Monday, December 22, 2008

Comment: Robbie Keane Proves It Was Business As Usual

Would Rafael Benitez have as much influence from the sofa as he would from the dugout? Well, Robbie Keane was taken off before the end so there’s your answer.

As Sammy Lee said, his presence would be missed. But as his assistant also said, it would be business as usual.

Unfortunately for Keane, that’s exactly what it was.

Maybe goalkeeping coach Xavi Valero’s phone ran out of battery (perfectly conceivable given the amount of time he spent on it) and Lee took a wild guess at what his manager would be thinking with nine minutes left to play against 10 men in a game there to be won.

Or maybe Benitez had left to put the kettle on in time for his half-time brew and missed a rare glimpse of what Keane is really capable of.

Because in that moment, he showed his true worth – and showed why he needed to be on the field for the duration of the contest.

Keane proved he has the ability to sniff on scraps like a hungry rat and gobble them up with just as much ferocity.

And in times when there’s no Fernando Torres to call on, that is an invaluable weapon to have at any stage of a football game.

Especially, you would think, in the final 10 minutes of a finely-balanced encounter.

Before the equaliser, Liverpool were a bit like the hoof forward by Daniel Agger that set the goal up – heading nowhere and hoping for the best.

But it was the best possible response from Keane, who watched all (count them) two of its bounces all the way on to his right foot and the half-volley was unstoppable.

So why is he not capable of producing something like that in the later stages? Why would he not, particularly with the confidence coursing through him on making such a stunning impact on his return to north London, be able to compose himself and execute such skill during a late chase for a winner?

The type of questions that Benitez was able to avoid yesterday. He would have been only too happy to face them if he had been there, of course, and would have had his considered replies and responses at the ready.

And to be fair to him, has Keane’s replacement Nabil El-Zhar’s glancing header crept in, that would have been the most emphatic answer of all.

But after deciding that his £20million signing wasn’t good enough to be one of his three substitutions in the search for a winner against Hull, the willing soldier was once again been excluded from the final battle yesterday.

And there will be disbelief that Keane spent part of the afternoon cupping his hands to his ears and revelling in the silence, yet ended it with an over-riding feeling of disappointment.

Not just over his personal experience, of course, but over the fact that Liverpool missed another great chance.

Not the one Steven Gerrard slid in to fire wildly wide not long after Keane made it 1-1, but the one that means they have again failed to ease further away from the chasing pack.

Adding a point to the lead may be an outcome that was seen as acceptable before the game because away to Arsenal is still a tough ask, despite the somewhat limited squad currently under Wenger’s guidance.

But that extended lead will be wiped out completely if Chelsea record their 12th successive victory on the road tonight. Rarely have Everton, especially in modern times, had such universal support across Merseyside.

But that’s what it’s come to. Hoping they can get a first win for eight years against Chelsea and hoping that David Moyes can lift his threadbare squad to a result he has never achieved against them.

It is possible of course, but wouldn’t have been necessary if Liverpool had made the most of their chance to guarantee being top over Christmas.

If they had really gone for broke when Emanuel Adebayor’s rash second booking reduced Arsenal to 10 men. If they had put more men in front of the ball and not acted as if the Gunners, without their main target man, were somehow more of a threat.

If Keane had been allowed to complete a game, maybe?

“Nothing,” was Arsene Wenger’s response when asked what a point means in the title race. And he has a point too.

But it will certainly have meaning if Chelsea break the pattern of this most unpredictable of Premier League seasons and actually pounce on a rival’s slip-up.

Then this will be another occasion when Liverpool pay the price for a game in which more points are dropped than are gained.

And that definitely can’t be dismissed as meaning “nothing”.

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