TLW

Anyone else having this problem? It's fine for me.

LIVERPOOL 2 Bolton 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Fernando Torres, Joe ColeHalf Time - 0-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 1 Jan 2011 Star Man – Maxi Rodriguez It was everything the Wolves game was not. Forget that it took a debatable injury time goal to secure the three points, that was the least we deserved given the effort and desire shown by the players. The first half was scrappy and we looked nervy, but at half time I was feeling aggrieved that we were behind as we should have been at least level on the balance of play and chances. The rest of the crowd clearly shared those sentiments, as the boos at half time were directed at the officials, and the team were applauded off by many. Kenny Dalglish had echoed Roy Hodgson's plea for the fans to get behind the team (albeit the King did it in a much less cack handed manner than Roy), and the fans did just that. No-one came out of the Wolves game with reputation enhanced. Not players, manager or fans. It was embarrassing for everyone. A mate said to me after this game that it was as though the Wolves game never happened, it was like a drunken mistake that everyone just wanted to forget about and try to pretend never happened. I think he's right, as there was very little unrest in the crowd and the fans stayed behind the team throughout. When Hodgson made substitutions, the players were applauded on and off (possibly because all three players who went off appeared to be asking to be replaced through either injury of fatigue). There were no "Hodgson for England" or "Dalglish" chants, and the players were unrecognisable from the half arsed, disinterested mess they were the other night. That's not to say this was great and all our problems are behind us. It wasn't and they aren't. Not by a long way. What it was though, was committed. And that's the minimum we should be entitled to every time a player pulls on the red shirt. If we get that and the performances and results aren't good enough, then other things need to be looked at, but it's easier to stomach. Hodgson took some stick after this for saying; "I am extra satisfied we got the winning goal but even at 1-1 I wouldn't have been in any way dejected because I think today we put Wednesday's game well and truly behind us." He doesn't help himself, but I think I know what he means. Had we not got the winner, I'd certainly have been 'dejected' that we'd dropped two points (as I'm sure Hodgson would have been) but I couldn't have faulted the application or performance. What he should have said is he would have been dejected by the result but happy with the performance, as I'm sure that's what he meant. But the fella doesn't make his point very well and it gets people's backs up. Probably not for much longer, but who knows? I'm surprised he is still in the job, as I thought what happened last Wednesday was too much for him to be able to survive. As I wrote in my report afterwards, the new owners have known they were going to have to replace him ever since they came into the club, but they hoped he'd be able to keep things ticking over whilst they took their time in looking for their long term guy. The Wolves game suggested the team had quit on him though, and given that the fans unhappiness with him had reached fever pitch, I thought they'd have to pull the trigger on him much earlier than they wanted. For whatever reason, they didn't, and then the players went out and performed well. Interestingly, the last time Hodgson was right on the precipice they did the same thing, producing a committed display to beat Blackburn. It's clear to virtually everybody now that we need to replace him, but from everything I hear the overwhelming majority of players do like the fella and enjoy working for him. It's just that it simply isn't working. He needs to go, but it's not because the players want him out, it's because he's just not getting results and because he's completely lost the fans. Not that he ever had a great deal of them anyway, but even those of us who thought he'd do a decent job can now see it isn't going to work. Whilst he's here, I just hope we can win some games and climb the table, because as bad as we've been we'll go 6th if we win our two games in hand. If the players perform with the same level of effort and desire they showed against Bolton, we'll give anyone a game, including the mancs next weekend in the FA Cup. The catalyst to it all is Torres. With him in the mood everyone else is more effective too, and we can be a match for anybody (as long as Gerrard is also at it). I was angry with what I saw from Torres against Wolves, but it was clear from the first five minutes of this game that he was much more into it. He looked interested and his head was in the game. He worked hard, he showed for the ball, he made himself a nuisance. Was he at his brilliant best? Not even close, but that's ok. I don't expect brilliance from him week in week out, I do expect effort and for him to do the things he should be doing. That's what he did against Bolton. Forget the goal, I'm not judging his performance based on that, as he could still get on the scoresheet in a game where he wasn't even breaking sweat. Even if he hadn't scored in this game I'd still be saying how pleased I was with what he did, just as I'd have been disappointed in him the other night even if he'd nabbed a goal. This is the level of effort I expect from Torres, and when he puts it in it makes everyone else's job easier. Having Maxi in the side also helps. His performance against Bolton showed the folly of leaving him out against Wolves. He's been in excellent form, and needs to be in the team every week until that form drops off. Whilst he's outperforming every other wide player at the club, he needs to be on the field. Hodgson recalled him to the side but left Gerrard on the bench. Apparently the captain was meant to be really tired. He didn't look it when he came on for the injured Meireles after 20 minutes. Far from it in fact, he was fucking brilliant. Our first half display was far from fluent, it was scrappy and you could tell there was tension in our play. Nevertheless, we still should have led at half time. Maxi hit the bar with a lovely header following a cross from Kuyt, and Lucas missed an absolute sitter after ghosting in on the back post to get on the end of another cross from the Dutchman. That came almost immediately after we'd fallen behind against the run of play to a Kevin Davies header. The crowd were unhappy about the award of a free-kick to Bolton following a challenge by Aurelio. I wasn't unhappy with it, as I sit close to where it happened and it was a clear foul and a rash challenge (Fabio had a poor first half, but was much better after the break). The yellow card was harsh, but the free-kick wasn't. Matt Taylor is great in that situation, and as the ball was in mid-air I just muttered 'Oh shit' as it was obvious what was coming next. When a cross that good comes in against us, more often than not it ends up in a goal. Skrtel lost his man and Johnson was unable to cover his man as well as Davies, and we were behind. Fucks sake. Hodgson must have wanted the ground to open up and swallow him. It was the last thing he needed, and he must have expected pelters from the crowd again. It didn't happen though, the half time whistle was greeted by boos for the referee, who had seemingly awarded every 50/50 to the away side, and then applause as the players made their way off. The second half was excellent. We came out fired up and got after them straight away. The equalising goal was a work of art. Gerrard's half volleyed pass to Torres was as good as anything you'll see anywhere, and the finish was brilliant too. He made it look so simple when it was a chance that could easily have been missed. Torres almost added another shortly after when he cut in from the left and hit a shot inches past the far post. We continued to push forward and we played some nice football, but the goal wouldn't come. Still, the fans stayed patient and continued to urge the team on. Joe Cole replaced Ngog, who had worked extremely hard and looked to have picked up a knock or possibly cramp. Cole's had a torrid time since he came here, nothing has gone right for him and the only luck he's had has been bad. But that was 2010. This is 2011, a new year and a new start. When Cole bundled the ball over the line in stoppage time he was clearly in an offside position. Replays showed that the ball was not played back across goal by Maxi, but in fact came off Elmander, meaning Cole was not offside. But does anyone actually think the linesman knew that at the time? There's no way he could have seen that, so basically he just got it wrong and we got away with one. Still, it makes up for Kevin Nolan's offside goal against us at St James the other week. It was funny watching Cole celebrate on his own. He ran off clearly expecting to be mobbed, but the rest of his team-mates thought Maxi had scored and all ran to him. Joe was left in the circle on his own, looking a bit of a knob. At least stadium announcer George Sephton gave him credit for the goal. I want to see Cole in the starting line up now, and I'd probably give him a go up front with Torres. Ngog is working hard and doing ok, but the balance might be better with Cole playing with Torres? I just think he's too talented for us not be using him, but it is difficult trying to find a position for him. Bolton almost snatched an undeserved late equaiser at the death when Klasnic did brilliantly to get a shot in, but Reina was on his toes and got down to make a comfortable save from a shot that may have caught a lesser keeper off guard. YNWA got an airing at the end, and as the final whistle went Hodgson rose from the bench and gratefully applauded the Kop. He must have gone into the game fearing the worst, but the crowd were more than fair and it was a much more pleasant experience for everyone than the Wolves game. I'm not going to worry about the managerial situation, it will all take care of itself in due course. I don't know how much longer Hodgson will be in charge, but as long as he is still here I just hope we see more of what we saw against Bolton and less of what happened against Wolves. We've got a great opportunity to build on this quickly, as we have a very winnable game at Ewood Park in a couple of days. Our away record is abysmal, but this is an opportunity to improve it. And besides, that dreadful away form was 2010, this is 2011 and things are going to be different. Maybe. Happy New Year! Team: Reina; Johnson, Skrtel, Agger (Kyrgiakos), Aurelio; Kuyt, Meireles (Gerrard), Lucas, Maxi; Ngog (Cole), Torres:

LIVERPOOL 0 Wolves 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Wed 29 Dec 2010 Star Man – Lucas It began with rapturous applause to honour the lives of two former Liverpool players who'd sadly passed away, and ended with vociferous booing to signal the death knell of the reign of the present manager. No way Roy Hodgson retains his position after this, and nor should he. The performance and result alone was probably enough to finish him off, but just in case it wasn't, he sealed his own fate by having a go at the fans in a post match press conference reminiscent of the final one Houllier gave before he was canned. This display was staggeringly bad. I didn't see it coming beforehand, but five minutes in I'd sent text messages out saying "I can tell already this is gonna be shit". Even so, the level of that shitness still came as something of a shock. Wolves were bottom of the league. Not only that, apparently they had the worst away record in all four divisions (don't quote me on that, just something I read). They outplayed us though, and deserved their victory. They outplayed us, outfought us and outcoached us. They were better than us in every department. Had this happened in August or September I could get past it, new manager, transitional period etc For it to be happening five months in, with a virtual full strength team available and coming off a couple of weeks rest where Hodgson could work uninterrupted with his players, well that's just completely unacceptable and tells me it can't be allowed to continue anymore. Unlike many, I've not really gotten too worked up about Hodgson. I was happy enough to give him a chance initially and I've tried to be as fair to him as possible, but from the moment the club was sold it was obvious his days were numbered. I never joined in with the clamour to have him sacked now, mainly because I was confident it would take care of itself in due course just as soon as the owners decided who would replace him. I wasn't in favour of a short term caretaker manager, I just hoped that Hodgson could steer the ship through the season without sinking it. That's clearly not possible, and whilst I still don't want a temporary appointment, retaining Hodgson is simply not an option anymore. It's obvious he isn't the man John W Henry and Tom Werner see taking us forward, and it was only a matter of time before he was on his way. I'm sure Henry and Werner were hoping we could just muddle through this season until they could identify and acquire the young, ambitious, talented coach they want to take us forward. There'd been some signs of improvement in the last couple of months, especially in our home form which had been decent enough. If we'd kept winning at home and picked up some points away, we could have seen out the season with Hodgson and then made the change. I've got no doubt that was the plan for FSG and Comolli. Gonna have to bring forward those plans now though fellas, as there's simply no coming back from this. Roy is done, stick a fork in him. The reaction of the fans during this game makes Hodgson's position absolutely untenable. His goose is not only cooked, it's burnt to a crisp. With a home game against Bolton coming up on Saturday, there's just no way he can be allowed to take his place in the dugout, it's unthinkable. Equally, they can't send him out to do the pre-match press conference the day before either, as there's no telling what trouble he'd get himself into when faced with difficult questions. Every time he faces the press he drops a bollock, and things are so sensitive right now anything he says out of turn is only going to escalate the situation. He should probably just quit, but financially it makes no sense for him to do that so the decision is going to have to be made for him. Henry and Werner will have been hoping it wouldn't come to this so soon, but unfortunately it has and they'll have to act or risk people losing faith in them already. It's a very difficult situation for them, but it will get worse if they allow a repeat of what we saw last night. And when he does go, it means the players can no longer hide behind him. Some of them have been getting away with terrible performances because people are so pre-occupied with blaming Hodgson for everything and using him as an excuse for the shocking individual displays of some players. Well when he's gone, they may find themselves in the firing line unless they pull their fingers out. Top of that list is our illustrious number nine. Once again, his performance was an absolute disgrace to the shirt he should be honoured to wear. I don't give a fuck if he doesn't want to play for Hodgson, or if he thinks he's too good for this team or whatever. There's no excuse for what we are seeing from Torres. None whatsoever. For the umpteenth time this season, the opposing number 9 put him to shame. Some proper shit strikers have shown him up this season, and had Torres shown the same desire to work for his team that Ebanks-Blake and his J-Lo arse did, then maybe we wouldn't have lost this game. It wasn't just Torres though. The players completely quit on Hodgson last night. They knew he'd be the one copping the flak and too many of them just sat back and let it happen. Some of them looked arsed, I'm thinking most notably about Lucas, the Greek and Ngog, but most just accepted this defeat and whilst I'm not absolving Hodgson from ultimate responsibility, it's still unacceptable to see the lack of effort from some of these obscenely paid 'stars'. Hodgson will be shown the door soon enough, but I hope some (most?) of these players aren't far behind him. As for the game itself, not much to say. I hated the team selection, and disrupting the Meireles / Lucas partnership pissed me off. I also didn't like Maxi being left out. Unless there is a legitimate reason for that, such as illness or a slight knock, then it's just plain wrong. He's been in good form, and is far more worthy of a place than the seemingly untouchable Kuyt. Wolves got their tactics spot on, they pressed us high up the park and prevented us playing the ball out from the back. Any time one of our defenders had the ball, all the players around them were tightly marked. Wolves pushed people right up onto our full backs and central midfielders, and there was nowhere for us to go other than hit it long. Given that Ngog was the only only one actually fighting for the ball up there, it kept coming back at us. It was brutal to watch. The second half was similar, except Wolves grew in confidence and the goal didn't come as a shock as they'd gone close a couple of other times just before. The worst part of it was that when we conceded, I knew that was it. We weren't coming back, there just wasn't any fight in the side and the manager didn't have either the quality options, or the tactical nous to change the course of the game. The crowd went mad when he subbed Ngog for Babel. Not really sure to be honest. Ngog had tried hard and certainly put his strike partner to shame in terms of showing for the ball and general all round effort, but if Hodgson has subbed Torres I dread to think what the reaction would have been. Dirk was the other obvious choice, he was abysmal again, but I can't help think there'd have been booing whoever had been brought off. Aurelio for Konchesky was pretty pointless. We're losing a game, don't just swap left backs, get Maxi on or something. The crowd reaction to Konchesky was disappointing too. He did very little wrong in this game, and was one of the few that actually looked like he was trying. He's paying the price for being seen as 'Roy's Boy' and for some costly mistakes in previous games, and also that crap that went down with his ma on Facebook. I didn't think he deserved the treatment he got though, as at least he can say he tried his best. Not everyone in that dressing room can say the same. And what was with the Joe Cole change? Bringing him on to play centre mid and keeping him well away from their penalty area? Just fucking madness. He doesn't have the faintest idea what to do with Cole does he? I just hope whoever comes in to replace him has a better idea, as there's a player in there if we can find a suitable role for him. The owners have a decision to make now, and they can't shy away from it or try to ride this out. They wanted to let things amble along whilst they took stock and planned for next season, but that option is no longer viable. If we can lose so disappointingly at home to the team at the bottom of the table when we have more or less a full squad to choose from, that has to set alarm bells ringing. To then have the manager implicate the fans in the embarrassing home defeats, that's a bridge too far I'm afraid. Hodgson is right in that a lot of fans haven't supported him. No question about it, but that has nothing to do with the defeats to the likes of Blackpool, Northampton and Wolves. To even suggest that is outrageous and insulting, as even last night when some fans were chanting for Dalglish, there were just as many trying to drown it out by chanting 'Liverpool' to try and get behind the team. Cheeky bastard, he's got some nerve. Hopefully by the time the Bolton game rolls around, Roy won't need to concern himself with what the fans are chanting, and those players will no longer be able to hide behind his unpopularity. If we're to get back on track, we need strong leadership from the top. That means making decisions now that the owners were hoping to make later rather than sooner. If they know who they want, then forget about waiting until the summer, pull out all the stops and get him now. If they want the job, they'll have to force the issue and tell their present employers that they are leaving and we'll have to pay whatever compensation is required. If they don't know who they want, then they better decide pretty damn soon, and remove Hodgson regardless. Team: Reina; Johnson, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Konchesky (Aurelio); Meireles (Cole), Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt; Ngog (Babel), Torres:

