After such an impressive start to life under caretaker manager Kenny Dalglish, compiling four wins out of his first six Premier League games, Liverpool have suddenly hit a brick wall.
Strangely enough, it seems as though a fantastic win at Stamford Bridge just over three weeks ago was the catalyst for a drastic dip in form. The Reds have only managed three goals in the four matches since the impressive win against Chelsea with a disappointing point at home to Wigan and a scrappy 1-0 aggregate win over Sparta Prague in the Europa League last 32 providing little cheer for the Anfield faithful.
Sunday’s Premier League clash against West Ham United at Upton Park presented Dalglish’s men with the perfect opportunity to turn their fortunes around and get back into full swing with an eye-catching performance, and hopefully three points. However, what we saw was possibly one of Liverpool’s worst performances of this season.
The Reds lacked creativity, were second to every ball and allowed West Ham to out-battle them from start to finish. Credit has to be given to the Hammers; their desire to win the game was notable throughout and a top class performance from the Londoners midfield lynchpin Scott Parker gave them the impetus to pick up all three points in an alarmingly comfortable fashion.
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Liverpool’s mistake was prioritizing the 2 games against Sparta. Yes, it is silverware, but last season after Christmas Benitez did the same and the club only finished seventh. Key players like Kelly and Agger picked up their injuries against Sparta (in Kelly’s case the initial injury against Sparta was aggravated at West Ham). 5 points dropped against Wigan and West Ham was inexcusable and was caused considerably by boozed up Reina in goal who has been a disgrace all season. Enough of this laughable sentiment towards the supposedly worldclass Gerrard, Carragher and Reina, their performances at West Ham were not their first shambolic performances of the season and I will not be surprised to see them disgrace themselves again with another gutless performance from the 3 primadonnas against an average Man Utd side this Sunday. These 3 seem perfectly content to do nothing to stop United winning no.19. Gerrard got injured in that meaningless friendly against France, just like Michael Owen he clearly valued playing for England in friendlies more important than playing in crucial Premier League games for the team that pays him 150 grand a week. This excuse that he was short of match fitness at West Ham was ridiculous, he had played the whole game at Chelsea just 3 weeks before that. He was clearly out boozing with his pals that were in the stand with him on the Thursday night after the Sparta game, if the club do not start breathalysing Gerrard, Carragher and Reina each day at training and 2 hours before each match for the remainder of the season, they had better hope that 39 points is enough to avoid relegation. Fans should take a look at the points totals of the 14 teams below Liverpool.
thats a very heartless opinion and completely bull .these players go through fitness tests like no other and if there is a problem they would nt play !i think fans should show some support to there team and forget whats behind them its who s in front that counts !
The sacred cow mentality from fans like elnino77 is one of the major reasons this club has not won the league since 1990 and elnino77 your idol is now at Chelsea.