Liverpool's MVP: Pepe Reina | Opta Stats
Nearly but not quite. That was the 2008/9 Barclays Premiere League season which made the hope in Red's hearts rise so very high. Certainly did mine. Saturday 14th March, as I entered the channel tunnel returning from a trip to Rotterdam, I was one happy red. I'd just had a text confirming a 4-1 humilation (to quote the BBC) of our bitterest foes in their own backyard. And was that right? Dossena had applied the coup de grace? Good times!
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Liverpool FC 1 QPR 0 | Quick Opta Match Stats
Finally, Liverpool FC managed to win at Anfield after four consecutive stalemates against United, City, Norwich & Swansea. Liverpool needed to bounce back from their undeserved loss to Fulham on Monday night and they just about got there in the end. After missing a whole host of chances in the first half Liverpool scored immediately from the re-start thanks to Luis Suarez' header.
However Liverpool FC then played on the back foot for a lot of the second half not …
Liverpool V QPR | Tactical Stats & Graphical Preview
Not a great week for Liverpool Football Club. There is nothing more frustrating than an undeserved defeat. Add to that a spurious F.A. charge for failing to control your players, and an investigation into your lead striker for a provocative hand gesture, and you can quite comfortable say it hasn't been the best of weeks. I'm not going to go into the above charges, suffice to say, for both instances, there has been a number of similar incidents of such …
Liverpool dominated until Spearing Sending off | Player Influence Stats
It had been a tough week for Liverpool supporters with the loss of Lucas Leiva to a long term injury and then seeing a whole host of records break at the Cottage it has not been a very happy time for the Reds.
Unfortunately we've got to cover the Fulham loss and try to analyse the game. This is our weekly roundup of the player influence on the game. We're going to keep this article as short as possible let's …
Charlie Adam | Gung-ho glory to midfield responsibility
[caption id="attachment_4479" align="alignleft" width="160" caption="Charlie Adam"][/caption]
The arrival of Charlie Adam at Anfield was met, in my quarters, with an expectation of failure. His reputation for being slightly more on the rotund end of the scale in a modern game of six-packed athletes ensured many were predisposed to dislike him, and his failure to make the grade at Rangers gave them ammunition. "He's too Hollywood" they cried, "He needs to have a team built around him", yet 14 games into …
Graft, Craft and How to Fill "The Lucas Role"
Getting the right mix of grafters and crafters is vital to a team's success. A grafter is the type of player who makes up for any failings in natural technical ability through sheer blood, guts and endeavour. Think Dirk Kuyt. On the opposite end of the scale you have crafters, players who have a very high level of technical ability but are are more tactile in their play. Jordan Henderson fits into this box.
Liverpool's squad has many players who immediately …
Lucas Deserves More From All Of Us
A Sky Sports Man of the Match award at last. Forget the 2010 Liverpool FC Young Player of the Year Award and the Golden Samba awarded from the Kop last season; that man of the match award from Gary Neville and co after the Manchester City match must mean that Lucas Leiva is finally a player befitting the Liverpool shirt.
That’s what it seems from the media coverage, anyway.
After suffering an injury against Chelsea last Tuesday, just 50 hours …
To Me, To You | A look at Liverpool centre-back pairings
Hansen and Lawrenson, Hansen and Thompson, Henchoz and Hyypia, Carragher and Hyypia.
These are some of the Liverpool centre-back pairings that have been forged over the years, now with the establishment of Skrtel and Agger, have we found a centre-back pairing that can last?
Martin Skrtel and Daniel Agger have had little chance to play alongside each other in the centre of defence due to injuries to themselves, injuries to others, which has meant them being played out of position …
The Challenge Facing Jay Spearing
Following the sad news that Lucas Leiva will miss the remainder of the season after sustaining an anterior cruciate ligament injury in Liverpool's recent Carling Cup quarter-final victory at Chelsea, Kenny Dalglish faces a dilemma: just who can fill the current player-of-the-year's boots?
Perhaps a replacement will be drafted in during the forthcoming transfer window, but before that can happen the Reds have six league games to negotiate in December, and that's before you consider a triple-header with Manchester City …
Fulham V Liverpool | Tactical & Stats Preview
And what a week that was. From Chelsea to City and back again. Two fantastic performances put in by the players. Then right back down to earth with the hide-under-the-duvet moment when we found out the unfortunate news of Lucas's bad injury. After putting in a couple of bone crunching displays against City and Chelsea, Lucas was just starting to get the far reaching acclaim most of us thought he should have been getting a year ago. Sod's law they …