Thoughts : versus Bolton
- Thread starter Frogfish
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[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388763#msg1388763 date=1314470413]
*wafts away smoke*
[/quote]
ha ha
*wafts away smoke*
[/quote]
ha ha
[quote author=SaintGeorge67 link=topic=46629.msg1388701#msg1388701 date=1314469526]
I'm not really fussed about micro-analysing it all.
I'm more interested in the fact we fucking twatted them.
More of the same please.
[/quote]
Hell yeah!!
I'm not really fussed about micro-analysing it all.
I'm more interested in the fact we fucking twatted them.
More of the same please.
[/quote]
Hell yeah!!
I said all last season I see Stevie on the right if we can take the pressure of the middle, which we have. He'll be liberated there.
Henderson or kuyt will make way.
Henderson or kuyt will make way.
[quote author=Hardcastle link=topic=46629.msg1388797#msg1388797 date=1314471281]
[quote author=Skullflower link=topic=46629.msg1388730#msg1388730 date=1314469870]
fucking fantastic. the thought of glojo and gerrard in there is mouth watering.
[/quote]
You can fuck right off, Mr villa + Suarez
[/quote]
Yep, he's a fucking goal-hanger.
[quote author=Skullflower link=topic=46629.msg1388730#msg1388730 date=1314469870]
fucking fantastic. the thought of glojo and gerrard in there is mouth watering.
[/quote]
You can fuck right off, Mr villa + Suarez
[/quote]
Yep, he's a fucking goal-hanger.
[quote author=FoxForceFive link=topic=46629.msg1388814#msg1388814 date=1314471784]
I said all last season I see Stevie on the right if we can take the pressure of the middle, which we have. He'll be liberated there.
Henderson or kuyt will make way.
[/quote]
we should look at gerrard as a bonus this season. gerrard should be given time to fully heal.
I said all last season I see Stevie on the right if we can take the pressure of the middle, which we have. He'll be liberated there.
Henderson or kuyt will make way.
[/quote]
we should look at gerrard as a bonus this season. gerrard should be given time to fully heal.
Brilliant stuff. Just get rid of the chasing of the ref in a hurdle... we will never be as good as scum there so just leave it to them!
A good performance, I think there is more to come but its exactly as I expected. Interesting that its all about who will play with Lucas in midfield. I'd go with Gerrard and Meireles, with Downing, Kuyt and Suarez up top as my base. It's a squad game now and we have the best midfield in the league. I think we can challenge for the title.
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388737#msg1388737 date=1314469971]
[quote author=JohnnyRocket link=topic=46629.msg1388718#msg1388718 date=1314469752]
Good to see us playing like this again. Cock sure of ourselves. Keep it going lads
[/quote]
welcome to the site dude
[/quote]
Sven's gonna hate him.
[quote author=JohnnyRocket link=topic=46629.msg1388718#msg1388718 date=1314469752]
Good to see us playing like this again. Cock sure of ourselves. Keep it going lads
[/quote]
welcome to the site dude
[/quote]
Sven's gonna hate him.
[quote author=ILD link=topic=46629.msg1388950#msg1388950 date=1314476590]
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388737#msg1388737 date=1314469971]
[quote author=JohnnyRocket link=topic=46629.msg1388718#msg1388718 date=1314469752]
Good to see us playing like this again. Cock sure of ourselves. Keep it going lads
[/quote]
welcome to the site dude
[/quote]
Sven's gonna hate him.
[/quote]
Funny he's not appeared.....
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388737#msg1388737 date=1314469971]
[quote author=JohnnyRocket link=topic=46629.msg1388718#msg1388718 date=1314469752]
Good to see us playing like this again. Cock sure of ourselves. Keep it going lads
[/quote]
welcome to the site dude
[/quote]
Sven's gonna hate him.
[/quote]
Funny he's not appeared.....
