(A) Mansfield - Pre Match Thoughts

FA Cup

                                   Sunday 6th January 2013

                                                  Field Mill

                                     Mansfield VS Liverpool

It's that time again. A weekend where the cliche is king. The third round of the FA Cup and a chance for a member of the lower leagues to match up with footballing royalty. Being paired against a non league side, we are the giant looking to not be killed. Losing is unthinkable. Impossible. Football - and especially this competition - does have a way of ignoring those kind of things. But not today. Surely.

Losing the final last year and what happened in the aftermath removed the gloss from what was a very memorable campaign. A last gasp winner over Manchester United and a glorious come from behind victory over Everton in the semi final. These games and memories should never be diminished for those feelings of joy were a reward unto themselves  What happens now is that we create new ones, some that could perhaps burn even brighter and end up with the right result at Wembley in May.

There isn't a lot anyone can say about our opponents for fear of patronising them or trying to laden the occasion with insincere significance. The cup does provide these clashes of disparity and a welcome break from the monotony of playing the same faces week in week out. I may not know much about the club or their players but that's the joy of it and I'm looking forward to the game as it's a journey into the unknown.  Also, having played against lower division sides in the past and the disdain with which they have for us it's nice to see Mansfield show support for the 96.  A touching gesture and one which makes me think very highly of them.

With no game in midweek, the door is open for Rodgers to play as strong a side as he likes. The likelihood is that due to the nature of what we're expecting from our opponents - both in terms of mentality and conditions - and also the fact that a trip to Man United awaits next Sunday, that more than a few players will find themselves being rested. Gerrard, Agger, Skrtel, Reina, Lucas, Allen, Downing, Johnson, Sterling the list of candidates for omission is long. I expect Coates and Carragher to come in at center back and any number of changes around them. Wisdom, Pacheco, Robinson, Coady, all could feature pending the managers approval. Up front however is where we'll see the most intriguing activity. Suarez might want to play but will have to settle for a place on the bench. Today should mark the debut of Daniel Sturridge. I'm looking forward to seeing him and really hoping he can hit the ground running.

Every passing spectator who doesn't have Liverpool at heart will be hoping for an upset and though the task may be daunting, every tackle that's won and every chance they can create will give them hope. Regardless of circumstance it's eleven against eleven and as such the onus is on Liverpool to make that superiority count. I'm hoping we can do that early and often, purely for atheistic sake more than anything else. The longer the game goes without a goal the scrappier it will get. If we score quickly, we may score often. I can only hope that it's going to be as comfortable on the pitch as it is in my mind.

(A) Anzhi Makhachkala - Post Match Thoughts

Final Score: Anzhi Makhachkala 1-0 Liverpool
Anzhi Makhachkala Goal: Lacina Traore (45)

Losing will never be a good thing or seen as thus, nor should it.  As fans we want our teams to win every game they play.  There are always extraneous circumstances surrounding any match what with injuries and suspensions  it's just that the value of squad depth and rotation means that only exaggerates the situation.  We went into the game with not only an understrength side but also a change in formation that they'd have to get to grips with in order to conquer what is at present the second best team in Russia.  In normal circumstances, this would also mean doing so on their own turf but UEFA and their regulations meant this game had to be played in Moscow.  That being said, we were still the outsiders and would still have to do a remarkable job in order to take something from the game. So that we did enough, that we were more than a match for our opponent - albeit were never going to take advantage of that superiority - isn't that something to be positive about?

On what I was told was a mild night in Moscow at just two degrees, the opening exchanges would have done little to warm those playing or watching inside the ground. We were composed and quiet  making short simple passes to allow us time to ease ourselves into the game at our own pace.  Not that our opponents had any intentions of coming out of the blocks with any real tempo themselves, for they were happy to keep passing it around in their own half while we sat men in position behind the ball as it played into our hands perfectly.  Up front, Adam Morgan showed very early that he was going to be a willing runner and not someone who would stay rooted to the penalty spot and this helped us as we were able to push them a little further back as their defence had to be aware of his - and the subsequently Shelvey and Cole's - presence.

