Sunderland V Liverpool (Premiership is back)

I am in total agreement with the last two posts, this is our first competive game of the season non of the others matter (we can rectify the Standard Leige game in the return).
This is where the Season starts here and now !, a 1-0 win away from home as opposed to a draw is very welcome and come on, who else did we expect to get our opening (and winning) goal of the season ! there is only one TORRES !!! (the fact that I live in Spain has nothing to do with my alligience !)
Quit with the indepth analysis of the first 90 mins of the season its only a game not a season !

What did you think after watching aswell now DLS?
Nice post match interview with Torres, really hoping for our No. 19.

I thought it was a crackin goal LFC Viking. Massive mistake by Sami with that back pass but Carra made a great tackle to make sure Diouf didn't get anywhere. Overall looked a gritty performace that we've ground out. It was the kinda game last year we'd of drew, put it that way.

Agree whole heartedly with what you said about Torres' interview. Seems to understand and appriciate the history behind the club. He's focused on number 19 and we're up and running.

Come on you Reds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyone else more and more looking forward for a certain Steve Finnan to get back in the right back position? To be fair, i like Arbeloa, and i think hes a good player however i just think Finnan, even Darby, would be best suited in the right back position. I would really like to see Darby start against Boro next Saturday.

I'm more and more looking forward for a certain Javier Mascherano to get back into the squad. We need to show spitting pricks like Diouf some tough lessons!

I'm more and more looking forward for a certain Javier Mascherano to get back into the squad. We need to show spitting pricks like Diouf some tough lessons!

If both Masch and Skrtel were on the pitch then Diouf would have learnt alot more than just 'some' lessons

OK, my last post was about the Sunderland goalie and whether he was good. I haven't seen highlights as I do not have a TV!

However, why are we complaining. We won the match. This has been our downfall for too many years; dropping points against teams we 'should' be beating.

I would take 38 ugly 1-0 wins, thank you very much. More goals than the opposition, All that counts.

OK, my last post was about the Sunderland goalie and whether he was good. I haven't seen highlights as I do not have a TV!

However, why are we complaining. We won the match. This has been our downfall for too many years; dropping points against teams we 'should' be beating.

I would take 38 ugly 1-0 wins, thank you very much. More goals than the opposition, All that counts.

Why do you not have a TV?

I would also be happy with 38 ugly 1-0 wins if it means we win the league, far too many times over the last 5 or 6 season we have drawn games that we should be winning. United and Chelsea have been able to scrape out these 1-0 wins and today we were able to do the same. I remember a few seasons ago, Wigan's 1st season in the Premiership; It was Chelsea v Wigan on the opening day and it was heading for a 0-0 draw but Chelsea were able to pull it out the bag and it was good to see that we were able to do so today when it looked to be heading for a bore draw. Chelsea done it quite alot that season and went on to win the league so hopefully if we can turn the scrappy draws into scrappy wins then the same will happen. We are'nt losing too many games, for crying out loud United lost more league games than us last season and still won the league so its a proven fact that we draw far too many.

Here we go again!
a selection policy to prove a point regarding our strength in depth is very worrying. Replace Keane with El Zhar? If the man has " game intelligence" tell him where we want him to play, not give a 20 mill signing the ignimony of being replace by a reserve team sub.
Have nothing but praise for the two forwards getting in each others way from the keepers great save but spill after a deflection. The point being that even if they were telepathic, there is no way you would want either of your front two not reacting to that.
Xabi made a big difference in the game, and Dossena look better than he has, so that was O.K.
My big worry was our reluctence to go after a mediocre side from the first whistle. I know people believe we are only a couple of wins against our rivals away from the title, but Charlton away will live long in my memory.
Until we have a disdain for our hosts tactics away from home and just go for them, we will have to rely, like today on pinching victorys.
We can't do that no more, we have to believe that we are far and away better, because everyone below the top four honestly expects to get beat at home by them, exept when they play us. We are a potential scalp at every away groung again this season, mostly because we are negative.
Honest question in the Ale House today watching was why get rid of Crouchy and still punt the ball up, I have no answer, and you have to say it is negative.
From the same tactic, the conclusion can be drawn that we have no cohesion as a TEAM, and that the defensive, midfield and strike force act either independently of each other in training, or, have no confidence in each other. Very disturbing.
The stats on Benayoun were impressive reading, but is anyone of the same opinion as me that he is too light-weight?
If we continue to forge our offensive play right down the middle then we need his trickery, but today, and always away from home, I get exasperated by shouting GET IN.
The number of times we shirked the tough stuff today was awful. The battles have to be won away first and foremost, then class will tell. Today, very few examples of our lads intimidating the opposition with some " we are Liverpool" were apparent, for God sake Gerrard s**t out of two tackles.
Back to the positives, my just turned three year old son has just learned the Torres song, and jumps up and down to the "nar nar nar" bit.
Thank you 'nando, what was very bad became a good day, and I am going to enjoy motd, with Dithering Davey worked over by Mr Ince.........GET IN

