Burnley receive a lesson

Last updated : 13 September 2009 By Tony Scholes
Martin Paterson
Martin Paterson - had two shots saved by Pepe Reina
For most of the game we were found wanting in the midfield, overrun at the back, unsteady in goal, and two speculative Martin Paterson efforts apart hardly threatened the Liverpool back line. We lost it 4-0 and frankly it could have been more and the last quarter of the game in particular was painful to watch.

It was always going to be a tough game, I don't think any of us could have expected anything else, but you always set off with some optimism and given how difficult it had been at Stamford Bridge at least there was belief that this would not be as difficult.

We'd been given a day that was more suited for cricket and once inside Anfield it was apparent just how hot it was. How hot on the pitch I don't know, but with the sun right on us it was baking in the Anfield Road end.

The team news brought no surprises, it was the same again for Owen Coyle, but with new signing David Nugent on the bench it meant not one single defender in the seven substitutes named.

From the start we took the game to Liverpool and had the first shot at goal with Paterson unlucky not to win a corner, but as at Chelsea we struggled in the midfield unable to keep possession of the ball long enough allowing Liverpool far too much of the ball.

Thankfully they didn't look at their best and although we had quite a bit of defending to do there were never any real threats to our goal although Brian Jensen did have a couple of saves to make.

That was until just before the half hour when they took the lead as Yossi Benayoun just strode through us to slide the ball past Jensen to his right. The BBC's Jonathan Pearce faulted Jensen with this one but I can't see how although he was at fault when they doubled that lead.

The second goal sadly came from our best spell of the game and from a Burnley corner on the left. It was cleared and once Wade Elliott lost possession on our right touchline we were in trouble. Again it was Benayoun but it went straight at Jensen who failed to get his hands on it allowing Dirk Kuyt to come in and hit home the rebound.

There were suggestions of offside, and television pictures show that Kuyt had just edged in front of our back defender, but it was all balanced out in the second half in a similar scenario when Benayoun had a perfectly good goal disallowed for offside after another parry from the goalkeeper.

Our only response really had been the two Paterson shots. They were both from distance and both on target but Reina was able to deal with them without too much difficulty.

Two goals down here at half time doesn't suggest an easy second half and so it proved. It almost at times felt as if they could score any time they wanted as we couldn't find any answer. We made substitutions which failed to alter the game and I think at the end of the day we were probably thankful they only added a couple more.

Both were scored by Benayoun giving him a hat trick, and you couldn't deny it for the game's outstanding player. But you have to question us defensively on both goals although we were somewhat unfortunate with the fourth when referee Lee Mason intervened to play them in after the ball bounced off him.

They hit the post, they put others wide and Jensen made a couple of saves, one good save in particular. It was painful to watch and once the fourth had gone in it was no surprise to see the exodus from the away end.

Up to that point the support had been fantastic in what was otherwise a very quiet stadium. "Where's your famous atmosphere?" sang the Burnley fans at one point and other than the singing of 'You'll never walk alone' it really was a question that needed to be asked.

In the latter stages Nugent had an opportunity but was forced wide, and Steven Fletcher put a header wide of the post, but overall it was a relief to hear the final whistle and end the misery.

If we learned just how difficult this league is at Chelsea then here we certainly learned how difficult it can be when we don't play well, and make no mistake we didn't play well. There were concerns over our ball retention at Chelsea but here it was a lot worse.

We know we are a good side when we have possession of the ball and are able to play with it, but on a day when the midfield, Alexander and Elliott in particular, were nowhere near their best we really found it a struggle.

There's a lot of work to do to get us back to the standard we need to be at to start winning games in the Premier League. At the end of the day yesterday we just made it too easy for Liverpool.

The teams were;

Liverpool: Pepe Reina, Glen Johnson (Philipp Degen 64), Jamie Carragher, Martin Skrtel, Emiliano Insua, Steven Gerrard, Lucas Leiva, Dirk Kuyt (Andriy Voronin 69), Yossi Benayoun, Albert Riera, Fernando Torres (David N'Gog 75). Subs not used: Diego Cavalieri, Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Andrea Dossena, Jay Spearing.

Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Steven Jordan, Graham Alexander (Joey Gudjonsson 75), Steven Fletcher, Wade Elliott, Chris McCann, Robbie Blake (Chris Eagles 58), Martin Paterson (David Nugent 70). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Kevin McDonald, Fernando Guerrero, Steven Thompson.
Yellow Cards: Stephen Jordan, Chris Eagles.

Referee: Lee Mason (Bolton).

Attendance: 43,817.