[quote author=Hansern link=topic=46629.msg1388749#msg1388749 date=1314470227]
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388704#msg1388704 date=1314469562]
[quote author=SaintGeorge67 link=topic=46629.msg1388701#msg1388701 date=1314469526]
I'm not really fussed about micro-analysing it all.
I'm more interested in the fact we fucking twatted them.
More of the same please.
[/quote]
A big +1 to that
[/quote]
+2
No need discussing who fits in or not in a great team performance. Lets enjoy it!
We played 9 games last season to achieve the same amount of points. Think about that.
[/quote]
This.
We have GD of 4. I think last season we did not reach a GD of 4 until February or March.
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388704#msg1388704 date=1314469562]
[quote author=SaintGeorge67 link=topic=46629.msg1388701#msg1388701 date=1314469526]
I'm not really fussed about micro-analysing it all.
I'm more interested in the fact we fucking twatted them.
More of the same please.
[/quote]
A big +1 to that
[/quote]
+2
No need discussing who fits in or not in a great team performance. Lets enjoy it!
We played 9 games last season to achieve the same amount of points. Think about that.
[/quote]
This.
We have GD of 4. I think last season we did not reach a GD of 4 until February or March.
[quote author=themn link=topic=46629.msg1388954#msg1388954 date=1314477044]
[quote author=ILD link=topic=46629.msg1388950#msg1388950 date=1314476590]
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388737#msg1388737 date=1314469971]
[quote author=JohnnyRocket link=topic=46629.msg1388718#msg1388718 date=1314469752]
Good to see us playing like this again. Cock sure of ourselves. Keep it going lads
[/quote]
welcome to the site dude
[/quote]
Sven's gonna hate him.
[/quote]
Funny he's not appeared.....
[/quote]
we won without sven making his predition. wow.
[quote author=ILD link=topic=46629.msg1388950#msg1388950 date=1314476590]
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=46629.msg1388737#msg1388737 date=1314469971]
[quote author=JohnnyRocket link=topic=46629.msg1388718#msg1388718 date=1314469752]
Good to see us playing like this again. Cock sure of ourselves. Keep it going lads
[/quote]
welcome to the site dude
[/quote]
Sven's gonna hate him.
[/quote]
Funny he's not appeared.....
[/quote]
we won without sven making his predition. wow.
At times today Lucas looked every inch a Liverpool player, delighted for him. Granted Bolton didnt pressure him into making mistakes but today he was majestic... But fuck the analysis we played really really well today and with better luck it would have been a cricket score.
Magic.
Nighty night all
Magic.
Nighty night all
Couldn't sleep so I read this ... From the telegraph
Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers at Anfield on Saturday Aug 27 2011.
On the sidelines stood the man credited with restoring Liverpool’s feelgood factor. Kenny Dalglish has always been a man apart, an island in the storm.
The technical area is his personal fiefdom. It is the only part of Anfield that belongs to him. Every other blade of grass, belongs to Luis Suarez, the man who brought the fear back.
The Uruguayan is a terror. He is a bewitching, bewildering menace, trailing roiling panic in his wake. The 24 year-old did not score in this dismantling of Bolton Wanderers. He does not need a goal. Often, he does not even need the ball. His presence alone is a torment.
An example, drawn from the moments just after Liverpool had taken the lead. It was just after Suarez, bristling with the impudence of genius, had cut Owen Coyle’s defence to shreds with a swerving pass played with the outside of his right boot and Jordan Henderson had curled his first goal for the club past Jussi Jaaskelainen, after the Finn had denied Stewart Downing.
Suarez stood on the halfway line, the ball at his feet. In front of him, Gary Cahill, rated at £17?million but not, as Coyle later confessed, at his “absolute maximum” thanks to the unsettling effects of a mooted move to Arsenal, and Zat Knight, a reliable campaigner.