As far as chances went, Anzhi were far more willing to play the ball forward than they were at Anfield and as such created something early on.  The ball broke to Tagirbekov on the edge of the penalty area on the left hand side.  Whether he meant to shoot or was trying to whip the ball around for Eto'o isn't clear, but it was in the end neither and Jones picked the ball up with ease.  Because they were being very patient in waiting for a spot in midfield when the defenders had the ball, it allowed us to apply some serious pressure when they would try to probe further up.  Owing to the state of the pitch though that became difficult for both sides as passes were much more difficult and anticipating them meant to account for any bobbles on the pitch.  Tagirbekov's earlier chance was led to by a missed interception and a few minutes later Jamie Carragher came for one that he didn't meet but fortunately Brad Jones was on his toes and collected it at the feet of Lacina Traore.

Despite the presence of some very inexperienced players out there, we showed a great amount of composure and no sign whatsoever of any fear or intimidation.  The midfield was compact and organised, with Shelvey and Henderson doing enough so that young Connor Coady wasn't overworked and we were starting to get it wide and play with Flanagan and Downing getting more of a look in.  Thanks to an over hit Downing cross it was Flanagan who found himself with time and space on the right hand side but his return ball was cleared also.  Wild clearances like this were symptomatic of the fact that Anzhi weren't particularly protective of possession and as such constantly gave the ball back to us.  When we did get it back Jonjo Shelvey looked to be the one dictating it the most in the middle of the park as he was by far the most confident of the midfield three.  There were a couple of times Rodgers would have been wanting Jonjo to reign that in however as more than a few passes went astray and gave up any pressure that might have been building.

Because of the space we were guarding and weight of numbers down the middle, they looked to go down our right hand side with a few switches of play. Even when they did get behind because of the fact that we were playing three at the back one of them was always spare and could help out, like when Zhirkov tried to get around Flanagan and he held him off long enough for Wisdom to come in and take the ball. Moments later they tried the aerial route with Lacina Traore but again two came out to meet him and he rather easily gave the ball away.  Certainly if their plan was to target Jon Flanagan it wasn't working, he was looking particularly strong and determined in the tackle and on more than one occasion set us off on the break.  They were very weary of how much of a threat we could pose in this manner, as evidenced by Christopher Samba's hefty challenge on Joe Cole after Morgan and Shelvey combined to send him off down the right hand side.

Though they were slow and patient in their own half, Anzhi were showing far more than they had at Anfield recently in that they were actually capable of going up the gears somewhat.  Some good passing looked to have presented them with an opportunity down the right hand side but Downing was in position to cut the final ball out, which was important in that for the system to work both fullbacks had to do their defensive duties.  Downing had been a decent outlet and continued to show that despite all the criticism is continuing to do what's asked of him, even if he'll never be a world beater.  With the arrival of the twenty minute mark, it was evident that we'd not only gotten to grips with the changes in formation but also it was causing problems for our opponents.

A lot of the pressure we exerted in the first half was as a result of solid midfield play and good movement from Adam Morgan, who was relentless.  I've heard so much about Morgan being a finisher and nothing more - whatever that constitutes - but the few chances he's had in the first team show that he's eager and willing not only go into deeper and wide areas to he can receive or battle for the ball but also create space for others.  In fact, he should have had an assist to his name at around the twenty three minute mark.  Having popped up on the left hand side with his back to goal to be an outlet, he was then moments later on the right where he picked it up and slid in a defence splitting pass for Jordan Henderson.  At this point there were any number of things he could have done with it.  Certainly a shift of the shoulder would have left the goalkeeper for dead and an open goal, but one one one you expect a save to be made.  Henderson however had no intention of shooting and tried to play it back at an impossible angle.  Anzhi cleared the ball, having been massively let off the hook.

