Bye, bye Stevie G

Obviously the the biggest story of the weekend was Steven Gerrard's last hurrah at Anfield on Saturday night.

It didn't end the way the Liverpool legend would have wanted it to as Alan Pardew and his Eagles decided to throw a spanner in the works by inflicting a humbling 3-1 defeat on the Reds.  I suppose we shouldn't be to surprised as it was against Palace last year that Liverpool's title challenge ultimately came to an end.

As for Pardew,  he has previous when it comes to pissing on the Scousers chips ever since he scored the winner for the Eagles against them in the cup semi final of 1990.

Although it wasn't the winning finish the iconic former England man would have wanted to bow out with, at the end of it all it was all about him saying goodbye, which I suppose was how it should have been.

Try telling Brendan Rodgers this.  His face at the end before Gerrard went out on the pitch again to receive his ovation told you everything you needed to know about how he was feeling about things.

If there is one thing that I reckon Rodgers hates and that is the fact that he had to compromise his team selection in order to give Gerrard his swansong.  If however Liverpool had won their wouldn't have been a problem, but you could just see that Rodgers was almost resenting the whole circus/Stevie G sideshow.  If there was any chance that he wouldn't have been immediately sacked on the final whistle if he had left Gerrard out he would have done.   The mantra that is always repeated in all press conferences and interviews involving the Liverpool boss is "we always do what I think is best for this football club" and for once he wasn't able to follow his own words on Saturday and fuck me did the hurt show on his face.

Although the game started well enough for the Reds after taking the lead in the first half the second half as far as Liverpool were concerned was played out like some sort of testimonial.

One thing is for sure and that is that Rodgers will be so relieved that game is over and now he can get back to business and try to get a win against Stoke this weekend, don't be too surprised if Stevie G doesn't start this game as I reckon as far as Rodgers is concerned he has had his bit of fun and now its all about "what is best for this football club".

Whilst all the goodbye party was going on and don't get me wrong it is all well deserved for a player who has done so much for his club, I was getting really pissed off with the pundits and their constant excuses for Liverpool's poor performances this season.  It isn't just the pundits it was Gerrard himself and his manager who are also offenders for making excuses.  They all blame the reason for not replicating last years title challenge on losing Louis Suarez and his goals, as well as losing Daniel Sturridge and his goals to injury.  Two things.  Firstly even with all those goals last season they still didn't win the league and secondly they made a lot of money on the sale of Suarez but decided to buy Rickie Lambert and Mario Ballotelli instead of trying to buy someone who was in the same mould as Suarez,granted it would have been difficult and near on impossible to replace him but surely Ballotelli wasn't the answer.  The reason Liverpool didn't win the title last year was more to do with their defence and the fact that they have great trouble defending set pieces.  Gone are the days of old when Liverpool didn't concede, they glory days of the 70's and 80's when Hansen, Lawrenson, Thompson, Hughes, Smith and the like were tight as arseholes at the back.

 In recent years defending has been terrible at Liverpool the likes of Sakho (shit), Skrtel, Kolo Toure, and Lovren would never have got a game in the past but now they are the best they can offer.  I think the last best pairing they had was back in the early 2000's when they had Hyppia and Henchoz, maybe with the exception of Carragher since then but I would struggle to name a class defender Liverpool have had in the last 15 years.

Until Brendan Rodgers addresses this problem his team will never win a Premier League title.  He may bang on about doing "what is best for this football club" but until he brings in two or three decent defenders and teaches his team to defend at corners and free-kicks Liverpool will continue to be one of the also rans for some time to come and the only cheer their passionate supporters may get will be the odd appearance in a cup final or the chance of qualifying for the big European competitions.  Looking at the team now though even that seems a long way off.

Liverpool have been too far away from the top table of English football for far too long and unfortunately for them and their supporters it doesn't look like that is going to change any time soon.

I used to love watching the mighty Reds in the 80's and I think it is ludicrous that one time record league title holders and kings of England and Europe haven't won a title this Century.  That means that people who were born in the 90's and later have never seen Liverpool win the title, I find that so weird as when I was young it was all Liverpool.

Years ago there wouldn't have been excuses, when Liverpool sold a big player they brought someone else in, it was never a problem and that is why I don't get the how do you replace Suarez thing.  They had qualified for the Champions League and finished as runners up, they also got a shit load of money so why was it so hard to find another striker.

Anyway next season is going to be even tougher as now they will have to try and replace Steven Gerrard as well who incidentally is their highest goalscorer this season.  So good luck with all that Brendan Rodgers and I look forward to listening to your feeble excuses next season as you finish in the top 8 and in your 4th  season in charge fail to improve on anything your predecessors have done before you.