Post by Ghostrider on Apr 24, 2016 12:05:10 GMT
I have to admit I went into this game with my head telling me we were coming away with nothing but my heart hoping we could nick something.
Benitez has instilled some optimism back into my brain, lately, because I can actually see his managerial wizardry starting to pay dividends.
Whether it will be enough, remains to be seen, but we're trying at least and at last.
In the first minute against Liverpool, I thought "well, here we go, it's going to be a rout" - such was my optimism for this game.
Liverpool seemed to be slicker and quicker, as well as finding their passing range, whilst we were simply working our bollocks off, but basically chasing shadows and panicking, once we won the ball back at times.
As soon as Liverpool's second goal went in , I seriously started to just give up. I thought, "here goes the goal difference."
We had a few opportunities in that first half but as usual they came to nothing.
All I had left to hope for was the fact that Rafa had a plan to at least get us back into it to at least keep the goal difference from becoming ridiculous.
I was more than surprised when we came out and took the game to them and Cisse scoring a good headed goal after the ball wasn't dealt with in their box.
I was jumping for joy when Colback stole in to score via a deflection.
The score being 2-2 and I started to wonder if we could nick this. We had chances to but then Liverpool seemed to gain a second wind and pout us under severe pressure for a while towards the end, but we battled like demons to earn a very respectable draw and showed that at least this team is actually fighting for Rafa,, if not for the club itself.
There were some really good performances at Liverpool, for different reasons. Some for good offensive play and some for some sterling off the ball closing down and also winning the ball back.
I thought Tiote and Colback were formidable in the middle and Townsend was my man of the match for his battling and his offensive play.
Anita gets better and better at right back and I believe that should be his position.
Dummett was decent enough considering he's only been back for a few games.
Sissoko was strong and battled well and even Cisse chased down balls and worked hard, even when he was isolated in the first half.
Darlow was decent enough as well. He's gaining in confidence which is what we really need - but he still needs to be guarded, which is where my praise has to go to the two CB's - Lascelles and Mbemba, who I thought were very good and focused. Lascelles was acting like a captain at times, being very vocal. He also covered well for Dummett when he was struggling to get back at times, after a forage down the left.
MBemba was the same and made a timely tackle to stop what would have been a clear cut chance on goal.
Not the best football performance from us and in fact it was pretty horrible in the first half but second half we showed we have players capable of actually playing good football.
We got a point without playing well and I hope that we crank it up in our next two games to gain maximum points because I believe we need 6 or 7 points from our remaining games. I'd like to believe 6 of them can be got before we play our final game against Tottenham, at St.James'.
All in all, I've seen enough to give me hope and to be at least optimistic enough to believe we have a chance.
If the worst did happen and we went down, I wouldn't be too distraught "IF" Rafa said he wants to be here for the long haul, because I would be buoyed by the fact that we could literally take off from that point with walk the walk attitude instead of the years of talk the talk we've been fed.
But for a crystal ball, eh?
Benitez has instilled some optimism back into my brain, lately, because I can actually see his managerial wizardry starting to pay dividends.
Whether it will be enough, remains to be seen, but we're trying at least and at last.
In the first minute against Liverpool, I thought "well, here we go, it's going to be a rout" - such was my optimism for this game.
Liverpool seemed to be slicker and quicker, as well as finding their passing range, whilst we were simply working our bollocks off, but basically chasing shadows and panicking, once we won the ball back at times.
As soon as Liverpool's second goal went in , I seriously started to just give up. I thought, "here goes the goal difference."
We had a few opportunities in that first half but as usual they came to nothing.
All I had left to hope for was the fact that Rafa had a plan to at least get us back into it to at least keep the goal difference from becoming ridiculous.
I was more than surprised when we came out and took the game to them and Cisse scoring a good headed goal after the ball wasn't dealt with in their box.
I was jumping for joy when Colback stole in to score via a deflection.
The score being 2-2 and I started to wonder if we could nick this. We had chances to but then Liverpool seemed to gain a second wind and pout us under severe pressure for a while towards the end, but we battled like demons to earn a very respectable draw and showed that at least this team is actually fighting for Rafa,, if not for the club itself.
There were some really good performances at Liverpool, for different reasons. Some for good offensive play and some for some sterling off the ball closing down and also winning the ball back.
I thought Tiote and Colback were formidable in the middle and Townsend was my man of the match for his battling and his offensive play.
Anita gets better and better at right back and I believe that should be his position.
Dummett was decent enough considering he's only been back for a few games.
Sissoko was strong and battled well and even Cisse chased down balls and worked hard, even when he was isolated in the first half.
Darlow was decent enough as well. He's gaining in confidence which is what we really need - but he still needs to be guarded, which is where my praise has to go to the two CB's - Lascelles and Mbemba, who I thought were very good and focused. Lascelles was acting like a captain at times, being very vocal. He also covered well for Dummett when he was struggling to get back at times, after a forage down the left.
MBemba was the same and made a timely tackle to stop what would have been a clear cut chance on goal.
Not the best football performance from us and in fact it was pretty horrible in the first half but second half we showed we have players capable of actually playing good football.
We got a point without playing well and I hope that we crank it up in our next two games to gain maximum points because I believe we need 6 or 7 points from our remaining games. I'd like to believe 6 of them can be got before we play our final game against Tottenham, at St.James'.
All in all, I've seen enough to give me hope and to be at least optimistic enough to believe we have a chance.
If the worst did happen and we went down, I wouldn't be too distraught "IF" Rafa said he wants to be here for the long haul, because I would be buoyed by the fact that we could literally take off from that point with walk the walk attitude instead of the years of talk the talk we've been fed.
But for a crystal ball, eh?
