It’s All Very Well Doing It In The Cup…

AND so the FA Cup semi-final went according to this season’s script.

Never mind the league performances; Liverpool, after the customary rather crappy start conceding a first-half lead, discovered they were up for it after all, steamrollered the second half, and won with a late header from Andy Carroll – the second time he’s done that this month.

Once again LFC show real fight and the will to win in a Cup competition, though little concern from those of their supporters with delicate constitutions….

Yes, it was a great spectacle, and set the stage for a potentially greater one at Wembley on 5th May; and it certainly did a lot to drag our season out of the slough of despond. But what does it actually signify, or, to put it another way, why can’t the lads do this all the time? We’ve played better than that – certainly a long way better than the first half performance – and lost or played out bore-draws. But, in the Premiership, that sense of by-hook-or-by-crook is too often absent.

Certainly there was plenty of vulnerability on show. A distinct sense of déjà vu all over again emerged with ball cannoning off woodwork, or with Andy Carroll’s missed header from two yards – although déjà vu doesn’t cover that extraordinary after-you-Claude double act between Carra and Agger which let in Jelavic for the goal. I’ve never seen anything like that before, not since Laurel and Hardy anyway. And Brad Jones – fair dinkum to him, he didn’t get anything badly wrong, but confidence-inspiring he wasn’t. As the end of normal time drew near with the score at 1-1, my heart was in my mouth, getting in the way of the IPA going in the other direction, as the prospect of penalties loomed. I bet even Brad wasn’t as relieved at Andy Carroll’s winner as the fans were.

And, especially in the first half, there was this awful (though sadly all too common) sense that the field positions had been allocated by drawing lots. Daniel Agger is not a left back, Kenny. Stewart Downing is a LEFT-winger. And you won’t get the best out of Hendo if he’s just slotted in wherever there happens to be a vacancy. Can we please get all this sorted out before the final?

But at least LFC know what to do when the chips are down. If you get enough shots in on goal, some of them are going to go in eventually. Luis Suárez was everywhere, slightly profligate in front of goal as usual, but he knows what to do when a defender feeds him a back-pass. And then big Andy. Having demonstrated all through the match that he does what it says on the tin when size and muscle are what is required – he makes a splendid centre-back for set-pieces, and wins more aerial duels than Baron Richthofen – he managed to get his radar tuned to pin-point accuracy for Bellamy’s beautifully-positioned free kick. I don’t know what it is about Bellars – but when he comes on he has a galvanising effect on his team-mates which ratchets their performance up by 10% at least.

Anyway, at least we’ve got Chelsea in the final, which I think is preferable to Spurs. We have at least beaten them this season, by another last-minute goal as well. I never felt we had the measure of Spurs when we played them; of course it didn’t help that, earlier in the season, we had to face Gareth Bale without a single fit right-back. Intelligent and imaginative players like Modric always look as if they might outwit our defence. And I’m sure we’d have more trouble against a classic blood-and-thunder striker like Adebayor than against a certain gentleman whose name begins with T….now we can’t concede to him, can we?
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