as I’ve mentioned before, W.Brom are no pushover at home, they deserve credit too.
We are having our best season in years and as K.Dalglish says, it shows how much we have progressed, not just on the pitch but mentally as a club/team off it, to be upset with an away draw. Even under the magician Benitez we drew and lost away games we were ‘expected’ to win.
Not enjoying the build up to the Arsenal game, silver lining is that Tottenham play Everton on Sunday, a draw between them would be ok for us.