Liverpool v Middlesbrough: Match Thread

My points out of 10;

REINA-7, nothing more to be said about this guy. currently the top keeper in the league.

ARBELOA-6, Not one of his better games, but when Kuyt is playing so bad, there was nowhere for Arbeloa to go.

CARRA-7, Did what he had to do, nearly a great goal.

SKRTEL-8, Good and strong in the tackle, MOM.

DOSSENA-7, Had a good 1st half, he is getting better.

BENAYOUN-5, Not a good game, but he is not a left sided player.

ALONSO-6, Did not have a good game.

STEVIE G-7, Also did not have a god game, but got a goal when it counted.

KUYT-4, I have said this for a long time, we can do a lot better than him, yes he runs around a lot and gives you 100%, BUT he just does not have the class.

KEANE & TORRES-7, It was nice to see these two working hard with each other, getting there PARTNERSHIP in some kind of order, it will come I'm sure of that.

The only thing I don't like the way Liverpool is playing just now, is we don't have any wide players, every thing is coming down the middle, lets hope we can do better.

I have to say Mike Reily was sh*t today, very poor.

Only negatives was Reina's brain explosion, Arbeloa and Benayoun.

Just still in awe of that strike, over the moon.

It may not have been the best performance in the world but it was a massive improvement on the last 2 games. Dossena looked alot more comfortable and the Keane Torres pairing looked dangerous at times so hopefully this is a sign of what will come.
Last season we would have probably drawn these 2 games but it looks like we are going to be able to pull it out of the bag and that what true champions do.
has anyone else noticed that both times El Zhar has come on we have won

STEVIE G......Not his best game in his career but he is still capable of doing what is needed
CARRA.....man of the match! enough said

by the way look at the table, WE'RE TOP!!!

Dont you know that El ZHAR means The Luck in Arabic

Dont you know that El ZHAR means The Luck in Arabic

No. But we do now.

AussieRed had it spot on.  Grinding it out.

We played average yesterday, not sh*t, not great - but we never gave up.  Sunderland AND Boro can count themselves a little unlucky but you carry on till the end in every game.

Keane and Dossena are improving every game.  Torres was a little bit quiet yesterday but 3 more points, top of the league (at least for another couple of hours) and we haven't even got out of first gear.

Belief rising!

Rafa continue to put el zhar in the last 15 mins 'cos he is our lucky charm.

Just an idea, does any one think that we may have been a little nervous 'cos of Wednesdays game having such an importance, and we road our luck a little?

The biggest thing for me is this, myself and countless others on here have been to anfield and watched us bollock teams in open play and still not win, we didnt play that well yesterday but we won and thats what counts, so we will take these scruffy wins  and when we do play well which i know we will it will be even sweeter.Like every other fan i want the prem but to win it you need youre share of good fortune yesterday we had it and i hope we have a lot more of it ,you cant play well for 38 games but as long as you get something out of games when you are not at youre best thats what counts at the end,Previous seasons we would be sitting on two points now instead of six so we have already improved all we need now is belief in ourselves that we can be good enough thats all we can ask .come on you reds..YNWA

Just saw the MOTD highlights, i was at a wedding last night so missed both the match and match of the day. Glad to see us top of the table and sounds like we worked hard and didnt give up and it payed off. Sounds like it wasnt the best of performances but the 3 points is all that matters. Delighted for carra haha and gerrard. Torres and Keane looked like a good partnership from the highlights. All i can really say is bring on standard, i hope we crush them.

phil thompson on soccer saturday   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZZewHn8vrk

Thought I'd pop back in and give El Zhar a mention. When he came on he gave us something different and that was really what we needed. Made a few very good runs and was always asking for the ball. For a 21/22 year old thats just come out of the reserves I'm sure it can be very easy to just shy away a bit and let the big players do their job but he wasn't afraid of asking for the ball and running at their defenders. Credit to him.

Not going to blow too much smoke up El Zhar's arse.

He came on with about 10 minutes left, a period when we were throwing all guns blazing at Middlesbrough anyway and they were filling their kecks.

Can't really make a fair assumption of his abilities in that situation.

