Liverpool Turns Another Corner In Its Ongoing Recovery
Last Night was proof yet again that Liverpool Football Club is on the road to recovery. Having experienced the shock of losing a certain lad to bitter rivals, Liverpool was playing Stoke at Anfield. In their previous meeting Stoke had walked all over Liverpool and became one of many horror stories that would mark the end of Roy Hodgson's reign.
This evening though, it was different, the King was back and in charge. The players were walking around with smiles on their faces but most of all, it was the evening that one of our new players Luis Suarez was going to make his debut. The other, Andy Carroll has a thigh problem and won't be able to do this for between 3 - 6 weeks. He was though introduced to the crowd and given the usual Liverpool Welcome by the Kop.
It had been muted earlier in the evening that Luis Suarez was on the team sheet, this of course was not to be the case. Before coming to England in the January transfer window he had been serving a long suspension and had missed the previous seven games. When the team was announced though, but it also spring a few more surprises, Dirk would be playing up front on his own and the formation was 3-5-1. I think you could hear the shouts of "What the" for miles but we trust Kenny implicitly so any doubt was soon forgotten.
The match itself started, with Anfield rocking. I don't know whether this was the result of resident disc jockney George Sephton's choice of music (I had several people tweeting me to say that he had chosen a strange mixture) or the welcome they were giving to new boys Andy and Luis.
It took Stevie and the team quite a while to settle into the game as they were unsure of Kenny's formation, but when they did the signs were there. They were not going to beaten by Tony Pullis's men this time and suddenly we had a football match on our hands. The lads were magnificent for the remaining 10-15 minutes of the first half. The defensive problems that were rife under our two previous managers are very quickly disappearing, which will hopefully help us climb up towards the fourth spot in the Premier League which suddenly does not seem that far away.
I don't know what Kenny said at half time or indeed if he said anything, but from the moment the teams stepped back onto the pitch, everyone knew that a good old fashioned football game was going to be played out in front of them.
Stevie and the lads were all over the place and on the 47th minute Raul Meireles scored yet another beautiful goal. The Kop erupted and with the sound reverberating around Anfield it signalled that yes hopefully we had another much needed three points in the bag. Stoke though were not going to give up and a short time after Pepe who had been virtually redundant made a magnificent save.
The best though was yet to come and around the 63rd Minute Kenny made what would turn out to be a great substitution. This was the moment the crowd had been waiting for. Luis Santez was about to make his debut. The Kop of course erupted into song and the lad received the welcome he would so richly deserve. He immediately settled into the team and with everyone's eyes on his every move, sixteen minutes later, after a bit muddle in the goalmouth his first goal for Liverpool Football Club was in the back of the net.
It was wonderful to see and with Liverpool playing their hearts out, the game finally drew to a close. This time though it was not only the look on Kenny's face that told a story. As the team embraced each other, Stevie also had a massive smile on his. It was as though a massive weight had been lifted from our captain's shoulder's. The team are now all pulling together and with two new goalscorers on board, he no longer has to be the man, who alone worked so hard to rescue what seemed impossible situations.
There is one thing that bugs me though and I know I have a lapse of memory occasionally, but who is that lad who had bleached blonde hair last year that everyone keeps talking about?
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