King Kenny Dalglish made his return to Anfield as manager after 20 years against Everton on Sunday. The game ended 2-2 but I still believe Liverpool should have walked away with all three points especially with the way we played in the first 45 minutes. But 8 minutes of madness early in the second half got Everton back into the game and we had to work hard to pull it back to 2-2.
Not too many fans will be happy about the result but we have to take it. We must remember that King Kenny is not going to turn Liverpool around in a flash as the damage Roy Hodgson did will take a while to fix. So we should not be down and out about the draw on Sunday and rather we should look at the six positives to come out of the game:
1) The King is back as so too are the fans. The atmosphere at Anfield was electric and the fans are clearly back and supporting the team again. That can only bode well for the rest of the season. As long as we the fans are behind the team, we will do well. At the end of Hodgson’s reign, the fans were not behind the man at all and that affected the team.
2) Torres looks interested again. Torres is on the way back to his best form. He may not have scored in Sunday but he came close with the effort that came off the post. King Kenny said he was going to get the best out of Torres again and it seems to be working. The more games Torres plays and the longer he remains fit, he will start firing again.
3) Martin Kelly. Kelly is looking instrumental as a right back with each passing game and Glen Johnson is going to find it hard to regain his place at right back based on Kelly’s form. Another fine game from the young man. We may have found our long term solution at right back. Maybe it is about time Johnson moves to right wing?
4) Jay Spearing. When I saw the starting line-ups and saw Spearing’s name I said, “WTF?” But credit to the young lad, he got stuck in and produced a sterling performance in such a big game. You could see how much it meant to him to play in the derby. Nothing beats that for a local lad. One may have thought the occasion would be too much for him but he held his own. And credit to him for last the length of the game following his return from injury.
5) Raul Meireles’ goal. Every football player even if you are a central defender loves to score. Raul got his first goal for Liverpool on Sunday and getting the first goal for your club is one of the hardest things to do. Now that Raul is off the mark, hopefully it will spur him on to get a couple more vital goals for Liverpool as he clearly showed he has the ability to find the back of the net.
6) The team showed they can fight. I believe if Roy Hodgson was still in-charge of the team on Sunday and we went 2-1 down the lads would not have fought back the way they did. The team is now fighting again and will not roll over and play dead. You could see how much the equalizer meant by Kuyt’s celebration. If the team continues to fight the way they did on Sunday we will start turning draws into wins.
If everything is done fairly, in the same way that Dalglish had a look at Jovanovich and Poulsen before sending them back to the stands, he’s now had a look at Kuyt and Maxi and they’ve flopped in the same so must have played their way out of the team too.
The system is right but the personnel aren’t. Get Kuyt, Maxi & Skrtel out and we could be onto a winner
(Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Agger,Aurelio, Gerrard, Lucas, Meireles, Babel, Torres, Pacheco btw)
Spot on Ron. Kenny is at least willing to give the local lads the chance. Kelly looks to be maturing into the player Dalglish mentioned a few seasons back. The return of the King!