Kenny And His Magic Wand

Chelsea 0 Liverpool 1 - Match Reaction (taken from The Liverpool Way, written by my favorite writer Dave Usher).

“I don’t have a magic wand” was a regular expression used by Roy Hodgson. Well thankfully we’ve found a man who does. No Torres, no Suarez, no Carroll, but we still went to Chelsea and got three points. It’s the Kenny Dalglish effect, simple as that. In such a short space of time he’s got us believing we can achieve anything. Be honest, how many of you are thinking we might still get fourth? I know I am, and that’s 100% because of Dalglish. He’s breathed life into a club that was on it’s knees.

A month ago we were staring at the prospect of a relegation battle, and then we lost Torres. So going to a Chelsea side - including Torres - with Dirk up front on his own and not just winning but doing it in the way we did, was quite remarkable. I’m not saying for a second it was comfortable (it was only 1-0 so we could never say it was in the bag), but we did look very assured and this team is unrecognisable from the sorry bunch of individuals Kenny inherited. It’s quite a turnaround.

Whilst most observer’s focus was and understandably is still on our former number nine (more on him later), if you take that aspect out of it and just look at the actual game itself there are a lot of things for us to get excited about. That’s probably been lost on most people outside of LFC as it was all about Torres, which is understandable as it was a huge story. Of course it’s fantastic for us to have been able to put one over on him and his new club, but leaving all that emotion out of the equation and just looking at it from a football perspective you can see the huge transformation we’ve made under Kenny and Steve Clarke. There’s three main areas in which we are unrecognisable from a few weeks ago.

Firstly, tactics. Kenny (and Clarke maybe?) got it absolutely spot on, we just completely nailed it. Chelsea played three central strikers, none of whom wanted to go out wide. Anelka played deeper than the other too, but couldn’t find space and didn’t influence the game at all. He’s just not a number ten, but they are trying to shoehorn him into that role and we snuffed him out easily.

Same with Drogba, who has perhaps never been more ineffectual against us in all the years we’ve been facing him. He was so quiet, and any fears there may have been about whether a rusty Carragher would be able to cope with him proved to be completely unfounded. The vice-captain was fantastic, and his performance was all the more remarkable given he’d only returned to training the previous Monday. And what of Shevchenko, sorry I mean Torres? Well he had just two sights of goal, both due to sloppy play from us, and nothing to do with our tactics or Chelsea creating anything.

The three at the back completely nullified their forwards, the wing backs were outstanding at both ends of the pitch, and Lucas did a great job making a nuisance of himself in front of his defence. He was terrific, just as he was in the meeting between the two sides at Anfield earlier in the season. Gerrard and Meireles were both able to get forward at will to support the ever willing Kuyt, and whilst chances were at a premium we had plenty of the ball in the Chelsea half and certainly didn’t sit back until late on when we were protecting the lead. As I say, a tactical masterclass.

By the end they were reduced to having that ‘Sideshow Bob’ lookalike they bought from Benfica punting diagonal balls towards Ivanovic up front. Where’s Robert Huth when you need him, eh? Scoring twice the day before, actually. Maybe they should have spent £50m on him instead.

Secondly, style. We are playing proper football now. Passing and moving, committing men forward when we attack and trying to play our way out of trouble. It’s not vintage, but that’s because we still have players who need to be improved upon. But we try to play football now in all areas of the field, and players are encouraged to back their own ability and just get it down and play. It was great to see, but it was also the only way Chelsea were going to get anything out of the game.

The only occasions we were stretched was when we gave the ball away ourselves through over playing. For me, not since the days of Roy Evans has a Liverpool side had this philosophy. We had some great times under Houllier and Benitez, and at times both had us playing excellent stuff. By and large though, it was based on organisation and players operating within a set structure with risks at a minimum.

We still have structure, but there’s definitely more freedom within it for players. Not just in terms of committing men forward, but also of playing their way out of trouble. We almost got caught a few times by Chelsea, and there were times I found myself yelling “just get rid!!” but we didn’t. Agger, Johnson and Lucas in particular were playing a lot of football in tight spaces, but that’s a sign of the growing confidence in the side and more significantly, a sign that Kenny is encouraging them to play. It’s not perfect, we still have weaknesses that on other days will cost us, but I think back to how I felt after we lost at Blackpool a few weeks ago, and compare it to how I’m feeling now, and it’s astonishing.

Thirdly, and perhaps most importantly, togetherness. Players are playing for eachother, and the fans are right behind them. Everyone is in it together, and that unity was cemented by what happened with Torres. His departure could have been devastating to us as a club, but instead it’s had the opposite effect. Torres wasn’t part of this new found togetherness, his mere presence threw a spanner in the works of it. We brought in two top players to replace him and the place is buzzing again.

There’s no room for sulkers and passengers in Kenny’s new Liverpool, and whilst I’m sure there are still players here who are ok with Torres, there’ll be others who aren’t and are pleased he’s gone. The way Agger un-cerimoniously planted his forearm square onto the jaw of his former team-mate suggests he may fall into the latter group, but maybe I’m reading too much into that.

I still maintain that some of these players are not good enough to take us to where we need to be, but Kenny is masking that and has got everybody playing to a higher level now than they were previously. The likes of Agger and Meireles are thriving, he’s introduced Kelly to the side and Johnson has adapted very well to playing on the left (could have conceded a daft pen though). Even Skrtel is impressing and he had a great game at the Bridge. I’m loathe to criticise anybody, but the only player I can find fault with is Maxi. Had his sloppy pass to Torres resulted in a goal, he’d have had to leave town in a hurry. The sitter he missed was horrendous as well, and I was convinced it would end up costing us. You simply can’t miss chances like that in big games, as you will almost always end up paying the price. Thankfully this time it didn’t, so no harm done.

