Brave
The biggest decision, Brendan Rodgers made in pre-season, was to send Pepe Reina out on loan to Napoli, following his botched attempt to forge a move to Barcelona. Bringing Simon Mignolet in, as his replacement, was a bold choice, but it was needed. Now, I’ll say this over and over, I have nothing but respect for Pepe Reina, but I believe that his best games are behind him.

Simon Mignolet was a breath of fresh air for Liverpool, and he made an immediate impact; but his aura had somewhat degraded by Christmas, as he made a bunch of errors in two big matches. Which merited some negative response from the #BrendanOut movement, they have now shut up. Much to the delight of us real Liverpool fans. 

Mignolet showed great character to come back from making the mistakes, and he will become a better goalkeeper, because of them. He trains with some of the best players in England, so improvement in inevitable. Also, let’s remember, goalkeepers normally get better with age, he’s only 26 (Remember to wish him a happy birthday, it’s his birthday today. 06/03).

Moving forward, I think that selling Pepe Reina is going to be the best move, Mignolet will continue to prove his doubters wrong, like he did against Southampton. (This is going to start a riot isn’t it?)

But another of his (Brendan Rodgers’) bravest moves comes in the form of young fullback Jon Flanagan, we were all sceptical when he was announced on the team sheet for the first time this season, but, he’s proving us all wrong, and is holding his own position now in the first team. Good call BR. 

He hasn’t been a stranger to give those younger players a chance in the first team, players like Henderson, Sterling and indeed Flanagan have benefitted from this. All three are now some of the first names on the team sheet. 

What’s next for Liverpool?
Liverpool’s next target is to finish the season in a very strong position. However the team finish, I will be proud to be a Liverpool supporter, as I have always been. The ball is in Brendan Rodgers’ court right now, how the team perform will ultimately decide where we finish. 

But, if we finish in the top 4, which we should, I’ve heard that John W. Henry is going to be breaking the cheque book to bring some world class talent to Liverpool. Who should Liverpool sign? Let us know in the comments, either on the Facebook page or the Website! I will be interested to hear what you guys have to say about potential signings. (Konoplyanka please)

If you would like to join in one of my publically incited riots, follow me on Twitter! @MrNickMason, I follow everybody back! Unless you’re a Manchester United fan, then I may have to block you. 

The very best of Liverpool is yet to come, and there is still another gear, I believe, that the team can hit to end the season on a high. This has been a crazy season, it’s going to have a crazy ending.

Until next time, I hope you enjoyed reading this, as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Thanks again and take care. 

Nick Mason


f you’re interested in catching up with me on Twitter, feel free to! @MrNickMason you can also find me on Facebook, I would happily friend you. I comment regularly on the page.

Simon Mignolet may have made a few mistakes for us between the sticks, in some big games, but he’s displayed brilliance which has kept the team in many games, which has helped them into fourth spot.

Talking of Aly Cissokho, it’s a sticky subject, he makes some mistakes, that a player of his stature shouldn’t make, but he still brings a lot to the team. He makes very positive runs down the left side, but, he lacks the execution to turn those runs into promising opportunities. That’ll come in time. 

As Liverpool fans, we all expect new players to jump right of the plane or car, into the team, and be match winners, all in the first season. But some of the players we have, such as Cissokho and Aspas, will require more than a season before we will see anything, which we’ve come to expect, out of them. Cissokho will get a permanent move, and I can see it being a massive benefit for us. 

Top four
I will always speak about this subject, because it will be a continued subject and is on the mind of every Liverpool fan all over the world. Can they make it? Being the most asked question. Do I believe they can? Yeah, I believe they can. But, Liverpool need to start off by dispatching Arsenal at Anfield. However, not to limit the team’s aspirations here, they could even achieve higher, if they stick to beating who they need to. Which in this case, is just about everybody!

We as a connected fan base, need to support every last player that pulls on a Liverpool shirt, singling players out for criticism at this stage, would be destructive. They win as a team, they draw as a team, and most of all, they lose as a team. 

To echo that, the legendary Bill Shankly once said: “If you can't support us when we lose or draw, don't support us when we win." Might have to remind you, that being on twitter when Liverpool are either drawing or losing, is not the best idea. 

The coming months are going to be very exciting for Liverpool FC and us fans, let’s just sit back, and enjoy the emotional rollercoaster Liverpool are ready to send us on. 

Thanks once again for taking the time to read my latest blog. 

You’ll Never Walk Alone

Nick Mason

Be ready for the summer!

If you’re interested in catching up with me on Twitter, feel free to! @MrNickMason you can also find me on Facebook, I would happily friend you. I comment regularly on the page.

