Lyon game assumes greater importance after latest league collapse
Posted by Neil Jones | Posted in Champions League, Discussion, Features, Liverpool FC, Premier League | Posted on 02-11-2009
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Halloween has never been my favourite time of year. Scores of chipper children descending upon my house armed with macabre costumes and begging bowls? Not for me. But even that ghastly vision could not compare with events at Craven Cottage this weekend, as Liverpool put on a horror show of their own in a 3-1 collapse to Roy Hodgson’s Fulham.
In many ways it was the manner in which Rafa Benitez’s depleted side had so bossed their west London counterparts for the best part of an hour, before collapsing like a soggy house of cards in the final quarter, which gives Reds most cause for alarm. Liverpool were, as Benitez likes to say, “controlling the game” before each of Fulham’s first two goals, by the end of the game they were controlling little but their own demise.
Injuries and illness didn’t help, depriving Benitez of several first teamers – Glen Johnson, Steven Gerrard, Alberto Aquilani, Daniel Agger & Fabio Aurelio amongst the most important – but the same could also be said for Fulham, who were minus skipper Danny Murphy and striker Andy Johnson, as well as midfielder Simon Davies. The fact that it was the hosts who handled their situation better is a damning indictment of Liverpool’s failings on their travels this season.


No Gerrard? No problem. That was Liverpool’s mantra last weekend, when the club went toe-to-toe with Manchester United in quite possibly the most important clash of the campaign. 