Liverpool 6, Brighton 1: Progressing Nicely

By: Ed | February 19th, 2012

Liverpool 6: Skrtel 5′, Bridcutt og 44′ 71′, Carroll 57′, Dunk og 74′, Suarez 84′
Brighton 1: LuaLua 17′

Liverpool cruise to an easy victory at Anfield, forcing Brighton into three own goals and getting one apiece from Andy Carroll, Luis Suarez, and Martin Skrtel. A familiar-looking first half gave way to a second that left Brighton badly beaten, and one that assured the Reds would have the chance to face Stoke (again) at Anfield in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup.

With a fairly long layoff between matches there wasn’t much of a call for ringing in the changes, with maybe one or two coming into the squad to get a match after extended time on the bench. That came in the form of Jamie Carragher rather than Martin Kelly, though, with the veteran starting in place of Daniel Agger alongside Martin Skrtel, and the Dane left out completely. Kelly started on the bench along with Dirk Kuyt and the recently fit Maxi, with Charlie Adam, Steven Gerrard, Jordan Henderson, and Stewart Downing forming the midfield and Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll in attack. As many have noted, it was the first time that Gerrard, Suarez, and Carroll have started a match together in over a year.

The two sides barely had time to settle in before Martin Skrtel headed home the opener, with Stewart Downing winning the preceding corner kick with a nice move in the box that ended in a deflected effort just over Peter Brezovan’s goal. From there it was straightforward stuff, as Gerrard’s inswinging corner was met by a shoddily-marked Skrtel, and the Slovakian had his third goal in all competitions on the season.

Brighton settled from there, playing their possession game and trying to work their way forward on the ground. Liverpool weren’t in any great hurry, content to soak up pressure and get back in numbers. A few forays to the Brighton end looked threatening, first through a Downing cross, and later from a free kick won by Jose Enrique that resulted in a stray Gerrard effort.

Brighton got their equalizer shortly after that Gerrard free kick, Kazenga Lua Lua winning a free kick of his own from a silly Jordan Henderson foul. From thirty yards it was always going to be speculative, but Lua Lua thundered one past the wall and Pepe Reina at the near post. It was a fantastic strike, one more than worthy of leveling the match.

Liverpool slowly but surely grew back into the match, eventually dominating proceedings as the first half wore on. Luis Suarez had a goal-bound effort cleared off the line by Inigo Calderon, and Andy Carroll’s header from a delightful Gerrard cross could only find the roof of the net.

gerrard The rest of the first half seemed destined to play out in similar fashion, with possession shared more freely but neither side convincing in attack. But a free kick won on the edge of the Brighton area gave Gerrard a chance, and after his shot was tipped over by Brezovan, Liverpool again took advantage of shaky Brighton defending from corners. This time it was Glen Johnson bundling one off Liam Bridcutt after Luis Suarez had danced through a crowded penalty box.

That they entered halftime with a lead was a nice change to what had started to look like another nearly performance, and starting the second half the biggest question was whether or not they’d be able to create any distance, or if it was destined to be another nervy finish at Anfield.

The guests started with a substitution, replacing Will Buckley with Craig Noone, who impressed at the Amex during the League Cup meeting between the sides, to provide a spark for Brighton going forward. But it was Liverpool who started better, with Jordan Henderson narrowly flicking wide after Steven Gerrard’s shot looked to be headed badly off target. Suarez followed shortly after with what should have been the third, but Gordon Greer’s intervention, protested angrily by Suarez, saved a badly out of sorts Brezovan.

The third came in what seemed like the unlikeliest of circumstances—good work from Downing on the left, well-placed cross, good movement from Andy Carroll to connect and finish past Brezovan. Anfield didn’t quite swallow itself whole, but our matchday thread almost did.

Another Bridcutt own goal left Liverpool well in front, this time from pressure by Gerrard, and an own goal from Lewis Dunk rounded off a slightly surreal day, one that was capped with a Suarez goal even after his terrible spot kick, as he headed in after Andy Carroll played it back across the face of goal from a Stewart Downing cross.

*

In the interest of full disclosure, I really don’t have a sense of how the performance looked with any consistency, as my stream was up and down for much of the match. From what I saw and read, though, this could have very easily been a repeat of what we’ve so often witnessed at Anfield, albeit against a side who plays a more attractive, stylish game of football.

But the fortuitous second gave Liverpool space, and the third spurred on the confidence that Liverpool’s lacked so badly for much of the season. A team that couldn’t buy goals in front of their home supporters only a month suddenly couldn’t stop them from going in, even if the majority came from the opposition’s defenders.