LIVERPOOL 0 Utrecht 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Half Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Wed 15 Dec 2010 Star Man – Martin Kelly It was never going to be a classic, but damn, that was dull. I'm not sure I've ever been to a more dull game at Anfield. It obviously wasn't a completely inept performance because we didn't get beat, we never looked in any trouble and there were some good performances (notably from the younger players), but it was just incredibly, painfully dull. I can only think of two occasions where we went close to scoring, one in the first half when Jovanovic hit a screamer against the bar, and one in the second when Cole had a shot blocked by a defender. Aside from that, nothing happened. Utrecht didn't threaten us and I can't think of a single noteworthy chance they had. With that in mind, I guess credit has to go to the defence, and in particular 18 year old Danny Wilson. He had a steady game and didn't look like he shouldn't have been out there. But then it's easy to forget that this isn't just some lad we've plucked from our youth team, he's got plenty of experience and has faced better sides than Utrecht in his fledgling career. Both he and Jonjo Shelvey performed well, as did Martin Kelly. The problem for us wasn't at the back, it was further forward, where we were very short of inspiration. Eccleston made a surprise start up from with Babel, and he worked very hard but just didn't get the ball in any areas that he could do damage. Same with Babel, his work rate was fine, but his impact on the game was minimal and not what you need from your striker. In some ways it's understandable, as how often will Eccleston have partnered Babel up front, and how often will the likes of Cole and Jovanovic have played with those two? Even so, I don't think it's unfair to expect a bit more than we got, especially from people like Babel and Cole. And Poulsen too I guess. A player of his experience should be standing out in games like these if he expects to get back in the team. He was shit though, a complete non-factor in this game. Jovanovic did alright in flashes, despite playing on the right wing. Seemed a bit strange to me that Cole was left and Jovanovic right. I'd have thought it would have given us better balance had they been the other way around. Cole didn't look comfortable on the left at all, it seemed to me that any time he got the ball he was miles from goal. You don't want Joe Cole on the ball forty yards from goal, you want him on the edge of the box where his skillset can be put to its best use. We switched him to a more central, advanced role midway through the second half, and I thought he looked much more of a threat. I'm not sure where Cole fits into the team now, but for us to get the best out of him he needs to be as far forward as possible, and as close to the likes of Gerrard and Torres as possible. How we do that I do not know. For the time being he might have to get used to being on the bench, which isn't what we expected when we signed him in the summer. Big letdown so far, but I haven't given up hope on Cole by any means. Wish I could say the same for Babel, but I gave up on him some time ago. Pacheco came on in the second half, and he did ok without making it look like it was a mistake not to start him. He's a player with some promise, but the hype around Dani far exceeds his ability for me. Some will argue that for him to be able to show his best form he needs to be playing just off the striker. Perhaps, but he's not going to get the nod to play there ahead of the likes of Gerrard or Cole, not to mention the likes of Kuyt and Ngog. His best chance of getting in the side is in the wide areas, and hopefully he can continue to learn his trade and eventually become ready for the first team. Still got some work to do for me though. I'm really struggling for anything else to say. It was so uneventful, and I just hope all the kids who were in attendance (many for the first time), weren't put off for life after this. I'm sure there will have been a lot of disappointed youngsters when the team was announced and Torres wasn't in it. He was down to play, and Hodgson had said as much, but the Sports Science people stepped in and Hodgson 'saw the error of his way'. Fucking hell. His comments about Torres' omission were ridiculous, I cringed when I read them. It just made him look a dickhead. I'm not one for jumping on everything Hodgson says, in fact I'd say it's quite the opposition. For the most part I try to give him the benefit of the doubt when he puts his foot in his mouth, but this was just embarrassing and made him look weak. Not sure why they thought Torres needed the night off, he had a good rest at Newcastle last Saturday. Just about the only thing I enjoyed at the game was the performance of the Utrecht fans. They were brilliant from start to finish, and in the second half I was watching them more than I was watching the pitch. If their team had been able to match the performance of the fans, we'd have been in trouble. They couldn't though, and as poor as we were this was a game we never looked like losing. Sadly, we never looked like winning it either. Team: Jones; Kelly, Skrtel (Kyrgiakos), Wilson, Aurelio; Jovanovic (Kuyt), Shelvey, Poulsen, Cole; Eccleston (Pacheco), Babel:

LIVERPOOL 3 Aston Villa 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – David Ngog, Ryan Babel, Maxi RodriguezHalf Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Mon 6 Dec 2010 Star Man – Lucas Houllier's homecoming didn't go quite as he would have liked, as an under-strength reds side ran out comfortable 3-0 winners on a seriously cold night at Anfield. Villa were poor, but credit has to go to Hodgson and his players for that, who not only had to overcome the absence of Gerrard and Carragher, but also the late withdrawal of Torres after his missus went into labour. The players responded well, and the main men weren't missed at all. Defensively, Villa played into our hands in the first half by going with Agbonlahor as a lone frontman. I'd expected us to be facing Agbonlahor and Ashley Young, only to be told shortly before kick off that Young was suspended. Carew was only on the bench, as was the pacy Delfo..Delfuo.. Delf… the lad with the funny looking alien head. Seeing them line up with just one forward was a relief, as Kyrgiakos' lack of pace was a worry for me. As it turned out, Skrtel looked after Agbonlahor and Soto had a very comfortable first half. Houllier changed it at the break, introducing the pacy alien head and they immediately looked more threatening. They were 2-0 down by then though after an efficient opening 45 minutes from the reds. The first goal came from the unlikely route of a corner kick. I say unlikely, but when the Greek is in the side we do look dangerous. He wasn't directly involved in the goal though, it was Skrtel who headed the ball goalwards and Ngog who finished it off. He's got good goalscorer's instincts has Daveeed. Meireles' set pieces are catching the eye too. Shortly after it was 2-0. The once again impressive Lucas played a perfectly weighted ball over the top into the path of Babel, and his finish was excellent. "Who needs Torres when we've got the 'Dynamic Duo'!!" I remarked to the fella next to me. Tongue in cheek obviously, but credit where it's due, Babel and Ngog did a good job against Villa. I'm sure I wasn't the only one worried when I saw Babel had replaced Torres in the side. He did ok though, and Torres wasn't missed on the night. Still, I wouldn't want to go to Newcastle at the weekend with the same front pair. Villa offered nothing in the first half, and whilst we weren't exactly peppering Brad Friedel's goal with shots, we were well in control of the game and that was largely due to the way Lucas and Meireles bossed the middle of the park. I really like this pairing, they compliment eachother very well and have really hit it off in a short space of time. Maxi has also been in good form recently, and he continued that against Villa. Dirk was the weakest link in our midfield four, he gave the ball away a hell of a lot it seemed, and the combination between him and Johnson did fuck all in the first half. It improved after the break, when Johnson finally decided to cross over the halfway line and almost bagged a couple of goals for himself. Villa had come out for the start of the second half with much more purpose than they'd shown before the break. They went two up front and were starting to look quite threatening down the channels. The only real chance they carved out though came when Johnson failed to cut out a ball down Villa's left flank and we needed a great save by Pepe to keep them out. Had it gone 2-1, we'd have had a game on our hands. It didn't, and not long after we mad the game safe with a third. A beautifully crafted goal it was too. A quick release from Reina found Maxi in space who shifted it on to Ngog down the left. Maxi continued his run into the box, Ngog rolled the ball into him and he stroked it into the far corner. Just a classic counter attack, and great to see. We could and should have added to it. Johnson had two great chances to score, the first waqs saved and the second he blazed over the bar. Skrtel put a shot narrowly over too, and Ngog could have had another had he controlled Johnson's lovely backheeled pass. We played some nice stuff, and the scoreline was a fair reflection of the game. The shape of the team when we didn't have the ball was good too. There's been a lot of improvement in the last couple of months, and generally we're doing ok at the moment. There's been a couple of shockers, Stoke and Wigan, but other than that there's been definite improvement. Still a long way to go though, and we need to start picking up wins on our travels, starting this weekend at St James' Park. If we play like we did at Spurs, we'll be fine. If we play like we did at Stoke, we'll get beat. At least we're looking more comfortable at home, and if we were to play the likes of Blackpool and Sunderland now, we wouldn't be dropping five points that's for sure. With this game well and truly in the bag, the Kop decided to pay tribute to Houllier. The 'Allez Allez' chant boomed out, but he didn't respond. "Gerard, Gerard Houllier" was next. Again, no response. "Hou let the reds out" didn't draw a wave from him either. He said afterwards he was touched by it, but I also think he probably felt a bit uncomfortable. His team were 3-0 down, he will have been wary of what the Villa would think if he was milking the reception he got. Gary Mac also got his name chanted, and I'm pretty sure I did see a little wave from him. So all in all, a 3-0 win despite being without our three main outfield players is pretty good. The replacements stepped up and did a job, and we're now 8th in the table. Not good enough, but only one place below where we finished last season. There's a little bit of a gap opening between 4th and the rest though, and it's vital that we get something at Newcastle this weekend to stay in touch. Our home form has turned around, so now let's start picking up some wins on our travels. That's the biggest challenge facing Hodgson now. Hopefully he'll have Torres and Gerrard back to help him do it. If they are available, I'd pair them up front and keep Lucas and Raul together in the middle. Our midfield looks good, so what I want to see now is Gerrard and Torres as close to each other on the field as possible. As for the star man in this one, toss up between Lucas and Maxi, with honourable mentions to Ngog and Meireles. I'll go for Lucas as he was on for the full 90 minutes, but I thought Maxi was just as good if not better in the time he was on the field. Team: Reina; Johnson, Kyrgiakos (Kelly), Skrtel, Konchesky; Kuyt (Cole), Lucas, Meireles, Maxi (Aurelio); Ngog, Babel:

LIVERPOOL 3 West Ham 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Glen Johnson, Dirk Kuyt (pen), Maxi RodriguezHalf Time - 2-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 20 Nov 2010 Star Man – Maxi Rodriguez There probably isn't a Liverpool fan out there that would describe this season so far as anything other than terrible. And yet here are, just three points off 5th place. How'd that happen? Bizarrely, we're actually 'only' nine points off the top. Not that there's any chance of us clawing that back of course, but it just shows you how this league is wide open this year and a Champions League spot could be there for the taking. If only we weren't so hopelessly shit away from home. Despite that dire away form, had we beaten Sunderland and Blackpool at home we'd be a point off fourth place right now, as this league is so wide open. It's incredibly frustrating. This was as routine a three points as we're likely to have all season. We played very well, in the 1st half at least, and we got at West Ham right from the first minute. Has to be said though, they are as bad a side as we've seen at Anfield in some time. Without Scott Parker, they've got absolutely nothing. As soon as I saw he wasn't playing, I knew the Hammers had no chance. Gerrard being out is a big thing for us, but Parker's absence was much more significant as the impact he has on their team is so huge. Not wanting to take anything away from our performance, but they were pathetic. Still, you can only beat what's in front of you, and we did that. The first half performance was very good, we played some lovely stuff and deservedly led by three. The second half was a bit of a non-event, but we still could have added a couple more goals and when we could be bothered we played some nice stuff (the move that saw Maxi lob a shot inches past the far post being a highlight). It was disappointing that we couldn't add some more goals, as our goal difference is shit and had we added a few more to our tally we'd have moved up a couple of places in the table. But beggars can't be choosers, and the way things have been going for us I'm not going to get too upset that we didn't run up the score in the second half. We scored three goals and we picked up three points. We did it without Gerrard and Cole, so on the whole I've got to be happy enough. Whilst it's difficult to pass any kind of judgement on the performance due to the complete and utter ineptitude and lack of fight from the Hammers, I did enjoy the first half a lot and thought we played very well. We were on the front foot from the opening whistle, with Johnson marauding forward down the right and Ngog and Torres looking lively up front. I wrote in the match preview that it was vital that Meireles and Poulsen took control of the midfield, and they did. They completely bossed it. Meireles is just a good player, he's got good technique, comfortable on the ball, he's mobile and he's an excellent passer. He's looked good every time he's played in the middle of the park, so it's no surprise that he played well in this game. Poulsen on the other hand, well he's not had good experiences of home games against lesser sides. He stank against Sunderland and Blackpool, and there are big question marks over him. He must have known that had he got off to a bad start, the crowd would have been right on him. There was more pressure on him than on anyone else on the field, but he's experienced and has been around the block enough times to be able to cope. For all his limitations, a lack of mental toughness isn't one of them. Whilst any praise of him needs to be tempered by the fact it was West Ham and they were so, so bad, I don't think there can be any argument that Poulsen had a good game. He used the ball intelligently, his passing was crisp, and he did a steady job defensively when necessary. He's got a long way to go to prove himself to Liverpool fans, but at least he's looked like he's going in the right direction these last couple of weeks. Same can be said of Johnson. He has a lot to prove, as he hasn't played well at all and was apparently irked by his manager pointing that out. I didn't think he was anything special against West Ham either to be honest, and I was surprised that ESPN gave him man of the match. He did some good things, not least scoring the opening goal, but he was also sloppy in possession a bit too often for me. I'll live with that if he's producing runs and crosses like those in the first half of this game though. It was noticeable too that he was in the box when we had corners. With no Kyrgiakos in the side, we don't have too much height elsewhere and Johnson is decent in the air, so it makes sense putting him in there. It paid off with the opening goal, as a loose ball fell to him and he finished smartly, giving Green no chance. The second came from the penalty spot. I had a good view of it from where I was sat, it was a clear penalty as had the ball not hit the defender's hand (it actually looked like it hit both hands) Torres was going through on goal. The ref didn't see it though, it needed a flag from the linesman to draw his attention to it. Dirk doesn't miss pens, the outcome was never in doubt. 2-0. The third was nicely executed. Torres was denied by Green, but Konchesky picked up the loose ball and whipped in a fine cross onto the head of Maxi, and his perfectly glanced header found the corner of the net at the Kop end. It's been a long time coming for Maxi, he's gone close at Anfield on a number of occasions, but he finally got his first goal on home turf. It's irritating that this was the end of the scoring as West Ham were ripe for a bumming here. And let's face it, we could have done with a morale boosting rout of somebody to lift some of the negative feelings that have been surrounding the club since that defeat at Stoke. The second half wasn't terrible, but it just looked like the players eased off a bit. Against better opposition it could have been a problem, but even with our foot off the gas West Ham couldn't trouble us. For me the only Hammers player who came out of this with any credit was Picquionne. He kept going right till the end, and whilst he didn't cause us too many problems, he was the only one who even looked like he had any stomach for the fight. Fair play to him. Actually, Rob Green played well too. He made two absolutely stunning saves within seconds of each other to deny Torres and Poulsen. Torres was desperately unlucky, and what a goal it would have been. Lovely turn, blistering shot, stunning save from Green who tipped it onto the crossbar. Seconds later, Meireles rolled the ball across to Poulsen, who couldn't have hit his shot any better. It was flying towards the top corner, but Green hurled himself across the goal and tipped it wide. Substitute Aurelio fizzed a 30 yarded inches too high, and also headed over after a nice cross by fellow sub Babel. Maxi went close again too, when what looked like an attempted cross dropped over Green's head and inches wide of the far post. It was a lovely build up that led to it, but sadly those moves were few and far between in the second half, and this game ended as soon as the third goal went in. From then on, the only decent entertainment came from the West Ham fans. Obina blazed a shot miles over the bar, and it was met with a chant of 'That's why we're going down'. Avram Grant was then heckled with chants of 'You're getting sacked in the morning', and seconds later they were asking him to 'give them a wave'!! When he declined, they booed him. All very amusing stuff, but the funniest was still to come: "Avram Grant, he loves a brass!" was hilarious. I'd like West Ham to stay up for their fans (and for Parker), but then their owners are bad cunts and I wish them nothing but suffering, so I'm a bit torn on this. Looking at how they are playing though, it's difficult to see how they can get out of the mess they are in. As for us, well I'm not even going to read anything into this. I had my fingers burnt the other week, I really thought we'd turned a corner with the mini-run we went on, capped by the win over Chelsea (which is now not looking so impressive as every fucker is beating them now!). Then came Wigan and Stoke, and all that optimism evaporated. We did well against West Ham, but we were at home, and they are fucking rubbish. Let's see how we do away at Spurs next week. Star man is probably Maxi. Meireles and Poulsen did well, Torres had his moments and Johnson was good in the first half, but I'm going with Rodriguez as he was busy throughout, scored one and almost had a second. He's been playing quite well recently, although most of his better displays have been at home. A bit like the team as a whole actually. Team: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Konchesky; Kuyt (Aurelio), Poulsen, Meireles (Shelvey), Maxi; Ngog, Torres (Babel):

