Final Score: Liverpool 4-0 Fulham
Liverpool Goals: Martin Skrtel (8), Steven Gerrard (36), Stewart Downing (51), Luis Suarez (90)
There must be something in the air. It may be the season of goodwill but I was not expecting Fulham to be this accommodating, though I do thank them for it. A wonderful early present, with a victory that was not only gift wrapped but all around about as pleasant an afternoon as we've had for some time. It began with the starting eleven. Rest for Raheem Sterling and Joe Allen as well as the return of Jose Enrique whom we badly missed last week against Aston Villa. Suso's introduction was an intriguing one and even though I would much rather he and Gerrard be swapped around it was a team I thought was capable of going out there and getting the three points. How right that proved to be.
Some teams come onto us early. Given our problems with passing it out from the back coupled with the adrenaline that naturally comes at the start of a game that's understandable. Perhaps serving as a metaphor for the rest of the game, Fulham decided to charge Jose Enrique within the first few seconds then decide they'd had enough of that and sat off completely. Even when we had the ball in our own half Berbatov was the only Fulham player who was that side of the pitch as they set their stall out early and he's not exactly the most workaholic of strikers. As such we settled into a rhythm of passing very quickly looking to probe as there were battles being fought either side, firstly with Suso on Dejagah and then Downing clashing with Riise - all of which coming to nothing. Moments later the first real chance of the game as Jose Enrique tried to barrel his way through four defenders to earn a corner, from which Daniel Agger has a free header which he skied. He wouldn't be the only Liverpool centre half left open from a corner.
Though they had nine of the ten outfield players back in their own half, there was still a gap between their midfield and defence which Shelvey and Suso could be seen drifting in and out of. At the back Steven Gerrard was working hard in conjunction with Lucas to make sure there was no similar gap in our own set-up nor would there be any easy shots on goal on the few occasions in which a Fulham player managed to stride forward with the ball. One of the advantages of having Gerrard in this deep lying role is his range of passing and the speed with which it helps us change gears from defence to attack. His long pass out from the right to left hand side over to Jose Enrique was as outrageous as it was accomplished and the Spaniard flashed it first time across the box brilliantly, only for there to be no-one on the end of it. Fulham recovered for maybe half a second before Downing had it back and his cross was then nearly audaciously put in with a Jonjo Shelvey back flick but it was blocked for a corner instead. From the restart Steven Gerrard was able to find Martin Skrtel in acres of space right by the penalty spot, so much so that he had time to chest it down before thumping into the back of the net. A perfect execution in both how you finish and how you start a game.
With an early lead and being allowed virtually all of the ball, confidence was flourishing. We had time and space all over the park and the passes were being exchanged both long and short in abundance. One thing that did catch my eye however was that on one occasion whereby Lucas lost the ball and Fulham did go off on the break, Glen Johnson came into the centre to try and neutralize the situation. I would have been interested to know which of the following (if either were applicable) were his reasons for this. Firstly because they only had one man up front and he was comfortable in leaving Skrtel behind him to cover, knowing that there would be time for either Gerrard to be the extra man or Lucas to get back. A more interesting thought however would have been as a direct result of Villa's second goal against us last week. Both Downing and Johnson were bypassed as fullbacks by the movement of Benteke and by the time either of them had the chance to be involved in play it was too late. By stepping up and trying to affect the play earlier, he has a much better chance of success. As it was, Berbatov was forced wide and the chance evaporated very quickly.
From one wide player to another, Stewart Downing was lining up his shooting range and coming very close to doubling the lead with an effort that just flashed wide. If he was starting to grow in confidence then our opposition were going the other way. Their passing was forced and control even worse, as if a lot of them wanted rid of the ball rather than were trying any kind of advancement of the ball. It didn't take much for us to recover it and even with a few more men behind the ball we were still able to keep it on the edge of their penalty area with Downing's eventual cross just about headed clear by Hangeland. No more was their nonchalance prevalent than when we had the ball at the back. Agger, Skrtel, Gerrard and Lucas were allowed to stroll forward with ease and as Johnson and Enrique provided the width, there were options everywhere as Fulham allowed us to dictate virtually every aspect of the game.
It may have taken them about twenty minutes but our defence did have some work to do. Martin Skrtel had to be alert when Dejagah tried to play Berbatov through the middle and his sliding tackle forced the ball to rebound back off him and then away by Jose Enrique. Fulham had weathered what was an early battering and for once had some degree of possession, however they were blocked off from any attempt at getting near Pepe Reina's goal. Our foot had been taken off the pedal just a little but even so it didn't take much to recover the ball and get on the attack once more and when we did there was more than enough space for us to cause problems with Suarez dropping off to receive it and then shooting just wide. Because of the way in which Fulham were passing the ball, they were so relieved for us to lower our tempo it was almost as if we were lulling them in by backing off a little and then pouncing when the time was right. This kind of pressure led to what can only be described as miss of the season so far.