On the whole I’m in dark as to how the squad looked individually; I know that Stewart Downing surpassed expectations and had a hand in more than a few of Liverpool’s most effective attacks, and showed some semblance of competence after disappointing so badly for much of the season. Andy Carroll also had a strong showing, getting a goal and setting Suarez up for his, building off a number of improved performances up top. The Uruguayan was lively enough in his own right, showing flashes of his brilliance along with some frustratingly typical wastefulness.

Hard to complain on the day, and while I might add some thoughts after getting a chance to watch the match on replay later tonight, I’m content with Liverpool finding a way to win and doing so in remarkably comfortable fashion. Wins like this—not just in scoreline—have been few and far between for Kenny Dalglish’s squad this season, which makes today both relieving and encouraging.

Hope you all have a nice rest of your weekend, and now we can all look forward to next Sunday’s final.

Some Related Liverpool Posts:

Category: FA Cup, Match Recaps, Miscellaneous, Team News

« Matchday: Liverpool v. Brighton | Home | Video: Andy Carroll v. Brighton »

ejbauer11

In case anyone needs a reason to slam their heads against the wall:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/foot... - if I didn't know better, I'd think SAF paid them to draft the letter.
Latortillablanca

what do we make of dalglish admitting it was his "sentimental" call to have suarez take the pk, instead of Mr. Automatic? another example of the unreserved worship the manager has for his #7, sure, and that's great and all. but at what point - if ever - does this special treatment start to affect other players?
Mekusdagama

Suarez is special
poorscouserbobby

According to the interview after the game, he said basically, getting Suarez a goal would do good for his confidence etc. I wish Suarez had scored it, but he didn't but he scored in the end.
Kev00

Gerrard wasn't on the pitch
Latortillablanca

i actually meant kuyt.
Lis

Well, we were 5-1 up and as for penalties this season, only Gerrard has been Mr. Automatic and he had been subbed off.
jpr

You talking about the special treatment he received last weekend when he was made to issue a formal written apology with his tail between his legs? Or the special treatment from the managing director of the club publicly stating how disappointed they were in his actions?
Latortillablanca

i was hoping this wouldn't digress into THAT discussion again - although now you mention it, neither of those decision were made by kenny, but rather by ownership.

what i'm talking about is the overplaying, hyperbolic treatment kenny has been prone to for anything suarez related since he came back to the club.
jpr

Kenny was a big part of those discussions and was the one to explain and justify it to Luis. The text of those apologies was VERY critical of Suarez, and Kenny would have had a great deal of input into the wording of them along with Ian Ayre. Kenny and Ayre didn't have to blast him, quite the way HE did.

Kenny supports all of his players and gets a lot of criticism from "some' corners for backing them to too great of a degree. From my perspective, I would argue that CHAD is getting a great deal more preferential treatment from Kenny than Luis. Charlie Adam IS the teachers pet, NOT Luis. Stewie is LUCKY he is not benched permanently after showing NO HEART against United. And as many have mentioned here, Stevie would certainly have taken that penalty had he not already been subbed. NO Way, Luis gets the call, if Stevie is on the pitch or if the conversion of it matters in the scoreline. He was simply rewarding Luis for his large part in demolishing Brighton and not being on the scoresheet, and also trying to wash away some of the bitter taste from the events earlier in the week, of which Kenny played a big part, no matter how much you may try to minimize it.

Finally, Luis ALWAYS justifies his place and position in the side. CHAD, not always so much. YET. So, for Luis, it's not "special treatment", it's rightly acknowledging his work and value to the team.
Latortillablanca

look my initial point revolved more around kuyt getting overlooked in favor of suarez, but ya you're right gerrard wuda taken it had he been on the field. adam and the new signings, ok, but srsly? how are you not seeing how highly dalglish thinks of suares? at times to his own detriment... and how can you just disregard kenny's initial reaction on THAT day? it took FSG placing a call from across the atlantic to IA to get it sorted out, lets not whitewash that day, kenny's hands were muddied. regrettably, and i'm willing to accept it as a mistake, but they were muddied nonetheless.

i dont think anyone can say for a fact who actually wrote the apology letters, but if i were putting money on it id say it came from some big ass office in boston and not the boot room...
Mekusdagama

who cares?
PDubz18

Watching the game again, the attacking movement that the team showed yesterday was exactly what the game needed. Granted, it was against Brighton; but we all know very well the tendency of this Liverpool side to play down to their opposition. Suarez shouldn't take penalties; Kuyt or Gerrard should have been on that one (at least until Suarez finds his shooting boots again).
lfc80uk

Regardless of the three own goal, Liverpool were well worth their victory. Andy Carroll is nicely coming into form. Confidence is a big part of any strikers game and I am really happy that he has found his feet in the last few games. The same can not be said for Torres who hasn't scored a goal in 4 months 21 days and counting. Still, at least he is enjoying his time at his new 'big club'

LFC tend to have finish a season better than they start it! I would have to get the stats from everybody's good friend Opta Joe, but I am sure I am right.

