Liverpool 4-1 Portsmouth…turning point?

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We are an hour removed from a Liverpool victory, and a convincing one at that. Torres showing lethal form, Babel impressing for one of the first times in a while, Aquilani showing us examples for why Rafa paid £20 million for him, Rodqiguez proving why he may be one of the best free transfer deals of recent memory, and a lot more.

Critics may say “it was only Portsmouth, the bottom team who are already in administration and have nothing to play for” well I disagree with the end part of the statement. Nothing to play for? Pride is a massive thing to play for, especially when they are rooted to the bottom of the table. I genuinley feel sorry for Pompey this year, had a hellish season and have nothing to show as far as positives go. So tonight, travelling to near enough the other side of England, had to show the 300+ there was some spirit left. A Premiership game was never going to be easy, but this was as close as it came tonight.

Pompey came out of the traps and shown some good spirit, coming onto us, giving us some pressure. It amounted to nothing,  but they still shown heart. Then, the screw began to turn in Liverpool’s favour. Aquilani coming close with a volley, Gerrard with a couple of half chances until El Nino opened the scoring after a goalkeeping howler, Gerrard worked hard to close the keeper down, Maxi played a simple ball to Torres for a tap in and his 14th of the season.
2 and a half minutes later, barely time to breathe, Liverpool made it 2. Good work inside the box, and the ball fell to sometimes Liverpool outcast Ryan Babel, who stroked the ball into the far corner and gave us some much needed breathing space, which we have been lacking in most games this year.
The third was soon to come, absolute brilliance from Torres, with a lovely backheel into the path of Aquilani who slotted it past
We did make it 4 though, and that man again, Fernando Torres. For me, the pick of the goals, nice ball fed through to him, but he still had work to do, beating 2 defenders before rocketting a shot into the net, game well and truely over.
Pompey did grab a late consolation goal with Belhadj with a simple tap in, but more importantly to us, the defending for it wasnt the best by a long shot.
The game finished 4-1 and a true reflection and well deserved.

There is one other incident I’m going to mention, the Gerrard foul on Michael Brown. TV replays clearly show Stevie going into the back of Brown with an elbow, obviously illegal and usually a straight red. As much of a dirty player Brown was with Stevie tonight, and he was. (The rugby tackle in the first half shows that) you cannot raise your arms to an opponent. There was no need for it as we were attacking and could have capitalised. My only hope is that the FA do not decide to act upon it. IF they do, they should look at the rugby tackle used on Stevie in the first half!

All in all, a solid performance by Liverpool. A lot of reasons to be confident for the next couple of crucial games. But with that being said, I pose the same question I posed in the title of this post. Is that the turning point in form now? For me it is about self belief. The team (which was one of the strongest Rafa has put out for a while) came out with a great attacking mentality and really shown their dominance tonight. There is no point in Rafa putting a defensive minded side out on Thursday, ‘cos we are chasing the game. Stick with the side as tonight, and let’s attack Lille with everything we have! Yeah Lille have a great home record, but how will they fare when they arrive at the European fortress that as Anfield? My guess not too well! Then after that on Sunday we have Man United in their back yard. For that, I give tou three words. Remember last season. This week can be a major turning point in our season, and tonight was a major step in the right direction!

I have one question? Were are the Rafa haters now? Hmmmm….

My man of the match tonight, goes to one man. Yeah Torres gave us 2 goals, Babel impressed, but tonight was all about Alberto Aquilani. His determination tonight was immense, and scoring his first goal was the icing on the cake. His vision was brilliant, and was great to see him play 90 minutes. Aquaman is unleashed, and next season, watch him shine! No-one can judge him on this season as he joined us after 9 months inured. You go 9 months without playing, with sub-standard medical care and then be expected to play like a man possessed staight away. Impossible. He didn’t ask Rafa to pay £20million for him, so it is unfair how he should be under so much pressure straight away. But he did show signs of why Rafa did spend so much on him tonight.

So my fellow Kopites, were now? The quarter finals of the Europa League, that is were! The Anfield fortress will not be stormed by Lille, instead they will be the latest in the long line of teams to buckled at ‘one of those special European nights at Anfield’. Then 3 days later…it’s down the M62 to make it the theatre of nightmares one more time!

Questions or comments? email me at martin@empireofthekop.com

Thanks for reading guys, YNWA!

