Matchday: Liverpool v. Brighton

Goddamn I love Dirk Kuyt.

another poor second half showing, unacceptable. 

I think we ran out of steam a bit but Brighton played well.  also it was notable that there was no diving into tackles.

Jeez, cheer up lad.

stream 1 on kiwisportz has barca.

Hey Ed, Noel, what about chat software for during the game????

It's one of the things we've talked about for whenever (Ha!) we get our new home.

New couch and flatscreen first eh?

It's a glamorous thing, co-writing this blog.

stream 3 on kiwisportz.com has the 2nd period of chelski v fulham.  Still 0-0.

did some of those reds look a bit tired in the second half?  They couldn't get possession.

Do have to say that every time I see Kuyt track back to help on defense, it renders the decision to leave Skrtel at the mercy of the great welsh hope all the more mystifying. Oh Spearing, why wouldn't you let that roll out son?

Damn. I wouldn't mind Brighton coming up stairs next season. 

Yup. Good looking team. Beautiful stadium and pitch. Vincente & Lua Lua as well as most of that team can play. They grew into the game and played the right way. Thought the penalty a bit soft, but JC was coverin after we should have put it out. Good game to watch. Watchin KK celebrate that second goal, I would have thought this was a CL match. Gotta be careful with wee Luis, he'll give you that backhanded fist to the schnoz. Great to see Stevie back. His passing was sharp.

Great break. 

I'm not watching, but the commentary sure makes us sound like we're on the back foot.  When I mentioned before the lack of finishing in the first half, allowing them back into the game, the chances they seem to have now are not making it sound like we are playing well.

and then who comes to the rescue?  Dirk Kuyt.

wondered if some of the reds looked a bit shagged out 2nd half.  Brighton did well, Poyet has taught them to keep possession.  Good break though.

Still should have put it to bed in the 1st half.  Got to get that finishing sorted out otherwise we'll pay for it through the season.

Groan, this is tedious. I'm almost hoping Brighton score to wake our can't-be-arsed lot up.

At first I read that your first word was "groin", this is what Gerrard has done to me.

Anyone else slightly disconcerted about (1) how many chances Brighton are getting now, (2) our near misses and (3) Kelly getting beat on the right as often as he is?

More and more.... we need the 2nd one ASAP

yeah a bit.
maybe we're going to make a change soon, bring on someone... who scores. (hopefully)

Maybe the guy we bring on has a name that rhymes with Shhmeven Shhmerard

try saying that after you've had a few.  Oh, you have had a few....

I usually try to day-drink as much as possible. But believe it or not, I decided not to drink for this game.

Alcohol definitely could have helped me through some of the stressful parts, though...

Even better than Schlampard?

Naturally

Perhaps.  But with this being so heavily contested... I'm not sure.

A little. Nice goal denial by Kelly in front of an OPEN goal. What a free kick by Bellers from 35, ball changed direction four times. JC can  really read a game. Suarez only bitcin when the D gets a last sec touch. He and Bellers look great. We have to finish it, but from the look of it, we will. Nice stadium and pitch. What a diff from Stoke.

Nope. Lot of players out there who haven't been playing with each other, or playing at all. You can't expect to dominate every second.

Christ. There's not gonna be much woodwork left by the end of the match.

Concerned with our lack of finishing.  This is what happened with Stoke.  We had possession, good football but couldn't kill the game.  I'm hoping we are able to score 3 or 4.

That Bellamy free kick was on a Riise v. United level. Thumped.

Obligatory.

I was half expecting the Alan Smith demolition 

Well if you insist:

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

Can I just point out that we LOOK like LFC tonight. So enjoyable to watch proper footballers play one-touch stuff. Bellers is flying and maxi and kuyt are buzzing. Haven't seen Luis bitchin once!! Need the second.

are you kidding me??? in the second half we were pretty much completely dominated by a team in the championship. the decent first half performance can probably be attributed to brighton showing us a little too much respect but once they got into the game in the second half we were under the cosh. poor poor performance, only got better when the captain came on

You might see from the timeline that the comment was made at half time. Hence the justifiable enthusiasm with a fine display that, barring the blessed woodwork, might have yielded a 3 or 4 goal lead. 

