IT MAY GET WORSE BEFORE IT gets any better. While Bolton Wanderers discreetly slid into third position in the Barclays Premiership, Liverpool again failed to impress as they fell to their second defeat in five days. The international break may have come at a good time for Rafael Benítez’s reshaped squad: it will give those not away with their countries the opportunity to get to know one another.
Bolton deservedly won their third match in four this autumn, Kevin Davies scoring the deciding goal in the first half, and with ten minutes to go their supporters could start to sing “You’re not very good” to the Champions League qualifiers without too great a fear of tempting fate. Liverpool, who lost 1-0 at home to AK Graz on Tuesday but remained in Europe’s premier competition on aggregate, introduced three players making their debuts yesterday but, on this evidence, it will be some while before they gel sufficiently to be judged. “We need time,” Benítez, the Liverpool manager, said. “It will take three or four months to find our team.”
Benítez had prefaced the match by suggesting that this was to be a real beginning for his team as he was able to name Luis Garcia, his £6 million playmaker from Barcelona, and Xabi Alonso, purchased from Real Sociedad for £10.5 million, in his starting line-up. With Josémi, the right back acquired from Málaga for £2 million, the Spanish influence at Anfield is spreading but the three amigos need to make friends with their new team-mates sharply.
Garcia had an effort dubiously disallowed for offside nine minutes from time but a draw would have been harsh on Sam Allardyce’s team who were more composed in possession and more comfortable with their shape. It is a reflection of the great progress Bolton have made when Liverpool come to the Reebok Stadium and change their formation to match up with their hosts, dropping a £14 million striker to the substitutes’ bench.
The early departure of Sami Hyypia only added to the sense of disorientation within the Liverpool team. He was inadvertently felled by Davies within the opening 20 seconds and, after soldiering on for a quarter of an hour, a broken nose and blurred vision necessitated further reorganisation. “It was important when we lost Sami Hyypia because in the air he is very good for us,” Benítez said. “For the rest of the game, when the ball is in the air, we were always fighting for the second ball.”
Advertisement
Djimi Traoré, who was only pulled out of a medical on Friday pending a move to Everton, came on for his first appearance since March, leaving Liverpool with a centre-back pairing comprising two full backs. The jigsaw hardly slotted together any more cogently ahead of them. Steven Gerrard appeared disaffected playing at the front of a midfield triangle clearly arranged to give him greater freedom; in fact, with Milan Baros as a lone striker and Garcia and Steve Warnock wide, Liverpool offered little attacking penetration until Djibril Cissé was introduced after half-time.
Warnock, playing wide left on his first Premiership start, was one of Liverpool’s better players in a mediocre first half but Benítez clearly needed to bring on Cissé, who was only left out for tactical reasons and not because he was involved — and unhurt — in a car crash on Thursday. Josémi was poor at right back and when Henrik Pedersen surged past him eight minutes before half-time and crossed long and low, the unmarked Davies had time to take one touch to compose himself before slotting in his first goal of the season.
Liverpool made several half chances but, in truth, Jussi Jaaskelainen in the Bolton goal, was barely troubled. Even when Liverpool reverted to 4-4-2 after the break, Gerrard switching to the right hand side, the chances were not clear cut. Gerrard is convinced Benítez will turn Liverpool into a force. “I think he will definitely improve things,” the Liverpool captain, who rejected the opprtunity to join Chelsea in the close season, said. “That was the main factor on me deciding to stay. He thinks this team are playing to 60 per cent and he thinks he can take the team up a lot more. I agree with him.”
Allardyce is regrowing his moustache for charity but, for the Bolton faithful, he could wear a curly wig and dress up in drag and they would still revere him. This was his team’s eighth win in ten matches and the spectre of winters battling against relegation is diminishing. “We were a little tired but we used our brains to get a fantastic result against a Liverpool side that cost an awful lot of money and contained a lot of quality,” he said. “In the past, we’d have to have given 110 per cent to get anything out of Liverpool but today we did it comfortably by using the ball sensibly and defending solidly when Liverpool inevitably came into it.”