Thanks to Pepe Reina we were able to walk away with a point from St. Andrews this afternoon, the Reds keeper came up big twice to deny Brum three points.
Birmingham started quite strong in the first half and looked very menacing. In the 22nd minute Cameron Jerome found some space between Martin Skrtel and Paul Konchesky but his excellent header was met by a world class save from Pepe Reina. A little later Nando was brought down in box in what should have been a penalty. The Blues kept pressing and in the 37th minute another great header (this time by Craig Gardner) was saved brilliantly by Reina.
We were better in the second half however we still lacked any good chances to get excited about. Both Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard had an off day. Christian Poulsen and Lucas Leiva also had a poor game, however Raul Meireles looked quite sharp coming off the bench in the 76th minute. Paul Konchesky had a solid performance in the second half, but unfortunately had to be substituted by Daniel Agger in the 78th minute due to an injury.
Birmingham: Foster, Carr, Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Bowyer, Gardner, McFadden, Jerome
Subs: Taylor, Murphy, Derbyshire, Michel, Fahey, Zigic, Jiranek
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Konchesky, Maxi, Poulsen, Lucas, Gerrard, Jovanovic, Torres
Subs: Jones, Meireles, Agger, Pacheco, Kyrgiakos, Babel, Ngog
Referee: Mark Halsey (Lancashire)
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THE GOOD: World class performance by Pepe Reina, he brushed off his mid-week howler against Argentina and had a couple of splendid saves to deny Birmingham the three points. Brum haven’t been beaten at St. Andrews in over a year so on paper the result does not look that bad.
THE BAD: Poor performance by Christian Poulsen and Lucas Leiva in the middle of the park.
THE UGLY: Paul Konchesky limping off in the 78th minute after a good 2nd half performance, hopefully it is nothing serious.
2 holding mids and gerrard behind torres does not work. it looks like we have not changed anything is rafa still the coach? another long season ahead
It’s very bad game.
Cant pass, cant dribble, cant shoot….that CLOWN Lucas STILL starting every game…Liverpool you are a f*cking DISGRACE!!!….and thats from a Liverpool fan.
Do yourself a favour Pepe, go to Barca or Real in January!.
Yes Pepe was brilliant as usual. Konchesky looked pretty solid and gave us nice balance down the left. Raul also looked sharp when he came on.
Come on man.In my opinion Poulsen played fairly well.controlled the ball well,didnt make mistakes,even when he was under pressure,and make some good one on one tackles.lucas was not good,i agree with you.i think jovanovic was not good too.meireles played very well,so did konchesky.it was their first game with liverpool and they played very well.i hope konchesky’s injury isnt a serious though.next week we go to old trafford.i would play a 4-5-1 system with
Reina
Johnson Carragher Skrtel Konchesky(if not injured)
Poulsen
Gerrard Meireles
Joe Cole Maxi
Torres
Subs:Jones,Agger,Aurelio,Lucas,Jovanovic,Babel,Ngog
Bring in Babel at around 65-70th minute and the one who will be subded will depend on the scoreline.if we lose by then,out poulsen in babel.if we draw or win out maxi.maxi will come better than today’s reasult,i’m sure of it.and a huge THANKS to our beloved Pepe Reina,silencing some critics which were starting to spread.LFC 4 ever.look at tottenham’s,man city’s and aston villa’s games so far.we are good and we will take that 4th spot.YNWA
thank God for Pepe .. without him…..i don’t even want to think about it.
I was impressed with Konchesky and Meirles, but on the whole this was a poor match. I do think they could have done better if Kuyt or Cole had been available, but Torres is obviously not in shape, and this has me worried about Man U next week. Starting out the season with two big four matches and a team they can’t seem to ever beat was not the best schedule to start things.
Reina was the only one today that deserved to wear a red shirt. The irony is that he never gets to wear one because he is the keeper!
as usual a boring and worrying game…
Without a great pepe it was a hot defeat :(
again, lucas – poulsen, it doesn’t work. We need more offensive midfield: gerrard-poulse, gerrard-lucas, gerrard_ meireles
again gerrard is not good behind torres
again with a poor midfield tactically, our three offensive players had not interesting ball
we played defensively at birmingham… disapointing
Pepe you should leave your too good. Torres is fit just no service to him. So Torres I don’t expect to see you here. Jan transfer window Barca
The sentiment all seems to be the same. Why oh why do we insist on playing two average defensive mids? Gerrard and Meireles should start together in midfield. Or at the very least, Gerrard + Lucas or Paulsen.
What would it say to the Mancs if we came out with Gerrard and Raul in the mid, Jova and Maxi (or Babel) out wide, and Joe starting behind Torres. That is a lineup that says we came to win, to put on a show.
Brum must have been thrilled to see our lineup. I just wonder what Gerrard and Torres think when they saw our lineup today. Surely, “Are you serious? We are doing this #### again?” comes to mind. It probably changes their whole attitude about the game, which can be huge. Stepping out of the dressing room already knowing your team won’t create much is never inspiring.
Roy Hodgson what are you saying & what are you doing?
“I never expected to win here today anyway”? Well you would say that since you played Lucas & Poulsen together, effectivley playing a 6-2-1-1 formation.
Why play Gerrard up front? I thought we had reached the obvious conclusion that Gerrard stays in the middle.
When I saw the line up and formation I thought Rafa was back. Liverpool FC should never be going into any match being content to drop 2 points before they’ve even run out the tunnnel. It’s a disgrace that a Liverpool manager can come out on live TV and say it’s ok I never expected us to win here today. Get a grip Roy, this is LFC.
wtf with those supposedly liverpool fans who wants reina to move next season..just because we play crap yesterday, u want all our best players to move..stop supporting liverpool then guys..go support some team..cut the crap out like reina doesn’t deserve this or that..fcuk u ste n sharif..u guys r manure lovers in disguise, i can smell the stench..
Absolutely agree with you… Poulsen’s no good in the middle of the park and the strategy to go with two defensive mids is clearly no working. Jovanovic was hardly there and maxi looked very tentative. On the whole if Roy’s happy with a point at Brum then i think we r in for a worrying season. Hope that’s not the case. YNWA