Admittedly the higher you go, the further you fall... and in this case, the loss at Anfield was triply hard to take because not only were we the weaker side in a game we expected to win, we deserved to lose this!
With the possible exception of Hernandez who battled on to score a consolation goal, no one in the white away jersey did anything to warrant defending. And talking about defending, Wes Brown showed just how rusty he has become and may well have been the biggest selection mistake of the night. O'Shea may not be a natural central defender, but at least the lad has seem some serious action in recent weeks. Deprived of the talents of Vidic, Ferdinand, Evans and to an extent Gary Neville, this was always going to be the chink in the armor that Liverpool could exploit.
This game also exposes the worst kept secret in the Barclays Premier League - that Wolves has a better midfield that ours! Why did we start with Carrick and Scholes? Fletcher hasn't exactly been delivering despite his best intentions, while Anderson is out injured. Giggs too has been a pale shadow of himself in recent weeks, while Rooney, Berbatov and Nani flattered to deceive. In fact, at one point, I was even doubting the mercurial w(h)inger's injury, expecting him to return to play... but that never materialized... and so we lost, to a better team last night.
But all is not lost... yet. We need to refresh the team a bit, try to channel our strengths into a winning team effort. I think despite his hotheadedness, Rafael is good for the team... he is a reminder that we do not like to lose. I'd stick with Smalling and play him alongside O'Shea if Vidic is out. As soon as we can, I'd like to see the return of Danny Wellbeck. We need new blood, and we need it soon or we are going to lose this title chase in a very painful manner...
