Liverpool's away woes continue as Dalglish realises size of task ahead
An early Fernando Torres goal was not enough as Blackpool completed a league double over Liverpool, as Kenny Dalglish’s first League game in charge exposed the huge challenge ahead.
An interesting line up saw Johnson, who’s partner gave birth to a baby boy earlier, positioned at left back, leaving the youngster Martin Kelly in his more familiar right back role. Jovanovic and Poulsen both got the nod, as the midfield was reshaped due to Steven Gerrard’s suspension.
Within 3 minutes, a surge from Kelly set up Torres to grab the reds first goal, and the Spaniard’s seventh of the season. But within 9 minutes Blackpool had levelled.
Raul Meireles casually gave away possession and Agger decided against a tackle leaving Taylor-Fletcher to put away a well taken goal.
Liverpool huffed and puffed, more so than in recent appearances, but never blew the house down. It was somewhat surprising that a relatively open game reached half time at 1-1.
After the break Liverpool looked immediately brighter before Blackpool took control. Poulsen, Meireles, and the anonymous Kuyt did not help matters. Jovanovic put in a shift, but down to either lack of quality or lack of playing time, couldn’t offer enough assistance for Torres who was notable for working harder than in recent weeks.
Liverpool’s defence from set plays has been comical this season, and so it continued for Blackpool’s eventual winner. A cross was pumped in by Blackpool, nodded on, and unmarked DJ Campbell nodded home the Seasiders second.
Poulsen and Kuyt were replaced by Shelvey and Ngog, but the reds couldn’t break through Blackpool’s stern defence.
Liverpool have lost 8 of their 11 away league games this season.
After the game Ian Holloway said he was ‘as chuffed as a badger’.
For Kenny, this team must seem light years away from the Liverpool days of old. Plenty of work still to do for the reds, and the Merseyside derby arrives on Sunday as two teams in the wrong half to the table set for battle.
This is Rafa’s team that is to blame for the terrible position we find ourselves in!.We only have two players with any ability despite him wasting million’s mostly on flop signings.
No manager be it Kenny or Roy can do anything with these bunch of losers who can’t defend, create or score against the weakest of opponents.The owners seem to be in no mood to improve to squad anytime soon, only cheap promises that we keep on hearing that things will soon we changing for the better!.They seem to be no different to Gillette and Hicks in this regard!
What surprises me in some media saying there are signs of improvements….. I see the opposite, players were afraid to play under Roy for the pressure and always in the second half, after coming from behind, they started to play with some desperate wish…. against Blackpool they had finally the chance to start from ahead… and they went down….. were is the improvement??? The players clearly showed they wanted to save Roy by putting desperate late attempts… didn’t see that in Blackpool…. I also hope avoiding relegation… but if we don’t go down will there be enough shock to change? Its needed a big big shift in mentality. If people think they did well getting rid of Roy the support will never understand how to go back to the old times. let’s face it… Anfield was a scare for anyone in the world… now is just another away match to conquer.
i pity the owners right now. we are in a terrible position please dont delude our selves. we are in free fall.at this point in time it will be even hard to buy players. as we are headed for regulation. the stats say it. just think gerrad is past his best and torres
market value has dropped dramatically.where will be a year from now who knows. but we cant score. its been a gradual decline but key players have left and we are seeing the efects of that now.just hope we can muster 42 -45 points to save us from regulation.
regulation? u mean relegation. lol. I don’t think we’ll be relegated but I don’t see us in th top 10 either. Bye bye Europa cos we ain’t gonna win that either. Sad days 🙁
depair,despair,we must look out,for what we are seeing here is that we are heading for the championship, my people, im really gutted down under! really; has lady luck left us in our hour of need? The club really need to step up,we cannot afford to throw any more points away!
To go down is all Liverpool deserves now after sacking Hodgson, anyone who does understand football knows this was a death call, Dallglish caused the trouble from the beginning creating a wrong welcome for Hodgson, the Kop doesn’t want to see facts…. the club went on a down trend for years…. thanks to Benitez. The cup with the big ears was won from Gerrard not Benitez…. Hodgson would have created a good team given the time… now Kenny doesn’t even know what to do if not complaining and showing he is a real man of the Merseyside…. but the game today is a little more technical than what it was then…. and don’t go around saying the players need motivation because he was there already…. they are just poor, 4 are good….. in this order…. Gerrard, Torres, Cole, Carragher. Gerrard seems he is again finding the good form, Torres is lost in his thoughts, Cole is still not recovered and Carragher is now really getting slow….. the other players might not make Blackpool first team. Pardon me surely we have to thank the excellent Reina too, was nearly forgetting the great keeper who probably on his own might just make it to save us from relegation…. though we don’t have the stamina and character of the other bottom teams who are better disposed to fight….. instead of looking around and passing the bass poorly.
ummm I have to correct myself…. passing the ball, or one would think I’m talking of a team at the pub with a pint of bass, though would be good if they passed that too!!! Regarding Carragher is also to see how will he be when back from injury……. might take too long to catch up. One last thing…. did anyone think of trying to understand that Hodgson coached a side than in nearly all games didn’t show Gerrard and Torres together…. one or the other were injured, or just back from injury not performing….. Benitez I recall lost or draw all those games without that pair….. don’t think he even won one without them…….. Hodgson was a exceptional opportunity….. I’m just angry at the blindness of people who made him go….. he kept going a poor Inter of the time….. made Switzerland become a serious national team, decent Blackburn and great Fulham….. he was let down from Kop and players and accused of insulting the Kop when really he said the truth…. they didn’t support the team at all, from what I saw on TV they would sing only when things were on the positive side…. tha is not what the great history of the club rules……nobody wondered why so many people in the media and ex footballers found Hodgson sacking premature…… well we’ll see but for me other teams this year earned more respect than the only supporters who made a gentleman sacked after 6 months, not having chance to buy players, came in at the end of the summer market with no money to buy… not had a winter transfer window… I think this manager has bee treated so poorly…. and a very good man too…… always decent in his comments though the years….. as I followed him from Inter Milan…… hoping he would get the England job….. now he’s lost years thanks to MY CLUB can’t believe it, never even dreamt to have him at Liverpool, f..ck the Kop get a relegation is all you deserve. For me one year down will get rid of all the scum and is no shame, a shame is to have supporters singing against a manager from day 1 and players who can’t pass the ball at who is in front of them. Sorry for those good supporters who like me will feel betrayed looking back at the old times…… when LFC was a matter of heart and not ego.