The forward feinted one way, then the other, and then accelerated away. Cahill looked left, Knight right, and the two collided. A pratfall, with Suarez as Road Runner, the defenders as a pair of Wile E. Coyotes. The pair exchanged barbs. A defence reduced to fear and loathing by their unrelenting foe.
Fear spreads and mutates, infecting, afflicting. Jaaskelainen dropped a high ball. Gretar Steinsson handled just outside the box. Coyle’s team shook, and splintered, and shattered.
The hosts might have had three or four, by the break. Downing might have had a penalty for Steinsson’s apparent handball. Suarez should have scored twice himself. He narrowly failed to clip one effort round Jaaskelainen and then saw a sublime chip land on the roof of the net. That is the thing about Suarez: his finishing in one-on-one situations is not as ruthless as his forebear as Anfield’s idol, Fernando Torres. His footwork, is not so silky as, say, a Cristiano Ronaldo. He dives; that is undeniable. It is a stain on his game. There is little else wrong with it. He has energy, passion and vision in abundance. His imagination is ceaseless. But his greatest asset is his aura.
Suarez’s undeniable excellence should not be cause to write Liverpool off as a one-man team, though, to suggest that Dalglish’s expensively-acquired ensemble are little more than Suarez’s supporting cast. On the contrary, they sit proudly atop the Premier League as a work of immense promise in progress.
“It was a pleasure to watch,” Dalglish said. “Our passing and our movement was excellent. There will always be various people that grab the headlines, but for us it is a team event. There will have been a few people watching who will have seen some players and thought they could play a bit, too.”
Henderson, maybe, in his best performance for the club. Downing, all pace and purpose. Lucas, patrolling the midfield with bite and brio, and Charlie Adam, whose corner found Martin Skrtel’s head for the second and who scored the third just 30 seconds later. Coyle described it as a “comedy of errors”.
The Bolton manager was clearly disappointed in his side’s surrender, but that is the effect of fear. They had initially made a good fist of competing with their hosts – Martin Petrov, Steinsson and Mark Davies – all crafting half chances. “There were only three who came out of it with pass marks,” Coyle said. “You need more than that.”
With Suarez like this, certainly. The Uruguayan did not stop, even when the game was over. He might have had another two penalties, and a free kick when Jaaskelainen picked up a back pass. His indignation with officialdom was such that Dalglish removed him for his own good, introducing Andy Carroll.
Suarez was afforded a standing ovation, his work done, his rule absolute, his terror ingrained.
RELATED ARTICLES
Read a full match report of the Premier League game between Liverpool and Bolton Wanderers at Anfield on Saturday Aug 27 2011.
On the sidelines stood the man credited with restoring Liverpool’s feelgood factor. Kenny Dalglish has always been a man apart, an island in the storm.
The technical area is his personal fiefdom. It is the only part of Anfield that belongs to him. Every other blade of grass, belongs to Luis Suarez, the man who brought the fear back.
The Uruguayan is a terror. He is a bewitching, bewildering menace, trailing roiling panic in his wake. The 24 year-old did not score in this dismantling of Bolton Wanderers. He does not need a goal. Often, he does not even need the ball. His presence alone is a torment.
An example, drawn from the moments just after Liverpool had taken the lead. It was just after Suarez, bristling with the impudence of genius, had cut Owen Coyle’s defence to shreds with a swerving pass played with the outside of his right boot and Jordan Henderson had curled his first goal for the club past Jussi Jaaskelainen, after the Finn had denied Stewart Downing.
Suarez stood on the halfway line, the ball at his feet. In front of him, Gary Cahill, rated at £17?million but not, as Coyle later confessed, at his “absolute maximum” thanks to the unsettling effects of a mooted move to Arsenal, and Zat Knight, a reliable campaigner.
The forward feinted one way, then the other, and then accelerated away. Cahill looked left, Knight right, and the two collided. A pratfall, with Suarez as Road Runner, the defenders as a pair of Wile E. Coyotes. The pair exchanged barbs. A defence reduced to fear and loathing by their unrelenting foe.