LIVERPOOL 2 Chelsea 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Fernando Torres (2) Half Time - 2-0Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 7 Nov 2010 Star Man – Lucas Leiva Are we out of the woods now then? It sure looks like. This was fantastic, a performance to be proud of. Torres is back, Lucas was immense, Kelly showed he belongs on the big stage, the crowd were well up for it and all in all it was a great day. Probably the best we've had since we beat the mancs at Anfield early last season. Of course, we could go and lose on Wednesday night at Wigan and it will be all doom and gloom again, but this impressive win over the Champions certainly suggests we're moving in the right direction now. The result in itself is cause for encouragement, but the performance is what really provides hope that we've turned the proverbial corner. We have to build on it now though. This was a fantastic display from each and every player in red. If I was giving marks out of ten, no-one would get less than an eight, and the manager would score highly too, as he got everything right, from his tactics, to team selection to substitutions. To put this in perspective, Chelsea had conceded only three goals all season prior to this game. They'd scored 27. The only team to beat them were Man City, and not many people fancied us to turn them over. I didn't 'expect' us to win, but I did think we had an excellent chance, especially when their team sheet was missing the names of Essien, Lampard and, crucially, Drogba. In my match preview, I went for a 2-1 win with Torres getting both goals. It was more hope than good judgement, but it was obvious that for us to have a chance at beating them we'd need Fernando to recapture his mojo. He did, and we won. It isn't rocket science. An in-form Fernando Torres means we've got a punchers chance against anybody. Combine that with ten other players performing to the level they did yesterday and we're more than a match for any team in the league. The problem we have is whether we can consistently play to this level. We'll find out in the next couple of weeks, because we've got some very winnable games to come. This was our third consecutive win in the league, and we've moved up the table to sit just on the coat tails of the top four. We're level on points with the much lauded Spurs, and we're only five points behind Arsenal and City. With the games we have coming up, we should be able to close that gap further if we can maintain the kind of form we've shown in the last three games. Roy surprised a few people with his team selection. Obviously no-one expected Kelly to start, least of all the manager who was forced into changing his plans late on when Johnson and Kyrgiakos were both ruled out on the day of the game. It wasn't just the personnel that raised eyebrows though, the switch to 442 was also not something many people expected. If it hadn't worked, he'd have been slaughtered for that. The 'dinosaur' jibes and mocking of an 'outdated formation' would have been deafening. It worked like a charm though. Kuyt played well up front alongside Torres, typified by the Dutchman's brilliantly executed pass that led to Nando's excellent finish for the opener. From that moment on, Torres had his old swagger back. Not even the snidey antics of Mongo and his cheap shot fouls could knock him out of his zone. This was the old Torres, who would get kicked and make people pay by scoring goals. Great for us to have him back, not so great for anyone we happen to be playing against. I can see an avalanche of goals coming his way now. The goal gave us the start we needed, the players were oozing confidence and the crowd were making plenty of noise. Best atmosphere for a league game in quite some time I'd say. The narrow midfield four of Meireles, Gerrard, Lucas and Maxi worked tirelessly to shut Chelsea down and they all used the ball well when we had it. Before the break we pressed the ball any time Chelsea entered out half, and we didn't give them any time to play. There were occasions where all four of our midfielders were hunting the ball together, and the second goal is a great example of it. Watch the video of it, and you'll see all four of them within ten yards of each other, as Meireles wins the ball in the centre circle and then plays the ball to Torres (who produced an absolutely majestic strike into the far corner to put us all in dreamland). Lucas and Maxi were right there with him, and Gerrard wasn't far away either. The second half was different, we didn't press as much, we generally got behind the ball and formed two banks of four. That's something Hodgson's Fulham were brilliant at, and it's something I have no problem with us doing in the right circumstances. I don't think it would be possible for us to play 90 minutes against Chelsea at the high tempo we played the first half, as I believe we'd run out of gas and they'd steamroller us in the closing stages. I could be wrong, maybe we are capable of playing that pressing game for an entire game, but I think it's asking a lot, especially against a team as good as Chelsea. We took it to them, got ourselves a two goal lead and then we made it difficult for them to get back into the game. Sitting back on a lead is not something I encourage, in fact I hate it, it does my head in. But there are times when you don't have much of a choice. Times like this, when you are against a clearly superior team and you have to defend. I wouldn't accept it against a Sunderland or Birmingham, or even a Spurs. But it's understandable against the elite sides in Europe, which Chelsea definitely are. Maybe I'm giving Hodgson too much credit, but I don't think we went out for the second half with the intention of sitting back and protecting what we had, I feel it was kind of forced on us. Chelsea sent on Drogba for the ineffective Kalou, and Cole and Ivanovic pushed right up the field and were playing more like wingers than full backs. Also, they clearly targeted Martin Kelly, and focussed most of their attacks down his side. We found ourselves under pressure, and as a result of that we were forced onto the back foot and for long spells we couldn't get out. A contributing factor to that was that we didn't pass the ball well enough to play our way out. Maybe in a few months time we'll be in position to do that, but at the moment we're still something of a work in progress and we couldn't do it as well as we'd have liked. Chelsea had us hemmed in, but let's not forget here, this is the best team in the country, they've had better teams than us under the cosh in the last couple of seasons. We stood up to it really well though, and they only produced two serious threats on our goal. The first saw Drogba fire a low cross into the middle to Malouda, but his close range shot hit Pepe in the chest. A great save, but more down to positioning than reflexes. The other opportunity they had saw Anelka hit a powerful drive that seemed to go under Reina's body. Pepe got enough on it to ensure it hit the ground and bounced up onto the underside of the bar, but it seemed certain that Drogba would put in the rebound. Somehow Carragher managed to get there first and divert the ball out of the striker's path, and it was scooped up by a relieved Reina. I think we all knew at that moment that this was our day. Drogba picked Carra up and gave him a hug after that. It was strange to see given the rivalry they've had in the last six years or so. But they've had so many epic battles that a mutual respect has clearly developed. Carragher played Drogba well in this game, but Chelsea are a completely different side with him playing. The day he eventually leaves them, they'll be a poorer side for it regardless of who they buy to replace him. Considering all the possession the visitors had in that 2nd half, it's testament to how resilient we were that they only had the two clear openings. There were a couple of other half chances, Ramires put a header over and Reina turned a Zhirkov shot into the side netting, but aside from that we were largely comfortable. I mentioned Chelsea targetting Martin Kelly. It wasn't due to anything he did wrong, but they naturally must have felt he could be a weak link and seemed to be concentrating on attacking down his side. Malouda and Cole were often joined by Drogba on that side, but a tactical reshuffle from Hodgson helped to stem the flow of attacks and got Kelly some much needed support. Dirk was withdrawn from his striking role to resume duties on the right, as Meireles moved into the attacking midfield berth in the 4231. I like the flexibility we showed in switching between formations when the situation required it, and I also liked the message sent out by Hodgson when he introduced Shelvey and Spearing despite having Jovanovic and Poulsen on the bench. Very encouraging seeing youngsters like Kelly, Shelvey and Spearing on the field at the end of such a big game, and let's not forget Ngog either. Two of those players were involved in the stoppage time move that should have led to a third goal. Lucas won the ball yet again, and cleverly back heeled it to Spearing. He picked out Ngog with an early pass, and the striker held it up well before delivering an inch perfect pass to the onrushing Maxi. His first touch took him past a defender and through on goal, and as Cech came out Maxi went round him before tumbling over. Howard Webb had a good position to see it, and gave a goal kick. At the time I couldn't see if contact had been made, but looking at the replay it should have been a penalty. On another day, Webb could have cost us, but thankfully this was not an important call, even though it would have been nice to put three past them and it would have moved us another couple of places up the table. A few weeks ago the idea of us playing as well as this and beating a side like Chelsea seemed far fetched in the extreme. But we've gone from playing absolutely horribly, to playing pretty damn well, and it's happened in just 3 weeks. It started with a solid display from the back ups in Naples, continued with a fine performance against Blackburn and a good win at Bolton, and then this. Who knows where we'll be in another 3 weeks, hopefully back in the top four. You'd think picking a star man would be difficult given how well everybody played, but it was pretty easy really. I imagine Sky and most of the papers went for Torres, but for me and pretty much everybody else I've spoken to, Lucas was the outstanding player on the field. A giant of a performance, like a combination of Mascherano and Hamann. He's been in great form since the Blackburn game, but this was his best yet. Take a bow son. Team: Reina; Kelly, Carragher, Skrtel, Konchesky; Meireles (Spearing), Gerrard, Lucas, Maxi; Kuyt (Shelvey), Torres (Ngog):

LIVERPOOL 3 Napoli 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Steven Gerrard (3)Half Time - 0-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Thu 4 Oct 2010 Star Man – Steven Gerrard Over the last ten years or so we've had some spectacular European nights at Anfield. This one doesn't come close to matching them, but even so, I was still buzzing when I came out afterwards. The atmosphere was great, remarkable even, considering this was a) 'only' the Europa League, and b) a group game that ultimately wasn't going to decide anything. The crowd were well up for this game, largely due to the bad blood between the two sets of fans following the attacks on Liverpool fans in the reverse fixture a couple of weeks ago. There were clashes in town on Wednesday night, and numerous kick offs inside and outside Anfield before, during and after the game. It wasn't pleasant, and hopefully it will be a long time before we have to face Napoli again. As for the game itself though, it was really enjoyable. Hodgson continued his balancing act between keeping players fresh for league games, whilst not fielding a totally weakened team. In the previous meeting between the sides, only a handful of the Premiership starters were given run outs, and Carragher and Kyrgiakos only got a half each. This was a slightly stronger side, but with Chelsea coming up at the weekend, Torres was never going to be risked and Gerrard was only on the bench in case of emergency. Good job he was really. I wasn't thrilled to see Shelvey line up on the right. I assumed Meirles would be there and Jonjo would be used behind the striker. I even stuck a fiver on him to get the first goal, but I knew when I saw him start the game out wide that I'd done my dough there. It's fair to say he struggled to get into the game, but that's understandable. He did ok overall though, and worked tirelessly, as did everybody else. The first half was fairly even, but Poulsen's mistake helped give the visitors a half time lead. It was a very poor header, but the punishment didn't fit the crime and most of the time we get away with that. To Napoli's credit, they were very clinical in making Poulsen pay, Cavani's clever header sending Lavezzi through and he finished well. It was the last thing Poulsen needed, as he's not exactly in the good books of most of the fans anyway after some poor performances, especially at Anfield. I didn't think we deserved to be behind, we'd done ok without playing particularly well, but Napoli were no great shakes either. We started very brightly, with Jovanovic prominent down the left flank. He got to the line a couple of times and got balls into the box, but nothing came of it. The longer the half went, the less dangerous we looked and the more comfortable Napoli seemed to get. Ngog had our best chance of the half after a fine move that ended with Poulsen playing a perfect through ball into his path. As the French youngster pulled the trigger, he was challenged by Dossena and the ball rolled wide. Best bit of defending we've seen from the Doss at Anfield. He would revert to type in the second half though, thankfully. Napoli had played ok and knocked it around a bit, but they weren't that much of a threat. Lavezzi was very impressive, he looks a fine player. Aside from him, I don't think they did much, and there really wasn't much in it in the first half. Roy had seen enough though, and wasted no time in getting the skipper on. As I watched him warm up on the field during the break, I assumed it would be Shelvey going off. The easy decision is to take the 18 year old kid off, especially when he's playing out of position anyway. It also crossed my mind that Spearing might make way. Not because he deserved to, as he'd done well and was certainly better than Poulsen. Again though, the easy option is to take off the youngster. I didn't think Jovanovic would be the one hooked, and I might be in the minority, but I thought he'd done alright. I liked the decisive action from Hodgson though, and from the moment the second half started we played at a higher tempo, with Gerrard setting the tone. Within seconds he'd slid in and make a great challenge, which got everyone going, and then almost immediately after he'd won us a free kick after bursting onto a loose ball and drawing a foul. We were excellent in the second half, and even though we left it late to get the goals, we were good value for the win. We should have been level earlier. Ngog saw a shot from close range hit the keeper's foot, which was a shame as it was a great build up and a nice cross from Shelvey. Meireles wasted an even better chance when he seized on a loose ball in the box and drilled a low shot wide of the post when he should have scored, and Gerrard blazed one high over the bar from ten yards too. They were all great opportunities, and it was one way traffic. Napoli were penned back and couldn't get out. Lavezzi didn't see as much of the ball, and Cavani and Hamsik did very little. People keep telling me how good Hamsik is. I thought he was a letdown in the world cup, and he's done fuck all in two games against us. I don't like him, there's a touch of the Anthony Le Tallec's about him. Shit hair, shit face, shit socks. Just shit. Being serious for a second, I realise he must be a good player, as loads of people buzz off him, but for me it's like Frank Ribery. Everyone says how great he is, but any time I see him he's garbage and comes across as a twat. Roy had made another change midway through the second period, sending on Eccleston for the much maligned Poulsen. A big cheer greeted that, and it wasn't for the arrival of young Nathan. The game had been crying out for him, as he's quick and direct, and will run at people. He made a good impression, and will hopefully get some more opportunities in the coming weeks to see if he can build on this. As for Poulsen, well it was the correct decision to take him off, but still, I'm sure I wasn't the only one half expecting it to be one of the young lads who made way. Spearing was playing better than Poulsen, and he deserved to stay on. That's not always a guarantee that it will happen though, and I was pleased to see Hodgson put his faith in Jay. Spearing had a good game, a few passes went astray but that's an occupational hazard for any central midfielder who's name isn't Xabi Alonso. He did his cause no harm with this performance. Napoli must have felt they had weathered the storm after we missed those three good chances, but we kept plugging away at them and the fans stayed patient. And then, eventually, we got ourselves a break. Dossena's poor backpass left the keeper struggling, but still, it didn't look like a goalscoring opportunity as Gerrard closed him down. But the skipper's determination won out, as his block challenge on the keeper saw the ball ricochet into the net, much to the relief of the Liverpool bench and of course the crowd. Anfield was bouncing now, and we went looking for the winning goal. We had to do it without Ngog though, who had cramped up and wasn't helped by a scandalous challenge by Aronica. Ngog was lucky he was able to get up from that, as it was a real leg breaker. We didn't even get a free kick, let alone the red card that it warranted. Lucas came on, and partnered Spearing in the middle, Gerrard moved back into the hole, Eccleston went to centre forward and Meireles and Shelvey filled the wide spots. The change proved to be a good one as we added two more goals and won the game. The second goal was the key, and again, there was an element of fortune about it. Johnson was tackled as he dribbled into the box, but got a nice bounce that sent him through and he nudged the ball past Aronica who got there late and brought him down. Poetic justice, as the twat shouldn't have even been on the field after his assault on Ngog. Gerrard was never going to miss the penalty, and even though the keeper went the right way the ball nestled right in the corner and we knew the game was ours. All that was left was for the skipper to get his hat-trick and put the cherry on the cake. Spearing headed the ball forward, and Lucas did very well to nip in and poke the ball into space to send Gerrard clear. The finish was sublime. In the end, the scoreline makes it look comfortable, when it really wasn't. For a long time we were staring down the barrel of a defeat, but that's the most impressive thing for me. It was willpower that got us this result, we made it happen. More specifically, Steven Gerrard made it happen. Of course, you can look at that as a negative, and say what would we do without him. Fair comment, but how long have we been saying that for? Too long really. If you want to be negative about last night, I guess you'd have to point to the first half, which wasn't terrible but wasn't good either. Without Steven Gerrard we'd never have won this game, but I'd prefer to look at the positives. It's our third win in a row, and we did it despite resting some players and being without the likes of Kuyt and Cole through injury. The manager gave some young players an opportunity to show what they can do, and his faith in them paid off. All in all, not perfect but a good night's work. Star man is obviously Gerrard, honourable mentions to Kyrgiakos again, Spearing and Eccleston. Meireles did well despite having to play in three different positions in the one game, whilst Lucas looked sharp again too even though he wasn't on long. The attitude and will to win is there, and the football is improving. Crucially, this was the most dynamic Gerrard has looked in some time. If we can get Torres playing to his best level too, we'll be in decent shape for when the re-enforcements arrive in January. We have to build on this run though, and turn the four match unbeaten run into ten. We've got a long way to go yet to get to where we need to be, but things are much better than they were just over a couple of weeks ago after that derby debacle at Goodison. A win over Chelsea on Sunday, and things would look a whole lot different. A tall order, but not impossible as we've got several players in really good form at the moment. The key, as ever, will be containing Drogba. More often than not we haven't been able to, but if we can keep him relatively quiet we can win this game. I'm looking forward to it, which given the mess we were in three weeks ago, is not something I thought I'd be saying. Team: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Konchesky; Spearing, Poulsen (Eccleston); Shelvey, Meireles, Jovanovic (Gerrard); Ngog (Lucas):

