Live Thoughts: Liverpool vs Tottenham Hotspur (Premier League)

I covered this match live. Here are my Live Thoughts on the match between Liverpool and Spurs.

Hey everyone, it's me again with another one of those Live Thoughts posts. I'm going to do these less often from now on, maybe once a week or a fortnight. I enjoy doing them but they take a lot of space on my blog, when I cover four topics on here. But this is a match I can't avoid covering. It's a big match. We win today, we stay in the pack for a fourth place spot. We draw, we are on the bottom end of the pack. A loss, while isn't the end of the world, means we are a the bottom of the pack with a big ask to get fourth place. We need to stay in the pack, and above it, if we want Champions League football. Spurs on the other hand also need to win to stay close to the Top 2. It's a must win game for both clubs, but hopefully with a fully fit Gerrard, an Andy Carroll who is looking better recently than in most weeks and most importantly, the little firecracker that is Luis Suarez returning to action, means we'll hopefully have the three points at the end of the night. Let's do this!

Here are the teams: 

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Agger, Skrtel, Spearing, Kuyt, Gerrard, Adam, Carroll, Bellamy. Subs: Doni, Suarez, Henderson, Coates, Downing, Carragher, Aurelio.

Suarez returns! Gerrard starts! Looking good. I'd have liked Suarez to start today but I can understand the reasoning. While he's fully fit he's probably a little rusty. Not only that but he can make a big impact later on. Nice to see Fabio Aurelio on the bench, it dawned on me today that his contract ends again this season. He'll probably be released, while I like him, his injury problems are still far too relevant. Flanagan needs to develop further so I think this is the beginning of the end for Fabio Aurelio. I like our starting 11. Lucas, Enrique and Suarez aside, it's our strongest side. Should be tough to break down and hopefully we'll have enough firepower to score and win.

Tottenham Hotspur: Friedel, Walker, Dawson, King, Assou-Ekotto, Parker, Livermore, Modric, Kranjcar, Bale, Adebayor. Subs: Cudicini, Saha, Rose, Nelsen, Luongo, Lancaster, Khumako. 

A weakened Spurs side, lacking Defoe and Van der Vaart. Adebayor isn't fully fit either. Saha will try and make an impact later on, being an ex United and Everton player, let's hope we thwart that plan. This side can still cause problems, particularly Modric and Adebayor if he plays to his potential. Dangerous but a weakened side means we should be taking advantage tonight.

3' - A poor start for Liverpool sees Spurs being pinged back to their goal in the early minutes. We defend a corner relatively well. We usually start with aplomb but not today. 

4' A lovely ball from Gerrard to Carroll and he's through! Dawson tackles in the penalty box and my first thought was penalty, but on replay I'm not so sure. 

6' - Scott Parker brings Glen Johnson down JUST outside the box! Free kick! Gerrard takes it and it hits the wall, there was a lot of messing about in the box, kudos to Spurs for providing enough distraction. 

9'  - The game is looking relatively open for both sides, as expected. Both sides have had a decent spell of possession so far. 

11' - A stray cat found its way on to the pitch. Poor little thing. Really cute as well.  The Liverpool fans boo when the stewards removed it.

14' - Liverpool starting to look a little more threatening now, using the left wing. Bellamy combining well with Johnson, who's on the left today, down that side of the pitch.

17' - There's a lot of crossing today by Liverpool, but not long straight balls to Carroll, but strong diagonal balls that are causing the Spurs defence to tear apart slightly. It's good.

18' - Two defeats in 21 matches for Spurs. Incredible statistic. Hopefully we can make it less awesome sounding tonight. 

18' - That's twice now I've seen Charlie Adam covering Glen Johnson down the left back position. Doubling up. It's working at the moment though as that's the side we're using most. 

21' - Once again we're dominating on the left wing. It's not come to fruition yet but it feels like we're really dominating that area of the pitch and if we score, it's likely to source from there. 

24' - The first time I've seen us go down the right but the cross is poor. I'm not sure who crossed that, it might have been Martin Kelly, but it was high and over the box. 

27' - Another few crosses from the right are poor, by Kelly and Adam. Our end product in the final third really isn't good enough at the moment. We're dominating possession but not doing enough clinical crossing. 

29' - Adabayor accidentally catches Bellamy and he goes to ground. It was accidental but a little clumsy by the man from Togo.

30' - A fizzing cross from Adam from a free kick reaches Kuyt in the box but it was offside and his header was well wide anyway. But that cross is the type of cross we need to be doing. A strong, hard, low drive from Adam.

32' - SPEARING! So close! A beautifully balanced tap from Gerrard sets up Spearing perfectly, and it was inches wide! Excellent shot, it's a shame it wasn't the other way round, with Spearing assisting and Gerrard shooting, it probably would have been in as I reckon Friedel was beat.

35' - Possession statistics are 50/50 for the last 10 minutes. It doesn't feel like it. There's been very little from Spurs over the course of the 35 minutes.

37' - A nice one-two from the two Liverpool Youths, Kelly and Spearing down the right wing wins us a corner. I'm so proud of those two representing Liverpool so well. It's about time we have some fresh Scousers in the squad.

38' - Yellow card for Scott Parker, who blocks off a storming Gerrard run. Free kick just outside the box. 

39' - Bellamy takes it and it hits the wall. We need to be better than this when it comes to attacking these set pieces.

41' - Tottenham counter attack and Gareth Bale has a decent sly effort at goal, a cross from the left wing and Bale somehow volleys discretely with his left foot. Thankfully it's straight at Reina. 

43' - Spurs are on the front foot for the first time since the opening minutes. Needing to defend well at the moment. 

45' - One minute of added time. 


45+1' - Johnson takes his chance from far out and Friedel blocks it with his body for a throw in. Half time.

We've looked the better side, that's clear. We've decided to double up down the wings when needed and try to use the wings to make space and cross the ball. And that's as far as we've got. We've dominated the width of the pitch but our crossing has, to be frank, pretty damn poor. We need to be more clinical than this if we're playing the crossing game. I'm surprised we're playing the crossing game when we have good pace and trickery with Gerrard and Bellamy on the pitch supporting Carroll., and Suarez yet to come. But if that's the tactics we need to be crossing better. Adam is the only one whose crossing has been okay, but even that's hit and miss. If this is the tactics Kenny wants, we need to be more clinical. Or change tactics. One of the other. Either way we're looking the more likely to score, and if that remains the case, hopefully we'll get the goal our dominant gameplay deserves.

45' - Nice to see Adebayor and Bellamy having a laugh before the whistle. They obviously got on when they were both at City. 

48' - The commentators have said that Bale has been pretty quiet today, it's true. We've done well to contain the Welshman. 

51' - Suarez is doing a bit of warming up, I don't know if he's coming on yet. Probably not this early I'd imagine. 

54' - Gareth Bale goes down. Agger never touched him but Bale loses it! He pushes Agger back and is really in Agger's face! Really unlike Bale. He gets a yellow card for his troubles. He's probably really frustrated over his lack of influence in the match. 

55' - Bale is getting heavily booed by the Anfield faithful now. Corner for Spurs

56' -  The ball is all over the place in our box as Spurs don't make the most of a strong attack. Adebayor and Bale both had good chances but failed to have a clean shot at goal.

58' - KELLY! Great save by Friedel! Martin Kelly shoots to Fridel's left post and it was a nice save by the American.

61' - Suarez is about to come on! 

64' - Reina the sweeper kicks the ball long and Carroll heads it to Kuyt down the right wing, it's laid off to Adam whose shot is blocked by Dawson. Nice idea. 

65' - Liverpool Substitution: Dirk Kuyt comes off for the returning Luis Suarez. Kuyt, after scoring two games in a row, has been relatively ineffective today. 

