VIEW FROM THE STANDS: Lack of the right firepower costly

Dec 17 2007 by Peter McCleery, Liverpool Daily Post

ON DAYS like these, visiting shoe shops with one’s partner seems more appealing.

Another top side visit Anfield, another side leaves with a memento or three for their visit.

The first goal in this game was always going to be crucial due to the defensive qualities of both sides and unfortunately we were the victims – an ever-increasing regularity in this fixture.

Our record against the big trio in Arsenal, Chelsea and United is extremely poor and taking just two points combined in these home fixtures, it would take the most spirited supporter to back us improving on that tally on their patch.

The positives are we restricted United to precious little and contained their two most dangerous players in Rooney and Ronaldo for the majority of the match.

But our creativity through the middle was extremely limited. The final third however is where it all matters and we just didn’t deliver. Dirk Kuyt is really struggling at the moment and it’s a massive disappointment for all supporters.

But what of the alternatives? For me, Peter Crouch is probably just an impact player at best in a side aspiring for the title and Andriy Voronin, despite the promising start, is obviously nowhere near world class.

Right now the best option for partnering Torres looks like Ryan Babel. He lit up the game when introduced and to see him so effective when we are up against it is very promising.

But again for this season it looks like we’re focusing on the cups.

The ray of hope for me is the impending return of Daniel Agger who offers a huge link between defence and midfield, and that the league fixture list doesn’t look massively difficult over the festive period.