LIVERPOOL 2 Blackburn Rovers 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Sotirios Kyrgiakos, Fernando TorresHalf Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 24 Oct 2010 Star Man – Lucas Leiva Our best performance of the season by a long way. Admittedly, that's like being the best looking member of the Neville family, but fairs fair, this was a good display by anyone's standards. Well, for 70 minutes it was, until we ran out of gas and ended up hanging on a bit. The game should have been well out of Blackburn's reach by that point, as for the first time all season we showed up for the first half of a game. The biggest difference for me appeared to be the tempo we played at. We pressed Blackburn when they had the ball, and that's something we've not really done this season at all. It makes a huge difference, as it creates attacking opportunities for us higher up the pitch, it gets the players tails up and it gets the crowd into it. We tore into Blackburn early on, and created several clear chances in the opening 45 minutes. Rovers keeper Paul Robinson had a busy day. In addition to being his side's main playmaker, he was also having to make saves too. He should ask for a pay rise that lad. He made a smart save with his foot to deny Cole after Torres and Maxi had linked up very well. Meireles seemed certain to score from the follow up but lost his footing and put the ball wide. Robinson then denied Kyrgiakos when the big Greek met Gerrard's right wing corner, and the skipper himself was also foiled by a fine save by the former England man. That would have been a classic goal but for Robinson. It started when Reina plucked a cross out of the air, and quickly bowled the ball out to Gerrard. Red shirts swarmed out on the counter attack, and Gerrard carried it into the Blackburn half before playing it to Lucas through the centre. He picked out Maxi on the right, who then rolled it back into the middle for Gerrard, who's well struck first time shot was turned away by the flying Rovers keeper. There were other chances too. Lucas headed over after Kyrgiakos had flicked on Gerrard's corner, Meireles had a couple of sweetly struck shots from the edge of the box that were blocked by defenders, Torres had an opportunity that he scuffed and was blocked, and Maxi failed to connect with a glorious cross from Gerrard. We were all over Blackburn, but the goal just wouldn't come. They say that when you're at the bottom you don't get any luck, and we were finding that out. The crowd were great though. Right from the start they were behind the team, and they didn't get frustrated when the goal didn't come. Gerry Marsden had been wheeled out before the game to sing YNWA. Presumably it was done for the benefit of the new owners, some of whom were in the directors box for the first time (sat next to Broughton, who was singing YNWA, the big leg). My initial reaction when I saw Gerry was to cringe. In fairness though, it really got a great response from the crowd, it was a rousing rendition and the atmosphere was good all afternoon. Whether that would have continued if the second half hadn't gone well is another matter, but thankfully we didn't need to find out. All afternoon we looked dangerous from set-pieces, and that's pretty much completely down to one man. When Soto isn't in the side, we may as well not even bother taking corners. Might as well all stay back in position and just let Gerrard pass it back to their keeper. When Soto is there however, we look very threatening. He was our most dangerous player against Blackpool, scoring once and almost grabbing a late equaliser. Against Blackburn, he nearly scored in the first half, did score in the second and should have had two penalties but for the incompetence of Phil Dowd. The opening goal came when the Greek powered in a header from a Gerrard corner at the Kop end. Gerrard's corners were mostly excellent, but it helps when you have someone in the middle who can actually win headers. That goal was a massive relief, and I'm sure it wasn't just me who thought that the floodgates might open. Maybe they would have, except we left the back door open and got caught out. Benjani turned Skrtel in the box and squared the ball to the odious Diouf. His shot was weak, and Konchesky got back to clear off the line. Unfortunately, his clearance hit Carragher in the face and crept inside the post. I guess this is what happens when you're down in the basement. What made it worse, was seconds before we were denied the most blatant of penalties when Soto was shoved in the back as he attacked a looping ball. Everyone seen it, except the ref. Not getting the pen was bad enough, but to then see them go up the other end and score was a huge kick in the nuts. Our response was good though. There was no feeling sorry for themselves from the players, they just went out to try and get another goal, and they did do. Cole whipped in a great cross, Kyrgiakos and a defender went for it but it was over their heads, and Torres gleefully sidefooted in a volley from close range. No more than we deserved, and great for Torres. He wasn't at his best, but he was better, and he worked much harder than he has been doing at closing people down. The whole team did in fact, which leads me to believe that it was a change in tactics. Unfortunately, we couldn't do it for 90 minutes. Even if the first half it had occurred to me that we wouldn't be able to keep pressing for the entire game. I don't think we are the fittest team in the league, not even close. Our levels of fitness could be better in my opinion, and I was worried that we'd end up dropping off and stop pressing the ball so high up the field. It wouldn't have mattered if we'd been a few goals up, like we should have been and deserved to be. Soto was denied another pen, when he was manhandled to the floor as he went to attack yet another Gerrard corner. Ridiculous. But we weren't a few goals up, and Blackburn obviously knew they had a chance. They began to see much more of the ball, as we dropped deeper and stopped pressurising the man in possession. Whereas for the first hour or so, Meireles and Lucas were everywhere, winning back the ball and starting attacks, now we were on the back foot more and more. Hodgson clearly knew this, and made a bold move by sending on Ngog to partner Torres. Joe Cole made way for him, but I don't think it helped much. Closing people down is not a strength of Ngog's, he tends to lollop around and isn't good at putting people under pressure. Not sure if it's a case of him not trying to do it, or if it's just his running style makes it look like he's not busting a gut. Either way, he's no Dirk Kuyt is he? Despite Blackburn having a good amount of the ball, we held on without too many scares. The scoreline is a joke really, it makes it look close when for most of the game we battered them. The only criticism I can make is that we weren't clinical enough, but apart from that I was pleased with all aspects of the performance. I thought everybody played well, I can't criticise anyone. Both full backs got forward whenever possible, and Konchesky might have even got on the scoresheet if his first touch hadn't been so terrible when clean through. He started giving the ball away a bit late on though, but when we were on top I thought he made a god contribution. Kyrgiakos excelled at both ends of the pitch, whilst all the midfield and forward players were lively. The most pleasing thing for me was the centre of midfield. I don't think I've seen Lucas play better than this, and Meireles was good too. What I liked most about it, wasn't the individual displays, it was that we didn't play with a 'holding' midfielder as such. We played with two midfielders who attacked and defended. Like the old days, when McMahon and Molby ruled the roost. Lucas and Meireles weren't pigeon holed into one attacking and one defending, they each did both. If one went forward, the other sat in. Lucas did more sitting, but he was by no means playing a defensive role. I thought he had a great game, and hopefully we'll see more of the same, not just from him but from the team and also the manager. We were positive, and got our reward. We need to do exactly the same next week at Bolton, and if we played like this against Chelsea the week after we'd have a decent chance of beating them. I'm encouraged by what I saw in this game, but it is just one game and we need to see much more of this before people will begin to believe in this team, and more specifically it's manager. It's a start though. Team: Reina; Carragher, Skrtel, Kygiakos, Konchesky; Lucas, Meireles; Maxi (Shelvey), Gerrard, Cole (Ngog); Torres:

The cat is fine now, thanks for your concern. He broke his pelvis, but he's recovering well.

LIVERPOOL 1 Blackpool 2 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Sotirios KyrgiakosHalf Time - 0-2 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 3 Oct 2010 Star Man – Sotirios Kyrgiakos How bad are things going to get? Is this rock bottom, or have we got further to fall? In the last couple of weeks, we've been beaten at home by Northampton and Blackpool. Not just beaten, but deservedly beaten. We're a fucking mess, and I don't see where our next win is coming from. We've got so many players who are just not performing to an acceptable level, and we have a manager who many fans did not want and as a result are unwilling to give him time to turn things around. Whatsmore, he's not showing anything to suggest they are wrong. A growing number of fans want Roy Hodgson out already, as witnessed by the chant for 'Dalglish' towards the end of this sorry performance. Under normal circumstances, I'd be appalled that fans could have rushed to condemn a new manager so quickly without giving him a chance to make his mark. Seven league games he's had. SEVEN!!! But these aren't normal circumstances. Far from it. I'm not going to join in with the clamour for Hodgson to be removed from his position, but I'm not going to condemn those who are either. I hope they are wrong, but I'm certainly not going to tell them they are as I've not seen anything yet to make me want to vouch for Roy and say he's on the right track. In some ways he's on a hiding to nothing. A lot of people didn't want him to get the job. Whether that's because they didn't want the previous manager replaced, or whether it was because they wanted Kenny to get it, or simply because they didn't think Hodgson was good enough, it doesn't really matter. It was a lot of people. Roy Hodgson had it all to do if he was to convince them he was up to the challenge. So far, all he's done is reaffirmed their opinions on why he should never have been given the job in the first place. Personally I don't fall into any of the above categories. I was fine with his appointment and more than willing to give him time to get the team playing the way he wanted. I still am, but I can't pretend that I don't have serious worries. Is he going to be our version of Mike Walker, or will he turn things around the way he did when he had that difficult start at Fulham? Too early to say for sure, but it isn't looking good. And now that he appears to have already lost a significant section of the fanbase, I'm not really sure there's any way back for him after that 'Dalglish' chant. We have to stew on this defeat for two whole weeks now, and then what? The Goodison derby, against an Everton side who's results have not reflected how they have been playing. I fear the worst. I fear a humiliation. We've just been outplayed at home by Blackpool. There's nothing to suggest we can go to Everton and get a result. Nothing at all. Our biggest goal threat against Blackpool was big Soto for Christ's sake. He scored one, and went close a couple of other times. What does that say about the rest, when our fourth choice centre back is our most likely source of a goal? We're proper shit, there's no escaping it. I don't think Roy helped himself at all with the team he picked. Why move Carragher to left back? Presumably it was because Kelly had a 'mare in midweek against Utrecht, but I thought it was a poor call and meant we were weaker in the middle and had nothing going forward from the left. Another poor call was once again using Meireles out wide instead of central. It's Blackpool, they play football and they let you play football. Whoever does it better should win the game. If you can't play Meireles and Gerrard central against them, then just who are you going to do it against Roy? We just didn't need Poulsen in this game, and just like against Sunderland we ended up having to bring him off and put Meireles central whilst we tried to salvage a point. Why not just do it from the start? Poulsen was shit, just as he was against the Mackems. He wasn't alone though. There are a lot of players on big money, with big reputations, who are contributing absolutely fuck all right now. On the one hand I feel sorry for Hodgson because he needs more from these players. On the other, I think it's his job to get more from them and he isn't doing it. The big problem he has, is that some of these players deserve to be dropped, but he is either unwilling to do it (Poulsen), or unable to as in some cases he doesn't have anyone else to bring in. For example, Glen Johnson really, really deserves to be dropped. Kuyt isn't worth a shirt right now either, and for whatever reason Torres isn't giving us what we need from him. What can you do though? We sent on Jovanovic to try and turn this game around. THAT is how weak the squad is. And yet Jovanovic is a player who would be well out of the reach of a club like Blackpool, who regard DJ Campbell as a massive signing. Compare DJ Campbell with someone like Babel. Or Charlie Adam (best player on the pitch) with Lucas or Poulsen. This is what doesn't make sense, we just shouldn't be this shit. We need our first eleven to be fit, and on form. If that were to happen, we'd be better than most. But it isn't happening, either through the fault of the players themselves, or because of how they are being coached and instructed to play. Regardless of what it is, the manager has to get the players performing, and so far Hodgson has been unable to do it. It's easy to blame him, and say he's out of his depth or whatever. Maybe he is, but here's what I don't get. We were fucking shit last season too. So that's Rafa Benitez and Roy Hodgson, two respected coaches with vast experience, who couldn't get this group of players playing decent football. And yet you look at Blackpool and Ian Holloway. A squad full of Championship level players and a relatively unproven manager, yet they play the game the way most of us like to see it played. Positive approach, passing and movement, an attacking mentality and all working for eachother. There's nothing complicated about it. How can a manager like Holloway get players of that level performing to the standard they are and playing the attractive football they do, and yet two top coaches with vast experience around Europe can't seem to get a load of international players to produce any kind of decent attacking play? I don't understand it at all. It can't just be the managers, but ultimately it is the manager's job to get them playing well, and that hasn't been happening. That's why Rafa had to go, and it's why Hodgson will follow unless he can find the solution. The scary reality is that Blackpool looked a much better side than us. They really did. They were the better side in the first half, not two goals better, I thought that was harsh on us, but we didn't play well and Blackpool always looked more dangerous than we did. The opening goal was a gift, shocking defending from Johnson, but the second was the kind of football I want to see from us. If they can do it, why can't we? Seriously, why? We had a good spell in the second half where we scored and then penned them back for twenty minutes or so, but they weathered that storm and almost added a third. The most disappointing thing for me was that when we didn't get the second goal during that good spell, we looked like we gave up. The last ten minutes were a joke, there was no belief at all from those players that they could get back into it. Kyrgiakos being the exception, he clearly felt he could score and attacked every ball into the box with a purpose that was lacking in all of our front players. He almost nicked a point for us, but was denied by a great save. It's a horrible time to be a Liverpool fan. We've got the ownership thing hanging over our heads, and on the field things are going from bad to worse. There doesn't appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel, and we now have the worst possible fixture coming up. We need big characters, big performances from our top players and everyone playing for each other at Goodison. Does anyone actually think we'll get any of that? Not me, I bet the blues are rubbing their hands together in anticipation of this one. We are third from bottom, and it isn't a false position. To add to our woes, Torres is crocked again. His performance level has been really poor, but he's still made vital contributions to what little attacking play we've produced this season. Ngog simply can't fill those boots, it's unfair to expect him to and no-one else is stepping up either. Kuyt, Jovanovic, Babel…. contributing virtually nothing. Even Joe Cole, for all his nice touches and ability on the ball, he's not really produced any end product either. He wasted a glorious chance to get an equaliser against Blackpool when he shot wide when clean through, and you have to say he needs to do more. They all do. It's hard to believe things have gone this bad this quickly. I stood looking at the Kop after the game as the protest was in full swing. Three years ago we were in a Champions League Final. Now we have thousands of fans chanting 'All we are saying, is sell up and go' to the owners, as we sit in the relegation zone having just lost at home to Blackpool. Ten days earlier, we'd been knocked out of the league cup at home by a struggling league 2 side. It's all very surreal. Imagine if on the night we lost to Milan in Athens, someone told you that this is where we'd be three years later. No-one would have believed it, and yet here we are. It's scary. Where will we be in three more years? There was not a single positive to take from this game. Not one. It was humiliating, embarrassing, infuriating. The lowest point I can remember in many a long year in fact. As far as shit days go, this was right up there, especially on a personal level as some smack rat robbed a bag of fanzines from my arl fella before the game, and I then got home to find that our cat had been hit by a car, meaning I've spent the past two days at the vets (which is why this report is so late) and now have a bill of over £500 and counting. It never rains but it pours eh? Team: Reina; Johnson, Skrtel, Kyrgiakos, Carragher; Meireles, Poulsen (Jovanovic), Gerrard, Cole (Maxi); Kuyt, Torres (Ngog):

