Monday, November 01, 2004

Match Report 041030 at Blackburn Rovers: We're All Behind You, Djibril

2-2, but result does not matter any more. We are all behind Djibril and really hope he will recover soon and become a stronger player.

As I said before, we need to control the pace, and in fact we did it for the opening session. We started the game brightly, and Riise scored another great goal in the 7th minute. But the lead did not last too long and we let Blackburn control the pace. A hestitation by Traore played Emerton onside and he played the ball calmly to let Bothroyd score easily. Then things went worse with Cisse broke his leg, and another hestitation by Hyypia sent the ball to Emerton and he curved the ball into the net in the dying minute of 1H...

2H we played a gear up and equalized. It was a clever pass by Garcia, the new dad, who get the ball from an Blackburn error and passed it to Baros, who calmly put it into the net. After that both teams have a few chances, notably Garcia did a last man save, but it finished 2-2, which is probably a fair result for both teams. One thing that I really didn't like is that at some time we just allow Blackburn to control the game, at one point the 5 minute possession shows 85% Blackburn 15% Liverpool! Can't let this allow anymore. On a day that Arsenal drawn and Man United lost, it's really not too good a result to lost 2 points.

Player Rating:
Kirkland: 7 Once again the defense let him down. But he did made some great saves or else we will lost the game.
Josemi: 5.5 Lack pace. Out run by Emerton several times. Need to improve a lot, and to avoid the needless tackles.
Carragher 7 The only defender that is up to standard.
Hyypia: 6 Responsible for the 2nd goal.
Traore: 5.5 Played Emerton onside that result in the 1st goal.
Finnan: 6 Nothing spectacular done, and was substituted early 2H. Although I would put him ahead of Josemi at the time being.
Alonso: 6.5 Had a great assist, and other then that a good performance, but he can have a bigger impact.
Hamann: 6 Typical Hamann performance, ie, stable, but can't raise us to a higher level.
Riise: 7 Scored a great goal. We are getting close to see the best of Riise. Striker in next game?
Cisse: 6 Just as he started to show bonding with Milan, he was cruelly injured... Get well soon.
Baros: 7.5 Scored a great goal and was constantly our greatest threat. And from now on we need to rely on him. Milan, bring your Euro 2004 form back!

Substitutions:
Garcia: 7 A great assist shows his awareness. Also, have a last man save. Well done newly dad!
Kewell: 6.5 Need to gear up now that Cisse is injuried.
Diao: Scary...

Rafa: 6 Need to solve our away form, especially the defense.

Blackburn: 6 Let's put it straight here: This is a bad pitch for us, so let's hope they get relegated.

Man of the Match: Baros. And he need to perform this day in day out now. Let's prove you are a better striker than a certain former player.

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