Having coped so well up until this point, Anzhi were becoming impatient, playing impossible through balls at difficult angles in hope more than anything else.  They did manage to get in behind briefly, having sucked Stewart Downing in there was a gap for them on the right hand side.  Fortunately Downing reacted quick enough to not only delay Logashov's cross but track him as he went behind, which allowed Stewart to come in and clear it as they tried to play it back to him.  Jones had been having a fairly comfortable night up thus far and after that break into our penalty area we one again set about keeping the ball and making short easy passes, frustrating them immensely.  This led to Jonjo Shelvey getting the ball out wide with time and space but his cross wasn't great.  We'd played arguably the better football but Gabulov in goal was equally as untested as Jones.

Nobody has more of an idea how frustrating it is when a side has players back behind the ball.  Even at it's most basic it's incredibly difficult to deal with.  Here it was good to see us using it for our advantage for a change, really having a solid wall behind the goalkeeper that Anzhi found no luck whatsoever in trying to break down.  Guus Hiddink was forced to concede one thing to Brendan Rodgers in that his starting formation and tactics had completely gotten the edge over his side right from kick off.  In changing Ahmedov for Gonzalez and trying to add more cohesion as well as a threat to Anzhi's play, at the very least we had forced our opponents to throw away their initial game plan.

So many of the wounds we've suffered this season have been of our own making.  Here it genuinely looked like Anzhi's only way in.  Wisdom's first touch let him down and forced him into giving away the ball.  From here Zhirkov was through and played in Eto'o on the edge of the box.  Even here there were still three our four Liverpool shirts in and around the box trying to get back at him but his shot was instant and the save from Jones was good.  Following this, Seb Coates looked to have dealt with the situation well, bundling his way past a few Anzhi players only for them to get it back off him.  There was a scramble of sorts in and around the penalty area but the eventually Downing was able to step in and clear.

At the other end, once again Joe Cole was finding it difficult to have any real positive effect on the game.  It was unlike his infamous League Cup performance the other week in that here he was coming up against a defence - Chris Samba in particular - who he could get nothing out of at all.  Such was his frustration that he at one point went down with a dive so laughable that the only thing preventing everyone the world over from condemning it was that English players never ever ever dive.  Their change of shape had now made it very clear that when we had the ball we would have to go through two banks of four but our movement was still good enough to work space out on the flanks.  The one problem with that - as we saw against Swansea - is that Henderson's delivery isn't his best feature and so his crosses were consistently cleared with ease.

Joe Cole meanwhile finally had something to smile about - on his birthday no less - being awarded a cheap free kick on the edge of the box.  From the set piece he could have even had the perfect present but he couldn't quite work the header onto goal from what was a very difficult angle with the ball behind him and having to stoop to make contact.  As the half closed we came back into it as an attacking force and looked very good, Shelvey finding space in between their midfield and attack as well as Wisdom putting a very good ball into the box.  Neither of which would ultimately come to anything but it was a sign of how at ease we were with the way things were going.  With all the good things we'd done in the first half, it was with more or less the last kick that we undid them.

A straight ball played into Lacina Traore on the edge of the box.  If you were being really harsh, you could suggest that if Carragher is closer to Coates, there's no room to play that ball in, but that's not where we went wrong.  Coates' missed interception is painful, with Traore in on goal and then Brad Jones comes out to make the strikers mind up for him instantly, lobbing it over his head to give Anzhi the lead.  We would have plenty of time to mull over it in the dressing room as this was the very last action of a half we'd - right up until the end - had a great deal of control over.

With forty five minutes left to go and a goal needed at the very least to take something back to Liverpool, the second half began a lot quicker than the first.  Both teams had upped their game with more active pressing in their half, which raised the tempo from the easy paced initial opening to proceedings.  Once again Adam Morgan was getting involved, linking up well with Joe Cole on two occasions.  Firstly a good pass to set free Cole on the break only for him to be flagged offside; it was a tight call and had the official let it go then he was in on goal.  Another chance came for Morgan this time with some good work down the left hand side culminating in Cole playing him through, only for the subsequent shot to hit the side netting.