LIVERPOOL 2 Sunderland 2 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Dirk Kuyt, Steven GerrardHalf Time - 1-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Sat 25 Sep 2010 Star Man – Joe Cole Another desperately disappointing overall display from the reds, it started and ended well but was awful in between. We failed to make the most of a bright opening which included a gift from the shocking Stuart Atwell that put us one up, and Sunderland deservedly hauled themselves back into the game and then into the lead. A rousing finale saw us draw level and almost win it, but as welcome as the three points would have been, they wouldn't have been a true reflection of the game. Basically, once again we were a bit shit. Worryingly, this was a full strength side too. Hodgson went with a 442 line up, featuring Meireles and Cole on the flanks and the fit again Kuyt alongside Torres. There does seem to be some uncertainty about what's our best system, and maybe it will continue to change from game to game. So far, it doesn't matter whether we've played 4231 or 442, we've not looked good with either. I don't think the formation is our biggest problem, although it would be nice if we settled into a system and stuck with it for a while so the players can get into a rhythm. For me, confidence is a big factor in our poor form so far. We look good in flashes, but don't put anything together for sustained periods. This game was a good example of it. Why can't we start games with the intensity and tempo that we finished this one? Last twenty minutes, we looked very good I thought. Before that, we were second best to a very average Sunderland team. Much has been said about the form and body language of Torres recently, but he started this game looking as sharp as he's done for a long time. The disallowed goal for example, what a finish that was? It takes a huge amount of skill to bring a ball down on the chest and then finish more or less all in the one movement. The goal wasn't given, it was a borderline decision that could have gone either way, and it's typical of what's happening to Torres at the moment. Nevertheless, it was encouraging to see him produce a flash of brilliance like that. He played a big part in the opening goal for Kuyt too, but not as big a part as the referee. I didn't see it at the time, ironically I was asking the fella next to me who this fucking shit ref was after he'd given a stupid decision against Meireles. Next thing, I look at the pitch and Torres and Kuyt are running through on goal, whilst everyone else seemed to have stopped. Even Torres was a little hesitant, as though he expected a whistle to halt him in his tracks. It didn't come, so Torres unselfishly rolled it Kuyt who put it into the empty net. Sunderland's players went mad, trying to pressure Atwell into changing his decision. Carragher was in the middle of it wagging his finger telling him he has to give the goal, much to the annoyance of the Sunderland players. After consultation with the linesman, the goal stood. Having now seen it on TV, that was a ridiculous decision. They took the free-kick, and Atwell told them to take it from further back. So Turner casually back heeled it towards the keeper, clearly for him to take the kick. It's obvious what was happening when you watch it, but you can also see that Atwell wasn't looking and didn't know what had happened. I'm not surprised Steve Bruce went mad on the sideline. But as a message I received from a mate at the time said: "Beach ball karma, fuck you fathead!" Atwell had been terrible even before that clanger, but he got worse after it. So did we though. We'd started at a good tempo and Meireles and Cole were looking lively, but it seemed to me that every thirty seconds or so there was a stoppage, as Atwell continually kept blowing for fouls any time two players challenged for a ball. The game got really scrappy, and so did our play. As we lost our momentum, Sunderland began to get into the game, and with Atwell at this stage looking to do whatever he could to make it up to them after his cock up for the goal, there was no way he wasn't going to give a penalty when Poulsen inexplicably handled. Totally correct decision, but what the hell was Poulsen doing? He wasn't protecting his face, as it was his left hand and that was behind his head. Why would you put your hand up like that as a cross comes in? Hodgson wasn't happy with the decision, but he'd have been livid had it not been given at the other end. Definite pen. Bent stepped up and in typical fashion managed to score in scrappy style. Poor penalty, should have been saved, but it squirmed under Pepe and they were level. Typical Darren Bent. They grew in confidence after that, and we basically stopped playing. Torres grew frustrated and began mouthing off at Atwell (can't really have a go at him or any other player on the field for that), Meireles and Cole were not seeing as much of the ball now and Sunderland got on top in midfield. Once again, you have to say it was another shite first half. Things didn't pick up after the break either, not until Gerrard's goal cancelled out Bent's second. Sunderland had deservedly gone in front when Bent's flying header from Onuoha's brilliant cross left Reina helpless. Johnson was caught out, allowing Bent to nip in front of him on the back post. The full back was crap again, and he's doing my head in at the moment. He just seems so lackadaisical, he needs a rocket up his arse as he just looks like he's half asleep most of the time. If you're an £18m full back who is suspect defensively, then you better be shit hot going forward to make up for it. Johnson's not doing it at either end of the field right now, and he needs to pull his finger out. Maybe he'd do better playing further forward with Martin Kelly behind him. Something to think about surely? At 2-1 down, and Sunderland playing the better football, Hodgson had to do something. I was critical of him for his use of substitutes the other night against Northampton, but I liked what he did this time. I expected Kuyt to be the one to make way, as he's been out a while and maybe he wasn't fully fit. So it was pleasing to see that Poulsen was the one to go, and not just because he had a shocker. It was a positive move, going with Gerrard and Meireles in the middle, and it paid off. Gerrard started and finished the move that drew us level, breaking out of defence and finding Torres out wide, before charging into the box to head in Nando's deflected cross. That goal was what we needed, it gave everyone a lift. The crowd got into it, the pace of the game quickened and we actually started to look pretty good. It's a pity we didn't have someone better than Ngog to bring on, as moves tend to break down a lot when they reach him, but we don't really have anyone better. We almost grabbed the winner when his shot was only parried by the keeper, and Joe Cole seemed certain to put in the rebound. Anfield was about to erupt in celebration, but a defender (Bramble I think) got in to make a fantastic block. Sunderland's time wasting was getting ridiculous, with manc shithouse Danny Welbeck spending more time on the floor than a roll of carpet. He was involved in an incident that led to calls for Gerrard to be sent off. I didn't see it at the time, all I saw was Welbeck go down and the ball falling to Meireles, who started running towards goal. The ref saw this, and didn't blow his whistle. Then, a couple of seconds later he blew up. If he saw a foul, he should have blew straight away, so why didn't he? He wasn't waiting to see if Sunderland had an advantage, as our player had the ball, so what was he doing? Having seen the replay, it was a free-kick, but that isn't the point. Why didn't he give it immediately, instead of waiting for their players to complain about it and then blow the whistle? He's an incompetent fool, the only surprise is that he didn't make things worse by sending Gerrard off. For me, Gerrard was using his arm for leverage, he wasn't trying to take the lad out, but given that he'd booked Torres and Kuyt for absolutely fuck all, the captain should be relieved he didn't get a red. We continued to push for the winner, and when the board went up to signal six minutes that gave everyone a lift. A couple of those minutes were for a clash of heads between Carra and Skrtel that saw Skrtel having to wear a red headband and Carra go off for stitches, whilst the other four will have been for the time it took that tat Welbeck to make his way across the field after he was subbed. Substitute Daniel Agger (on in the 1st half for the injured Konchesky) missed a great chance to win it at the death when he put a free header wide after a Skrtel flick, but I think the flag had gone up for offside anyway (I could be wrong, not that it matters really). We didn't deserve to win this game, we were second best for long spells of it, and it was pretty disheartening. More and more people are becoming disgruntled with Hodgson, and I keep hearing the same expressions being bandied around: "Job's too big for him" "Out of his depth" "Still thinks he's at Fulham" etc They may prove to be right, time will tell. I'm not going to put up any argument against it, but at the same time I'm not going to join in with it either as it's too early to write Hodgson or the team off. If I remember rightly, he had a terrible start at Fulham too, and then it suddenly clicked. I'm clinging to the hope that's what happens here too, but we're going to have to start picking up wins soon as what we've seen hasn't been good enough. Forget the Arsenal, City and United games. They are top sides, and were never going to be easy games. What worries me is the fortunate point we got at Birmingham, and the disappointing performances against West Brom and now Sunderland. We need to step it up, as it's not good enough and every poor performance merely gives those who didn't want Hodgson the opportunity to say 'told you so'. He won't be judged the same way that Houllier and Benitez were, because many fans had already formed their opinion of him before he arrived. Houllier and Benitez were relative unknown quantities with impressive CV's. That cuts a lot of ice with people, as does the fact they were adapting to a new country and style of football. Hodgson, rightly or wrongly, doesn't have any of that, and that's why he's getting it in the neck from some so early into his reign. I'll give the star man to Joe Cole. I enjoyed watching him play, he's got this knack of wriggling out of situations where he looks as though he's over run the ball or he's going to lose it. Clever player, very skilful and someone we need to get the ball too as he can make things happen. Could just as easily have gone to Gerrard though. The protest after the game was a success, as there looked to be considerably more people who stayed behind for this than in previous ones. We're at home again next week, so presumably there will be more action planned for that one. The next few weeks could shape the future of our club for years, it's vital that those two cancerous cunts don't get refinanced, and it's also vital that the RBS do the right thing by us and call in that loan and take control of the club. They've made over £40m out of LFC since last April on the back of their decision to give them a six month extension, so it's time they gave something back. Call it in RBS, and then sell to someone fit and proper. Team: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Konchesky (Agger); Meireles, Gerrard, Poulsen (Ngog), Cole; Kuyt, Torres;

I agree, but if anyone should have made way for Shelvey it was Lucas, not Spearing. Lucas went missing for a huge part of the 2nd half. I remember saying to my mate I hadn't seen him touch the ball for about 20 minutes. Shelvey was very good when he got on, and it's a pity he didn't get more time on the field.

