TLW

Sunderland 1 LIVERPOOL 1 Report by Dave Usher Scorer(s) – Luis Suarez Half Time - 1-0 Venue - The Stadium of Light Date - Sat 15 Sep 2012 Star Man – Raheem Sterling I can't decide if this was good or bad, so I guess I'll just go for 'indifferent'. I thought we played well overall, especially in the second half when Sunderland were penned back and struggled to get out, but this was all very 'last season' wasn't it? Dominate the game, hit the woodwork a couple of times, have a couple of penalty appeals turned down, opposition score from just about the only chance they have, drop points. It's an all too familiar pattern. The performance was fine, there were definite signs of improvement on the last game and if we play to this level every week we should win more than we lose. However - and this is nothing we didn't know already - we're going to find goals really hard to come by and that means a lot of games are going to be very tight regardless of how much in control we are. We're not always going to get what we deserve because we don't score enough goals. Sunderland had one chance and took it. One fucking chance. It's demoralising that this keeps happening to us, teams don't have to do much to score against us whilst finding the back of the net takes a Herculean effort from us. Borini had two chances in the first half that were saved by the keeper. I don't blame him for not converting either, but he could really do with finding the net soon before it affects his confidence. He played central in this game, with Suarez coming in from the left. He did some good things and some bad things, he's going to split fans opinion in the way Dirk did I think. He's just a young lad though, we need to be patient with him and hope he comes good. It's not like we've got many alternatives. Shelvey had chances to score too, there was one early on when he scuffed a shot wide from the edge of the box. I'd expect better from him there, his shooting is one of his main strengths, but he struggled a lot in the first half. He got better after the break and had a good effort saved by Mignolet. Johnson and Suarez both had penalty appeals turned down in the first half. Suarez was booked for a dive, Johnson wasn't. Neither were clear cut decisions and could have gone either way. On first viewing I thought Suarez dived. Replays showed he was definitely clipped, but enough to go down? Probably not. He's never going to get anything that's not completely clear cut though, and even when it is he still mightn't get it. Not unless he moves to Old Trafford. We'd generally been in total control of the game, but as usual the first time we made any sort of error it cost us a goal. Johnson's attempted tackle on Gardner was weak, and Skrtel's marking of Fletcher wasn't great either, but sometimes you have to wonder if you're just cursed? Virtually every mistake we make costs us a goal, it's bordering on ridiculous now. When will this end? We came out for the second half with a real purpose and bossed it from start to finish. We didn't have a striker on the bench, but our goal threat was given a boost when O'Neill sent on Titus Bramble. In all seriousness, Bramble was more likely to score for us than most of our side. It's difficult to find fault with anything we did in the second half. We kept the ball, we moved it well, we created chances, we just couldn't score. Part of it was bad luck, part was just not being clinical enough. Johnson hit the bar with a great effort, Gerrard hit the post after Sunderland failed to deal with a brilliant cross from Sterling, Shelvey had a couple of efforts saved and Skrtel maybe could have done better with a header. I was actually convinced when Gerrard's shot didn't go in that Sunderland would end up getting one on the break and we'd lose 2-0. It just seemed like we were never going to score. Rodgers replaced Borini with Downing and moved Suarez into the centre, and it paid off when Sterling once again delivered a great ball that Bramble laid off perfectly for Suarez to finish from close range. Good lad Titus. We kept pushing but couldn't find the winner. A draw at Sunderland isn't a bad result, especially after trailing at half time. We should have won though, and that's why it's difficult for me to be too encouraged by it. That's not a knock on Rodgers, I've got confidence in him and believe he will get us playing the way he wants to eventually, but it's not going to happen overnight and there'll be bumps on the road. Much is being made about our worst start for however many years it is. That doesn't concern me at all, it's a meaningless stat. It's been FOUR GAMES. That's all. Just four games. We've had much worse runs than this before, but just because this has happened at the beginning of the season it's being made into a big deal. Had Skrtel not presented that goal to Tevez for example, we'd be on four points having beaten the Champions and there'd be a whole different slant being put on things. There were some good signs at Sunderland that we're heading in the right direction, but until we start putting some wins on the board that doesn't really count for too much. Next week would be a good time to start. Star man was Raheem Sterling. Quiet first half, excellent after the break and our biggest threat. Joe Allen did ok, Johnson was very good aside from the part he played in Sunderland's goal, Agger and Skrtel were generally untroubled and Gerrard did well in a more disciplined deeper midfield role alongside Allen. Team: Reina; Kelly, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson; Allen, Gerrard, Shelvey; Sterling, Borini (Downing), Suarez:

LIVERPOOL 0 Arsenal 2 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) –Half Time - 0-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 2 August 2012 Star Man – Joe Allen No league wins, no goals from open play, no help from the subs bench, no hope until January and even then we'll probably have to sell to buy if recent events are anything to go by. Still, the wage bill is looking a lot healthier. Every cloud and all that eh? Way to go FSG. *applauds sarcastically* To think that only a week ago things actually looked quite promising. We'd outplayed the Champions at home and the manager spoke about hopefully adding two or three more players to the squad as it was a bit thin and short of goals. Fast forward seven days and we have added no goals, no players and have actually reduced the group by getting rid of three senior squad members, including one of only two strikers with any experience of the Premier League. Well the upshot of that is things don't look so promising anymore do they? The bench against Arsenal made for depressing viewing. The best - indeed the only - attacking option we had was Stewart Downing, a man who's failed so miserably in that role that Rodgers is trying to convert him into a left back. What's worse, it's not like we've got injured players to come back either. This is what we have now. The cavalry ain't coming over the hill, not until January at least. Maybe those who say we're better off without Carroll need to think about that for a second. Last week when City got back to 2-2, Rodgers didn't hesitate to get Carroll onto the field to try and win the game. Carroll may not have been a perfect fit for the system and it's been clear since day one that Rodgers didn't fancy him, but whilst he was here he was an option, an option that the manager was prepared to use, but now that option isn't here. How are we possibly better off? Rodgers clearly doesn't think so, admitting afterwards that had he known no replacement would be coming in that he would not have sanctioned Carroll's move to London. Personally I'd say that he was incredibly naeive for letting that happen before a replacement had been signed, sealed, delivered and photographed with his shirt off being examined by our creepy looking club doctor. But Rodgers isn't the bad guy here, he's not blameless but he's far more victim than villain. He trusted people who it's now clear cannot be trusted. I doubt he'll be so trusting next time. I could go on all day about the ineptitude and deceit that landed us in this sorry predicament, but it will have to wait until the next issue of the fanzine. The nuts and bolts of it are that we now have a tiny squad containing very few players (and by few I actually mean two) capable of finding the net with any level of consistency, and we saw in this game what happens when those players have an off day. Both Gerrard and Suarez were dreadful against the Gunners. Really bad. Nothing either of them tried came off, and when that happens we're going to be in trouble as what else do we have? Sterling was easily our biggest threat, but we can't be putting too much on the shoulders of a 17 year old kid, no matter how talented he is. Borini is inexperienced and unproven too, so it's virtually all on Suarez and Gerrard and if they perform like this with any kind of regularity then God help us. These kind of performances are being more and more frequent with Gerrard, he simply can't carry the team anymore and at his age he shouldn't be expected to. That means even more of the burden falls on Suarez. Worryingly, he is showing signs of strain now too. The pressure on him is increasing by the week. He must look around and wonder "If I don't score today who will?". He's trying to do too much and he's snatching at chances. He badly needs some help and no doubt he, like everyone else, was expecting that help to come. It won't just have been the fans who were completely deflated by what happened in the last 24 hours of the window. You think the players will be happy about Carroll being sent out on loan with no replacement coming in? They played like they were feeling sorry for themselves, and whilst it's understandable up to a point, they need to snap out of that and get their shit together before this gets really ugly. It's not going to get any easier, there are literally no easy game for us now as we will have to work very hard to overcome even the most average of opponents. We aren't terrible, we just don't score many and have now developed a bad habit of gifting goals to the opposition. Never a good combination that. It wasn't all bad against Arsenal, up until they scored there wasn't much in the game and we'd probably just about had the best of it. We then had chances to get back into it but Arsenal always looked more dangerous after they went in front and once they got a second it was all over. Coming back from one goal down is hard enough for a team that can't find the net, there's no way we were going to be able to claw back two and everyone in the ground knew it. There was an air of everyone just waiting for the final whistle to sound to put us all out of our misery. Was it just me or was the whole atmosphere just very flat right from the off? Last week against City it was bouncing, this was just very subdued. I'm assuming most of the stadium felt as disheartened as I did following what happened in the last couple of days of the window. It was like the heart had been ripped out of the place, the crowd tried to get into it early on but it's difficult to just shrug off what happened. Arsenal came into the game on a bit of a downer too, their transfer window wasn't an overwhelming success and they travelled to Anfield on the back of two goalless draws. They didn't start too well here, it took them a little while to hit their stride but when they did they were clearly the better side and unlike last year they were good value for the win. We had chances to go in front but didn't take them. Agger should have done better with a header from a corner but he barely got any contact on it. Borini dragged a shot wide from 20 yards and then blasted over from the right edge of the box. Suarez bollocked him for that and was angry he didn't get a pass. Minutes later Borini did well to win the ball and ran clear down the right again. I thought he should have gone for goal again, hard and low across the face would have been a good option, but he was only ever going to try and pick out Suarez after the ear bashing he'd just got. The pass was never on and it was easily cut out. Once again we were trying to play our way out via the goalkeeper, but Arsenal were pushing up to make it difficult. Their goal came as an indirect result of it. We actually did very well to play the ball out and work it to Johnson in an advanced position on the right. Then a poor pass by Gerrard was picked up by the Gunners, the ball was moved quickly to Cazorla and he had far too much room to run to the edge of the box before playing in Podolski to score. Johnson had been casual in tracking the German's run and only reacted when it was too late. Really frustrating, and not the first time this season a misplaced Gerrard pass had ended up in us conceding. We reacted quite well to be fair, the lively Sterling produced a great turn and shot against post and was then denied a strong penalty appeal when the lumbering Mertesacker felled him in the box. Replays showed the German got the faintest of touches on the ball with his studs, but there's no way Howard Webb could have seen that from where he was. Arsenal should have made it 2-0 before the break when the outstanding Diaby carried the ball half the length of the field unopposed before teeing up Giroud who made a mess of it. Big let off for us and we went into the break trailing by just the one goal and still with a chance to get something from the game. Webb then ignored a stonewall penalty at the Kop end when Mertesacker cynically pulled back Suarez as he made his way into the box to attack Gerrard's ball in. Suarez isn't going to get anything from refs this season, especially this cunt, and he's becoming more and more frustrated with each horrendous call that goes against him. Arsenal were still looking threatening and Reina had to make a good stop to deny Gibbs following a superb passing move, and the Gunners just looked more in control of what they were doing than we did. There was a confidence and swagger about them, we were trying hard but it's not easy when Suarez and Gerrard are playing as poorly as this. Rodgers made his first change, and this is a change we'll probably see a lot of over the coming months. Get used to Downing on for Borini or Borini on for Downing as there aren't really too many other options. Unless Assaidi forces his way into the matchday squad, which he has so far failed to do. Downing actually did ok when he came on, at least for a while. Suarez had a shot tipped over after Downing's backheel had set up the chance. Rodgers then made another change, bringing off debutant Sahin and sending Shelvey on in his place. Sahin's debut was an understated one. I can't remember him giving the ball away even once, but I also don't remember him trying to do anything out of the ordinary either. He played it very safe to say the least, but he's not played in a while and the run out will have done him a lot of good. I was expecting him to be a lot more creative than he showed against the Gunners though. Arsenal's second goal was well worked but was also avoidable from our point of view. Cazorla played a one-two with Podolski, no-one tracked his run and Reina made a pigs arse out of the shot. I'm not even surprised anymore. Downing had a shot deflected just over, Shelvey had two good efforts saved and Suarez squandered the best opportunity of the game after he was found by a clever ball by Gerrard. He should have scored but he put it over the bar. Goalscorers score them, they don't miss. Those chances suggest we made a fight of it, but we didn't really. Arsenal looked very comfortable and even had the luxury of leaving Gervinho and Walcott on the bench. They didn't need them, but if they did they were there. Any club with ambition has that. Actions speak louder than bullshit 'open letters to the fans', and our subs bench speaks volumes right now. Star man was Joe Allen. Only Allen, Sterling and Shelvey performed, although Agger and Skrtel weren't bad I guess. Team: Reina; Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Enrique; Allen, Gerrard, Sahin (Shelvey); Borini (Downing), Suarez, Sterling:

LIVERPOOL 1 Heart of Midlothian 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Luis SuarezHalf Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Thur 30 August 2012 Star Man – Joe Allen Outplay the English Champions and then shit the bed against a bunch of Scottish nobodies. The only surprise is that people are still surprised. We didn't even have the excuse of fielding a weak side to fall back on, it wasn't the best eleven we could have put out but it should still have been enough to comfortably see off Hearts. Instead we got a typical Liverpool result against a side we should be wiping the floor with. Suarez's late goal provided a massive sense of relief, not just because it ensured a passage into the group stages, but it also meant we didn't have to sit through another half an hour of this crap. Hearts offered virtually nothing and only had one shot of note all night. Often that's all you need against us, especially as Reina has become completely untrustworthy to the point where his place should actually be under serious threat. He's in the side as much because of what he can do with his feet as his hands these days. Had we come unstuck in this game, Reina would be getting some serious shit today after his latest blunder. He wouldn't be carrying the can on his own though, Suarez would also have had to shoulder his share of the blame due to his erratic finishing once again. Thankfully he made up for his earlier wastefulness by scoring with the most difficult chance he had late on. Typical Luis that, the goal was fantastic but how can he miss that earlier one on one? It just shouldn't happen, but this is the player we are pinning all of our goalscoring hopes on. As I've said before, it's not his fault he's been mis-cast and is expected to be Beardsley, Aldridge with a bit of Barnes thrown in for good measure, but for the love of God, get him some fucking help before that transfer window shuts. With Carroll bombed out to West Ham, Downing shunted to left back and Sterling and Borini rested, our attacking options to help Suarez against Hearts consisted of an 18 year old debutant with a great attitude but who has a long way to go before being ready for this level, and a central midfielder that we tried to send to Fulham along with cash to land £8m rated Clint Dempsey. I actually felt sorry for Henderson. His attitude was commendable and he did nothing wrong performance wise, but he is not going to give you anything of note playing on the left of a front three. He was busy, neat and tidy and I don't remember him giving the ball away too often, but is that what you want from a left sided forward? Surely Suso or even Ngoo would have been a better shout? This was a strange performance as it's difficult to pick out too many players who performed especially badly. Individually most of them were fine but the lack of quality in the final third was a huge problem. Up until his goal Suarez had been shocking, nothing he did came off and he missed two second half sitters. If he's misfiring and your other two forwards are Jordan Henderson and a raw 18 year old playing out of position, where are the goals going to come from? Defensively we were fine and the midfield did ok, in fact Allen and Shelvey were arguably our two best players on the night, but it was all a bit forced and awkward looking. The play didn't flow and it was uncomfortable to watch at times. On numerous occasions the centre backs were left in possession with no options and you could tell they were fighting the temptation to just put it in the channel and get Hearts turned around. Instead they'd have to turn around and give it to Reina and it was a real struggle. Hearts had done their homework and closed down our defenders when they had the ball. We've seen numerous mistakes already this season and any time I'm watching us now I can't help but think another could happen at any moment. I wouldn't be bothered by that if I thought we were scoring enough at the other end, but goals look like they are going to be at a premium again unless something dramatic happens in the next few hours before the window shuts. That means any defensive lapse is likely to be costly. Morgan thought he'd bagged a dream debut goal when he tapped in at the Anny Road end but his celebrations were cut short by a linesman's flag. Apparently the ball had gone out of play before Suarez cut it back. I've only seen one replay of it and that was fairly inconclusive. Shame for Morgan, that's what he does best which is why I was a little disappointed he spent most of the game on the right of the three rather than in the centre. It's difficult enough making the huge step up from the reserves, at least let the lad play his natural position. Morgan is a fanatical red and this was a huge night for him, it's such a shame that goal didn't stand but overall he did as well as could be reasonably expected. He isn't Raheem Sterling, and he isn't going to do the things Sterling does. He's a goalscorer, not a wideman. I thought he did ok, but as with Henderson, his selection in a role that he isn't particularly comfortable with or suited to limited our attacking play. Most of our best attacks in the first half came through Downing getting forward from left back. He had a decent enough game and got forward well. He covered a hell of a lot of ground up and down that left flank, but thankfully he didn't have to do too much defending. I'd worry about him against anyone decent but would be ok with seeing him play there again in games where we will be having most of the ball and don't have to worry about a decent right winger. Suarez had a header cleared off the line and Gerrard was denied by a great save following a surge into the box, but by and large we weren't posing them anywhere near enough problems. That continued into the second half, and things only picked up when Sterling came on for Morgan. Adam's last contribution was a cracking ball into the box that Suarez almost got his head to, and the youngster was warmly applauded off having done ok on the biggest night of his life. The best opening we had was when Henderson's excellent pass sent Suarez clear, but not only did he over run the ball when going around the keeper, he then failed to squad it for Sterling who would have had a tap in. As great as he is, and as much as I love the guy, this kind of thing happens too often and that's why we need more goalscorers in the squad. A couple of minutes later he had another chance when Shelvey's excellent tackle on the byline sent the ball into his path, but he flashed a shot past the post on the turn. Not as easy as the previous chance but he still needs to hit the target. Sterling had a couple of half chances he made himself by running at the full back and cutting inside to get shots away, but as time began to tick away it started getting edgy. Hearts had done nothing in attack, but with ten minutes to go they started to throw more men forward. They won a free-kick on the edge of the box and had a couple of corners, and from one of those they ended up scoring. It was a terrible corner too, we cleared it comfortably but Templeton wriggled away from Sterling and Allen and got a speculative shot away from 25 yards. It was right down Reina's throat but he made a total hash of it and fumbled it into the net. Proper Sander Westerveld stuff that. Completely embarrassing. Embarrassing from Reina, but embarrassing from the team too as they should never have found themselves in the position where Hearts were still in with a shout in the closing stages. Suarez spared some of our blushes with a fantastic solo goal, and credit goes to Gerrard too as having given the ball away cheaply he then ran back sixty yards to win it back and start the attack from which Suarez scored. Massive relief all round, but very little to be happy about on the night. The Hearts fans were disappointing. Singing 'Sign On' and giving out shit to Suarez and Gerrard? I expect that from dickhead Premier League fans but what's Hearts' beef with us? And what the fuck do they know about Suarez? Nothing, that's what. Walking down Anfield Road afterwards I had to listen to a group of them chanting 'Racist bastard' and 'Luis Suarez you know what you are' as well as them shouting various other crap about him being a 'dirty horrible racist twat' etc. I tell ya, if I wasn't such a shithouse I'd have set them straight. Shocking stuff, there's always been an affinity with us and the jocks, so I don't where this hostility came from (come to think of it, it's probably just Celtic). Anyway, I won't be buying Irn Brew anymore that's for damn sure, smalltime, haggis munching bastards. Team: Reina; Kelly, Skrtel, Carragher, Downing; Allen, Gerrard, Shelvey; Morgan (Sterling), Suarez, Henderson:

Liverpool came close to victory over reigning champions Manchester City after a very promising performance made up for their opening weekend defeat to West Brom New signing Joe Allen was prominent throughout, and covered the most ground among the Liverpool players with 6.78 miles That makes Allen’s performance the fifth highest distance covered by a player in an individual game so far this season Raheem Sterling also looked bright and was second only to Allen with 6.29 miles on the clock Luis Suarez was on the scoresheet for Liverpool and also registered the fastest top speed among the Liverpool side with 22.78 miles per hour Suarez has had 12 attempts at goal this season, more than any other player, but he has only got 5 of those on target Steven Gerrard is second in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for crosses delivered with 11 so far this season Arsenal were held 0-0 by Stoke in their last game Santi Carzola again looked bright, attempting six shots at goal, the joint highest in the last round of game with North London rival Jermain Defoe Carzola has now had 9 shots at goal, but is yet to score, the most shots without reward in the league so far this season Carzola has also completed the third highest number of passes in his opponent’s half with 92, but is yet to register an assist Arsenal can consider themselves unlucky not to have scored so far this season, having four of the top five players for dribbles completed in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index (Gervinho – 7, Carzola – 6, Walcott – 5, Arteta – 4) Arsenal also have three players in the top five for forward passes this season (Mertesacker – 64, Arteta – 58, Vermaelen – 49) as fans must rue no longer having van Persie to get on the end of their impressive attacking play