Good day to all fellow Liverpool fans who may be reading this entry, from wherever you may be in the world! After a few weeks of sitting back, and watching my twitter feed, I feel now is the right time to contribute again, with a few pressing subjects, in which I would like to iron out. 

Player Criticism
Many wouldn’t know, that I’m exceptionally controversial with my views on football, my most recent outburst, involved myself defending Iago Aspas, and why fans should get behind him; I’m not going to tell you how much hate I got for expressing an opinion! If you guessed a lot, you probably guessed right. 

Possibly my most active tweet ever, received almost 30 retweets and 10 favourites, the hate to follow it from the minutest of fans made me question if I should really post such opinions again. I have now referred to the congregation of supporters who hate on Aspas for no reason, “The Aspas hate train!”

Give Aspas some time, he’s came to us from the Spanish league, which is a much different league to the Premier League, in terms of physicality. In time, he could be an amazing player. 

I was going to make a similar post for Cissokho, but I don’t think my account could take another battering. But, however, I will make another point about him.

Since Cissokho has been re-included in the Liverpool squad, following the injury to John Flanagan, he has really stepped up to the plate as a Liverpool player, and I believe he stands in real good stead to be purchased on a permanent basis.

We, as a fan base, need to stop criticizing our players (exception: it’s ok to criticize Moses.) if we give each of the players who appear to be on the fringes at Anfield, the support they require. You never know, we may end up with an unsung hero, much alike Lucas, remember, that player we brought who was originally terrible, but now starts near enough every game? Yes him.

Victor Moses disrespect
Now, I was all for the Victor Moses transfer when I heard about it, because I thought he was hardworking when he played. Hindsight 20:20, how wrong was I?

Victor Moses took to the press to exclaim his anger at not getting more playing time at Liverpool, when he was promised game time. Last time I remembered, he was on loan to us, not a player of ours.

Chelsea were also said to be angered at the situation with Moses, but I would like to take this moment to say that, if he fails to put the dedication in on the training ground, and he doesn’t act like he wants to play during the few minutes he gets on, why would BR want to play him? I personally would terminate the Loan deal, or keep him on the bench for the remainder of the season, and only use him when we actually need him, which will hopefully be never.

Brendan has apparently had talks with Moses, following the anger, so, we’ll see, going forward if his playing attitude changes. At the moment, he’s a disgrace to the shirt, he needs to pick himself up. Maybe he’s low on confidence.

Top 4 charge?
Well, who knows, if we carry on performing as a team, and players don’t get individually greedy toward the end of the season, we could even be in with a shot of the title. I’m not delusional, I just believe it could happen, it’s our best chance since 2009. This season will go right to the final day, so we need to start tearing teams apart, more often.

Everything seems to be falling right into place for us, Sturridge and Suarez are reunited, and Gerrard is back spraying his 35-yard passes all over the field. So, we need to continue playing every game as it comes, rather than focusing on the title and the benefits that comes with it.

Mignolet’s goalkeeping bloopers
If I’m really honest about this situation, I don’t think most of the mistakes were his fault, but indeed he could have done better. Some of the mistakes were as a result of woeful defending, it’s fairly evident, that we’re missing our ‘better’ two centre backs.

As a result of some of these defensive errors, Mignolet has come off the worst, as his confidence has taken a massive hit, but he has the quality to bounce back from it all, so we still need to have faith in him. He is much better than Reina, in my opinion!

Following on, we should let Reina sit on the subs bench in Barcelona, that’s what he wants!

Transfer window?
Personally I don’t think we need to do too much in this transfer window, as we’re not willing to overpay on players. But, going forward we do need to asses our right footed Centre-back situation. As much as I like Martin Skrtel, I feel that it’s time to make the change as he’s becoming very inconsistent, and as a team looking to fight for the title, this is something we don’t need.

Any other positions? I’ll leave that to BR, he knows more about the team than any of us do.

Finally, let’s keep supporting the team we all know, and love. Anfield will be the twelfth man, it’s become a fortress again. In the coming weeks, let’s build us a moat, to keep the bitters away. What I mean by this “Let’s destroy Everton”.

Thanks for taking the time to read this entry!

Nick Mason



If you’re interested in catching up with me on Twitter, feel free to! @MrNickMason you can also find me on Facebook, I would happily friend you. I comment regularly on the page.

Christmas 2013, the greatest present was given to the millions of Liverpool fans, around the world. A place for our Liver bird to sit, on the perch of the premier league table. Who would’ve thought it?

If you would have said to me, about a year ago, that Liverpool would have been leading the premier league going into Christmas, I would have laughed at you, and also asked what you were drinking. 

