Liverpool win (at last!)

The 212th derby between Liverpool and Everton had quite an eventful first half. Notably, Gerrard was back and appeared to be fully fit. The half was all about losing possession as both teams were quite quick in doing so as the ball shifted hands or rather feet quite regularly.

Mascherano celebrates dubious goal. www.soccernet.com

The breakthrough did come, against the general run of play, of a deflected goal from a Mascherano shot! It was 1-0 in Liverpool’s favor with about 20 minutes of the first half gone. It was quite a relief for Liverpool, but given their recent misdemeanors in front of their own goal by their defense, it was no reason to get all bubbly. Everton had two goals disallowed in the half as a result of blatant offsides. Gerrard had little or no part to play in the first half of the match while the Liverpool defense still had the general frailty that has been on display all season long!

The second half saw the balance of power swing from one side to another. Louis Saha was brought on by the blue half of Liverpool on 65 minutes to inject some freshness up-front. Liverpool had 3 corners in quick succession but lacked the tooth to have a further impact on the score sheet. Reina was a real Liverpool hero on the 70th minute as he thwarted a double shot at goal by Everton which almost opened up Liverpool’s uncertain defense yet again.

On 75 minutes Benayoun was introduced for an ineffectual David Ngog. Aquilani is yet to make an appearance on the field for Liverpool. And by appearance, I don’t mean one that lasts a minute like in midweek!

And here goes. Its 75 minutes gone and thats cue for Benitez to make further substitutions as Albert Riera made his entrance for Fabio Aurelio after a really long lay off. David Moyes was matching substitution-for-substitiution at this point. You might have realized that the game had set itself into such subdued lethargy that the only notable moments in the game were that of players coming on and players going off.

The match was again stirred into action through a goal (at long last!) from Dirk Kuyt (at long last!) by a combination scrappy attack orchestrated by Gerrard and Riera to be clinically finished by Dirk Kuyt for whom a goal was wayyyyy overdue!

At 2-0 to Liverpool the score was more or less written in stone as it proved to be a happy derby day for the red half of Liverpool. Plus, they kept a clean sheet after a real long time in the Premier League! It was a highly subdued match punctuated only quite infrequently with the ardor that is associated with a derby clash but Liverpool will be happy to take all three points from this match to aid them in their quest for 3rd/4th spot.

Everton vs Liverpool – Possible Liverpool starting 11

Amidst rumors of lack of camaraderie in the Liverpool dressing room and noises of Everton and Liverpool having a stadium share in the future, Liverpool are being presented yet another opportunity to get their season back on the proverbial track with this fiercely contested Merseyside derby, this weekend.

The reds have been offered this opportunity only too often this season and they have blown it because of a combination of plain bad luck, lack of the dynamic duo, Gerrard and Torres and general featherbrained behavior when faced by dead ball situations.

Liverpool need to win the usually boisterous derby at Goodison park by a 2 or 3 goal margin if they are to allay any fears among the fans of slipping away the Leeds Utd way (exaggeration!).

Anyway, here is what the team may look like:

Reina (GK), Johnson (RB), Carragher (CB), Agger (CB), Insua (LB), Benayoun (RM/SR), Mascheranho (CDM), Leiva (CDM)/Aquilani(CDM/CM), Babel (LM), Gerrard(AMC/CF), Kuyt (SC).

Key: GK: Goalie, RB: Right Back, CB: center back, LB: Left back, RM: Right midfield, SR: Striker-Right, CDM: Central defensive midfield, LM: Left midfield, AMC: Attacking mid field, CF: center forward, SC: Striker-central.

Liverpool exit Champions League despite win

Liverpool’s Champions League progress will be curtailed this season as they will not progress to the knock-out round this season. Despite securing a 1-0 win away at Hungary, a similar score line in Fiorentina’s favor.

Debrecen’s fate was written in stone even before the start of this match and Liverpool’s after the 90th minute. A 4th minute goal that David Ngog scored in Kung-fu style decided the game for Liverpool. Steven Gerrard played 90 minutes of the game with the help of a painkiller administered before the game.

There were hardly any positives to be gathered for Liverpool from this match. Although the scoreline suggests a good clinical performance, Liverpool did have the knickers in a twist a few times in the match and only Debrecen’s lack of class and predatory instinct kept the scoreline in the favor of the reds.

Liverpool will look to end their hollow Champions League season with a Pyrrhic victory at in their next match against Fiorentina.

NOTE: Aquilani made an appearance, although brief in the 90th minute to Replace Gerrard.

Debresceni vs Liverpool – a game of permutations and combinations!

There’s a lot at stake for Liverpool today. Unfortunately, it’s not entirely up to the reds to progress as there are various permutations that need to click else the reds might find themselves in the Europa league (no offence!) come 2010. Below are the various permutations and the effect that they would have for Liverpool:

Liverpool win + Fiorentina win = Liverpool out of the CL.

