From Liverpoolfc.tv: Emile Heskey replaces John Arne Riise in the Liverpool team for this afternoon's Anfield clash with Southampton. Heskey is likely to start on the left side of midfield in place of Riise, who is relegated to the substitute's bench after playing 90 minutes for Norway in midweek. Team: Dudek, Xavier, Henchoz, Hyypia, Traore, Murphy, Hamann, Gerrard, Heskey, Owen, Diouf. Subs. Kirkland, Smicer, Cheyrou, Riise, Carragher
GOAL! Low cross by Heskey finds Diouf. 1-0 to the Reds in the third minute. Maybe this three-striker thing does work.
Goal Disallowed Murphy hits the bar with a free kick; it bounces out to Owen who puts in. He is ruled offsides, I think, and the goal is disallowed.
Top of the Table! Or so I'm told by someone at work who didn't know until two minutes ago NOT to tell me the results of matches I might be taping. Obviously, the table is pretty meaningless this early. Just ask Bolton from last year and Leicester City from the year before. Still, 6 points after 2 matches is about as well as you can do, last I checked.
Playing Heskey on the left wing worked out very well today, I thought. He created real opportunities and put in some great crosses. Southampton were no pushovers, but we completely controlled this match. A good victory. We need to win these kind of matches in that manner in order to win the league.
Walk on! First game I've been able to see: Boys, we're serving notice on the rest of the Prem - no longer can you just expect the Reds to just sit back and defend after a lead, they are gonna shut ya down and look for the quick counter. Murph was all over the place, Emile was involved in setting up Diouf's strikes, liked Traore at the LB spot - didn't get foward as much as I would like to see, but held down the left side pretty well. I'm just excited that I saw a team that looked dynamic in the attack. YNWA.
Just means that the Reds won't have to rely on just Michael for goals, and the depth will allow them to weather the rugged CL schedule.
Beeeeyyyyyyooooouuutttttteeeeffffuuuullllll A full frontal assault on Paul Jones. Poor fellow. Serving notice indeed, despite it being early on. It was encouraging to see even late in the game that the subs who came on went for the jugular. Full match reports at www.LFC365.com
luck, pure luck to be the saints! *smirk* Alright, maybe not. I've got to see Diouf play twice now. Maybe Houillier wasn't completely mad in buying him. Although I the boy better learn to stay on his feet a bit more before he gets a reputation for diving.
unfortunately i fear it is a little too late for diouf's rep, but as long as he keeps scoring the goals we won't care what others think of him really.
Great game for LFC. Man of the match had to be Diouf. I was impressed with how far back the African forward played. Diouf was as much a part of the midfield as he was with the forwards which helped a lot. Nice to see the frenchman get the start in the back, although he didn't do much to impress either. The limited time he saw the ball at his feet he did well, however he did track forward a little too much, even overlapping Heskey which is a bit too much for me. Heskey did another nice job but time and time again I still think Jari would add a little something that Emile just can't. I'm not knocking Heskey but I think Jari is everything Heskey is with a touch more magic. The midfield would flow like a fine bottle of wine if it had little Steven,Jari,Hamann, and Murphy. Heskey truly belongs up front , he gets the job done wherever he plays which is invaluable, but to me especially this season we have depth in every department that should put emile back to the wing or striker role. Respect has to be given to Southhampton. They played very well and showed to me that relegation might be one word not in their vocabulary this season if everyone stays healthy. Soton did well but LFC just played flawless today, not a single big mistake from the boyz in red and for that we came out 3 up. Sorry not to see Le Tiss anymore..always nice to see him perform some sort of small miracle. Finally.... I would of liked to of seen Bernard finish off his penalty chance. Although I think GH gave Murphy the chance for a job well done today.
