Thursday, August 27, 2009

Tommy Smith: Liverpool FC Need To Sort Themselves Out

It was obvious on Monday night that Liverpool have got problems. But what worried me most was that the players didn’t act like it.

If I’d have been out there I would have shouting and bawling, demanding more from the team, whether I was the captain or not.

You take things into your own hands when it’s not going well, not just stand there and accept defeat.

But the players looked as baffled by the whole affair as I was – I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

The most puzzling thing was Steven Gerrard being so out of sorts.

Every player is allowed a bad game and an off day and there were many besides him who weren’t up to the job.

But we couldn’t find a way through midfield at all and Gerrard didn’t seem up to the job of powering through and threatening in the penalty area.

In fact, the only area he caused trouble in was in his own when he gave away that penalty.

He is an attacking midfield player so what is he doing in the box making a tackle?

I remember playing in a game against Newcastle and of all people Kevin Keegan and came back to give a away a penalty. I said, “what the hell are you doing down here giving away a penalty, you’re supposed to be at other end putting them in?”

You can’t really shout and moan at Gerrard because of how good a player he is but when he’s doing things like that, you know it’s a bad night.

There weren’t many on the field that did deserve praise.

Jamie Carragher was okay apart from letting Curtis Davies in for his header but overall the defence was awful – we’ve got a left-back who is a good left-winger.

In midfield, we were crowded out and couldn’t do anything expect pass sideways or backwards. Lucas was standing there dong nothing most of the time – I’ve got two bad legs so I could do that!

So plenty of questions. We didn’t look to be playing as a unit and the squad is not as strong as it was last year – and unless Aquilani is as good as Alonso, how can it get better?

At the end of the day, how can we not beat a team that only last March we beat 5-0?

Martin O’Neill has clearly managed to sort a few tings out since then. Now the Reds need to sort a few things out of their own and fast.

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