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Today’s recipe ingredients:
1 feeling of apathy, chopped
400ml of expectation
¼ tablespoon of dismay
500g of dread
…all mixed up in a great big bowl of cynicism.
Today was a “damned if you do” sort of situation. People didn’t hope for a result, they demanded it. And not only that, they demanded a performance, to boot. We could have produced the most scintillating example of total football and the response would probably have been a shrug of the shoulders.
The optimism that swept around Anfield after the last home game against Chelsea was replaced by indifference before today’s encounter. That’s what one point against Wigan and Stoke will do to a fanbase. The atmosphere today was dreadful, as the wave teeters dangerously on the brink between misery and people waiting in the wings to say “I told you so”. It’s bizarre.
So the team, from back to front: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Konchesky, Kuyt, Meireles, Poulsen, Maxi, N’gog, Torres. An adventurous 4-4-2. Without Gerrard, Spearing or Lucas to choose from, the midfield duo picked itself. Raul Meireles in a more natural, central position playing alongside Christian Poulsen – a man singled out by Hodgson this week, saying he was confident his form would improve. Pity he couldn’t have been so constructive towards the side he put out against Northampton. Or Glen Johnson, for that matter.
For our opponents, who went in today’s game rock-bottom of the Premier League: Green, Jacobsen, Gabbidon, Upson, Ilunga, Obinna, Noble, Kovac, Boa Morte, Piquionne & Cole. Somewhere between a 4-4-1-1 and 4-4-2.
If people like to remind us that without Steven Gerrard, Liverpool aren’t the same team, then West Ham without Scott Parker is like a library without books. Their midfield can be best described as “neat”, but neither Kovac nor Noble ever looked willing to press us when we were in possession. Giving Poulsen and Carragher the time on the ball they were allowed was absolutely criminal. You know that you are bad when your own fans ironically cheer whenever string three passes together and if our support is unhappy with Roy, then theirs is downright irate with Avram Grant.
But none of this is to take anything away from us. After all, you can you can only beat what is in front of you and we started the game on the front foot. Maxi had two speculative efforts go close and Meireles had his effort tipped over well. But on eighteen minutes Meireles’ corner found Johnson, who had the time to take the ball down on his chest and blast the ball past Robert Green. The goal was nothing but absolutely inevitable. West Ham are a team without leadership, and more importantly, a team without confidence.
A brief forage upfield from the Hammers amounted to nothing and we were once again on the ascendancy. Torres, who looked sharp throughout, tried to juggle with the ball on the edge of the area. Gabbidon interjected but did so with the use of his arm. A penalty and one that was coolly converted by Dirk Kuyt. 2-0 and although you have to be careful with such assertions, there was an air of confidence in the stands that this game was already over.
If West Ham came with any confidence, it had been drained away when Dirk Kuyt doubled our lead. Encouragingly from our perspective, we were now starting to play some genuinely positive football. Glen Johnson and Paul Konchesky’s overlapping play was great to see and our use of width was largely testament to how well Meireles was spreading the ball left and right. Alongside him, Christian Poulsen was also enjoying his best performance for us in the league. But then I guess like that is coming out of the cinema and saying “that’s Michael Bay’s best movie in recent years, no doubt”.
Unlike in previous matches when we had built up a lead, there was still a desire to get up the pitch and cause damage. I think most sensed West Ham’s brittle nerves could be exposed again, and so it was. After a melee in the box, the ball broke out on the left to Konchesky who whipped a ball on to the head of Maxi Rodriguez who diverted the ball into the corner past the outstretched Rob Green. 3-0 and the second half was now moot. The performance didn’t exactly convert the feeling of apathy that had surrounded the game from the off, although it’s difficult to say what would have done, to be fair.
Fernando Torres looked sharp, but doesn’t seem to quite have that little bit of acceleration still. His foot-race with Jacobsen, where he gave him a five yard head start, was a sign of what he does have in his locker though. Alongside him, David N’gog put in an excellent shift, competing with the stronger Gabbidon and Upson admirably.
The game kicked off in the second half and there was little sign of us carrying on the initiative into this forty-five. West Ham managed to make it more of a contest without ever creating much in the way of chances. Maxi Rodriguez nearly scored his second of the game when he dinked the ball into the back of the box and Fernando Torres and Christian Poulsen both tested Robert Green from distance with two spectacular efforts. The first was tipped on to the bar, the second knocked around the post. Liverpool’s dominance cannot be overstated, but then neither can how dismal West Ham were today. As much as I like Avram Grant, he isn’t fit for the job of getting them out of the situation they find themselves in.
Which brings me neatly on to Roy Hodgson, who will have been pleased with the application of his players as the final whistle drew an end to proceedings. The first half built up a nice lead that West Ham were never going to come back from and, if I attempt to be positive for one moment, the second half was very “professional”. But what exactly did it prove? If Chelsea wasn’t the turning point, then why should we expect this to be?
Asked this week about his relationship with the fans, he said the following:
“These days you can’t expect to have the crowd behind you when you’re not winning or playing well. Every manager has been well supported and given a chance. I understand they’re not happy we’re in the position we are. If I was a fan, I would probably feel the same. But they know their football and know we’re doing our best to put it right.”
Now, as with many of Roy’s press conferences, you can dissect what he says sentence for sentence and manage to take exception with something. But semantics aside, there is one recurring theme from his interviews that never sits right with me. He keeps talking about “putting things right”, how he needs “time to build”. When you leave a ground after seeing your side beat a team with ease 3-0 and you’re still burdened with doubt and fear, you have to wonder if there is any going back. Fact is, I have no interest in what Hodgson could potentially build. Roy is the last lingering odour of a now fallen regime and a win today against a substandard West Ham does nothing to change that fact.
