April 23, 2011 - Liverpool vs Birmingham: 5:0 - Maxi's hat-trick led to bigget league win since September 2009 as 5th place hope stays alive.

LFC Player of the Game: Maxi Rodriguez - the 3 goals he scored may all look easy goals, but Maxi is an expert in running into open space from deep. The "scoring midfield" is back to his very best form under King Kenny. Of course, Maxi could have never revive without a star dribbler like Suarez. Maxi had proved that he deserved to stay in the team to provide scoring ability from the bench.

Game Summary:

Since King was in charge, Liverpool had beaten Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City and earned a draw vs Arsenal away. However, they had not shown their ability to beat middle to low ranked teams. Finally, Liverpool had shown that they are ready to show their ability to beat teams outside of top 5 in this game vs Birmingham in convincing fashion. Liverpool totally dominated from start to finish. Due to yet another disappointing injury to Carroll, King was forced to switch his line-up by pushing Kuyt to play up-front with Suarez and gave Maxi another starting chance after his disappointing performance in the Europa League elimination tie against Barga. This time, Maxi would not let the starting opportnity vanished by scoring his first hat-trick in Red jersey. The three goals Maxi scored may not be great goals, but they had all been vital. Maxi opened the account in the 7th minute bascially set the tone for LFC. Although LFC aimed to develop the great potential big and small striker partnership between Carroll and Suarez, Kuyt had proved to be a more ideal partnership with Suarez so far. Kuyt had never been in greater form in his LFC career than now as Suarez had developed great understanding with Kuyt. They are both very hard working and make themselves available for passes by running into open space. There is certainly great chemistry developing between themselves with both always made good one-two pass with each other. With Suarez's dribbling and flair trouble opposing defenders, Kuyt was able to run into open space for a bounced shots. In fact, since the arrival of Suarez, players like Maxi, Kuyt and Meireles had all have great scoring runs. Suarez had made everyone playing around him better. Tribute had to be paid to King Kenny for developing great one-touch-passing/pass-and-move in the diamond of Meireles-Kuyt-Maxi-Suarez. The movement without the ball cannot be under-estimated. In the present LFC offensive play, always we can see Meireles,Kuyt,Maxi,Suarez made great run into the box, with all 4 offensive players kept moving around to different positions without staying in one particular area to wait for the pass. It makes the offensive plays unpredictable and opposing teams had nightmare in man-marking LFC attacking players. Of course, the current LFC offense cannot be executed without a magical dribbler Suarez. In the long-run, Liverpool really needs to sign another Suarez's type of player with dribbling ability and flair. Suarez cannot be depended upon like Torres in the past. We need a reliable substitute for Suarez.

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

Reina
Flanagan Carragher Skrtel Robinson
Meireles Spearing Lucas Maxi
Kuyt Suarez

Goals: Maxi '7, '66, '73, Kuyt '23, J.Cole '86

April 16, 2011 - Arsenal vs Liverpool: 1:1 - Madness in the 11-minute added time as LFC youngsters came through big challenge.

LFC Player of the Game: Lucas Levia - No one played well in attack while everyone played hard to keep the Gunners from scoring in the defensive end. Yet, Lucas' earning two key fouls in the 11th added minute in the 2nd half was the turn-around of the game for LFC. In reality, we all LFC fans know Lucas was faking for the foul. Lucas had become a very smart player and even his faking skills has improved!

Game Summary:

This was an incredible challenge for LFC playing at Highbury vs Gunners who was still in league title race. Liverpool tried to use Carroll height to attack Arsenal's weakness in defending headers. However, Arsenal's was in control of possession with their flair and skills on the ball. Liverpool did not have the wingers to supply crosses to Carroll and had been forced to defend deep. Still, teenagers full-backs Flanagan and Robinson showed their posie in the game and had played in a key role to stop Gunners from scoring. Near middle of 2nd half, a scary scene seen Carragher got a head crashed and went unconscious. He was substituted out of the game and it was a tribute for the young Liverpool to be able to keep Gunners from scoring in the regulation time until Spearing made a mistake by fouling in the penalty box and gifted a penalty to Van Perise in the 94 minute. Due to Carragher's injury, referee supposed to give around 8-11 minutes added time. Just as all LFC fans including myself thought the 94th minute Gunners' penalty bascially left us too little time to make any kind of comeback, we got a miracle! Lucas Levia got fouled in the edge of the penalty box and awarded LFC a free-kick. After Suarez's free-kick was blocked, the ball went straight back to Lucas in the penalty box. The silly Arsenal RB Eboue made an unnecessary push on Lucas and earned LFC a big chance to tie the game. Great PK taker Kuyt made the PK and I was overjoyed by the 1-1 result. This was a key result for Liverpool, giving LFC big confidence boost and belief to keep their great winning run going to chase for the 5th Europa League spot. The mistake for Gunners in the closing minute yet again showed that Gunners still lacked the poise and experience to win the big game in crunch moment to challenge for title.

