Liverpool 1 Bournemouth 0 (Aug 17 2015)

[tlw content]

Two wins from two, no goals conceded and our £32m striker is off and running. The perfect start really. Or is it? There seem to be an awful lot of pissed off Reds out there, which I can only assume is due to the lingering effects of last season. It’s not been easy on the eye and we’ve got plenty of room for improvement, but is there really THAT much to be complaining about right now? 
 
There’s plenty of time for that when we start losing, which may not be too long looking at the upcoming fixtures, so at least let’s try and hold off on the complaining a bit until then. We might still be shite, or we could get better and go on to have an exciting season. There’s no way of knowing either way right now.
 
We’ve not played well in attack, we can all see that, but at least the work rate and resilience has been there to allow us to grind out a couple of wins. That was missing for most of last season so surely that represents progress of sorts? We need more than that, obviously, but if we’d been offered two 1-0 wins to start the season a couple of weeks ago I'm sure we’d all have taken that, so I’m content enough with the situation at this stage.
 
We’ve got four new starters in the team and a fifth about to join them as soon as he’s fully up to speed. That’s half a new team, there’s bound to be some issues while they get to know each other and it seems pretty obvious to me that most of the work they will have done to this point has probably been related to shape, organisation and ensuring that we’re difficult to beat. The rest will - hopefully - come in time and if it doesn’t…. well I’ll worry about it then, not now.
 
It’s difficult to add much context to this performance because we don’t really know how good Bournemouth are going to be. They looked pretty good to be fair but was that because we haven’t got going yet? Or did we not get going because they’re better than we think they’re going to be? Those are things that will become clearer in the coming weeks but at least while we’re in the process of finding out we’ve picked up maximum points.
 
Obviously the two big contentious decisions are what everyone was talking about afterwards. I haven’t seen any replays of the disallowed Bournemouth goal but watching it in real time I thought their lad was climbing all over Lovren. That said it was the kind of decision that you’ll get on some days and won’t on others, so from that point of view we may have gotten a bit lucky.
 
Benteke’s goal was a lot more clear cut. It shouldn’t have stood as Coutinho was a mile offside and tried to play the ball, thus distracting the keeper. That he made no contact is irrelevant. We caught a big break there. The kind of break that the likes of Lambert and Balotelli never got for example. 
 
Bournemouth have every right to feel aggrieved at how this went down but that’s not our problem. We’ll suffer at the hands of poor officiating soon enough I expect, probably when we go to Stamford Bridge as it’s par for the course there.

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[Paco]

Lallana did well in midfield but if we had ve lost or drew we d be questioning his creative output and there wasnt alot of it.

[Mojo]

Benteke deserved the break. He is more mobile and has a better touch than Lambert, and he does not have the inner demons and self-obsession of Balotelli. He is what I think Kenny hoped Carroll might become. Physically, technically and mentally he's way ahead of all of the above, good movement, even ball-juggling and stealing it from behind with those size 12s, as well as  quick passing. I hope he stays fit and keeps getting better and better.

[Jairzinho]

I hope he gets injured and keeps getting worse and worse.

[Pureblood]

I agree with Mojo - Benteke deserved his break because he gambled on the ball arriving.  It's called movement and it helps you score goals, Mario. 

[eeyore]

The formation clearly didn't work v Stoke. So to start with the same again was just sheer stupidity from Rodgers.

 

And we'll now start same again v arsenal and get tanked.

 

Sounds a lot like the start of last season.

[TheHowieLama]

It is similar, last season we did travel to London on the third week - and there was a tonkin'.

[Bobby Hundreds]

I hate Bournemouth's badge. Designed on a spectrum by a goofy bastard.

 

The game was shit but i'm happy with the result. That's about it. We need to see improvement this year, Rodgers needs to realise he won't grind another year out, he has to show more, the team has to show a lot more. There's time, no point making conclusions just yet.

[Closer To God]

 

Has he ever played a one touch pass in his life? I bet dinner time in the Lallana household is the cause of many an argument. I can picture it now, his missus asking him to pass the salt as he quickly shifts it between right hand and left hand, pirouettes smartly and then absolutely Cruyff turns the shit out of it three times before handing it over, by which time she doesn't need it anymore as she's already finished.

 

That is brilliant!

[Russ Atmosphere]

That is brilliant!

Sorry, my spasmodic right thumb decided it was going to neg that independently of whether I wanted to or not (I didn't want to).

[aRdja]

It was interesting to see that in the season where everything is at stake for Rodgers, he cowers from his apparent 'philosophy' of free flowing attacking football. The introduction of Moreno at LM to protect the lead at home against Bournemouth, is a good example of that. United under Ferguson, would've tried to kill the game off by overwhelming the opposition with wave after wave of attack. It seems that Rodgers has learnt a thing or two from his time under Mourinho, which makes his criticism of Chelsea's brand of football a touch hypocritical.

[sir roger]

Was I the only one who thought that God's goalie tipped the Benteke shot onto the bar ?

[aRdja]

Was I the only one who thought that God's goalie tipped the Benteke shot onto the bar ?

No, he clearly saved it.

[Pudns]

Great report as usual Dave.

[Dr Nowt]

It was interesting to see that in the season where everything is at stake for Rodgers, he cowers from his apparent 'philosophy' of free flowing attacking football. The introduction of Moreno at LM to protect the lead at home against Bournemouth, is a good example of that. United under Ferguson, would've tried to kill the game off by overwhelming the opposition with wave after wave of attack. It seems that Rodgers has learnt a thing or two from his time under Mourinho, which makes his criticism of Chelsea's brand of football a touch hypocritical.

Bravo, that's easily the weakest one this week.

 

I'm going to try and better it with the fact he pronounces any 'd' at the end of a word as a 't'.

 

I think he's probably a nonce.

[Jose Jones]

The formation clearly didn't work v Stoke. So to start with the same again was just sheer stupidity from Rodgers.

 

And we'll now start same again v arsenal and get tanked.

 

Sounds a lot like the start of last season.

 

We played a different formation though.

The players were the same so I can see how you might have got confused.

[eeyore]

We played a different formation though.

The players were the same so I can see how you might have got confused.

Sorry Yeah it was even more retarded with lallana and ibe both playing left wing

[ritchie]

Lallana's a slow version of Stewart Downing. Absolute twat of a signing and the egomaniac will keep playing him because he signed him. I wish he was a committee signing as he'd be in the stands with Markovic, Moreno, Balotelli, Sakho, Ilori and co. Ditto that fucking £20m donkey at the back.

 

£25m for a player with a good touch (and fuck all else). And Rodgers persists with his Milner and Henderson midfield two (an injured Henderson) and Can on the bench so he can try and somehow prove himself right over Lallana.

[Dr Nowt]

Are you two engaged in a twat-off?

[Mark M]

Are you two engaged in a twat-off?

hahaha. Both seem pretty upset we keep winning.

[Newport]

Lallana isn't shit, but he constantly fails to make any kind of impact on the games. He needs to produce more assists and goals.