LIVERPOOL 2 Northampton Town 2 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Milan Jovanovic, David NgogHalf Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Wed 22 Sep 2010 Star Man – Jay Spearing This was absolutely brutal. Terrible, terrible performance and we got what we deserved in the end. We're lucky we even took is as far as penalties, as this was wretched, inexcusable stuff. I thought the team selection was fine, no problem with that. Those players we selected should have had more than enough to see off Northampton, but they didn't perform. I wouldn't absolve the manager of blame either, there are certainly things I think he could and should have differently in terms of use of his substitutions, but the players have to look at themselves too, as some of them should be doing much, much better than this. I'm not exaggerating when I say that the side we will field in this year's FA Youth Cup would have put up a better display than this. No doubt in my mind. What makes it even worse is that we got off to a good start and took the lead early. That should have made it easier for us, but instead we got complacent. Jovanovic was a lock to score the first goal in this game from the moment I changed my mind about betting on him. I went into the bookies with the sole intention of placing a bet on the Serb to open the scoring, but I didn't like the odds and got greedy. I went for Babel instead, committing the cardinal sin of changing my bet. When that happens, the law of Sod usually lays down punishment, and that's what happened, Agger's through ball sending Jovanovic clear, and he finished expertly into the far corner. So far so good. It was downhill from there though. The four attacking players just didn't produce. Jovanovic was the best of a bad bunch, with Ngog probably the worst, he was dreadful. Pacheco never looked happy out on the right side of a 442, and Babel did nothing to back up his claim that centre forward is his true position. The most alarming thing for me about Babel's performance was that he was actually trying very hard. We can't even say he's shit because he isn't interested. He WAS interested, even to the point that he was playing the part of cheerleader at half time in extra time, geeing up his team-mates. I think that distresses me even more. I don't even think this was a case of Northampton raising their game because of the occasion. I didn't think they played especially well going forward, they were ok but it wasn't like the Reading game last year where the opposition seemed to play well above themselves. Northampton played as I'd have expected them to, the problem was that we were just so bad. The alarm bell was ringing with me at half time, even though we were winning. There were shades of Grimsby about this, and so it proved. They drew level by exposing the achilles heel that's been on show with us all season. Crosses. We didn't deal with it, they scored. We were in trouble now, as they had their tails up and their large following in the Anfield Road end could sense an upset. It's at this point that I'm thinking Roy has to make a change. It wasn't working, we weren't threatening them, and we had attacking players on the bench. There were any number of people who could have been brought off, yet the manager did nothing, and the game continued in the same disappointing vein until the referee eventually blew for the end of ninety minutes. Hodgson didn't even get off the bench in the second half, he just sat there watching it unfold. Extra time was a different matter, he made changes, he was up off the touchline and looked a lot more interested. But it was too late. Jovanovic made way for Eccleston. Fair enough, I'd have brought Eccleston on much sooner and the Serb can have no complaints about getting pulled. I'd have brought Shelvey on sooner too, but I'd have hooked Lucas instead of Babel (not that the Dutchman has any grounds for complaint mind). Shelvey went to the right wing, which seemed strange to me. Pacheco had been out of position there all game, and had not looked comfortable at all. Why put him in the middle at such a late stage, when you could have switched him and Babel much sooner? And why put Shelvey out of position, on his debut? Shelvey wasn't on the right too long, as soon after Hodgson ended Pacheco's suffering by sending on Tom Ince. Again, this seemed strange to me when you have David Amoo as an option. He's the man in form, with three goals in as many reserve games this season. He played well against Rabotnicki, and more to the point, he's a natural right winger. Why send on an untried left winger and play him out of position? Baffling. We were behind at that point, after conceding a terrible goal at the Kop end in the first period of extra time. Danny Wilson got skinned, and although Jones made a great save they scored from the follow up. Wilson had a bit of a 'mare to be honest, I felt sorry for the lad as he didn't look comfortable at full back at all. A very tough debut for him, and you'd have to think his chances will be limited now that we are out of this cup. We should loan him out, as reserve football is no good for someone at his stage of development. At 2-1 down, Hodgson's solution was to send Kyrgiakos up front. A bit embarrassing, but if the manager felt that gave us a better chance of getting something from the game then I guess he has to do it, regardless of how embarrassing it looks. We were better after that change, much better. We went 3 at the back, with Wilson moving the middle and Agger going left of the three with Kelly on the right. We had Spearing and Lucas in the middle, with Ince, Shelvey and Eccleston behind Ngog and Kyrgiakos. We started to put pressure on them, and you could sense a goal coming. Shelvey's delivery from set-pieces was very impressive, and Northampton were struggling to deal with it. Eventually the goal came, the Greek flicked on a Shelvey corner and Ngog turned it in. He'd probably been the worst player on the pitch, yet once again he was coming away with his name on the scoresheet. I thought we'd probably go on to get the winner before time was up, but it was Northampton who went closest, when Jones flapped at a cross and Kelly had to make a brilliant clearance off the line. I always fancy us on pens, but this one was a bit more up in the air because I wasn't sure about whether Jones was any good at stopping them, and we had a lot of young players who would have to step up to take them. It started well, as they blazed one over the Kop end goal, but Ngog then put his wide. We never recovered from that, as they were faultless from then on (although Jones looked like he should have kept one of them out I thought) and even though Agger and Shelvey showed cool heads, Eccleston hit the bar and that was that. Cruel on Nathan, he had the nerve to step up and take one, and he's usually very cool from the spot. Hodgson pulled no punches afterwards, he didn't try to defend his team, in fact he basically threw them under the bus, saying they should be good enough to win this game regardless of how many changes he made: "These are players brought to the club, some of them very expensive with big reputations - maybe I don't know them well enough yet, certainly they haven't done themselves too many favours in my eyes. When you've got a squad with players who have come here for big money, this was a chance for them to show they're great players - unfortunately, and full credit to Northampton, we weren't good enough to beat them. All I can do is congratulate Northampton and apologise to everyone; the fans came expecting to see us win and I expected us to win but it wasn't to be. These players have to accept responsibility. I accept responsibility for changing a lot of players in the team, I did it because I honestly thought the players I put on the field were good enough to win the game and they weren't." How do I pick a star man from that? No-one played especially well, although some are much less to blame than others. Spearing did nothing wrong, Kelly got better the long it went on, Shelvey was good in the limited time he had on the field, whilst I thought Kyrgiakos and Agger were generally ok. I'll go for Spearing mainly by default, as although he wasn't outstanding I didn't see anyone that was better than him. Just a really shit night all round, topped off by having to walk back to the car in torrential rain. Things are proper shit at the moment aren't they? Team: Jones; Kelly, Kyrgiakos, Agger, Wilson; Pacheco (Ince), Lucas, Spearing, Jovanovic (Eccleston); Babel (Shelvey), Ngog:

Any time things like that get posted, they end up being removed because of copyright issues.

LIVERPOOL 4 Steaua Bucharest 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Joe Cole, David Ngog 2 (1 pen), LucasHalf Time - 1-1 Venue - Anfield Date - Thu 16 Sep 2010 Star Man – Jay Spearing / Joe Cole The feast after the famine. Goals have been a little thin on the ground for us of late, so it was nice to see a largely second string side put four past decent opposition. Steaua aren't a particularly good side by any means, but they aren't complete mugs either, so for our back ups to put four past them is a decent night's work. There were still some flaws in the performance, most notably yet another disappointing opening 45 minutes, but the second half was good and several players did their first team prospects no harm at all. It started perfectly, as some absolutely horrific play from their centre half presented Joe Cole with a clear run on goal, and he finished in style, slotting the ball in off the far post with a little over 30 seconds on the clock. I had a fiver on him to get the first goal, and I'm on a roll in this competition having also backed Babel in the last European tie at Anfield. With such a great start, I was hoping we could blow them away in the first half, but it never worked out like that, as we lost our way once again. We were doing ok, but then out of nothing they burst through the centre and equalised. It caught me completely unawares, I don't really know how it happened as I haven't seen the replay yet. Apparently Spearing slipped, and then Kyrgiakos was just outpaced. The lad finished it very well to be fair. They had a little spell after that of about ten minutes, and things weren't looking too good for us. We weathered that mini storm, and things were much better after the break. It's incredibly frustrating how we haven't been able to play well in any first half this season though. It's incredible really, just what is the problem? Hopefully we'll put this one to bed at the weekend by putting on a show at Old Trafford, but I guess a lot will depend on what team Roy picks. Joe Cole will certainly be in it, but will Meireles? I'd like to think so, and I thought he showed enough in this game to show he's ready. He was very tidy, covered plenty of ground and showed what a good shot he has. Along with Spearing and Cole, I thought he was one of our better performers. Those three bossed the second half, and we played some nice stuff. However, it seemed that virtually every attack we had came to a halt whenever the ball went to Ngog (or failing that, Babel). Ngog's play was really poor on the night, but once again the lad has come away with a couple of goals. You can't knock that I guess, and I suppose if his all round game was better he'd have cost us a hell of a lot than the relative pittance he cost us. He's there to score goals, and he does it. The system we play though demands more from the lone striker, and the overall team play suffers if the frontman isn't holding the ball. This was a problem, especially in the first half. He improved a lot after he got on the scoresheet though, which is probably a lot to do with confidence, as the same happened when he scored that cracker against Arsenal. His first goal was from the penalty spot, and from where I was sat it looked a stonewaller. I haven't seen any replays, but it looked to me like the lad yanked Kyrgiakos back by his shirt as he attacked a corner. There was a big appeal from the crowd, and the ref had a clear view of it. He also booked the perpetrator. Ngog took the responsibility, and it was a class pen. Gave the keeper the eyes, put it in the other corner. Excellent. We were well on top second half, but despite some promising build up play it always seemed to break down when it got to the penalty area, usually as Ngog or Babel gave it away. I thought overall Babel was ok. Not good, but not bad. I'd liked to have seen him do more with the ball, but at least he worked hard, which hasn't always been the case. He was chasing people down, getting a foot in and generally putting a shift in. He looked like he wanted to be out there, which again hasn't always been the case. He did some good things, and some bad things, but for the most part I felt he was receiving the ball in areas where he was never likely to do anything (and no, I don't mean that 'big green area called a pitch'). By that, I mean with his back to goal, and near the half way line. He's not gonna do anything there, other than maybe lose it and put us in trouble. I'd have liked to have seen him up front, but then Ngog needed the game and we were short of players who could play wide, so Babel ended up there by default. Might have been worth having a look at him on the right though, I don't know why any of the coaches he's worked with use him exclusively on the left as opposed to right, but there has to be a reason and they can't all be wrong, can they? Babel eventually made way for Lucas, as Hodgson looked to sure things up. I didn't like it, I thought it was negative and I'd have much preferred Pacheco or even Eccleston on as a straight swap. It did cross my mind that the change was made so Roy could have a look at Meireles in the advanced midfield role and Cole on the left, but his comments afterwards suggest it was just a case of wanting to protect the 2-1. It turned out somewhat differently, as Lucas produced a rare goal to make the game safe. And what a goal! His first touch travelled almost the same distance as the shot, but that was a hell of a hit wasn't it? Even Gerrard would have been pleased with that strike. Ngog wrapped it up with an excellent finish, the chance coming about after he got a lucky bounce after not laying the ball off when he should have. That's Ngog though, he doesn't look convincing but he gets goals. Six for the season now, and we're only in the middle of September. Star man was a toss up between Spearing and Cole. Jay kept things ticking over, was always demanding the ball, always encouraging his team-mates and taking responsibility. It's refreshing to see a young player not afraid to take on that kind of leadership responsibility, and at one point he was heard shouting "C'mon boys let's lift this eh?". That drew a big cheer from the Main Stand. Carra might have some competition at last in the shouting stakes. As for Cole, his was class. His touch was assured all night, he worked hard to keep finding space and he was regularly drifting away from people with his skill and close control. He took his goal expertly too. It will be great to have him back in Premiership action this weekend. His suspension seems like it's been longer than the one Cantona had. We've missed him, and I can't wait to see how he links up with Gerrard and Torres. Meireles was quietly impressive too. Did everything right, and looks a proper footballer. He wasn't spectacular, but his passing was neat and tidy and he moved around the pitch well. It was a satisfying debut, but I'm sure there's a lot more to come from him, and again, it will be interesting to see how he links up with others, most notably Gerrard. Overall, a satisfactory night's work, and good entertainment for the unusually low crowd of 25,000. At £30 a ticket it's not really surprising a lot of people are giving it a miss. It was vital that we got a win here though, as confidence must be fairly low in the camp due to the mixed results we've had so far. Admittedly, the team that takes the field on Sunday will be a lot different to the one that faced Steaua, but had we not won this game the pressure around the club (and manager) would have increased, and many fans would became even more agitated than they already are. This win calms things down a little, and if we can follow it up by beating the mancs then suddenly things look a whole lot different. It's perhaps a good time to play the mancs too, as they aren't in great form and won't be brimming with confidence either after recent results. They can be got at, but so can we. Neither team is in great shape, so fingers crossed we can get the job done and kick on from there. Team: Reina; Kelly, Kyrgiakos, Agger, Konchesky; Spearing, Meireles; Maxi (Pacheco), Cole (Eccleston), Babel (Lucas); Ngog:

LIVERPOOL U18 3 Derby u18 2 Report by Dave Usher at the Academy Scorer(s) - Tony Silva, Matty Regan, Krizstian AdorjanHalf Time - 2-1 Venue - Liverpool Academy, Kirkby Date - Sat 11 September 2010 Star Man - Raheem Sterling Goals from Tony Silva, Matty Regan and Krisztian Adorjan ensured Liverpool u18's maintained their good start to the season with a 3-2 victory over ten man Derby County at the Academy this afternoon. Rodolfo Borrell's side overcame the early setback of falling behind and had their noses in front before half time, and extended their lead early in the 2nd half before conceding a daft late goal to ensure a nervous finale. The reds fielded a strong, well balanced line up full of attacking talent. In-form striker Michael Ngoo led the line ahead of the exciting trio of Silva (his first name is actually 'Toni' but that's way too girly, so it's 'Tony' for me), Adorjan and 15 year old Raheem Sterling. Skipper Connor Coady and Craig Roddan formed a solid midfield base in front of a back four of Matty McGiveron, Stephen Sama, Regan and Brad Smith. Former Swindon youngster Jamie Stephens was between the posts. The shape of the team is a familiar one, it's how the 1st team usually set up, and the reserves also play this way now too. Interestingly, Left footed Silva started on the right, with right footed Sterling on the left. This is something Hodgson has dabbled with too in the opening weeks of the season, switching Kuyt and Jovanovic over at times. It worked well, as both youngsters gave the Derby defence countless problems in the first half. Sterling in particular was running his full back ragged. He's lightning fast, has good close control and quick feet. They couldn't get near him in the first half, and mainly resorted to just fouling him. Nevertheless, it was the visitors who took the lead when Stephens was beaten by a screamer from 25 yards out. I'd have to see it again to see if the keeper could have done better, but it was a fine strike. Sterling almost created an equaliser within seconds, nutmegging his marker on half way before racing clear to the byline, but his attempted cut back to Ngoo was collected by the keeper. Exciting run though, great to see. Silva was lively too, and he was within a whisker of drawing his side level when he latched on to Adorjan's through ball and went round the keeper, only to see his shot from an ever tightening angle strike the post. Sterling had another opportunity when Adorjan played him in. His pace got him ahead of the defender but his touch was a little heavy and the keeper smothered at his feet. The reds were beginning to apply a lot of pressure now though, and the equaliser came ten minutes before the break. Ngoo's persistence saw him chase down a ball and win it in the Derby penalty area. He slid it across to the waiting Silva who had a tap in. Then, in first half stoppage time, the incident that changed the game. The reds won a corner after a blistering drive from Coady was tipped over the bar. Silva whipped in the corner, Regan rose powerfully and headed against the underside of the bar. Liverpool's players all began celebrating, whilst Derby players insisted it hadn't gone in. I couldn't tell for sure from where I was, but my initial thought was that it was a goal. Again, I'd need to see a replay. The ref checked with his linesman and pointed to the centre spot. One of the Derby players took exception to it, and called the ref a wanker. He was given a straight red card. At half time, Derby's coach came on and had murder with the ref. Repeatedly saying "You've ruined the game, you're a disgrace." He also kept saying "I want to talk to you man to man" for some reason. The ref just kept telling him to go away. I must admit I was surprised to see a red card. Usually in these games you have to lamp someone to get sent off, and even then it's not a certainty. The Rams were up against it even with eleven players, but going a man down basically finished them off. The only surprising thing is that Liverpool never really managed to kill them off. Adorjan's excellently taken goal early in the 2nd half should have opened the floodgates, but Derby dug in and defended well. Silva wasted the best opportunity to increase the lead, when he showed good pace and skill to collect Ngoo's pass and advance on goal, but his shot struck the outstretched boot of the keeper and went behind for a corner. Ngoo was also denied by the keeper, whilst substitute Walsh also had a powerful shot from distance saved. The goalkeeper's impressive form, coupled with poor finishing, meant that the game never completely got away from the visitors, and when Stephens inexplicably passed the ball straight to their centre forward who gleefully rounded him and scored, Derby began to sense they could nick an unlikely draw. Thankfully they didn't, and the reds held out fairly comfortably in the end. It wasn't a great performance, but it was pretty good and I thought everyone performed to a good level (except the keeper, who basically had little to do and of course made the one howler). McGiveron and Smith were solid in the full back spots, Sama and Regan defended well, whilst Coady and Roddan kept things ticking over without being spectacular. Coady is a very good player, he keeps things simple, defends very well and is extremely vocal. You can see why he's captain, he never shuts up! Similar to how Jay Spearing always was in these games. He's always got an encouraging word for his team-mates ("brilliant that little man" to Sterling got a few laughs from the crowd) but will give out bollockings when necessary too. I can see why he's so highly regarded, as every team needs a character like him. Had it not been for Sterling's electrifying first half display I'd have probably given Coady the star man. But the 'little man' deserves it, he was really exciting, especially in the first half, and it's going to be a lot of fun watching him and Silva on the wings this season. The Youth Cup should be especially good, as there's every chance they'll be joined in the side by Suso. A mouth watering line up that. Team: Stephens; McGiveron, Sama, Regan, Smith; Coady, Roddan; Silva (Walsh), Adorjan (Sumner), Sterling; Ngoo:

Will be in a minute. In the meantime, http://www.liverpoolway.co.uk/forum/reserves-2010-2011/94616-liverpool-res-0-wigan-athletic-res-0-sep-1-2010-a.html

It's just been on lfctv before. Finished now. I've just put a report up from the game. It was shit, don't bother going out of your way to try and find somewhere to watch it!