Liverpool win + Lyon win = Liverpool need to beat Fiorentina to progress in CL.

Liverpool win + Lyon/Fiorentina draw = Liverpool need to beat Fiorentina by three goals or more to progress in CL.

Liverpool lose = Liverpool out of the CL.

Liverpool draw = Liverpool out of the CL.

Here’s hoping that Liverpool and Lyon pull out wins this Tuesday! YNWA.

Drawn and quartered – Liverpool 2 Manchester city 2

Liverpool certainly started the game with a lot of promise, what with Steven Gerrard in the starting eleven, although (spoiler alert!) he was kept quite all game long. What was quite surprising and could be touted a “medical miracle” that Benayoun and Riera were on the bench after receiving what could only be described a massage with a happy ending as they were massaged back to health with horse placenta of all therapeutic er… fluids?

After quite a positive quarter of an hour for Liverpool, their injury troubles boiled over on the field within the space of 3 or 4 minutes as Agger, on his return match, was taken out on the stretcher as a result of a concussion and similar fate awaited Ryan “rare starter” Babel as he picked up a rather nasty knock on the ankle (bring in the horse placenta!). Kyrgiakos and Benayoun replaced respectively, the injury prone defender, Daniel Agger, and the stay-on-bench prone Ryan Babel. From then on, barring a few weak corners from Liverpool a pot shot at goal by Mascherano and Lucas (what??!??) the half ended in a disappointingly drab note for the Red contingent.

Skrtel Scores but Liverpool draw. www.soccernet.com

The second half looked to begin with the same kind of verve or lack of, as the first half, at least as far as Liverpool were concerned. But of all people, Skrtel had different ideas. A free kick duly taken by Steven Gerrard resulted in a goal by a leg stuck out by none other than Martin Skrtel as the Slovakian defender celebrated his world cup qualification with a goal and a vital one for Liverpool. Liverpool’s first of the game. Skrtel’s first for Liverpool! But the job was far from done as there were 40 more minutes to go.

The heavy shadows that Liverpool had been casting for a good part of the previous two months looked spry again. And Rafa Benitez looked…. as stoic as ever! Turn that frown upside down Rafa!

Manchester City had different ideas as the game progressed and as if to prove Liverpool’s continuing inefficacy from set piece situations, Adebayor had to go and score of a corner in the 69th minute. This squared the match at 1-1 and all Rafa could do was wipe his classes down on his designer purple tie. Liverpool, I am sure, did recognize that a draw was not an option.

With 20 minutes to go, I was having an increasing feeling of deja vu. A feeling that isn’t really nice when associated with Liverpool’s current season given their poor form. This foreboding Deja vu turned to reality with a Stephen Ireland goal with Skrtel switching off for the second time in less than 10 minutes. This did not bode well for Liverpool as they have increasingly found themselves staring down the wrong end of a gun!

Having said that, in a matter of seconds, Placenta boy Benayoun slide-scored a goal to put Liverpool back in the fray. 2-2! The pitch was on fire, figuratively of course. The sort of fire that Liverpool would like to turn into a regular conflagration ala “Premier League season 2008-2009″, to zing Manchester City.

And minute 81. Whats this??? Cometh the hour, cometh the man??!??! Movement on the bench! Aquilani stirs!!!! Oh, he stirs to move into the tunnel to take a wee. It’s Fabio Aurelio, the other Placenta boy who would be coming on, ostensibly at least. At least, he was stripping down to his strip. With five minutes of regular time to go, Aurelio did come on for Benayoun as the latter had to recharge his placenta cream treatment quota!

The final cast of the die, which has been biased against Liverpool this season, did’t result in any jubilation for either side. Liverpool dropped a further two points. Two points that will prove to be crucial as I think it is quite safe to write Liverpool off now.

Liverpool vs Manchester City – Possible Liverpool starting 11

The International break should have done a lot of good to Liverpool. They have Steven Gerrard back although it isn’t certain if he is set to start against Manchester City this Saturday. A lot would be riding on this match for both parties. If Liverpool are to win, which I hope, they would be making a stand to recapture their lost form. If Manchester City are to win, they would strengthen their grip on fourth spot and this would also put Rafael Benitez in a sorry situation.

The big team news for Liverpool is that Torres will be out for a couple of weeks while Aquilani is presumably fully fit although Rafa did rant that the latter *might* not START this game but *might* come of off the bench!

Here is what, I think the team might look like:

Reina (GK), Johnson (RB), Carragher (CB), Skrtel (CB), Aurelio (LB), Benayoun (RM/SR), Mascheranho (CDM), Leiva (CDM)/Aquilani(CDM/CM), Babel (LM), Gerrard(AMC/CF), Kuyt (SC).

Key: GK: Goalie, RB: Right Back, CB: center back, LB: Left back, RM: Right midfield, SR: Striker-Right, CDM: Central defensive midfield, LM: Left midfield, AMC: Attacking mid field, CF: center forward, SC: Striker-central.

