Last night saw the return of the Liverpool side that played in the later part of last season, beautiful and effective football with everyone playing well. There seemed to be an injection of creativity into the side as they put four goals past Pompey. Yes, they are botom of the league and destined for relegation but Portsmouth played some nice football last night and have recently shown that they are capable of performing such as in their immpessive FA Cup run.
Having Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard back and increasingly sharp will please Liverpool fans, but it was the emergance of summer signing Alberto Aquilani as a reasonable player that provides the most hope. Of course, it is no secret that the reds have missed Alonso this season and that his supposed replacement, Aquilani, has for one reason or another not filled his boots. Last night however the Italian adopted Alonso's deep playmaker role expertly and perhaps even added something to the role that his predecesor had mastered. He may not have quite the passing range of Alonso but a collection of simple forward balls to start attacks was adequete and he made a fantantic pass to Torres for the 4th goal. What he does that Alonso didnt do is run . Silly as it sounds, I can think of very few occasions where alonso ran forward in an attacking move, perhaps his goal against Arsenal in his first season at Anfield. The fastest he ran in a Liverpool shirt was while celebrating his goal in the champions league final.
In contrast Aquilani was willing to run all over the pitch, both with and without the ball. His running with the ball may not be the silky skillfull forward runs of Kaka, but they spark a reaction from defenders who in turn gift him some space to play the ball into. His runs off the ball last night were superb, a memorable example was a continuation of his run after he had made a pass - he continued all the way down the pitch into the Portstmouth box where he revieved the ball again and was unfortunate to see his ambitious volley go wide. through out the game he was always moving and played a few delightful 1-2s with Stevie G. While Liverpool still miss Alonso, an alternative assistor to the assists and instigator of sttacks may have emergeged in time for a late charge.
But alas, will Rafa see it the same way? I have a feeling that Benitez will prefer lucas for the match at Old Trafford - he has always looked to play two holding midfielders and may feel that these cunning runs are nothing more than going absent without leave. Rafa liked the fact the Alonso was often reluctant to leave the centre circle and I suspect that the reason why we have seen so little of Aquilani is not that he is stuggling to regain match fitness, but that he has been deemed a defensive liability. The less glamourous and offensivly inept Lucas rarely attacks - he merely supports attacks from deep, and this may be what Benitez is looking for.
Perhaps Rafa is right though. It's easy to drop a defensive midfielder at home against the bottom of the league team but away at Old Trafford I'd have to agree that your defense needs maximum pretection. Maybe the increased form shown by other players in last night's game will be enough to put a run together. For example Ryan Babel played exceptionally last night and along with a nice goal and a few good runs, he was even willing to defend.
One way or another, liverpool will be looking to biuld on this win.