Liverpool have in fact proven that we aren’t overly reliant on one player, we’ve been without Suarez for the first 6 games of the Premier League. This is ultimately where Daniel Sturridge was born as one of our ‘go to’ strikers. 

Furthermore, we have proven that we don’t need hundreds of millions to build a quality team. LFC have built the squad for purpose, which is now coming to hit many football fans flush in the face. 

As our team has more depth than last season, the recent injury to Steven Gerrard hasn’t harboured us, in fact, it saw the team take a positive step forward. Joe Allen and Jordan Henderson came of age, and displayed to the fans all around the world that the money LFC paid for them was worth it. 

These guys have been at the heart of some of our greatest performances, Steven Gerrard will finally have to compete for his spot, he is no longer a direct name on the team sheet. This will be good for us. A little competition is healthy. 

Suarez touch of gold

Suarez has been reborn, since his return from his 10 match ban. But we must NOT forget the men behind him that supply him, the quality for him to turn into gold. This further highlights our claims that Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho are incredibly under-rated, as players.

Whoever made the decision to let Coutinho leave, at Inter Milan, for a low fee, was obviously drunk, and/or crazy. Coutinho will be a key player for us in the future, as he is at the moment. This season was always going to be a massive one for Coutinho, as smaller guys never usually last within the Premier League, but he’s doing a brilliant job.

Jordan Henderson has pretty much become the second Gerrard of LFC. As silly as this sounds, but it’s true. Henderson played almost identical to the way Gerrard would play, in our 0-5 demolition of the Mighty *Sarcasm alarm* Tottenham.

Can Suarez keep up the magic for the remainder of the season? I believe he’s only just getting started, he may have a top gear, which he is yet to shift in to.  Maybe with a few more purchases in the transfer window, we will have the firepower to aid him as best as possible.

The Transfer Window?

In my honest opinion, Liverpool need a new Right footed defender, as well as some more reinforcements infront of the opposition net.

I have heard rumours of Salah coming in to join us. This would be brilliant for our attack, I’ve not seen much of him, I also refuse to look on YouTube; last time I did that, Poulsen was signed by Roy Hodgson.  He’s skilful and would play perfectly with Suarez, as BR is looking to build the LFC team around him, this would be a brilliant move for us.  He has skill and vision, something that we need on the wing.

Elaborating on my defensive opinion: Although Skrtel eats nails for breakfast, and has had some brilliant moments this season, he has also let himself down by being inconsistent, this is something we don’t need as a football club.

Brenden Rodgers did the right in the summer, bringing in Sakho. He’s been an absolute beast for us. Hell, he’s even keeping Daniel Agger out of the team, I sense another swap in formation for us in the second half of the season.

Maybe BR has another trick up his sleeve? Who knows?

What can LFC fans expect for the second half of the season?

Who knows? But if we carry on, performing how we have been doing, and Suarez stays in white hot form, we will finish in the top four, maybe even in with a solid chance of winning the league.

Personally, I think we stand a good chance, many of the so called bigger teams have been poor in the first half of the season, and normally it all picks up in the second half of the season. We are generally a second half of the season team, as we were last season. Let’s step it up a notch!

With Gerrard, Sturridge and Enrique still to return from injury, things are looking incredibly bright for Liverpool, and us fans. As being a Liverpool fan is something to be proud off, once again. I’ve always been a proud LFC fan, always displayed the badge, but this season, there is a different feel. A fresh sense of optimism if you like.

Who knows where we will finish, all that we know is, we’ll be there for the ride. Top four is a definite, any higher, we’ll talk nearer the time!

If you made it to the end of the blog, I would like to thank you for taking the time out of your day to read.

Take it Easy.

Nick Mason

A Liverpool film company, Tabacula, have turned to the fans of LFC to help release their latest film.

Walk On is a documentary that chronicles the story of how the crowd at Anfield took the song to its heart and in doing so transformed the sound of football, signaling the start of a new terrace culture.

Fifty years later and in the same year that Bill Shankly would have marked his 100th birthday, Tabacula Films have produced a documentary charting the history of why Liverpool fans picked this song as their anthem and how the song has now spread the world over, sung in both defeat and victory. Director Ian Lysaght, an Evertonian, says: “Whichever team you support, you know the song – it’s now a worldwide phenomenon.”

The documentary is presented by Kelly Cates and the film features Liverpool legends Steven Gerrard, Kenny Dalglish and Jamie Carragher plus Liverpool Legends from the 60s, fans, musicians and many others.

Tabacula are using Kickstarter – a web-based way of getting creative projects independently funded. If people like the project, they can pledge money to make it happen. It’s a unique approach to getting the film to the fans.  Producer Jah Jussa says: “If we don’t make the target, the film will not be released in the near future.”

Co-Producer Dave Kirby chips in: “The only way we can now get this film out, in order to celebrate 50 remarkable years of the singing of “You’ll Never Walk Alone” by football fans across the world, is by self distributing the film and showing the big corporations that we are no longer dependent on them. We have to skip the middle man. We know that the fans want to see this film.”

Go to http://www.walkonfilm.com which will redirect you to Kickstarter, register and pledge.  It’s as simple as that.  A pledge of £10 will get you a DVD if the total is reached. However, no money will be taken until the full total is reached.

Follow the films progress on @walkonfilm

Transfer windows.  They divide the football community.  Some love them, with the drama they bring; others loathe that they carry on until the season has started.  I do prefer them to when transfers could happen all season long, but in recent years Liverpool have done so badly in them that it’s almost like it would be better if we did away with transfers altogether.  This time around we did a fair bit of business early in the window and I’ve talked about most of those.  Mignolet has been an instant success, as has Toure.  Aspas looks like he might have the skills to do ok, but needs working on his strength.  Cissohko has had a torrid start with that early injury, and Alberto hasn’t really had much of a competitive run, although he’s probably one for the future.  So would we be getting any more players in?

Just before the window closed, a reasonable squad suddenly started to issues.  First Sebastian Coates went out with a long term injury, then two new signings were lost in the same game with Toure and Cissohko both getting injured in the cup game.  Glenn Johnson then picked up an ankle injury against United, although at this stage there is uncertainty over how long he might be out.  Skirtel is back, but with Carragher retiring in the summer, it was either relying on the youth (Kelly and Wisdom) or bring in new players.  Rodgers went out and brought in two new defenders, Tiago Ilori and Mamadou Sakho.  Of course, it may be that the injuries had nothing to do with the signings.  It is entirely possible that we were already looking at getting Sakho, and we had certainly been linked with him.  The injuries, however, surely helped spur on the needs to bring them in.

Both of these two players are young and highly rated.  Sahko has played for France and he certainly looks like he could fit into the starting eleven relatively quickly.  From most reports he appears to be quick, strong and composed.  Of course, he is French, and well let’s be honest, Liverpool’s French contingent has hardly been what you might call quality.  Ilori may be another one for the future, but we’ve now gone from having issues with cover at the back to giving Rodgers a selection headache which is always good to have.

Now we were linked with a couple of marquee signings, which all failed to materialise.  In their place, we brought in another loan player, in Victor Moses.  Now, I’ve talked about this here before, and I’ve mentioned that I’m not entirely in favour of these.  What makes this even less impressive is that it is a player being loaned from a rival club, and that there is no option to buy apparently.  So, if he has an outstanding season, either we have to stump up the inflated price (or maybe even lose him to a club willing to flash the cash, which we did not seem keen to), or Chelsea will just take him back, thank you very much.  Sure, that outstanding season could be the difference between getting fourth or not, but then you’ve lost a decent player for nothing.  He does fill a role that we maybe lack out on the wings, and Rodgers does seem to want to bring Coutinho in the middle, but then we do have Luis Alberto and Sterling who could fill that role, and I would rather see them get the experience than a Chelsea player.  The only thing he brings in more than them is that he is a few years older and has that bit more experience.

Of the players that went out (not including Carragher), Pepe Reina was maybe the only one that might have been a regular starter, but he has been replaced by Mignolet, who isn’t currently wanting to play for Barcelona.  It was the right move for Rodgers to make in my opinion.  Andy Carroll was never really going to work in Rodger’s tactics and Stewart Downing elected to leave.  Now I actually was impressed with Downing’s improvement and he did seem to finally be adjusting his game to be more than just the bloke who launches it into the box from the bye line, but I also don’t think he’s going to get much game time with the new additions, not to mention he struggled to get the fans behind him.  Fabio Borini went out on loan.  Of course that is one striker gone and we’re not exactly over burdened with them, but then he really needed to go somewhere to get some playing time.  I’m not sure we’ll ever see him back at Liverpool, but who knows, maybe one brilliant season at Sunderland and that could change.  Assaidi also went out on loan and I’m not sure he’ll come back either.

So what do all those changes mean?  Well firstly it does mean that our wage bill has been reduced drastically.  We probably haven’t really improved the starting squad much, but then did we really need to?  We lost a decent keeper and replaced him with another.  We lost Carragher and replaced him with Toure or Sahko.  The rest of the park is relatively unchanged, except maybe the loss of Downing, to be maybe replaced by Moses. What we have done though is added some quality depth to the squad, except maybe in goal.  Brad Jones isn’t a terrible keeper, but the failed loan move for Shay Given would have been handy.  As I’ve mentioned above we now have decent cover at centre back, we have cover for Enrique and we do have Kelly to replace Johnson.   We certainly have plenty of midfielders and with Coutinho, Sturridge, Aspas, Suarez, Moses, Sterling, Alberto and maybe Ibe we should have enough cover up top.  Sure it would have been nice to get a quality top signing, but then there’s no guarantee they would have been a definite success.

Of course the key isn’t really just about what we’ve done to our squad, but what other teams have done to theirs.  If we want to battle for top four, we have to have made up ground on those other teams fighting for that place.  Man City and Chelsea pretty much continued their free spending.  The question is whether all those new players will settle in, and how much they can be kept happy throughout the season.  That spending will help them cover any injuries they might pick up.  Spurs lost Gareth Bale but spent that money on a number of decent players, players that we were rumoured to be going for.  At this stage it is difficult to know whether those three or four players will make up for what Bale gave them, but it does at least add to their depth.  What is impressed is that they brought in three decent players and still made a profit.  What a ridiculous sum of money they got for Bale.

Arsenal and Man Utd however struggled in the transfer window.  Arsenal looked destined to not be bringing any  new player in but then forked out the cash for Ozil.  A surprise capture but was it really what they needed?  Yes he is a great player but is he the striker or defender they were so desperately looking to buy? No.  United brought in Varela and Fellaini.   With the loss of Scholes they did need some bite in midfield, and I’m sure Fellaini will bring that but I’m just not sure he’s quite the sort of player United fans would have wanted.  Of course they do already have a squad that won the league last year, but the loss of Scholes will be huge, and I’m not sure Fellaini will cover that.

It is a tough one, as really we made up a lot of ground in January last year, with the signings of Coutinho and Sturridge.  We’ve started well, and of course Suarez is yet to return.  i do think that we have made up ground on Arsenal and Man United squad wise, and if you include Coutinho and Sturridge I think we may just be ahead of Spurs unless their new boys fit in well.   That should see us to fourth spot possibly even third.  Once we get back into the Champions League, and be back in the money that the competition brings with it, we might then be able to challenge for the top.  It promises to be another long interesting season though….

Last two games saw us win one nil.  Up next was United.  Would I be happy with another one nil…. you betcha.  Did I expect it?  No… not in the slightest.  Now that’s not to say I didn’t think we could win, on the contrary.  The thing is Toure was out injured, and van Persie has been known to be a bit of a nuisance.  However, we also had a man on fire at the other end.  The one thing I never thought would happen was for one of the teams to come away with a clean sheet.  How happy am I that I was wrong there…..

This was the first time in a long time that we’ve played United whilst ahead of them on points.  Here we were with a chance early in the season to pull away from them, and even the worst case scenario would have seen us only one point behind them.  As a result there was a slightly more relaxing feeling for me going into the game.  It was like I felt we could win this because the pressure was on United.  There was of course also the matter of Shankly’s birthday on the next day.  If there was one man that deserved this victory it was him,  Daniel Sturridge had a birthday too… could he maintain his current run?

Liverpool started the brighter, so brightly in fact that within two minutes Ashley Young had been pressured into losing the ball and Liverpool then won a corner.  From that corner, Gerrard’s ball was meet by Agger’s head.  Sturridge, who had lingered near the goal line then flicked it into the empty net:

United did have an early bit of a fight back but it came to nothing, and from there, Liverpool controlled the first half.  Some great football should have produced something better in the final third, but this time around it was also coupled with great pressure on United when they had the ball.  It seemed that every attack they tried to launch just petered out well short of any sign of trouble.

You kind of expected a reaction from United, and they did start better in the second half.  Glenn Johnson had a notable block from Young,  but it still took United until after the 75th minute before Mignolet had to be forced into any sort of action, saving from Nani.  Robin van Persie did have a chance late on but he wasted it.  In the end it just wasn’t the “onslaught” you might expect of United.  One nil down against Liverpool, two points behind them in the league and they kind of just fizzled out.  True some of that was down to Liverpool’s work rate but they were poor.  What surprised me more was that Moyes then went on to say that he thought that was the best that they had ever played.  If he really thinks that, then I’m all for him staying there for the long run.

So what does it all mean for Liverpool?  Well, the short answer is top of the league, the only team with a 100% record, and one of only three teams unbeaten thus far.  However, it is still early in the season, and I just hope expectations stay grounded.  At the start of the season, the expectations were low, the players went out there and just enjoyed their football.  As a result they’ve played some phenomenal football, and just lack the scoring touch, but the, Suarez is close to his return.  The real test starts now, can the players deal with the extra media attention, the extra scrutiny that comes with being at the top.  Can they stop from getting carried away?  I hope Brendan Rodgers learnt from last season, and doesn’t suddenly start saying we could win the league.  Sure that is the ultimate aim, but at this stage, let’s just keep playing this fun entertaining winning football.

The biggest concern now has to be the injuries we are picking up.  Toure is injured, Johnson could be out for a while, Cissohko might be out for up to six weeks.  All defenders… and to me that’s a worry as two of those have been regular starters…. would we be able to do anything about that in the last few days of the transfer window?  We’ll see in the next post…..

One game, one win, one clean sheet.  A great start to the season.  Now don’t get me wrong, I was as ecstatic as any Liverpool fan last week when Mignolet made the dream debut with a last minute penalty save, honestly I was.  However, for this week I would have been happy for fans to be asking if Mignolet was even in goal.  A nice easy week, where our front men clicked perfectly and our keeper got to sleep throughout the game.

Of course, the chances of that happening were unlikely given Aston Villa’s start to the season.  Sure they lost to Chelsea and were given some very dubious decisions against Arsenal, but they had played well in both games, and, in Agbonlahor and Benteke, they have two strikers that are capable of causing trouble for any defense.   Agbonlahor has the height and strength that is always a threat at set pieces and Benteke is on an astonishing period of goal scoring form.  They’re also a fairly pacy side, and our ability to counter attack and break away would always have less chance of successful given that pace.

So, would this be another nail biter, or would our attack start to click together? Would Coutinho’s quality finally be rewarded with a deluge of goals?  Well, let’s see…..

However, before the game starts, we should maybe talk about this week’s transfer news.  First of all, Liverpool confirmed the signing of Aly Cissohko on loan for a year.  I’m somewhat torn on these loan deals.  On the one hand it does give us a chance to look at the player before we sign him on a permanent deal, but then it all depends on whether a price has been agreed.  I’m not entirely sure on the Cissohko deal, but if there isn’t a price (as per the situation last year with Nuri Sahin) then I’m not convinced it is a good idea.  If the player has an outstanding season, the current “owners” are always going to bump up the price.  So do you want him to have an outstanding season, knowing full well you might not be able to afford him next season?  Do you instead maybe let him sit on the bench and thus waste his wages?  I guess time will tell on Cissohko, but as a player I have to say I like him.  From what I had seen prior to him joining Liverpool, he appeared to have pace and strength, similar to Enrique, but he also appeared to be far better at getting back.  Cissohko was named on the bench for the game.

The other bit of news was that Liverpool would not be getting Willian, and that it was down to financial rather than footballing reasons.  Again this is a tough one, I get that we have to spend more to attract players, but then from the owners point of view I can see how they would be reluctant to overpay for a player who may not fit into the Liverpool system.  I would however, rather Brendan Rodgers said nothing on this, as I don’t see that bit of news helping Liverpool’s cause in any way.  We are now apparently in the market for another winger, so that Coutinho can move more centrally, but then didn’t we just buy Luis Alberto?

So onto the game against Villa.  As per last week, Liverpool started by far the brighter of the two teams. They controlled possession from the early moments of the game, and they hassled Villa into giving away possession cheaply.  Enrique seemed to be the keenest to put in a good shift, maybe caused by the new arrival.  Not only was he working well to get into the attacking third, but he also came back to cut off a couple of rare forays into the Liverpool final third by Villa.  All around the park we were moving the ball around in great triangles but at other times you had Gerrard spraying the ball wider and switching the play.  Unfortunately, we once again just couldn’t seem to be getting it quite right in the box.

At least that was the case until Coutinho and Sturridge once again brought the dazzling magic.  This time all Coutinho had to do was not touch the ball, leaving Sturridge with the “simple” task of going round a defender, and the keeper, before lifting the ball past the two men who made it back onto the line.  A simple amazing goal:

It took until the 40th minute for Villa to actually really put some pressure on Liverpool, and that’s where the nail biting came in.  Villa were able to mount a few attacks which let to some set pieces that had Liverpool fans worried, including a great diving save from Benteke.  Shout out to the commentator, who claimed Mignolet had spreadeagled himself… I know that you’re paid to spout garbage, but spreadeagled? Really??  Still, that save meant we went into the half 1-0 up.

