Liverpool 1 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Dave Watkin:

No joy at Anfield

Peter Crouch scored Liverpool's 100th home league goal against Albion to give the Reds their eighth successive league victory against the Baggies. However neither he or the inspirational Steven Gerrard was man-of the-match. That honour goes to Albion keeper Tomasz Kuszczak who made a series of tremendous stops, which looked at one stage as if they might secure the Baggies an unexpected share of the points.

Albion defended well, with Curtis Davies and Steve Watson prominent, but with four of our most attacking minded players left out, it was no surprise that the midfield were largely restricted to defensive duties, particularly given our lack of pace up front. I was disappointed that Earnshaw wasn't on the bench, so didn't get an opportunity to try and pull that goal back.

Plan A, to prevent Liverpool from scoring, was executed well and almost succeeded but if there was a plan B it failed. There was no lack of effort and determination and if we field a full strength side on Monday and beat Villa, who can argue with the tactics?

TEAM NEWS

Albion brought back first choice left back Paul Robinson, but rested four regulars - Diomansy Kamara, Jonathan Greening, Kanu and Nathan Ellington. Back into the team came Richard Chaplow, Kevin Campbell and Geoff Horsfield in a 5-3-2 line-up, with Steve Watson operating as a third central defender.

HIGHLIGHTS

The game largely consisted of a contest between Liverpool and the "Pole in Goal" Tomasz Kuszczak.

Early on, an under-hit pass by Clement was intercepted by Kewell who thrashed a long range shot, which the keeper leapt and tipped over the bar. Next a cross from Cisse reached Kewell, but his cross shot through a crowd of players was pushed clear by Kuszczak. Then a Gerrard corner came out to Riise whose shot rebounded from the inside of a post to Kewell. The winger's first time shot took a wicked deflection but Kuszczak reacted quickly to make a double save, first pushing the ball into the air and then grasping it as forwards rushed in. The final action before half time saw a Gerrard shot straight down the centre blocked by the overworked goalie.

In the 52nd minute Albion fell behind. Wallwork was tackled just outside the penalty area and the ball ran out to the left wing, from where Kewell curled in a perfect cross, which CROUCH headed just inside the post.

Twice Liverpool almost doubled their lead from deflections. A drive from Gerrard was deflected onto the top of the net and then from a free kick Riise hammered a shot which took a wicked deflection from which Kuszczak, at full stretch, made a brilliant diving save. The final action for the Albion goalie came from a Cisse cross which Crouch headed downwards and Kuszczak saved with his feet.

The only serious attacking threat from Albion before the goal came after a great run out of defence by Curtis Davies, but his deep cross was cleared. After Liverpool took the lead Albion made three positive substitutions, Greening for Chaplow with Watson switching to midfield, Kamara for Wallwork and Ellington for Campbell. However, they proved too little too late as Albion pressed forward but didn't make a serious impact.

ALBION FORMRATE : FAIR

MAN-OF-THE-MATCH : TOMASZ KUSZCZAK

IN CONCLUSION...

Liverpool's home record reads: Played 10, Won 8, Drawn 1, Lost 1. They've kept a clean sheet in nine of those games, only Manchester United preventing them scoring, in a 0-0 draw and the defeat was 4-1 to Chelsea. Looked at like that we've done well, but what does it say about the competitiveness and predictability of the Premier League?

Kev Buckley:

I don't know if Bryan Robson is a man to make and keep New Year's resolutions but he had better resolve to do everything that possibly can be done to keep Nathan Ellington fit for the whole of the period that Kamara and Kanu are away in Egypt because - if Earnshaw really has given up all hope and burnt his boats by making that second transfer request last week - were Ellington not available, then we are now, as an attacking force, obviously running on empty.

Not that the potency of the pairing of Horsefield and Campbell was ever going to have much to feed off given the deployment of a back five and a midfield of Chaplow, Wallwork and Carter, but when your best offensive move comes from a run out of defence from Davies, then you know you have problems. Indeed, Davies' cross at the end of this run was possible even better than many of Greening's, a late but pretty-much token-gesture second-half introduction.