66' - Carroll header from the corner! Straight at Fridel. The angle didn't go in his favour. 

69' - Yellow card for Suarez, who's high foot kicks Scott Parker in the stomach. He's winded terribly. Suarez accepts the card with understanding however. 

70' - Tottenham Substitution: Adebayor comes off for Luis Saha. Adebayor has had a relatively poor game, he hasn't really made an impact today. Let's hope Luis Saha makes a poor impact in his place, on his debut. 

72' - Liverpool Substitution: Stewart Downing comes on for Craig Bellamy. Another player who hasn't really had the right impact. Hopefully Downing's crossing ability works well in the last twenty minutes in Bellamy's place. 

73' - CARROLL! Awful shot. Kelly finally whips in a dangerous cross and it gets to Carroll whose immediate half volley is way over the bar. He should be doing better than that.

75' - Skrtel yellow card. Controversial call. He gets the ball off Bale but he uses his studs and Bale goes flying. It really looked bad live. Skrtel is lucky to still be on the pitch. I'm an unbiased Liverpool fan and I'm telling you, we're lucky to still have 11 men on the pitch. That was rash.

77' - Suarez nicks the ball and starts a counter attack! He puts the ball square to Carroll who has to go wide and his cross is headed away. Nice combination between the strikers, but it could have been more. 


80' - Steven Gerrard whips in a strong cross that Friedel palms away, taking a Skrtel set of studs to the chest in defence. The ref calls for a free kick for the American, who questions it as he palmed the ball away. Brad Friedel has balls for taking that kick from Skrtel, who in turn shows his admiration as well. Absolutely awesome from Friedel.

83' - Last 10 minutes or so, including added time. We need to score soon.

84' - Bale's clear! One on one with Reina and Reina wins! It's not dealt with though! Eventually a Agger clears the ball out to the left wing.

85' - SUAREZ! Straight at Fridel. A Stevie G free kick is inch perfect for Suarez who heads it straight at Friedel. That was quite poor from Suarez, a header either side and its in. 

87' - Tottenham Substitution: Danny Rose comes on for Niko Kranjcar, who's also had a game of very little effect. 

89' - A cross to Carroll who heads it to Suarez who's in the box! He tries to turn and shoot but he hands the ball and it's a free kick. Scott Parker does another excellent block to deny him anyway. In honesty, not that I've mentioned it enough, Scott Parker has been brilliant today. Man of the match. 

90' - Four minutes of added time. 

90+2' - Three crosses into around the penalty box in about 20 seconds and all three crosses are deflected by Scott Parker. Story of the match I'd say. 

90+4' - Full time.

7 draws in 9 games for Liverpool at Anfield. It's a problem. It's the problem. We're so hard to beat this season but we just can't score consistently enough. The effort is there. The chances are there. But the story of our season simply is we haven't made the most of scoring opportunities. We've been scoring more recently than we were in the start of the season. But it wasn't enough today. But it's not all doom and gloom. We have a fully fit Gerrard and Suarez back, and Carroll has been a bit better recently. Hopefully arguably the three important players in our striking force can start playing together. It's a fact - Gerrard, Suarez and Carroll all together have never started a game. Never. We've had Suarez and Carroll a full year now. Get those three in tandem, and hopefully goals will flow. That's the idea anyway. That's why Suarez and Carroll were £55 million between them. And Gerrard is to support them. Let's see this happen! Hopefully good times are ahead for Liverpool. We're not out of the race for the Top 4. We just need to continue this decent form with some goals. Goals! That's all we need. Hopefully this is the beginning of a free scoring run.

That's it from me, have a good evening!

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Live Thoughts: Manchester City vs Liverpool (Premier League)

I covered this match live. Here are my unedited thoughts on the Premier League match between Manchester City and Liverpool.

Hey there, thanks for joining me on another live thoughts feed. After a two match break (or 'ban', whatever word you prefer), I'm back. Before I get to the preview, let me talk about Suarez.

Just in case you didn't know, Liverpool are not to appeal against the Suarez ban. They're backing Suarez, are still showing the FA they're unhappy with the situation yet they're accepting of the ban for the good of football and the fight against racism. My thoughts? All in all I think Liverpool have done the right thing. They're standing ground in terms of their beliefs and support yet accepting of the situation, predominantly because everyone has been against their strong support of Suarez because the media are twisting that somehow as 'pro-racism'. It's not. It's pro-Suarez. Big difference. But still, it means we have no Suarez for eight games. No more. No less. I think it was too risky to appeal, because it just felt the FA wanted to make an example of Suarez. That's fine, as long as they show the same stance for every player doing a similar thing. Starting with John Terry of Chelsea. I wrote an article about this a few weeks ago if you're more interested in my thoughts on the Suarez situation, you can read that here. Anyway, like Liverpool, let's all draw a line against this.

Man City! Away from home! Tough match. But with City losing on the weekend, I think it's a good time to play them. Especially as we scored 3 goals against Newcastle, the first time we have scored 3 in the Premier League since August, when we beat Bolton 3-1, the same margin. Let's hope our strikers have their scoring boots on, and the defence can keep their watertight lock on that goal! I feel quite confident today in honesty!

Here are the teams:

Man City: Hart, Clichy, Toure Kolo, Richards, Kompany, Silva, Toure Yaya, Barry, Milner, Aguero, Dzeko. Subs: Pantilimon, Lescot, Zabaleta, Savic, de Jong, Johnson, Kolarov. 

It's hard to find a fault in this team. But this is the team we drew earlier this season, and beat last season. In fact, Man City have only lost 1 of the last 13 games against us. But City are very very dangerous now and we need to be careful. I think we can still win though. No Balotelli, but Aguero and the emergence of Dzeko this season makes a strong attacking duo. 

Liverpool: Reina, Enrique, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Spearing, Adam, Downing, Henderson, Kuyt, Carroll. Subs: Doni, Gerrard, Maxi, Carragher, Shelvey, Kelly, Bellamy.

Naturally no Suarez now. Bellamy on the bench is surprising though. He's been our best player recently and has scored most of the goals too. It looks like 4-4-2 today, with Carroll and Kuyt up front and Henderson and Downing on the wings. I suppose you can understand, what with us playing away from home, against the benchmark team of the Premier League. Bellamy can always come on later if needed, and Gerrard. Our bench looks pretty good at least.

3' - We're all wearing black armbands in memory of Gary Ablett who passed away a few days ago. 

6' - A half chance for Dzeko who hesitated in front of goal. Good for us. Richards was the man who set him up.

7' - DOWNING! Great chance but Hart saves! 

8' - Silva goes down the left wing and sets up Dzeko in the Liverpool box, who from a tight angle forces Reina into a save. 

10' - GOAL! Aguero. Kuyt concedes the ball and it gets to Aguero who takes a tame shot at goal, and the ball lands under Reina and goes in. That wasn't good from the usually excellent Reina. 

12' - I love Reina so much, but he's done a few mistakes this season, more so than usual. But that being said our defence has been pretty solid this season in comparison. I hope this is a little blip because Reina is just brilliant on his day. 

13' - A strong City attack with many one-twos ends up with Aguero who tries to chip the ball above Reina, and fails. 

15' - A half chance for Liverpool, Kuyt crossed from outside the penalty box on the right and Carroll gets a head to it, and it's over the bar. 

17' - @Anonymous - I don't think Reina needs to be sold, I just think he's having a blip. He's one of our most consistent players usually. He's still at a great age and I doubt he's going to slip long term. Let's give him the benefit of the doubt I say. 

19' - Some good pressure there from the Reds. It's hard to pinpoint one good moment really, but it was nice to see. We're not out of this by a long stretch.

21' - A shot from Dzeko takes a deflection and Reina attempts to save in shot's direction, and Aguero almost slotted the ball in an empty net but it was travelling too fast. Relief.