We picked it up just in the final third as Fulham stood on the ball too long. Downing passed it through to Suarez on the right who tried to cut inside with the ball eventually coming to Steven Gerrard on the edge. His shot deflected off Hangeland and right back to Suarez. The ball across the six yard box should have been a tap in for Daniel Agger as Schwarzer was already beaten but instead of it being a second goal he inexplicably ballooned it into the stands. Suarez had it gift wrapped for Agger just in time for Christmas but clearly he doesn't open his presents so early. While a defender was up front missing clear cut chances, Fulham's main threat could not get any more advanced that the halfway line. One thing you're never going to get from Berbatov is someone who will run defenders ragged and though some of his touches are sublime - one in particular to hold it up was fantastic - he was being forced so far away from goal the threat of him was all but extinguished.
Leaving space is dangerous but it's what the opposition do with it that counts. Fulham were backing off and leave gaps, coupled with the fact that we were completely overrunning them in the middle of the park and they really had no answer for us. At one point there was a counter attack with seven of their players running back against four red shirts piling forward. One pass played from the right of centre down to the other side took out four Fulham players and had Suarez through on goal. The only thing that saved them was a - questionable - flag being raised for offside. At the other end with no luck breaking down our defence, Keiron Richardson tried to bypass it altogether. Having found a little room in the middle of the park for pretty much the first time in the game he decided to let one fly from long range and nearly embarrassed Pepe Reina. The shot may have taken a slightest deflection (having watched it a few times I really can't tell) and as it was Pepe dived well beyond it and was fortunate to save the ball with his feet. It was to be as close to Fulham would come all half.
Despite the fact that they had a man extra in midfield, it wasn't helping stem the tide at all. With Berbatov isolated and not the kind of player who'll chase lost causes, they had no real outlet and were trying to make a concious effort to step up and at least contain us further up the pitch instead of letting us have the ball around their penalty area. The bodies coming together made it so that a few cheap free kicks were being given away either side with no-one being able to take advantage and if there was any sense that Fulham would escape a half in which they'd been very abject by being only one goal down then we were about to make them pay again. It started with Gerrard having the ball around the halfway line, which tells you everything about how bad of a marking job they did in what followed. After passing it around at the back Johnson got it wide and drove inside before passing it out to Downing who was on the right hand edge of the box. He passed a ball inside which Gerard - having timed his run to perfection - ran onto and although he was at a tight angle managed to put the ball into the far corner for his second goal in as many matches. Unlike last week against Aston Villa however, this was in much better circumstances.
It's not possible to be a beaten side before half time. Football is a magnificent game because of the way players are able to completely change what's happened in the minutes prior no matter how radical the scoreline. However, for the result to be different however it was going to take a complete one eighty degree turnaround. We were showing all the signs of a team that was brimming with confidence, playing good football and was generally had more of an appetite for the fight than our opponents. Glen Johnson and Stewart Downing showing all this in one move when Johnson won the ball in midfield and launched us on the break. He made a little bit of a mess of the play out wide but then ran back with his man all the way and managed to recover it. What made it even better was that Downing had already moved himself back into the right back spot as cover just in case things went wrong. Martin Jol was going to have to give one hell of a team talk to recover this one.
The fun with which we were having out on the pitch was about to be stopped. Not by our opponents but by the fact that half time quickly approached. Leading up to the break was a series of moves that didn't quite have the same venom as the sweeping move that lead to our second nor the complete absence of a defence that made the first possible. Suso got on to the end of a move created by Downing and then Suarez and though his initial touch was good he was unable to hold off the defender and his shot was tame and wide. Jonjo Shelvey then showed his inexperience by making a bad run toward goal when Suarez had the ball on the right hand side of the box, narrowing his angle. Had he dummied his run Luis could have laid it back to him but instead he was forced to shoot and they were lucky in that it just about stuck between Schwarzer's legs as it threatened to go through them. First Johnson and then Enrique both had opportunities to cross as the one minute of stoppage time elapsed and both were promptly dealt with by the Fulham defence. Forty five minutes gone and having been punished a week ago for not taking our chances we had done just that. More of the same was needed in the second half. More of the same was what we got.
Fulham added a striker to their ranks as we headed out for the second half but left the dressing room without any real fire. Two goals down isn't the biggest deficit to claw back but right from the off we were seeing once again that they were happy to sit off and let us play around them while the opposite was true for how we would respond to a period of Fulham possession. The first chance of the half fell to Luis Suarez who would have expected to have done better, the chance arriving after Gerrard had found Stewart Downing and his shot across goal deflected high and over everyone else only for Suarez to poke it well over. Both the way in which we dealt with their main threat as well as the ease with which it was accomplished compared to their approach was a small summation of the game itself. Berbatov was continuing to drop off and was being smothered by the midfield - Lucas particularly - while Suarez was giving Hangeland all sorts of problems. A Fulham goal really would have had to come out of nowhere and yet it was still not quite as surprising as what happened next.
