3-1 and it was a very good performance, if you don't watch the first 30 minutes. The first half an hour was like the Portsmouth game and every pass were to a Newcastle United, even though we were winning possession. Luckily (?) Newcastle scored a controversial goal and we wake up immediately. Within minutes Riise has a shot just 2 feet wide, Mellor was greedy and not pass the ball to Baros who was in a much better position. Then we won a corner and Stevie G's cross found Bramble and he duly scored. 1-1.
Within minutes Baros and Mellor link up again. This time Baros had the ball, seeing Mellor in a better position, he passed nicely and Mellor didn't disappoint. Hope he learn from Milan.
2H we were still in control and then there can only be one winner in this game. Milan scored but referee ruled he fouled Given first... Finally in 60th minute Kewell got the ball in midfield. He turned and passed the ball beautifully to Baros, and Milan turned Given and put the ball into the empty net.
After that Newcastle had several chances, namely Robert's freekick which Dudek saved superbly, and Jenas blown into air from 6 yards. To calm down Newcastle's attack, Rafa substituted Mellor. While most would think Hamann would come to play, instead he opted to play Sinama-Pongolle, and his pace has caused lots of troubles to Newcastle. Finally Bowyer was annoyed and he rightly earned a red card. Job done.
In general this is a good display from the players. They show a hunger to win things back especially after we were 1 goal down, and Rafa need to think thoughfully whether to play 4-5-1 or 4-4-2. My thought is, if Baros play, 4-4-2. Otherwise, 4-5-1 probably fit better.
Player Rating:
Dudek: 7 A good display especially the Robert freekick save. Had no chance of the goal as defense let him down.
Finnan: 7 Good job defensively. Had a nice cross to Baros which almost led to a Milan overhead goal.
Carragher: 7 Solid as usual, try to made a last man save to the Kluivert goal but just missed it.
Hyypia: 6.5 Maybe he's tired, he wasn't as good as he should be, and he had his goal robbed by Bramble...
Riise: 7 Looks a bit tired, but still do a lot of overlaps and attacks. Almost scored a great goal but just missed by 1-2 feet.
Garcia: 6.5 Welcome back. Not back to his best yet, but a good game in general.
Gerrard: 6.5 A quiet game in his high standard. The talk of the game was his shot to row z, someone (Carra?) shared a joke with him afterwards.
Alonso: 7.5 Good display in central midfield especially after 25 minutes when Rafa had a few words with him.
Kewell: 7 A nice assist. This is what we expect from him! And we want more and more!
Baros: 8.5 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 disallowed goal, 1 overhead kick. And he shown Mellor what to be done when teammate is in better position. Great game.
Mellor: 7 Apart from the goal he had a quiet game. Maybe it's Rafa's tactic to let him pull out the center backs to create space.
Substitutions:
Nunez: 7 Good display substituting Garcia.
Sinama-Pongolle: 7.5 Created a lot of troubles for Newcastle. Well done!
Traore: Is he our new left wing? Why is he always playing left wing when substituting Kewell?
Rafa: 8 The change to 4-4-2 really suits Baros. And I need to quote Strachan's comment:
"Liverpool targeted the area where Newcastle are weak: they gave the two centre-halves a problem by opting to play two wide men, and playing them really wide.
If the ball was in a central position, the two wide men stayed right out on the touchline and gave the full-backs a problem. So the full-backs were caught in half positions, covering centre-halves and watching out for the wide men.
That gave a lot of space between the centre-halves and the full-backs, meaning it was two-on-two with Neil Mellor and Milan Baros up against Robbie Elliott and Titus Bramble. Liverpool tried to feed Baros the ball in front of him, or he could turn back when in the centre.
If the ball was wide in behind the full-back, then Baros would run into the channels, taking centre-halves with him. If the full-backs did come in and tighten, then the wide men would get the ball.
Alternatively, you can have the wingers come deeper and bring the full-back with them. The ball played over the top of the full-back has Baros running into the space the full-back has left.
To give your wide men licence to roam you've got to have two central midfielders who can do it in there on their own. Liverpool did: Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard. Gerrard's playing like two men now, with his extra power and heading ability in the middle of the park. Newcastle couldn't cope."
Whether we will continue to play 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 is probably Rafa need to think.
Newcastle: With Bramble they can lose any game. And Bowyer is back to his original temper now.
Man of the Match: Baros. A nice all-round display.
No comments:
Post a Comment