Fear spreads and mutates, infecting, afflicting. Jaaskelainen dropped a high ball. Gretar Steinsson handled just outside the box. Coyle’s team shook, and splintered, and shattered.
The hosts might have had three or four, by the break. Downing might have had a penalty for Steinsson’s apparent handball. Suarez should have scored twice himself. He narrowly failed to clip one effort round Jaaskelainen and then saw a sublime chip land on the roof of the net. That is the thing about Suarez: his finishing in one-on-one situations is not as ruthless as his forebear as Anfield’s idol, Fernando Torres. His footwork, is not so silky as, say, a Cristiano Ronaldo. He dives; that is undeniable. It is a stain on his game. There is little else wrong with it. He has energy, passion and vision in abundance. His imagination is ceaseless. But his greatest asset is his aura.
Suarez’s undeniable excellence should not be cause to write Liverpool off as a one-man team, though, to suggest that Dalglish’s expensively-acquired ensemble are little more than Suarez’s supporting cast. On the contrary, they sit proudly atop the Premier League as a work of immense promise in progress.
“It was a pleasure to watch,” Dalglish said. “Our passing and our movement was excellent. There will always be various people that grab the headlines, but for us it is a team event. There will have been a few people watching who will have seen some players and thought they could play a bit, too.”
Henderson, maybe, in his best performance for the club. Downing, all pace and purpose. Lucas, patrolling the midfield with bite and brio, and Charlie Adam, whose corner found Martin Skrtel’s head for the second and who scored the third just 30 seconds later. Coyle described it as a “comedy of errors”.
The Bolton manager was clearly disappointed in his side’s surrender, but that is the effect of fear. They had initially made a good fist of competing with their hosts – Martin Petrov, Steinsson and Mark Davies – all crafting half chances. “There were only three who came out of it with pass marks,” Coyle said. “You need more than that.”
With Suarez like this, certainly. The Uruguayan did not stop, even when the game was over. He might have had another two penalties, and a free kick when Jaaskelainen picked up a back pass. His indignation with officialdom was such that Dalglish removed him for his own good, introducing Andy Carroll.
Suarez was afforded a standing ovation, his work done, his rule absolute, his terror ingrained.
RELATED ARTICLES
[size=medium]And from The Guardian[/size][/size]Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam score as Liverpool beat Bolton
[/size]When Liverpool last beat Bolton eight months and an eternity ago, the photographs were of the manger embracing first his assistant and then the goalscorer with a league table that showed the club had clambered a little further from the relegation zone. Roy Hodgson lasted another seven days, Sammy Lee is gone, Joe Cole is in the departure lounge and Liverpool, however briefly it may be, are top of the Premier League. That, in short, is the Dalglish Effect.
No Bolton manager has won a league game at Anfield since 1954 and Owen Coyle, who has now lost three times at this ground as manager of the club, argued that it was also the effect of spending £110m that was not made available to Hodgson.
The match was a triumph for the men Kenny Dalglish had brought to Merseyside. Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam scored, Stewart Downing ought to have done, while for José Enrique this must seem a world away from the Russian roulette of being part of Newcastle's defence. Luis Suárez, meanwhile, was at times irresistible.
Anfield is a place that consumes statistics like pub-goers gobble peanuts and the latest revealed that this was Liverpool's best start to a season since 1994. Since they have seven points from their three opening fixtures, that suggests Liverpool do not make a habit of sprinting out of the blocks. It was, however, a season Dalglish will remember since it finished at Anfield with him steering Blackburn to the title. Liverpool finished fourth.
As the stadium relaxed and Paul Robinson stretched his body and ability to the limit to keep Suárez and Liverpool at bay, you could almost hear Dalglish mouthing a mantra that has been part of the club's phrase book for several generations: "We will tot up the points at the end of the season and see where we are."