Hopefully we can take our cup form into the league, and victories over an imploding Arsenal and Chelsea side will take LFC back in to the top 4 and hopefully carry that run into the latter stages of the season.

But first things first the Cup final... Bring it on!
Andy

Stewart Downing gets an assist. Finally starting to look like the £6 million player we spent £18 million on in the Summer. Carroll took his goal well, admittedly. Let's not forget OG scored three yesterday and Bridcutt now has two more goals than Downing does for Liverpool. Stoke, Sunderland and Spurs will be much tougher prospects.
justin

Anyone keen on viewing the goals from the game hearing the analysis from John Barnes / K. Keegan can visit the following link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...
Andy

Carroll's movement was sensational for his goal. I don't know how he has improved so much but whoever's in charge of the training is doing a great job.
Tom Foolery

Budweiser did man of the match? No wonder, Bobandy worked his socks off.
PDubz18

Downing looked good and dynamic. He was drifting inside and was always on the move. It was no accident that he got an assist today, he sparkled and everything in the first half flowed through him.
nebhamoo

Lesson learnt I hope...short diagonal crosses into Carroll, leads to real top quality chances which leads to goals or assists, and when in doubt forget about crossing to his head, just pass it anywhere near his left foot..
Khaine

"Nice stat from ESPN: Suarez and Carroll have scored nine goals in the ten games they've started together."
Of course, I did no legwork here and am pasting this directly from a tweet, but if true, surely that's a great stat for our much maligned striking duo.
DJ-Chutfield

Not to be the downer no one likes to hear from, but it's hard for me to see this match as confidence-inspiring. Yeah, it's great we got the win and progress to the quarter-finals, yes it's awesome we go into the Carling Cup final on a win... but this match was so clearly heading for the usual script we've gone through far too many times this season and it took Brighton's horrendous defending to rescue us out of it and give us a surprise ending. It's almost equivalent to Brighton being disqualified for drug use or whatever and the FA simply awarded us a 3-0 win (forget for a moment that the FA is out to do nothing but hack Liverpool down at every turn). Own goals aren't luck, they're only made when you hassle and harry the defense, but still. Call me jaded after a season full of disappointment, but I just don't see this fortuitous match serving as the foundation for our end-of-season charge. Perhaps Wembley will be.
Reba

Who cares? We are due for a bit of luck. We've had exactly none all season. The only true own goal, in my opinion, was the last one. Glen and Stevie did plenty of excellent work to earn the other two.
Red2death

Agreed. It's hard to draw any conclusions with that level of opposition. I mean, not that Brighton's a bad team or anything, but they were just swallowed up by the occasion and generally all over the place - even for a Championship side.

It's a welcome change from teams suddenly playing two notches better just because they're up against Liverpool. But beyond that, can't really take too much from this. We did the job, enjoy the moment, get back to work.
Reba

Chelsea drew against an Championship side. Tottenham drew against a League One side. And Arsenal lost to Sunderland. We beat Brighton 6-1.

Jeez! Why can't people just freakin' enjoy a win as a win?
DJ-Chutfield

Once bitten, twice shy... and this season's bitten us about a billion times.
poorscouserbobby

dJ, i'm tracking your once bitten line, but 2 of their OG were directly from pressure from us, other than the one lad who was going for the overhead kick clearance and then atomic-kneed it into the net. 6-1 is no accident.
DJ-Chutfield

Yeah, I suppose you're right. Bring on Cardiff!
Suarez from the car park...

Rear and midfield play isn't bad at all, we can bring it out even if we ignore easy passes many times.

But we're wasteful up front and don't make the best decisions. Henderson's decision making is awful further forwards.

Crosses were often too early with no concept of putting it into the danger area rather than onto someone's head, else he would run into a dead end. It's like he has little real vision of what he's supposed to do with a football.

The rest of them tend to make very poor crosses combined with players in the box not running in to get onto the end of things but standing flat footed waiting for something to happen.