The second half saw the best team in the Championship actually press us and look like they wanted to win. Credit to them but they were gifted a pen by Wee Jay falling over and Vicente skinning a full stretch Carra....and it certainly wasn't a case of Stevie riding to the rescue. Miles away from a "poor, poor performance" overall mate.

apologies for the error but an easy mistake to make. 

you say 'the best team in the Championship' almost as though that excuses our team being dominated in the second half. is that how far we've fallen? so far that a result we managed to hang on to against a team thats not even in our division is perceived as positive? yes, they may have been gifted a penalty, surely that adds weight to my point that it was a poor performance on our part, doesnt it? brighton couldve scored right at the end of the first half, hit the woodwork at the beginning of the second and pressed us back into our half for very lhalf was in brightons favour sixty-odd percent to thirty something. that would be poor against a team in the bottom half of the premiership let alone a club that has just been promoted to the championship - better teams might spank us 4 nil!

we couldve put the game to bed in the first half and were unlucky but the luck that deserted us in the first period mustve returned in the second because dirkys goal came completely against the run of play.

 i would agree with you that our performance  was 'miles away from a poor poor performance', had we been playing against good opposition say man u, chelsea, city or spurs but against a club so far below us, that included a player who was told by liverpool that he not only had no future at the club but no future in professional football, it was a truly shocking second half showing. overall we deserved to win, but to play like that against opposition of that calibre fills me with trepidation at the thought of facing the top teams in the premiership - itll be like spurs all over again, a bloody pasting!

ps brighton are 3rd in the championship and that doesnt qualify them as the best team in the championship. 

Dude, lighten up.

Eh, okay;

1. I have commented on your observations before etipok and in a positive way, so the snippy tone is maybe best reserved for the type of gimp who doesn't know what they're talking about. Disagreement is fine. No shrinking violets 'round here but anyone would think you had an axe to grind lad...?

2. My observations on Brighton's standing are based on watching all the matches to date via the excellent bbc Championship show and not the league table. 3rd's not too shit though.

3. The doom-mongers parading as realists are ten a penny. You know your footy so why join them in envisaging scenarios in which we are 'spanked' or receive 'a bloody pasting'? When it happens it's bad enough without flogging ourselves in advance expectation of suffering and gloom. Seems masochistic.

4.  A wee bit of hope is not mindless or blinkered optimism. If you've supported Liverpool as long as I have it becomes all too easy to be cynical and expect the worst. Many of my mates do. I sit beside an old boy on the Paddock and he moans from start to finish. Why?I'm not positive by nature but this great club has taught me to temper my realism...and just hope...

5. You can only beat what's in front of you and the frame of their goal got hit 3 times with Luis firing one inches wide. The performance tailed off badly in the second half when Brighton remembered to play and press and we lost our ownership of the football. So yeah, we didn't beat the mancs but that doesn't mean it wasn't a half-decent win with some sparkling football in the first half.

6. This time last year we were lurching through the darkest period of our shared fandom. This time out we dropped points vs Sunderland, beat the Arse at theirs, beat Bolton with good football, played the same stuff against Stoke and lost and then got our arses handed to us by Spurs (albeit with diminished numbers). This is followed by last night's win away at a Championship team.

It ain't what we want but I'm gonna hold off on the sackcloth, ashes and self-flaggellation for a bit.....

Ooooh owned by the Trev!

Yeah, obviously BHA are giving plenty of space, but...movement! passing! a bit of skill with the ball! what is this??

Suarez has some nice little flairs, but other than the assist, he's put too much power on most of his forward passes. Antsy, antsy.

And he missed that chance. Which would be more aggravating if this were an EPL match, seeing as I have him on my fantasy team and all.