<Even Kewell would have looked full of attacking poise and threat>

Not going to blow too much smoke up El Zhar's arse.

He came on with about 10 minutes left, a period when we were throwing all guns blazing at Middlesbrough anyway and they were filling their kecks.

Can't really make a fair assumption of his abilities in that situation.

<Even Kewell would have looked full of attacking poise and threat>

He's got a bit of stick for not being good enough for us recently (and I agree to an extent). He probably knows he hasn't played well at times over pre season and at Sunderland but he still got at defenders and made a few good runs. A few poor performances when your at his age can hit you harder when your at that age than if your 27/28. Just thought he deserved a bit of credit for staying focused and not letting his head drop.

Haven't seen the full game yet. Listened to it on the radio though and we didn't 'sound' as though we were Liverpool at it's best at all.

It sounded like Southgate had done his homework on our attacking game though. Speaks volumes when Gerrard has to pop up with a very late winner and Carragher gets an important first goal.

What I was thinking from this game - something kopkiwi has already mentioned - is the belief and mentality we can take from it in future games. The players wont forget the unjust draws from last season in any hurry and obviously all us reds wont either. Hopefully when we've stepped up a few gears and we're struggling to score, we can take the full 90 minute commitment ethic that was shown yesterday into the said games.

But it's blatantly obvious we have to improve the way we play sooner rather than lately. There'll be teams who are more clever than the likes of Boro and Sunderland and if we want to be the best, we've got to start doing better.

The points are in the bag though. They all add up. We've set our marker, so now lets set our play.

You missed a thrilling end of a game as you've probably gathered from this thread.

One thing i was eagerly awaiting when El Zhar came on is how he would attack, if he would stay on his wing, wait for the ball and either pass backwards/cross it in or if he would take on his man. He's 21/22 so it would be very strong of him mentally to be able to take on his man and he got the ball about 3 or 4 times and just ran forward trying to link up with the attackers which is a very positive sign IMO.

I think on the back of some of his performances he could fill on the left very easily as a stop gap player untill someone is bought for that left wing.

He's good on his left boot, can cut in and use his right and either pull the trigger or link up with the inside men or go on his left and cross in. Could not be any worse than Benny thats for darn sure.

Still absolutely stoked about the win, cant believe it happened. Just have to keep concentrating though for 90 minutes, cant just rest on this match as evidence we've improved.

It's good that we got the win.
BUT, there were WAY too many long balls for my liking. Like just about every 3rd pass was a long ball. We were just lucky that when middlesborough won the long passes, we got possession back straight away. Otherwise, the possession stats would have been very bad for us. We need to pass along the ground.

I was unable to watch the game but I did see the highlights.

* I think Reina could've done better with the goal we conceeded.
* Great strike by Jamie to get us back to the game.
*Thanks again Stevie for the 3 points...what a shot in the dying seconds of the game. You're a legend!

All in all...happy with the result...after going down in the 2nd half the boys could've settled for a draw but they had the mental strength to go for the win...let's keep that spirit going you RED MEN!

YNWA!

Very happy we managed to get the 3 points still not convincing but in saying that those are the shitty games we drew last year that cost us so much so picking up the 3 points in the dying seconds is great, if we can keep going like this and improving game by game we could have a very good season.

Dont you just love phil thompson a legend pure red.

It's the little things like the ref not blowing up for the foul on Carra and letting him play on and he scores and last season we didn't always get the rub of the green. You have to have a little luck or you'll get nowhere, saying that though don't do justice for Gerrards winner what a fantastic goal, world class....

It's the little things like the ref not blowing up for the foul on Carra and letting him play on and he scores and last season we didn't always get the rub of the green. You have to have a little luck or you'll get nowhere, saying that though don't do justice for Gerrards winner what a fantastic goal, world class....

Was thinking that at the time, if he blew, we would have been here crying and been out of the title race according to the media.

Had the whistle in his mouth too, about 1 and a half seconds away from a loss.

You missed a thrilling end of a game as you've probably gathered from this thread.

Absolutely! It was a thrilling read from when Carragher scored and onwards.