The Many Recent Frustrations Of Being A Liverpool Fan

Think it’s better to be steady now and just say we’re sort of coming back in to our own with each passing game. The Carling Cup 1^st leg win against Manchester City at Etihad would go some way in justifying that. But it’s also interesting to see the tactics used by Dalglish. Especially against what Mancini would probably describe as a deflated side, after losing Vincent Kompany to a nitpicking referee for a perfectly good tackle and Yaya Toure to the African Cup of Nations.

After sort of dominating the first half, forcing Joe Hart to earn his England number one status repeatedly, Steven Gerrard managed to beat his countryman just about with a perfectly placed penalty at the bottom left corner.

The second half though, we mostly defended against a wounded City desperate to avoid a second successive home defeat, that too at the hands of a side they’d just beaten comprehensively a week ago. At one point Liverpool had 11 players in their own half, closing down and intercepting intended defence slitting passes from the likes of Nigel de Jong, Adam Johnson, Gareth Barry, Micah Richards, Sergio Aguero…the list goes on.

Echoes of a certain Rafa Benitez wouldn’t you say? This was fairly reminiscent of that famous European Cup 2^nd leg quarter final with Juventus in Turin, where a 2-1 lead from Anfield was kept intact.  I don’t reckon anyone’s going to complain as long as we either win or draw the 2^nd leg at Anfield and march on to Wembley for the first time in 15 years.

But it’s not just going to be about the Carling Cup though. We’re still in the FA Cup, face Manchester United next, and wouldn’t it be just perfect if we beat them as well to scalp a cup double over the whole of Manchester. This is where our tactics have got to be spot on, and not just in the cups, but in the league as well.

Apart from a 3-0 drubbing at the hands of the league leaders last week and 4-0 whitewash by Tottenham early in the season, Liverpool have been generally good away from home. It’s the home form that leaves a lot to be desired. This is not something anyone calling themselves a Red would like to carry on.

There was a time when Anfield was considered a fortress. Everyone was scared to come here and rightly so. With the 12^th men from the Kop ends along with the rest of the ground rallying on the players, opposition teams didn’t know where to look once they were on the pitch.

Nowadays, we’ll give away cheap goals to Norwich and Blackburn, or let Swansea let us run ragged and look the team that deserved the winning goal. This has to stop. Instantly.

With Suarez out for a while, the pressure’s come on to Andy Carroll all the more to score and deliver goals like people had expected, the moment the £35 million deal was announced last year. For some reasons, the big man hasn’t been able to deliver in that department and the price tag overshadows the other contributions he makes. However it is quite true that his ball control and general sense of passing is wayward to put it kindly.

He reminds you of Peter Crouch in his first full season with the Reds, going on that major duck patch – what was it, about 19 games without scoring? Then he found his feet against Wigan, with a spot of luck and deflection which for some reason got given an own goal. Then he broke through the defence to score a striker’s delight with a looping volley over the goalkeeper and became a key figure for Benitez for a while.

Then of course Fernando Torres arrived and we’ve seen a lot changed since then, culminating in a young Geordie with a big price tag wearing the no. 9 shirt vacated by El Nino. There have been concerns all over the place with Carroll, and yes there is the price we paid for him, instigating that a fair bit. But he’s only 23, he’s young and he’s got a lot of pressure on him. Think of Didier Drogba when he first came to Chelsea. He couldn’t score if he was surrounded by empty goals. In a season or two, he turned in to THE Didier Drogba, terrorising defences all over the park.

Players need time, especially front men. Midfielders can run around and put in a few good passes and that’s enough to build their confidence because that’s their primary job in the traditional sense – to make the goals or have a hand in it. Carroll will continue to feel the brunt until he turns in to a goal scoring machine, which he’s more than capable of doing. His play at the moment has two major characteristics which are alterable.

He’s low on confidence and his fitness needs to shoot up. If Lucas can do it and become a player whose injury creates shock waves for the Anfield staff, then so can Carroll. Another thing Dalglish can try, is to play Dirk Kuyt ahead of him or behind as a second striker. Either way, the Dutchman will provide some assistance along with Gerrard, for Carroll to run a little freer.

At the end of the day though, the lad can have all the time he wants as long as he works harder and plays more important roles in the play which could lead to anyone scoring the winning goal – even if that’s Pepe Reina, don’t think anyone will complain.

We need to start winning and make it a habit. Now’s as good a time as any.

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