No Desire as Blackpool do the Double.

Taylor-Fletcher gets past Poulsen and Meireles who both had really poor games.

Kenny Dalglish took charge of his first league game as Liverpool manager in over 20 years and made some interesting changes to the starting team. Johnson returned to the team but was in at left back as Kelly retained his place at right back after an excellent performance in the F.A.cup on Sunday. Christian Poulsen came in to the centre of midfield and partnered Lucas, with Gerrard suspended, while Kuyt still out to the right hand side and Jovanovic came in on the left to replace Maxi. This left Meireles up front behind Torres. As for Blackpool, they also made a number of changes. Holloway changed 10 of the starting line up from the team who lost to Southampton in the F.A. Cup at the weekend with only Eardley keeping his place.
The two teams both started on the same points in 12th and 13th places in the league. With the league being so close both teams were just 4 points away from the relegation zone so both needed a win. With this in mind the game started off at a very fast pace and it was Liverpool who took the lead when Kelly played a great ball in to Torres down the right and the Spaniard finished emphatically from a tight angle to give the away team the lead after just 3 minutes. The lead didn't last long however as Meireles managed to lose the ball in his own half and Taylor-Fletcher was played in. The boyhood Liverpool fan then took the ball past Agger with a lucky deflection off his legs and fired a good low shot past Reina and into the bottom corner. The first half continued with chances at both ends but no one could capitalise on the poor defending that was on show.
The second half started as the first ended, with more chances at both ends but this time Blackpool got their shots on target as Charlie Adam continued to control the game, and Liverpool had captain Pepe Reina to thank that they were still level as he pulled off two good saves in the space of a minute. Torres then created another good chance down the other end but his effort was off target. Kuyt was next to try his luck as he saw a long range shot pushed round the post for a corner. In what continued to be an end to end game Blackpool had the next chance and they, unlike Liverpool, made the most of it. A cross into the back post was headed back across goal as Skrtel was beaten in the air and the knock down went straight to DJ Campbell who was left unmarked six yards out and he headed past Reina to give the tangerines the lead in what was another example of poor defending by Liverpool.
After the goal the Liverpool team lacked all the ambition and desire to attack and apart from a Meireles headed that went over they created nothing and Blackpool always seemed the more likely team to score. They were short of confidence and looked like a team who had only won one away game in the season but Blackpool had the worst home record over the same period of time. After Blackpool's first double over Liverpool for 60 years they now go 3 points clear of Liverpool who drop down a place. It proves that there is more that superficial problems at Liverpool and Kenny and his team will need to put in a lot of work over the rest of the season if that is to change.
Next up for Liverpool is the Merseyside derby where they surely the fans wont allow them to be able to show that same lack of desire.