Everything in the game had gone up a level, except perhaps the quality.  Both ourselves and Anzhi were guilty of not putting enough care on the final pass, which only added to the very fractured nature of the game.  That being said it was starting to get more open, with the more ferocious pressing of the ball there were also a lot more gaps to exploit all over the park.  Once again we were able to create something, the ball being played through to Adam Morgan inside the penalty area but he was crowded out and Shelvey shinned the rebound completely from the edge of it.  With all these half chances that were coming our way, Anzhi looked to get even more on the front foot and began playing balls over to Traore in an attempt to keep it away from their goal.  His general play seemed to get a lot better in the second half, especially the way he held the ball up for them and not only made it difficult for us to get anything going but also allowed them to build more attacks of their own.

Of the two goalkeepers on display, Brad Jones was the one being asked the more questions now.  Shelvey and Carragher were a little half hearted on the left hand side of the pitch and Gonzalez nipped in.  They played it across cross the field and eventually it came to Eto'o, who curled a shot right into Jones' grateful arms.  Traore moments later had a chance of his own to double their lead, playing the ball through the legs of an overly eager Jordan Henderson to create half a yard and then firing wide.  With the game very much still in the balance despite Anzhi having the better of the chances it was time for Brendan Rodgers to make some changes.  Suso came on for Connor Coady and Adam Morgan was taken off for Dani Pacheco.  What this did was switch around the midfield, allowing Suso to operate at the point of the midfield triangle but left two forwards in Joe Cole and now Pacheco.

In order for the subs to have any influence on the game, it would have helped if we could get hold of the ball to any great degree.  Anzhi pushed us back and forced the wing backs to be permanent fixtures alongside the back three and the midfield almost collapsed onto them.  Their pressing of the ball was relentless and we were unable to figure a way out of it with no outlet whatsoever.  Joe Cole did a lot of admirable running in trying to cause them problems but they played around him with ease.  One avenue we really had to exploit was the counter attack. Suso picked the ball up and looked brilliant in going past a few players, the first time we'd really seen it in the second half.  In the end he held onto the ball for too long however despite having players in space and was crowded out.

Dealing with such immense pressure on the ball, it really helped that one of the players being brought on was Suso.  Such a technically gifted footballer, he really made a difference in being able to play around the challenges that were coming in and around him and this in turn allowed us to try and threaten them some more as the game went into the final stages.  Everything centred around the Spaniard.  He helped keep alive possession on the edge of the box after they'd half cleared it, a transition in between Downing and Flanagan crosses who were now being encouraged to get further forward as opposed to being pushed back.  At the other end he was helping out too, tracking back and fouling Samuel Eto'o to stop Anzhi going any further on the break.  For all our building pressure however, it was our opponents who should have scored next.  Traore laid it out wide and continued his run into the box - something a surprisingly few amount of forwards do - and when the cross came in he met it powerfully, but it was at Brad Jones and he was able to get a hand to it.  If we were in this position, it'd be about now I'd be anticipating the equalizer.

It had taken far too long but finally Gubulov was being called into action.  Suso drifted inside brilliantly and unleashed one from a fair distance.  It was well hit and forced the Anzhi goalkeeper to save, but he only parried it right in front of Joe Cole.  Gubulov to his credit smothered Cole and made it difficult for him and so ultimately he wasn't able to make the most of the chance and instead of a goal we got a corner.  That turned out to be Joe Cole's final action of the game and most probably his final act in a Liverpool shirt.  Any anger I feel toward the transfer is not in regard to the player or the man, I wish him well on his future endeavours as come the transfer window he will almost certainly be away from Liverpool.  Someone who has just started his career at the club, Ousamma Assaidi came on his place as we looked to try and take a positive point to go with the performance back with us.