LIVERPOOL 2 Manchester City 2 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Martin Skrtel, Luis SuarezHalf Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 26 August 2012 Star Man – Glen Johnson Once the initial sense of deflation subsided there was a lot to feel good about following this game. We took on the best team in the country and were more than a match for them. Defensive errors prevented us from taking maximum points, but City were relieved to escape with a draw and knew they'd been in a game. Encouraging stuff, but not entirely surprising as we did well in this kind of game last season too. Yaya Toure said afterwards this was "the hardest game I've played in since I've been in England". When I heard that I immediately thought back to the statement made by Brendan Rodgers in his very first press conference as Liverpool manager, about wanting our opponents leaving Anfield thinking they'd just had "the longest 90 minutes of their life". If the best player in the best team in the country is saying this was the toughest game he's had since he came here, that's a pretty encouraging start I'd say. It's not perfect of course, firstly we didn't win and secondly there are still a lot of areas where the team can improve. It's hard not to feel at least a teeny bit hopeful though isn't it? The other significant point to make is that this was the youngest side we've put out in a league game since 2003. Fielding a young side in a Europa League game against second and third raters is one thing, doing it in a Premier League game against the Champions is something else. For that young team to put on such a performance surely bodes well for the rest of the season? Raheem Sterling's performance was ridiculous. He looked completely at home, showed no nerves whatsoever and clearly believes that this is a stage on which he belongs. He'll have to be managed a little due to his tender years and he's not someone who's going to play every week (the physical and mental demands on a 17 year old mean very few are regular starters), but what he's done this week is show that he's a player his manager can count on. It's no longer a risk picking him, in fact it's probably more of a risk leaving him out. He wanted the ball all of the time and when he had it he had an assurance and belief in himself that many a seasoned pro don't even have (Stewart Downing, I'm looking at you). At one point in the first half he had the ball at his feet and was just dancing over it waiting to see if the defender would commit himself. No fear at all, it was great to see and people feed off that. Coates was the other surprise inclusion ahead of Carragher. I'll admit I was a bit apprehensive, he's shown a lot of promise but as with most young centre halves he's also had a tendency to make mistakes. It was a risk selecting him for this game but I can't actually think of anything he did wrong, he wasn't spectacularly good because he didn't need to be, but he was rock solid and you can't ask for anymore than that. The whole team played well, although it did take a little while for us to settle into the game. An early injury to Lucas didn't help, as it meant a reshuffle that saw Shelvey come on and Allen drop into the role Lucas was playing. City's system may also have affected us early on, they went in with a back three, two up front and Nasri playing just in behind. It made for a fascinating tactical battle as City basically just went man for man with us all over the park. That made it more difficult for us to build from the back. When Reina had the ball he often didn't really have the option of playing it out to his centre backs or midfielders as City pushed right up on them all. Tevez and Balotelli went wide where Skrtel and Coates had pulled away, Nasri sat on Allen and then Toure and De Jong were tight to Gerrard and Shelvey. The ball to the full backs was difficult too as City's wing backs were closing that down quickly, and we saw more long balls up to Suarez and Borini than the manager would ideally like. Luis found it difficult at times as Kompany would be all over him and the referee was happy to let it go. Not many sides will adopt the approach City did, the only reason Mancini was able to do that is because of the quality of player he has at his disposal. Not many teams will be happy to go three v three with our frontline and push everyone else up to mark our midfield and defence to stop us building from the back. We did the same to them however, and by the end of the game you'd have to say we did a better job of it than they did as we had more of the ball and we did more with it. It did take a little while for us to hit our stride though. There wasn't much between the sides in the opening exchanges, we went close through Bornini after a great ball in by Sterling, and City went even closer when the impressive Tevez got in behind, went round Reina and hit the post with a shot from an acute angle. That City chance came out of the blue though, I felt there had been a bit of momentum building in our favour until we eventually took the lead. The goal had been coming I thought, we were putting them under some pressure and Kompany had almost put a delicious ball from Gerrard into his own net. From that corner, Gerrard whipped it in and Skrtel ran unchecked into the box to plant a great header past the helpless Hart. Not great defending by City (Kolorov I think), but a great goal from our point of view. The atmosphere had been excellent anyway, but now Anfield was rocking. The football we were playing was terrific until we got to the edge of the box. Gerrard had a couple of shots he could have connected better with, and nothing Suarez was attempting was coming off at all. He had the ball in good positions, the kind of positions where he usually embarrasses defenders as he jinks into the box, but nothing he tried seemed to come off. He had a shot from 20 yards that he curled well wide when you'd normally expect him to be working the keeper too. That came from a brilliant disguised pass by Allen that took two defenders out. Gerrard's run off the ball also helped as it got Kompany's attention and gave Suarez an extra couple of yards to collect the ball and turn. At half time it looked like Rodgers was about to make another enforced substitution. Jose Enrique was on the field doing an extensive warm up and appeared to be readying himself to come on. As the players came out for the second half, Enrique and Johnson had a little chat and something seemed to be going on. I assumed either Johnson or Kelly was carrying a knock and Enrique was being prepared in case they couldn't continue, but both full backs took their place in the line up and Enrique continued warming up on the touchline. There wasn't a great deal happening in the second half, we were doing a good job of knocking the ball about and pressurising City when they had it. They found it hard to play their normal game and we under a lot of pressure whenever they had the ball. The pressing was superb throughout the team, with the three forwards leading the way. Sterling and Borini did an excellent job with this, they might not always win the ball but they'd often hurry an opponent into playing the ball quicker than they wanted and we'd win back possession from it. Borini's pressing created a great chance for Suarez that he was unable to take. City had played a pass over to Zabaletta on the left but Borini was on him like a flash and won the ball. He carried it forward and then rolled it to Suarez who produced a weak shot under pressure from Yaya Toure. The miss would prove costly as City were level within minutes. A chance to counter attack was wasted when a slack pass from Gerrard intended for Shelvey was intercepted. Sterling had made a run down the left and had acres of space ahead of him had we got the ball to him, but instead he now had to chase back fifty yards and ended up one on one against Tevez, which was never going to end well. Credit to Raheem for getting back there, and really somebody else should have been dealing with Tevez in that situation. No blame for Sterling as far as I'm concerned, Tevez just outmuscled him and then his cross wasn't dealt with by Skrtel, Reina or Kelly and Yaya had a tap in. I've seen Reina blamed by some for his. Initially I thought he should have done better, but having seen the replay the ball skims off the head of Skrtel which takes it away from Pepe. Not a great deal he could have done in my opinion. Unfortunately him coming for and not claiming the cross meant Kelly was unsighted and caught flatfooted when the ball came to him. It just hit him and fell into the path of Toure who was never going to miss that. The spirit in the team never flagged though and we rallied immediately and took control of the game again. Gerrard's shot was blocked by Rodwell's foot, but it then struck both of his hands as he'd thrown his body in the way. Andre Marriner gave us a decision for once and Suarez took full advantage with a brilliant curling free-kick that beat Hart and nestled in the corner. There was some talk as to whether Hart should have done better, I just thought it was a brilliant strike and there wasn't much Hart could have done about it. Rodgers had made his second change as Suarez had been preparing to take the free-kick, sending Enrique on for Kelly. That meant Johnson switching from left back to right. He was fantastic in both positions, if we could somehow find a left footed version of Johnson we'd have as good a pair of full backs as you'll find. Johnson was denied a stonewall penalty when he surged into the box and was brought down from behind by Kolorov. It's simple, he slid in from behind, didn't get the ball and went through the back of Johnson. Whether or not Kompany was getting across to make a challenge or not is irrelevant, that's a foul and outside the box he'd give that every time. Marriner was appalling all day though, summed up by the late booking he gave Suarez for dissent after Luis took exception to a strong challenge on Sterling that went unpunished. Suarez may well be suspended in a few more weeks, I could easily see him picking up five booking in as many games because referees have it in for him now. He gets no protection and when he complains about it (which he does far too often it needs to be said), he gets booked. I'm not sure he can be changed though, it's how he is. Rodgers certainly needs to try though, as justified as his grievances may be he's only hurting himself and his team by berating these shit refs all the time. Anyway, having regained the lead we were looking very comfortable, knocking the ball about well and playing with a lot of confidence. A little too much confidence in the case of Skrtel, who without even looking casually played the ball back in the general direction of Reina. Tevez had anticipated it and found himself clean through on goal. He took it around Reina and rolled it into the empty net. Heartbreaking stuff, Skrtel had been brilliant up until that moment, but this is the risk we are running now with the new manager's style of play. It won't be the last time it happens either, although hopefully in time they'll become few and far between. Using the goalkeeper as an 11th outfielder in itself isn't overly risky, but players need to be precise in what they are doing and Skrtel's problem was that he didn't even look. He wouldn't have played a pass to Coates or Enrique without looking, so there's no reason for not getting his head up before looking to go back to Reina either. Heads could have gone down after that and there were still ten minutes left in the game. The prospect of losing a game in which we'd played so well was now very real, especially when Dzeko blazed over the bar from close range. City's tails were up having been given such an unlikely gift, but once again the players rallied and we could easily have won the game. Rodgers had wasted no time in sending on Carroll for Borini as soon as City drew level and it almost paid dividends, as Suarez stood a ball up to the back post where Carroll climbed and sent a header goalwards that Rodwell did well to head away from under the crossbar. Desperately unlucky for Carroll, how he could have done with that going in. Shelvey had a great effort with his left foot go inches over the bar a couple of dangerous crosses from Sterling came to nothing as we pushed for the winner our performance deserved. It wasn't to be though, City held on and we were left with yet another hard luck story to tell. We shouldn't feel sorry for ourselves though, we should be looking at this as a sign of what we can do and we should go out and tear Arsenal a new one next week. After all, we owe them one, big time, after the daylight robbery they performed on us last season. Rodgers said afterwards he's still hoping to bring players in before the window shuts. Hopefully he'll be able to add more goals to the team as even though we've score twice in this game, both came from set-pieces. That's a good thing in some respects, you need to get your fair share of 'cheap' goals from set plays, but we need to get more from open play too and that's where we are most in need of improvement. It would help if we stopped giving away daft ones at the other end too of course. Star man was Glen Johnson, just ahead of Sterling and the once again impressive Allen. Special mention for Shelvey, I thought he was shite against Hearts the other night and over complicated things far too often, but he bounced back brilliantly against City. Team: Reina; Kelly (Enrique), Coates, Skrtel, Johnson; Lucas (Shelvey), Allen, Gerrard; Borini (Carroll), Suarez, Sterling:

LIVERPOOL U18 3 Crystal Palace U18 3 Report by Dave Usher at the Academy Scorer(s) - Jerome Sinclair (2), Sam GainfordHalf Time - 3-0 Venue - The Academy, Kirkby Date - Sat 25 Aug 2012 Star Man - Dan Trickett-Smith Prolific 15 year old Jerome Sinclair scored twice but Liverpool's under 18 side blew a three goal half time lead and were held to a second consecutive 3-3 draw in the new look Academy League today. Sinclair's brace and a strike just before the break by Sam Gainford had given the young Reds what looked like an unassailable lead, but it all unravelled in the second half for Steve Cooper's side. Last week the young Reds side had come from 3-1 down to draw at Wolves but this time it was their turn to be pegged back. It didn't help that they had to play the last 20 minutes with ten men after Jack Dunn did his hamstring just seconds after Cooper had made his third and final substitution, but the rot had already set in by that stage and Palace were by far the better side in the 2nd half. It's hard to believe the game could have turned around so much, as before the break the Reds played well and were good value for their lead. Peterson and Gainford were lively on the flanks, Baio and Lussey completely bossed the midfield and Trickett-Smith and Sinclair were looking very sharp in the final third. Chances were being created regularly, starting when Peterson did well on the left to beat his man and cut the ball back to Lussey on the edge of the box. He opened up his body and shaped to bend it into the far corner as we've seen him do numerous times before. His shot looked goalbound but a defender got his head in the way and cleared the danger. Five minutes later Lussey produced a lovely turn in midfield and then sent a perfectly weighted through ball to Gainford. The winger went for a curler with his right foot but it was a weak effort and went straight at the keeper. Minutes later Sinclair showed Gainford how it's done with a crisp low shot with his left foot from 18 yrds that nestled into the bottom corner after Trickett-Smith had picked him out. Palace should have equalised immediately but highly rated left winger Kai-Kai got his header completely wrong. Massive let off for Liverpool but there were warning signs from Palace as they got into some decent positions on a few occasions but were wasteful with the final pass. Kris Peterson then beat the full back about three times in ten seconds on his way to the byline, but his attempted cutback was intercepted by a defender with Sinclair and Trickett-Smith waiting. Peterson was angry with himself but he soon made amends by creating the second goal for Sinclair through a brilliant counter attack. Baio did well on the edge of his own box and got the ball to the Swedish winger who drove at the defence before picking the perfect moment to release Sinclair to his right. His first touch set him up for another terrific finish, drilling the ball across the keeper into the far corner. Certainly knows where the goal is does young Sinclair. Very exciting prospect. Sinclair was involved in the third goal just before half time, using his pace to reach a through ball that looked beyond him and laying the ball back to right back Nathan Quirk. His cross into the box saw Trickett-Smith bundled over and look towards the ref for a penalty, but Gainford brought the ball down on his chest and finished well from six yards out. It was all downhill from there though. Palace came out firing in the second half, with powerful left back Williams surging forward at every opportunity and giving Quirk a lot of trouble. That freed Kai-Kai to play a bit more inside and it paid off as the winger beat three Liverpool defenders and then found the net with a powerful shot. The goal failed to wake the Reds out of their slumber and Cooper made his first change seven minutes into the half, surprisingly taking off Peterson and sending on Connor Randall. Presumably there was an injury involved, or possibly Peterson is going to be involved with the u21s on Monday. The Reds were struggling to get anything going in attack, Sinclair got no service at all and Baio and Lussey were no longer controlling the midfield. Gainford almost produced something out of nothing when he beat the full back and drilled the ball across the face of goal. The keeper made a right mess of it and almost parried it into his own net but was saved by a defender who got back to head over the bar. Cooper made another change on 67 minutes when he sent on Jack Dunn for Sinclair. Dunn was looking fantastic in pre-season before being sidelined with a hamstring injury. This was his first game back and he was involved immediately, finding Lussey who in turn released Gainford with a neat pass inside the full back. Once again the winger went for the curler with his right foot and once again it was straight at the keeper. There was a comical incident from a Palace corner when the referee blew the whistle as the ball was in the air. The Palace centre back went for it anyway, as did Belford, and as the defender headed the ball into the net he got clocked in the head by the Reds keeper. Pretty funny, but a little alarming that Belford was beaten to the ball, and when the kick was eventually taken the keeper stayed put this time and a different Palace player rose highest to head in and make the score 3-2. Things then went from bad to worse for the Reds as Cooper sent on 15 year old Sheyi Ojo for Gainford only to see Dunn pull up with a recurrence of his hamstring injury seconds later. Dunn couldn't continue and looks like he's going to have another lengthy spell on the sidelines. Trickett-Smith had to play further forward as Cooper was forced into going with a 4-4-1 system. It was going to be tough but at least they had a lead to protect. Sadly, not for long. Baio lost the ball cheaply in midfield and it was played to winger Johnson-Cole on left edge of the box. He cut onto his right foot and lashed a shot into the corner to make it 3-3 and now Liverpool had a real fight on their hands to even hang onto a point. The final minutes of the game were incident packed to say the least. Palace thought they'd won it when their striker bundled the ball in from close range but the linesman's flag cut short his celebration. Looked to be the right call but it was certainly close and Liverpool's players were massively relieved to see the flag, as none of them appealed for it. The Reds then went straight up the other end through Trickett-Smith who found Lussey to his right. He was challenged as he got his shot away and appealed for penalty but the ref wasn't interested. Correct decision again I'd say. With time running out Liverpool almost grabbed an unlikely winner after another brilliant break by Trickett-Smith. He collected possession after Baio had been dispossed, ran past two defenders and then smacked a shot against the crossbar. Last week the youngsters were denied maximum points after Sinclair missed a late penalty, this time it was the crossbar that prevented them winning. Instead of six points they have two, but it's the inability to prevent goals that is doing the damage rather than problem at the other end. The back four are very young, but the problems aren't just down to the defence, it's a collective issue. Keeping the ball better would help, too many times it was given away cheaply and that's something that needs to be tightened up. The side does play some good stuff though and scoring goals isn't a problem. The combination of Trickett-Smith playing behind Sinclair looks very good, and the star man award was between those two. I'm going for Trickett-Smith as he completed the whole game and worked extremely hard, almost winning it right at the death with that great effort. Belford; Quirk, Jones, Williams, Maguire; Baio, Lussey; Peterson (Randall), Trickett-Smith, Gainford (Ojo); Sinclair (Dunn):

Heart of Midlothian 0 LIVERPOOL 1 Report by Dave Usher Scorer(s) – Andy Webster O.G.Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Tynecastle Date - Thu 23 August 2012 Star Man – Raheem Sterling Not a classic but at least it was better than Gomel. We got the win, albeit that we needed the opposition to score for us as we couldn't manage it ourselves, but by and large we didn't look in much trouble this time. Brendan Rodgers was able to rest several key players and still got a positive result, so all in all this was a satisfactory - if unspectacular - night's work. The big plus was obviously the display of Raheem Sterling. The first half in particular he really stood out as he was just about all we had. Every good thing we did saw him involved, and had he not been playing I dread to think how pedestrian and toothless we'd have been. The balance of the side wasn't really right as Henderson was forced into a wide position which we've seen on many occasions doesn't really suit him. The three players preferred to him in the centre didn't cover themselves in glory, you'd have thought Adam would have really stood out as he's played in the SPL and is clearly superior to any players Hearts had in there. He had some decent moments, but he certainly didn't do enough to give Rodgers any selection dilemmas for the weekend. Ditto Spearing and Shelvey. With Nuri Sahin reportedly on his way and Joe Allen having just arrived for £15m, something is going to have to give with these back up midfielders. Two are probably going to have to go, either permanently or possibly on loan in the case of someone like Shelvey. Jonjo did well in pre-season but this was a night to forget from him, he was sloppy and gave the ball away a lot more than usual. I'm not sure what to make of Borini's performance either. It was distinctly average for the most part and he wasted the best chance of the game when he hit the post following superb work by Sterling. But his movement was good and he was twice pulled back when clean through on goal thanks to poor decisions by the linesman. Had the flag stayed on on those he could have had a couple more goals to his name. Way too early to form any kind of opinion on him as there's too small a sample size. I like him though, he's got something about him.* * I reserve the right to change that opinion if he turns out to be like the other Italians we've had. The best moment of the first half was Sterling taking out a cameraman. Is it just me, or did anyone else think the fella made a huge meal of it? He toppled over like a tree, but it's not like he had far to fall and he landed on grass. The way he reaction you'd think he'd been hit by a truck, not litte Raheem who weight about six stone soaking wet. Modern football really is shit, even the cameramen are playacting these days. I thought the second half was a bit shit until Joe Allen came on. We suddenly looked much better and kept the ball for long spells. That may have been down to Allen or it could have just been that Hearts tired a little and were unable to keep up the excellent pressing they'd been doing. They made it very difficult for us at times with their work rate but it's not easy keeping up that intensity and games generally more space appears in the 2nd half and that's what happened. The goal obviously helped too, it gave us confidence and after that we passed the ball around very well whereas before we went in front we were often sloppy in possession. Allen looked a class above when he came on, and it was interesting to see Downing used at left back too. That will have taken a lot of people by surprise, not those of you who listen to the TLW podcast of course, you will have been expecting it as I'd mentioned that Rodgers was planning on trying him out there. I'm not sure it will work, but it's a bold move and something worth looking at I think. There will be a lot of games where he could be useful playing as an attacking full back, but there will be other games where he'd be a massive liability as he can't tackle to save his life. I can see the logic, I don't think it will happen too often although it may turn out to be his best hope of getting in the side. Sahin's seemingly imminent arrival may well see Gerrard employed further forward on occasion and hopefully another attacking player will come in before the window shuts. If that happens Downing's place will be the one most under threat, especially given the rapid progress being made by Sterling. In terms of what this game tells us ahead of the big one this Sunday against City, you;d have to say 'not much'. Reina had another solid game, not much to do but the one time he was caled upon he made a superb save low down to his right. That's encouraging, as is the fact that Johnson, Skrtel, Lucas, Suarez and Gerrard will all be fresh having had the night off. Hopefully Carroll will be available for the weekend too having been left out of this one as a precaution. A real shame he couldn't play as it would have been a good chance for him to try and stake a claim. There's no doubting the claim staked by Sterling however. He failed to make the bench at the Hawthorns last week, a baffling decision really, but after this he must be a shoe in for the matchday squad against City. Team: Reina; Kelly, Carragher, Agger, Robinson (Downing); Spearing (Allen), Shelvey, Adam; Henderson, Borini (Morgan), Sterling:

West Brom 3 LIVERPOOL 0 Report by Dave Usher Scorer(s) – Half Time - 1-0 Venue - The Hawthorns Date - Sat 18 August 2012 Star Man – Joe Allen The more things change the more they stay the same. We've become the masters of finding different ways to lose games that we look to be in control of, and it's clearly not going to change overnight. Much has been made of Brendan Rodgers' philosophy and absolute belief in possession based passing football, but generally we were doing that before he arrived. Keeping possession and passing the ball isn't our problem, scoring goals and being unable to overcome setbacks is where we fall down and the new boss got his first taste of that on Saturday. In the end we were well beaten of course, and the scoreline could have been even more embarrassing had the Baggies not squandered some excellent chances on the counter attack late on. Taking the emotion out of it (as I can do more easily now having waited a couple of days to start the report), this wasn't anywhere near as bad as the scoreline suggests but clearly the problems of last year remain. Hardly surprising given that the biggest problem we had hasn't been addressed. Goals were in woefully short supply last season, and this summer we've lost Bellamy, Maxi and Kuyt and replaced them with Borini and Assaidi (who wasn't available for this game). Even if those two manage to equal or hopefully eclipse the number of goals scored by the departed trio, there's still a shortage of goals in the team. We should have been in front long before Gera produced a spectacular goal out of nothing just before half time but once again woeful finishing cost us. Suarez was unlucky with one terrific early effort when he beat two defenders and stung the palms of Foster with a powerful shot, but there was nothing unlucky about the other four good chances he squandered during the game. Two of those came when the score was 0-0. The first was a header he put over the bar following terrific play by the lively Glen Johnson, who was playing on the left due to an injury to Enrique. The second was a horribly screwed effort with his left foot that went well wide after he'd surged into the box in typical fashion. Not exactly a sitter by any means, but we've seen him score those before (Norwich away last season) and he has to do better than that. Johnson also should have done better with a shot from the edge of the box after Suarez had drilled a ball in from the right. His shot went miles over, whereas Gera's from a similar situation flew into the top corner. Typical. We'd played ok up until West Brom's goal. Nothing special, but we'd done alright and didn't deserve to be behind. I'm fed up of talking about what we deserved and didn't deserve though. I spent most of last season doing that and frankly I'm tired of it. We'll get what we deserve when we actually start putting the ball in the onion bag. If we can't do that, then we'll continue to be also rans regardless of the pretty passing patterns we may weave. Don't get me wrong, I love Suarez, he's wonderful to watch and he gives everything he has every time he steps on the field. He scores great goals but he's not a great goalscorer. His finishing is inconsistent at best and in a successful side he'd be the second or even third top scorer. He's our main goalscorer though, and in the system favoured by Rodgers the onus is on him more than anybody to carry the scoring burden. There'll be games where that works and he'll score two or three, but there'll be days like this one where he converts zero of five chances. A centre forward in a top side needs to be better than that, but then we aren't a top side and if we were Suarez probably wouldn't be the centre forward, he'd be in one of the supporting roles where his main job would be to create chances and wreak havoc. Kenny's great side didn't have Peter Beardsley shouldering the goalscoring burden, it had Aldridge and Barnes as it's two main sources of goals and Beardsley as the third scorer. We don't have a Barnes or Aldridge, and as a result we rely far too much on Suarez when he should really be our 'Beardsley'. That's part of the reason we are where we are. If he's on his game and scores goals we can beat anyone, if he has an off day we're in trouble. Not the fault of Suarez, more a failure on the club's part to surround him with more players at the same level as him. He may score two against Man City next week and make these comments look daft, but it will only be a matter of time before he has another 'West Brom' day as that's who he is. A great player who is erratic in front of goal. It's not his fault, we just need him to be something he's not because we have nobody else. Playing Borini inside and moving Suarez wide would be an option, bringing in Carroll to play with Borini and Suarez would be another (my preferred choice), but no matter what we do we are probably going to struggle for goals again as there just aren't enough regular goalscorers in the side. On another day Suarez puts one of his early chances away and we go on to beat West Brom, but when Rodgers said afterwards that there will be other days like this, he was right. There will be. Maybe not 3-0 defeats, but there'll be other days like this that's for sure. You only have to look at how many league games we've lost in the last three years to see that. We'll lose more games, and there's no point going mental about it and panicking because it's just the level we are at now and it's not going to be an overnight fix. Saturday was completely soul destroying, but what made it so bad was that it was the first game of the season. Any pre-season optimism that had built up was suddenly crushed as that second half horror show unfolded. It's a terrible way to start a season, especially when this was the easiest fixture we have up until the end of September when we travel to Norwich. We needed to get off to a good start because we may find points hard to come by over the next few weeks. At 1-0 down I felt we'd get back into it. We started the second half quite well but then three mistakes in a couple of seconds by experienced players gave us an impossible task. Gerrard gave the ball away cheaply, Skrtel fell over and then Agger needlessly shoved Long as he approached the area. It was only a slight shove, it was outside the box and Long's fall wasn't consistent with somebody who'd been shoved in the back. He played for the decision and he got it. I can't get worked up about the referee as Agger did raise his arm and give a little shove. On another day he'd have gotten away with it, but he didn't need to do it and he paid the price. It should have been a free-kick and not a pen, but the red card was inevitable. Phil Dowd's performance has been heavily criticised by many fans and Rodgers wasn't happy either. I can't take much of an issue with each major decision when taken in isolation. We had a good shout for a pen in the first half when Kelly was held from a free-kick. He could have given that but he gave a free-kick the other way. Both of West Brom's penalties were decisions that could have gone either way but neither were outrageously bad calls (it's incredibly difficult to tell in real time whether a foul occurs just inside or outside the box). All of those decisions could have gone either way, yet all of them actually went the same way. Against us. That's where the anger comes in I think, not because of any one specific poor decision. The bookings he gave out (and those he didn't give out) also suggested favouritism to the home side. Johnson was booked for a strong challenge where it looked like he took the ball first, Lucas was booked for a little tug of the shirt, Suarez for dissent and Carroll got one late on for a bit of handbags. Again, no major issue with any of those in isolation, but Long did basically the same thing Suarez did and it went unpunished, whilst the odious Olsson got away with fucking murder all game. One forearm smash to the face of Suarez on the edge of the area was especially bad. We got the free-kick, but no booking for that? Shocking. Even Carroll's booking was a joke given that he was merely reacting to another overly 'robust' challenge from Olsson in which he led with his elbow into the ribs of the Reds' number nine. Dowd's one of the better refs if not the best, but he gave us nothing all day. He shafted us on the opening day last season too when he failed to send Kieran Richardson off. Pity he didn't extend that same generosity to Agger, but I'm not going to blame Dowd for this defeat as there are enough people in our own team to point the finger at. Long's penalty was so bad that not even Pepe could fail to keep it out. It's been years since he last saved a pen, but I doubt he's ever had an easier save than this one. That gave us a lifeline, we may have been a man down but that man was effectively Stewart Downing as he made way for Carragher to come on and fill Agger's spot. Given how little Downing had contributed up to that point, would we even notice being a man down? He started quite well and had one excellent run and cross early on, but after that he disappeared. Of course it was going to be tough to get back into it, but we were only one down and in theory the penalty save gives us a boost and dents the confidence of the Baggies. At least it would have done had we not gone and conceded another stupid one almost immediately after. It was soft, but it was a pen. I can't even try to argue it wasn't because it was very similar to the one we got at the Hawthorns last season. That time Suarez nipped in front of Scharner and was clipped. It wasn't intentional, but it was a foul and a penalty. This was the same. Skrtel was dawdling on the ball in his own box and Long got in front of him and took it off his toe. Skrtel didn't see him coming and as he went to play the ball he caught Long. Again, not much contact and Long hit the deck very easily, but it was a pen. Long has mastered the art of falling over and making it look realistic. Sometimes he'll even manage to make it look like he's trying to stay on his feet just to make it more authentic looking. Three times in this game he went down easily, two of them led to penalties and the other a free kick right on the edge of the box in the first half. There was minimal contact on all three yet he made them all look realistic. Suarez could learn a lot from him, maybe then he'd get some decisions. They were never going to miss two pens. Pepe went the right way and did all he could, but you don't save those as it was right in the corner. At 2-0 and a man short, we were done. There was no way we were coming back from that, especially when Suarez blazed high over the bar from a few yards out after Foster had flapped at a Joe Allen corner. You've just got to score there as they're the kind of chances that are bread and butter to natural goalscorers. The likes of Van Nistelrooy made a career out of burying chances like that. At 2-0 and with the game basically gone maybe we should have just taken our medicine and ensured it didn't get any worse, but instead we tried to get back into it and Rodgers took off Lucas and sent on Joe Cole. Strange one that, I mean what was Cole going to do to get us back into it? It certainly wasn't the kind of game that was calling out for him, and I expect Carroll will have been irked that he didn't get the call. I know I was. And whilst I'm at it, did we really need Adam, Shelvey and Henderson on the bench at the expense of Raheem Sterling? Surely you want some variation in your bench options? A small gripe, but something worth mentioning I think. Anyway, Cole promptly did his hammy again and Carroll eventually got on, but the game had gone and we were being cut open on the break time and again. Lukaku came on and ran riot. With no midfield protection and full backs still pushing forward, Carragher and Skrtel were horribly exposed at times and only a combination of poor finishing and alert goalkeeping by Reina kept the score down. They did manage one more goal, Lukaku heading in at the back post after we'd failed to clear a corner properly. There was still time for Suarez to waste another opportunity when he headed wide after a great ball in from Borini, and that just summed up our day. Joe Allen was the only one to come out of this with any real credit. Suarez played well but his finishing was pitiful, Reina did nothing wrong and Johnson had some good moments, but Allen was by far our best performer on the day and the one bright spot on an otherwise demoralising afternoon. Gerrard was terrible in the 2nd half and Skrtel looked nervy all afternoon. The worst possible start to the season, but it shouldn't really be unexpected given the amount of defeats we've had to witness in recent years. It goes with the territory when you have a new manager too. Roy Evans had some brutal results early on before he got the team playing the way he wanted. Houllier lost at home to newly promoted Watford in his first home game in his first full season in charge and Rafa lost countless away games in his first year. It's to be expected, and as much as this hurt there's no point over-reacting to it as it is just one game and there's a long way to go. Besides, it's not like we're competing for the title is it? If that was the case, every defeat would take on huge significance. As it is, I don't know anybody who thinks we'll finish higher than 3rd at best or lower than 8th at worst. With that in mind, if we're a team that is going to finish somewhere between 3rd and 8th in the table then there's going to be numerous defeats along the way so there's no point getting all hysterical after the first one. No-one likes losing, and this was especially hard to take because it was our first game and a fixture you'd expect us to win. Yet our present reality is that we are a team that has finished 7th, 6th and 8th in the last three years. This summer many of those teams above us have spent shitloads of cash on trying to get even better whilst we've added a good midfielder who doesn't get many goals and a young forward who is unproven at this level (as well as a winger who will probably be a squad player to start with). We've also got a new manager trying to implement his own style of play on the squad, so realistically expectations should be pretty low. The problem is, it's easy to be realistic and say that we expect to finish 6th, but it's not so easy to accept the defeats that inevitably come with being a team that finishes 6th. It's a stressful time as we're struggling for an identity at the moment. We're a big club that's not really so big right now. I still look at us as a Champions League side that's temporarily out of the qualifying places, but I'm probably kidding myself. It's difficult letting go of that and accepting our current place in the food chain. Many of us still think we should be beating teams like West Brom even though every year we lose to teams much worse than the Baggies. We often over-react to every defeat and go overboard on every victory. I actually think we'll beat Man City next weekend, I really do. And if that happens we'll all be talking about top four again, until we go and miss a hatful of chances and lose at Sunderland. That's who we are these days, consistently inconsistent. Team: Reina; Kelly, Skrtel, Agger, Johnson; Lucas (Cole) (Carroll), Allen, Gerrard; Downing (Carragher), Suarez, Borini:

You may or may not have been following our "Neil Mellor takes on Six of the Best" series this week. If you have, then you'll know what this is about, if you haven't, never mind you can catch up on it here or just look at the following teams and cast your vote accordingly. To cut a long story short, we conducted a draft of players to have appeared in the Premier League. Once a player was selected, he was off the board and couldn't be picked by anyone else. Just have a look at the seven different line ups and then cast your vote as to which you feel is the best. Terry McDonald's Team Why you should vote for me: Hmm, I feel I'm facing an uphill task here, as when you look through my team from positions 1-10 it's absolute class. Then, unfortunately, you get to my striker and it seems like the whole bullseye has fallen like a house of cards. Check mate. But I say to you 'nay.' Do not let my idiocy in selecting an attacker cloud your judgement on what is otherwise a team full of spectacular ball playing footballers, who've collectively won everything there is to win in the game and risen to the top in their respective individual positions at one time or another. The football that I would have this team playing would make the current Barcelona look like something Sam Allardyce dreamt up while sat in his bath wearing a snorkel and Y-fronts. So you should vote for my team because I have an appreciation of excellent football, and that's reflected in the players I've chosen. Even Ravenelli can't mess this up. Paul Natton's Team Certainly the tactically unconventional shape of this team is open to question and I admit it only came into being because other options were denied me. However, if ever a side with positionally flexible players and an odd shape on the pitch had its time then that time is now in this era of Barca's two at the back and Spain's striker-less team. For me, football remains a game defined by players and specifically their ability and mentality. That is why this unconventional but undeniably classy team deserves your vote because it oozes class in every position, one compromise I was unwilling to make. Stu Montagu's Team From the start I was always going to be setting my team up in a 4-2-3-1 and as selected a shortlist to fit that system. I highlighted that really excellent wide players were at a premium and decided to box that off first. I managed to get five of the players I would have chosen if doing this unchallenged and my wide players were both in that five (for the record: Ronaldo, Barnes, Shevchenko, Desailly and Irwin). I’m confident to say that I think my side is the best functioning unit on offer and my front four, with Mendieta also getting forward along with the full-backs, is better than I could have hoped to have picked with seven people competing. Knowing early-on that my central midfield could be left till later (due to others already picking DMs and me banking on Mendieta not being spotted) allowed me to pick, in my opinion, by far the best defence in the game. Most of my side are being selected when they were in amongst the best players in the world at that period in time. Although never setting the Premier League on fire, the peak levels of Litmanen, Mendieta, Deschamps and Shevchenko are far beyond the recognised Premier league names who have never owned the European stage. I see a side packed with not just superb players but littered with captains, leaders, thinkers and winners that would function superbly together. This has been great fun to take part in and I’m pretty chuffed with the team I came out with. I fully expect to be winning gold here. Dan Thomas' Team I would be playing 4-4-2. It might be dead in the water now but this was a huge part of Premier League football for probably about 15 of the 20 years so far. Ginola would be my out ball but with a front two of Henry and Anelka, plus the late arrivals of Lampard and Ljungberg into the box I'd say my team would be ideal to play on the counter attack. Sit back, drop Hamann slightly in front of the back four and absorb. Having the two pace merchants up front would be a nightmare to deal with. I think I've picked a really good team. Just imagine the pace of Henry and Anelka playing together being fed by Ginola, Lampard and Ljungberg. Envisage trying to get past the greatest keeper the league has seen and two of the stand out central defenders. I admit there are more flair players in the other team than mine, and I'd have loved a Zola, a Litmanen or a Scholes in there for a bit more craft as opposed to Lampard, who is a good player but not exactly one who you associate with flair, but my team would be a defensive match for the other line ups. Playing on the counter I reckon this team would do very well. Dave Usher's Team Unlike some of the competition, there are no weaknesses in this side and there are no Mancs either. I was talking to Neil and he made the valid point that he was pretty disgusted at how many United players had been selected in this draft by so-called reds. Of course he picked Van Der Saar so he's part of the problem not the solution. That's right up there with Monty constantly bleating about how much he hates diving and how it's ruining the game, only to then take Ronaldo with his first pick. Staggering that. Anyway, I've got no Mancs and I'm not having to carry a lazy waster like Matt Le Tissier just because he tells a decent joke, and unlike one other team that shall remain nameless I've actually got full backs (and don't have Glenn Hoddle playing sweeper). My line up is strong in every area, combining pace, skill and steel in equal measures. There's tactical flexibility there too, I can easily switch to 442 by moving McManaman left and Gerrard right, or I could go with a diamond formation with McManaman at the point of it. Scoring goals won't be a problem but a solid back four protected by Mascherano means the opposition will really have to work to get past my boys, and even if they do they then have to find a way through Big Nev in goal. Those of you old enough to have seen him in his prime know how phenomenal he was. I also promise to get Drogba to sort his shit out too, the minute he starts with the theatrics I'll have the physio run on with a pair of Southall's three day old undies in place of smelling salts. He'll soon fall into line. Vote for my team, you know it makes sense. Neil Mellor's Team There it is, a team created to be the best side to have ever featured in the premier league at some point in their illustrious careers. Countless honours between them and all capped numerous times by their countries. I've got some of the biggest names in world football in my side. I have created a superb balance between huge names and players with a mixture of what is good for every team. I could have gone and got as many big names as I could think of but thought carefully and wanted my big names in key positions and others in my team to do the job needed to make my team function. Got to say if I was putting this team out to play on a Saturday I would have packed crowds every week and the tv channels would be all over me trying to get us on tv every week. I have created a side that will entertain the crowds and we will win the majority of games, but I also want to see plenty of goals and this team promises exactly that. In all fairness I have got my reservations on a couple, probably shouldn't say publicly for team morale, but Gullit is under massive pressure to produce in the heart of my midfield. I already have someone in there rocking the dreads and getting about so he needs to match him and be the one out of the two to burst forward and support my front line. If not he is aware he will be shipped out in January and replaced accordingly. Looking at my side I just do not see a weakness to exploit for an opposing team, because if they do try and expose my full backs I have so much firepower that we will put any team on the back foot. I would be offering my side constant incentives throughout the season if they meet the required targets of points per month. It will vary from days out together with or without alcohol (will leave that up to them) but also extra days off to spend with families.I will create a happy camp with happy players, making them want to play and play at their best when happy. Think carefully and have a good look again at my side. What do you want as a fan? If you want winning entertaining football with goals everywhere every week then vote for my team. Vote football Mellor style. Alex Woo's Team So, that’s my team, and, bar the exclusion of any Liverpool players, I’m very happy with it. The defence is strong, the midfield creative, and the attack lethal. I would ask any potential voters to try and look at things objectively and judge the side on their achievements and contribution to the Premiership. Every member of the side have been incredibly successful in England, between them have over 150 winners medals, and only Gianfranco Zola did not win a Premiership title.

Doesn't work on phones at the moment. I think there's an option for ipad which I'll look into for the next issue.

'Numbers' is joined by TLW Editor Dave Usher and longtime fanzine contributor Stu Montagu to recap the two games with Gomel and the Leverkusen friendly at Anfield. Also coming under the microscope is the Joe Allen signing and the Daniel Agger situation, as well as a look ahead to the first game of the Premier League season as the Reds travel to the Hawthorns to take on Steve Clarke's West Brom. Listen now either on the embedded player below, or by visiting our podcast page here. You can also subscribe through itunes and have any new podcast automatically delivered to your computer. Clicking the link above will download the latest episode straight into your itunes, and will subscribe you to any future episodes. Those of you wanting to listen on your phone, try this link as it should work on most smartphones. To listen in this window, simply click the play button in the box below. To listen in a new tab, click here. Podcast Powered By Podbean

LIVERPOOL U18 2 Nottingham Forest U18 2 Report by Dave Usher at the Academy Scorer(s) - Jerome Sinclair (pen), Lloyd JonesHalf Time - 1-2 Venue - The Academy, Kirkby Date - Sat 11 Aug 2012 Star Man - Jordan Lussey Liverpool's under 18s needed a last gasp equaliser from 16 year old centre back Lloyd Jones to salvage a draw at home to an impressive Nottingham Forest side at the Academy today. With just seconds remaining the Welsh u17 star soared highest to meet a left wing corner and plant a header into the top corner to earn his side an unlikely share of the spoils as Forest were left to rue a number of wasted opportunities. The Reds were missing several key players and it was a young side that Steve Cooper put out. Jack Dunn is still sidelined with the hamstring injury he picked up against Leeds a couple of weeks ago, whilst Dan Trickett-Smith, Joe Maguire and Kris Peterson were also unavailable. Jordan Ibe, Marc Pelosi and Jakub Sokolik are on reserve team duty and were not considered for this game so Cooper included a number of 1st year players as well as u16 winger Sheyi Ojo. The visitors went in front after only a couple of minutes. I didn't even see the goal, the game was played on the back pitch and by the time I got round there we were already a goal down. Not for long though, Sam Gainford's run into the box was halted illegally by a Forest defender and Jerome Sinclair despatched the penalty with aplomb to continue his hot scoring streak this pre-season. That's seven goals in four games now for the 15 year old who joined the club from West Brom last year. Forest continued to look dangerous and twice went close to scoring from corners that the Reds didn't deal with particularly well. On both of them Yalany Baio misjudged the flight of the ball and missed his header, which resulted in goalmouth scrambles that could have easily ended up in a goal for Forest. They also hit the bar and missed other opportunities before impressive centre forward Jorder Palmer-Samuels turned Jones on the edge of the box and rifled a shot into the bottom corner to restore their lead. The visitors dominated the 2nd half and wasted numerous opportunities as Liverpool struggled to get anything going. Cooper made an enforced change when the referee ordered him to withdraw Baio after a skirmish with a Forest player. The young midfielder reacted to being fouled and appeared to kick out as he lay on the floor. The Forest player had a go back and they ended up squaring up to eachother. The ref took both aside and rather than dish out cards told the respective benches to get them off. Cooper sent on Daniel Cleary to play centre half, with Jordan Williams moving into midfield. He would make another change shortly after, introducing Niall Heaton at left back and taking off left winger Gainford. That meant Irish youngster Alex O'Hanlon moving from full back to play further forward. The move would pay off as O'Hanlon helped to win the corner that led to the equaliser. Sinclair went running through and was denied by a brave stop at his feet by the keeper. O'Hanlon latched onto the loose ball and whipped in a brilliant cross that was attacked by Ojo and Sinclair but was cleared behind by a Forest defender. The corner was whipped in and Jones rose highest to thump a header in off the far post with virtually the last action of the game as the final whistle would go seconds after the restart. Last week the lads dominated a game at Coventry but lost 4-1, this week they were second best but came away with a draw. It's a very young group and as I said they are missing several important players at the moment. They'll probably have some teething problems this season but there is a lot of talent within the group and some highly exciting attacking players like Trickett-Smith, Sinclair and Ojo. Star man wasn't easy as nobody was outstanding. I'll give it to Jordan Lussey as even though he wasn't at his best he was probably just about the pick of the bunch. Team: Crump; Quirk, Williams, Jones, O'Hanlon; Baio (Cleary), Lussey; Ojo, Randall, Gainford (Heaton); Sinclair:

LIVERPOOL 3 FC Gomel 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Fabio Borini, Steven Gerrard, Glen JohnsonHalf Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Thur 9 August 2012 Star Man – Luis Suarez A lot to be pleased about. For a start it was everything that last week's performance wasn't, the only similarity between the two games was we won both. In stark contrast to last week in Belarus, the passing was good, the pressing was even better and although the level of opposition wasn't the best, we looked pretty good. Another massive difference from last week was the presence of Luis Suarez. You just can't overstate the importance of Suarez to this team. Barring an unlikely splash in the transfer market for another matchwinner, we'll go as far as Suarez can carry us this season. He ran FC Gomel ragged all night, they couldn't get near him and when he is playing like this it makes everyone else look better. As I wrote last season, we have plenty of 'supporting cast' members but not enough 'headline acts'. Suarez and Gerrard are the only two star turns, and as long as we have both in the team we'll be a match for anyone. Take one or both out however and I think we're in trouble unless we get some re-enforcements in attacking areas before the window shuts. Fabio Borini is the only new face in the attack, whilst we've lost Kuyt, Maxi, Bellamy and seem like we're about to say goodbye to Carroll soon too. We're pretty threadbare up top and an injury to Suarez would really leave us in the shit. With that in mind, Borini really needs to be good and he needs to be good right from the start, there's no time for him to adjust and settle in, he has to deliver now as we have no-one else if he doesn't. It's therefore pleasing that what he showed against Gomel was very promising. Brendan Rodgers picked what is probably his strongest available line up for his first home game in charge. It may not have been the strongest line up in the eyes of a lot of fans - Carroll wasn't in it - but in terms of the system the new boss likes his team to play this was the best side he could put out. The only point of debate was Shelvey's selection ahead of Adam and Henderson, but really they're all much of a muchness and whoever played was only keeping Joe Allen's shirt warm. I wasn't expecting much of a performance to tell the truth. We're still in pre-season whilst Gomel are in the middle of their season and are fitter and sharper than us. That's not even taking into account that our players are learning a new system and style of play. That showed last week as we struggled to keep the ball and were extremely fortunate to win the game with what was basically our only shot all night. These games usually tend to be a struggle and we've made hard work of a lot of these qualifiers down the years, but this was a comprehensive win and we can take a lot from it. Playing at the Olympics has done Suarez no harm has it? He was in tremendous form, especially in the first half when he was twisting and turning their defenders into knots. It was almost unfair, he was on a completely different level and was virtually unplayable at times. Just great to watch. He set the tone and the rest of the side followed his lead, playing at a high tempo with and without the ball. I wasn't sure what to expect from us really, with us not being up to speed fitness wise yet I thought we might see a lot of keep ball where we weren't really looking to do much with it, and we'd just pick and choose our moments to attack. Maybe against better sides that's how we'll play, but it wasn't what we did against Gomel. Every time we had the ball we attacked and looked to move the ball forward swiftly. The amount of times we hit Suarez early in the channels was interesting, and probably goes a long way towards explaining why Rodgers doesn't see Carroll fitting in. Suarez worked both sides and also had licence to come deep and get the ball. Borini looks a good foil for him and Gerrard was able to get forward regularly too. Both full backs were bombing forward as well, and the balance of the side looked really good I thought. Gerrard had a shot saved early on following set up play by Johnson and Downing on the right, and Suarez was then denied by the keeper after an outrageous nutmeg on a defender had allowed him to go racing clear. Just a sublime piece of skill that was, but he should have scored and that's the only fault you can find with him, he should score more goals given the amount of one on ones he creates for himself. He then went close with a first time effort that flew just over the bar from 20 yards. That came at the end of an exhilarating passage of play between him and Gerrard that whets the appetite for what they might do in the months ahead. Really exciting stuff, they've not played anywhere near as many games together as we would have liked for various reasons, but the understanding and link up between them at times resembles that which the skipper had with Torres not so long ago, before Torres became a complete fucking gobshite. More brilliance from Suarez created the opening goal for Borini. Quick footwork near the touchline saw Luis embarrass his marker who just fell to the floor after being bamboozled. The cross was cut out but the loose ball fell to Borini who showed good technique to keep his volley down and claim what will hopefully be the first of many goals in a red shirt. He's already the best Italian to represent the club, not that that's much of an accomplishment of course, as Daniele Padelli is probably number two on the list. As far as first impressions go though, Borini did everything you'd want him to. He looked completely at home in the role he was playing, which will have been a big part of why Rodgers brought him here and why he has been so keen to also add Joe Allen. He's introducing a new system and style to the players who are already at the club, but being able to bring in new players and just say to them 'do exactly what you did for me before' should in theory help the team gel much quicker. Borini certainly looked like he knew exactly what his role was and he did a good job for the team at both ends of the field. He's a grafter and is excellent at pressing the opposition, but his touch and passing was good too and he looks to have clever movement. It's early days but this was a good start for him. So far so good. Soon it was 2-0 and Suarez was the creator once again. He sort of bundled his way through a couple of challenges, getting a lucky bounce or two along the way, but when he got through on goal he showed good awareness to square the ball for Gerrard to score with a tap in from six yards. Other chances came and went, whilst all Gomel could offer were two long range efforts that were dealt with fairly unconvincingly by Reina. One he just kind of palmed out to the edge of the box rather than punching it away, and another he fumbled behind for a corner. Gomel were not capable of capitalising on any ring rust from Pepe though, and the second half he had nothing to do at all. Gomel struggled to get on the ball and our pressing was outstanding. The frontmen were the catalyst for it, especially the wide players. Borini and Downing chased and harried relentlessly and time and again their full backs were forced into conceding possession. Downing came into the game a bit more as an attacking force too, he'd been quiet in the first half but began to see a bit more of the ball and linked well with Johnson at times. One excellent run and cross from Downing saw Suarez almost convert at the near post, but a defender managed to get a touch on the ball to take it away from him. It went as far as Gerrard on the edge of the box and his carefully placed finish struck the foot of the post. Only another 40 or so to go to match last season's woodwork count. Suarez continued to pose problems for Gomel and was within a whisker of getting the goal he deserved when he collected a well weighted pass from Borini and turned a defender inside out before poking a shot towards the bottom corner. From where I sit I had a great view of it as I'm right behind where he struck it from. It was going in the bottom corner before the slightest of touches from the keeper tipped it just past the post. Great save to be fair, but a shame as it would have been a terrific goal and well deserved. The keeper could do nothing about the third goal however. Johnson latched onto a loose ball, chested it down, got his body in front of a would-be tackler and then lashed it into the top corner with his left foot from 20 yards. There seemed to be a humourous little exchange between him and Enrique afterwards, presumably about a bet between them as to who would score first this season. If that's the case, Enrique is a mug as Johnson was always going to win that. He should be getting at least five or six a season really, whereas Enrique should be ecstatic if he gets one. With the game won it was time for Rodgers to give some of his subs a run out. The fans were hoping for Carroll, he got a thunderous ovation each time he ran down the line to warm up, and when Rodgers began giving him instructions it looked like he was about to enter the fray. Unfortunately for Carroll those instructions were along the lines of "run down there and tell Charlie Adam to get back here, he's going on". Adam and Carragher (who'd been honoured before the game with a presentation and a speech from former boss Roy Evans after reaching 700 games for the club last week) came on for Shelvey and Skrtel, and then Spearing replaced Lucas with five minutes left as Carroll was left kicking his heels on the bench. Not surprising really, what would Rodgers have to gain by sending Carroll on? The fans would have been willing him on to do well, and if he'd have scored a couple that would only increase the calls for him to stay. I expect it would be a complication the manager can do without. Another player whose future has been the subject of much speculation is Daniel Agger. The Kop made their feelings on that clear too, repeatedly singing his name throughout as well as chanting "Agger's going nowhere". Comments afterwards from the skipper seem to have muddied the water further on this, as he alluded to the owners having the final say on it and how if their valuation is met Agger may be sold against his wishes. It's pretty obvious Agger doesn't want to join any other English club, he responded to talk of him leaving by getting 'YNWA' tattooed on his knuckles for God's sake. That's pretty emphatic I'd say. If the manager chooses to sell him because he's not in his plans or because he feels the money raised can be put to better use to strengthen the side, then that's his perogative. If the decision is coming from above then that's a whole different ball game for me. This isn't a game of 'Football Manager' when the board steps in because an offer is 'too good to refuse'. Or at least it shouldn't be. A cynic might suggest that Gerrard was saying what Rodgers could not, and that he wouldn't have said it without the manager's blessing. It's going to be interesting to see how this one plays out, but for what it's worth I'd be keeping Agger unless City came in with something completely daft, and by that I'm talking a world record fee for a defender. There's certainly a legitimate argument that it would be foolish to reject any offer over £25m or so for a player who has often been injured. For me though there's a stronger argument that a) you don't sell your best players, and b) you don't split up what is arguably the best defensive pairing in the Premier League right now. We should be building our team on the solid foundation provided by Agger and Skrtel, if the best team in the country want to sign him then that tells me that he's a player we shouldn't even be thinking about selling as let's face it, City wouldn't be interested in the vast majority of our players as… well, let's face it they aren't good enough to get in City's team. If Agger is, then he's someone we should be keeping unless he doesn't want to stay, and clearly he does. Anyway, we'll see how that plays out in the next couple of weeks. Star man was Suarez. Honourable mentions to Borini and Gerrard, and also for Lucas who did not look like a player who is just coming back from such a serious injury. In fact, he looked like he'd never been away. Great to have him back and it's going to be interesting to see how the trio of Lucas, Allen and Gerrard blends together. Team: Reina; Johnson, Skrtel (Carragher), Agger, Enrique; Lucas (Spearing), Shelvey (Adam), Gerrard; Downing, Suarez, Borini:

JOE MAGUIRE PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 18/01/96 Nationality - English Position - Left Back Squad Number - Cost - Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Other Clubs - Promising left back Joe Maguire joined the club when he was just 9 years old and has worked his way through the system to u18 level and has also represented the Reserves in pre-season. Joe is good all round full back who can defend and attack. He first played for the u18 side in the summer of 2011 when he was a part of their pre-season programme as a 15 year old. Some accomplished displays in those games proved to the coaching staff he could step up if required and he would later make some appearances in competitive games for the u18s that season. In the summer of 2012 with regular reserve left backs Jack Robinson and Brad Smith away with the first team, Joe was called up to play for the second string in their pre-season fixtures, including a game at the Deva Stadium against Chester City's first team in which he produced a solid display that belied his tender years.