LIVERPOOL RES 0 Wigan Athletic Res 0 Report by Dave Usher at the Academy Scorer(s) – Half Time - 0-0 Venue - The Academy Date - Wed 1 Sep 2010 Star Man – John Flanagan The reserves got their season off to a low key start with an uneventful 0-0 draw with Wigan Athletic at the Academy this afternoon. John McMahon's side possibly shaded it in terms of possession, but the visitors came closest to scoring when they hit the bar from a 1st half free-kick, whilst reds' skipper Steve Irwin had earlier been forced to clear off his own goal-line following a scramble. With a number of important players unavailable through injury or international call ups, McMahon's squad was stretched to it's limits, especially in attacking areas as he only had defensive players on the bench. That meant the reds ended the game with Irwin up front and full backs Emanuel Mendy and Alex Cooper on the wings, after Nicola Saric, David Amoo and Nathan Eccleston were all brought off. Saric left the field on a stretcher with what looked like a bad knee injury. Eccleston also limped off, whilst Amoo's withdrawal was due to him not being up to playing 90 minutes after being unwell. It meant there was a real lack of firepower on the field for the reds by the end of the game, but in truth even when they had a full compliment they barely troubled the Wigan defence. The closest they came in the first half was a header just wide from Chris Mavinga following a corner. Aside from that there wasn't much to get excited about. Spearing's range of passing caught the eye, a couple of raking balls out to Amoo on the right wing in particular were very impressive. Amoo had the beating of his full back and skinned him a few times, but his ball in to the box was usually lacking. With Eccleston and Saric interchanging positions, and Pacheco playing on the left, there didn't seem to be much shape about the reds in the opening period. Pacheco wanted to cut inside all the time, whilst Eccleston and Saric both looked to be more comfortable coming deep to show for the ball rather than playing on the shoulder. It didn't work, and only Amoo was able to get behind the defence. At the other end, Darby and Mavinga were not having much to do, and I don't remember Martin Hansen having to make a save. He didn't move for the free-kick that hit the bar though. It wasn't even in the corner, it seemed to go right over his head but he was rooted to the spot. Maybe he thought it was going over. Saric's injury came after a hefty challenge over on the left wing. It was clear right away he was in trouble, and after a lengthy delay in which he was looked at by the physio as well as the new doctor Peter Bruckner, he was eventually stretchered from the field. He missed almost all of his first season at the club with a knee injury, so let's hope this isn't too serious. The second half was a bit of a non-event. Wigan didn't really create anything, and the best chance the reds' conjured up saw Pacheco's goalbound shot inadvertently blocked by Eccleston. Alex Cooper had a couple of shooting opportunities but was unable to hit the target with either, and aside from that I can't remember any goal attempts. Defensively John McMahon will surely be happy, as the back four were all very good. Darby was excellent at centre back, and it's only his build that prevents him from being a top, top centre half. He's a terrific defender who reads the game so well, but he has neither the height nor physique to have a future in the centre. Mavinga was comfortable and never tested, whilst Robinson was solid and I can only remember him giving the ball away once (and he immediately won it back anyway). The star man for me though was right back John Flanagan. No frills, nothing extravagent, he's just a very good all round full back who does everything well. The biggest disappointment was that Suso wasn't involved. He was there watching, but presumably he's injured. I'd been looking forward to seeing him and Pacheco play together, but that will have to wait for another day. As for Pacheco, well I'd expect to see him dominate these kind of games, but he didn't do much at all, and seemed to put every set piece straight into the arms of the keeper. A frustrating afternoon for him. The departures of Laurie Dalla Valle and Alex Kacaniklic leaves the squad a little light on attacking players, and presumably that will mean more opportunities for Academy youngsters such as Ngoo, Silva and Sterling. The likes of Bruna and Brouwer are still here, but apparently they aren't even training with McMahon's group at the moment. They're in the 'afternoon group' with Itandje & co. Mind you that group took a bit of a hit this week with the departures of Plessis and El Zhar. Hopefully the rest of them can be shipped out soon too. There were a lot of players who needed shipping out at this level, and there's still some that need culling. The good news is that they aren't being selected, so the talented kids in the younger age groups have a good opportunity to feature for McMahon this season. Saric's injury might just open the door for Ngoo, as he's really stepped up his form recently and might be ready for the step up from the u18s. Team: Hansen; Flanagan, Darby, Mavinga, Robinson; Irwin, Spearing; Amoo (Mendy), Eccleston (Palsson), Pacheco; Saric (Cooper):

LIVERPOOL 1 West Brom 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Fernando TorresHalf Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 29 Aug 2010 Star Man – Christian Poulsen Well we just about did enough to pick up our first league win of the season, but it wasn't exactly convincing and we've a long way to go. On the plus side, Torres got himself off the mark and we've got some re-enforcements coming in to give us a lift. Not only that, but Spurs and City both lost, so all in all not a bad couple of days. The first half was awful, nothing positive at all to take from it. Every first half we've played this season has been poor, and this was as bad anything so far. There's really nothing to say about it, I don't even remember us doing anything of any note. There was one good counter attack that ended with Gerrard playing in Jovanovic, but the Serb spurned the opportunity to shoot and the chance went begging. It was just a non event, and the atmosphere was as bad as the game. It had to get better in the second half, and it did, but not by much. West Brom continued to look comfortable and play their football. They had a few shots and were never really on the back foot. We did have more control than we had in the first half though, and things certainly got better when Maxi was brought on. From what I've seen of Jovanovic so far, he shouldn't be in the side ahead of Maxi in my opinion. Certainly not in this kind of game. It's still early days, but the Argetine looks to be a much more accomplished player than Al Bundy lookalike Jovanovic. Roy certainly went with a cautious line up, I can't say I was thrilled to see a midfield partnership of Lucas and Poulsen, or the combination of Kuyt and Jovanovic on the wings. It basically puts virtually all the attacking emphasis on Gerrard and Torres (little harsh on Dirk perhaps). For what it's worth, I doubt we'll see those four all on the field in tandem again. You'd imagine Meireles will come into the side, and we have Cole to come back in too, and hopefully another striker will arrive to give the option of going 442 when the need arises. For this game, Roy's options were certainly limited, but for me he should have used Gerrard in midfield, and played either Maxi or Pacheco in the hole. I can only presume the reason he didn't do this is because he wanted to get Gerrard and Torres back in tandem again and have a look at it. Understandable, and when Meireles is available hopefully we'll be able to use Gerrard further forward without weakening the midfield. I don't want to see Lucas and Poulsen together again though. Ever. I thought the Dane had a quietly impressive game. He gave it away a couple of times, but usually because he was trying to play a forward pass. Generally, he did well. He won the ball, made some interceptions and tackles, and used it simply. He looks like he'll be more of a Hamann type than a Mascherano, but Hamann was at his most effective when he was partnered by a McAllister/Gerrard/Alonso than a fellow destructive player (seem to remember an occasional horrific pairing with Diao and possibly even Carragher on at least one occasion unless my memory is playing tricks on me). As Lucas pushed on more in the second half, Poulsen seemed to get better too as he didn't have someone else doing his job. On paper, a midfield pairing of Poulsen with either Gerrard or Meireles looks good to me, but until they get time on the pitch together we won't know. We may even see Meireles and Gerrard together with Poulsen on the bench in some games. I'll be upset if I see him with Lucas again though, I can't pretend otherwise. The winning goal was a tremendous counter attack, and came seconds after West Brom had gone close at the other end. Reina's throw to Kuyt was astonishing. The power and accuracy was like an Alonso pass. Kuyt collected it, laid it off to Torres and then set off down the line. Torres knocked it into space, Gerrard charged into the box taking three or four defenders with him, whilst Torres hung back around the edge of the box. Kuyt picked him out, and the finish was brilliant. He almost added a second after a terrific ball by Gerrard, but Carson made a fine save. There was also a stonewall penalty that wasn't given when Torres' shot was blocked by the hand of the right back. 2-0 would have flattered us greatly. 1-0 flattered us a bit in truth. The Baggies were reduced to ten men late on when James Morrison was dismissed for a late, high tackle on Torres. I thought it was a little harsh at the time, having seen the replay I think it could have gone either way. Despite them being a man down, we were still hanging on a bit at the end, and that's not good enough. We have a lot of things we can improve on, not least our defending of set pieces where Skrtel was man handling his man every time. The ref was watching him too, and should have given at least one penalty. It was shocking, he needs to cut that shit out because another ref won't be so lenient. As disappointing as the performance was, I think it's only natural that we'll get games like this. It often happens in a manager's early days. We had some dire performances in both Rafa and GH's first few months in charge. Houllier lost at home to Watford in the second game of his first season in sole charge, and Rafa had some shockers early n too. It's a natural result of a new manager still learning about his players and trying different things out (in Houllier's case it was more about bedding in new players as he'd been here the previous season). The important thing is we don't drop too many points in the games we don't play well, and we have to hope that the new players bed in quickly. We should also take heart from the fact that as bad as we were last season, we were still not THAT far off getting fourth as those above us were no great shakes either. Villa, City and Spurs all had various failings of their own, and still do if the early evidence of this season is anything to go by. I'm struggling to understand how Spurs can possibly lose at home to that awful Wigan side who they put nine past last season, but then they had a few of this kind of result last season too. If we can keep it together whilst the manager is stamping his mark on how the team plays, as well as learning who he can trust to do the job he wants, then hopefully we will be able to come on strong after Christmas. There might be one or two bumps along the way though, hopefully not too many like the one at Eastlands, and it would be nice if we actually showed up for a 1st half soon too. I'd definitely like to see more width in our play, as there's only Johnson providing any of that and it looked at times in the second half as though he'd been told to stay back. Kuyt and especially Jovanovic are playing 10 yards infield of where I'd expect them to be, and I can't remember Jova getting to the line and getting in a single cross since he's been here. Konchesky will offer more than Agger in this regard, but he isn't Roberto Carlos and the lack of width is something that worries me. Star man? Very difficult. Pepe did everything he had to do well, Torres won the match with a great finish and I thought Dirk had a good second half after switching to the left. I'll give it Poulsen though, who got better the longer the game progressed and who is starting to look sharper with every game he plays. He wasn't spectacular, and never will be, but he was quietly efficient and seeing as how no-one else stood out I'll go for him. Other random observations. Good to see Torres staying on the halfway line for corners. Also noticed we didn't have people on the post for a lot of corners in this game, whereas we did at City. Something to keep an eye on in the next few weeks maybe. West Brom fans are usually sound, but the treatment Gerrard got over the World Cup was a bit ridiculous. "Where were you in Africa?" they chanted. Where was he? Right in the fucking middle of that absolute shambles, trying his best to do his job as skipper whilst being undermined by that huge foreheaded goon from Chelsea. He was also one of the only England players who actually bothered to show up in any of the games. Save your ire for those who deserve it Baggies fans. Or better still, stop acting like smalltime losers. The only fans who give players stick over England's failures, are those who support teams who don't have any players good enough to get in an England World Cup squad anyway. No doubt Northampton Town fans will be gutted when Gerrard doesn't feature against them in the League Cup. I note that Scott Carson is back in Capello's latest squad, which just shows how poor English goalkeepers must be. Will Kirky get in the next one? Is Dave Beasant still playing? Also, what's with this playing of YNWA so late. In the European game last week, the ref actually had to wait for it to finish before he could start the game. A similar thing happened here, the ref blew the whistle whilst YNWA was still in it's final bars. Team: Reina; Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Agger; Lucas, Poulsen; Kuyt, Gerrard, Jovanovic (Maxi); Torres:

LIVERPOOL 1 Trabzonspor 0 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – Ryan BabelHalf Time - 1-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Thu 19 Aug 2010 Star Man – Soto Krygiakos It hasn't been a good few days for poor Joe Cole has it? Sent off on Sunday, found guilty of speeding on Wednesday, and then misses a penalty on Thursday in front of the Kop. Hopefully his luck will change now, but that penalty miss has ensured that next week's tie in Turkey will be a lot more tricky than it should have been. Trabzonspor aren't that good, but they aren't that bad either and we can't be complacent when we go over there. I daresay Spurs weren't expecting Young Boys to pose much of a problem, but before they knew what had hit them they were 3-0 down. We'll have to be careful over there, but it's frustrating because this tie should be over already. That's not to say we played well, we didn't. We were awful I thought, aside from a 15-20 minute spell at the start of the 2nd half when we raised the tempo and played some good stuff. A second goal would have made next week a formality, but now Roy will probably have to pick a stronger side than he'd have liked. He took the opportunity to rest a number of players for this one, most notably Steven Gerrard. His absence was noticeable in a first half in which we were ponderous to say the least. There was no width, everything came through the centre and we were just incredibly ponderous. Ryan Babel was the lone striker, and he barely had a kick until he scored right at the end of the first half. It was a big opportunity for Babel to show he could still have a future here, but the way the team performed it was incredibly difficult for a striker to shine. He didn't do much, but the one chance that came his way he finished superbly, so there'll be no criticism from me. Admittedly the £5 I had on him to get the 1st goal at odds of 15-2 may be playing a part in my assessment of him, and there are clearly still huge question marks over the young Dutchman. It was surprising that he didn't come back out for the second half, but Hodgson cited a lack of match practice as the reason and said it had been pre-arranged before the game that he and Torres would get a half each. Disappointing for Babel as I'm sure he'd have liked at least another 15 minutes to try and build on the goal, but Torres getting 45 minutes under his best is clearly of greater importance. I thought Torres did alright, he's still understandably lacking sharpness but that will only come with minutes on the field. I had a pop at him over his lack of closing down against Arsenal, and was therefore watching him closely when he came on in this game. No complaints from me this time, I thought his work rate was fine. His arrival into the fray coincided with our best spell of the game. Whether he was the catalyst for that, or whether it was down to a half time rollocking from the manager is anyone's guess. There was definitely much more purpose about our play at the start of the second half, and Maxi and Jovanovic suddenly became a factor in the game. The tempo was much higher, which in turn made things a lot more difficult for the Turks. When we play at a high tempo we look a much better side, and the first half tempo was just too low. It suited the opposition and they were comfortable. Once we started playing further up the pitch and pressing them, we were much more dangerous. Jovanovic should have made it 2-0 when he showed good pace to burst into the box, but the keeper made a good save. Then Lucas showed good urgency to win a loose ball after Torres had been tackled, and he was brought down for a penalty. With no Gerrard or Kuyt on the pitch, there was no recognised penalty taker, and Cole picked up the ball. I thought it was risky decision, as I don't ever remember him taking pens for Chelsea or West Ham, and clearly he was absolutely desperate to score and make amends for Sunday. I thought back to when Crouch took that pen against Pompey. Everyone was desperate for him to score, which put extra pressure on him. I'd have preferred to see Aurelio take it, or failing that Carragher or even Pepe (I'd back him to score against anybody the way he strikes a ball. I wasn't shocked when he failed to score. It was nice to hear the reaction from the Kop though, singing his name even louder after he'd saw his kick saved. Penalty miss aside, I thought he played well. He wasn't outstanding, no-one was, it was one of those games. But Cole did alright, and he just needs to keep plugging away until his luck turns around. The three game suspension has come at a terrible time for him, but at least he has the game in Turkey next next week and he's not just going to be sidelined until we go to Old Trafford. After the little flurry we had at the start of the second period, the game just kind of fizzled out again, and we were indebted to Reina for a great save that kept us in front. Had that gone in, the Turks would be fancying their chances in the return leg. The goal would have flattered them greatly, as that chance aside they didn't trouble us at all, but equally they'll feel that they were pretty comfortable at the back for most of the game. It's far too early to tell what will be different under Hodgson. So far the system is more or less the same, but an untrained eye like mine can see that the two wide players seem to be ten yards further infield than they would have been under Rafa. That's all well and good when your full backs are bombing forward, but against Trabzonspor Kelly didn't venture beyond Maxi too much, and I thought Aurelio had a fairly poor game on the other side. As a result, there was nothing coming down the flanks and the forwards didn't have much service. We also saw a return to the two holding midfield players that plagued us for most of last season. Poulsen is more like Lucas than Gerrard, and there was no drive from the middle of the park. Both Poulsen and Lucas did ok, but they did seem to be very similar. Lucas outshone him I thought, but Poulsen is apparently lacking match practice and he did look very rusty at times. Way too early to form any kind of opinion on him yet. I thought he was poor in the first half, but grew into the game more after the break and overall did ok. He should have marked his debut with a goal too, that was a terrible decision to disallow it as there was no foul on the keeper (who then stayed down wanting treatment, the cheating shithouse). Overall, disappoint performance and not a fantastic result. But it was a clean sheet, and if we negotiate the 2nd leg and make it to the group stages, this game will be long since forgotten. Picking a start man was almost impossible. In at attacking sense no-one stood out, whilst defensively we didn't have much to do. The likes of Kelly, Carragher and the Greek were pretty much faultless, as was Pepe. I'll give it to the Greek on the basis that he was also a threat in the opposition box from set pieces. He edges out Carragher. Looking for positives to take from the game, well apart from the fact we won, it will have been a good run out for those who played. Even though the season is under way, we're still effectively in pre-season as we've hardly had any games. So that being said, it was good for Torres to get a half, and Poulsen will benefit from the 90 minutes he played. Martin Kelly now has another appearance to his name, and it was unfortunate we couldn't have grabbed a couple more goals to give Spearing and Pacheco a run out too. It will be a few more weeks, possibly even months, before we're at full capacity, but hopefully we can keep winning whilst we play our way into peak fitness and sharpness, and by the time Cole returns from his suspension let's hope we have Torres back in the side and in the old groove. Next up City on Monday night. We'll beat them, and Ngog will score. I might even have another cheeky fiver on that. Team: Reina; Kelly, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Aurelio; Poulsen, Lucas; Maxi (Ngog), Cole, Jovanovic; Babel (Torres):