Now I have to own up and say that whilst I watched the second half, I really honestly cannot remember a great deal of the first twenty five or so minutes of the second half.  I do remember we played some decent football at times, and that Villa were more of a threat.  I even decided before the start of the match that I would post on Twitter last night so that I would have some “notes” to refer to when it came to writing a blog post, but looking back at my history it appears the only thing I wrote in the second half was “This could be dangerous” which I believe came after they won a set piece off Aspas.  Aspas looks capable of earning a few bans from the number of yellows he receives 

What I do remember is that around the 70th minute Aspas came off and Cissohko came on.  Now from there to the end of the game there wasn’t really a great deal about Cissohko’s game that stood out as marvellous, except on one seemingly innocuous run.  Now the run didn’t really lead to anything, and many may not have made much of it.  However, he picked up the ball, as he was running towards the side line.  A quick nudge past his man and he was off.  Once round his man, he was being pulled back but he managed to power past until the support came for Villa to knock it out into touch.  The only reason I felt it noteworthy was that throughout the match I had been fairly amazed at Villa’s pace throughout the park.  Johnson, Sturridge and Enrique all had plenty of chances on the counter to go clear but I can’t remember many if any occasions where they stayed ahead of their men on their own.  Sure they had the ball and the defenders just had to chase back but so many times they just seemed a great deal faster than our players.  Now of course this was around eighty minutes in, and Cissohko was fresher than the others but still, to go clear seems to indicate he may be even faster than Enrique, and to stay clear whilst being pulled does at least bode well for a) him being strong enough for the EPL and b) him not being keen to jump to the floor, which I can’t stand to see in Liverpool players.

There was, however, one final moment in the game.  Of course, despite my wishes to the contrary, it fell to Simon Mignolet to once again earn his clean sheet.  An attack by Villa saw Agbonlahor latch onto a ball forward, his header fell perfectly into the path of Benteke who went clear.  The last thing Liverpool fans would have wanted to see was Benteke with a clear chance with five minutes to go… and here it was, gilt-edged, almost on a plate, with the wrapping almost finished.  True to form, Benteke swung at it perfectly.  Lambert was already on the move, running dangerously close to the edge of his technical area, fists in the air, tie fluttering unchecked… and then it ended.  The celebration stopped mid air, and the tie fell back in place.  Mignolet had decided that one quality match winning save early in the season wasn’t enough.  He had decided to do this (made somewhat more exciting by the foreign commentary I feel):

Liverpool once again went on to win one nil.  Once again, I’m left hoping that I have some nail regrowth by next week, as I’m sure the encounter against Man United will need some.  Now, given the choice I’d love to see us playing fantastic football and banging the goals in, but let’s be honest, another 36 league games in which we win one nil, with our keeper pulling fantastic save after fantastic save out of his ar$e and I really won’t give a sh!t…..

Of course, there has to be some down to earth realism here.  Villa may have had a great start, and we may have made them look far more ordinary than either Chelsea or Arsenal did, but the two teams we have beaten are still teams we should be beating.  Mignolet has proven himself to be a worthy replacement for Reina, but our defenders need to up their game.  A better side would likely have had far more shots to show for it than Villa did, and I cannot see us keeping clean sheets if we keep being so poor against set pieces.  At the other end, we simply have to start scoring more goals to show for the hard work being put in across the park.   For now though, I’ll savour the fact that we have a hundred percent record in terms of points and clean sheets, and a striker who is on a fine vein of form at the moment.

Summer.  That long period of time that football fans hate.  When the league finishes and it is weeks before another ball is kicked competitively.  Every two years it’s made worse due to there being no World Cup or European Championships to fill that gap.  Well, as of yesterday, it’s finally over and the Barclays Premier League kicked off once again.

The setting for the curtain raiser just so happened to be Anfield this season.  Liverpool would get the chance to kick of the season at home, and their opposition was Stoke.  The glorious green carpet on the field, the red netting in the goals, the Kop End were all ready to start us off again.

Liverpool had spent the summer bringing in a number of new purchases, and the question for most fans would be how those new purchases would fit into the squad, if at all.  Stoke, however, had been ringing the changes from their end too.  Gone was rugby aficionado Tony Pulis, and in his place came Mark Hughes.  Would we see the same bullying Stoke from the last few seasons, or would we see a sudden change  towards attacking football that Mark Hughes seems to favour?  It promised to be an interesting curtain raiser, would it be exciting though?

Given the various outgoing players from Liverpool, the starting lineup didn’t really throw up too many surprises:

                                                                               Mignolet

                                                              Johnson, Agger, Toure, Enrique

                                                                 Gerrard, Lucas, Henderson

                                                                 Coutinho, Aspas, Sturridge

Sturridge was maybe the only uncertainty, as he was maybe still a little bit off his full match fitness; and Joe Allen might have expected a start, but for me Henderson is a far better total package than Joe Allen.  Henderson is far more athletic and capable of doing a job defensively than Joe Allen and that give Gerrard a bit more freedom.  With Coutinho, Aspas and Sturridge up front, the need for Joe Allen to go forward and get in the box (which he does better than Henderson) was less of a need than having Gerrard being able to spread the ball around.

