Slipperduke
The Camden Cad
Where's the firepower now? Selling an unwanted Robbie Keane may have been embarrassing, but it was at least understandable. Not replacing him though? That could be a disaster. Liverpool are out of the FA Cup, but what about the league? As Fernando Torres limped away after 101 minutes of a bruising encounter with Everton, every Liverpool fan gulped hard. With Steven Gerrard withdrawn after 15 minutes, it's not looking good for the Reds and there's a lot of question that need answers. Can you win a title with David N'gog*? Is Ryan Babel anything more than an impact substitute?** And when was the last time Dirk Kuyt actually scored?***
"Torres was really tired," said Rafa Benitez afterwards. "He needs to keep playing games and keep training because he is not fully match fit. His match fitness is not the best." The Liverpool boss also took time to hit out at people who criticised him for withdrawing Gerrard against Wigan. "I changed Gerrard the other day when people were saying he has to play every single minute and you’ve seen the consequences today,"
The consequences were that they were beaten here by an Everton side who took full advantage of a numerical advantage and battled all the way until the brink of penalties before an excellent goal by Dan Gosling saw them through. Poor old Lucas Leiva though. It was inevitable that someone would see red in this ferocious match , but he must have felt very hard done by to be dismissed. The second yellow card, a very late foul on Joleon Lescott, was bad, but his first offence was one of the more benign offences of the evening. Any number of players could have been sent off and, with the first good chance coming in the 71st minute, you won't find any DVD commemerative specials of this match.
"We don’t win the Cup tonight, but there’s a lot out there who will feel it’s like that," beamed David Moyes at full-time. "We have got a long way to go to do that, but it was a great night and a great performance and showed great character from the players to get a result."
Forget all that nonsense about this being the 'friendly' derby. The roar that greeted the premature departure of Gerrard was as loud as any that has followed an Everton goal this season. The home fans waved him off the pitch with a variety of inventive hand signals, delirious with joy that the Liverpool captain's hamstring had twanged him out of the game. But if the acrimony in the stands was vicious, it was far worse out on the pitch. Referee Alan Wiley did his best to let the game flow but every foul seemed to draw a retaliatory attack and before long bitter feuds were springing up all over the park.
It was as if both teams had acknowleged that they couldn't be seperated by their efforts with the football, so they decided to settle the matter with a scrap. But while Everton walk away with a plce in the Fifth Round and a new Goodison Park hero in young Gosling, Liverpool can take no positives from the ordeal. They are out of the FA Cup, Gerrard is crocked, Torres is exhausted and the front-end of Liverpool's squad is beginning to look a little threadbare. The problems are mounting up for Benitez.
* - No. Not now, not ever.
** - The jury's still out on that one.
*** - November 15, 1984. Ah, alright. November 15, 2008.
SHOCKER -
In the second half, the players were joined on the pitch by a flurry of rolled-up socks from the Liverpool end, a deeply surreal attack that I've since discovered is in reference to Everton's planned move to the rough area of Kirby. People from Kirby, apparently, are known as 'sock-robbers'. Who said you'd never learn anything from the sports pages, eh?
BRAINS OF THE OPERATION -
Phil Neville saved Marouane Fellaini from a certain booking just before half-time when he got to the Belgian before the referee and dished out his own ticking off. When Alan Wiley saw the Everton captain's finger pointing he decided to leave the cards in his pocket. Excellent captaincy from a much underrated player, but it didn't stop him getting himself booked in the second half.
WEAK LINK -
I've seen Andreas Dossena on a number of occasions this season and he's always seemed little more than average. Apparently that was him at his best though, because he was truly abject here. He has the first touch of a goat and an unerring ability to direct all of his crosses right at the feet of the opposition defenders. Dossena plays for the Italy on a regular basis. They must be really short on numbers.
PUNTERS RANT -
Never mind the punters, if you stayed up until 7am watching this then you have my utmost sympathy. I doff my cap to your unflinchingloyalty because if I lived in Singapore I'd have slept straight through it. Actually, I live in England and this game was so bad it took three very strong cups of coffee just to get me to 11pm.
MAN OF THE MATCH -
You're kidding, right? Oh alright then, it goes to Phil Jagielka. The former Sheffield United defender was one of the main reasons that we didn't see much from Fernando Torres here. Composed, strong and dominant, he's looking very, very good right now.
