Possibly a dress rehearsel for the Europa League Final but in reality this was really Liverpool's last chance to stake a claim for 4th place. Always going to be tough against a very well organised Fulham side, and after playing in Europe on Thursday it was always going to be difficult.
THE TEAM
Massive blow that Torres wasn't playing with N'Gog taking his place. Also with Insua still out Agger had to stay out at left back, encouraging though was Aqualani starting in place of Lucas and Babel out on the left with the unfortunate Benayoun missing out, Maxi started on the right in place of Kuyt, and to be fair the team looked strong enough to do the job.
THE GAME
Well Liverpool started off dominant and remained dominant throughout the match. Liverpool created chances with their dominance and Aqualani came close with an overhead kick and had one or two shots which were unlucky not to go in and Maxi was unlucky not to score after making a good run behind the Fulham defence only to have his shot saved and only to see it flagged for offside anyway. I felt Aqualani was involved in everything good about Liverpool, some good passes and got forward a lot getting on the end of some moves and working really hard.
The second half was just the same all Liverpool and Fulham camped in their own half, but to me they had no desire to get forward they just played to thwart Liverpool. Liverpool tried hard and played some good stuff but just could not get the goal, I felt N'Gog was too lightweight and I would rather have seen Kuyt up there but I'm not Rafa. I felt Johnson on the right was thwarted by Duff down the right and did not get much joy there. Babel tried hard and looked lively and had some good shots and some good crosses. But as the game wore on you felt it wasn't going to be our day. Rafa made changes but i felt they were like for like rather than being more attacking changes. very sad to see Aqualani subbed after only 65 minutes I thought he was having a great game, also Babel coming off I didn't agree with as I thought he was lively. Good to see Pacheco coming on but not enough time in my opinion,
I felt the team played well, a bit unlucky not to score, but Rafa's changes were poor and I'm afraid to concede 4th spot has gone.
MAN OF THE MATCH- Aqualani- thought he played really well involved in everything good, worked hard, got on the end of things, passed really well a bit Alonso like in his creative passes, but then amazingly taken off.
YNWA
I agree with your assessment of Man of the Match. I was shocked when Rafa pulled Aquilani and not Babel first. Babel got in there some, but Aqui and Maxi seemed to be the majority of the work. I would also have liked to see Dirk start out front. He may not be an out and out striker but has played up front for us and done well before. Though I suppose it was good to give him a bit of rest.
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