Episode nine of the Tigers away day adventure. The setting? A big one: Anfield. As an experience, it was another disappointment. It's a sterile environment; it's crammed full of tourists. In terms of our team taking on another European powerhouse (who had a player on the bench who cost more than our entire squad) it was an absolute joy to watch.
We made one change from the team that beat Middlesborough; Mendy came in on the right with Marney dropping out. It was the right decision; it gave us a good outlet on the right hand side and a balanced midfield. Liverpool started well and grabbed the initiative and they never relinquished it. For two thirds of the pitch, they were excellent, passing the ball well, pushing the full backs very high up the pitch and spreading the ball wide at every opportunity. They worked hard to move off the ball and we worked even harder to cover them. We had the first opportunity, a fair shout for a penalty. Ricketts made a terrific tackle in his own half and then raced up the pitch, taking on two of theirs before pulling the ball back where it hit the hand of Mascherano as he slid across to challenge. It might have been harsh if given but it was certainly handled. We started to get a bit of a foothold in the game, nicking a couple of balls in the middle and with King and Barmby working hard to try and pick up our clearances. They were making the running and looked very slick but we closed them down quickly, got numbers behind the ball and broke with good quality. For the first 20 minutes, we got a great deal of joy on the break from switching the play to right and getting Mendy one on one with Dossena, who laughably cost £8m in the summer. Dossena presumably translates from Italian as "Eats pies". Mendy lost Dossena around the 10 minute mark and Hyppia chopped him down while trying to atone. The whipped cross beat everyone in the air, Marlon King chased it and chipped the ball back into the box where Paul McShane rose like a ginger salmon and headed into the top corner. We're leading at Anfield, there's noise and insanity aplenty, this magic mystery tour just gets better and better. Mendy skinned Tubby again but his lovely pull back was cleared. After weathering a bit more pressure, we break at speed again. This time, Mendy rips past Dossena and his ball across the box is turned into his own net by Jamie Carragher. It's just incredible.
We really needed five minutes of no nonsense football after the goal to settle us down and frustrate them deeper. Instead, we conceded straight away. I must confess, I only saw Gerrard stick it in the net, I missed the build up because I was texting my brother the score. "Two ******* nil!!!!!" became "Two one city". We were coping well with their threat. We won the diagonal crosses at the back post and Ash and the Boat cut out any space around our 'D'. Liverpool had two hopeful long shots, Alonso's effort curled just wide and Gerrard bobbled on into Myhill's belly. Unfortunately, we lost McShane to injury with Mendy becoming the right back and Marney taking his place on the right. That cost us quite dearly because Mendy had been a terrific outlet going forward and had forced Dossena back with just the threat of his pace. Liverpool soon equalised. It came from another diagonal cross to the back post, Kuyt obviously shoved Turner in the back before heading across goal for Gerrard to hammer the ball into the net. We screamed "Push", Alan Willey didn't care. There were only about 30 minutes on the clock at this point; it was a breath taking start to the game and a real decent contest. It started to calm as half time approached, which was probably more beneficial to us than them. Mendy cleared a header off the line, Barmby made a stupendous block to deny Benayoun (I must admit that when I realised Barmby was the last man against the Isreali, I was less than complimentary to our Nicky) and Turner headed over from a well delivered corner, Marlon King was on corner duty. Liverpool goalkeeper Reina, behind only to Kuyt and Dossena in the "utterly abysmal" stakes, did his best to gift us a goal, King and Geo almost cut out his clearances, while he threw another straight to Ash, who couldn't divert it anywhere but straight back into the 'keepers arms. Unfortunately, we couldn't really test him with just a bobbly shot from Geo and a half volley from Boateng giving him anything to do. We were on the wrong end of the ref's notebook, McShane booked for a block which looked like a genuine attempt to win the ball and early in the second half, Marney was booked for trying to block a clearance and clipping Hyppia. The ref also found 4 minutes added time at the end of the first half, god knows where from. I began to regret commenting on the way down that Mr. Willey was a decent ref.
