As it turned out, we may have well been watching The Walking Dead on Wednesday — as Liverpool turned in arguably their most lifeless performance yet.
There are, of course, a few caveats to the poor performance. As mentioned, the game had no practical implication, so you can't completely blame the side for treating it as such. Second, the side put out on the pitch was one of players who have not been in very many matches — let alone with one another. The expectation that they would have chemistry would simply have been unfair. In addition, Utrecht's total disinterest in the game was tactically contagious. By not committing forward whatsoever, the Dutch side granted Liverpool little space with which to create.
The match ended with 10 shots on target, but that number couldn't be more deceiving. Neither keeper was ever threatened — with the exception of Brad Jones looking nervy on balls in — and the only on target shot of the first half, a strike from distance by Milan Jovanovic, wasn't actually on target. It hit the crossbar.
Instead, Ryan Babel sat up top, isolated from wide players Jovanovic and Nathan Ecclesto. The space between the forward trio and midfielders Joe Cole, Christian Poulsen and Jonjo Shelvey, prevented Liverpool from being creative going forward. Players made runs on the ball, but through passes, 1-2s and crosses with anybody on the end were nearly non-existent.
Liverpool's best offensive players were actually their backs, as Martin Kelly and Fabio Aurelio continually were able to make deep incursions up the flanks and send crosses in — crosses to nobody, of course.
From about the fifth minute of action, one could tell with near certainty that the match would end 0-0. The only evidence to the contrary came when Liverpool maintained five minutes of front-footed play to end the first half while Utrecht were a man down through injury, and when Utrecht enjoyed a more open spell — particularly down the left side — in the middle of the second half.
In the end, though, 0-0 was the scoreline, and 0-0 was the performance for LFC.
It was hardly the strongest evidence to corroborate the notion that the side is improving — something Hodgson now must prove to ensure his job security, however unafraid he may be.
The first team will get their chance to make good on Hodgson's swagger come Saturday, and while the team's play in the Chelsea game and Villa game leads one to believe that such is possible. After a match like Wednesday, though, it's hard to hold your breath.
