Wolves 0-3 Liverpool

Last night, Liverpool were the victors at Molineux, with Andy Carroll celebrating a year on Merseyside by opening the scoring. Craig Bellamy and Dirk Kuyt added goals in the second half to wrap up the three points. Sylvan Ebanks-Blake hit the post late on, but Wolves never looked like making a comeback.

• The only question as to the starting line-up was who replaced the suspended Karl Henry. The back four was always unlikely to change, while the attacking players had done reasonably well in the defeat to Aston Villa. The Icelandic midfielder Eggert Jónsson was chosen, and I think this showed the attitude that Mick McCarthy was taking into the match. It would have been so easy to play Nenad Milijaš and have an additional ball player in the centre of the park.
  
  
• As it was, the inclusion of Jónsson meant that we had a very hard working midfield, but no-one who is particularly good on the ball. Emmanuel Frimpong had one or two nice touches, but his passing let him down on occasion. This meant that the midfielder was very ponderous on the ball, and far too slow to get the ball into the forward players. In theory the defence was well protected, but Liverpool's 4-3-3 formation meant that they didn't really have anyone playing in the sorts of positions that Jónsson and Frimpong were protecting.
  
  
• Much of Liverpool's attacking play, especially in the first half relied on crossing the ball into Carroll. This surprised me a little - I'd far rather Roger Johnson and Christophe Berra were dealing with aerial balls into the penalty area than a tricky livewire forward. You only had to see the problems Luis Suárez caused them at Anfield to see this; I was slightly surprised that Kenny Dalglish persisted with Craig Bellamy on the flank. This was exemplified in the first half; the one chance Liverpool created in the opening 45 happened after Bellamy came off the wing, and poked wide when he perhaps should have done better when played through on goal.
  
  
• With the aforementioned Suárez's impending return to the first team, Andy Carroll was under pressure to play well tonight. As I mentioned, in the first half it seemed like the only tactic Liverpool had was working the ball down the wings to cross it in to him. I felt Johnson and Berra dealt with this reasonably well, not giving Carroll many chances. In the second, Carroll opened the scoring but seemed to be more marginalised. It was interesting that the cross for the opener from Charlie Adam  was low, and Carroll finished with his feet rather than his head. That was pretty much the end of Liverpool swinging the ball into the box, instead being content to counterattack quickly. Carroll isn't particularly well suited to this, and a couple of times Liverpool attacks ended with Carroll wasting chances. His lack of movement was shown up by the intelligent runs made by his strike partners Dirk Kuyt and Craig Bellamy.
  
  
• Until Liverpool took the lead, the match was reasonably even. For the chances that Kuyt and Bellamy had, equally David Edwards and Michael Kightly could have scored. The major difference between the two sides was the speed that the ball was moved. None of the central midfielders play the ball particularly quickly, and as a result our forward players were often surrounded when they received the ball. Kuyt in particular did an excellent job in doubling up on Matt Jarvis, and as a result he never really had the chance to run at Glen Johnson. On the other flank, Kightly was unable to continue the fine form he showed in the first half against Aston Villa; his touch was poor, and at the end he was running on empty. It was no surprise he was taken off.
  
  
• Kightly was replaced by Stephen Hunt - there have long been accusations of McCarthy having favourites, and Hunt is perhaps the perfect example of this. He has been poor for a number of weeks, and seems to have forgotten how to do the simple things. I think he is trying too hard, when he needs to do the simple things - control, pass, move. He needs to get the basics back into his game before he can try and do the special things. Given Hunt's poor form, Adam Hammill should surely have been an option from the bench - if I was looking for a player to make a difference in a match, to create something from nothing, surely Hammill would be the best bet? If Hammill has fallen so out of favour that Hunt is guaranteed to be ahead of him, why is he still at the club? I refuse to believe that no Championship clubs would have taken him on loan for the rest of the season. He's still a Wolves player, so he should be utilised.
  
  
• The booing at the end was predictable, but equally so was the score line. It shouldn't be forgotten that Liverpool are a far better team than Wolves, and according to my extremely rough mental arithmetic during the second half, Liverpool had three players in their starting-11 who individually cost more than the collective eleven who started the match in Wolves shirts. Yes, we beat them last season, but equally they won 3-0 at Molineux. They are a better team than us, and should be looking to take 6 points across the two games. If, and it's by no means certain, we go down, it won't be losses like this that are the reason. As negative as it sounds, anything we get from the 'big-6' is a bonus. Those points were vital last season, but we shouldn't be reliant on them. The two upcoming games against QPR and West Brom are far bigger games and will have a far bigger bearing on the season.