A win is a great way to start the New Year. After such an awful result against Wolves it was great to come back and beat Bolton, even if it wasnt the most convincing of wins. However, the players looked completely different to the game against Wolves. It was nice to see Konchesky left out of the starting lineup and then not even making the bench. Also, was very good to see Aurelio and Agger starting in defence. We came out in the first half lookg to push forward and play with pace and immediately had a different look about us when we were bouncing the ball around confidently. Only then to go down by a goal with minutes left in the first half. We should have gone level around two minutes after where Lucas missed a tap in.
However, going into half time 1-0 down was an all too familiar scenario for this season and I have to say I was concerned. When a team is lacking confidence you dont want to go a goal down. But, the second half we came back out fighting and got a great Fernando and Stevie G link up to put us level. From then on we looked much better, Fernando looked a completely different player with confidence going forward. We came close a couple of times with Ngog flashing one across the face of the goal. Joe Cole scoring the winner in injury time will hopefully do wonders for our teams confidence showing that we should never stop fighting and that no matter how late in the game we can still win. Reina made agreat save in the dying seconds of injury time to make the win certain.
Reina- Made some good saves, left stranded at their goal with terrible marking.
Johnson- Looked different today, a fair bitmore confident but still some panicky moments. An improvement.
Agger- Was nice to see him get in the starting line up and I thought he played fairly well. Some good battles with Kevin Davis
Aurelio- Again good to see him start over Konchesky, was fine. Always good to have him for attacking free kicks
Skrtel- Skrtel wascompetent in defence and didnt ever look in too much trouble
Meireles- Unfortunate for him to go off although it unleashedGerrard!! Lets hope the injury isn’t too bad
Maxi- Maxi played well, had a couple of good chances.
Lucas- Was fine, made some good blocks at the back and passed well in midfield
Kuyt- Kuyt as usual never stopped running. Played ok.
Ngog- Played pretty well, holdsthe ball up nicely up front
Torres- Definately looked out of sorts for the first half but his goal changed how he played completely! Lets hope he can carry this confidence on with him Subs used;
Gerrard- Really carried the whole team through with him and played really well, great link up with Torres and great cross for the winner
Cole- Cole got his first goal in the EPL for Liverpool, lets hope he will score some more
Kyrgiakos- Wasn’t on long enough to judge. Was fine
My feelings haven’t changed on Roy at all and I still dont think that he is the man for the job. We need to find a suitable replacement for him soon. I can only hope that this match will give the team a lot more confidence to take into the next few games and then string some results together.
Again another step round this incredibly long corner we are turning.
Happy New Year Reds.
YNWA, Hugh
hugh@empireofthekop
Firstly welldone to the players. But nothings changed of my
opinions on the manager i still think hes rubbish and needs to be
gone……YNWA
The post title is saying Liverpool 3 West Ham 0. Surely it
should be liverpool Bolton
Good result. I hope it does not detract from the fact that
we need a new manager.
Good sentiment but your article turned poor when you
finished your description of the match and started listing players
attributes. No real flow to your writing
I have to disagree about Johnson. He is not and never will
be a real Liverpool player. He is crap for us and England. I would
play Kelly and sell Johnson. Ngog is a good lad and works hard but
he rarely threatens to score. He has had sufficient time to show
his ability but he is not going to make the grade. We have to find
a quality striker. If Lucas could just find another gear and an eye
for goal he would be top class. I am praying that Cole finds his
form but he has a lot to prove.
Well, in continuation to what Brian is saying I will not say he is crap, but I will say I would not have spent 17 million on him, or another 18 million plus on Aquilani. We are all blaming Roy for this as he is at the helm. He has brought in some players but I would like to say that Joe Cole came in on a free and was wanted by Man U and Tottenham too. I don’t think the way the team was deployed today had anything different from weds, its just that the players were present only physically, but were totally absent mentally! It may not all be Roy’s blame. He may not be top class management, but I think the man is in bona fide and he is doing his best. Only thing I have against him so far is going out against the fans. He should know how much we’ve all been suffering and though we don’t expect to win the PL we do not expect to loose at home to Wolves (who were today thrashed by West Ham)!
ROY will mess-up very very soon, we shouldn’t get carried away. The media today are trying to distract the owners again, this so called win against Bolton wouldn’t save his job, a New Manager should be appointed as soon as Tuesday, this sick reaction of some reporters that think this result was good enough to carry on with the same manager should be Condemned by all the Fans around the world, now is the time to change things before it gets ugly and unreachable, Roy, if he stays in charge he will mess-up.
Bolton goal, although a free header, was Reina’s responsibility. I am as much of a Pepe booster as the next man but I think he has to take the lion’s share of the responsibility for this one. Thought Kuyt wasn’t as good as described above and was very heartened not to see Konchesky – he is not first team material on any but the weakest sides.
I thought even though we played better in the second half, we were slightly fortunate with Cole being in the right place at the right time. Still Roy needs to go!!. If I was to leave a reply about the Man that is Roy Hodgeson I will be here all night so I’ll keep it short.
There is a petition which was put up after the Wolves game which already has 16474 signatures and is growing steadily. I urge all LFC fans to sign and tell others about it and maybe, just maybe we can get rid as it will be going to John W. Henry.
Here is the link
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi?hodgson
YNWA
Somehow I think the game was a strange one for REDS all over the world. On one side we are craving mad to see the team win a game, play passionately and give it a real go. And we went ahead and beat Bolton. Now the other side of the coin is, OH! NO!, does this mean it gives Roy more time at the helm? During this critical period when the transfer window opens, will Roy have a say in the players being bought? I really don’t know what to expect. The win was more to Stevie’s dynamic individual performance as a leader than it was to any brilliant strategy or out of the box football thinking. Just like the wins against Chelsea and Villa which were down to the fact the opponents were crap. We have yet to see any value the manager has brought to the table. This should be the sole reason why his performance should be deemed highly unsatisfactory for a top 4 Champion’s League team. The only time he has put up his hands to accept any blame was after he realised that he lost whatever connections with the fans after his clueless remarks. The same fans that sang during the second half break at Istanbul when the team were 3 nil down. Respect as they say has to be earned. It’s sad but the fans see things clearer than the owners or management. We are tactically sound and can be absolutely the best motivators around. No other fans are called ‘The 12th Man’. Come on owners. We need too be brought to the next level. We need a leader to mould the team into champions with a savage winning mindset. We have to have a plan out into place where we go across land and countries just pulverising the opponents to such an extent that when they try to take some pride back, they head to Anfield with their tails between their legs. We don’t need to have crap like ‘The Theatre Of Cream’. All we needed was a flag and a sign that states we’re REDS and THIS IS ANFIELD. A Happy New Year To all my extended Liverpool family.