Another chance for Anzhi to wrap the game up, another one squandered.  This one was inexcusable.  Traore was put through one on one with Brad Jones and looked to have five days to make his mind up.  When the ball drifted wide it seemed like this could very well be our day and that they'd spurned too many opportunities to put the game beyond all doubt.  We pushed people forward now liberally and coupled with their now reluctance to come out and try to win the ball, the midfield was very thin from both sides and there were plenty of gaps outside their penalty area in which the game was played.  All their clearances were rushed and needless and we continued to press for something to give us hope.  A set piece just outside the box could have been that chance to savour something but Shelvey rather summed up our night offensively by hitting a free kick so wide it was in more danger of hitting the corner flag.

Hiddink had made it clear that his side were content to play on the break from now on.  Jonjo Shelvey was forced back to deal with one such break, clearing it to set us off on another attack before moments later Brad Jones had to come out and claim one.   Ultimately however, we created only one real chance of note.  Dani Pacecho found space just outside the box and played in Suso.  His cutback was met by Jordan Henderson which was blazed well over.  If the first team is a collection of players that suffer greatly from a lack of cutting edge and composure it's only natural that this fringe team would be dealt a similar fate.  Coady and Morgan battled very well and Suso looked like a revelation when he came on, further underling to his manager that he would be better suited in field.  The idea of leaving out our major players in this game given how tight this group is would have been a difficult one but ultimately what was necessary.  Also, things aren't bleak on that front either thanks to a favourable result in the other game so qualification is still very possible.  We now have the added advantage of having gotten something out of the group - albeit not the way we would have wanted - and rested all of our key players in what's going to be a tough game coming up.  Chelsea need to watch out for we have a record at Stamford Bridge of late and it's not the kind of record that they'd like to hear.

(A) West Brom - Post Match Thoughts

Final Score: West Brom 1-2 Liverpool
West Brom Goal: Gabriel Tamas (3)
Liverpool Goals: Nuri Şahin (17, 82)

Games in up competitions that will showcase and test the talents of our younger players already feel like they're going to be a lot of fun.  Young Boys last week was a case of absolute mayhem and once again there was a real sense prior to kick off that anything at all could happen.  The prevailing sense was that of trepidation, for West Brom were playing more or less their first team.  There was still hope however  that our young lads be able to step up to the plate and repeat their success of last week.

With our defence of the League cup officially under way, West Brom opted to test out our concentration levels by knocking it long early.  With Jamie Carragher up against a big strong Romelu Lukaku, it was going to be a long night for the stand in skipper.  It wouldn't take them long to find a breakthrough either.  Just three minutes had gone when Jordan Henderson's short pass off to Andre Wisdom forced the young defender into fouling Rosenborg.  The free kick was looped into the box and as Brad Jones came to claim it, an arm from Jonas Olsson landed in his face.  Unable to gather it cleanly, the ball fell to Tamas who had the easy task of poking it into an unguarded net.  Not the start Brendan Rodgers will have had in mind.

Early on it looked like this was going to get ugly, fast.  Lukaku was brushing off Jamie Carragher like he was one of those charity muggers that approach you in the street and with alarming regularity.  Carra managed to get a last ditch block in for his first attempt at goal but when the Belgian forward dragged him out wide, Jamie was left for dead before it came to Fortune who forced Jones into a save.  There had only been five minutes on the clock but we were a goal down and looked to be hanging on already.  Some possession of the ball was needed, badly.

Things weren't going well for us in the first ten minutes and the one time we did manage to get a hold of the ball it lead to a counter that Carragher was forced to snuff out.  It says a lot that of the two teams West Brom were playing the more fluid football but the fact of the matter was that we hadn't yet started the game, having been caught cold by that sucker punch (quite literally in Olsson's case) of a goal.  There were signs that we were starting to grow into it however.  Pretty much everything we did came down the left hand side with Robinson being a little sloppy but still trying to come to grips with the game and ahead of him Assaidi who again looked bright early on.  His trickery on the left hand side of the penalty area and subsequent ball into the box could have even brought about a sudden leveller as Samid Yesil nodded it just wide.  At the very least, the ball was as far away from our goal as possible.

