One: The Reds are dire in front of goal.
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| Image via www.theguardian.com: Christian Benteke |
A snore draw in the FA Cup with West Ham on Saturday evening once again highlighted a now desperate need for a prolific goalscorer. In a match that Christian Benteke started, the Belgian failed to stamp a mark on the game and when faced with promising chances was incapable of finding the back of the net. He's clearly low on confidence and the Reds just can't afford to waste chances at the moment.
You have to feel that including Daniel Sturridge in Saturday's team would have solved some of the main problems because the possession levels and pressure on the ball were fine, even the defensive display was relatively strong, we just can't bloody score! Waiting for the Sturridge return though and then pinning all our hopes on his ability to remain fit? It's just not a long term option is it.
Two: James Tomkins isn't as hard as I thought he was.
Tomkins is in his 8th year as a West Ham player (including a short loan spell to Derby) and I've grown to like him over the years. He strikes me as a bit of a stalwart as I'm sure Hammers fans would agree, so to see him go off after crashing his head into Joe Allen's, I was a bit disappointed to be honest. I expected him to carry on with a bandaged head like the good old days!
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| Image via www.theguardian.com: James Tomkins, Liverpool 0 West Ham 0 |
But in all seriousness, it was a bad collision and I hope he returns to their ranks soon.
Three: Steven Caulker fancies himself as a bit of a juggler.
New boy Steven Caulker got his first real chance to impress J
ürgen Klopp in defence on Saturday, as opposed to playing a makeshift striker in the dying minutes. The defender played pretty well to be honest but Slaven Bili
ć was right to feel enraged when the ex QPR man handled the ball in the box not once but twice.
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| Image via www.theguardian.com: Steven Caulker handball. |
It was evident Caulker had intentions to handle the ball in my opinion and the Reds were extremely lucky not to have faced a spot kick. In fairness though a poor decision from the referee late in the second half sort of levelled things out when a cross flew out of play but was deemed legitimate. The cross almost resulted in a goal too but thankfully the West Ham effort smashed off the post.
Four: Joe Allen and acrobatics don't mix.
If you follow me on
Twitter you'll know I popped a quid on Joe Allen with
Paddy Power for first goalscorer, so when he leapt up for a bicycle kick I was excited to say the least but the Welshman failed to increase his god like status around Anfield and unceremoniously crashed to the ground.
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| Image via www.theguardian.com: Joe Allen |
To be fair to Joe though I've criticised him in the past but he's been putting in some good performances of late and I feel he deserves a start in the league against Leicester.
Five: We do not need a replay right now.
Liverpool's fixture list was already horrendously congested and the replay at Upton Park has only made things worse. I'm glad we're still in the competition but so frustrated that we weren't able to convert any of our chances, the strikes from Brannagan and Teixeira stand out in particular. The Reds already had seven games in February including a League Cup final, another FA Cup tie was the last thing we needed. I was quite surprised that West Ham didn't wipe the floor with us to be honest and I fully expect them to play a lot more positively at home but here's hoping we can somehow find a way through.