Same here. I must say though, I've been relying on my Aguero/Silva captain/vicecaptain partnership to rack up the points. 

My problem in fantasy is my resistance to playing United and City players because I hate them all. I need to get over that if I ever want to be good in fantasy this season...

BELLAMY! I know they're weak opposition, but their link-up play looks much better than Andy and Suarez's. How long before they become the preferred partnership?

When have you seen Carroll link up well with anyone? No technical skill, vision, pace or movement...

until Suarez bites someone or Bellamy works on his drive...

BELLERS

Vicente on their bench, which is impressive till u see the 100 mil plus on hours....a must-win ladies and gents!

the game is on here

http://sportbroadcasting24.blo...

where now?

real madrid a bit ordinary on the other channel...

As good a line-up as we could have hoped for. Stevie on the bench too. Good to see Coates from the start, Kelly and Robbo into the back 4 also and a nifty front 6 of ball players. Better team than started vs Spurs.
Brighton, especially Mackail Smith are a real threat and playing good ball under Poyet. They're no mugs so COME ON REDMEN!!

I'm very interested to see what a lineup of Maxi, Kuyt, Bellamy, and Suarez can accomplish.

As I requested Mr Bonebrake! Fantastic goal and classy pass and move from the k.o. Well in Bellers!!

Some footy on the deck would do for me Justin....

Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Robinson, Carragher, Coates, Lucas, Spearing, Maxi, Kuyt, Bellamy, Suarez. 
Subs: Gerrard, Carroll, Downing, Wilson, Shelvey, Flanagan, Doni

With the exception of Enrique out, a much stronger team than went to Tottenham!

now now.

Damn! You talk about not fucking around!!

We were just resting up our players so they could be ready for the Carling Cup...

carra plays, carroll on the bench.  Suarez up front and bellamy in. 

For abominable reasons I'll be unable to watch the match.

Come on, red men.

Ed and Noel will fill you in. Along with Sue of course. 

I get all my updates from their twitter account anyway when my calculus class deems me unworthy to watch football.

From what I understand - 

Bad finishing.
Pass and move like we like to see.
Sloppy touches here and there.
People get tired running up and down the pitch all the time.

And well, we won. Which I suppose is something of a positive.

Then again, I was sneaking peeks at my phone when my professor wasn't looking, so I could have easily misinterpreted.

man, I didn't even know that the NextGen game was tonight - was hoping to see Coady and Suso get a game, and maybe even Sterling from the bench too. Oh well, hope the kids have a good one! :)

Directv will record it for me, and I've gone and joined up properly.  Alabamabob is no more, unless someone can tell me how to associate that with this... anyways. 

We'll come out strong fast and hard and score 4. 

no, no bring back alabamabob!  all is forgiven, well sort of....

Time to wipe the slate clean. Would love to see Coates and Flanno get starts. YNWA. 

That's a really neat photo of Falmer.

Anyways, Sunday's performance aside, since my first chance to see Liverpool in the flesh was at the old Goldstone Ground, way back when Brighton were actually in the First Division, I'm not actually that bothered about who wins.

Although a decent performance would be nice.

nice touch of nostalgia.  Now start bothering and endure the agony with the rest of us.

Well, thus far I'm still enjoying it.

Yaay, they're still playing Sussex by the Sea.

I'll stop now.

Anyone know how to watch the U19 Nextgen game today?

Anyone following the twitter feed?  Seems like that match is going to shit...
http://twitter.com/#!/NextGenS...

Now I am.  Looks like it.  I keep getting dragged into fucking twitter, 1st when the site goes down and now that NxtGen is twitting the games.  Fucking hell.  Whats next Noel and Ed add a Facebook page? Me thinks that kiwisportz stream 2 will be a good bet

aren't you supposed to be playing in the next gen game?

Doesn't seem it's being televised by LFCtv or in Germany. If there are cameras there, the NextGen site should put up a highlights package by tomorrow, but otherwise it doesn't look like this one's getting any coverage.