Oddly enough, despite the fact that Albion's eight behind the ball had the aging experience and bulk of Horsefield and Campbell to hoof it up to, they were often caught trying to play it out of a defensive melee made more crowded by the fact that most of the Liverpool players were being given free reign to adance into our edge-of-the-box areas making them all the more congested. Ally to that the fact that many simple passes also went astray and you'll get a rather bleak picture of Xmas away from home.

The aforementioned Davies was, as at ManU (I didn't see the Spurs game), once again excellent, except of course for the rather large blemish of probably (other end of the field) being to blame for leaving Crouch all alone to score the goal that put paid to yet another game that took the "festive" out of "the festive season". Indeed, given Ferdinand, who ghosted past him at ManU, and Crouch are hardly the easiest to miss in the box, it is to be hoped that what I assume was a simple case of switching off for those two goals isn't going to be the flaw in his game that prevents him developing to the full the obvious potential in the rest of it.

Excellent as Davies was though, Albion's MoM had still lapped him two or three times by the end, for, had it not been for surely one of the best ever displays of shot-stopping by Kuszcazk then the attempt to stifle Liverpool for a point from a 0-0 would have ended up with us merely trying to stifle them to under double figures to nil. The Pole-in-Goal was superb, one save in the second-half seemed to me to be Banks-like, the ball seemingly destined for the net having been headed down into his bottom-right corner. And if ever there was a game to put paid to the notion that the Albion management really want to see Kirkland back in goal at some point, then where better to do it than on the ground where the latter is also surplus to requirements. If Kuszcazk doesn't get into Poland's World Cup squad, and maybe even the starting team, after that perfomance then they must have some fantastic keepers to call on.

For all his efforts to keep it scoreless, Liverpool's goal, albeit coming after the half-time break in the rear-guard action, seemed all too simple as a player who looked like Kewell seemd to have all the time in the world to deliver a cross from our right back area and a player, who, even when viewed from the seating at the other end of the pitch was obviously Crouch, seemed to have no one near him as he headed what was, by virtue of it being the first goal in one of our away games, always going to be the winner.

True, Robson did switch from 532 to 442 when bringing on Greening for Chaplow but as this merely brought Carter from the central three to play as the ineffective left-sided attacking threat, it was hardly a huge change in approach - indeed it might not be stretching it too far to say that Paul Robinson's return, as a full back in the first-half five, offered more attacking option down the left than did DC's showing later on. Not that it saw him withdrawn, the other subs being Ellington and Kamara for Wallwork and, finally, Campbell. Hardly an act of desperation in a try to nick a point then.

Of course, if we can follow up this selection of the second stringers, young developers and has-beens with a result against the seals which matches the Spurs result after the resting of Kanu at ManU, then it won't have been a bad Xmas and New Year at all.

The bigger test, given that three points against Spurs already equalled my most optimistic Xmas expectation, will come once we lose Kanu and Kamara to the ANC and so, if you do have any cash to spare after forking out to travel to and see the away games over this festive period, I urge you to send it to the "Keep Ellington Fit Fund" as soon as possible, as we are going to need every piece of cotton wool we can muster to protect the only goal scorer likely to be left at the club, short of us signing a new one.

Oh yeah, on the Liverpool programme front cover I saw in the pub before the game, they had missed out the "W" in Bromwich. ankers!

tiger baggie:

Hello fellow baggies and a happy new year to you all.

A gutsy defensive display that fell just short but we will be fine for the upcoming Villa match. I am from Melbourne Australia and I saw only limited highlights of last nites Liverpool match but the evidence shown should be enough for us to stay up this year from well before the final game and we will avoid the last game dramas.

Anyway good luck to you all for 06 and lets hope the Baggies can surprise us and give us something more to cheer about with a great Cup run that might take us through to Wembley in May.