The second half was a different affair; we still broke quite well but much less regularly. For all Liverpool's possession and territorial advantage, we didn't face many scares. That was due generally to our excellent defending. We blocked and intercepted and tracked every single run. It was tough work, every time they got the ball, it was switched quickly out wide so the combinations of either Ricketts and Barmby or Mendy and Marney would then make the runs out wide to cover, while Ash tried to keep track of the elusive Gerrard and everyone else moved to cover Kuyt, the wide players and the two defensive midfielders who all moved in and around our box. They got the ball wide time and again and often we made the challenge or cut out the cross but they made some poor decisions and lacked someone with a bit of craft who could unlock us, someone like Geovanni really. They had some poor efforts from distance and made no headway trying to cut through us. Hyppia headed against the post from a set piece, Myhill made a terrific save from a Reira effort, as Mendy and Barmby each left closing down the winger to the other. Myhill made another fine low save from El Zhar which earned a pat on the head from Gerrard. On the one occasion that Turner and Zayatte were penetrated, Ashbee turned up from somewhere to clear the ball. Our attacking efforts were becoming scarce as we looked to hold onto the point. Halmosi replaced Boateng, allowing us to use Marney's energy in the middle for the last 25 minutes. Strangely, Barmby eventually gave way for Deano when surely Danny Cousin was the change. He'd have given us a good outlet in the air, a threat from set pieces and pace to get in behind. Deano's contributions were limited to being chopped in half by Carragher (which the ref didn't even give) and making a terrific back post run that King spotted but couldn't find as his cross was deflected. I thought we did a superb job in the last ten minutes. Our clearances were well calculated, allowing King to challenge for them and to hold a lot of them up. We were neat in possession and made brave decisions that benefited us as an attacking force as well as in defense. Throughout the game we brave in possession, seeing a long ball forward as a last resort. Sometimes, we were too brave, bordering on stupid, giving the ball away by trying to play when we could've got rid of it. We'll win a lot of respect though by playing football as it should be played. We were probably the better team for the last 5 or 6 minutes. Liverpool took 2 yellow cards by making crude challenges to stop us breaking away. We won a corner late on and piled everyone forward only for King to hit his only bad delivery of the day. We got our point and deservedly so. Liverpool also deserved something for the way they attacked the game but we were brave and ambitious and set out to score goals and win the game and that approach deserves all the rewards it gets. The fact that we sent the centre backs forward for a 90th minute corner whilst already in possession of a very good point says everything about our ambition.
Myhill made two terrific saves when called upon and was quick off his line and commanding. He came for one cross that was never his, and got away with it, and kicked a couple of poor balls into touch but generally gave a very solid performance. McShane had a good 20 minutes, winning two strong tackles and winning the ball importantly in the air, once defensively and once going forward. He was 66/1 in the ground to score the first goal. Did anyone take that bait? Ricketts was superb at left back. He gave an energetic performance; he tracked Benayoun and later El Zhar well and coped with the constant presence of Arbeloa from full back. He made some great challenges to win the ball, didn't panic in possession and put his body on the line. His distribution could still be much better but he's getting better and better by the week. It's quite reminiscent of two seasons ago where he improved in front of our eyes after a sticky start to his City career. Turner continued to show true premier league quality. His reading of the game is terrific. He's cool in every situation, like a real Tiger, just waiting for the right moment to pounce on the ball. Bad decisions are made once a month, if you are lucky. He dominated in the air on every occasion he wasn't fouled, he gave away very few free kicks and he made every tackle and block that needed making in the box with impeccable timing. Zayatte was poor last week but was magnificent this. He made tackle after tackle, he wins the ball, if it falls to a red shirt, he wins it again, etc, etc. He was outstanding in the air and he was everywhere he needed to be all of the time. In the first half, he used his pace to beat Kuyt to the ball when the kop thought Kuyt was through on goal. He was good in possession and like Turner, very disciplined. No communication problems this week either. Mendy had a terrific time on the right of midfield and then gave his strongest performance at right back. His tackling was exceptional and perfectly timed. He's a great athlete and used that to good effect by closing space quickly. He won the one on one battle with Reira 95% of the time. My only criticism would be his tendency to play Marney into trouble with casual passes when Marney was well covered. Otherwise, he was great.