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Agree with the Keane thing. Totally annoying to see him subbed; play a different formation; say 4-4-1-1 or 4-1-3-1-1(Only with Mascherano) or 4-2-3-1 (with Gerrard in the middle and Keane on the right flank); anything! but subbing him makes Rafa & Parry look like they just threw 20 million pounds away; especially when he's been playing well.

We need Babel back in the LM, Benanyun belongs in the RM position, playing him along that flank with Dossena creates a very weak Left side of the field.

Kuyt needn't start all the time, he can be subbed by Benny and vice versa. Benny and Pennant are more creative than Kuyt. Kuyt has the making an attacking midfielder, definitely not a Winger.

agree with last post about kuyt........... he is ineffective there and should now be a sub striker if and when needed

good points.... Torres, Benyoun, carragher, alonso

bad pints...make you sick.... points.... WE NEED PROPER WIDE PLaYERS....absolutly no width..... its plain as day
get silva in or put pennant on for kuyt

Well the performance was a little better than the mid-week game but again the game highlights why we need a bit of creativity in the wide area's. I think Babel will be a much needed addition back to the squad to add a bit of pace and fair in the wider area's.

Happy with the result, 3 points is 3 points and the way things where looking I thought for sure we were going to head for a 0-0 draw.

Rafa did gamble a bit with playing Sami who no one would ever think would start this game and who looked quite shaky in the first 15 minutes but settled down. I thought Arboloa and Dossena were a bit better on the defending part but still disappointed with their poor/no attempt to offer width. Carra was much better in the air and overall.

Kuyt went from extremely poor mid-week to today being pretty poor, he doesn't fit the 4-4-2 system as much as 4-3-3, I doubt after the last two games he will be playing next weekend. Yossi was a little better today but I expect more from him and was unlucky to get the pk call. Gerrard was average, Plessis was okay, Alonso was MOTM and changed the whole game.

Keane was a little better but again like the common theme I expect a lot more from him though I will be interested to see him play at home where I hope he gets more service and Torres had that type of game he has where he does nothing but pop's up with the goal.

Overall I will take these games all day long...on to Boro

Why do you not have a TV?

I would also be happy with 38 ugly 1-0 wins if it means we win the league, far too many times over the last 5 or 6 season we have drawn games that we should be winning. United and Chelsea have been able to scrape out these 1-0 wins and today we were able to do the same. I remember a few seasons ago, Wigan's 1st season in the Premiership; It was Chelsea v Wigan on the opening day and it was heading for a 0-0 draw but Chelsea were able to pull it out the bag and it was good to see that we were able to do so today when it looked to be heading for a bore draw. Chelsea done it quite alot that season and went on to win the league so hopefully if we can turn the scrappy draws into scrappy wins then the same will happen. We are'nt losing too many games, for crying out loud United lost more league games than us last season and still won the league so its a proven fact that we draw far too many.

Why no tv? Because I can do a lot more with £140 and most tv is crap. Furthermore, I am a student in Edinburgh(cue stereotypical comments!) so look for savings everywhere!

I am yet to be convinced that we possess enough quality, I want us to, but I still do not see it.

May I ask the possibilities of acquiring tickets for Anfield? There are a few interested from the Edinburgh area, do we have to be LFC members/Fancards etc?

I just cant wait for us to improve. For the first game of the season i expected the boys to come out firing and they didnt. I expected some passion, there wasnt any. I expected a hell of a lot more than we showed out there and i feel let down i nthe performance.

I dont see how people are saying, 'this is the sign of champions' considering that we spent 19 million on Keane to help kill these sides and it was 10 players from last season and a new left back on the pitch when we scored. One win in the opening round of the season does not mean we are looking like champions. If we can do that ATLEAST 5 more times where we win playing ugly then i will agree but after that, i see it more of a hinderance than looking like champions.

Our width, non existant. The times we did go out wide, it was Arbeloa and Dossena who would put the ball in and Dirk and Yossi would come inside.

