Let us get the pub talk out of the way. Liverpool will not win the title this season because their defence is not as good as Manchester United’s or Chelsea’s and because their squad is not as strong as United’s, Chelsea’s or Arsenal’s. Well, on Saturday, a Liverpool defence missing Martin Skrtel and Álvaro Arbeloa handled everything that Bolton Wanderers could throw at them, while Fernando Torres sat on the substitutes’ bench.
Liverpool have beaten Chelsea and United this season and if they fail to win the Barclays Premier League in May, it will not be because Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are better than Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger or because United can leave players of Torres’s calibre on the bench. It will be down to bottle. Some teams have it, some do not and we are about to find out whether Rafael BenÍtez’s side have what it takes.
Against Bolton, a team who used to punch above their weight and finished in the top eight for four seasons from 2003 to 2007 under Sam Allardyce, BenÍtez’s side proved that they have more bottle than a Merseyside milkman. But Bolton under Gary Megson, an honest and hardworking manager, are a different proposition.
Kevin Davies may still be leading the line and putting himself about but his teammates were happy to stand back and watch Liverpool play for 45 minutes before Megson could get them back in the dressing-room and remind them that they had to fight, tackle and compete if they wanted to get anything from the game. “At half-time I told them not to show Liverpool any respect,” Megson said. “Liverpool have fantastic players but we had to get about them properly.”
Megson’s team increased their workrate at the start of the second half but they would have lost 7-2 if Liverpool – and Ricardo Gardner, the Bolton substitute – had taken their chances. Dirk Kuyt put his side in front with a clever header after 28 minutes and Steven Gerrard doubled the advantage after good work by Torres 17 minutes from time but this was a game of missed opportunities. Robbie Keane, from four yards, Gerrard, from two, and Lucas Leiva, from six, all missed open goals.
Kuyt and Torres hit the bar and post respectively and Gardner lost first his footing, then his nerve, when it would have been easier to score twice. “We’re practising finishing but maybe we need to practise some more,’ BenÍtez said.
The Liverpool manager may not have been pleased with his side’s finishing but he had no complaints about Rob Styles, the referee who disallowed a Bolton goal on the stroke of half-time. Gary Cahill’s header from a corner exposed Liverpool’s zonal marking system but the referee made the right call after Kevin Nolan tangled with José Manuel Reina and prevented the Liverpool goalkeeper from leaving his line. BenÍtez congratulated Styles but Megson was perplexed, unaware of the Fifa guidelines that advise referees that “it is an offence to restrict the movement of goalkeepers by unfairly impeding him, for example, at the taking of a corner kick”.
Before BenÍtez departed, he was asked if this was the kind of game his side would have lost two years ago. “No,” he said. They did. 2-0.
Liverpool have beaten Chelsea and United this season and if they fail to win the Barclays Premier League in May, it will not be because Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic are better than Jamie Carragher and Daniel Agger or because United can leave players of Torres’s calibre on the bench. It will be down to bottle. Some teams have it, some do not and we are about to find out whether Rafael BenÍtez’s side have what it takes.
Against Bolton, a team who used to punch above their weight and finished in the top eight for four seasons from 2003 to 2007 under Sam Allardyce, BenÍtez’s side proved that they have more bottle than a Merseyside milkman. But Bolton under Gary Megson, an honest and hardworking manager, are a different proposition.
Kevin Davies may still be leading the line and putting himself about but his teammates were happy to stand back and watch Liverpool play for 45 minutes before Megson could get them back in the dressing-room and remind them that they had to fight, tackle and compete if they wanted to get anything from the game. “At half-time I told them not to show Liverpool any respect,” Megson said. “Liverpool have fantastic players but we had to get about them properly.”
Megson’s team increased their workrate at the start of the second half but they would have lost 7-2 if Liverpool – and Ricardo Gardner, the Bolton substitute – had taken their chances. Dirk Kuyt put his side in front with a clever header after 28 minutes and Steven Gerrard doubled the advantage after good work by Torres 17 minutes from time but this was a game of missed opportunities. Robbie Keane, from four yards, Gerrard, from two, and Lucas Leiva, from six, all missed open goals.
Kuyt and Torres hit the bar and post respectively and Gardner lost first his footing, then his nerve, when it would have been easier to score twice. “We’re practising finishing but maybe we need to practise some more,’ BenÍtez said.
The Liverpool manager may not have been pleased with his side’s finishing but he had no complaints about Rob Styles, the referee who disallowed a Bolton goal on the stroke of half-time. Gary Cahill’s header from a corner exposed Liverpool’s zonal marking system but the referee made the right call after Kevin Nolan tangled with José Manuel Reina and prevented the Liverpool goalkeeper from leaving his line. BenÍtez congratulated Styles but Megson was perplexed, unaware of the Fifa guidelines that advise referees that “it is an offence to restrict the movement of goalkeepers by unfairly impeding him, for example, at the taking of a corner kick”.
Before BenÍtez departed, he was asked if this was the kind of game his side would have lost two years ago. “No,” he said. They did. 2-0.
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