Liverpool 1 Bournemouth 0 – a win, but……………..

Last night, I traveled to London to see my two daughters play some Beethoven and Mozart together with the extremely professional (in every sense) London Mozart Players. I nearly didn’t go, as it clashed with this game. However, the wonders of modern technology meant that when I arrived home at 1 a.m. I could sit down and watch the whole game. What a waste of nearly two hours sleep that was !! For sure, even if I’m not exactly a Mozart/Beethoven fan, the time spent in the concert was far more interesting and fulfilling (and of greater quality) than the rubbish thrown at us by Liverpool and Bournemouth.

If I was an executive at Capital One, I really would be thinking I’d been short-changed. This was a game played out with half a reserve team on both sides. Sure there was a lot of effort, but in terms of quality this was a game that might even have looked out of place in Leagues One or Two. Some nice touches (by both teams) to keep us interested, but you couldn’t count the number of wayward passes, balls given away, and poor decision-making.

I suppose, in many ways, the Capital One Cup is a training ground for fringe players, and that’s exactly what these teams served up last night. As a game between two Premier League sides though, it was utter rubbish.

Bournemouth created two or three great chances in the first half, and one in the second half but other than that, they looked like a team destined for relegation. For Liverpool, it was a job done (just), based on total mediocrity throughout the team, with the possible exception of Bogdan, who had three or four smart saves to make, and did.

Mind you, after saying all that, the one goal had a touch of beauty about it, even it ended rather scrappily. Pretty much Origi’s only contribution was to use his speed down the right, and when the ball fell for Firmino, he threaded a great pass through to Teixeira, who was by now running slightly away from goal. His back-heeled shot was classy, but just not quite hard enough, and cleared off the line for Clyne, supporting really well, to follow up and score.

I wonder what Klopp thought he got out of this game. A confidence-boosting win, maybe? A chance for Firmino to start to show why we paid all that money? Some experience for three youngsters who started? For me, it showed that he has a lot of work to do. I was quite scared when the commentator said that nobody in Liverpool’s starting XI had scored this season, and only two had EVER scored for Liverpool. I was even more worried when they said that those two were Lovren and Allen.

Out of this eleven, who are long-term first choice players? Clyne, presumably. Bogdan showed that he is a huge step up from Brad Jones as a backup ‘keeper. Other than that, only Firmino and Texeira, and possibly Brannagan showed anything near the Premier League quality that is needed.

Bogdan: Four or five things to do, and did them all excellently. One save in the first five minutes was superb. Can’t fault him. 10/10

Randall: A very shaky first 20 minutes, tested by Pugh on the left-wing, and looking like it was all too much for him. Second half, he did quite well, especially going forward, but couldn’t quite find the right final ball. Is he better than Flanagan or Wisdom? On this showing, no.  5/10

Toure: Was injured and had to leave the field after half an hour. Difficult to assess.

Skrtel: Came on for Toure and Liverpool looked stronger at the back. 7/10

Lovren: Gave the ball away twice in the first 10 minutes, and we had to think “Here we go again”. Steadied himself and his game, and looked more confident in the end. It’s difficult to imagine though that he will ever be good enough, and who is going to pay anywhere near the £20m that was paid for him? If Liverpool recoup a quarter of that, it will be a bonus. 5/10

Clyne: Didn’t look out of place at left-back and was in a good position to score the only goal. However, he was the only England international on show, and I don’t think you’d ever know it. He needs to demonstrate that he is better than this. 6/10

Brannagan: Substituted after 65 minutes. Before then, he was fairly anonymous, from a TV angle anyway, though he didn’t give the ball away when he did get a chance. Nor, however, did he create anything. Difficult to judge against this opposition. 5/10

Allen: Yellow card, nearly gifted Bournemouth a goal inside 5 minutes, and regularly gave the ball away. Had a decent spell in the middle of the game, but the “Welsh Xavi” – don’t make me laugh. He isn’t anywhere near as good as Lucas, and this game was about his level. 3/10

Teixeira: A very interesting game for this lad, though it has surprised me to find that he’s already 22 years old. He seems to have had a lot of injuries, including a broken leg playing for Brighton 6 months ago. He tries things – they don’t always come off – so he clearly isn’t a defensive midfielder, but he has something, that may yet blossom. But at 22, time is surely running out to start making his mark. 6/10

Firmino: Some signs here, but still not enough. He has some good touches, but needs to improve his shooting. Apparently, SKY made him “man of the match” (long after I’d gone to bed), for which I can see why, though in this game of poor quality, that’s not much of an accolade. He needs to make the sort of step change that Coutinho did not so long ago. 6/10

Ibe: I had high hopes for Jordan Ibe, but now I have more doubts than hopes. He showed some neat trickery in parts and helped Randall out occasionally, but it’s still not really enough. Like a lot of this team, he needs to impose himself on the game. He needs to make a difference, and there just isn’t the spark that really good players demonstrate all the time. 5/10

Origi: Great run for the goal, but what else? I stand by my comment last week that he really isn’t a centre-forward. Klopp has to find out very quickly what he really is, otherwise his days at Anfield are numbered. 4/10.

Lucas came on for Brannagan after 65 minutes and showed enough to demonstrate that he’s the only one for the defensive midfield role going forward. Lallana had only 3 minutes plus stoppage time to run around a bit.

After writing this, I think the overall feeling is that Liverpool are crying out for someone to dominate or impose themselves on a game. The sort of thing Gerrard at his height did, or Suarez did almost every week. Going back even further, a Souness or a McMahon. That’s the spark that is missing, and I really don’t know where it might come from.

Anyone reading this blog, please remember that, unlike newspapers who use a bizarre scoring system of marks somewhere between 4 and 10 (and where almost everybody gets 6s, 7s and 8s), my marks are that anybody who gets 5/10 is ‘average’. I see no reason to re-write the base 10 numerical system of the Western world, unlike the UK’s daily newspapers.