adminHigh up in the expensive seats, Steven Gerrard looked down as another Liverpool movement came to nothing and blew out his cheeks.
It was not supposed to be like this at Anfield yesterday.
Given the progress Liverpool have made recently, given results like last weekend’s defeat of Manchester City in the Barclays Premier League, this was supposed to be walk down easy street, a meander in to the last four of the FA Cup.
Gerrard, of course, is currently absent with a hamstring injury. He does, however, have more than a vested interest in events given that FA Cup Final day is his birthday and this is his last season at Liverpool.
He, like everybody else, would have expected his team to do their job comfortably here yesterday. Instead their fluent, incisive football of late was absent and a scoreless draw leaves Liverpool facing a trip to Ewood Park for a replay and another game to cram in to their calendar.
Certainly, Brendan Rodgers’ team deserved no more than this yesterday. Liverpool may have had two penalties for fouls in either half by Blackburn captain Matthew Kilgallon and spent virtually the whole of the second period camped in the visitors’ half.
They struggled to create chances, though, and it must be said that Blackburn were terrific. At the back they had the game’s best player in central defender Alex Baptise while, at the other end, Rudy Gestede cause Liverpool problems during a first half that saw Blackburn have plenty of the ball.
The Liverpool cause was not helped by an injury to their own defender, Martin Skrtel, in the very first minute.
Happily he had recovered enough to watch the second half and there are no grounds for Liverpool to use his absence as an excuse.
Their failure here was what they did with the ball. Or rather, what they didn’t do.
Certainly the loss of Skrtel was a blow for Liverpool, even if Rodgers didn’t interfere with his formation as looked to plug the gap by the big defender. Kolo Toure came on as a replacement and that enabled Emre Can to remain in his favoured position at the base of the midfield.
Blackburn, however, clearly and rightly sought to take advantage of Liverpool’s misfortune. Their big forward Rudy Gestede understandably saw Toure as a more straight forward opponent than the player he replaced and he was soon making life uncomfortable for Toure and indeed Simon Mignolet in the Liverpool goal.
Within a minute or two of Skrtel’s departure, for example, Blackburn run a free-kick in the Liverpool half and when the ball was swung deep to the far post Mignolet made an awful mess of trying to collect it under pressure from Gestede and the Barclays Premier League team were fortunate to survive.
Certainly Liverpool were not at their best in the first half.
Their passing was often crisp but it lacked rhythm and too much of the home side’s play was far too easy to read. Adam Lallana -that frustrating presence in the Liverpool midfield – was finding too many blind alleys with his running while Raheem Sterling was rather peripheral in his role as left wing-back.
There was the occasional moment of cohesion from the home team but far fewer than we would have expected. Liverpool may have had a penalty in the 19th minute when Matthew Kilgallon appeared to bundle over Lallana in the penalty area in front of the Kop. Did the defender’s toe just touch the ball first? In truth, referee Andre Marriner was in a wretched position to make the call – far too far behind play – and he received no help from his linesman.
That apart, there were a couple of long shots from Phillipe Coutinho. After his recent success from distance, nobody could blame the Brazilian for having a go. On this occasion, his range was set too high, however. — Dailymail Sport.
Online Reporter