Yesterday I said we needed to win this game, but guess what… we did not!! I was left fuming last night in my lounge after seeing Everton grabbing a late equaliser. Somehow I do not see this season ending the way we would like it to. We have just dropped too many points because of draws and this could just cost us come the end of the season. We are level on points now with United but have played a game more than them. Do not get me wrong, all hope is not lost and if you asked me at the beginning of the season that would I take us being level on points at the top, I would have said YES! We just need to start playing much better than we are. Rafa has been saying that we have not reached our best yet but time is running out Rafa. You can not be saying that for the rest of the season, we have to start peaking soon and I think Rafa got in wrong last night from the start.
When I saw the starting lineups and saw that Keane was playing upfront with Torres and Alonso and Gerrard were in the middle, I thought that this could work and showed signs that we wanted to attack. But Stevie looked uncomfortable playing in the heart of midfield. I think Stevie should be playing behind Torres and Keane should be dropped. I do not think Keane touched the ball for the whole time he was on the field. The Keane – Torres combo has just not worked the way we would have wanted to and I think Rafa should see this and accept that his best form of attack is a Gerrard and Torres combo. Let us rather have that and have Alonso and Mascherano anchoring the midfield.
My other concern yesterday was seeing Carragher continue at right back. Carra can not play right back anymore. Yes Arbeloa is just coming back from injury but surely we can field a more natural right back. And where was Agger? He was not even on the bench. Is this a sign that he may actually be moving to AC Milan? I hope not. Perosnally, I would like to see a Skrtel and Agger combination in the heart of our defence but I know there is now way Rafa would drop Carra.
It took another wonder goal from Stevie to give us the lead and I do not know what we would do without Captain Fantastic. The problem then stemmed after the goal when Rafa decided to hold back and accept the 1-0 win. At that point we should have pressed on for the second as we had Everton on the ropes. If Rafa wanted to shutdown the game them why bring on Lucas instead of Mascherano?
These were two critical points dropped and if you were to accumulate all the two points we have dropped this season, we would be way out in front of everyone and already be confirmed as Champions-Elect and also looking forward to our inauguration as Champions!
Come now lads, let us get our house in check, starting with the FA Cup game. Now we have season what Everton can do and it is simple come the weekend, drop Keane and bring in Mascherano and get Arbeloa at right back.
Yes, I cannot understand why we stopped playing when we got the goal. We had penned Everton in their own half for a good 10-15 mins before we got the goal as we had stepped up the pace then for some reason we backed off once we got the goal and invited them to attack again. The subs that Rafa brought on did not make us stronger but in fact weakened the team – Lucas is crap – Rafa wake up ad all that Benayoun done was give a stipid free kick away for the goal. As for the marking of Cahill for the goal – well i wouldn’t want to offend anybody with swearing but it was a crock of …..you know what !!! As for Robbie Keane I have no words to describe his game as does he really have one at the minute – he looks lost and like somebody who doesn’t really know what he is meant to be doing, what his role is and has lost his touch altogether..very bad..very worried after spending so much dosh on him.