Match Report: Bolton 3-1 Liverpool

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By The Mighty Reds Blog

Bolton lifted themselves out of the relegation zone on Saturday after a commanding display to shock a poor Liverpool side at the Reebok. The result means, Liverpool are still searching for their first Premier League win of 2012.

Maxi Rodriguez and Daniel Agger returned to the Liverpool starting XI after missing out last week, while Craig Bellamy was given the nod over Stewart Downing. David N’Gog was given a place in the starting XI for Bolton against his former club.

Liverpool found themselves under pressure straight away as the home side took the lead just 4 minutes into the game through Mark Davies. Owen Coyle’s side almost doubled their lead just moments later when Chris Eagles shot wide from a difficult angle after sloppy defending from the ever reliable Jose Enrique.

The Trotters pressed Liverpool hard and forced them to make mistakes to which the Reds succumbed. Liverpool misplaced passes, mistimed tackles (Charlie Adam in particular), and were forced to make sloppy defensive errors.

And on the half hour mark, the home side, deservedly, doubled their lead when Nigel Reo-Coker slotted past Pepe Reina. Liverpool responded instantly, as Carroll’s clever flick on was collected by Bellamy, who after out-pacing the Bolton defense, scored with a delicate chip over Bodgan, eight minutes before half time.

Craig Bellamy’s delicate finish counted for nothing as Liverpool were well-beaten by the Trotters.
Any hope of a Liverpool comeback in the second half was quickly undone when Steinsson restored Bolton’s two goal cushion after some poor defending by Liverpool from the corner. With just 25 minutes left to play, Kenny changed things up with the introduction of Stewart Downing and Dirk Kuyt for Maxi and Charlie Adam, however it didn’t affect the balance of play that Kenny was hoping for. Daniel Agger hit the crossbar late on before Chris Eagles went close again before the full time whistle.

After the game, an angry Dalglish threatened to axe the players who were not performing to the level he expected. He said: ”If anybody has any aspirations of staying any length of time at the football club then they’ll not be here for much longer if that’s the way they want to perform. We expect a much higher level than that.”

You can follow me on Twitter: @UmarKhurrum

5 Comments

  1. Shame!!! Those headless chickens!!
    Maybe the problem is not with Andy Caroll after all. This time around he played much, much better although he got lost positionaly at times. The importance of a defensive midfielder came out in the fore on this match due to the absence of Jay Spearing, the little bull-terrier. As a result the back-four/five were severely exposed. Charli Adam is clumsy, he needs to tidy up his marking. I think it’s time we play Jonjo more on CA’s position.

    Why did the players (in particular Glen Johnson) keep playing the ball backwards throughout the match? It baffled me.

    Overall, Kenny should seriously think of introducing the Academy boys – Raheem, Adam and Conor. These boys have the potential of lifting LFC to the desired heights.

  2. As i said every single one of last months, this is a difficult situation but not tragic and we can still find a solution that in my opinion is bringing back Rafa (now that he’s free we shouldn’t waste the opportunity) cause, i like Kenny but he made huge mistakes last year with the players he bought, i say this again, i read too much people insulting Carroll but he’s an old school striker, not a modern brazilian or spanish striker, he has no speed and technic, you just can’t expect those thing by him so he can have good numbers only if he’s surrounded by players with talent and speed to create space for him, but we don’t have those, our wingers are ridiculous in those aspects. The mistake was sign him for that absurd fee (we could sign a player like Higuain with less money), especially without signing quality wingers and midfielders, Downing is…a 20 million phantom, Bellamy is surely better, as wee saw even yesterday.

  3. Adam is…a normal player, not bad but not so good either, we should have buy players like Hernanes or Pirlo that was free agent…Henderson i think we should wait, he’s still young, he lacks clearly a bit in personality but he have good numbers in my opinion, and even here Kenny is doing wrong cause Jordan is clearly a center midfielder, you can’t put him in a different position every game, one he plays in front of defence, one he plays as wing, one behind strikers…that’s a mistake, especially with a young guy who is searching to fit in his best position. Another mistake is that Kenny changes every single game the wingers, one game is with Kuyt & Downing, one is with Maxi & Craig, than is Craig & Downing…you must have starters, changing every game is only caos (in my opinion we should start with Bellamy & Pacheco -__-), however i think that to have a big project you must start with a great manager, and Rafa is free now…

  4. It looks like i am the only who clicked the link n didnt even.

    Kk frustrations are his on cause he shipped in players who are not used to winning, carrol will never be 15mil i was one of those who opposed the sale of ngog yep he is better the big man.

  5. It looks like i am the only who clicked the link n didnt even.

    Kk frustrations are his on cause he shipped in players who are not used to winning, carrol will never be 15mil i was one of those who opposed the sale of ngog yep he is better the big man. Charlie adam needs to learn football, its high time we call aquiliani pacheco back, time to give suso n sterling a chance and jonjo should be playing more.

    Why does kk keeps playing henderson on the right. If he does by this jaunary he is going to pack his bag and no mo english player

    fullham has a better team than us overrall, now i believe suarez might be on his way out to spain

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