Ian Ashbee was at his best today, he stood above everyone else on the pitch. His work off the ball, the ground he covered, the positions he forced himself into, he blocks, the tackles, the sensible passes and the absolutely refusal to be beaten were aspects of a terrific all action display. He stood opposite a £20m player today and didn't look even a tiny bit inferior. Boateng gave him good support. His passing was occasionally wayward but he was excellent without the ball. He's a crafty player and he'll often take the sting out of the opposition with a well timed foul. Barmby was superb again and obviously keen to impress. He just sets a terrific example for everyone around him. He's aggressive, he challenges for everything, regardless of the odds on him winning it, he so much desire to win that it's indescribable. In possession, he found space out wide and played the ball well but without the ball, he just worked his fingers to the bone. He looks fitter than he has since he first joined us and is well worth a shirt. Marney worked hard off the bench and did well after he moved inside to pick up the ball and find Geo and King. He struggled at times because he just couldn't keep his feet. He needs better boots for next week. Halmosi didn't get into the game at all; he looked almost stiff and struggled to get a hold of the ball. His introduction was sensible though because it gave us a constant presence on the left wing, whereas Barmby and Geovanni had used it more as a base from where to attack, and he took Arbeloa out of the equation, leaving Ricketts one on one with El Zhar, a challenge that didn't phase him at all.
Geovanni and Barmby swapped roles throughout, taking turns to patrole the left or get close to King. Geo ran well from deep and committed players and opened space. His use of the ball was pretty good. He had a couple of efforts to shoot and didn't really test the 'keeper but gave a neat performance and looked to be the only player on the pitch who could run with the ball and beat players. I heard Liverpool and Tottenham fans moaning on the radio on the way home about the amount of money they've spent on players who aren't explosive, don't beat players and don't deliver the ball and it just makes me more and more delighted that we got Geo and we got him for nothing. Incredible. For all his troubles this week, Marlon King gave us another great effort, strong in possession, always troublesome, terrific running into the channel and good decision making, although not always great execution. He was only caught offside three times this week and to be fair to him, one was definitely, definitely, definitely not offside and the other two came when he was trying to nick a foot or so on the shoulder of the defenders, so is forgivable.
Just to repeat that away record again. Played 9. Won 4. Drawn 4. Lost 1. We've also averaged just short of 2 goals per game on the road, which is incredible for a team in our position and is a testament to the desire of the team and the quality we have. We listened to a bit of BBC Merseyside on the way home and whilst most of the callers were spoilt whiners who refused to even recognize that Liverpool had opponents today, there was a call from a chap who was very impressed with our work rate but also made sure to note that we have real quality in attack and was impressed with just how ambitious we are. The idiot of a presenter took the guys very eloquent summary of our side and came up with "Hull like to put it about" but that's another story. Anyone who watches us and takes off the rose tinted specs will see that we are a good side who want to play, want to make a game of it and want to win football matches. I honestly thought we could get something today if we were tight at the back and we focused on stopping them playing. What I expected us to do was make a game of it and lose a tight game. I was both right and wrong because we made a game of it and still got something.
Dean Marney and Sam Ricketts passed 100 appearances for the tigers recently, while Michael Turner's appearance at Stoke was his 100th in the league. The transformation of the team, the club and these three superb individuals in 100 games has been utterly staggering. One last thing, we were reminded today that the BBC Sports Personality of the Year awards take place in Liverpool tomorrow. If there is any justice in the world, the Team of 2008 will be Hull City. It won't happen; they'll give it to the Olympic Squad for managing to win 10 gold medals from a team of about 3000 put together with 10 billion quid of public money. They shouldn't though; they should recognize the success story at Hull. A story that shows that good decision making, camaraderie and good old fashioned hard work is still the key ingredient to success in sport.
Ratings: Myhill 7, McShane 8 (Marney 6), Ricketts 8, Turner 9, Zayatte 9, Mendy 8, Barmby 8 (Windass), Ashbee 9, Boateng 7 (Halmosi), Geovanni 8, King 7.