Key observations as Liverpool set the marker in season opener
It has been a few weeks since Liverpool last played a competitive game, in Kiev, a game Liverpool fans would not be looking back kindly. Hence most fans could not wait to get the season started for more reasons than one. And what a start that was.
The key takeaways from the match:
New Season, same attacking verve
The game did not feel like the season opener, with Liverpool showing the same attacking verve and fluency right from where they …
Liverpool soar to the top on opening day of campaign
It was the moment we'd all been waiting for. Liverpool kicked off their 2018/19 Premier League campaign against West Ham at Anfield brimming with confidence and optimism for the season ahead.
The summer business had been done, and done well, bringing in Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabinho, the long-awaited Naby Keita and Brazil's No.1 Alisson Becker to boot. Daniel Sturridge's summer revival and the overall pre-season form had suggested this could really be Liverpool's year with a 5-0 romping of Napoli only …
Liverpool v West Ham United Preview - Key Battles
The World Cup is over. The transfer window has, to use a particular cliché, slammed shut. Now it’s time for the actual thing – the real football. For nine months across the length and breadth of England (and a little bit of Wales), 20 teams to fight it out for one prize. Before a ball has been kicked in the season, Liverpool are seen as closer to that prize than they have been for quite a long time. But that …
Liverpool v West Ham United Preview - The Magic is Back
The Details
Venue - Anfield, Liverpool
Referee - Anthony Taylor
Date & Time - Sunday, August 12th @ 13:30
Current Odds - Liverpool 1/5, Draw 11/2, West Ham 12/1
Form
Liverpool Form
Liverpool's form table looks poor but we can remember how the wheels just came off a little towards the end of last season. The Chelsea and Roma defeats were mainly down to energy-preservation. Brighton were well-beaten at Anfield in the last league game and then Real Madrid ruined our dream with that …
Leon Bailey and that "Concrete Interest"
With the breaking news this morning that Bailey himself confirmed Liverpool have a “concrete interest” in him, I decided to follow on from my pieces on Fekir & Pulisic with a look at the Leverkusen star, Leon Bailey.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VfzKDAPd9VY
Above: Reliable Bundesliga journalist, Old Gregg, hinting at a move to Liverpool.
My mind wandered this morning to that exact moment I fell in love with him, as a player. I had seen him a few times, mostly in cameos or a …
Observations from Liverpool 3-1 Torino: A great ghost and an old problem
Liverpool wrapped up their preseason slate in a match marking the Anfield debut for Alisson, Fabinho, Keita and Shaqiri.
Alisson allowed his first goal while Fabinho made a surprise appearance at centre-back. Keita had a largely unremarkable evening, while Shaqiri came on at the break and helped put the punctuation mark on the night with his beautifully lofted cross for Sturridge’s header to make it 3-1.
Despite another convincing performance five sleeps before the season opener there were some intriguing …
Observations as Liverpool hit five with Premier League season just a week away
Liverpool surged past Napoli in a convincing 5-0 win on their penultimate game of pre-season, sparking fresh optimism for the season ahead.
The Premier League kicks off in a weeks time and the Reds look fired up for it, delivering a high intensity, high energy game that saw James Milner, Gini Wijnaldum, Mo Salah Daniel Sturridge and Alberto Moreno on the scoresheet.
Here are the observations from the match.
Alisson impresses with accurate delivery
It was the moment all Liverpool …
Sturridge Steals The Show - Liverpool 5-0 Napoli
Liverpool’s pre-season continued in fine fettle as the Reds put Napoli to the sword in Dublin for their penultimate match. The 5-0 rout featured five different scorers, as Milner, Wijnaldum, Salah, Sturridge and Moreno piled the pain on the Italian side.
Liverpool started as they meant to go on, 2-0 up inside ten minutes with Milner the key man. First, he rounded off a decent move between Keita and Mané after Clyne’s pressing won the ball high – Milner’s lashed …
The Rejuvenated Role of Daniel Sturridge
‘It’s only pre-season. It’s only pre-season.’
That’s what the two Manchester City and Manchester United were left clamouring about, desperately trying to save face after Liverpool brushed them aside with 2-1 and 4-1 wins respectively.
Indeed, the US tour has been a success, with one of the keys to the promising form being a player perceived by many to be surplus to requirements at Anfield.
Daniel Sturridge’s departure from the club appeared to have been in the works some time …
Daniel Sturridge: Back from the Brink?
At the end of the 2017/18 season, Daniel Sturridge's departure seemed an inevitability. The club had considered selling him the summer before and during the first half of the campaign, they lost faith in his abilities, resulting in a January loan to West Bromwich Albion which sounded the death knell for his Liverpool career.
The club had set a fairly modest price tag, in this wacky market at least, of £15million, and but for Sturridge's lofty wage demands, he might …