8.27.2011 LFC vs Bolton 3:1 - Henderson & Adam opened their goal tally as new-look LFC impressed the home crowd!

Starting line-up: (4-4-2)

Reina
Kelly Carragher Agger Enrique
Henderson Lucas Adam Downing
Kuyt Suarez

LFC Goal Scorers:

Henderson, Skrtel & Adam

LFC Man of the match:

Henderson - Henderson has been criticized for his performance during first 3 games <2 league games and 1 Carling Cup games> He has been over cautious and afraid of making mistakes, so he has passed the ball to the nearest teammates way too much without trying to create chances. Although Suarez, Adam and Lucas have all been brilliant in this game, Henderson deserved to be Man of the Match. Not only did he score a great goal, but also created scoring chances for Downing and Suarez. Henderson was still young but people have been expected too much from him too soon due to his 20M transfer fee. Henderson should have a good future, but he needs to keep improving.

Insight:
It seems King Kenny will prefer 4-4-2 at home and 4-5-1 in away game. This game has shown that Kuyt is a better complement for Suarez than Carroll. Suarez did not score in this game, but his movement and passing are top-class the whole game. Some of his splendid passes reminds me of passes from Gerrard in his glory days! Liverpool was just a different team with Luiz. He and Kuyt have created so much room and spaces for midfielders to attack. I am delighted both Henderson and Adam opened their scoring account for LFC. Adam and Lucas are sensational in MF and even Henderson was brilliant in RMF role. However, Bolton was playing without Holden and both Muamba and Reo-Coker are work-horse without ball control and playmaking ability. Therefore,I remain skeptical whether Lucas+Adam are sufficient defensively in CMF in 4-4-2. Could 4-4-2 work well without a natural right winger? Henderson played well on RMF in this game, but he is still young and can be inconsistent. I still hope LFC can get a natural right wing before the Aug.31 transfer deadline. Also, I would hope for a striker with speed and finishing. As brilliant as Luiz, as intelligent as Kuyt, as powerful and high-potential as Carroll, LFC still lack of a great finisher. However, defense could be strong now with the arrival of Coates. A new defensive line comprise Kelly, Johnson,Skrtel,Carragher,Coates,Agger,Enrique,Wilson,Auerlio are great in strength in depth! We can be top 2 defensive team in the league this season!

8.20.2011 Arsenal vs LFC 0:2 - Chaotic Gunners commit suicide as LFC won in Highbury first time in a decade!

Starting line-up: (4-2-3-1)

Reina
Kelly Carragher Agger Enrique
Lucas Adam
Kuyt Henderson Downing

Carroll

LFC Goals:

Ramsey (ARS) OG '78, Suarez ‘90

LFC Man of the match:

Suarez - Once Luis and Meireles sub into the game in 71 minute, Liverpool has been a different team. His skills and movement completely frustrated the sorry Gunners defense and ultimately scored the winning goal. King had done right to rest Luis as sub to keep him fresh in this game as he had a tired summer with the Copa America runs. However, it has shown LFC still relied on the magic of Suarez too much.

Insight:

In this away game, King played with 5 MFs with Andy Carroll as the lone striker supported by Kuyt and Downing at the wings. Although Liverpool has shown promises and improvement throughout the game, especially in defense with Kelly and Enrique produced impressive performance in defending Arshavin and Walcott, their attacking plays surrounding Carroll limited to one-dimensional direct long-ball. Had Gunners played without defensive leader Vermaelen, this simple strategy could have still worked more effectively. The game could have been gone 0-0 until the appearance of Suarez and Meireles. Since their arrival, LFC completely changed their plays to pass-and-move. Gunners had no answer and their young gun Frimpong made a silly fouls on Lucas to get send-off. Right after, Gunners handed LFC a free-gift for a careless own goal. With a more balanced squad and greater fighting spirit, it's clear LFC has a decisive edge over Gunners in the race for 4th place this season.

8.13.2011 LFC vs Sunderland 1:1 - Promising 1st half following by a disappointing 2nd half as 4 new players making their debut in new-look LFC

Starting line-up: (4-4-2)

Reina
Flanagan Carragher Agger Enrique
Henderson Lucas Adam Downing
Suarez Carroll

LFC Goals:

Suarez ‘12

LFC Man of the match:

Agger – Agger is fit again and he is a quality and complete defender when he is fit. He has good read of the game, decent ball control and great shooting ability. The question is he is very injury prone! With Skrtel currently injured and Kyrgiakos not up to LFC standard, LFC will hopefully get a new CB before the transfer deadline.

Top 5 Insights:

1.It was a pity Suarez missed the penalty to open the score after sensationally earning a penalty for LFC in the opening minutes. (Suarez did make up for his mistake by opening the account with a tricky header.) However, Sunderland’s Richardson should have been send-off when he tripped down Suarez in the penalty claim. On the hindsight, had Richardson been send off in the early going, LFC could have dominated the game.

2. King Kenny started all 4 new players: Adam, Downing, Henderson and Enrique. Although Adam, Downing and Enrique have all shown their quality in the game, it’s clear they need more playing time and training to gel together. People have criticized King Kenny for starting all 4 of them together, but King is clearly concerning more about long-term. He’d rather lost points in the early season by starting all of them at once than taking more time for the new players to develop their understandings by restricting their playing time. Had King care more about instant success, he could have started Kuyt, Meireles and Maxi alongside Suarez. On the other hand, although Sunderland had bought about 7-8 new players, they have only started 2 new players so it’s obvious they have the edge in terms of understandings and teamwork.