22' - Downing has been tripped by Silva just outside the City box. Shame Bellamy isn't on the pitch to take this cross, he's been pretty good with his crosses recently. 

23' - Adam takes the free kick and it's dealt with easily by Hart. 

24' - Henderson was set up nicely for a shot by Kuyt and it goes wide to Hart's goal. Decent effort though. 

26' - We've responded very nicely from the goal we conceded, we're much more dominant now. City have barely threat, bar the deflected shot five minutes ago. 

27' - A battle between Aguero and Skrtel and Aguero wins, but the ball once again travels too far and Reina clears. 

27' - Adam wins us another free kick in another great position.

28' - Henderson takes it and it hits the wall. Shame, it was an excellent place to win a free kick, central and just outside the box. 

30' - Aguero looks for a handball against Skrtel but the replay rejects it. The replays clearly show Skrtel's hand moving away from the ball, he couldn't have done anything about it. Good refereeing decision.

32' - KOMPANY! Great save by Reina from the corner! Lightning reactions from the Spaniard! 

32' - GOAL! Yaya Toure scores after another corner. Another header and this one goes in. We're 2-0 down now. Not good.

35' - Downing gets called for a free kick for handball. That wasn't handball either, the ref got this one wrong I'd say. 

36' - Steven Gerrard is warming up. Put him in at the start of the second half? I'm not sure. 

38' - @Anonymous #2 - Are you a Liverpool fan? I really hope not, Reina has played more than 300 times for this club and doesn't need fans turning on him when he's set numerous clean sheet records and saved many penalties over the years. Show him some respect.

41' - Charlie Adam concedes a free kick after a poor tackle on Dzeko. This is a decent area for City, I really hope we don't concede a third now. Silva takes it and it's gone for a goal kick.

42' - Carroll heads it down to Kuyt who has a decent effort but it's blocked by Kompany at goal-sight and then dealt with. 

44' - There's been a few tackles for the past few minutes by both sides that have been pretty poor, tensions are rising I'd say. Gareth Barry goes in the book for the latest one. 

45' - One minute of added time. 

45+1' - Half time. 

Well we conceded a poor goal by Reina. He should have done better than that, but there's no point in hounding Reina, he's been one of the best players for Liverpool in the past 6 and a half years and all players make mistakes. The difference being a goalkeeper's errors are easier to see. The second goal was unavoidable, City were strong in the set pieces and Toure's headed goal was too strong for anyone to deal with. Between the two goals they scored we looked pretty solid, definitely the better side. Are we out of the match? No. We need a quick reaction in the second half and then it's game on. Do we go to the bench and make changes? That's up to King Kenny of course, but my opinion is purely based on the fitness of Bellamy, Gerrard and possibly Maxi. Any of those three can be match winners when on form so if they're fit and raring to go, put on or two on at the start of the second half. We can still get something out of this, but if we concede another I'd say that's the end then.

45' - No substitutes made. That's fine, but it's going to have to be in the next 20 minutes surely, unless we score in that time of course! 

48' - A decent cross from Enrique, the first time he's been able to get forward properly, and Kompany heads it for a throw in, stopping Carroll from getting a vital touch.

50' - We've started the second half well, pushing City back as often as we can. No major penetration yet though. 

53' - The commentators think we lack pace, it's possible. We do have pace on the bench in Gerrard and Bellamy, that's not a hint I promise! 

56' - Double Liverpool Substitution: Steven Gerrard and Craig Bellamy come on for Charlie Adam and Dirk Kuyt, who both haven't had the best of games. 

57' - I think Kenny has made a good move putting these two players on. They're both match winners and both scored good and important goals against Newcastle.

60' - We need to score soon, 30 minutes left to go, a goal soon would make take momentum strongly in our favour.

62' - Enrique and Reina have a mixup whether or not who retrieves the travelling ball. It's not good that there was a communication issue at the back.

64' - Aguero has caused a lot of problems for us today. He's a tremendous player. That being said I'd say man of the match so far has to be Vincent Kompany, who's been a rock at the back for City.

66' - Both Milner and Glen Johnson have gone down due to a tackle from the former on the latter. 

69' - We're still dominating possession without putting that much pressure on City. I don't think this is going to be our night to be honest. We need a piece of magic from somewhere and fast. 

71' - Manchester City Substitution: Sergio Aguero comes off for Adam Johnson. Aguero was excellent today, really getting in between our defenders and just generally causing chaos, not too dissimilar to Suarez.

72' - RED CARD FOR BARRY! Two yellows for Barry, for a tackle on Gerrard. I don't think it was deserving of a yellow that tackle, I think he's unlucky, but it gives us some hope! 

73' - PENALTY FOR CITY! Grrrr! The ref gave a penalty as Toure went down when Skrtel was chasing, I'm unsure if that was a penalty! Some possible bad decisions here by the ref.

74' - GOAL! Milner scores the penalty and City are 3-0 up, and have pretty much got the points in the bag.

75' - Manchester City Substitution: David Silva comes off in place of Lescott, a good move for City, who have to defend for 15 minutes, now with 5 defenders. 

75' - Liverpool Substitution: Jay Spearing comes off and Maxi Rodriguez comes on. It might be too little too late, but you never know in football.

78' - Another miscommunication from the back! This time it's Skrtel and Reina, Skrtel gave a very short passback and Dzeko almost took advantage. Our back 5 really haven't been very good today. 

79' - ADAM JOHNSON! Hit the post! A lovely strike from the young Englishman, Reina was beat! This is definitely a match to forget for us. 

81' - GERRARD! Just wide. It was a nice strike, vintage of Gerrard, and it was just passed the post. 

84' - Kudos to Liverpool, we're still trying to get another goal despite being three down, but it lead to a counter attack in the end. We don't want to concede a fourth. 

85' - Rodriguez! Close. He was in the box and backheels to make space, and shoots just over the bar. More accuracy and it would have been a nice goal.

89' - Bellamy! Saved by Hart and it rolls for a rebound for Rodriguez and another Hart save. Frustrating stuff.

90' - Gout minutes of added time.

90+1' - Vincent Kompany wins man of the match, and it's rightfully deserved. He's been absolutely amazing today. At least it wasn't the goalkeeper this time that did all the heroics, not that Hart has had a bad game either.

90+2' - Downing finds some space in the penalty box and goes for goal, but Hart saves low to his right. 

90+4' - Full time.

What to say? Well, simply, this was a Premier League title winning performance for Manchester City. I don't mean they thrashed us or anything. But they had their chances and took them. Over the ninety minutes, we were the better side, the side with possession, the side with the most chances. But important moments in this game cost us. Reina's mistake, followed by a strong City set piece header by  Yaya Toure, and then the excellent break by Yaya again for Skrtel to concede the penalty, and then Milner's spot kick. Three important moments, three goals. That's what champions do, that's what United have done for so long. I really think City can win the title, if they keep staying one step ahead.

As for us? Same old Liverpool, loads of chances, zero goals. We need a new striker, it's as simple as that. Bellamy and Kuyt aren't always being used as strikers, so Carroll and Suarez are the only two out and out strikers we have. That needs to change. It's a major priority to get another striker in. Who? For me, dare I say it, but we need someone like Yakubu. Despite being an ex-Blue, I've always been a fan of the Yak. When on form he's fantastic. He's big and strong and really intimidating. He's an up front presence we haven't had at Liverpool since the days of in prime Emile Heskey. We need that time of presence. But as long as we get a clinical finisher, another good quality striker, I don't mind who we get. That's up to the owners and Kenny. Anyway, thank you for reading my live thoughts, it's been a pleasure, have a good night.

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Live Thoughts: Aston Villa vs Liverpool (Premier League)

I covered this match live. Here are my unedited thoughts on the match between Aston Villa and Liverpool.