Once in the press room, the Liverpool manager succeeded in dampening down any flickering expectations: "Headlines are about individuals but we are about being a team," he said. "We passed and moved and thoroughly deserved our victory. Everyone who came would have been entertained."
The scoreline aside, the most interesting aspect of the evening was that Andy Carroll began this match on the bench. Fernando Torres's desperate groping for the kind of form that once lit up Liverpool has obscured the struggles of the Premier League's most expensive Englishman.
You can talk all you like about the squad system but Carroll is a centre-forward and a disciple of Alan Shearer, who considered any suggestion that he did not start an affront to his manhood. Joe Fagan once had the courage to drop Dalglish for a game against Tottenham in 1984 and the Scot would have expected Carroll to take it in the same way – without comment.
What followed was a vindication of Dalglish's judgement. The surprise was it produced only a single goal before the interval. It began with a wonderful cross, delivered with the outside of Suárez's boot, that was met first time by Downing and pushed away high to his left by Jussi Jaaskelainen. It was a save that ought to have won or at least saved a match. Instead, it prevented Liverpool taking the lead by a matter of seconds. Dirk Kuyt retrieved the ricochet, played it back to Henderson, who had his first shot blocked and thrashed the ball home exquisitely at the second attempt.
Then came the siege: a chip from Suárez that landed on the roof of Jaaskelainen's net, followed by a shot from Kuyt that careered the wrong side of the post and a perfect decision from Lee Probert that Gretar Steinsson had handled fractionally outside the area.
If the state of Gary Cahill's performance reflected his mental state after the speculation swirling around regarding his future, then his mind was mush. "It is natural for a young player's head to be turned by endless speculation," said his manager. Coyle argued that if Arsenal are serious about taking the defender, they should make a proper offer and do it in writing.
Cahill's was not the only troubled mind in Bolton's ranks. Fabrice Muamba, the midfielder charged with shielding the back four, had been up all night tending to his sick child. The game was 26 minutes old before he realised he could not continue.
Bolton managed to shore themselves up before collapsing again after the restart as Martin Skrtel muscled past the supposedly imposing figure of Zat Knight to head home Adam's corner.
Less than a minute later, Adam himself almost walked through what was theoretically the heart of Bolton's defence to ensure their 10th successive defeat in this fixture. There have been few as completely one sided and when Ivan Klasnic slid in the most academic of consolations, it was greeted by a shrug of the shoulders.
Great team performance. Thought the ref was shite.
Ok, been watching the game again. Some random thoughts:
- Ref wasnt shit, in fact he was mostly very good. It was a penalty when Suarez was tackled in the box, but the only way anyone could tell was by watching the angle they found 20 minutes later of the defender grabbing his foot. And of course he inexplicably fucked up the pass back to the keeper. But apart from that he got a lot of very tight, difficult decisions spot on.
- Lucas was excellent obviously. One commentator said "my word, did Lucas just give the ball away?" towards the end, and they had a little giggle, because that was the only time he had given the ball away all game.
- Adam was excellent as well, some sublime passing, great corner for the goal, and a great goal himself. Would have been MOTM if it wasnt for...
- ...Suarez, who is the son of God returned to Earth to play football the likes of which we have never seen.
- I am starting to see why we bought Henderson, even if it is still very early days.
- Who are you, and what have you done with the real Skrtel?
- Ref wasnt shit, in fact he was mostly very good. It was a penalty when Suarez was tackled in the box, but the only way anyone could tell was by watching the angle they found 20 minutes later of the defender grabbing his foot. And of course he inexplicably fucked up the pass back to the keeper. But apart from that he got a lot of very tight, difficult decisions spot on.
- Lucas was excellent obviously. One commentator said "my word, did Lucas just give the ball away?" towards the end, and they had a little giggle, because that was the only time he had given the ball away all game.
- Adam was excellent as well, some sublime passing, great corner for the goal, and a great goal himself. Would have been MOTM if it wasnt for...
