During his time as Liverpool manager, Roy Evans's team had a creditable record against Chelsea, losing only 3 out of 10 games over a four year period. Evans was clearly delighted by his old club's recent victory over Chelsea, but a niggling issue that has affected Liverpool all season was there again in the Chelsea game, and Evans feels that Kenny Dalglish needs to address it as soon as possible.
Evans, who in 1996 presided over Liverpool's biggest home-win against Chelsea in 50 years, observed:
"It was a great win on Sunday, and you'll be delighted with that, but one thing still concerns me is we've started the second half poorly in almost all our games this season.
"We've had great first halves, but we seem to let teams back into the game in the second half.
"We did it again on Sunday; Chelsea got back in, and no matter how positive you are as a liverpool fan, they got a goal back and made it dofficult for us.
"To be fair to Liverpool, they picked things up and went on to win it, but you can't keep letting teams back into games, or having a little blip at the start of the second half.
"You got to be a lot more consistent, especially if you want to stay at the top end of the division".
I think Evans is right with his assessment: Liverpool have started the second half sluggishly in most games this season, and could've been punished against Swansea, Norwich, and even West Brom, where the team's second-half performance was particularly poor.
As Gary Gillespie noted yesterday though, Dalglish seems to be on the road to fixing this issue by playing Craig Bellamy up front, and then using Jordan Henderson as a midfield 'pick-me-up' sub early in the second half.
Luckily, only Spurs have truly capitalised on this issue so far this season, but if any team can hurt Liverpool in this regard, it's Manchester City, who travel to Anfield this Sunday.
Let's hope Liverpool can buck their own trend and come out like gangbusters in the second half of this Sunday's game...
Jaimie Kanwar
Evans, who in 1996 presided over Liverpool's biggest home-win against Chelsea in 50 years, observed:
"It was a great win on Sunday, and you'll be delighted with that, but one thing still concerns me is we've started the second half poorly in almost all our games this season.
"We've had great first halves, but we seem to let teams back into the game in the second half.
"We did it again on Sunday; Chelsea got back in, and no matter how positive you are as a liverpool fan, they got a goal back and made it dofficult for us.
"To be fair to Liverpool, they picked things up and went on to win it, but you can't keep letting teams back into games, or having a little blip at the start of the second half.
"You got to be a lot more consistent, especially if you want to stay at the top end of the division".
I think Evans is right with his assessment: Liverpool have started the second half sluggishly in most games this season, and could've been punished against Swansea, Norwich, and even West Brom, where the team's second-half performance was particularly poor.
As Gary Gillespie noted yesterday though, Dalglish seems to be on the road to fixing this issue by playing Craig Bellamy up front, and then using Jordan Henderson as a midfield 'pick-me-up' sub early in the second half.
Luckily, only Spurs have truly capitalised on this issue so far this season, but if any team can hurt Liverpool in this regard, it's Manchester City, who travel to Anfield this Sunday.
Let's hope Liverpool can buck their own trend and come out like gangbusters in the second half of this Sunday's game...
Jaimie Kanwar
whilst i agree to an extent, chelsea were always going to come out fighting in the 2nd half at home against one of their rivals.Oh and dalglish hasnt lost a game to chelsea as liverpool manager now in 12 matches.
ReplyDeleteHome form to improve starting sunday.
Let's not forget history,Chelsea was a mediocre team then before Roman Abrahamovic stepped in with his money in early 2001 and began transformation. So what is Roy Evans comparing?
ReplyDeleteeven though johnson scored a great goal at the end if it wasnt for reina making that 'banksy' save we would of prob lost the game
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