Note how most our best offensive performances recently (Newcastle, Roma and Blackburn last season, yesterday) have been with Heskey as a third forward or left-mid. When Heskey is just a target man the team resorts to Route 1, and he's not nearly as effective. But on the left he is able to run at defenders and use his pace. This opens up the field considerably which, as we all know, has been our biggest offensive problem over the past few years. Look for this to continue at home and revert back to the more conservative play on the road. Dave
there is nothing wrong with exaggerating a foul. can wait for roy keane to foul him, and its LFC 5, 10 man man utd 0
I thought we played really well to beat Southampton on the weekend 3-0. Emile Heskey played a great game and it was good to see El Hadji Diouf get himself on the scoresheet for the first time for Liverpool with 2 goals. Go mighty Reds!! SeinDude
Heskey reminded me of Stan Collymore today. The old Collymore, vintage 1996 or so. Emile was all over the left hand side, whipping in crosses, cutting inside on the dribble. Very effective. Stan to Fowler..... and now Heskey to Diouf. "The Diouf, The Diouf, The Diouf is on Fire." I do have one concern after watching two matches so far. Henchoz and Xavier are both too slow to be paired next to each other. Stephane has made a career of good positioning and reading the game well enough to hide his lack of speed, and I suppose Abel is doing the same. Against left sided players like Giggs, Duff, and some of the other quick left mids and forwards, we will have some problems. I don't know that Marcus is much quicker, so perhaps we'll just have to make it work.
Southampton EW The first home game of the season is always a bit of an odd occasion. Expectation reigns, of course and people wear a smile of satisfaction as they get back into the groove of the pre-match rituals we all hold dear. Installed in my Anfield local, the Oakfield, for the customary looseners before the game, we were treated to some outrageously enjoyable football from Maine Road, as the big screen relayed the action served up by Keegan’s City side. Come match time at Anfield, the scene set in the Oakfield seemed initially to have set the pattern for the day. Just three minutes in, Heskey collects Gerrard’s glorious long diagonal ball and, despite the customary lack of control on the first touch, he bursts past Telfer and all Diouf really had to do was run into the perfect cross Emmo sent over. We were off, Diouf was off, all was well and this was going to be fun! Sadly, this failed to transpire. The expected 4-3-3 formation was far more lively and threatening than our home formation of last season and in Diouf we have that vital spark of unpredictable menace that we have so sorely lacked so very often. But within 10 minutes of the early goal having hit, we had reverted to the usual form - two lines of four, immovable, controlled, steadfast, just watching Southampton play pointless possession football in front of them. Had the Saints not lacked ANY form of cutting edge, they may have profited from their neat approach play, but as it was the defence had more or less no trouble containing the lightweight problems posed by Pahars and Co. Which is mainly down to Sami Hyypia, of course. What a pleasure it is to watch a player who performs his role with such unerring consistency and comfort, for whom the defender’s play is so clearly an artform to be practised with the greatest love. The man is awesome. We’ve become so used to Hyypia being easily the best centre-half in Britain that we sometimes fail to stop and admire the beauty we have the privilege of watching. Sami Hyypia defending IS a beautiful sight. It’s the beautiful game, nothing less. Indeed, according to a friend who attended the post-match press conference, Gordon Strachan called his performance “one of the finest centre-half display I have ever seen”. He did so unprompted. Also, Stephane Henchoz has changed his game slightly. I’m not just talking about the gobsmacking sight of him in the opposition half (I had to look to twice to make sure it was him), but also his overall mobility. He and Sami have always portioned off their work in a way that see’s Henchoz flinging himself at stuff whereas Sami stays on his feet and patrols their space behind the initial challenges, but Stephane has seemingly added another dimension to his role - he now intercepts much higher up the pitch, on two occasions actually swapping positions with Gerrard for a moment or two as he cleared up a loose ball. Greater tactical mobility is the one thing we have yet to fully develop and the early signs are that this fact dictates what is top of Houllier’s “To Do” list this season. Encouraging stuff. Diouf was a bag of tricks, as others have mentioned, and his goals were both poacher’s goals, an encouraging fact when you consider the lack of presence Heskey and Owen often have right in front of goal. He and Emmo seem to have gelled well. The latter may not stay satisfied with the wider role indefinitely, but then the likely introduction of Bruno Cheyrou for home games later in the season will probably move him inside for a straight scrap with Diouf anyway. All in all, a professional enough display, if by no means fizzing with the sort of aggressive, lethal intent that must be our ultimate aim as a team.