I was watching Bentley for Spurs earlier in the day and thought 'why didnt we get him?'. Downing was impressive too, even more so than Bentley. Atleast these guys are improvementsn not many fans of Downing on here but he put i nsome great crosses, came in when need be only and got a few shots in. If we dont bring in someone on wing, left especially, then i cant see us challenging too much against the other 3.

3 points is what matters and as i said in the first sentence, i just cant wait for us to improve.

While I was disappointed with the standard of football we got a result and 3 points in the bag.If we can get 3 points playing like that then I think we are in for a good season.I was surprised to see Agger and Skrtel both on the bench especially when Hypia was a bag of nerves in the early stages.Also Alonso deserved a goal with that long range effort.As another poster has mentioned if we won every game 1-0 then the league would be ours and everyone would be as happy as larry.

It wasn't a pretty performance to watch. For long spells it looked like a 0-0 all over it.

Made up Alonso came on second half and completely changed our mentality. His passing was what changed the game.

The way I see it, if we're playing like that yet still winning the games then we've already improved on last season. Games like that are what win titles, and if we can look shaky yet still come out winning 1-0 then I've no complaints.

Not pretty at all...wouldve loved to see more goals but Im happy we won. Wouldve hated to start the season with a 3 all draw. 3 points in the bag...and 1 down for El Nino...YNWA

Well, I've just finished reading all 19 pages .... phew.

Not much more can be said then what's already been said.

Agreed no width at all. Xabi was a great improvement on Plessis when he came on, really helped change the game and Fernando's a f***in superstar that saved our blushes.

One thing I want to add though is, if Rafa is insistent on playing Dirk Kuyt right wing and I believe he will be, then why not sell him and JP, raise sufficient funds and buy an out and out right winger, that has flair, speed and can cross a ball into a dangerous area. It's so frustrating seeing Dirk get the ball and if he manages not to lose possesion then he passes it backwards. Does my head in.

Don't get me wrong, I think Dirk works harder than anyone on the team and we all know he has wonderful stamina and gives 110% every time he steps on the field but right wing isn't his position. We also know the the qwalities  JP possesses but Dirks's getting a game in his non preferred position before JP and JP's rotting away on the bench .

After all that I'm just glad we got the 3 points....come on Newcastle and Portsmouth 

I'm over yesterdays ropey performance now and what we're left with is three very valuable points away from home. But a little concerned that we might carry this form on - the timing of internationals really do my head in.

The need for decent width is obvious but another thing that concerns me is hoping for Torres to pop up with the goods when the rest of the team don't look like causing any real danger in the final third. Again, the length of time until we had a proper shot on goal wasn't good enough.

Again, we gave some possesion away on the cheap yesterday. And I'm very concerned about the hesitancy when the opportunity arises to have a crack at goal or get an early cross in. Thankfully these things can be worked on as a lot of it comes down to confidence.

The plus side is that we didn't concede and got the three points without looking like we were able to cause real problems for their keeper. I agree it's a good sign when you don't play well and get the three points. But there's no hanging around now, we must improve on our last two performances and I'm sure we will.

Football sites are calling it 'Grey and Uninspiring'

If you look at the fact that we have 3 1st team players away at the Olympics (1 of them is one of the best defensive mids around) I think it was actually an okay performance. I have just watched Chelsea hammer Pompey 4-0 and that is what we should have done to Sunderland [on paper] but when you take into account the missing players and playing a youngster in the middle who is currently looking out of his depth, Yossi on the left and have a Xabi with a slight knock it was always going to be more difficult especially away from home. I have no worries what so ever about the future performances because we will hopefully have Babel back for the game against Boro so that is solving one of the problems (no need for Yossi on the left). Xabi appears to have gotten over the slight knock so play him with Gerrard instead of Plessis and that is another problem solved and then we will be getting either Lucas or Masch back very soon so as you can see the squad will be getting back together and back to full strength. The transfer window is still open so Rafa could try and bing in Joe Cole or a similar player.

It's these scrappy 1-0 wins that can win us the title and come May we will look back on these results and realise how good they infact were.

S'Land                    L'Pool

40.4%   Possession   59.6%
7             Shots       16
3           On Target   3
1            Saves         3
1           Corners       8
12          Fouls         13
2           Offsides      0
0           Y. Cards      2
0           R. Cards      0
25         Tackles       25
235       Accurate     372
             Passes
56         Bad            53
             Passes

Now seeing as we did'nt perform brilliantly them stats dont look too bad but again we need to get more shots on target, last season we were having alot more shots off target than on target but as the team gets back together and gels into a unit im sure that will change.