Goals, Points and 'Keepers

 They say things come in threes and last night saw us score three goals, take three points and play the majority of the match with our third choice goalkeeper, who for a second looked like becoming our third recent recipient of a red card. The game brought plenty of incident and talking points, many of them positive for us with a few negative moments thrown in for good measure.

 Our starting eleven had five players right at the beginning of their careers, Shelvey, Henderson, Spearing, Coates and Flanagan, along with Glen Johnson coming back from injury, Doni making his first away start, Maxi and Craig Bellamy starting for the first time in a while, Skrtel taking the captains armband for the first time and Andy Carroll playing up front on his own. This line up is far from our strongest, indeed Skrtel and Johnson aside it’s probably as far away from our best eleven as we could have got and to get a win in a game like that is a real credit to all involved.

 We started well with Maxi scoring twice in quick succession around the quarter hour mark, I’m never sure why he doesn’t play more as he has a real knack of scoring and to be honest I think if he started all of our remaining league games he’d probably end up right in amongst our top scorers this season. Flanagan picked up an early yellow card and then was very close to a second for a slightly mistimed challenge near the halfway line. It did look like he was going to be responsible for us going down to ten men and on twenty five minutes this proved to be the case. His underhit back pass sold Doni short, Hoilett nipped in in front, played the ball to the side of the keeper and then ran straight into him, foul, penalty, sending off. Not really much to debate on this one. I think Hoilett played for the foul rather than attempted to play the ball past the keeper and then latch on to it but it was still a foul and if it hadn’t happened Blackburn would have scored so the sending off was inevitable. My only argument is one I’ve said for years, I’m not sure how giving away a penalty can be classed as denying a clear goalscoring opportunity, surely the penalty itself is a clear goalscoring opportunity so one has not been prevented. I think deliberately fouling an opponent to prevent him scoring is one thing, along with goal line handballs like we’ve seen in the past from Suarez for Uruguay or Phil Neville for Everton, but an accidental foul in an honest attempt to play the ball doesn’t need a red card and a penalty in my view. Also a one game ban shouldn’t be needed when the sending off happens so early, in effect players like Doni and Shaun Derry for QPR (see inevitable rant at the end of this post) who are sent off in the opening stages of the game miss two matches rather than one. Flanagan’s short back pass was certainly the catalyst for the downturn in our fortunes and he needs to learn from it but we can’t be too harsh, we’ve seen Steven Gerrard make passes like this every so often throughout his career so it can happen to the best, but it’s important our young right back doesn’t make a habit of it. That one under hit pass has cost Doni and probably himself a place in the team at Wembley this weekend.

 On came Brad Jones for Flanagan and with his first touch saved Yakubu’s back pass, er, sorry, penalty. It was a fantastic moment for a man who has been through so much since he joined us and the Liverpool fans behind the goal cheered his save like he’d scored a goal. Shortly after Yakubu pulled a goal back with a completely unmarked header from a free kick. There’s no way we should be allowing players chances that easy and there needs to be in inquest into exactly how we conceded in this manner. Blackburn’s equaliser was totally of our own making, Jones hitting a clearance against the former Evertonian and then fumbling when trying to catch the ball before the two players collided. I’m not totally convinced the penalty was as clear as it first appeared, Jones played the ball and then the two players made contact with each other before Yakubu went down. I think if the Nigerian had played the ball then the foul was clear but Jones played the ball before the man and I think that is within the rules. Never the less it gave the commentators the chance to excitedly hope for another goalkeeping red card that was never really an option, the ball was moving towards the edge of the area and realistically Coates would have got there well before Yakubu so it certainly wasn’t a goalscoring opportunity. The penalty was placed gently down the centre of the goal and we were all square again.

 The winning goal was perfect for several reasons. Firstly it gave us three much needed points. Secondly it showed our players that if they keep going until the end they may well get a reward. Thirdly Andy Carroll scored it and if anybody in the sport needed a goal it was him. And finally Skrtel fouled Hanley in the build up but the free kick wasn’t given and we were more than due a decision like that after being on the wrong end of so many dodgy decisions lately.

 I think special mention should go to Henderson for putting in a very good shift as a right back for the majority of the game. There were a few occasions when he stayed on his feet when the ball was there to be won and he should probably have made a challenge to win the ball but all in all his attitude, work rate and forward runs were good. I think he is suffering for us a little in the same way Steven Gerrard has done for England. Gerrard is an attacking central midfielder, so is Frank Lampard. Gerrard is mobile and versatile and can adapt to other positions, Frank Lampard is an attacking central midfield player, so Gerrard gets moved away from his natural position to accommodate Lampard and consequently we don’t see the best of him for England. Henderson seems to be suffering the same fate at Liverpool this season. He’s a box to box central midfield player, ideally suited to playing alongside a tackler like Lucas, but he’s been moved out wide as Adam, Spearing and Shelvey all need a central position to play from whereas Henderson can fill in when needed elsewhere. We’ve not seen the best of him yet but he’s been playing in unfamiliar roles and learning. Getting to grips with playing in different roles can only help his development but it means we’re not getting the player we signed just yet.

 Jonjo Shelvey and Jay Spearing also deserve praise for holding the team together from the centre of midfield despite their young years and fairly limited experience. Shelvey looked good playing behind Carroll for the first twenty five minutes but also held his own when he was moved further back after we were reduced to ten men. I also think Sebastian Coates looks better with every game, he’s not exactly a world beater yet but the potential is clearly there.

 Another positive was the clear team spirit and togetherness of the players sitting on the bench. Gerrard, Reina, Kuyt and Suarez all didn’t play but celebrated our goals and saves, and looked gutted when things didn’t go our way. There’s no doubt our senior players care about what’s happening at the moment and if they can translate that into effort on the pitch our performances have to lead to results.

 Something else that emerged from yesterday were a couple of decisions from our powers that be, the FA. Mario Balotelli is to face no further action for going over the top of the ball and landing studs first in Alex song’s knee. This season we’ve had Adam, Skrtel, Spearing, Reina and Doni sent off and banned and none of these have come even close to making a challenge like the one Balotelli made on Sunday, I’m sure other clubs could reel off list of their players who have been sent off for far less. Which brings me to QPR. Shaun Derry was next to an offside Ashley Young when Young dived and the ref sent him off. Referees get one look at incidents from one angle and make mistakes, this happens and always will. After seeing it on TV somebody somewhere has decided that the sending off was justified and Derry will be suspended for a match. Rescinding the card would mean publicly admitting an error from the linesman or that a Manchester United player dived, both of these things happened and anybody who has seen the incident knows what happened and the FA bottling out of saying what everybody else has seen is poor, even by their low (double) standards.