The Baggies were full of confidence, especially in an attacking sense.  Whenever it was played up to Lukaku he would make sure it stuck and allowed other people to get involved around him.  In order to try and keep them at bay, those kind of balls would need to be cut out and it was impressive to see Nuri Sahin putting himself about a lot more than on previous occasions.  Henderson would have been the one in there as the more defensive type midfielder but Sahin was starting to get involved all across the middle.  Certainly a lot of our creative play revolved around the Turkish midfielder as everything seemed to go through him before it went anywhere else.  So it would come as no surprise that he was the source of our equaliser.

Ben Foster won't want to see it ever again, almost certainly.  For the first time really in the match, the ball was being channelled through the right hand side.  Downing went forward before playing it back to Wisdom and there was a real patience about our play as West Brom flooded the centre.  When it came back to Sahin  - some twenty five yards out - there were a lot of bodies behind the ball and these are the kind of situations in which as a defence you want the player to shoot aimlessly.  That his shot was on target was about as kind as you could get, but Foster wanted to reward him even further with the ball squirming underneath him at the near post as it looked for the whole world that he had it covered.  Both teams had scored and neither side will have been happy in the manner of which it came about.  Game on.

Just to compound matters for Steve Clarke and his team, no sooner had the goal gone in than Liam Ridgewell needing to have the physio on for treatment.  A combination of having gotten back into the game and West Brom being temporarily down to ten men, the high pressing that you would ordinarily see right from the off was now very clear and they were forced deep because of it.  Assaidi created a half chance for Dani Pacheo when his cross was headed out to the edge of the box.  The Moroccan winger looks like he could be a very exciting player indeed for us.  Without getting to carried away, his direct style and the ability he has to shift it onto either foot and go on the outside or inside will make it so that he's always going to be a threat to defenders.  Certainly has all the makings of a real impact player, and he was doing just that on this game.

With Ridgewell unable to continue, Craig Dawson came on to replace him and once again get West Brom back to a full compliment of players.  By now we had firmly grabbed the initiative and were seeing a lot more of the ball, Yesil and Pacheco doing their best to try and go past five players back was a measure of how the confidence was flowing.  Dani Pacheco has been one of those prospects for quite some time now and the feeling is that he's got to deliver sooner rather than later.  His trickery and technique are widely lauded but here it was his intelligence and industry that impressed.  Finding the space in between their midfield and defence, even dropping very deep to pick it up and get on with it as well as a lot of work tracking runners and putting his foot it.  All of it was very good to see from the Spaniard.

After such a joyous start, the home crowd was starting to get very frustrated.  We now had a real presence in an attacking sense, with Wisdom and Robinson forward it meant that there were always four or five Liverpool players in the final third of the pitch.  As such they had no time to think, let alone any room to manoeuvre.  Their midfield had been forced to come deep just as an option for those at the back to receive the ball so that when we did pinch it from them there were always a lot of West Brom shirts to get beyond.  Yesil was working very hard up front and looked like he had something about him in the way of persistence and close control.  At the other end Romelu Lukaku who had started the game off on fire had been starved of any service and with his supply line completely cut off we looked a lot more comfortable as a defensive unit.

Their frustration boiled over as we approached half time.  Youssouf Mulumbu recklessly diving in on Jordan Henderson, with his studs going into the Liverpool midfielder's shin.  It was an absolute shocker of a challenge that unbelievably went unpunished.  Play went on some time after the incident and by the time referee Michael Oliver got back to it, perhaps the delay worked in Mulumbu's favour.  Certainly it merited a yellow card at worst and could even have easily been a red.  Just to put this decision into context, Mulumbu did receive a yellow moments later for a challenge on Nuri Sahin that was barely even worthy of the name foul.  As far as some of the decision making we've seen with regard to fouls being punished recently, it leaves a lot to be desired.

