Liverpool 2, Reading 1: Post Match Analysis

Mar 17 2008 by Chris Beesley, Liverpool Daily Post

TWO players at opposite ends of the scoring spectrum ensured that Liverpool recorded a seventh straight victory on Saturday.

Fernando Torres’s 20th Premier League strike of the season ultimately defeated Reading after Javier Mascherano had cancelled out Marek Matejovsky’s stunning opener with his first goal for the club.

Quite simply, Torres seems unstoppable at the moment and there isn’t a more in-form striker in world football at this present time.

With nine goals in his last six games, the Spaniard couldn’t have picked a better time to slip his scoring boots back on as Rafael Benitez’s side now embark on a crucial four-week period which includes next Sunday’s trip to Manchester United, followed by the derby against Everton at Anfield a week later and then a hat-trick of games against Arsenal.

Liverpool fans will be praying that El Nino’s hurricane force does not die down over the next month as if he carries on like he is doing then he could blow the opposition away.

With 20 Premier League goals from Torres in just the first three-quarters of his debut season in English football, the player, who turns 24 later this month, has fully justified the club record £20million fee his compatriot Benitez paid to bring him to Anfield.

It’s a feat that no Liverpool player has matched since a young Robbie Fowler, the most natural finisher of his generation, was in his pomp 12 years ago and an achievement that even Michael Owen was unable to reach before he embarked on the opposite journey to Torres from Merseyside to Madrid.

And another player who is living up to his stellar price tag is midfielder Mascherano, who showed there is an added dimension to his game by netting his first Liverpool goal in some style.

Many an eyebrow was raised when it initially emerged that Liverpool would have to shell out more than £17million for the Argentine international but the man Diego Maradona once described as a ‘monster’ of a player is now scaring the hell out of teams both at home and abroad.

Just four days after Mascherano produced a man-of-the-match performance at the San Siro to enable Liverpool to become the first non-Italian side to beat Inter on their own turf in the Champions League, he outshone even Torres and skipper Steven Gerrard against the Royals. It now seems staggering that West Ham United, who took Carlos Tevez to their hearts before he departed for Manchester United, were unable to utilise Mascherano properly and he was unable to hold down a regular spot in their relegation- threatened side in the first half of last season.

Three months younger than Torres, his best years should still lie ahead of him but his growing influence did not go unnoticed by Argentinian national team skipper Javier Zanetti last week.

And he is the main reason for both Xabi Alonso’s restricted first team duties of late and Momo Sissoko’s departure through the Anfield exit door in January.

Benitez will be mightily relieved that he managed to turn Mascherano’s loan into a permanent switch this month because, like Torres, he has shown that Liverpool need to spend big on the most high quality of players if they’re to take that crucial but all so difficult final step up to become the leading side in English football once more.

Following Tuesday night’s 1-0 win over Inter, Benitez made two changes to his starting line-up as Sami Hyypia and Lucas made way for Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso – who was back in the frame after missing the trip to Italy for his son Jon’s birth on the same day.

Steve Coppell named an unchanged side to the team that had beaten Manchester City 2-0 at home a week earlier, to climb out of the relegation zone and up to the relatively dizzy heights of 14th position.

The Royals had of course become the first side to defeat Liverpool in the Premier League this season with a 3-1 victory at the Madejski Stadium back in December and they stunned Anfield just five minutes into this contest by taking a shock lead.

Referee Andre Marriner, who had officiated in that fixture was also in charge on this occasion.

Back in Berkshire three months ago, the West Midlands whistle-blower had infuriated Liverpool by awarding their opponents a penalty for a foul by Jamie Carragher that was outside the area before turning down what Benitez’s side felt was a clear penalty appeal of their own for a foul on Torres.

Marriner continued to frustrate Benitez on this occasion when he gave Reading a free-kick a couple of metres in from the left-hand touchline following a challenge by Arbeloa on Stephen Hunt which had seemed to go out for a corner-kick.

From the resultant set-piece, former Everton midfielder John Oster slid a low pass across the area to pick out Matejovsky who showed terrific technique to keep his shot on target as he struck sweetly past Pepe Reina from outside the box when his effort seemed destined to head over the bar.

The Czech international midfielder, a January recruit from Mlanda Boleslav in his homeland, was probably unknown to many English fans until now but he has certainly signalled his arrival on these shores with his first Premier League goal.

As Liverpool searched for an equaliser, new dad Alonso went close with the first of two speculative efforts with a cross-shot that struck Marcus Hahnemann’s crossbar but the American keeper had no chance with Mascherano’s 19th-minute leveller as the Argentine swept past Hunt before unleashing his unstoppable right-foot effort from 20 yards out.

The winner came just three minutes after the restart and was probably the simplest goal Torres will score all season.

Schoolboy defending from Reading enabled the unmarked Spaniard to get between Andre Bikey and Ivar Ingimarsson to nod past Hahnemann from Gerrard’s left-wing free-kick after Torres himself had been fouled by Liam Rosenior.

As the game went on it was the Royals who became more irked by referee Marriner’s performance and a frustrated Shane Long displayed some unsavoury petulance when substituted for Dave Kitson on 63 minutes.

As the Irish striker went past manager Coppell in the visiting dugout, he threw his jersey down in disgust, apparently in protest of a supposed lack of support from the match officials rather than the decision to withdraw him from the action.

Reading’s anger boiled over in the final minutes as Gerrard appeared to handle a goalbound effort from Kitson and it was a decision that the visiting staff failed to take lightly.

On the prospect of a last-minute penalty being awarded to the visitors in front of the Kop, Liverpool-born Coppell said: “It’s never going to happen.

There is verbal pressure that is put upon referees after games, and I’m doing it now, although you feel if you don’t do it you will suffer in the future.

“The very subtle pressure that is applied by the big teams can intimidate officials.”

In a last-gasp attempt to find an equaliser, Hahnemann had pushed forward to try to get on the end of a free-kick and as the keeper raced back towards his goal, the ball fell to Alonso of all people but the long-range expert was just wide of the mark with his latest 75-yard effort.

It would have been a spectacular end to a generally unspectacular contest but after their drubbings of West Ham and Newcastle in their previous two games at Anfield, Liverpool will be unconcerned by the display because the statistics show this is a seventh consecutive victory.

Roll on Old Trafford.