Neymar Who?

To borrow the words of Chris Sutton, it seems a long way now since the pain in the Ukraine. What an opening night at Anfield to the Champions League. If you were a neutral it was one to enjoy. If you're a Liverpool fan it was one to enjoy, for the most part! If you were Neymar maybe one to forget. How good was Trent? Apart from a moment in the first few minutes, Neymar was hardly seen. Up until he scored, Mbappe was hardly seen thanks to Andy Robbo putting in a great display tracking back as well as been a threat going forward. Sturridge gets a goal he's really showing he's turned a corner and ready to have an important input to the season. We were comfortably winning, the first PSG goal could be argued that Cavani interfered with play and was off-side but Meunier put it away well and Mbappe equalised with nice strike too. Not much Alisson could do about either. Apart from that we looked good all over the pitch. Milner was quality all over as was Gini who won the penalty that Milner put away. We were on top for the most part and thankfully Firmino seems to have find an eye for goal (pun intended!) He came off the bench after overcoming an eye injury from the Spurs game. His left eye looked have shut but he some how managed to strike the ball between about 6 PSG bodies into the corner for a last minute winner. 6 wins from 6 now in all competitions. Having conceded that 2nd goal I was so happy with our response, Trent bombed forward and looked well up for it and looked like they weren't going to take the draw. The players wanted the win and they went for it, just a brilliant attitude to see all round. Just on last thing on Salah, he didn't have his best match, yes he made a couple of sloppy passes on leading to PSG's 2nd goal, however his tracking back to help out Alexander-Arnold was brilliant, he was unlucky to have his goal dis-allowed and I don't believe he threw his bottle in a huff. If you see the whole clip he put his hands up in celebration when Firmino scored the threw the bottle to the ground in what I took as a sign of relief that we got the 3 points. Onto Southampton in the league, I can't wait long may it continue! 

YNWA

The Green side of The Red & Green

So where to begin then? The international break is upon us and the first chance to write about the Ireland National team. Too be honest, is there even a point? Not sure there's many positives to take out of the last few weeks. A 4-1 defeat to Wales just topped it all off. We're probably all feeling the same, although I'm not not 100% gone on calling for O'Neill's and Keane's heads. The problem goes a lot deeper into the FAI than that. I feel a whole overhaul needs to happen, on grassroots level up. From coaching kids to the League of Ireland right through to the national team. You only have to look at what happened with Bray Wanders to see that the FAI are a bit of a shambles. If we can get the basics correct maybe then we can start building for the future, I don't see any or much success happening on an international level otherwise. 

Hopefully Declan Rice decides to stay with us and a lot of people are up in arms about this but who could blame him if it opens up more opportunities for him? Also he grew up in a different generation to the likes of Kilbane who grew up with so much Irish influence. Rice on the other hand which ever way we'd like to look at it is English, unfortunately! 

There's also a lot of talk about us not having enough premier league players but the the whole back 4 against Wales are premier league players as well as Hendrick and ok,Walters is no longer in the top flight but he has a lot of experience. We just don't seem to have to right organisation or the best quality to move too far forward for the foreseeable. So as I said already I don't see too many positives until something happens on deeper level within the FAI.

Here's to the return of the premier league next weekend. It can't come quick enough for me!

Premier League Match Day 4 - Leicester City - Post Match

Well not too much to talk about with this one. We'll get to the obvious Alisson talking point, but first the highs. 12 from 12 and our best start to a season since 1990. One change to starting line up from Klopp for this one with Hendo coming into the mid-filed for Keita. One of the big things is that although our front three haven't fully got going 2 of them still scored today. Mane opened the scoring at 10 minutes with his 4th goal in 4 games and Firmino got his goal count off the mark with a nice header from a Milner corner on the stroke of half-time. Salah missed a sitter in the first 3 minutes from a rebound of a Firmino strike. So the front 3 then not fully firing, it's a positive that although they haven't fully got going yet, in 4 games, Mane has 4 goals, Salah 2 goals 2 assists and Firmino 1 goal 2 assists, not a bad turnout, once they get fully going we know what these 3 can do and I CANNOT wait. Once again though it felt like another great result from a performance where we weren't fully at our best. Shall we talk about the Leicester goal then? A lot of so-called fans on twitter where jumping on this one and giving Alisson some flack. Yes it's a terrible mistake and awful way to concede the first goal of the season, however, we know what type of goalkeeper Alisson is and we've seen glimpse's of what could happen. I'm just glad this has happened now, early in the season when we're 2-0 up and still win the 3 points. After the match he came out and aknowledged the mistake. Speaking to ESPN he said "Obviously, I won't be stupid to make the same mistake. We have to learn from our mistakes. But it's part of my game, I won't be arrogant in saying that I will keep doing this. We have to learn from our mistakes."

Klopp wasn't too happy either after the match, saying "It was always clear it would happen. It needs to happen so that it will not happen again. Football is a game where a lot of mistakes happen but that was a big one."

However we can take some positives that after the goal was conceded. Liverpool tightened up, VVD took on a no-nonsense approach and pretty much cleared everything. Although from a fan point of view we were nervey, Leicester actually only had one shot after the goal and that was a 20 yarder from N'didi.

I hope now that Alisson has learnt from this and it won't cost us going forward. Liverpool are going to need him at his best for the next run of games.

With the run - in of matches after the international break, these 12 points may turn out to be very important for us. We play the other 3 teams currently in the top 4, with Champions League and Carabao Cup fixtures in between, as well as coming up against Southampton at home who are never an easy match for us. If we can get 10-12 points from 15 in the league we should be sitting in a pretty healthy position. Time will tell by the end of October,  how our squad dept truly is looking and how much of a contender for the title, Liverpool really will be this season. 

For now though, we can enjoy sitting top of the the table, with 4 wins from 4.

YNWA

Premier League Match Day 3 - Brighton - Post Match

The 2nd home game of the season ended in a 1-0 win for the reds, thanks to Salah's strike. This is one of those games that in previous season's we could have dropped points in. We weren't at our best but thankfully held on for the 3 points. Capitalising on City's draw to Wolves to bring us to the top of the league, taking 9 points from 9 and yet to concede a goal. The difference this time out to the fact of having a top class goalkeeper and centre back. Alisson making a superb save in the 88th minute was a match winner. VVD's leadership and quality is clearly helping Gomez progress and that partnership continues to blossom. As for the full-backs, Robbo could well have been man of the match with some brilliant runs down the wing and dangerous ball into the box which Firmino was unlucky not to score from early on. Yet again though it was Milner's will to close down and win the ball back which led to start of the built up play to the goal, Salah striking beautifully to score his 29th goal in 29 games at Anfield. Thankfully Anfield is becoming a bit of a fortress for us, unbeaten now in 23 games, having not conceded a goal since February at home an unbelievable record that I hope I haven't just jinxed! It's early days but we should be optimistic that we can now pull results out of the bag when not at our best and keep the pressure on City when they drop points. Next up we're away to Leicester on of our so called bogey teams, however the man that always seems to score against us, Jamie Vardy is suspended so hopefully we can do the business yet again.

YNWA

TEAM NEWS UPDATE!!! Premier League Match Day 2 - Crystal Palace

Qucik update on the below post. With 1 hour to go until kick-off it looks like my first predictions were wrong and Klopp has decided to stick with the same starting 11 as opening day. With an 8 day break between games it's probably of no real surprise. Mignolet makes the bench with it looking like Karius heading for the exit having agreed terms for a TWO-year loan spell at Turkish side Besiktas. Full side for tonight's game below.

Image taken from LiverpoolFC official Instagram page.

Premier League Match Day 2 - Crystal Palace

Here we are then about 2 hours out from our first Monday night clash of the new season and I reckon it'll be a tough one away to Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park. Match 2 and it's already a must win one, if we want to keep up with City after their empathic 6-1 win over Huddersfield yesterday. We won well against West Ham on opening day but I do feel Palace may be a little harder to break down. Lets get straight into the possible line up. My thoughts are that Klopp may make one or two changes to what we seen last time out. We could be surprised to see Clyne slot in at right back, he had a great pre-season and this could be a good game to continue to keep some match fitness especially with Trent not having as much of a pre-season due to the World Cup. I do think Trent will be the number 1 choice in that position this season. His disruption is 2nd to none and he's really grown defensively in the last 12 months, long may it continue. Apart from Clyne coming in, I think the remainder of the back 5 will remain in place, obviously Alisson in goal, Robbo at left back and perhaps what may be a growing partnership of Gomez and Virgil at centre-back. The nice headache of Klopp is with which midfield trio will start, I feel Keita is a certainty he's such a dynamic, creative player and I can't wait to see him play more. I also think it would be hard to leave Mr.Reliable James Milner out of the team, what a work horse he is, fighting for every ball. That leaves one place which I think will go to Hendo, despite Gini playing brilliantly against West Ham, I think Klopp will go with his Captain to get some game time under his belt after his World Cup return. Up top picks it's self with the on fire trio of Salah, Mane and Firmino to bang in the goals. Which still leaves the powerful Shaqiri to come of the bench and the man with renewed form, Sturridge as exciting prospects to come on should we need them. With hope of keeping Benteke and Zaha at bay I think we should win by at least 2 goals to nil. I hope I'm right!

YNWA,

Emma

Introduction

So first article of my new blog - The Red & Green: Liverpool and Irish.

A quick intro before getting into the my thoughts on the Crystal Place match tonight. This will be a little bit of a passion project for me. First and foremost, I'm a massive Liverpool FC fan and I'm Irish, which explains the name of this blog. The plan is to put my passion into something and to write some articles and opinions about Liverpool football club and live in hope that this will be a season to remember. No matter what happens I'm sure it will be an exciting one. My other love is radio and also my day job so I plan on turning this into a podcast quite soon, stay tuned for more info on that. If you've any comments or what to get involved please free to get in touch. This is something I've wanted to do for quite awhile now, but for one reason or another I've kept putting it off. With a rare day off work today I decided to get writing and at least put this first blog out there. So ahead of our 2nd match of the season here it is. The Red & Green: Liverpool and Irish. I hope you enjoy my thoughts and the season ahead. 

YNWA,

Emma










Me and Stevie a few years ago.