- ...Suarez, who is the son of God returned to Earth to play football the likes of which we have never seen.
- I am starting to see why we bought Henderson, even if it is still very early days.
- Who are you, and what have you done with the real Skrtel?
Nothing to complain or nit pick about here. We beat a bad side well. This time last year, we might have lost this one 1-0 or drew it.
Someone keeps banging on about Carroll. I can tell you he will come good, because I know who the manager is. They will all figure it out.
And what a joy to have depth. There will still be dark days, but they will be fewer and fair between..
What a MAN. I've never said this before, but I do IDOLIZE him. Speechless.
Someone keeps banging on about Carroll. I can tell you he will come good, because I know who the manager is. They will all figure it out.
And what a joy to have depth. There will still be dark days, but they will be fewer and fair between..
What a MAN. I've never said this before, but I do IDOLIZE him. Speechless.
[quote author=iseered link=topic=46629.msg1389061#msg1389061 date=1314504472]
Ok, been watching the game again. Some random thoughts:
- Ref wasnt shit, in fact he was mostly very good. It was a penalty when Suarez was tackled in the box, but the only way anyone could tell was by watching the angle they found 20 minutes later of the defender grabbing his foot. And of course he inexplicably fucked up the pass back to the keeper. But apart from that he got a lot of very tight, difficult decisions spot on.
[/quote]
My first thought when I saw it on my dodgy stream was that Suarez was clipped by the defenders hand and fell after that, I'm just not sure how that was missed.
It's probably the reason Suarez was annoyed, that and the back pass, when he came off.
Ok, been watching the game again. Some random thoughts:
- Ref wasnt shit, in fact he was mostly very good. It was a penalty when Suarez was tackled in the box, but the only way anyone could tell was by watching the angle they found 20 minutes later of the defender grabbing his foot. And of course he inexplicably fucked up the pass back to the keeper. But apart from that he got a lot of very tight, difficult decisions spot on.
[/quote]
My first thought when I saw it on my dodgy stream was that Suarez was clipped by the defenders hand and fell after that, I'm just not sure how that was missed.
It's probably the reason Suarez was annoyed, that and the back pass, when he came off.
[quote author=refugee link=topic=46629.msg1389031#msg1389031 date=1314492757]
[quote author=SummerOnions link=topic=46629.msg1389028#msg1389028 date=1314492640]
Great team performance. Thought the ref was shite.
[/quote]
Don't let Ray Wilkins hear you say that!
[/quote]
Don't criticise the Sky technicians in front of him either.
[quote author=SummerOnions link=topic=46629.msg1389028#msg1389028 date=1314492640]
Great team performance. Thought the ref was shite.
[/quote]
Don't let Ray Wilkins hear you say that!
[/quote]
Don't criticise the Sky technicians in front of him either.
S
Squiggles
Guest
I can't imagine there's many better footballers on the planet than Luis Suarez.
We've done so well from his transfer. I'd say his value is already double what we paid for him.
We've done so well from his transfer. I'd say his value is already double what we paid for him.
Not enough new in this to merit a separate thread IMO, but a decent read from the Observer:
When Liverpool last beat Bolton eight months and an eternity ago, the photographs were of the manger embracing first his assistant and then the goalscorer with a league table that showed the club had clambered a little further from the relegation zone. Roy Hodgson lasted another seven days, Sammy Lee is gone, Joe Cole is in the departure lounge and Liverpool, however briefly it may be, are top of the Premier League. That, in short, is the Dalglish Effect.
No Bolton manager has won a league game at Anfield since 1954 and Owen Coyle, who has now lost three times at this ground as manager of the club, argued that it was also the effect of spending £110m that was not made available to Hodgson.
The match was a triumph for the men Kenny Dalglish had brought to Merseyside. Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam scored, Stewart Downing ought to have done, while for José Enrique this must seem a world away from the Russian roulette of being part of Newcastle's defence. Luis Suárez, meanwhile, was at times irresistible.
Anfield is a place that consumes statistics like pub-goers gobble peanuts and the latest revealed that this was Liverpool's best start to a season since 1994. Since they have seven points from their three opening fixtures, that suggests Liverpool do not make a habit of sprinting out of the blocks. It was, however, a season Dalglish will remember since it finished at Anfield with him steering Blackburn to the title. Liverpool finished fourth.
As the stadium relaxed and Paul Robinson stretched his body and ability to the limit to keep Suárez and Liverpool at bay, you could almost hear Dalglish mouthing a mantra that has been part of the club's phrase book for several generations: "We will tot up the points at the end of the season and see where we are."
Once in the press room, the Liverpool manager succeeded in dampening down any flickering expectations: "Headlines are about individuals but we are about being a team," he said. "We passed and moved and thoroughly deserved our victory. Everyone who came would have been entertained."
The scoreline aside, the most interesting aspect of the evening was that Andy Carroll began this match on the bench. Fernando Torres's desperate groping for the kind of form that once lit up Liverpool has obscured the struggles of the Premier League's most expensive Englishman.
You can talk all you like about the squad system but Carroll is a centre-forward and a disciple of Alan Shearer, who considered any suggestion that he did not start an affront to his manhood. Joe Fagan once had the courage to drop Dalglish for a game against Tottenham in 1984 and the Scot would have expected Carroll to take it in the same way – without comment.
What followed was a vindication of Dalglish's judgement. The surprise was it produced only a single goal before the interval. It began with a wonderful cross, delivered with the outside of Suárez's boot, that was met first time by Downing and pushed away high to his left by Jussi Jaaskelainen. It was a save that ought to have won or at least saved a match. Instead, it prevented Liverpool taking the lead by a matter of seconds. Dirk Kuyt retrieved the ricochet, played it back to Henderson, who had his first shot blocked and thrashed the ball home exquisitely at the second attempt.
Then came the siege: a chip from Suárez that landed on the roof of Jaaskelainen's net, followed by a shot from Kuyt that careered the wrong side of the post and a perfect decision from Lee Probert that Gretar Steinsson had handled fractionally outside the area.
If the state of Gary Cahill's performance reflected his mental state after the speculation swirling around regarding his future, then his mind was mush. "It is natural for a young player's head to be turned by endless speculation," said his manager. Coyle argued that if Arsenal are serious about taking the defender, they should make a proper offer and do it in writing.
Cahill's was not the only troubled mind in Bolton's ranks. Fabrice Muamba, the midfielder charged with shielding the back four, had been up all night tending to his sick child. The game was 26 minutes old before he realised he could not continue.
Bolton managed to shore themselves up before collapsing again after the restart as Martin Skrtel muscled past the supposedly imposing figure of Zat Knight to head home Adam's corner.
Less than a minute later, Adam himself almost walked through what was theoretically the heart of Bolton's defence to ensure their 10th successive defeat in this fixture. There have been few as completely one sided and when Ivan Klasnic slid in the most academic of consolations, it was greeted by a shrug of the shoulders.
When Liverpool last beat Bolton eight months and an eternity ago, the photographs were of the manger embracing first his assistant and then the goalscorer with a league table that showed the club had clambered a little further from the relegation zone. Roy Hodgson lasted another seven days, Sammy Lee is gone, Joe Cole is in the departure lounge and Liverpool, however briefly it may be, are top of the Premier League. That, in short, is the Dalglish Effect.
No Bolton manager has won a league game at Anfield since 1954 and Owen Coyle, who has now lost three times at this ground as manager of the club, argued that it was also the effect of spending £110m that was not made available to Hodgson.