Stoke’s team was mostly similar to last season:

                                                                             Begovic

                                                         Pieters, Huth, Shawcross, Cameron

                                                  Whelan, N’Zonzi, Wilson, Etherington, Walters

                                                                              Crouch

Four solid defenders with the two wingers capable of coming back to defend as needed, Crouch as the lone striker with support from the wingers and midfielders as needed.  Despite Mark Hughes stepping in, you wouldn’t expect the players to suddenly all change their mentality.  You would still expect a physicality from those players, and you would expect their biggest threat to come from set pieces and long balls into the box.

The match started brightly enough for Liverpool, with the first six minutes being all Liverpool and Stoke hardly even getting to touch the ball.  However, a quick counter from them saw them win a corner.  From the resulting corner, the set piece threat came into play, along with Liverpool’s inability to defend them well enough.  Crouch had half a chance which was poorly cleared, the ball fell to Huth who’s shot hit the cross bar.  Stoke then saw a couple of minutes where they had a decent bit of possession, but from there on out to the end of the half, it was back to being predominantly Liverpool’s game.

It was once again back to watching some glorious football, but lacking that ability to get the ball in the back of the net.  Some of that was down to Begovic, who pulled off some great saves; others were down to poor final third decisions; and one of those was Sturridge’s goal being disallowed, rightly, for offside:

Almost the perfect run, just slightly misjudged.  Twenty minutes later though, Sturridge was not to be denied.  A fantastic strike from outside the box, and as soon as he struck it, he was already getting himself set up for THAT goal celebration of his:

However, whilst Liverpool did control most of the game, there were the odd chances for Stoke, and Mignolet was forced to make a superb save just before the break, to maintain Liverpool’s lead:

The second half ended up being more of the same from Liverpool.  Some great moves were seeing the best of Begovic in the Stoke goal.  There was some fabulous build up play, with Coutinho once again shining with his well timed runs and great passes.  Sturridge and Aspas looked to be working well with both having chances; and Henderson, Johnson and Enrique all playing their part in the attacking part of the pitch.

With just over ten minutes to go, Liverpool won a free-kick some distance outside the box, and Stevie Gerrard stepped up to take it.  He struck a wonderful freekick, only to be denied once again by Begovic:

Ten minutes later, Liverpool faced their own set piece.  With Charlie Adam stood behind the ball, in perfect territory for the ball to be launched into the box, and mere minutes left on the clock, it was prime territory for a Stoke equaliser.  As the ball came into the box, it evaded nearly everybody, but Agger.  His flying attempt to clear the ball unfortunately also meant his hand was perfectly placed to meet that ball.   The referee waited to see if there was any advantage, but in the end the penalty was awarded to Stoke.  For most Liverpool fans it just seemed to cruel, and yet so predictable.  Dominate the game, fail to put away the chances, only for one tiny error to come back and bite them late in the game.  Mignolet on the other hand had only one thing on his mind…. Stoke had not scored at Anfield since the Premier League began.  Letting a goal in would destroy that.  Doing that on his debut even from a penalty might somehow statistically make him the keeper that let Stoke score, and so this happened:

What followed from there was what can only be described as, in the words of a red nosed drunkard , “squeaky bum time”.  Stoke won a couple of corners, which were poorly cleared, and Liverpool fans suddenly anxious for that final whistle to blow.  The fourth official stepped out with the board, with every Liverpool fan hoping for it to say zero, but three showed up, which later became four with a slight handbag moment in injury time.  Liverpool held on for the win, and with that they were top of the Barclays Premiership, for the first time in ages.

Man of the match was Mignolet, although Coutinho was a close second.  Mignolet has a lot to prove this season, he was a fantastic keeper at Sunderland, but he’s stepping into a bigger limelight now.  He has to fill the  boots of one of Liverpool’s best keepers in history, and this first game in the Premier League shows that he has what it takes to contribute to Liverpool’s success.  Coutinho would maybe have won it, were it not for the penalty save, and had Liverpool converted more of their chances.

A win is always a great way to start the season, and together with some of the great football that we saw it bodes well for reasonable season.  It is of course way too early to start the call for champions, or even top four, but a great start towards it nonetheless.  We do still need to be more clinical in front of goal, and we have to start working on defending set pieces a lot better, but it is still early in the season.  We are still apparently looking for new players, and it does seem likely finally the Suarez saga may have come to an end.

As a football fan I’m ecstatic that the season has started again, and as a Liverpool fan I’m happy to see us playing wonderful football and winning games.  I’m also quietly confident that this is going to be a better season than last year, but then it has to be.  Finishing seventh with no trophy is just not good enough, not when money has been made available for player purchases, without losing core players.