Whether it was due to the circumstances of the game being so comfortable that Downing was so confidence or that said confidence was affecting the play in such a way I'm not sure. Fulham allowing us to have a lot of the ball made it easier for someone like Downing whose decision making isn't great to have the time and space while options present themselves. I've said before that his movement out wide cutting inside is perhaps the most predictable of any player I've ever seen and that a defender could read it quite comfortably. This pretty much summed up how well of a day Downing was having and how bad it was going for Fulham. Suarez picked the ball up in the middle on the break and they reacted by going very narrow. The ball then found it's way to the right hand side where Stewart had a few days to think about what he wanted to to. Riise didn't get out to him and when he did move, created a gap which Downing cut inside to try and get through and then once he had a sight of goal decided to shoot. It sort of squirmed under Schwarzer, who put out an arm as only a polite attempt to save it and at least making sure that he shared some of the blame with his team-mates for the slackness which produced the goal. Nobody would have predicted it before the game but Downing had all but ended it.
If they were dejected before the third goal, after it was downright lethargic. We were quicker to every ball even when they had a man advantage and generally far more eager to get things going than our opponents, this then leading to a particularly harsh yellow card for Glen Johnson. The most effective thing that we continued to do was given their lacklustre tempo and the fact that they wanted so many touches in midfield, pressing them forced them back and into dangerous areas which we could potentially get the ball back and be in on goal all within one pass. Our comfort levels were nearly shattered when Rodellaga could have headed in from a corner while being watched by three defenders and it's momentary lapses of concentration like that which can on other days completely punish you. As it was with nothing going Fulham's way, the ball was too high for the Colombian striker and it drifted wide.
Scoring so early in the half and all but sealing the victory did sap our ruthlessness as time went on. It could have been a very high scoreline but we dropped back and they had a little more possession, as well as the introduction of Kerim Frei who had given them a little more pace out wide. If I were to be overly critical, there was a pocket of space in which Shelvey was pushing forward as the head of the midfield and Suarez was there anyway as the focal point of the attack. Jonjo in particular should maybe have done a little more given the room he was afforded. As we backed off a little and let them come onto us, the only time the game really rose in tempo was when one of our defenders would come forward. Agger burst forward looking to make amends for his shocking first half miss and passed it out wide to Suso, whose cross was headed clear and likewise Enrique's attempt at breaching their backline came to nothing before Glen Johnson went for a long range hit which went just wide.
While our defence were trying to score, theirs were just about getting away with not conceding further. Sloppy passes were being played in their own half and the constant running of Luis Suarez made it so that they were always likely to be pounced upon. We then made our first change of the game, Suso coming off in much better circumstances than being switched after half an hour against Wigan. Raheem Sterling came on to replace him, looking for a goal to celebrate having just signed his new contract. It could have arrived straight away as he and Shelvey combined. Had he taken the shot on rather than try to loop it over the defenders head, Sterling may very well have scored. Another change was soon to be made as Joe Allen came on for Jonjo Shelvey, giving Gerrard a little more freedom to move forward as the game entered it's final phase. In truth, it was well over a long time ago.
Three goals up into the final ten minutes, there was no sign of any consolation for Fulham. As it was, the only team that looked like scoring was the one that had been doing it all game. Sterling could have made it worse as he drove in and was somewhat sandwiched between Hangeland and Riether but it would have been a little harsh. Gerrard then forced Schwarzer into a smart save after Glen Johnson had inadvertently deflected a Luis Suarez free kick into his path. Suarez too was - as ever - still hungry to do more damage to the Fulham back four, combining with both Sterling and Gerrard before cutting inside the defender and very nearly getting to it ahead of Schwarzer, who just about avoided having it poked through his legs. At the other end Dimitar Berbatov, while not showing the same kind of hunger for the game that Suarez does, was still showing his sharpness. Having been given room for practically the first time in the game he forced Reina into a long range save with Martin Skrtel there to clear the rebound and moments later Berba drove it into Pepe's hands once more except this time he was able to hold on to it.
Lucas came off and Jamie Carragher ran on to make his customary appearance as we looked to see out the minutes that remained. Fulham had the majority of the possession now and knocked it around better than they had for the most part but it was still of nowhere near any real quality and anytime they looked to get close to our goal we cleared it comfortably. A couple of free kicks at either end forced decent saves out of both keepers, Luis Suarez's effort disrupted at first by the referee's moving of the ball before taking it and then kept out by Schwarzer before Rodellega had one tipped onto the post by Pepe Reina. Fulham might have wished he'd never even had the chance to score, for on the break they were unknowingly about to be punished. Suarez - who was still angry at the lack of options as we entered the ninety second minute of a game we were three nil up in - decided to go alone on the counter and won a corner. Sterling played it short to Enrique, who managed to trick his way down the goal line and then pull it back for Suarez to get a well earned goal and seal the win perfectly. The final whistle was blown to put an end to Fulham's misery moments later. After the Villa game we were looking for a response which we got completely. Now we need to kick on from here and going to Stoke next will be sure to see a lot of kicking indeed.
