With two of their three rivals for that all important fourth Champions League spot having dropped points at the weekend, most of their main performers now back fit, firing and – in the case of a petulant Fernando Torres – fighting with officials, and with a team bus carrying beleaguered Premier League doormats Portsmouth pulling through the Shankly Gates tonight, you’d think that all should run smoothly for Liverpool this evening, but they don’t like Mondays.
Like Bob Geldof and Garfield before him, Rafael Benitez isn’t fond of the first day of the working week. He and Liverpool haven’t won a Monday night game in each of their last six attempts, losing twice.
This season, only David Ngog’s dive in the Birmingham City penalty area earned his side an (admittedly deserved) point, their solitary one from three Monday evening fixtures. A 3-1 home defeat to Aston Villa in their third game of the season set the tone for a disjointed campaign, with the loss at Wigan seven days ago just the latest nadir.
There was a different nadir in December, Nadir Belhadj in fact, whose stunning goal set Portsmouth on the way to one of just five league wins all season, as a limp, lacklustre Liverpool folded far too easily at Fratton Park.
Tonight represents their chance for revenge, and it’s a chance they have to take.
There are encouraging statistics, believe it or not. The Reds have won each of their last six league games at home, and have been successful in 10 of their 14 home league matches this campaign. They’ve conceded less goals at Anfield than Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City have at their home grounds, and haven’t lost to Pompey at Anfield for 59-and-a-half years.
All of which means nothing if the business isn’t done on the pitch on this particular Monday evening.
Football fans everywhere but Southampton must sympathise with the plight of Portsmouth – and don’t be surprised if the south coast club get a standing ovation from Liverpool’s Kop tonight – but that’s where the sentiment will end.
It is, in theory, Liverpool’s easiest league match of the season. A home game with troubled relegation fodder who are still fearing for their very existence, but things have gone so badly wrong for the Reds throughout the campaign that supporters dare not think of this as a simple task.
It would surely pay for Liverpool to go on the offensive. They were on the front foot for the majority of last week’s Europa League defeat in Lille, a fact overlooked by those who would prefer to reflect upon the potentially damaging result, and that positivity has to continue tonight.
The selections of the likes of Alberto Aquilani and Ryan Babel – talented, attacking players with plenty of points to prove – would send out the right message, as the Reds will surely create chances this evening, and there’s no-one better at gobbling those up than Torres.
If it is to be a happy Monday, then Liverpool would do well to learn the lessons of their recent past, as starting the week off on the right foot is simply a must. Benitez has had enough of waking up on Tuesday morning full of regrets.
Just another manic Monday? Liverpool will hope not.
Mark Jones
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