3. 4-4-2 was used in the game for the objective of developing the striker partnership of Andy Carroll + Luiz Suarez instead of the more successful 4-2-3-1 adopted in their winning runs in the 2nd half of last season. However, Henderson as the right winger doesn’t seem working so far as he doesn’t have the skills and speed to operate in the wing effectively and he looks for passes too often when he received the ball. Clearly, he is more effective in the CMF role. Also, the partnership of Adam and Lucas in the 2 CMF has shown clear weakness. Adam has shown decent passing and shooting ability, but his defending ability is poor. Thus, Lucas has to take on too much responsibility in defensive duty in the CMF. I think 4-4-2 may not work for LFC and 4-3-3 or 4-3-2-1 may still work better with one more CMF such as Meireles and Henderson to help out Lucas and Adam. Suarez may need to play in the wing forward role but I still think a 3 CMF formation suits LFC more.

4. I always like to have a target man like Crouch and Carroll in the squad. It gives the team another dimension in attack as they can attack opponents through the ground or up in the air. However, the single most disappointing area of LFC display in this game is there were simply too much mindless long-balls to Carroll in the 2nd half. LFC should have tried to pass the ball around more to have a better mix of pass-and-move to complement with decent crossing for Carroll like they did in the 1st half. With players like Suarez, Adam, Downing and Meireles, LFC is much more quality than having to rely on 40-50 yard long crossing to Carroll. King Kenny really needs to correct this big tactical mistake from now on!

5. There are concerns that Aquilani didn’t even make the bench and it could be a signal King may sell him before the transfer deadline. I still hope King will give Aquilani serious chances in the coming few games to prove his worth as he is a skillful playmaker with scoring and playmaking ability. I believe Aquilani and Suarez can play well together with their passing skills and ball control. As King said he will give fair chances to everyone in the squad and I hope he will keep his promise!

2011/2012 Premiership Prediction

1 Manchester United
2 Chelsea
3 Liverpool
4 Manchester City
5 Tottenham
6 Arsenal
7 Everton
8 Sunderland
9 Fulham
10 Aston Villa
11 West Brom
12 Stoke City
13 QPR
14 Newcastle United
15 Bolton
16 Wolverhampton
17 Blackburn
18 Norwich
19 Wigan
20 Swansea

2011/2012 Liverpool FC Squad

GK

25 Pepe Reina – Spain
- One of the top GK in the premiership will certainly continue to start for the Reds. His overall performance has kept improving, but seems to have lost his ability in saving penalty last season. Had/Will hernia problem affect his performance?

32 Doni - Brazil
- Former Brazilian national team GK and starting GK for Roma joined in the summer. Definitely a higher-profiled GK than any of Liverpool back-up GK in the recent years. Should provide a more reliable back-up for Reina. My concern is will LFC sign him to start more than we anticipated due to recovery concern of Reina for his hernia operation in the summer?

RB

2 Glen Johnson - England
- Efficient in attack but unreliable in defense, Johnson had been one of the weak links in LFC defense until King Kenny returned and inspired him. Since the return of the King, Johnson had started as left-back and improved his defensive performance. Should move back to right back role if LFC can successfully acquire a new left back. With the emergence of young Kelly and Flanagan, I wonder if Johnson should finally be pushed forward as right wing to display his talent in attack.

34 Martin Kelly - England
- A natural CB who can also play anywhere across the defensive line. His strong performance in the right back has even pushed England regular Johnson to the left-back role. Unfortunately, he has been troubled by injury in his young career so far. The most defensive solid RB among the 3 right back choices, but should eventually returned to his natural CB role as many has tipped him to be new Jamie Carragher.

38 John Flanagan - England
- Made a couple of surprising starts for the first team near the end of last season due to the team's injury problem. The 18 year-old has surprised many for his mature and calm performance for playing without fear. Selected as LFC best player in reserve team last season and could make the right back role his own in the near future.

LB

3 Jose Enrique - Spain

6 Fabio Aurelio - Brazil

- The most injury prone player in the team. The Brazilian LB can hardly stay fit for more than 1/3 of a season. When he is fit, he is an intelligent LB with good passing/free-kick skills and positioning. He can only be a back-up due to his fragility and is basically on pay-as-he-play contract.

49 Jack Robinson - England
- Made his senior debut two seasons ago when he was 16! Received a few first team chance during the close of last season due to injury problem in LB and did not disappoint. LB of the future but was still too young and raw to be a starter. Definitely can be a reliable back-up LB.

CB

23 Jamie Carragher - England

5 Daniel Agger - Denmark

37 Martin Skrtel - Slovakia

16 Sebastian Coates - Uruguay

22 Danny Wilson - Scotland

DMF

21 Lucas Levia - Brazil

20 Jay Spearing - England

CMF

26 Charlie Adam - Scotland

33 Jonjo Shelvey - England

AMF

8 Steven Gerrard - England

14 Jordan Henderson - England

LW/LFW

19 Stewart Downing - England

11 Maxi Rodriquez - Argentina

RW/RFW

7 Luiz Suarez - Uruguay

39 Craig Bellamy - Wales

CF

9 Andy Carroll - England

18 Dirk Kuyt - Holland