Jon Flanagan, an academy product, seems to be on of the few players to have flourished under Dalglish's time. The most obvious thing about this young chappie is his maturity. Or, it seems to me, too much of it. From early days in the first team, what has struck me the most has been his common resort to professional fouls and playing "dirty". Since Liverpool's Right back crisis" (every crisis has to have a name now for ease of referral), the opportunity hs arisen for Flanagan to excel and really show his worth. But he has fallen back on this unpleasant aspect of his game far too much and too often. Following on from his trademark displays, things came to a head when a distinctly second choice side narrowly took the spoils against Blackburn. The real spark to the "goalkeeper crisis" had Flanagan written all over it. Despite continuously fouling Marcus Olssen, Dalglish persisted in keeping faith with Flanagan, that is until too late, his poor back pass to Doni led to that goalkeeper's dismissal for a foul on Junior Hoilett, thus precipitating the said crisis. Liverpool were lucky not have replacement Brad Jones sent off as well, for another professional foul on Yakubu, which may have deepened the problem. As Liverpool lumber on from one crisis to another this season, we may have cause to ponder the influence the youngster Flanagan has on the ultimate success Liverpool's season. As pointed out by Henry Winter in The Guardian, second choice (or third for that matter) goalkeepers and FA Cup semi finals do not have a good history together. And what of the remaining league games following that? We sincerely hope this is the last crisis this season.
Andy Carroll and Brad Jones rescue Liverpool against Blackburn Rovers after comedy of errors at Ewood Park - Telegraph
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