Something is wrong with us and I think it is the need of Torres to come down from the stands and get onto the field. We did not look our normal selves against Atletico and it was clear to see that we were lacking that killer instinct in front of goal. We need that player who can just counter up a shooting opportunity from nothing and find the back of the net; a player who you give half a chance and he will score. We have that player but unfortunately he was not fit enough to play.
I was glad to see Rafa start with almost the same team that started against Spurs, shows signs of continuity and Rafa seems to have found his preffered starting eleven together with his favoured formation. Aurelio came in for Dossena which was the only change. I must say this was one of the best games I have seen Aurelio play as he looked to go forward and he was whipping in some pretty telling crosses but unfortunately there was no one on the end of them.
As the story of our season so far, we dominated the game but failed to score. I was really not surprised when Madrid took the lead thanks to what I think was a great counter attack goal by Rodriguez. The touch he made to beat Carragher was sublime and the finish past Reina was cool, calm and collected. We seem to be very vulnerable when we get attacked on the break and that is worrying. Going into the break 1-0 down was not the best position to be in.
When we started the second half I thought we would be more creative and more adventurous going forward but we just could not find the goal. Babel came on for Riera who was largely disappointing throughout the game. And even when Babel came on, he did not seem to add much to our game. I was excited when Ngog came on as I have liked the glimpses I have seen of him since we signed him but he looked terrible with his touch bar one great touch he made to keep the ball in play, beat a defender and take a shot on goal. As the game went on, I was resigned to seeing us loose 1-0 but then lady luck smiled on us (I thought she had given us all our luck for the season already) and we got given a penalty. I do not think it was a penalty but I will take it. Gerrard was challenged in the box and luckily the ref gave us the spot kick deep into stoppage time. The pressure was on Captain Fantastic to convert and convert he did. 1-1 the final scoreline, a game we should have lost but we got a point out of it and all we virtually need is a point from our last two games and we are through.
I think a lot of work is going to be done at Melwood over the next few days as we prepare to face West Brom on the weekend. Hopefully Torres will be back for that game. We need to beat West Brom 5-0 to get us back on track. We are due to whip a team and I think West Brom are in for a hiding as Rafa is going to read the boys the riot act this week in training.
Another poor performance without Torres I think proves that we need to invest in another striker in the January market (if possible) who can step into the boots of Torres if he is not playing. We are dominating matches but we have no end product in the last third when Torres is not playing. I am starting to get a bit upset with Keane as I believe that with all the possession we have had the last few games he should be scoring or at least being on the end of more chances.
We were very lucky last night to come away with a point as I dont think that was really a penalty. I have not been totally convinced by what i have seen thus far from the team.Hopefully we can go on to whip West Brom this weekend and get some consistency going.
ya, we were lucky to come away with a point but at the same time, they were lucky to draw their last fixture against us, so i guess we are even.