Liverpool are left with everything to do after FC Basel dashed their hopes of easy progression to the knock-out rounds of the Champions League by downing their visitors 1-0 in Switzerland yesterday.
If the meetings with PFC Ludogrets and FC Basel were to be the “easy” fixtures of the group, the Reds have certainly made tough work of them and they now face the prospect of facing Real Madrid home and away in their next two outings. “I have replicated that in the changing room,” said Reds boss Brendan Rodgers of his captain’s less than complimentary post match thoughts. “The goal we conceded was far too soft – and it’s not the first one. It was a very disappointing goal to concede after all the work, all the talking and all the training ground work that we do on them.”
A poachers goal from striker Marco Streller was enough to hand Paulo Sousa’s side all three points in front of a enthusiastic home crowd. The Reds defensive frailties were once again on display with Martin Skrtel — more interested in wrestling with his marker than where the ball was going — inexplicably heading towards his own goal. Simon Mignolet, who made a number of good stops on the night, got down low to palm away the potential own goal, but the Swiss international striker was in the right place at the right time and he made no mistake as he bulged the top of the net.
Another match, another needless goal.
Video courtesy of Live Football Scores
Although that was very much the narrative last season as well, the shocking realization that we’re having a much harder time balancing it out at the other end continues to sink in. With Daniel Sturridge still injured, a front three of Lazar Markovic, Raheem Sterling and Mario Balotelli failed to do the business once again. There mere fact that only one of those three — a 19-year old boy at that — has made more than 10-appearances wearing the famous red shirt is of course something to take into consideration, but when you’re staring down the barrel of elimination from the competition you spent all of last season trying to qualify for, any and all excuses seem a bit trite.
“I think he worked hard. It’s obviously his job to create and score goals, and he’s working,” continued the Northern Irishman when asked about the performance of Balotelli last night. “He went close with a free-kick where he had a great shot. He knows his job is to create and score goals, and he’s working hard to get into the areas. That’s what we’re asking of him.”
That the Italian failed to register a touch in the opposition’s penalty area, or that through the combined efforts of Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel the defensive pair could register only a solitary tackle between the two of them, was absent from the conversation of course, but there are promising signs on the horizon — they’re just hard to read at the moment. To get one thing straight, it’s not all doom and gloom, but with an obvious crisis of confidence going on at Anfield, this is where Rodgers will really earn his corn. It’s all a bit easy to manage a team that’s scoring far more than they’re conceding; this is where the hard work really begins.
–Steven