Though our play on the whole was very balanced, certainly the fortunes of those we had on each wing could not have differed any more.  Assaidi looked like he could create something every time he got onto the ball and was a real thorn in the West Brom defence.  Stewart Downing on the other hand was practically invisible.  As far as I'm concerned with Downing this season, I have no problem whatsoever with him being used as an auxiliary left back in certain games and that will add a certain presence in the attacking part of the field.  Having him as one of the front three will only hinder our creativity up front however.

It was a half that had began badly and ended in frustration.  For the last five or so minutes there was something of a lull in our appetite and it's possible we were just trying to sit in and wait for the break but the Baggies wrestled some initiative from that and exerted a little pressure as the half came to a close.  There was one chance for us on the break with Samed Yesil, who was caught on the edge of the box but no free kick was given before they cleared it away.  It's wrong to criticise any player for being honest but it does seem counter productive that referees do not reward this kind of behaviour, instead ignoring it in favour of those who go down at the slightest touch.  Half time then and despite going a goal down early, Liverpool had come back strong with the game now level at one each.

As the game got going for the second period, it was clear that the West Brom players had the managers words ringing in their ears.  Right from kick off they were a lot sharper and pressed the ball as hard as they had done all night, but even then the first real chance incident was in their own penalty area.  Assaidi picked up from where he'd left off and left his defender trailing.  His cross was half cleared and the shot that came back in resulted in an appeal from the crowd for handball.  Directly from this Lukaku picked the ball up and had a run at goal himself as an indication of how much the tempo had already picked up.  This was all in the first minute.

One thing that is very clear is that these players despite some of them lacking real experience, there's a huge amount of confidence in the way we play the ball around.  For a good few minutes it was passed between defence and midfield with Robinson at the heart of the play, looking for an opening.  He was under pressure a lot of the time but kept playing balls into Sahin or Henderson then back to Carragher, all the while waiting for an opportunity to get forward.  In a flash we were at the other end of the pitch.  Robinson's pass to Assaidi was laid off perfectly allowing him to drive at the heart of their defence.  It was eventually half cleared to Yesil whose powerful effort forced a save from Ben Foster but yet again it was far from convincing.  Despite appearing to go straight at him  - much like Sahin's opener - the ball wriggled away for a corner.  Dani Pacheco had obviously been paying attention to this as when he received the ball on the edge of the area from the resulting corner, his first thought was to test the goalkeeper and his dipping effort just clipped the bar.  Wouldn't be a Liverpool game without hitting the woodwork.

At one point in the early stages of the second half, both teams were suffering from the same problem.  Romelu Lukaku who had earlier been pushed up right on Jamie Carragher and near ripped him to pieces earlier on in the game, was now coming deeper and drifting wide to try stop our midfield from cutting the ball out to him.  What this did is add another midfielder into the battle, which did help West Brom gain some more of a territorial advantage but in turn allowed either Robinson, Wisdom or one of the midfielders to double team him along with Carragher or Coates and as such made him less of a threat.  Likewise we had no real presence in the penalty area, although most of that is down to the inexperience of Yesil more than anything else.  It did become especially frustrating though as Assaidi continually had the beating of his defender only for no-one to be on the end of whatever he'd produce.

Between Lukaku and Assaidi, the game did become very stretched at times.  So much so that there were times in which we'd simply keep the ball in our half and ask them to come and chase us for a while, trying to tire them out and quieten down the tempo.  Conversely they were trying to force the pace on every occasion and this led to a lot of misplaced passes and an overall pattern of play that was very disjointed.  The few chances that we did create were now coming on the break.  It was clear by now that Assaidi had the beating of his man every single time and the game came to life whenever he was on the ball.  Dani Pacheco was also running himself into the ground whenever West Brom had the ball in their own defensive third and made sure they didn't have a moments peace.  He nearly scored after clearly having made his mind up about the night that Foster was having.  Once again it proved to be correct as the ball didn't go cleanly into the goalkeepers hands.  It was beginning to seem like a wonder he'd only conceded once.