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

Reina
Flanagan Carragher Skrtel Robinson
Kuyt Spearing Lucas Merieles
Carroll Suarez

Goals: Kuyt '101 (PK)

April 11, 2011 - Liverpool vs Man.City: 3:0 - 35M striker opened his account as LFC crashed the sorry City!!!

LFC Player of the Game: Andy Carroll- 35M striker completely out-performed Manchster City's high-priced strikers Balotelli and Dzeko.

Game Summary:
Liverpool was in complete chaos when they made their visit to Manchester City in early months of the season under Hodgson when they were easily hammered by 3 goals. Although Liverpool had been able to beat top teams such as Manchester United and Chelsea since King Kenny was in charge, many LFC faithful expected this game to be a tough encounter even playing in Anfield. On paper, Manchster City may seemed to have an edge with their multi million players such as Tevez and Dzeko. Good news for LFC was Manchster City would have to face Manchester United in FA Cup semi-final 5 days later, so Manchster City had not shown total focus in this game.

Since full-backs Glen Johnson and Martin Kelly suffered from long-term injury, King Kenny had forced to play CB Carragher and Wilson on the full-backs position without success due to their lack of speed to defend opposing quick wingers. To solve the full-backs problem, King Kenny took a gutty move by starting 17 year old RB John Flanagan in this massive encounter. As the injury-proned Aurelio injured again in the early 1st half, another 17 year old LB Jack Robinson was also given chance to shine. Both young full-backs exceeded all expectation by shutting down Manchester City England international wingers Adam Johnson and James Milner.

However, the man making the headline was 35M big striker Carroll. Finally getting back into form, Carroll scord two great goals that led to important victory for LFC. The two goals Carroll scored was in fact Carroll's trademark. The first goal was a powerful left-footed long-range rocket, with the 2nd goal being an accurate and powerful header. Hopefully Carroll will be able to maintain his fitness and score more goals for LFC.

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

Reina

Flanagan Carragher Skrtel Aurelio

Kuyt Spearing Lucas Merieles

Carroll Suarez

Goals: Carroll '13, Kuyt '34, Carroll '35

April 4, 2011 - West Brom vs Liverpool.: 2:1 - Another struggle after international week as Hodgson got the last laugh...

LFC Player of the Game: Luiz Suarez, if any...

Game Summary:

Let's face it, Liverpool is still in rebuilding stage. Since King Kenny took over, Liverpool has been able to beat top sides such as Manchester United and Chelsea. However, they still have failed to beat lower teams like West Brom, West Ham and Blackpool. Liverpool has to rely on hard work to beat the top teams and they tend to be out-worked by lower teams. There is simply no other alternatives for Liverpool other than out-working their opponents in order to gain any victory in the ever demanding league. Since the team is lacking of strength in depth at the moment, fatigue caused from tight schedule such as European games or international game week can basically kill any chance of Liverpool's chance to perform.


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

Reina

Carragher Skrtel Kyrgiakos Wilson

Merieles Lucas Spearing

Kuyt Carroll Suarez

Goals: Skrtel

March 20, 2011 - Sunderland vs Liverpool.: 0:2 - LFC quickly bounced back from Europa League elimination.

LFC Player of the Game: Luiz Suarez still...

Game Summary:

After the disappointing losing tie against Barga of Portugal in final 16 of Europa League, Liverpool took little time to bounce back by getting a vital victory over Sunderland at Stadium of Light, one of the toughest fields to gain victory. Suarez was again the creative force of the team as he has provided a magical 2nd goal that basically ended all hope of Sunderland come back. In Europe, Suarez was ineligible to play for Liverpool as he was Cup-tie after playing for Ajax in Europe this season, and this explained why Liverpool had such difficulty to score in Europe compared to domestic league. Suarez provided flair and dribbling ability that Liverpool has been lacking before his arrival. Carroll made his 1st league start for Liverpool and he was unfortunate for not scoring his first goal for the Reds after his header cleared off the line by Sunderland defender. Carroll needs time to gel with teammates and regain his form; however, his performance so far already suggested he will provide heading and ball-holding ability up-front. He and Suarez should develop into a lethal partnership as Gerrard believed. Spearing played well in the game and has proved to be a worthy back-up for the Reds. As Liverpool still do not possess natural wingers, King Kenny gradually prefers to play 3 up-front with 3 central midfield supporting behind the 3 strikers. This could be a wise move, as forcing non-wingers playing the the wing could have adverse effect in overall efficiency of the team. Liverpool badly needs natural wingers who can provide accurate crosses to Carroll. Until then, we will never see the best of Andy Carroll, the future and presence of Liverpool and England No.9. My hope is someone like Ashley Young, a natural winger with pace and crossing ability, will come this summer.