Martin

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13 Comments

  1. Loved the article mate! Alberto was my man of the match too! Since i knew we were signing him i wasexcited! I really liked him at Roma and know he’s ready to stunned England! :D

    Cant wait for the next two games! Let’s conquer the old toilet once again!

    YNWA

  2. Great article! And I agree with you abt Aqui. He was really impressive on the field! Come on Reds, keep this up! And hell yeah, in Rafa we trust!

    YNWA

  3. Brilliant performance. I will be waking up at 0530 here in the US on Sunday to watch the game live!

  4. I have to disagree w/ the Pompey remark. Folks need to stop being so Pro and be realistic. Remember, everyone smells blood to the bhoys current form so they ALL will come out strong. Hope for the quick goal and play-on.

    Pompey have been playing like crap for sometime. If Liverpool reprised their Wigan & Lille form, it would have added up to a VERY interesting match. But the thing w/ the match is Liverpool focused on what they needed to do and how they do it so it shows PROMISE (then again we said this about the Man U match).

    Rafa finally put together a good side & LFC showed a glimmer of what they truly are. Definitely a step in the right direction (no matter how small or large it may be).

    I also agree about your Stevie comment. Had anyone seen that it was a straight red. And as you remarked, don’t forget we have to then present the same foul to Masch later in the second half. If Stevie get it so does the other.

    All-in-all it was a good result and a performance to definitely take into Thursday and hopefully build up on for Man U on Sunday.

    But the question remains: What team will Rafa choose and will Aquaman start?

    Nice post Martin.

  5. Rafa “hater” here.

    Liverpool did not win this game because of Rafa but despite him.

    Is it any surprise that of the 4 goals we scored today, 2 came from Babel, one the infamous Rafa outcasts, who’s occasionally shown the flashes of brilliance and sparks of creativity that the team has sorely lacked this Season, only to be inexplicably banished to the bench for weeks after that, while the other came from Aquilani who’s been “match fit” for weeks (despite Benitez’s claims to the contrary) but who’s also been inexplicably riding the bench in games where Liverpool have desperately needed a spark of creativity?
    Is it also any surprise that they were also both deeply involved in the creation of and play that led to Torres’ own 2 goals?

    Lastly is it any surprise that the 2 players that they replaced and who for the first time for as long as anyone can remember, were both on the bench the entire fame, are the same 2 players that a “section” of Liverpool fans have been begging for Rafa to drop from the starting line-up because of their awful play, and the targets of claims of Rafa’s favoritism charges; those being one Lucas Leiva and one Dirk Kuyt?

    Liverpool won this game because for the first time in a long time this Season, the11 players on the pitch played like they knew they owed Liverpool fans an excellent performance, and not because of any motivational speeches or tactics that Rafa employed.

    Watch this Thursday and next Sunday as he reverts to type and drops both Babel and Aquilani to the bench in favor of playing Lucas and Kuyt for a defensive formation and negative tactics against less offensive opponents at home and as he goes for the bore draw against the Mancs on Sunday fearing a defeat.

    If Rafa has made some of the “tactical” and personnel decisions that he made today, earlier this season, we wouldn’t be talking about his job being in jeopardy or the Season being such a waste.
    Don’t bail him out for his obvious mistakes on the back of one victory that they should have won anyway. We’ve been here before many times this season with all that ‘turning the corner’ nonsense.

    I still think he has taken Liverpool as far as he can, and the time has come for both to part ways in the most amicable way possible.

  6. Aquaman was awsome last night, well impressed with him. Finally showcased he can be our man! Glad to see Torres’s attitude and body language look sooooo much better than previous games. And liked the fact stevie looked like he wanted the ball last night, he still hasn’t made the full circle turn but he looked alot better.

    Nice to see Kelly get some time, I think he’s gonna be great and would love to see him get a start on Thursday.

    And Maxi, what can I say, for me he’s the new Kuyt but more skillfull it’s great, his work ethic is going to be perfect for the premier league!

    Wonder if Rafa will play it safe on sunday tho with Lucas instead of Aquaman. Hopefully he’ll stick to what we had last night, team looked great, played as a unit all night!

  7. Nice article.

    Lowest Anfield crowd for five years last night, which is disappointing.

    Still, great result, let’s bash the French and the Mancs to make it a great week.

  8. Sorry forgot to mention good article mate, best one on here for a while! Hopefulyl see more to come from you mate!

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