The Sunday Times
February 3, 2008

The stadium announcement said the club appreciated their concern but it was time to leave. The crowd on the Kop ignored this and remained standing where they were, continuing their protest against the stewardship of Liverpool by George Gillett and Tom Hicks. The “DIC SOS, Yanks Out” banner was unfurled again and “We want our club back” was the chant. Hicks and Gillett may have refinanced their loans and be pushing forward with stadium plans but those who Never Walk Alone also Shall Not Be Moved.

Doggedness was the theme of the day and of Liverpool’s first league victory in 2008. The 3-0 scoreline hints at flamboyance but nobody was fooled. Anfield had a sullen and contemplative air until Steven Gerrard added the garnish of a third goal when he beat Craig Gordon from the spot after a sharp-eyed assistant spotted Nyron Nosworthy’s handball in the act of tackling Jermaine Pennant.

It had taken Liverpool almost an hour to puncture Sunderland and though a second goal soon followed, when Fernando Torres ran on to Peter Crouch’s flick and lifted his shot over Gordon, this was not a day when Liverpool’s difficulty in scoring was down to missed chances. It was because they made precious few. The acquisition of Jonny Evans restored authority to Sunderland’s defending but against relegation-threatened opponents and benefiting from a glut of possession a side with aspirations like Liverpool would expect to be more penetrative.

There was another strange team selection from Rafa Benitez and another mostly rigid, largely turgid performance from the home side. Benitez, after a dire week, tinkered with his team, putting his best centre-half, Jamie Carragher, at right-back and his best right-back, Steve Finnan, on the bench. On the left side of midfield, rather than Yossi Benayoun, scorer of a hat-trick in his last home game, or Ryan Babel, the £11m signing, there was the promising but unproven Lucas.

Actually, Liverpool were unaffected by the changes, which is to say they were the same as normal: huff, puff, possession, professionalism – and neither penetration nor ingenuity. Benitez’s side tries to barge down a shut door, and if that does not work they wait politely for the owner to open it. Manchester United and Arsenal pick the lock.

After half an hour the best the Kop could savour was a drive by Javier Mascherano that, although cleanly executed, was never going to fly in from 40 yards. Martin Skrtel, the most expensive defender in Liverpool’s history, and the reason for the positional switch of Carragher, again looked agricultural on the ball. The general nature of the home side’s passing was competent, but studied and horizontal, giving Sunderland time to set themselves defensively.

It is instructive that relegation-threatened Sunderland have a better home record than Liverpool do at mighty Anfield. Away from home, routine games are less good, but amid a good run of form Roy Keane set out to be positive. When Kieran Richardson was replaced by Rade Prica after seven minutes, having taken a knock, and Daryl Murphy moved to the left flank, it meant Sunderland had four strikers, but in the first half Jose Reina was more under threat from Skrtel’s back-passes than the visitors’ attacks.

Then, just before the hour, Carragher breezed past Murphy and chipped to the far post where Crouch headed past Gordon. One-nil quickly became 2-0 when Torres scored and Sunderland did well to survive a flurry of chances saved by Gordon, squandered by Gerrard and cleared off the line. Then Murphy cut inside Carragher and struck a shot that hit the defender’s arm. The control was accidental in that Carragher did not move the limb towards the ball and yet deliberate in the sense he spread his body in the way of the shot and used his arm knowingly. “We should have got a penalty,” said Keane, rightly. “We had Howard Webb at our training ground this week explaining that [offence] would be a penalty and Rob [Styles] gave a similar one against Danny Higginbotham at Blackburn. But Rob was demoted for the penalty he gave against Liverpool when they played Chelsea here and we were never going to get a penalty today.”

Match stats

Scorers: Liverpool: Crouch 57, Torres 69, Gerrard 89 pen

Liverpool: Shots on target (incl goals) 6, Shots off target 4, Blocked shots 6, Corners won 4, Total fouls conceded 8, Offsides 0, Yellow cards 1, Red cards 0, Possession 61%

Sunderland: Shots on target (incl goals) 2, Shots off target 3, Blocked shots 2,Corners won 1, Total fouls conceded 10, Offsides 1, Yellow cards 2, Red cards 0, Possession 39%

Star man: Jamie Carragher (Liverpool)

Player ratings: Liverpool: Reina 7, Carragher 7, Hyypia 7, Skrtel 5, Aurelio 5 (Finnan h-t, 5), Pennant 6, Mascherano 5, Gerrard 6, Lucas 5 (Benayoun 61min), Torres 6, Crouch 7 (Kuyt 83min)

Sunderland: Gordon 7, Nosworthy 6, Whitehead 6, Richardson 4 (Prica 7min, 3, O’Donovan 48min, 5), Murphy 5, Miller 5, Collins 6, Chopra 6 (Waghorn 83min), Jones 6, Bardsley 6, Evans 7

Scorers: Liverpool: Crouch 57, Torres 69, Gerrard 89 pen

Referee: R Styles

Attendance: 43,244