Pardew Wins Battle Of The Unwanted Managers As Liverpool Suffer More Away Misery

Newcastle's latest instalment as manager, Alan Pardew, got off to a winning start at St. James' Park this evening with a 3-1 victory over a Liverpool side who yet again performed below par away from home.

The pre-match build up was largely centred on the Magpies' decision to replace Chris Hughton, a respected manager who was deemed to be doing a good job by most of the footballing world, with Alan Pardew, who was released from his previous job at League One outfit Southampton earlier this season after failing to guide them to touching distance of the promotion spots to the Championship.

While the Newcastle fans' anger and frustration was undeniably more aimed at Ashley and Llambias, the owner and executive figure of the North-East club, Pardew was hardly a welcome addition to the management team and polled only just over a dozen votes out of several thousand in a local newspaper earlier this week.

His opposite number, Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson, has faced a constant level of opposition ranging from apathy to anger towards his appointment since the beginning of the season which reached a crescendo around October-November as the Reds lay in the relegation zone after losing the derby against Everton in pitiful fashion.

With Liverpool's surge up the table over the past six weeks, however, combined with the unsurprising turmoil surrounding Newcastle after Hughton's sacking, it seemed that Hodgson had a great opportunity to ease his team's - and indeed his own Premiership career's - away-day misery by capitalising on what could have been a disjointed and mutinous opposition.

Instead, Liverpool produced another poor display lacking in creativity, drive and above all, clear-cut chances.

True, early on Liverpool had a couple of moments where the pressure looked to be building on the home side from the off, but after a corner or two and a goalmouth scramble there was little in the way of deliberate build-up play and, surprisingly given centre-back pairing Sol Campbell and Steven Taylor's lack of pace, very few attempts to play the ball behind them for runs of Liverpool front-men Ngog and the returning Torres.

Andy Carroll has been a thorn in many a Premiership defence this season already and he was at it again all game long this evening as Soto Kyrgiakos and Martin Skrtel failed to effectively combat his aerial presence in a series of set pieces and long goal-kicks. From a 15th minute Joey Barton free-kick, given for a foul by Kyrgiakos on Carroll, the Newcastle number 9 managed a knock-down for Kevin Nolan to steer the home side in front.

The goal was preventable from Liverpool's point of view on two fronts - firstly Konchesky should have done better than to allow Nolan to get goal side so easily, and secondly because Newcastle's captain was in an offside position from Carroll's knock-down which the assistant should have spotted.

However, inept defending has been a feature of Liverpool's season so far, with preventable goal after goal being conceded by a defence which has too often been disrupted by injury. Indeed, all eight senior defenders at Liverpool's disposal have been sidelined at one time or another this season, while Carragher and Agger remain so at present.

Hodgson will point to large periods of possession as a way to show that Liverpool deserved more from the first half, but the brutal fact is that the closest they came to an equaliser was a poor Raul Meireles shot which deflected off David Ngog's knee, then off the line by an unwitting Jose Enrique.

Possession is one thing, knowing what to do with it is another entirely. Liverpool's shape in attack, so frequently good at home against West Ham and Aston Villa recently, was fragmented and isolated too often, while Fernando Torres again failed to deliver the sort of world-class performance that Reds' supporters have been hoping for this season. Ngog at times showed his increased ability to hold the ball up and run at defenders, but all too often he was crowded out or lacked support. Liverpool failed to find the urgency in their passing which was required and Newcastle were relatively comfortable in keeping the Reds out.

Even in the second half, Liverpool's equaliser was not exactly the result of a flowing move. A defensive mix-up gave Kuyt the chance to shoot on goal, and his left-footed effort was deflected away from Tim Krul to level matters.

And finally, Liverpool responded. A wave of three or four attacks signalled that suddenly the away side had found the belief that they could get a victory away from home. Fernando Torres should certainly have given them a massive chance of achieving that when he was sent scampering through one-on-one with 'keeper Krul, but his shot lacked confidence or invention, and was easily blocked.

That turned out to be as good as it got for the Reds, a couple of corners aside from which Kyrgiakos threatened as always.

Hodgson gripe

There is something that has been apparent of the Hodgson era at Liverpool since his very early days.

Something which, in this writer's humble opinion, has cost Liverpool at the very least the chance to go on and win - or pull back to draw - the game. That is, a stubborn reluctance to make changes.

From the 0-0 draws with Birmingham and Utrecht, right up to today's game, Hodgson has merely sat and watched and looked bewildered or frustrated - nothing ever summed up as much by Hodgson's furious double-hand rub of his face after Newcastle's second this evening - instead of actively trying to change the flow of the game with tactical manoeuvres or even substitutions.

After Liverpool's equaliser, and the following ten to fifteen minutes when they briefly threatened to score again, Newcastle got back on top. The challenges started flying in and they won the midfield battle, and started to press Liverpool again. Then came a home change - Ranger for Ameobi. Instantly he had an impact, his pace causing Skrtel and co. more problems.

Yet Hodgson's response was, for all intents and purposes, to do nothing. He allowed the game to run away from Liverpool and hoped for the best, for a defensive error or an accurate long pass to be chased onto.

His first change was an enforced one, Babel for Ngog after the latter had his eye cut open in a challenge, made with twenty minutes remaining and when Liverpool had been under the cosh for while. His second, and last, came with five minutes left as Milan Jovanovic was given a rare outing in place of Maxi.

Joe Cole, looking to step up his form and fitness after injury, did not merit an appearance, despite Liverpool being behind and in need of some creativity.

Without wanting to point out failings for the sake of it, and not wanting to label Liverpool's manager "damned when he does, damned when he doesn't", there could even have been an argument for the introduction of Christian Poulsen from the bench midway through the half at 1-1 when Barton, Nolan and Tiote were well on top of the physical battle and gaining ground for the home team. Perhaps that moment when more steel and aggression was needed for Liverpool, Poulsen's attributes might have been more appreciated.

But whatever your opinion on how to change the game, surely an introduction of fresh legs or a switch in system is preferable to simply doing nothing. Which is what Hodgson has done, time and time again.

Sitting down and hunching his bulky jacket about his jowls does not inspire a team to recover from a goal down.

Newcastle's second and third goals were down to more shoddy defending on Liverpool's part. Firstly yet another high ball won by the attacking team bounced for Barton to run onto and prod past Reina, who could do nothing but watch as Barton's run went unchecked into his penalty area. And worse was to follow as Lucas in particular but everybody in general failed to close down Andy Carroll, 25 yards out, before he lashed a fine finish into the far corner to add some scarcely deserved gloss to the scoreline.

Liverpool had the chance to move up to sixth position today with victory but instead they now find themselves eight points off fourth spot, which will probably increase given that Chelsea, Tottenham, Bolton and Manchester United all have games in hand on the Reds.

Excluding Europa qualifiers against minnows Rabotnicki and Turkish outfit Trabzonspor, Liverpool have now tasted victory just once away from home from a massive twelve fixtures. For a team with aspirations to get back into the top four of the league, that is far from good enough.

It is fast becoming a tired and worn out message, but Hodgson needs to severely alter his match-day mentality away from home. Liverpool need to win matches, home or away. It is not enough to say the Premiership is a tough league, that opponents are good sides, that key members of the side are missing.

Results are what matters, and away from Anfield, Roy Hodgson is not getting them for Liverpool.