View from the stands: Blackburn game now has extra importance

Oct 29 2007 by Larry Moran, Liverpool Daily Post

HARD to decide whether that was a good result for Liverpool or a bad one.

True, we kept our unbeaten record intact but two more home points dropped and ending the day outside the top four is not what we wanted. It’s also a bit annoying to see us essentially playing one man up front at home. It’s true it was quite a flexible formation from Benitez, Kuyt and Voronin dropping back to create a five-man midfield, could become 4-3-3 or even 4-2-4 with Gerrard’s support, but that never seemed to work out.

Arsenal’s five in midfield are much more fluid and interchangeable and after we scored they had the bulk of the play. Kuyt huffed and puffed all afternoon and looks like he needs a rest to me.

Torres looked isolated and did not look fit. The game was crying out for Crouch, who scored a hat-trick in the same fixture last season and the 4-5-1 worked better with him up front after the break. Torres has a recurrence of the injury picked up while on international duty and the news Alonso has again damaged a metatarsal is devastating for Liverpool.

We’ve done well away from home this season but stuttered at home. Yes, we are still unbeaten and injuries are plaguing us but we need to pick up a few wins on the bounce. We play at Blackburn next week and we are actually behind them in the league. It’s not likely to be an easy or pretty game of football and it’s another one that looks to have draw written all over it.

Hopefully, with Arsenal entertaining United at the Emirates that will finish as a draw too, if not we may fall even further off the pace.