Good point about Johnson, it was only after I'd seen the goal on tv I realised what had happened there.

Deleted her number, no need to bring anyone else into this other than the spammer.

LIVERPOOL 1 Arsenal 1 Report by Dave Usher at Anfield Scorer(s) – David NgogHalf Time - 0-0 Venue - Anfield Date - Sun 15 Aug 2010 Star Man – Martin Skrtel Gutted. So close to what would have been a fantastic win given the circumstances, but even though that late, spawny, undeserved equaliser was very, very hard to take, in the cold light of day there's a lot to be pleased with. The unity of the team after Cole's sending off was fantastic to see. Everyone pulling for eachother and in it together, players running themselves into the ground for the cause, Carragher and Skrtel putting their bodies on the line making heroic blocks, Agger shrugging off a concussion to do his bit for the team..... it was rousing stuff. We didn't deserve that kick in the bollocks right at the end, but Arsenal fans will probably feel that Pepe got what was coming to him after the Fabregas/Barca shirt fiasco the other week. Reina was devastated at full time, and couldn't wait to get off the field. Thing is, he generally only makes one or two mistakes a season, no-one will hold it against him as he's quite simply the best keeper around. It's unfortunate it happened, and at the time I was convinced it should have been disallowed as it looked like Chamakh impeded him. Apparently that wasn't the case (I still haven't seen any replays of it), I wish I'd known at the time as I'd still have my voice today if I hadn't been screaming abuse at Martin Artkinson. Still, it's a nice feeling that I actually care enough again to get upset with referees. Last season I'd have just sat there and shrugged it off. I became a bit numb to it all, at times it felt like I was just there as some kind of observer as opposed to being 'involved' in it. I was buzzing before this game, couldn't wait for it to start. The sun even came out, as it so often does for the opening game of the season, and I was very confident we'd get off to a winning start. The team contained very few surprises, and was what most people would have expected. The one notable absentee from the 18 man squad was Alberto Aquilani, but I have to be honest I never even realised he wasn't involved until after the game when a mate pointed out that he wasn't even on the bench. It's weird, he's just a complete afterthought and I often forget he even plays for us. Even in my match preview I never mentioned him, not because I didn't feel the need to, but because I genuinely didn't give him a second thought. I keep forgetting about him, he just isn't on my radar for some reason. Its bizarre. After the game when I was talking with some mates about who will replace the suspended Cole, his name never even cropped up until about half an hour afterwards, when someone said "hey, we forgot about Aquilani again, maybe he'll replace Cole!!" A club in our financial predicament can't afford to have a £20m signing who can't make an 18 man squad, and given the dire need we have to strengthen in other areas maybe we need to be looking to move him on, even if it is at a substantial loss? Cole's suspension may give him a reprieve, and I'd love nothing better than for him to come good, but given our need for a striker and our lack of funds, can we afford to gamble on the Italian coming good? It's a real dilemma, especially if Mascherano ends up staying. But I digress. I fancied us to win this game, and we started pretty well. Jovanovic immediately won over the fans with a bulldozing run through the centre that included a tremendous shoulder barge on Sagna (I think). The fans loved that, and in the early stages we looked to have settled quicker than the Gunners. As the half wore on though, we seemed to stagnate a bit and they began to dominate possession. Still, for all their pretty passing, there wasn't much to worry us and I don't think Pepe had to make a save in that first half. However, we didn't look too threatening ourselves, with Johnson's left footed curler being the closest we came to scoring. It was a fairly non-eventful half until it exploded into life just before half time with the dismissal of Cole. I was really shocked when I saw the red card come out. I sit down the other end to where the incident happened, but to me it just looked like the kind of thing that happens in every game. Defender tries to clear down the line, forward lunges in to try and charge it down, and catches his man. Yellow card. Happens all the time, it's known as a 'forwards tackle'. Was it any worse than Wilshere's lunge at Mascherano that only earned a yellow? I thought it was a scandalous decision, I was absolutely livid about it and hopefully there were no children sat in my vicinity as some of the language I used would make a docker blush. Having just seen a replay of it just there on sky, I'm still furious. And no amount of Demot Gallaghers and Graeme Polls saying it was the right decision will change that. Yellow card all day that. Referee got it wrong, but then there's no surprise there as he's got previous. Merseyside derby last season anyone? Pienaar got away with a horror tackle on Mascherano, then he sends off Soto when the very least he should have done was also red carded Screech (who's challenge was more dangerous than the Greek's). Later on in the game he sends of Pienaar to 'even things up' when really it was a token gesture as it was too late to make a difference. The twat did the same thing in this game, harshly sending the French lad off in stoppage time just to make it look like he was balanced. Having said all this, I still have to say Joe Cole was stupid to be making that challenge. It was just completely unnecessary and he should know better. If you're a short, ginger manc you can do these all day without any kind of recourse, in fact it will cause much merriment in the sky commentary box, 'hahaha that's Scholesy for ya, he cannae tackle, haha', but anyone else is going to get carded for it. Yellow carded that is, not red, and that is where Cole can consider himself unlucky, even though as I say he had no need to dive in like that anyway. Obviously he was trying too hard to impress, and I'm not going to hold it against him. Nightmare start for him though isn't it? Arsenal can fuck off though. Eboue spent most of the first half on the floor feigning injury, and the lad who got Cole sent off made it look much worse than it was. Going off on a stretcher? Did anyone have any doubt whatsoever that he'd be back out for the 2nd half? I don't even know who he is, and I care so little that I can't be arsed looking it up for the purposes of this report. I know he's French and he cost a few million, and now I know he's a shithouse. He'll fit right in at Arsenal. We now have to do without Cole for the next few games. There's been talk of an appeal, but we don't have a hope in hell of winning that. The likes of Gallagher and Poll have already rallied around Atkinson's decision, there's simply no way the league will over-rule the referee in this situation. Just have to take this one on the chin sadly. (update: we correctly decided to do just that, meaning he misses the next three games. Thanks ref, you fucking incompetent ballbag). At half time most people would have taken a draw. My pre-season mood of over the top optimism hadn't completely subsided though, and I was still thinking we could win. Cole had been very quiet and him going off wouldn't actually cause any kind of major reshuffle. If you go down to ten men, most teams would either take off a forward or the player in the hole (depending on what formation they were playing to start with). So Cole going off didn't really change anyone else's role, other than ensuring they all had to work that bit harder. Not least David Ngog, who was really up against it now. He certainly rose to the challenge. I joked to a mate afterwards that when we went down to ten men, Mascherano and Kuyt will have been thinking 'Fucking get in there, let's have this now!'. Those two are brilliant in this kind of situation. Dirk hadn't had a great first half, but I thought he was absolutely immense in the second. And Mascherano played how I expected him to. He wants to leave, but I don't think there was any danger that he'd put a shift in against the Gunners, and he certainly did that. I think we took Arsenal by surprise with the way we started the 2nd half. We played at a high tempo and pressed them high up the pitch. The goal was a direct result of that, Mascherano robbed Wilshere on the edge of the box and rolled a ball down the side to Ngog. It was clear that he'd be able to get a shot away as he had a yard of space, but did anyone think the ball would end up where it did? Almunia didn't, it was past him and in the top corner before he knew what day it was. Brilliant finish, whatever flaws there are in the rest of his game the lad can score goals and there's no disputing that. The goal lifted everyone, not least the young Frenchman. After that he seemed to have more belief about him, and he started to take it to the Arsenal defenders. We all know the limitations he has to his game, and the overall teamplay suffers a little when he's the lone frontman, but he's getting better and he will score goals. He works hard too, and I don't think we could have asked for any more from him in this game. He can be proud of his efforts, as can the rest of the side. We could have got a second not long after, as we had a good spell of pressure and Gerrard delivered some fine set pieces. Ngog and Skrtel both missed presentable headed opportunities, and Arsenal were thankful that no-one got on the end of Kuyt's low cross after his Lionel Messi like run into the box. And all this time, Pepe had nothing to do. The worry was that if the second goal didn't come, we'd tire and end up under the cosh, and that's what happened. Maxi came on for Jovanovic, who's cult status had earlier been further enhanced with a ludicrously comical attempt at a diving header that was met with laughter from all sides of the ground, Ngog was replaced by Torres and eventually Mascherano had to hobble off and give way to Lucas. At the risk of upsetting people, I have to say I thought Torres' lack of closing down was pretty shocking. I know he's not fit, but he only had to run around for 20 minutes and there was no excuse for the amount of standing still and walking he was doing whilst Arsenal's players were in possession only a few yards from him. I'd have thought that seeing the superhuman effort his team-mates had put in, Torres would have wanted to sweat blood too and not give their players a second on the ball. Ngog did it, why couldn't Torres? Unacceptable, fit or not. He was happy enough sprinting when he was chasing a through ball, so why not when it comes to closing down the opposition? When he first came here, comparisons were made with Ian Rush in the way he was our first line of defence. Somewhere along the way he stopped doing that. Fitness may have played a part in that, but not this time, as like I say, it was 20 minutes, that's all. He didn't look anywhere near sharp, and that little burst of speed that takes him away from people wasn't quite there. The first time he looked to run that French defender, he got half a yard ahead of him and I thought he was going clear, but the lad got back at him and shrugged him off the ball. The second time he went at him, once again he got half a yard in front, and this time he appeared to be dragged back. I thought it was a foul, but I also thought Torres was looking for it and went down easily, perhaps as he knew the lad would get back at him like he'd done previously? I can accept him not looking sharp, being a little bit short of pace and not being fit enough to play for long periods. I don't expect miracles from him, and I don't expect to see him immediately performing at the level that makes him arguably the best striker around. The very least he can do though is put a shift in when his team-mates had worked so hard to get a result. Had Ryan Babel stood around like that everyone (especially me) would have been slaughtering him, so why should Torres get away with it? It might not be a popular view, but it's how I saw it. It was bad enough seeing him stroll about when we were down to ten, but when Agger was concussed by the ball hitting him in the side of the head, we were effectively down to nine men as even when he eventually came back on after treatment, he wasn't really at the races and had to go out on the left wing with Maxi in defence. (the Agger thing was quite funny, as Carra was frantically screaming at the bench to make a sub. When they pointed out that we'd used all three subs, reality hit him and he just put his head in his hands!) It's to the player's great credit that they kept Arsenal out for long, and even more to their credit that after conceding, it was the ten men who went looking for the winning goal and almost got it through Gerrard's free-kick that was parried away by Almunia. This was a great effort from the boys, and although it feels like two points dropped overall I'm happy enough with what we saw and there is something to build on from this. If we beat City, four points from our opening fixtures would be seen as very impressive. I see nothing in them that makes me believe we can't beat them, the only concern I have is that we are a little lacking in firepower. It would be nice if we had another striker to call on for that game, and it will be interesting to see if we still have Mascherano available. Hodgson's post match comments on the Argentine were interesting I thought. "There are two weeks to go (in the transfer window) and you never know. Some of these clubs, for reasons best known to themselves, like to come in with offers on August 28 or 29." There's a feeling within the club that Rafa Benitez has been planning to move for Mascherano late in the window, as he knows the precarious financial state of the club and feels we'd have little choice but to accept a bid, even if it is below what we would like for the player (a player he said 12 months ago was 'priceless' let's not forget). There's also a suspicion that he has told the player to sit tight until then. It may or may not be true, but we won't have to wait long to find out. With the Balotelli deal going through Inter have no excuse whatsoever to not make a bid for the player now. If they wait until just before the window shuts, I hope we tell them (and anyone else who comes in at that late stage) to fuck right off. Anyone who wants Mascherano needs to put up or shut up. If he's going to be sold, it needs to be early enough that we can use the money to strengthen the squad. If no bids are in when we reach the 28th or thereabouts, then we should keep him regardless of what offers come in after that date. We need to plan our season, and it's difficult to do that with the uncertainty surrounding one of our key players. Inter and Barca are hovering around like vultures, thinking they can capitalise on the mess Gillett and Hicks have created, Well fuck them, I hope we stay strong on this. Mascherano was a strong contender for the star man, as was Kuyt. I thought Gerrard had a great game too, and all the back four played well, especially the two centre backs. Any one of those could have been the star man, but if I have to choose one I'll go with Skrtel as I'm not his greatest fan but I thought he had a great game yesterday. It was tough to take what happened at the end, but after such a turbulent summer it's just nice to have a proper football match to talk about and provide a welcome break from all this talk about Huang, Kirdi and the two pondlife owners who despite saying in April that they wanted to sell the club, then spent the next couple of months desperately trying to hang onto it. Can't wait until they die. Team: Reina; Johnson, Skrtel, Carragher, Agger; Mascherano (Lucas), Gerrard; Kuyt, Cole, Jovanovic (Maxi); Ngog (Torres):