Top guns misfiring

Dec 2 2008 by Tony Barrett, Liverpool Echo

IF the Liverpool fans began the night attempting to overturn a conviction, they ended it regretting the fact that conviction is the one thing their team does not currently have.

While the protest in support of jailed Kopite Michael Shields hit the target, Liverpool were unable to do likewise as an opportunity to take firm control at the top of the league once again passed them by.

A draw was enough to give them a narrow lead over Chelsea, but it was nowhere near enough to convince that they have the attacking thrust needed to maintain their challenge.

The feelings of the crowd were summed up on the final whistle when some chose to boo, others chanted about being top of the league, but the vast majority quietly filtered away wondering what to make of the game they had just seen.

It was an improvement on the recent stalemate against Fulham and the performance was also better than that which had brought victory over Marseille. But it was still nowhere near what is expected of a team that is hoping to last the distance.

It is more than 25 years since West Ham last tasted victory in front of the Kop, yet they can have had few less testing visits than this one as Liverpool struggled to break down their well organised defence and rarely looked like taking a stranglehold on proceedings.

The fact that the evergreen Sami Hyypia carried their biggest threat says it all, as does their failure to trouble the Anfield scorers against the Hammers, Stoke and Fulham.

There is an all too apparent lack of attacking impetus when the opposition sets up to be hard to beat, particularly when Fernando Torres is unavailable.

And the situation is made worse by Robbie Keane’s battle with his own confidence which has seen him go from being one of the Premier League’s most prolific scorers to perhaps its most shot-shy striker.

The Irishman’s army of fans maintain that it is only a matter of time before he catches fire but, with every game that passes by without Keane having any major effect on it, so the fear grows that his dream move to Liverpool could be about to turn into a nightmare.

His manager is clearly struggling to keep the faith as Rafa Benitez again substituted a player whom he paid £20m for just six months ago, with the biggest indignity for Keane being that he was replaced by David Ngog, a forward who has scored only one goal in his senior club career.

If Keane was frustrated at being given the hook yet again, so was the Anfield crowd as it again endured a disappointing display when they were desperate for one that would make them believe that this really can be their year.

There may have been a smattering of ill-placed boos on the final whistle, but generally the home fans more than kept their side of the bargain by getting behind their team. Unfortunately, there is nothing any supporter can do to make a player shoot straight and this is the one area where Liverpool are falling short.

On far too many occasions, shooting opportunities were wasted as a result of a lack of composure or a shortfall in technique, and though Liverpool spent long spells camped outside West Ham’s box there was never a feeling that their pressure would result in a deluge of goals.

Robert Green only had to surpass himself on one occasion when he somehow managed to tip a Yossi Benayoun piledriver over his bar.

Apart from that, the only real threat came from Hyypia’s aerial ability at corners as Liverpool struggled to carve out clear cut chances from open play.

It is easy to pinpoint why. They do not have players in form in either the wide areas or central attack who can make a difference when games are as tight as this one.

After a promising start to his Liverpool career Albert Riera’s form has plateaued and he has gone from terrorising Wes Brown and Jose Bosingwa to making life far too easy for the likes of Lucas Neill and John Pantsil.

On the opposite flank, Benayoun once again proved that he will never be a player to offer genuine width as he continually came inside and succeeded only in further cluttering up the congested central areas.

It was this ongoing inability to stretch opponents to breaking point which is making it so difficult for Liverpool to turn their superiority in other areas of the pitch into goals.

As long as this remains the case, Liverpool will continue to find that the dividing line between success and failure is ridiculously slim, and had the woodwork not denied Craig Bellamy they could have missed out on top spot altogether.

They are up there, though, looking down on the rest of the league and in the place where every other team would love to be. And they are there despite the shortcomings and flaws in their game which make so many in English football doubt their ability to stay there.

Their critics will inevitably be proved right unless Liverpool rediscover their cutting edge and become the kind of side which opponents fear.

Logic may have been temporarily defied as the Reds have risen to the top despite producing two of their most disappointing back-to-back performances of the season. But should they continue to be so lacking in inspiration then it will not be long before they again become the hunters, not the hunted.

It is hard to think of another occasion when going top of the league has been accompanied by such disappointment – but that is because the Liverpool fans know that home draws to West Ham, Fulham and Stoke are not on the list of ingredients for a sustainable title challenge.

Now their team must show that they have the courage of their convictions because unless they do their stay at the summit could be short lived.

LIVERPOOL: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Hyypia, Dossena, Kuyt, Benayoun, Alonso, Riera (Babel, 77), Gerrard, Keane (Ngog, 65).

WEST HAM: Green, Neill, Upson, Collins, Ilunga, Mullins, Faubert (Boa Morte, 85), Parker, Behrami, Cole, Bellamy.

REFEREE: Peter Walton.

ATTENDANCE: 41,169.