FA Premiership
Sat 22nd September 2007 (3pm) @ Anfield
A second consecutive Premiership draw as the reds failed to make home advantage pay against a determined Birmingham side who came to Anfield for the point.
Benitez once again started a Premiership game with the £26 million man, Fernando Torres, on the bench as Kuyt and Voronin were given the nod up front.
Liverpool’s passing game was still not evident after it’s disappearance prior to the Porto game, and although the reds had chances to score this game was by no means a classic. After such a fine start to the season Liverpool will be rueing the lack of cutting edge which has cost us 4 points in the last two league matches.
Riise had a great shot in the first half but it was after the break that the reds came out, initially anyway, with a renewed determination. When Torres came on, he clearly looked the most dangerous player in a red shirt, but Birmingham’s defence was well drilled by this stage.
Benitez’ post match reactions tried to explain his decision concerning his opening strike force but the reds will be left scratching their head as our Premier League campaign appears to have fell in to a trough.
Rafa Benitez Post Match Reaction
“I have four strikers, I played them all in the end.“I felt that Andriy Voronin and Dirk Kuyt were the type of striker I would have needed to work hard against a packed defence.
“The game was very frustrating, we tried to play wide, we tried to get the ball into the box and we did everything we could to break them down.
“In the end we ran out of ideas. The game was too narrow, it was too congested in the box and there was no space.”
Teams
Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise, Pennant (Finnan 87), Gerrard, Mascherano, Babel (Torres 60), Kuyt, Voronin (Crouch 74).
Subs Not Used: Itandje, Sissoko.
Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Kelly, Djourou, Ridgewell, Queudrue, Larsson, Palacios (O’Connor 68), Nafti, Melendez (McSheffrey 13), Kapo, Jerome (Schmitz 80).
Subs Not Used: Kingson, Forssell.
Booked: Ridgewell, McSheffrey.
Att: 44,215
Ref: Lee Mason (Lancashire).
Mr.Rotation
Its good to rotate the sqard giving players enough rest between matches and very player a chance to start. Its also very important to come away with 03 points when playing against teams that are lying mid table and below. We should have field our strongest attacking team knowing that Birmingham is going to play deep. By fielding a very good team we have 90 minutes to play and split open their defence. Once we have the most important goal then the pressure will not be so great and we can play our
usual game.
What Rafa should do is to identify the strongest 11 players
with very good understanding. If you look at MUFC and Arsenal, they are fielding the same players but for one or two changes here and there. Look at the fluidity of their passing and LFC as a lot more to learn before we can even talk about being title challengers.
Come on Rafa, it was so obvious Torres is the key to winning matches like this. Teams like Birmingham (no disrespect to them) would not expect anything more coming to Anfield than to grab a point. And grab a point they did. We need that cutting edge to finish off chances, and who better on form to do that then Torres. He provided that after he came on. We didn’t pay 20 Mil pounds on him just so that he can sit on the bench.
It was clear that by the second half, Rafa realised that perhaps the partnership of Voronin and Kuyt were not working out as planned. But it was too late in my opinion. To take off Babel for Torres with only 30 minutes to play and then switch Voronin (who is a striker) to right-mid is a sign of desperation.
Perhaps Rafa could just decide on a winning side and stick to it. For matches like this, we should have finished it off.