Carroll was better in this regard today [and could have had numerous penalties from the english/egyptian defender] with movement but anyone in the box should be expecting to run onto a crossed ball.

Gerrard making the OG was superb - it was entirely deliberate from the giant footballing brain.
The first OG was a result of good pressure with follow up, and in the end, Anfield was too big for these guys.

Hopefully Cardiff will be a little overwhelmed by Wembley, though truth be known, I'm more worried by Henderson, Carroll and Adam not being over psyched there. Downing will be ok having played for England. Still more to come from him.

Carra played to sharpen him up a bit. He's needed on the bench next week with his experience and I expect him to get on later in the game.

Still hoofs passes when he has a midfield standing waiting to receive the ball.

6 goals can't be sniffed at. OG's are not lucky. You put the team under pressure and they go to pieces. OK, Stoke won't do that, but that's not the point!!

Stoke's a tough game at home, but definitely one we can win if our midfielders get a bit more 'connected' and smart with their ball use. And that will make another wembley trip for the semi-finals no?

The guys will love that, a great morale booster if they can make that happen. Those semi-finals are going to be the dogs' nutz assuming Chelski, Spurs, Sunderland and Liverpool go through. Glad Sunderland got Everton. Any semi will need a top performance and some finishing to get through it.

Spurs might be the team to avoid in the semi's, but Sunderland are anything but mugs and are playing better than we are right now.

Let's go and get a trophy next week and rub the gooners' noses in it the following week.
Momo

You put your finger on really two deep wounds that are undermining our progress.

Imo Hendo should never play ahead of Kuyt coz he's awful and doesn't cope with the pressure.After 25 five games in the Epl to which you can add a dozen in other competitions he gives me the feeling he's only good for the reserves,at least for another year. I really regret Meireles.

Kelly is probably the best crosser at LFC right now,I'm really saddened when he's not on the pitch in home games. Tbh I don't know how a British team of this caliber doesn't have 2 or 3 players at least who can make fine crosses on a regular basis from different angles/positions of wide areas.
Scotty

Was a really well-taken goal by Andy Carroll. He has great ability with his left foot. That wasn't the easiest chance. Tell me if I am wrong but has he scored a headed goal this season? Slowly but surely his confidence is coming back. Link up play was decent today. He needs refs to support his on corners. Was man-handled almost everyone by the Brighton centre-back.

Not to look too far ahead but I hope we play this way against Stoke in the next round. We showed them far too much respect last time.

I noticed something interesting today. Was it just me or didn't Henderson, Adam and Gerrard inter-change positions a lot today. Almost like we didn't have a conventional right-sided midfielder. What was absent as a result was that Johnson barely came forward at all except for corners.

Thought Suarez looked a lot sharper than last week. His attempt that was cleared off the line in the first half was lovely.
James Tyrrell

Bring on Cardiff, OG is bang in form this season
purify_the_body

Love it when Skrtel scores and crossing my fingers we'll see Bellamy, Maxi, Spearing, Kuyt, and Agger instead of Carroll, Downing, Adam, Henderson, and Carragher against Cardiff.
Latortillablanca

perhaps downing's best performance a week on from his worst... cool. Still in with a healthy shot at two trophies and CL qualification this year... and even if the latter doesnt come to fruition, a trophy or two will make that disappointment markedly easier to deal with. walk on fellers.
Marque Pierre Sondergaard

Wasn't this Downing's first assist of the season?
Red2death

Sweet cross from Downing met by a cool finish from Carroll.

Pessimistically I'd say something about a monkey and a typewriter.

But instead, let's just enjoy the moment while it lasts.
Suarez from the car park...

yes, one goal and one assist, but still nothing in the league.

It still looks like this team have just started playing together!
CheekyFellow

Oh dear.
jpr

can we make this type a little smaller?? winning the Carling cup, will put us in Europa. Not sure if that's good or bad. We need to take todays positive result and build on the team dynamic, bottle the confidence and push on for 4th place. Wembley next week, Arsenal at home the following week. Arsenal could have three disastrous results in a row if they lose to Spurs. We need to push on now.
Suarez from the car park...

ctrl and + keys should make it bigger...
Marque Pierre Sondergaard

Yes, Arsenal and Chelsea look like they are disintegrating. Arsenal's thrashing at the hands of Milan and then loosing to Sunderland will do their confidence levels a world of good. AVB having one foot in the grave and another on a banana peel is also going to wonders for the Blues. If only we would start scoring goals, it might just all come together.