Liverpool 1 Everton 0: WITH 212 clues to work from, the 213th Merseyside derby duly confirmed Liverpool and Everton are not getting along.
Yet lessons remain to be learned, such as the Liverpool manager’s discovery that victory removes the need to insult a rival to truly hurt them. You can simply tell the truth.
“I was surprised at Everton’s response,” said Rafael Benitez, when discussing Sotirios Kyrgiakos’ addition to the roll of dismissed and dishonoured in a fixture only the converted could love.
“I was expecting more penetrating passes and for them to try and play on the floor. They had Mikel Arteta on but they played direct. That made it easier for us.
“It was easier to control. When you are losing with 11 players against 10, but you have to win, sometimes you are a little bit more nervous and play more direct. That made it easier for us to control the situation. It suited us.”
A direct hit at the heart of David Moyes’ assertion there is little between the two sides.
That circumstances perversely played into Liverpool’s hands on Saturday appeared beyond dispute, and not only at Anfield, with results at the KC Stadium and White Hart Lane working in Benitez’ favour.
Galvanised by the loss of the Greek defender at the heart of their gradual, spirited recovery, Liverpool issued a pertinent reminder that they have few equals in the art of organised, impenetrable resistance. Their reshuffled core of Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger, Steven Gerrard and Lucas were outstanding while, to their right, Dirk Kuyt and Javier Mascherano would still be chasing and challenging imaginary royal blue shirts had no one told them to go home.
The quality on display on Saturday had little to do with a football, but to haul themselves back into contention through sheer strength of character is an emphatic riposte to Liverpool’s detractors.
To win with a conversion more typical of Everton – Kuyt glancing home Steven Gerrard’s arrowed corner for his 50th Liverpool goal – also deflected the spotlight on their opponents’ ability to defend a set-piece.
Carragher said: “You have to look at the overall record and defensively, we’ve had a fantastic record under Rafa Benitez and we’re showing that again now. I just think at the start of the season we had a lot of people in and out, and maybe we were playing a little bit different with two offensive full-backs, so maybe that changed things and we weren’t playing particularly well.
“That’s football, that happens. We’re just getting back to our normal selves and hopefully we can keep that going.”
Better teams than Everton have failed to find a way through the Anfield trenches, and war imagery suits a derby that almost demanded a basket for scattered limbs. Steven Pienaar should have been dismissed in the 29th minute for an over-the-top foul on Mascherano, who admitted the referee Martin Atkinson had “a very hard job because the players did not help him”, before finally receiving his comeuppance in stoppage time for an innocuous challenge on Gerrard.
Kyrgiakos had to go for a two-footed foul that put Marouane Fellaini in hospital, and although the Everton midfielder was fortunate to escape with a stamp in the same incident, it was the visitors who felt the loss more.
Everton’s response against 10 men was to be found wanting, just as they had been at Anfield four years ago, with the captain Phil Neville admitting; “We lacked the quality and guile to break them down.”
Moyes, however, sounded a lone voice, bizarrely arguing that creating precious little and losing to 10 men was a sign of progress. “I didn’t think we got worse against 10 men. I thought we did fine,” the Everton manager said.
“I came off the pitch thinking we hadn’t done enough to win, but I didn’t go off the pitch feeling like losers. We came off the pitch with a lot going for us.”
Guardian Service
