Liverpool 2 Sunderland 2 Saturday 25th September 2010
After the disappointing exit from the League Cup at the hands of Northampton I had had hoped that the home game against Sunderland would be a game that we would take by the scruff of the neck and show what a good team that we can be when we play well. After all the majority of the regular starters returned in this game and we were pretty much at full strength.
We did take an early lead in the game but once Sunderland equalised they took the game by the scruff of the neck and started bossing it like we should have been doing. This pressure that Sunderland put us under for some time at the end of the first half and the first half of the second 45 minutes produced another goal which put Sunderland in the lead and we were right under the cosh. We managed to get back into the game with an equaliser in the second half and then started playing like we should have done from the word go.
It would be fair enough to say that in the last ten minutes we had most of the possession and most of the game but we just didn’t make our chances count, and, if we had of won the game, it probably wouldn’t have been a true reflection of the previous ninety minutes in which Sunderland were equal to us, and at times outplayed us.
It is far too early for alarms bells to start ringing really but we really do need to be beating teams like Sunderland if we really are going to break back into the top six and, at times, we just weren’t that great today and Sunderland were a much better side than us for large portions of the game. Then there were times where we were bossing the game and taking control but not for long enough to really take control of the game at any time.
It is incredibly frustrating to watch but we can only rely on the players that Roy picks to go out and win games. Something is not working at the moment in the club and it needs to sort itself out or we may find ourselves finishing in mid-table, because we are not showing ourselves to be a top six club at the moment.
There are plenty of games to go but we need to be picking up 3 points a game and not just the one as we did today. I can’t really blame Roy Hodgson, as it is not his fault if the players don’t perform well, it is up to the players themselves to go out there and play well and win games, not the managers alone.
Yes the manager picks the players, but it is the players who play the games, not the manager, and therefore the players who are responsible for the results.
Perhaps this is just a blip, and soon we will start playing as we all know we can do. Whatever it is, I hope that we can soon bring ourselves out of it or we will not be in Europe at all next season.