Liverpool 1 QPR 0:ABILITY AND antics have polarised opinion on Luis Suarez but also shifted focus from the aspect of his game that was indisputable against Queens Park Rangers. "He is not a great finisher, is he?" said Neil Warnock, giving an opinion that carried weight even on a day when the Uruguay international delivered Liverpool's victory.
“But you can’t have everything. If he scored every chance he would be a 50, 60, 70 million pound player, wouldn’t he? But any team without him is a far poorer side. I just thought he was head and shoulders the best player on the pitch.” Kenny Dalglish may not be in a position to echo Warnock’s entire sentiment but it would be hard to disagree.
A week that opened with defeat at Fulham plus an improper conduct charge for Suarez and prompted the Liverpool manager to construct a DVD defence of a player crucial to the club’s Champions League ambitions closed with the €26.5m striker in the spotlight again but for the reason he was brought to Anfield from Ajax in January.
A fifth league goal of the season secured Liverpool’s first home win in five matches, and left Dalglish purring over an asset that he says cannot be measured in goals alone. However, life would be so much easier at Anfield if they had a potency that complemented their improving performance level. On Saturday they dominated QPR yet spent the final minutes agonising over the threat of an unwarranted equaliser.
Dalglish said: “Performance wise, we don’t have any problem whatsoever. Goals; yeah, we’d love more and we’ll get more. We did miss some chances but the goalkeeper saved a lot of them too. They continued to get in there on goal and, even with the keeper having a good day, they didn’t drop their heads. One day, creating chances like that, we are going to get a load. Or we are going to be garbage and win 1-0. And I think that will do us.”
Not for the first time this season Anfield’s visitors were accompanied by a goalkeeper in outstanding form. Radek Cerny, a third-choice keeper promoted through injuries, produced several excellent saves, particularly from the relentless and unfortunate Maxi Rodriguez, but he was not solely responsible for a scoreline that flattered his team-mates.
Suarez alone could have sealed victory before half-time but finally delivered moments after the restart when, having lost Luke Young and been picked out by a precision cross from Charlie Adam, he steered a header beyond Cerny. It was the striker’s first in the league since October 1st and the least he deserved for another display of menace and creativity.
“You can’t keep him quiet,” Warnock lamented. “I think what you have to do with Suarez is hope that he is suspended when you play him. That is what I was hoping. He has got everything. He gives 110 per cent every game, he never lets the defender settle, he twists and turns. All right, his finishing wasn’t so good but he still won the match. Whatever they paid for him it was worth every penny, every penny.”
In the comforts of home and with the travelling hordes in light-hearted form there was no test of Suarez’s temper on Saturday, although Warnock repeated his unenforceable call for action to be taken against supporters who barrack the Uruguayan.
The QPR manager said: “He is a foreign player in a foreign country. The crowd away from home gives him so much stick he should be protected from that as much as possible. Yes, he has got to learn that he cannot be making gestures but bloody hell, the stick he gets, it is about time someone did something about it. I think the FA and Premier League should do something.
“They are so quick to charge him in terms of putting a finger up. Look at the abuse he is getting and charge the clubs concerned if they are going to give abuse like that. The stewards must hear it away from home but they turn a deaf ear.”
For once Dalglish had no such concerns. “I did speak to Luis,” replied the Liverpool manager when asked whether he felt compelled to advise Suarez following events at Craven Cottage. “I said well done, wee man, great goal.”
