9.24.2011 Liverpool vs Wolverhampton 2:1 - Important victory to rediscover confidence as Captain Gerrard made long-awaited come-back.

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

Reina
Kelly Carragher Skrtel Enrique
Henderson Lucas Adam Downing
Kuyt Suarez

LFC scorers: Adam '11, Suarez '38

LFC Player of the game:

Suarez – Luis was tired after the midweek Carling Cup tie vs Brighton. He has missed some passes and scoring chances during the game. Yet, he still played very hard and chased around to close down opposing defenders. As usual, even if he didn’t have a good game, he can still produce at least one moment of magic to win the game. The 2nd goal of the game is a sensational goal that showed Luis is a pure genius. He was furious when he was substituted out with around 15 minutes to go, but I think King had made a correct decision as we really can’t afford Suarez to get fatigue and injury. LFC is nothing in attack without “El Pistolero”.

Insights:

As usual, King Kenny used 4-4-2 again even after the poor performance of MF in the 4-0 loss to Tottenham in the previous game. Wolves played 5 midfielders but LFC’s weakness in CMF was not exposed as Wolves do not have high quality CMFs. Henderson was handed another start on the right and as expected, he produced another anonymous performance. With Bellamy and Kuyt combined superbly with Suarez during the mid-week game, maybe it’s time for King to think about giving more playing time for Bellamy, Kuyt and Maxi on the wing over Henderson. The encouraging sign is Carroll has shown improved fitness and great enthusiasm in the game. He played really hard and all he needs is a goal to boost his confidence. I still feel Downing and Henderson have failed to produce scoring chances and decent crossing for Carroll so far. We have simply relied on the flair of Suarez way too often. Highlight of the game was obviously the long -awaited comeback of captain Gerrard after missing action for half year. Gerrard played around 10 minutes but his movement and passing was simply from another planet compared to Adam, Lucas, Downing and Henderson. We really need our captain to get back to full strength soon and by then, we will see a different LFC side with Gerrard produce great passes and crosses for Luis and Andy.