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

Reina

Carragher Skrtel Agger Johnson
Merieles Lucas Spearing
Kuyt Carroll Suarez

Goals: Kuyt'34 , Suarez '77

March 6, 2011 - Liverpool vs Manchester Utd.: 3:1 - King Kuyt Hat-Trick!!!!! Red Devils & Nani Crashed HARD!

LFC Player of the Game: King Kuyt + Luiz Suarez

Game Summary:

Liverpool was well rested with one full week of rest before facing their bitterest rivalry as the Reds were determined to take hard revenge against the Red Devils for the 0-1 loss in the FA Cup 3rd round which knocked the Reds out from FA Cup a month ago. With Kelly and Agger still out, the partnership of Carragher and Skrtel in the central of defense never give me confidence. The unfortunate injury of Auerlio during the early minutes had ironically solidified the Reds defense as it pushed King Kenny to play Kyrgiakos in CB with Carragher switched as RB and Johnson to fill the void in LB for Auerlio. It avoided Ferguson's troop to attack LFC weakness by adopting ariel attack led by Berbetov without defensive protection as Kyrgiakos' strength in defending header has always bailed LFC out against ariel attack and headers. In all honesty, Liverpool was extremely fortunate to face United without their leading CB Vidic, Ferdinand and Evans. Smalling and Brown were never capable of containing the sensational Suarez, who had produced a super-star performance throughout the game with his sizzling dribble, clever movement and flair which had all been missing elements in LFC games for over two decades! Kuyt may have stolen the headline for his first hat-trick in his Reds career. Kuyt's hard work had paid-off in this important encounter as he had produced a "Gary Lineker-like" performance with all 3 goals scored within 3 yards out! In fact, Liverpool had never have any player scored a hat-trick vs United since Peter Beardsley more than 20 years ago! Kuyt was striker by nature, but he had been transformed into a right wing to accommodate Torres' lone-strike game since El Nino's arrival. Now with Torres gone, Kuyt could be given more chances to play as striker again as both Carroll and Suarez can play with a striking partner. Although Kuyt had scored all 3 goals, Suarez was instrumental in all 3 goals. Who can forget the opening goal when Suarez dribbled past three United players before sliding a half-shot past Van Der Sar. Even without Kuyt stole his goal, Suarez's slow shots could also have gone into the net. With Carroll finally recovered and made his awaited debut in 2nd half and took little time to make his presence felt with his aerial power and strength, the long anticipated striking partnership of Carroll and Suarez could soon be materialized. By then, LFC faithful should say "Fernando Who?"

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

Reina
Johnson Carragher Skrtel Auerlio

Gerrard Lucas Maxi

Meireles

Kuyt Suarez

Goals: Kuyt '34, '39, '65

February 27, 2011 - West Ham Utd. vs Liverpool: 3:1 - 8 game unbeaten run ended as tiring troop was out-performed!

LFC Player of the Game: Luiz Suarez, still...

Game Summary:
No question that Liverpool is lacking of strength in depth. After the tiring Europa encounter against Sparta Pargue three days ago, Liverpool players left with no energy against a rejuvenated West Ham side who tried very hard to fight for survival. Liverpool still tried to play recently effective formation 3-4-2-1. However, with Kelly, Kyrgiakos and Agger all out injured, Liverpool had so much trouble contained the athletic Hammers forwards. Parker and Hitzelberger had also out-played Gerrard and Lucas in the central midfield. Suarez was still the one and only dangerous attacking threat from the Reds. Despite a poor 1st half, he produced moments of magic and almost helped the team to tie the game. After 8 unbeaten games in the league and Europe, Liverpool finally faced a minor set-back.

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

Reina
Carragher Skrtel Wilson

Kelly Gerrard Lucas Johnson
Meireles Suarez
Kuyt

Goals: G.Johnson '84