…Will be right back after these messages…

Haven’t blogged about Liverpool et al. in some time! Will be back with a superlative post as soon as something worthwhile and sunny happens with Liverpool!! Hopefully that won’t be long, right Rafa?

Torres nets his ninth as Liverpool make a comeback!

Lucas on Beachball duty! www.liverpoolfc.tv

Liverpool were definitely the better team in what is generally referred to as the Clash of the Titans against Manchester Utd. Thanks to some really good defensive work from stand-in skipper Jamie Carragher, who was spectacular, Masceranho and the much maligned Lucas and some deft passing upfront by Kuyt, Benayoun and Torres, Liverpool came away as 2-0 victors, their 1st win in 5 matches, their third consecutive win against Manchester Utd and a win that hopefully would see their fortunes change for the better!

This match like all previous encounters between the two stalwarts of English football was not without incident. Luckily the incidents in this case didn’t involve unfortunate beach balls and other sun-and-sand paraphernalia! Vidic got his 3rd consecutive red card against Liverpool while Liverpool got their first red card sending off for 54 games, Javier Masceranho. And would you believe it: 54 games ago it was Masceranho who was sent off against Manchester Utd!

Torres netted the opener on 62 minutes as he continued his voodoo over Ferdinand and Vidic who look increasingly discomfited when faced with “El Nino”. The second goal came of the “much maligned in mid week”, David Ngog deep into stoppage time putting the final nail in Manchester Utd’s coffin.

Although Liverpool are several points off the pace right now, this is a good sign as no bad ever comes off of beating Manchester Utd! Plus, Liverpool might just have proved critics wrong by winning an extremely important and difficult game sans Captain Fantastic Steven Gerrard!

The goals for Liverpool were from Torres (62nd) and Ngon (94th)

Hook, line and sinker! www.liverpoolfc.tv

Liverpool vs Lyon – Possible starting 11

This has got to one of the most important matches the reds have played this season and last as they try to drag their derailed locomotive back on track! It looks positive that Gerrard will start but Torres is yet to recover completely. Babel might get another opportunity in the starting eleven although it is high time that Riera get a look in too!

Here is what, I think the team might look like:

Reina (GK), Johnson (RB), Carragher (CB), Skrtel (CB), Aurelio (LB), Benayoun (RM/SR), Mascheranho (CDM), Leiva (CDM), Babel (LM), Gerrard(AMC/CF), Kuyt (SC).

Key: GK: Goalie, RB: Right Back, CB: center back, LB: Left back, RM: Right midfield, SR: Striker-Right, CDM: Central defensive midfield, LM: Left midfield, AMC: Attacking mid field, CF: center forward, SC: Striker-central.

Different kind of Balloon incident!!!

Not really the Balon d'Or

The reds, sans their marquee players, Gerrard and Torres, were quite ineffectual against a less than Premier League quality Sunderland. Liverpool went 0-1 down in the 6th minute thanks to an extremely unfortunate incident involving the ball being deflected by a stray balloon of all things! Liverpool had a few corners to stage a comeback but somehow (read: lack of Gerrard et al.) lacked the tooth. By the way, a relatively unknown commodity in Jay Spearing was standing in for Stevie G.

To Liverpool’s credit,their strike quintet of Benayoun, Kuyt, Babel, Johnson and Aurelio did try hard to pull one back and it looked like it was a matter of when the reds would score… At least thats what I hoped! The first half ended with the score still 1-0 in Sunderland’s favor with Liverpool only getting in a few weak kicks.

The away side (Liverpool) had little to boast about in the second half as Reina and the goal post kept the goal deficit to the 1-0 minimum instead of a 3-0 embarrassment. Liverpool’s defense held on steadfast but with no inspiration in the “business end” of the pitch, it looked dark for Liverpool and Benitez’s days just may seem to be numbered.

With 20 minutes to go Benitez threw in Voronin and Mascherano for the debutant Spearing and Skrtel with hope of injecting some zest. Another substitute introduced into the fray to get a goal and get Liverpool’s fading title race into some sort of recovery was David Ngog. The sand was trickling quickly for Liverpool. The last four minutes of the game saw the ball concentrated in the Sunderland half but barring a few pot shots at goal, Liverpool did little to restore parity and looked more and more like mid-table team.

There were 7 minutes of added time(!!!) giving Liverpool a lot of time to still launch an attack or three. The 7 minutes of added time saw Liverpool almost squeeze a goal through if it wasn’t for the vigilance of the Sunderland goalie.

If Liverpool keep up this sort of pallid performances it would be quite safe to say that their title dreams for the 2009-2010 season are done and dusted with. Although Gerrard and Torres are talismanic, their absence was no excuse for Liverpool to not get even a single goal in a match that was a 100 minutes long.

The match was full of controversy which included a beach ball getting the decisive goal, a spat of words between the managers, 7 minutes of added time and two injuries but what will stand out is Liverpool’s inadequacy in front of goal.