MATCH STATS
Crowd -
Yellow Cards - Cahill, Pienaar, Neville (Everton), Lucas, Alonso (Liverpool)
Red Cards - Lucas (Liverpool)
Everton -
Tim Howard 6, Tony Hibbert 7, Leighton Baines 7, Phil Jagielka 8, Joleon Lescott , Phil Neville 6 (Andy van der Meyde 105th), Tim Cahill 7, Leon Osman 7, Mikel Arteta 6, Steven Pienaar 6 (Jack Rodwell 60th), Marouane Fellaini 6 (Dan Gosling 7, 53rd)
Liverpool -
Pepe Reina 7, Jamie Carragher 6, Andrea Dossena 4, Alvaro Arbeloa 6, Martin Skrtel 6, Steven Gerrard 6 (Yossi Benayoun 6, 16th), Alberto Reira 6 (Javier Mascherano 6, 80th), Xabi Alonso 7, Lucas 6, Dirk Kuyt 6, Fernando Torres 5 (Ryan Babel 6, 101st)
"Torres was really tired," said Rafa Benitez afterwards. "He needs to keep playing games and keep training because he is not fully match fit. His match fitness is not the best." The Liverpool boss also took time to hit out at people who criticised him for withdrawing Gerrard against Wigan. "I changed Gerrard the other day when people were saying he has to play every single minute and you’ve seen the consequences today,"
The consequences were that they were beaten here by an Everton side who took full advantage of a numerical advantage and battled all the way until the brink of penalties before an excellent goal by Dan Gosling saw them through. Poor old Lucas Leiva though. It was inevitable that someone would see red in this ferocious match , but he must have felt very hard done by to be dismissed. The second yellow card, a very late foul on Joleon Lescott, was bad, but his first offence was one of the more benign offences of the evening. Any number of players could have been sent off and, with the first good chance coming in the 71st minute, you won't find any DVD commemerative specials of this match.
"We don’t win the Cup tonight, but there’s a lot out there who will feel it’s like that," beamed David Moyes at full-time. "We have got a long way to go to do that, but it was a great night and a great performance and showed great character from the players to get a result."
Forget all that nonsense about this being the 'friendly' derby. The roar that greeted the premature departure of Gerrard was as loud as any that has followed an Everton goal this season. The home fans waved him off the pitch with a variety of inventive hand signals, delirious with joy that the Liverpool captain's hamstring had twanged him out of the game. But if the acrimony in the stands was vicious, it was far worse out on the pitch. Referee Alan Wiley did his best to let the game flow but every foul seemed to draw a retaliatory attack and before long bitter feuds were springing up all over the park.
It was as if both teams had acknowleged that they couldn't be seperated by their efforts with the football, so they decided to settle the matter with a scrap. But while Everton walk away with a plce in the Fifth Round and a new Goodison Park hero in young Gosling, Liverpool can take no positives from the ordeal. They are out of the FA Cup, Gerrard is crocked, Torres is exhausted and the front-end of Liverpool's squad is beginning to look a little threadbare. The problems are mounting up for Benitez.
* - No. Not now, not ever.
** - The jury's still out on that one.
*** - November 15, 1984. Ah, alright. November 15, 2008.
SHOCKER -
In the second half, the players were joined on the pitch by a flurry of rolled-up socks from the Liverpool end, a deeply surreal attack that I've since discovered is in reference to Everton's planned move to the rough area of Kirby. People from Kirby, apparently, are known as 'sock-robbers'. Who said you'd never learn anything from the sports pages, eh?
BRAINS OF THE OPERATION -
Phil Neville saved Marouane Fellaini from a certain booking just before half-time when he got to the Belgian before the referee and dished out his own ticking off. When Alan Wiley saw the Everton captain's finger pointing he decided to leave the cards in his pocket. Excellent captaincy from a much underrated player, but it didn't stop him getting himself booked in the second half.
WEAK LINK -
I've seen Andreas Dossena on a number of occasions this season and he's always seemed little more than average. Apparently that was him at his best though, because he was truly abject here. He has the first touch of a goat and an unerring ability to direct all of his crosses right at the feet of the opposition defenders. Dossena plays for the Italy on a regular basis. They must be really short on numbers.
PUNTERS RANT -
Never mind the punters, if you stayed up until 7am watching this then you have my utmost sympathy. I doff my cap to your unflinchingloyalty because if I lived in Singapore I'd have slept straight through it. Actually, I live in England and this game was so bad it took three very strong cups of coffee just to get me to 11pm.
MAN OF THE MATCH -
You're kidding, right? Oh alright then, it goes to Phil Jagielka. The former Sheffield United defender was one of the main reasons that we didn't see much from Fernando Torres here. Composed, strong and dominant, he's looking very, very good right now.
MATCH STATS
Crowd -
Yellow Cards - Cahill, Pienaar, Neville (Everton), Lucas, Alonso (Liverpool)
Red Cards - Lucas (Liverpool)
Everton -
Tim Howard 6, Tony Hibbert 7, Leighton Baines 7, Phil Jagielka 8, Joleon Lescott , Phil Neville 6 (Andy van der Meyde 105th), Tim Cahill 7, Leon Osman 7, Mikel Arteta 6, Steven Pienaar 6 (Jack Rodwell 60th), Marouane Fellaini 6 (Dan Gosling 7, 53rd)
Liverpool -
Pepe Reina 7, Jamie Carragher 6, Andrea Dossena 4, Alvaro Arbeloa 6, Martin Skrtel 6, Steven Gerrard 6 (Yossi Benayoun 6, 16th), Alberto Reira 6 (Javier Mascherano 6, 80th), Xabi Alonso 7, Lucas 6, Dirk Kuyt 6, Fernando Torres 5 (Ryan Babel 6, 101st)
