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