Lille Prove More Than A Hazard For Liverpool

Time to turn your frustrations into support for a good cause.

Late goals were almost becoming a thing of the past for Liverpool but we were back to our old ways against Lille last night. Despite an improved performance compared to our 90minutes against Wigan we still let things slide after being unable to capitalize on a steady 80 minutes or so.

Benitez drafted in Ryan Babel for this one after Yossi Benayoun picked up an injury, i shall move on to commenting on his performance later. A lot of people pre match were calling for Aquilani to make the start, mainly because he clearly deserves it but also in a game against Lille, you would think he would be greatly suited. After looking back at the game too, it is clear to me that we would have benefited from some of the more attacking aspects of the Italian.

Lille started the first half in a very lively fashion, they obviously realised that they would need a result on home turf to truly trouble Liverpool over the two legs.

Liverpool dealt well with the majority of the threats, although at times untidy, the ball was constantly removed from the danger zone and Reina's net was kept empty.

In terms of Liverpool's attack, it was a Ryan Babel attempt and a flash from Steven Gerrard that were worth noting in the midst of an unsteady forward pushing Liverpool.

Moving onto Ryan Babel, without coming across as if i am slating the bloke i feel i must again highlight what i always say, there is simply not enough in his game for him to constantly be chosen. There are always calls for him to make a start but he constantly falls at the first hurdle. If i remember rightly his first moment involved in the game he lost possession, this appeared to be a marker for his total game.

Not taking away from him the fact that he did cause some problems in front of the Lille goal, albeit one attempt he should have really done much better with, the link up with Fernando Torres beforehand was fantastic but his effort was wasteful, he still, to me, is extremely frustrating as a player apparently filled with so much potential.

In all fairness, his replacement in Albert Riera was a let down too, don't know what has happened to him of late but he seems a shadow of himself compared to last season. All this makes it certain to me that Yossi Benayoun must start when he is fit, by a country mile he is the best option.

In terms of the second half, it didn't get much better for Liverpool. It was clear that the players were at least putting in the effort, on Monday you wouldn't be criticised for thinking they just didn't care, but effort can so often come to no avail when it comes to winning games.

Lille got the winner near the 85minute mark and it was Eden Hazard who had already provided Reina with some problems earlier in the game who sent a free kick straight over every attempt to make sure it went in or in Liverpool's case to attempt to clear. Nobody got a touch and by the time it was at Reina is was too late to deal with.

It was a match that you can't really comment on, in all honesty even when they scored it wasn't a surprise it was just predictable. Another nail in the negativity barrel but why cling onto that? What use is there in constantly expecting the worst?

If your wondering how you can vent your negativity into something positive and something that is constantly a benfit to our club, an organisation who prides itself on doing what is best and most importantly right for the future of our club are on social networking site; Twitter.

For those of you that don't know Spirit Of Shankly do have their on Twitter and if you have been tweeting today in the UK you will have noticed that top of the trending topics were #hicksandgillettout and #lfcsongs show your support and lets unite together as Reds and remind these Yanks that despite the bad results on the pitch we have NOT forgotten the more pressing matters going on behind the scenes.

You can follow Spirit Of Shankly on Twitter here.