Wastefulness

We had more than 23 attempts at goal against the Magpies last night and the scoreline merely read 3-0. Don't be get me wrong! I was glad we secured another 3 points and kept up the pressure on Man United. I was happy we played well enough although I feel at times we could have done better.

My point is this: against bottom half teams, we can afford to be wasteful in front of goal and get away with it. Against a team like Arsenal, Chelsea or Man U, we will be punished for it. We need to be clinical and lethal in front of goal. Alonso hit the same spot on the horizontal twice, Gerard did it once. Kyut was guilty, as usual, of too many misses. Riera started the first 15minutes of the game as though he was playing for the Magpies.

Although we have been playing well, in order to be Champions in the league, I feel we need to add that element of aggression and lethality in our play. We have been guilty of being too soft at times. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that we have a large contingent of spanish players and they are not known to be an extremely physical league in Europe. Or perhaps its the culture within the club. Liverpool has always been known to be pass-and-play team since the Shankly days. We were never known to intimidate our opponents or win a game by being physical or aggressive. However, the key is balance. We can't be too soft or do we need to be too aggressive. What we need is to continue our passing game and get the players to display more grit and agression when the need arises.

Aggression and precision. These, I hope, will be the fundamental building blocks for next season. Until then, we need 9 points in the last 3 games and hope for a miracle. Nothing is won or lost yet.