Generally games like this are tight and chances are at a premium. Aside from the one Maxi missed, I can only think of a couple more for us. There was the goal and there was a shot by Aurelio that was saved. Chelsea had even less clear openings. Torres went through once but was denied by Carragher’s block (replays showed that it was a tame shot that appeared to be headed straight at Reina anyway) and the only other time they went close was Malouda’s shot from a tight angle that was blocked comfortably by Reina.

So whilst on the balance of play a draw would perhaps have been fair, I believe if we’d have had Carroll, Suarez or both available we’d have won more convincingly. There were numerous times we could have hit them on the break, but Dirk just doesn’t have the pace to get in behind and it made things much easier for Chelsea than they might have been. One glaring example of it came late on when Lucas yet again broke up a Chelsea attack and charged forward. He was looking for Kuyt to make a run for him in behind, but instead he ran towards him!!! Having said that, I don’t want to seem like I’m being in any way critical of Kuyt, as that’s not my intention. Honestly, I can’t fault him as I felt he did everything in his power to help us win this game.

He’s not suited to playing up top on his own, but he gives us everything he has and he more than played his part in this win. I’m just saying that with someone more suited to the role we MIGHT have won more comfortably. Who knows though, maybe we won this game because of how hard he worked, and in fairness it was his run that caused the confusion that led to Cech and Ivanovic both missing Gerrard’s cross and allowing Meireles to score. I don’t want to take anything away from him, as he was immense, but I’d drop him as soon as Suarez and Carroll are available. Sorry Dirk!

The goal was funny, as it was almost certainly a direct result of an incident in the first half when Kelly whipped a ball in and Cech and Ivanovic collided as they both went for it. The keeper flipped his lid and was yelling at the defender. They’re both a bit dopey looking, and if ever there was an Eastern European remake of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, it would probably look a lot like this. That definitely contributed to what happened later, as when Gerrard’s cross came in this time instead of both going for it they left it to eachother and neither dealt with it.

Raul actually made the finish look easy when it would have been very easy to miss, and the icing on the cake was it was right in front of the travelling Kop and occurred just a couple of minutes after Torres had been hooked. It was close to being a perfect day for us really, and we didn’t even need to bring Suarez on. As for Torres, it was a wretched day for him, culminating in being dragged off with the jeers of the away fans ringing in his ears. He’d better get used to that, as when things aren’t working out it won’t be Drogba who gets subbed and it won’t be Drogba who the fans turn on. I’m sure Fernando will score goals, he’s too good not to and against some teams Chelsea will be able to overcome the lack of balance their side has when Drogba is handicapped by having Torres alongside him (or vice versa).

Good sides will be able to nullify it though, and Kenny has given them the blueprint to do it. I don’t want to dwell too much on Torres as he belongs to our past and we are now looking like we have a promising future. That’s the irony here though, Torres had ridden out the worst of it and could have been part of a bright future under the King. Instead he chose to join Chelsea in the hope of winning something in the next couple of years whilst Chelsea are still contenders. There’s no guarantee they’ll win more than us in the next couple of years, and not too far down the line they will actually be the Chelsea Pensioners unless Abramovich throws more money at it, which is unlikely given the new rules that will come into play. When Drogba, Lampard, Anelka, Mongo etc come to the end of the road, Torres will be jumping ship again. If he hasn’t already been bombed out by then.

What Fernando will quickly realise is that there’s no love for him at Chelsea. To them, he’s just another hugely expensive signing that is expected to deliver the goods. There’s no emotion invested in him, and he’ll soon find that if he doesn’t do a job they’ll be on his case in a way that he never experienced at Anfield, even in the games where he was blatantly taking the piss out of us with his lack of effort. It’s started already, he was getting ripped by Chelsea fans on phone ins and forums, and that is after just one game. I’m not even criticising Chelsea fans for that, if I wanted to criticise them I’d point to those goons who copied our ‘El Nino’ flag right down to the image of the Shankly Gates at the bottom of it. Priceless. Sums them up perfectly though, they try so hard, but they just don’t ‘get it’. I’d pity them if they weren’t so obnoxious.

No, Chelsea fans won’t show patience and understanding to Torres if he struggles early on, and in fairness why should they? They laid out £50m for an established world class striker who knows the Premier League. Those fans hated him when he was playing for us, and they won’t suddenly love him now. Oh they love the idea that they’ve taken the jewel in our crown, or at least what they thought was the jewel, but they don’t love HIM. Why would they? It’s up to him to win them over, and that may prove to be more difficult than he expected. But that’s his problem, and theirs.

I don’t hate Fernando Torres, and for a mili-second I almost felt sorry for him when I saw the forlorn look on his face as he sat on their bench watching our fans celebrating. Then I quickly snapped out of it and laughed. Not as much as I’d laugh if we made up that six point gap between us and them however. That has to be our immediate goal now. We’ve overhauled Sunderland to go to 6th place, when less than a week ago we were five points behind them. It won’t be as easy catching Chelsea and Spurs, and maybe we’re getting way ahead of ourselves.

But how nice is it to be looking up the table and seeing who we can catch rather than over our shoulders at who might go above us. It will be difficult improving on the 6th spot we currently occupy, but it’s not impossible. Not now. Not when we have Kenny and his Magic Wand.