Hey there, thanks for joining me on another live thoughts feed. Like the new banner above? Don't care? Okay, moving on.

Well we did enough to beat QPR last week and managed to win at home, and win against a promoted side, something for some reason we couldn't do. So we had a lot of ticks in boxes last week. Unfortunately with our defeat at Fulham we lost our undefeated away streak, but we can rebuild a new one can't we? Starting at Aston Villa? My confidence going into this match is at a middle point, I'm not overly confident but I know we can win today and in theory, we're expected to win, especially if we are to keep up with the Top 5 (or 6 if you count Newcastle). So let's get to it!

Here are the teams:

Aston Villa: Guzan, Hutton, Dunne, Collins, Warnock, Albrighton, Delph, Petrov, N'Zogbia, Heskey, Delfouneso. Subs: Marshall, Clark, Cuellar, Bannan, Weimann, Johnson, Burke.

They don't look as strong as they could be. No Darren Bent or Agbonlahor, Heskey and Delfouneso come in the side instead and they don't have the best goal scoring records. Fabien Delph is a heck of a potential talent but he's barely shown it for Villa. Their best player on the pitch is N'Zogbia who is great when on form but crap when not. I feel they're there for the taking based on this line-up, but I'm going to eat my words now as Heskey scores a hat-trick against us!

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Enrique, Skrtel, Agger, Adam, Henderson, Shelvey, Downing, Suarez, Bellamy. Subs: Doni, Carroll, Maxi, Coates, Kuyt, Carragher, Kelly.

Jonjo Shelvey gets his first start of the season for us and I'm pretty happy about that. It's nice to see Kenny give thriving young talent a platform to climb to. Shelvey was on fire for Blackpool on loan and let's hope that energy and confidence can be moved to the bigger Red shirt. Kuyt and Maxi are benched, which is a shame but you can only fit 11 players on the field. Bellamy gets another start which is also welcome by me.

2' - Free kick early on for Aston Villa, Charlie Adam brings down Charles N'Zogbia. It's about 30 yards out. Stiliyan Petrov takes it and it's not a good free kick, luckily for us.

5' - Major boos for Stewart Downing at Villa Park due to his exit, where he said he wasn't going anywhere and then went to us. Fair enough I suppose. 

8' - It's been a back and forth match so far, not much to report. Jonjo Shelvey has been given a decent amount of freedom as an attacking midfielder, something he didn't really get last season. He thrived in that role for Blackpool remember.

10' - GOAL! Craig Bellamy!! A corner from Stewart Downing is back heeled by Shelvey and Suarez shoots but it's saved by Guzan, and Bellamy fumbles it in via deflection!

12' - Charles N'Zogbia is in the book.

12' - All the jeering for Downing does make me laugh. It's not like Torres, who was at our club for three years, was a star player and left us at a testing period. Downing was with Villa for one full season (due to injuries prior), and while he was one of the best players at the Villa, he wasn't their star player. And they got a good deal from us, a nice amount of money.

14' - GOAL! Martin Skrtel! Two goals in four minutes! Bellamy corner, he whips it in perfectly and Skrtel just heads it in. So simple! Fantastic stuff! 

16' - Us Liverpool fans have been saying for weeks due to our horrendous shots/goals ratio that we're due to give a drubbing to a team soon. Can this be the day?

17' - Alex McLeish must be really angry, his squad have let two simple set piece goals in, in 4 minutes. Bad for them but great for us. 

18' - N'Zogbia whips in a dangerous cross and Reina claims with considerable ease. 

20' - N'Zogbia has a bit of space and shoots from a good 30 yards and it's only just over the bar. Best chance for Villa so far.

20' - Possession is 61%/39% in Liverpool's favour. Really dominant at the moment. 

22' - N'Zogbia has another good effort, this one hitting the side netting from the left. The last two minutes have been end to end for both sides, both going for goal.

25' - A few corners in succession for Liverpool, I hope this game is not like QPR when we had about 20 corners... 

27' - Charlie Adam gets in the book for a few tackles in succession that result in going in Villa's favour. He was warned and he got the card.

29' - Craig Bellamy goes in the book now as he clips Albrighton on the Villa right wing, Albrighton goes down like a ton of bricks and it was Bellamy's reactions that got him the yellow card, as it usually is. 

30' - Petrov takes a shot at goal and it's saved comfortably by Reina. 

33' - The game has slowed down dramatically by the way, I don't know why. But I'm glad it's slowed down with a 2-0 lead rather than the 0-0 we're usually with at this point of other games.

34' - Suarez nutmegs Petrov and lays the ball in for Shelvey who earns us a corner. 

36' - The corner is dealt with but we pile on the pressure, the pressure which ends with Shelvey in space and takes a low shot that's comfortably saved by Guzan. 

39' - A bit of Villa pressure now, they can't enter our box but they're piling around it. 

42' - The game is actually dead at the moment, I think both sides are just waiting for the whistle to regroup and start again.

45' - Two minutes of added time. 

45+2' - Half time.


Well we're two goals up in the first 14 minutes and that's great. But then after that the game was just... dead. Villa seemed down and out and it felt like we were fighting with an unanimated corpse. Their lack of interest made the game boring. I hope that the second half becomes lively again as I was hoping this was the "finally we thrash the opposition" match we've been waiting for. But since the two goals they've defended well enough and we've not threatened as much. But despite all this moaning about the lack of quality match, I should just be happy we're 2-0 up and there's still 45 minutes of football to go, in which hopefully we can score more and keep a clean sheet. Here's hoping.

46' - Agger almost scores in the first minute! A lovely cross from Bellamy again and Agger heads it just wide!


47' - SUAREZ! It hit the crossbar and out! So close! He nicks the ball of Dunne and shoots straight at the bar!


49' - Bellamy is brought down by Petrov and the Welshman protests that Petrov should be yellow carded. Justified in my opinion.


52' - Glen Johnson has a shot from a good 25 yards out and Guzan tips it over the bar! Much better second half so far!


55' - They're showing Barry Bannan getting ready to come on, probably for Fabien Delph.

57' - Aston Villa Sub: Barry Bannan comes on for Emile Heskey, not Delph. N'Zogbia will probably link higher up now.

58' - SUAREZ! Off the post! How has he not scored yet! Suarez is let loose, onside, and Suarez, just outside of the box, dinks the ball over the defence and keeper, and it hit the post! Lovely perception from the Uruguayan!

60' - ADAM! Deflected off a Villa defender! A little selfish there from Adam, he passes two Villa shirts and Shelvey was free to his left, but he goes for glory and it his a claret shirt and for a corner. 

61' - Wow, it's 13 shots to 11, according to the stats, in Liverpool's favour. Only 4 of Villa's have been on target mind, to Liverpool's 9. 

63' - They just showed a replay of Suarez hitting the post, he controlled the ball with his hand anyway, so it's probably good that he didn't score. The lad has enough controversy at the moment as it is. 

65' - Shelvey! Wide! The ball is over the top and Suarez lays it perfectly to Shelvey, who smashes it and it's high and wide. Could have done better than that if he composed himself. 

68' - Another small spell of pressure for Villa. But they're not threatening too much with it.

71' - Not much to report at the moment, the game has eased again. 

73' - Liverpool Sub: Luis Suarez comes off and Andy Carroll is coming on. He really needs a goal.

74' - Albrighton takes a shot and it deflects off Agger. The Villa are claiming a handball but it's hard to say without a replay. 

75' - 15 minutes to go, the commentators are saying it took us this amount of time to score 2, now can Villa do it, I really doubt it, but sods law would suggest I'll eat my words now! 

78' - Andreas Weimann is preparing to come on, he's a young Austrian striker who's yet to score for Villa.

79' - Aston Villa Sub: Fabien Delph comes off and Weimann takes his place. 

80' - Jamie Carragher is about to come on to get some minutes. It's amazing how he's barely played this season, but maybe it is time for him to start to wind down. There will inevitably be a time when we need him later this season though. 

82' - Liverpool Substitution: Carra comes on in place of Jonjo Shelvey, who has had a decent game. 

85' - We're playing again on Wednesday by the way, against Wigan, don't miss that. I'll be covering that game too, although I won't be covering  the Boxing Day match against Blackburn, or the Newcastle match after that. I try not to do much site work at Christmas I'm afraid.

87' - Liverpool Substitution: Dirk Kuyt comes on for Craig Bellamy, who for me has probably been the man of the match for me. Carra has taken the captains armband by the way, and that's all three Liverpool subs used.

89' - Charlie Adam concedes a free kick just outside the penalty box, towards the right. It hits the wall and out again. 

90' - Three minutes of added time. 

90+2' - 4 out of 5 games now for Villa not to score in. They've been absolutely dreadful today, I have a few relatives who are Villa fans and I feel sorry for them in honesty, nothing to cheer for, nothing going forward at the moment. The only good thing to say for them is they have Agbonlahor and Bent to come back to score goals for them, hopefully. 


90+3' - Full time.


Our first back-to-back wins in nearly 3 months. It's something we need to start doing now, get on a winning streak rather than an undefeated streak. The good news is we got two goals from set pieces very quickly. The bad news is that we didn't build on that, it felt at the time like we were about to thrash Villa, but we put the foot off the gas for whatever reason. The start of the second half was great again, with Suarez hitting the post and woodwork. But in the end, we won again which is great, we're back in sixth place which is great, and we have another away match against Wigan on Wednesday, where hopefully we can win three in a row before taking on Newcastle which will be a very interesting match. That's it from me, enjoy the rest of your day.

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Live Thoughts: Fulham vs Liverpool (Premier League)

I covered this match live, here are my thoughts on the match between Fulham and Liverpool.
Welcome to another live thoughts feed with me, Johnny Mercyside. We're doing quite well at the moment. Undefeated in 11 games, 6 wins in a row away from home, Carlign Cup semi finals. Things are going very very well. Let's hope we can win at Craven Cottage again, like last season!

Here are the teams... 

Fulham: Schwarzer, Kelly, Hangeland, Senderos, Riise, Dempsey, Murphy, Etuhu, Ruiz, Dembele, Zamora. Subs: Etheridge, Johnson, Kasami, Gecov, Hughes, Frei, Briggs.

Nice to see John Arne Riise and Daniel Murphy again. Great players for us. This is a decent Fulham side that can cause problems, and under Martin Jol they have a good manager and spirit. Expect a battle today. 

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Skrtel, Agger, Jose Enrique, Henderson, Spearing, Adam, Bellamy, Suarez, Carroll. Subs: Doni, Maxi, Coates, Kuyt, Downing, Carragher, Kelly.

Still no Carra in the starting lineup. I get the feeling Kenny wants to concentrate on a partnership between Skrtel and Agger and use Carra less often now. Interesting. Carroll gets another chance to impress, will he do well today? Let's hope so, he's had a lot of chances already this season. I'm glad Bellamy is starting. Maxi on the bench is another interesting move.

2' - Wow, this is Fulham's 28th match this season, in comparison to Liverpool who are playing their 18th. It shows you how strenuous their season is this year. Kudos to Fulham. 

4' - Liverpool are playing 4-3-3 today, with Bellamy joining Carroll and Suarez up front. I think that's an interesting set up, it gives Carroll more support. 

5' - Liverpool are almost caught out when a neat ball lets in Dembele but Reina comes off his line nicely. Great reactions from our Spanish legend. 

7' - CARROLL! Straight at Schwarzer! A lovely ball from Suarez who goes down the left wing and cuts back to Carroll but he shoots straight down the middle. Should have done better. 

10' - It's a good little game at the moment, both sides going for it. There's a "I Just Can't Get Enough of Suarez" chant going on which is always good. 

12' - Adam takes a shot at goal and it's saved to the bottom right by Schwarzer. We had a good spell then. 

15' - We're starting to get more possession now. Putting Fulham under the cosh slightly. We're not dominating or anything, just enjoying the game more than Fulham for the moment. 

18' - Dempsey! Good save by Reina. We're being a little too sloppy all of a sudden in our third, and Dempsey almost took advantage. 

21' - What a ball from Suarez to Bellamy! It was just too long and Bellamy couldn't control it, but it was about 40 yards in total, from the left wing near the center of the pitch, to the outside of the penalty area on the right. True quality. 

24' - The game is settling a little now, neither side really making many chances. 

27' - HENDERSON! IT HIT THE POST! Jeez! There was a gap for Henderson on the left wing, he cuts into the box and curls a shot to the right post but it just clips the inside and out! So close! 

28' - Some good counter attacking football from both sides now, it's a very good game so far. 

30' - Some good movement leads to a chance for Suarez, who doesn't make the most of it. A diagonal ball from the left wing finds Carroll who was on the right hand side of the penalty area, he heads it back to Henderson who passes the ball square to Suarez in space who has a tame shot go wide.

32' - Carroll! Nice block from Schwarzer! Suarez works his socks off, to many boos from the Fulham faithful, who works nicely again with Henderson to get a snap pass to Carroll who tries to clip it past Schwarzer but there wasn't enough space. Good chance.

34' - Nostalgia sorry, just seeing Riise go for a throw in for Fulham reminded me of how good he was at throw ins. We've not replaced that quality Riise had since.

36' - DEMPSEY! Lovely save by Reina! He's had a good match so far the American. 

39' - Fulham starting to get on top of us for the moment, finding space in the final third. 

41' - Possession is 54%-46% in Liverpool's favour. It's been a good game so far, and the possession shows that it's been relatively close. 

44' - Yellow card for Dembele. Luis Suarez uses his trickery against Dembele, who brings down the little Uruguayan. He goes in the book for kicking the ball away, not for the challenge.

45'+1' - Half time after a minute of added time.

Well it's been very entertaining for the unbiased fan. As a Liverpool fan we've had some good chances, not as much as we would have liked. Defensively we haven't been great, we gave Fulham a lot of space and if they were more clinical they could have scored. Henderson had the best chance of the half with a lovely run and curling shot that hit the outside of the right post, but other than that the chances haven't really been great in numbers. But the game has been good to watch. Let's hope we can become clinical and a threat in the second half, and pin them back to their goal and score.

47' - Dempsey and Bellamy having a face to face encounter, I don't know what provoked that. Dempsey goes in the book I think. Bellamy never reacted, which is good. Bellamy got a yellow card too, I think that was for his reactions to the referee more than anything else. 

50' - Liverpool on the front foot, it leads us to a corner.

51' - ENRIQUE! Lovely deflection from Schwarzer! That was the result of a total of three corners. 

53' - Yet another corner. A fourth corner in three minutes, we're absolutely attacking their final third, with some good pressure from Carroll and Suarez in that rally. Schwarzer deals with that fourth corner and the pressure subsides.

54' - Penalty claims from Liverpool, Suarez tries to take the ball round the defender and fails to reclaim the ball and goes down. I don't think that was a penalty, Suarez was looking for it and the ref didn't fall for it. 

55' - Possession for the second half - 78%-22% in Liverpool's favour. It says it all really. Come on the Pool! 

57' - A lovely run from Jose Enrique wins another Liverpool corner. That guy is an awesome left back, he should be playing for Spain really. 

58' - A free kick JUST outside the penalty box for Liverpool, I'm sure that was in the box but whatever. Yellow card for Senderos on Charlie Adam. 

60' - Bellamy takes it and smacks the ball, it deflects for a corner. 

60' - Agger heads the ball towards goal but it hit the front of his head and bounces downwards, going for a goal kick. 

62' - BELLAMY! Wide. He should have done better. He was played onside into the box on the right hand side, and tries to shoot it into the bottom left corner but it goes well wide. Shame. 

65' - Suarez is flagged offside, what a damn shame as that was a lovely bit of movement from Suarez to get in the box and great vision from Enrique. That's really debatable, I'm sure that might have been onside. 

68' - Agger has a mazy run down the middle of the pitch, and is eventually stopped on the outside of the Fulham penalty box. I miss those runs, he barely does them nowadays. 

70' - Fulham Substitution: Andy Johnson comes on for Bobby Zamora, who has been quite transparent today. 

71' - RED CARD! Jay Spearing is off the pitch! He got the ball but there was a lot of venom in the tackle, and Dembele player made a meal of it. I think that is unjustified. 

74' - It was a two footed tackle, that's what made it an instant red. But it's frustrating as he got the ball and Dembele just made such a dramatic jump. It's silly. 

76' - Double Liverpool Substitution: Dirk Kuyt and Stewart Downing come on for Craig Bellamy and Andy Carroll. Bellamy has been good today, and so has Carroll for portions of the game. Carroll looked interested today, something that he's guilty of not looking at times.

79' - Despite being a man down we're still going forward which is a good thing. That being said it's naturally harder to defend against Fulham. 

79' - DEMPSEY! Crossbar! So close, and Johnson tries to follow up and it goes for a Fulham corner, which is dealt with. 

80' - DEMBELE! Saved by Reina! He should have done better, it was a lovely cross and he had loads of space, he shoots it straight at Reina. Fulham are now on the front foot and it's not looking good. 

82' - Dembele has a lovely run from the start of the final third to just outside the box, passing Liverpool players, and he tries to curl the ball into the bottom left corner but it's just wide. 

83' -DOWNING! OFF THE POST AGAIN! It's hit the woodwork three times in this match so far! 

84' - GOAL! Fulham score. Danny Murphy takes a quality shot outside of the box and Reina spills it to his feet, only for Dempsey to react quick to shoot it straight into the net.

87' - ADAM! Just wide! A lovely strike form the Scot, he smashes it from 25 yards and it's low and driven, just wide.

90' - Three minutes of added time, we're making some late rallies at the moment. Let's hope one goes in. 

90+1' - Free kick just outside the box again. Suarez uses his body against the Fulham player to his advantage. Come on, make this count Liverpool! 

90+2' - Danny Murphy has gone down. Not good for the ex-Red. He's being subbed off. 

90+3' - Fulham Sub: Marcel Gesov comes on for Danny Murphy. Gutted for him. The free kick will be last moment in the match. Suarez takes it and it hits the wall.

90+4' - Andy Johnson counter attacks and he's on his own up front! Thankfully Glen Johnson catches him and deals with the danger. 

90+4' - Full time.

And our 11 matches unbeaten can't continue as we lose tonight. We played very well today, a mixture of Fulham's confidence, our lack of finishing and the debatable red card for Spearing made us lose today. It's another frustrating match in terms of our effectiveness in front of goal, but we did play well. It's not good though, when we play well and don't win. We have drawn too many matches like that, and now we lose another one. We need to be more clinical in front of goal in the second half of this season or we'll not get Champions League football. It's as simple as that. But, the performance was otherwise good, the game was great, and hopefully we can learn from this defeat. That's it from me tonight, take care.

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Live Thoughts: Chelsea vs Liverpool (Carling Cup)

I covered this match live. Here are my unedited thoughts when Liverpool took on Chelsea in the quarter finals of the Carling Cup.

Hey there, welcome to another live thoughts feed. We're in the quarter finals now of the Carling Cup, and we're up against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, in a rematch from the Premier League just nine days ago. And while we won that match with a pretty damn good display, this is a different kettle of fish. I'm really looking forward to this match actually. Kenny Dalglish complained (and rightfully so) about the stupidity of us playing two high quality matches in three days. It is silly. How are they going to keep up with the integrity of the cup if they don't give the first team the chance to recuperate? It's nonsense. So we'll see a lot of youngsters today I reckon, and Andre Villas-Boas has hinted he will too. So it's going to be a very interesting match, and I can't wait to watch it. Can we win? Well we did nine days ago, but just like it was then, it's going to be very hard, and some achievement too. Let's hope we get to the semi finals!

Here are the teams:

Chelsea: Turnbull, Bosingwa, Luiz, Alex, Bertrand, Lampard, Romeu, McEachran, Malouda, Torres, Lukaku. Subs: Hilario, Ivanovic, Ramires, Mata, Ferreira, Kalou, Anelka.

A weakened side for Chelsea, as expected, but this team can still cause us problems if needed. Lampard, Torres and Alex are the three players in the spine of the squad that can easily cause us issues. Wary.

Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Carragher, Coates, Jose Enrique, Henderson, Lucas, Spearing, Maxi, Bellamy, Carroll. Subs: Doni, Suarez, Kuyt, Downing, Adam, Skrtel, Flanagan.

A strong side. Not the strongest, Suarez, Kuyt and Adam on the bench, but a lot of these players saw decent minutes on the pitch on Sunday. Lets hope fatigue doesn't hit the squad and instead we show the same form we did nine days ago! Interesting!

2' - David Luiz fell in the box and gets a yellow card for diving! Was it a dive? It was Coates in the box for the tackle. He was definitely looking for the penalty, and it looks like the ref was right.

5' - It's nice to see Bellamy back on the pitch, he just has raw pace that is hard to be equalled in our squad at the moment. While we're on the subject, my thoughts are with the family of Gary Speed, what shocking, flabbergasting news on Sunday. Such mysterious circumstances.

8' - It's also good to see Carra and Spearing getting some first team football too. Carra obviously, recovering from an injury and Spearing finding it difficult to get games this season what with the abundance of options in the centre of the pitch for us.

10' - A nice tussle between Martin Kelly and Ryan Bertrand ends in a Liverpool corner, which leads nowhere.

12' - The crowd is absolutely dead at the moment, apart from the Liverpool away crowd booing Torres whenever he has the ball. Stamford Bridge is awful when nothing is going on, and the crowd roars only when there's good action. Naive crowd.

14' - Chelsea starting to get a bit of possession in and around the final third. It's not leading to any major chances yet but the signs are there.

17' - There's so much talk about Carroll and Torres, it's a little frustrating. Everyone but Chelsea and Liverpool fans care about the transfer fees. Let's get something clear, it wasn't about the fees, it was about getting Torres out of Liverpool, and us making the most of a crap situation. Carroll hasn't scored many goals but I think long term he'll be okay.

20' - PENALTY! An odd situation. We break and it ends with Alex and Carroll tussling and Alex handballs, with only Carroll really claiming for it. After around ten seconds, the ref awards it and Chelsea players protest.

21' - SAVED! Carroll shoots right down the middle and Ross Turnbull saves. Awful AWFUL penalty. I didnt' trust Carroll with that, his shot isn't very clinical, I'd rather had someone likle Belammy take it. Well, that's that over. We've apparently missed three out of four penalties this season.

24' - One thing the penalty has done is liven things up. The game is a lot more open now.

27' - The game as I said is a step up in intensity than it was, both sides are going for it. Not full throttle, but definitely second or third gear.

30' - While the match has stepped up there's a lot of sloppy passing from both sides.

33' - Florent Malouda goes in the book for a tackle on Lucas.

35' - Chelsea are just starting to get on top at the moment, it's not clinical but the possession is definitely there.

38' - Both sides are trying to break the other down with no major chances. There hasn't been any clear cut chances all match, apart from the penalty save.

40' - Jose Enrique takes a shot at goal from the left wing, and it's easily saved. Nice to see us try though.

41' - Chelsea Sub: Ramires comes on for McEachran, who has been struggling for a few minutes now.

43' - Foul for Liverpool as Lukaku tackles Henderson awfully. It wasn't him that got booked, it was Bertrand that got booked. Odd. It was an awful challenge and the wrong player got booked.

45' - Three minutes of added time.

45' - LUKAKU! Just wide of the post. Best chance in the game so far. A cross is whipped from the left wing and Lukaku meets it and heads it wide. Should have done better.

45+3' - Half time.

This was a pretty dire first half. Neither side took control, neither side looked like scoring for the most part. The good news is that we're matching Chelsea all over the pitch. The bad news is that penalty miss. It was an awful miss. Carroll shouldn't be taking penalties, he doesn't look clinical in the face of the penalty box, Bellamy should have took it. Lukaku's header at the end is the best chance from open play. Those two chances aside, very little happened in terms of good attempts at goal. Let's hope for a better game in the second half, and hopefully we can show to quality in our play. We're still more than in this.

48' - Haha, odd statistic, Bosingwa has played eight times against Liverpool and has never won. Also, Kenny Dalgish has never lost as manager against Chelsea.

51' - Liverpool under a little bit of trouble, Torres dribbles the ball into the box and there's a scramble, which we eventually clear.

52' - A decent Liverpool move ends disappointingly with Bellamy trying his luck from the right wing, it goes well over and wide. The game is a lot more open at the moment, let's hope it continues this way.

54' - Chelsea free kick ends in a scramble and hits the BAR! We're saved by our post.

55' - Maxi breaks free! Bellamy to his right but Luiz intercepts. There was a good chance there that wasn't taken.

56' - Jose Enrique handballs at the corner flag and Torres protests, nothing comes of it. It was handball to be fair and it wasn't given.

57' - GOAL! MAXI! Henderson releases Bellamy on the right wing and there's loads of space in the box! He puts the ball square to Maxi who slots it in! 1-0!

60' - I was about to suggest that Suarez came on before we score, as the game was opening up and it would be a game that suits him more. But now we're ahead I think we should refrain from using him for as long as possible.

62' - GOAL! Martin Kelly! An absolutely splendid cross from a free kick by Bellamy is plonked on Kelly's head and he finally scores for the Reds! We have one step in the semi finals!

63' - Chelsea Substitutions: Anelka and Mata come on for Lukaku and Malouda. Chelsea have made all their subs.

65' - Ramires tackles Lucas badly and goes in the book.

65' - Bellamy has a shot from distance and Turnbull saves it with ease. Kelly scores for us finally. He has been scoring with some ease for England, it's about time he scored for us. He kissed the badge too. I really hope and expect big things for young Kelly's career with us. Homegrown talent.

67' - Lucas is having some problems, he tackled Mata and came off worse. I hope he's okay.

69' - Lucas came back on the pitch and then fell back down to the floor. He's really not good. It's suggested that it might be ligament due to the way he's reacted to the tackle. I certainly hope not. Either way Charlie Adam is about to replace him.

71' - Liverpool Sub: Lucas is stretchered off and Adam takes his place. I really hope it's not as bad as it looks. Lucas has been absolute boss this season, he's just Mr Consistent, a tacking and passing demon in the middle of the pitch.

71' - Torres takes attempts a header and it's easily saved by Reina.

74' - Anelka has space on the outside of the penalty area! Reina runs at him, Anelka nutmegs, the Reds defence block the goal and Carragher clears. Close one!

75' - TORRES! WHAT A SAVE! Chelsea Corner and it was a fantastic effort from Torres, but it was an even better save from Reina!

78' - Liverpool Sub: Dirk Kuyt is coming on for Craig Bellamy, who has been absolutely dynamite today. Probably man of the match for me. Dirk Kuyt is coming on, who's a better defender than the Welshman.

81' - Chelsea for the past five or ten minutes have been on top but without being clinical. They haven't really took their game that much better than the first half, where as we have and got two goals as a reward. But let's not tempt fate here, if they get one goal the game would be horrible to watch for us Reds.

82' - Coates has had some praise from the commentators, and to be fair he's had his best game in a red shirt. I've been quite critical of Coates in recent Live Thoughts feeds, but the truth is that he's very young and has a lot of time to develop. This is definitely a step in the right direction.

83' - The kopites are singing "You'll Never Walk Alone" a bit too early for my liking!

84' - Chelsea fans are leaving early. Good times.

86' - Torres tries to time his run against the Liverpool defence but he's just offside.

88' - Liverpool Sub: Martin Skrtel comes on for Maxi Rodriguez. A good move by Dalglish. Maxi has been effective for the most part and his goal was very important naturally. All the subs have been used.

90' - Four minutes of added time.

90+1' - We've beaten Chelsea three times in a row since Dalglish has been in charge. Isn't it wonderful?

90+2' - Now the Reds fans are singing "You'll Never Walk Alone", now is the right time!

90+3' - Torres is offside and he attempts for goal anyway, only to put it over the bar. I can't help but laugh.

90+4' - Full time!

We're in the semi finals! It's been a long time coming but we're finally in a semi final in a competition again. Let's hope we can win the Carling Cup! We beat Chelsea to get here, surely, on our day, we can take on anyone. We haven't lost to Arsenal, Man City or Manchester United this season, we drew them all. I have a good feeling about this competition. Let's hope my gut feelings are right.

As for the performance, well, it wasn't the best, we played well enough today, where as Chelsea were dire. We had a good rally in the start of the second half, and we were suddenly two goals up. After that, well, it was a crap game again. The first half was crap, and we missed a penalty. Carroll needs to keep away from the spot kicks I'd say. Bellamy is better. Speaking of Bellamy, he's my man of the match. He was quality all night, and his second spell at Liverpool is turning out to be much more worthwhile than his first. No he's not starting every match, but when he plays he's very often effective and sticking to his purpose with a maturity and quality. That's it from me, have a good night.

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Live Thoughts: Brighton vs Liverpool (Carling Cup)

I covered this game live. Here are my unedited thoughts on the match. 

Hey there, welcome to another one of my live thoughts sections. This time I'm covering Brighton vs Liverpool, where I'm hoping the Reds can take one step further to winning a cup. More importantly, I'm hoping this match and performance can start another great run of form, following the horrendous result and display at Tottenham on Sunday.

Here are the teams: 

Brighton: Ankergen, Calderon, Greer, Cook, Vincelot, Buckley, Bridcutt, Navarro, Sparrow, Noone, Mackail-Smith. Subs: Brezovan, Rodriguez, Dunk, LuaLua, Barnes,Taricco, Kasim. 

The south coast team have just been promoted to the Championship after a fantastic display in League 1. Gus Poyet has made quite the impression as a new young manager. They have some decent options on the flanks, let's hope we can cope with that. 

Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Robinson, Carragher, Coates, Lucas, Spearing, Maxi, Kuyt, Bellamy, Suarez. Subs: Doni, Gerrard, Flanagan, Downing, Wilson, Shelvey, Carroll.

Quite a few changes, as expected. Interesting to have Coates make his first start for the club, but I'm sure he'll impress against a lower league side. Bellamy starting for the first time in his second stint at the club, let's hope he can score tonight. We have some big guns in there, Carra, Suarez, Reina and Lucas are all important first team players. We're going near to full throttle tonight with our selection and I'm happy about that.

2' - Very patient start from Liverpool. I'm sure we'll apply to some pressure soon.

5' - Corner to Liverpool. Bellamy and Suarez had a decent understanding for the moment. Let's hope it continues.

6' - GOAL! Craig Bellamy! Just simple really. Suarez gets the ball on the inside of the penalty box and spots Bellamy's run between two defenders and passes easily through them, and Bellamy slots it past the keeper to the bottom right corner!

9' - Another corner. We're not dominating as such, but we're threatening when we have the ball. 

11' - There seems to be a decent amount of understanding between Suarez, Kuyt and Bellamy. It seems exciting. 

14' - Suarez and Bellamy connect again, Suarez in the middle this time and Bellamy on the right. Bellamy tries to cut a square ball into the penalty area but there's too many Brighton defenders. 

15' - There's some decent counter attacking at the moment from both sides. Both teams trying to make an impression here. 

16' - Maxi crosses the ball over all the Brighton defenders from the right and nearly gets to Kuyt but it's just too long.

17' - Kuyt! Was that over the line? Referee says no. Replays say no as well.

19' - Alan Navarro lashes out at Bellamy. It wasn't dirty, it was frustration. It's proof we're in control at the moment. 

21' - Mauricio Taricco, the assistant manager at Brighton, also plays once in
a while. He's 38 and hadn't played professionally for six years prior to his recent games for the club. He's a brave man.

23' - As the commentator has also said, we're just ripping them in midfield. There's so much space there at the moment it's just too easy. 

25' - We're in total control at the moment. Passing with ease in their half. 

25' - Suarez... that was close. Great movement from Kuyt to find Suarez who just shoots wide of the post.

28' - Coates concedes a corner sloppily. He should have done better. It comes to nothing thankfully.

31' - Free kick to Liverpool. Suarez hit the grass after the ball was played. It's around 25 yards out to the right. Bellamy takes it and Suarez heads the ball and it hits the right left post!

32' - Apparently this is only Reina's third Carling Cup match. I'm sure he played against Exeter so it shows how serious we're taking this competition when we're putting our #1 goalkeeper in this season. 

34' - Pictures of Gerrard warming up. He's getting an applause from both sets of fans. Great stuff. He has been missed, although I do wonder how much he has left long term in his locker. 

36' - Jack Robinson crunched into a 50/50 tackle in the middle of the pitch. Great to see that young kid getting a chance. I say young, he's not much older than me! 

37' - Matt Sparrow! Reina saves it with some ease. It doesn't matter, it's by far the closest they have come so far. 

39' - Tackle from behind on Bellamy by Steve Cook. It was a little reckless and the ref tells him to be careful.

40' - Bellamy! Off the bar! Beautiful attempt! He hits a rocket from the left of the outside of the penalty area and it's an arrow shot that hits the right side of the crossbar! And Matt Sparrow gets a yellow card. 

42' - Penalty claim from Brighton gets nowhere. Will Buckley fumbles to the ground against Martin Kelly and it was a soft fall really. It didn't look like a penalty.

42' - Brighton on the attack. Coates looks uncomfortable in the box again and Reina has to claim. It's not good again from the young Uruguayan.

43' - Spearing! Lovely save by Ankergren! A low drive from spearing to the bottom right corner is saved nicely by the Danish keeper.

44' - Brighton as we approach the end of the first half are starting to gain confidence. 

45' - Two minutes of added time. 

45+1' - Craig Noone! Saved by Reina! Another Brighton player tries for the rebound and Kelly smacks it for a corner. Exciting ending to the half for the wrong reasons this! 

45+1' - There's a free kick just outside our box for Brighton. This looks like the last move of the game and it's over the goal.

45+2' - Reina takes the goal kick and it's half time. Decent performance from Liverpool for 40 minutes. We dominated the game with crisp and precise passing. Their midfield was nothing. We cut through them with such ease. We had a few good chances that we should have taken. Bellamy has had a great game. At the end Brighton gained confidence and had a few decent chances to equalise. We did just enough. We have to score early in the second half I say or this game could turn difficult, with Brighton having a good spell late on.

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48' - Noone! Off the bar! That was close and easily Brighton's best effort so far. Come on Liverpool, get back to the way you were playing earlier! 

50' - They just showed the replay of that belter from Noone. Reina was beaten. It was a top class strike that. 

51' - We're giving Brighton a lot more of the ball in this second half. Not to say they're on top of us, it's around the same at the moment. 

52' - Inigo Calderon works hard and gets into our box and hits a square ball past everyone. They're starting to look impressive now.

54' - Matt Sparrow! Reina saves to the ground. They're now on top of us, I'm sorry to report. Let's hope we can get control again soon. 

56' - Brighton corner. They've been dancing around our box for a good few minutes. It's looking dangerous. Their confidence is through the roof. Nothing comes of it and Reina collects. 

58' - Yellow card for Spearing for as he pulls back one of the players. Can't see who it was at the moment. 

60' - Brighton Sub: Will Buckley, who I believe was the player tugged by Spearing, is replaced by Vicente Rodriguez.

60' - If you didn't know, yes that is THE Vicente. He was a great player a good few years ago. Spanish international. I wonder how good he is now, he hasn't been a prominent player for a few years unfortunately.

62' - The stoppage time earlier seems to have calmed the atmosphere down, which hopefully will come in our favour. Calderon now needs a bit of treatment.

65' - Yeah the game is more even now. Let's hope we can start to take them on again.

66' - Yellow card for Romain Vincelot. 

67' - Vicente has his first proper effort as he dances through a few Liverpool players and dinks the ball just wide of Reina's post. 

70' - The crowd clap loudly as Noone earns a corner. He's been their best player so far. 

71' - The referee stops the play as a fan is on the pitch. 

72' - Steven Gerrard is getting ready to be brought on. Half a year he's been out of action for, too long.

73' - Free kick from around 30 yards out in a central position. Suarez takes it and it hits the Brighton wall and goes high for a corner. 

74' - Liverpool Sub: Steven Gerrard comes on, long overdue, for Luis Suarez. 

77' - Brighton Sub: Matt Sparrow goes off for Kazenga LuaLua, who is on loan from Newcastle United.

79' - Some pressure from Brighton then and we were slightly shaky in defence. We clear it.

80' - GOAL! Dirk Kuyt! First goal of the season for Kuyt, it started off as a Brighton corner and we somehow counter attack and Maxi storms forward and cuts the ball to Kuyt's path who squirms the ball to the leftof the keeper and it hits the right post and in. 2-0!

81' - That was a relief. Brighton were starting to look dangerous again. It should be okay now, unless we screw up.

82' - They announce the attendance and apparently it's Brighton's highest so far this season. Kudos to them, they've been great tonight the fans, and the club as well. It's a good club Brighton. 

84' - Flanagan is about to come on. Good ol' Flanno.

85' - Liverpool Sub: Flanno comes on for Martin Kelly, who has had a great game today, possibly the best player for us, as Bellamy has had a quiet second half all in all. 

87' - Craig Noone has been chosen as Brighton's man of the match. A completely justified choice, he has been a threat for good spells of the game and his belter against the bar was immense.

88' - PENALTY! Spearing was at fault there, a rare mistake. He tries to keep the ball from going for a corner. And Vicente takes the ball before Carra takes him down. Definite penalty.

89' - GOAL! 2-1. Ashley Barnes scores for Brighton. They are being quick to get the game going again, they want the game to go to extra time!

90' - Four minutes extra time announced. 

90' - Yellow card for Lucas, who knocks LuaLua over with some venom near the right corner. That was quite vicious and there's a claim he should be off the pitch. I think it was harsh but not worthy of a red. 

90+3' - Brighton for the most part are putting a lot of pressure on us but Bellamy earns us a free kick. He wines a bit though, which is a bit silly. 

90+4' - Full time.

It wasn't an amazing performance but it was enough. We played some very good stuff in the first half, as we approached half time and the start of the second half Brighton showed some good class and made it a match. As we approached full time we got a second goal, arguably against the run of play before we concede a penalty. All in all I think we were the better team, but were tested tonight. The main thing is we go through to the next stage, and who knows, with a bit of luck and class we can win this thing. Thanks for your time.