No walk in the Park for Liverpool

Rafa Benitez has revealed his fears of the struggle for a fourth place (extremely suprising...) spot in the Premier League after a 2-1 defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford. The winning goal scored by Park Ji-Sung came as quite a blow to Liverpool who now sit 4 points behind fouth place Tottenham who have a game in hand and just 1 point ahead of both Man City and Aston who have also played less games. (What a dreadful weekend for football, first Stan sacked from Darlington and now this). Leaving Liverpool with an incredibly difficult run in to the end of the season.

Despite taking the lead in the fifth minute, the team never got going. Lucas returned to his defensive midfield role meaning Liverpool returned to a negative shape. They retreated to the good ol 'we play worse football than you but we might just nick this' style Rafa Benitez seems to be fond of and unfortunately it was unsucessful. Some terrible marking by the Manchester United back line allowed Fernando Torres to head home a percise Dirk Kuyt cross (hmm that isn't said often). But United were soon level after referee Howard Webb(pictured right in his most favourite-est jersey) awarded United a peno after Mascherano's fouled Antonio Valencia, even though the incident seemed to take place outside the box. Despite the efforts of Pepe Reina (and Fernando Torres who returned to his box and clearly kicked a chunk out of the ground where the penalty was to be taken), Rooney scored the rebound after the original shot was saved. The tempo dropped somewhat after that (thanks a lot guys, how will I fill the rest of this blog now?) and after a few kicks in what was a dull start to the second half Liverpool began to feel the pressure. In the 60th minute Darren Fletcher floated in a beautiful cross which was met by the brave head of Park Ji-Sung through a sea of flying boots (sounds like a Kung-foo movie) and after missing a simple header earlier on in the game, he made no mistake with the second effort. Liverpool were gifted a chance to equalize near the end of the game when Fernando Torres got on the end of a Steven Gerrard cross but could only scuff his shot into the air which substitue Benayoun could not convert. This was one of very few chances Liverpol got today because a pure lack of creativity. Steven Gerrard was no where to be seen, instead there was a sign reading ''be back after World Cup....maybe''. The introduction of Aquilani and others was left far too late and they made little impact. All and all a poor performance, a poor season and now a poor position for Livepool.

The passion in todays game was questionable. Jamie Carragher seemed the only outfield Liverpool player who gave his all today. But while the game seemed to flounder on the pitch, the heated battle for toughest manager (sounds like a bad series hosted by Danny Dyer) seemed to begin on the sidelines with Rafa and Fergie exchanging unpleasentries like a more tidy 8 mile. Ultimately Fergie won when he questioned why Rafa started Lucas and Rafa choked. (8 mile sequal perhaps, 8th spot or maybe something a bit more witty?) Strangely Benitez seemed to have no complaints in the post match interview apart from admitting the penalty was questionable. But he seems to have accepted that Liverpools challenge for fourth spot is no longer in their own hands. Not long ago he was guaranteeing the fans 4th place and now all he can guarantee is that it wil be difficult, something someone with primary school maths skills could tell us by looking at the table. So has he lost hope? I don't think so. But Rafa is a smart (well somewhat smart) man. He knows the odds are against him, he knows that the board situation is far from perfect and he certainly knows other clubs are intrested in his services. For now the only thing he can do is concentrate on a tough Europa League campaign and keep winning in the league. As for the players hunger for the game, it definately seems to be fading by the game (like Stevies involvement!). However with a trophy still on the line we may see a somewhat motivated team at the end of the season.

Thanks for reading this weeks post, I'm sorry it was kind of short and sweet (well actually quite bitter considering the outcome of the game) but unfortunately the lads gave me little to work with! I'm also sorry the post was a little late. After the horrible happenings I just couldnt bring myself to write it. I hit the bottle pretty hard when I realized Steve Staunton would no longer be the gaffern(at Darlington)!!! Actually thats untrue. I kind of chuckled and got on with my life. The Liverpool result hurt me like affairs have hurt John Terry's career though. Well although the say laughter is the best medicine I think I'd still prefer 4th place.
Yours begrudgingly,
Dec