LLOYD JONES PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 07/10/95 Nationality - Welsh Position - Centre Back Squad Number - Cost - 20k Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Wales u17 Other Clubs - Plymouth Argyle The Reds snapped up tall centre back Jones from Plymouth Argyle in the summer of 2011 for a reported initial fee of £20k. The Plymouth born youngster had impressed on a four day trial, and with the Pilgrims in administration they were in no position to turn down any offer. Lloyd qualifies to play for Wales through his father, and has represented them at u16 and u17 level. Initially he was part of the Reds' u16 squad but forced his way into the 18s in his first season at the club, and also represented the Reserves in some of their pre-season friendlies in the summer of 2012, including an excellent performance against Chester City's first team.

NACHO PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 16/12/93 Nationality - Spanish Position - Midfield Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Other Clubs - Albacete Juan Ignacio "Nacho" Huertas Ortiz joined the reds in the summer of 2011 after impressing during a trial period in which he scored four goals in two games. A cultured player who is most comfortable playing just off the striker, 'Nacho' is predominantly left footed but can play on either side. A combination of red tape and injury meant his Anfield career got off to a slow start - he had to wait until February 2012 to make his first appearance for the under 18s, but was a regular in the side for the rest of the season, scoring three goals in eight games (two of them from the penalty spot). In the summer of 2012, with a number of reserve players away with the senior squad for the tour of North America, 'Nacho' was given some opportunities to play with the Reds' second string, and scored the winning goal with his first touch just seconds after coming on to replace Marc Pelosi against Chester City's first team.

VILLYAN BIJEV PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 03/01/93 Nationality - American Position - Striker Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - USA Youth & u20 Other Clubs - California Odyssey, Fortuna Dusseldorf USA u20 international Bijev is a pacy forward with a real eye for goal. He's at his best when playing on the shoulder of the defence, making darting runs in behind where he can utilise his pace and excellent finishing. Villyan was born in Bulgaria and moved to America when he was young. He has duel citizenship having gained a US passport when he was 17. He signed for the Reds in the summer of 2011 after making a big impact whilst on trial, netting five goals in two pre-season games. What makes it even more impressive is that he only played a half in each game. He signed an initial three year contract but unfortunately work permit issues meant he had to be loaned out to Fortuna Dusseldorf for the 2011-12 season. An ankle injury restricted his progress and he made just one appearance for their first team, spending most of the season with their second side, where he scored four goals in 16 appearances.

YALANI BAIO PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 10/10/94 Nationality - Portuguese Position - Midfield Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Other Clubs - Oldham Baio is a tenacious and powerful defensive midfield player who can also do a job at right back. He joined the Reds in January 2011 from Oldham Athletic and made an immediate impression in the u16 set up, where his playing style drew comparisons with Claude Makalele. He moved up to the u18 squad the following season and enjoyed a solid campaign for Mike Marsh's side. Excellent at breaking up the play, he's a neat and tidy passer who keeps the game simple and seems a perfect fit for the defensive midfield role in the 433 system new boss Brendan Rodgers favours.

JOAO TEIXERA PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 18/01/93 Nationality - Portuguese Position - Midfield Squad Number - Cost - £1m Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Portuguese youth caps Other Clubs - Sporting Lisbon Joao joined the Reds from Sporting Lisbon in February 2011 having impressed against Rodolfo Borrell's reserve side in the NextGen tournament earlier that season. Teixera scored at the Kop end and looked a class act for Sporting as the Portuguese side outplayed the young Reds. Unfortunately he was injured when arrived and didn't feature until the summer of 2012 when he was involved with the Reserves for their pre-season fixtures. A skilful, creative player who is comfortable playing anywhere across the midfield and who is something of a set-piece specialist.

KRISTOFFER PETERSON PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 28/11/94 Nationality - Swedish Position - Winger Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Sweden youth caps Other Clubs - Gothenburg Swedish youth international winger who joined the reds from Gothenburg as an under 16 player in January 2011, Kris made an immediate impact with some fine performances for the u16s. He joined the u18 set up as a 1st year scholar in the summer of 2011 and had a good season for Mike Marsh's side, impressing on both flanks with his pace and direct running.

MARC PELOSI PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 28/08/93 Nationality - American Position - Midfield Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - USA youth caps Other Clubs - DeAnza Force Club Talented and versatile player who signed for the Reds after impressing scouts whilst captaining the USA in the FIFA under 17 World Cup in 2011. A powerful player with a good touch, he's comfortable playing anywhere down the left hand side as well as in the middle of midfield or playing behind a striker. Marc began his Liverpool career with the u18s but was quickly moved up to play some reserve football before injury cut short his season. He is regarded as one of the top prospects to come out of the US in recent years.

JAKUB SOKOLIK PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 28/08/93 Nationality - Czech Position - Centre back Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - Czech Republic youth caps Other Clubs - Banik Ostrava Signed in the summer of 2009 as a 16 year old from Banik Ostrava in the Czech Republic (the same club from which the reds snapped up Milan Baros), Jakub found things difficult early on at Liverpool and couldn't seem to get a game for either the reserves or the u18 side. His first appearance for the club came late in the 2009/10 season when he was drafted into the reserve side for a game against Everton at the end of April. It was a big test for the youngster but he came through with flying colours with a man of the match display against the physical Victor Anichebe. He came on as a sub in the next game, meaning he played in only two games at either reserve or u18 level that season. In 2010/11 he was barely seen at any level, and the following year was going the same way until the back end of the season when he was involved in a few u18 games. He's a physical player who's style of play is somewhat reminiscent of Martin Skrtel. He has done well in the limited opportunities he has had, which makes it puzzling why he has not featured more often, especially at Academy level. 2012/13 is the final year of Jakub's contract and he will need to force himself into the reserve side on a regular basis if he is to extend his stay at the club he supported as a boy.

MICHAEL NGOO PROFILE by Dave Usher Date of Birth - 23/10/92 Nationality - English Position - Striker Squad Number - Cost - Undisclosed Club Hons (Lpool) - Intnl Hons - England youth caps Other Clubs - Southend A tall, rangy striker signed from Southend in the summer of 2009, Michael is a player capable of moments of brilliance. He can also be incredibly frustrating, but when on his game he's a handful for anybody due to his power and exceptionally good feet in confined spaces. Michael can make the difficult look easy and the easy look difficult. You never know what you'll get from him, he can be missing a sitter one minute and scoring a goal of the season contender the next. Despite his height he is more of a threat with the ball at his feet than in the air, and he loves to get defenders isolated in the penalty so he can go at them. In his time playing for the under 18 side at the Academy he scored some amazing goals, not least one effort against against Stoke when he ran from inside his own half and beat half a dozen players before rounding the keeper to score. He moved up to join the reserve squad in the summer of 2011 and had a decent season with Rodolfo Borrell's side, and he is a player attracting a lot of interest from lower league clubs looking to take him on loan. Video Clips of Michael in action GCz06OXdeU8 IkeIofOoajs

LIVERPOOL RES 2 Huddersfield Town Res 0 Report by Dave Usher at the Academy Scorer(s) – Suso (2)Half Time - 1-0 Venue - The Academy Date - Wed Jul 1 2012 Star Man - Suso Suso struck twice as Liverpool reserves beat Huddersfield Town 2-0 at the Academy this afternoon. The Spanish u19 international had aired his frustration on twitter earlier in the week after discovering he'd be back with the reserve set up and not travelling to Belarus with the first team, but today he responded in the perfect fashion by letting his feet do his talking for him. Despite the absence of players like Raheem Sterling, Adam Morgan, John Flanagan and Jack Robinson who are all with the first team, Rodolfo Borrell was still able to name a strong looking side featuring eight players who had travelled to North America with Brendan Rodgers' senior squad. Only striker Michael Ngoo and midfield duo Craig Roddan and Conor Coady hadn't been part of the North American tour, and the danger with that is there can be something of a letdown for players when they have a taste of the highlife only to have to revert back to normality. Suso won't have been the only one frustrated to hear he would be back training with the reserves and not staying with the senior set up. Perhaps that explained the flat performance in the first half. In the 4231 system favoured by Rodolfo, the creative burden is with the three players behind the frontman, who on this occasion were Suso, Pacheco and Adorjan. None of them really got into the game in the opening 45 minutes, and Huddersfield had the better of the chances. Reds' keeper Danny Ward had already made one excellent stop to keep the score at 0-0, and he was called into action again when Sama's casual backpass was well short and sent the Huddersfield striker clean through. Ward did well to hold him up and then make a tackle. The momentum of the attack was lost and the Reds survived. The Huddersfield keeper wasn't having such a good day. His awful clearance ended up at the feet of Suso, who kept a cool head to make space for himself and roll the ball into the net. Up until that point Suso had barely been able to do anything right, but the goal seemed to lift his spirits and he was much improved from then on. By that point Rodolfo had already had to make his first substitution. Right back Ryan McLaughlin was forced off early doors with what looked like a shin injury after a late challenge. He was replaced by Czech youngster Jakub Sokolik, meaning the versatile Andre Wisdom switching to right back with Sokolik going to partner Sama in the middle. Presumably the coach had some choice words for his players at half time as there was a significant improvement immediately after the break. Ngoo went clear but saw his shot saved by the keeper, and from the resulting corner the ball bounced up for Sokolik but he couldn't get much purchase on his header and the keeper saved again. Pacheco then wasted a great chance when he took too long and then produced a casual looking left foot shot that a defender hooked off the line, but it was much better stuff from the reds now and the second goal wasn't long in coming. Pacheco carried the ball forward from halfway to the edge of the box before rolling it to his right to his compatriot Suso. He took a touch to come inside onto his left foot and then fired a shot into the bottom corner. Borrell then made a triple change, taking off all three players occupying the roles behind the striker. 16 year old Jordan Ibe replaced Suso on the right, American teenager Marc Pelosi replaced the ineffective Adorjan in the centre and Portuguese u19 star Joao Teixera came on for Pacheco on the left. Teixera was very lively and could have had a couple of goals. First he cut in and hit a curling shot from 25 yards that was straight down the keeper's throat, but he let it slip through his hands and for a second it looked like it would creep over the line before he managed to grab it. Then Teixera sent a well placed free-kick towards the bottom corner, but the keeper got down well to turn it around the post. Rodolfo made his final change when he withdrew Brad Smith and sent on Nacho. That meant Pelosi switching to right back, Teixera going central and Nacho slotting in on the left. The Spanish youngster had come on and scored at Chester last week, and he almost repeated the feat here but his shot was well saved by the keeper who had by this point done more than enough to make up for his first half error that had allowed Suso to open the scoring. With the very last kick of the game Coady hit a free-kick from the centre circle that the keeper just about touched onto the crossbar. A great effort from the skipper, who presumably had been given word from the ref that time was up as it seemed very unusual to see him shoot from there. Star man is difficult as no-one was outstanding, but the two goals make Suso the obvious choice. Hopefully the lads have got over their 1st team hangover now and will get back down to business for the ressies. Team: Ward; McLaughlin (Sokolik), Sama, Wisdom, Smith (Nacho); Roddan, Coady; Suso (Ibe), Adorjan (Pelosi), Pacheco (Teixera); Ngoo: