The King is back and his first line-up has been announced. How much it’s his line-up and how much he’s decided to stick with whatever Roy Hodgson had planned to go with on his last day in the job on Friday remains to be seen, but Kenny’s doing the team-talk and that on its own will be a huge boost to these players. It’s certainly a massive boost to the fans.
Glen Johnson isn’t in the squad – his wife is in labour (good luck to them both!) – so in his place comes Martin Kelly, with Fabio Aurelio and Daniel Agger the other changes to the defence that leaked three goals in Hodgson’s last match, the defeat at Blackburn on Wednesday.
Another recent new father, Fernando Torres, starts, after confirming he wants to stay at Anfield. We wait to see if Gerrard partners Torres up-front, if so then Dirk Kuyt is likely to start on the right of midfield with Meireles in the middle.
Liverpool FC are buzzing; it’s a tall order for the team four points from the relegation places to beat the team running away with the league title – but this is Kenny’s Liverpool again now.
Liverpool: Reina, Kelly, Skrtel, Agger, Aurelio, Kuyt, Lucas, Meireles, Maxi, Gerrard, Torres.
Subs: Gulacsi, Kyrgiakos, Wilson, Shelvey, Poulsen, Ngog, Babe
Despite losing to a very dodgy penalty in the first minute and the captain’s loss of discipline after 30 mins I think there are a lot of positives to take from the game.
Kelly had a great game at RB and Johnson will have to fight to get his place back. Aurelio did a good job too considering his lack of first team football. Agger was unfortunate to concede that pen but a WC referee should have seen through Berbatov’s dive. That aside he and Skrtel did a good job and only during a 5 minute spell did a second goal look possible. Jose was excellent in goal as usual.
What does concern me is the lack of service to Torres. I think Meireles had a stinker and some of those 30+ yard shots may have been better passes to Torres. Babel and Shelvey looked okay when they came on but need more games. But getting more quality balls into Torres is essential and hopefully Kenny can come up with some ideas to make it happen.