More of the Same Please, Boys!

PERSPECTIVE is hugely important in life and I’ve mentioned it several times recently in relation to football and, more importantly, our current situation. It is as important to have in victory as it is in defeat, which is why I’ve waited a few days after our Derby destruction of the Blues to write this. In the aftermath of a great victory, it’s as easy to go overboard with praise as it is take too harsh a stance in defeat but I think it’s important that fans not get too carried away after the win over our Blue-nosed neighbours.

It was a great performance by most players and even those that didn’t stand out did themselves proud with their effort and attitude to what is one of our most important games of the season. However, as Liverpool have experienced over the years, it’s not enough to just gee yourself up for the big games; the players need to be there during the small ones too, the ones we’re roundly expecting to be walk-overs and all too often this season, that has not been the case.

Thankfully though, there were a number of positives to take from the Derby, mainly the performances of certain players. For one, Martin Kelly was outstanding – he’s taken a few games to get back in to his stride but you could see him ratcheting his performances up a level with each game back and against Everton he didn’t give their left-hand side a chance. At times, he almost appeared to be ignoring Henderson entirely in order to continue his marauding runs down the right-hand side and long may that continue. I’ve said it numerous times but I feel that Kelly should be our first choice right-back. With a couple of seasons under his belt, he could become one of the best in Europe and he easily has the potential to be England’s number one right-back.

With that in mind, I would also like to see a little experiment take place once Glen Johnson is fit. I wrote about 18 months ago that I felt Johnson was wasted at right-back and that he was also too prone to lapses in concentration and errors to be trusted in such an important area. I still feel that he would be worth much more to us on the right side of midfield, not necessarily in the role of a winger but as a wide-midfielder, in the same way we’ve used Fabio Aurelio to great effect in the past. A right-hand side of Johnson and Kelly would excite me greatly and both players would be more than comfortable inter-changing as situations required and it’s something I’d love to see in the future.
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Unlike Kelly though, Steve Gerrard’s performance came out of nowhere. He’s a great player, don’t get me wrong, but he’s appeared highly subdued all season since he was fit but against the Blues he came out of his shell and threw back the years in a big way. Not everything went right for him but his ability to be in the right place at the right time showed the likes of Downing and Henderson the kind of thing we mean when we cry out for our midfielders to get themselves in to the box. Gerrard’s finishing also showed that we do still remember how to score goals, as clinical as it was, and I’m hoping that Suarez, Carroll and the rest follow his lead (as our team has tended to do in the past) and start banging them in, in the coming weeks.

But while Gerrard’s finishing and positioning off the ball is something young players should be shown videos of for years to come, special mention has to go to Luis Suarez. His movement, trickery, intelligence and just… sheer audacity are truly something to behold when he hits the right notes and thankfully, he does so more often than not. Without Suarez terrifying Everton’s back four and pulling them this way and that, the space just wouldn’t have been available to Gerrard to get the opportunities. Indeed, without Suarez being on his own wavelength, our captain would not have had the chances for his 2nd and 3rd goals at all. But for all those people that’ll now start claiming we’re only a two-man team I would say this: that’s what we paid for. Big transfer fees and big wages are what get you the best players (although, admittedly, not in all cases) and while Luis hasn’t had the most prolific of seasons – and has certainly had one to regret off it – we must do everything in our power to ensure he remains with us during the summer and build our attack around him.

So while I’m as happy as anybody by the result on Tuesday night, I still stand by my guns on everything I’ve written recently and I’ll need to see many more displays of that calibre before I’ll start to believe that we’re actually moving in the right direction and a comfortable and assured performance against one of our bogey teams on Sunday would be a hell of a good start.

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