In much the same way that some boxing matches tend to go through the motions a little in the middle rounds, so too was this game.  Both teams were content with throwing little jabs but there were being no real punches thrown.  Nuri Sahin was the one player in the middle of the park for either side who really stood out in terms of his ability to change the gear of a move, this both being a testament to his ability as well as him understanding his role in the team.  Their main threat was on the break and the occasional flurry of set pieces meanwhile.  Steve Clarke showed his hand a little by taking of Lukaku and bringing on Shane Long.  As understandable as it was to rest the big Belgian for the weekend, they could easily have left him on and gone for a riskier change in shape in the hope of overpowering us at the back.  They weren't about to go all out in search of a winner however, making the question of our ability to cut through them all the more important.

Time was running out in terms of finding a winning goal in the allotted ninety minutes and though West Brom were getting the ball in good areas it would fall down completely as they tried to play the killer pass.  Certainly pretty much every cross played into the box in the second half was like catching practice for Brad Jones.  A lot of the way in which they went about finding a winning goal was tired, uncreative and incredibly ambitious.  Most of the time instead of attempting to play it down either channel, or even drive into the penalty area it would be a ball fizzed in to the forward in an attempt to try and split the defence from about thirty yards.  On the few occasions it wasn't cut out, they rolled harmlessly back to Jones in goal.

One of the things having watched the game now and really paid attention that mystifies me completely is the balance of the team in spite of the fact that we only ever used one side of it.  At no point was the shape lop sided or were we caught out on either flank, but the ball simply didn't go near Downing for long periods of the game.  You'd be forgiven for thinking we were a man light again.  It was painfully illustrated in a five minute stretch in which Dani Pacheco injures himself clearly and then goes on to do much more positive work for the team before he comes off than Downing could manage in the entire game.  This isn't to say he had a bad performance.  There were only about three or four bad touches from Downing the entire ninety minutes.  My problem is that those were the only times I saw him touch the ball.

Into the last ten minutes and with extra time looming, changes were afoot.  Pacheco and Yesil came off for Suso and sixteen year old Jerome Sinclair.  I've said all my life that I'll know when I start to get old when the players I'm cheering for are significantly younger than me.  Sinclair is - only just - sixteen, born a whole ten years after I was, making me feel like an absolute dinosaur and in the process breaking Jack Robinson's record of being the youngest ever Liverpool player.

Whether it's coincidence or not, this marked the second time in four days that following Suso's arrival onto the pitch we score.  Both instances were actually set in motion by the Spaniard himself.  This time he had a more direct part to play, picking the ball up and running toward goal with it.  With everyone expecting a shot on the edge of the area, his shift over to Assaidi on the left hand side caught out their back line and the subsequent ball across was as good a ball as he'd played all game.  This left Nuri Sahin with the simplest of tasks to slot the ball home for his - and Liverpool's - second of the game.

Time was now against the home side.  Almost immediately Fortune hit the post after he brilliantly volleyed Jonas Olsson's deep cross.  Their frustration was now being sounded out amongst the crowd, but wasn't loud enough to drown out the sounds of the Liverpool fans behind the goal.  There was a whole lot of bluster in the remaining minutes but no real chances of note that in any way worried Brad Jones or the defence.  Carragher in particular seems to thrive in these passages of play where a side is running out of ideas and all he has to do is get something in the way.

We were a little too deep at the end as the fourth official indicated the three minutes of stoppage time.  It got very scrappy in the end with Jerome Sinclair way up the field doing his very best to make an impression but being closed of by the West Brom defenders.  An eventful game came to an end and progression to the next round was sealed.  Our defence of the League Cup continues where we have been drawn at home - finally - against Brendan Rodgers' former employers; Swansea.  Another performance from the youngsters at Liverpool to savour, it's becoming a joy to watch some of these kids blossom right in front of our eyes and really makes me hopeful for the future of the club.  A future that needs to include three points against Norwich.