The match was a triumph for the men Kenny Dalglish had brought to Merseyside. Jordan Henderson and Charlie Adam scored, Stewart Downing ought to have done, while for José Enrique this must seem a world away from the Russian roulette of being part of Newcastle's defence. Luis Suárez, meanwhile, was at times irresistible.
Anfield is a place that consumes statistics like pub-goers gobble peanuts and the latest revealed that this was Liverpool's best start to a season since 1994. Since they have seven points from their three opening fixtures, that suggests Liverpool do not make a habit of sprinting out of the blocks. It was, however, a season Dalglish will remember since it finished at Anfield with him steering Blackburn to the title. Liverpool finished fourth.
As the stadium relaxed and Paul Robinson stretched his body and ability to the limit to keep Suárez and Liverpool at bay, you could almost hear Dalglish mouthing a mantra that has been part of the club's phrase book for several generations: "We will tot up the points at the end of the season and see where we are."
Once in the press room, the Liverpool manager succeeded in dampening down any flickering expectations: "Headlines are about individuals but we are about being a team," he said. "We passed and moved and thoroughly deserved our victory. Everyone who came would have been entertained."
The scoreline aside, the most interesting aspect of the evening was that Andy Carroll began this match on the bench. Fernando Torres's desperate groping for the kind of form that once lit up Liverpool has obscured the struggles of the Premier League's most expensive Englishman.
You can talk all you like about the squad system but Carroll is a centre-forward and a disciple of Alan Shearer, who considered any suggestion that he did not start an affront to his manhood. Joe Fagan once had the courage to drop Dalglish for a game against Tottenham in 1984 and the Scot would have expected Carroll to take it in the same way – without comment.
What followed was a vindication of Dalglish's judgement. The surprise was it produced only a single goal before the interval. It began with a wonderful cross, delivered with the outside of Suárez's boot, that was met first time by Downing and pushed away high to his left by Jussi Jaaskelainen. It was a save that ought to have won or at least saved a match. Instead, it prevented Liverpool taking the lead by a matter of seconds. Dirk Kuyt retrieved the ricochet, played it back to Henderson, who had his first shot blocked and thrashed the ball home exquisitely at the second attempt.
Then came the siege: a chip from Suárez that landed on the roof of Jaaskelainen's net, followed by a shot from Kuyt that careered the wrong side of the post and a perfect decision from Lee Probert that Gretar Steinsson had handled fractionally outside the area.
If the state of Gary Cahill's performance reflected his mental state after the speculation swirling around regarding his future, then his mind was mush. "It is natural for a young player's head to be turned by endless speculation," said his manager. Coyle argued that if Arsenal are serious about taking the defender, they should make a proper offer and do it in writing.
Cahill's was not the only troubled mind in Bolton's ranks. Fabrice Muamba, the midfielder charged with shielding the back four, had been up all night tending to his sick child. The game was 26 minutes old before he realised he could not continue.
Bolton managed to shore themselves up before collapsing again after the restart as Martin Skrtel muscled past the supposedly imposing figure of Zat Knight to head home Adam's corner.
Less than a minute later, Adam himself almost walked through what was theoretically the heart of Bolton's defence to ensure their 10th successive defeat in this fixture. There have been few as completely one sided and when Ivan Klasnic slid in the most academic of consolations, it was greeted by a shrug of the shoulders.
[quote author=Sunny link=topic=46629.msg1389196#msg1389196 date=1314531931]
I'd just like to add that Luis Suarez is a footballing genius. It's a privilege watching him play.
[/quote]
There was a moment in the first half where he did something i can't really explain. He was on the floor by the ad boards on the left facing anny road and still somehow did some sort of wizardry before getting a corner (i think)
Ring any bells?
I'd just like to add that Luis Suarez is a footballing genius. It's a privilege watching him play.
[/quote]
There was a moment in the first half where he did something i can't really explain. He was on the floor by the ad boards on the left facing anny road and still somehow did some sort of wizardry before getting a corner (i think)
Ring any bells?
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