Points Shared in Mersey Derby

 

Kuyt celebrates his goal which turned out to be the equaliser.

King Kenny returned to his throne at Anfield for the first time in 20 years in his new reign as Liverpool manager for the derby game. The atmosphere reflected this and for once there was optimism around the ground. The Liverpool team had two changes in it from the team that lost away to Blackpool, Maxi came in to replace Jovanovic and the most surprising change was that Jay Spearing came in to the middle in place of Poulsen. This meant that Kelly kept his place at right back and Johnson remained at left back. While Liverpool were still without Gerrard and Carragher (the first time they both hadn't played in a derby for nine years) but Everton also started without key players as Pienaar who was busy agreeing a move to Chelsea, Saha and Jagielka where injured and Cahill is still away with Australia.

Liverpool started the game as clearly the better side as they forced a number of saves from Howard the first of these after just 15 seconds, while looking quite creative at the same time. Everton on the other hand looked like they where going to try and defend the 0-0 for most if the first half and their only attacking play came from long balls from the back. Torres had the first real chance as Kuyt played him in and he beat Baines and Distin before curling a shot into the far post only for it to hit the post and unluckily bounce away from goal however the hard working Kuyt was chasing in and managed to get a touch but it deflected off Neville and over his own bar for a corner.
The reds where then deservedly in front after 28 minutes minutes though as Howard denied Kuyt twice when the dutch man first got a good header towards the bottom corner before he then hit a low shot from a tight angle and the rebound came back to Meireles who controlled it nicely before lashing it into the back of the net from the edge of the area for his first goal for Liverpool. A number of chances followed as Torres, Kuyt then Maxi all missed and the reds looked comfortably in control of the game all half and the blues didn't threaten apart from when Liverpool's nervous defence looked to give them too many free kicks and corners. The linesman down the main stand side had a poor game and seemed to get every decision wrong while the ref, who over ruled his assistant a few times got most of the decisions right in the first half.

Miereles celebrates scoring his
first goal for the Liverpool.

After half time the reds had to make an enforced change as Agger was replaced by Kyrgiakos and this somehow seemed to change the momentum of the game. Following the blues being wrongly awarded a corner as the ball was played off a blue shirt. Arteta took the corner and Distin, who had previously been marked by Agger, beat Skrtel to the ball and he headed it past Reina in the Liverpool goal to put them level less than a minute after the break. Things them got worse for Liverpool as following yet another long ball forward Anichebe looked to have jumped with his elbow and took out Kelly before getting to the ball. While the Liverpool right back lay motionless on the floor the ref allowed play to go on and Osman passed to Beckford who curled his shot past Reina before the Liverpool defence could get close. In that 6 minutes of football after the break they had seemingly thrown away all that they had done in the first half and lost all confidence and desire in the process. This handed Everton the upper hand for the first time in the game and Liverpool went back to their old selves again. They panicked when the opposition came forward and lacked confidence in their own ability when they had the ball themselves.

After not showing as much in the second half Liverpool managed to create another opportunity and when Howard brought Maxi down the reds where awarded a penalty. Everton may complain that Maxi was heading away from goal but it was still a clear foul inside the area and Dirk Kuyt stepped up to take it and slotted it into the bottom left hand corner for his 5th goal against Everton. Liverpool then looked to have regained some confidence but Everton were content with wasting all the time they could and settling for a draw. The reds then had other chances when Maxi was ruled offside and Torres had a shot charged down and the game ended in a draw.

While the blues celebrated the draw like they'd won the league the reds can take more positives from the game as they played much better, created many more chances and had more of the ball. This may not have been the result that they wanted but it's certainly a step in the right direction as the two teams both remained level on points. Dirk Kuyt was my man of the match for his constant hard work, his assist for the first goal and his calm and composed finish from the spot.

Next up for Everton is at home to West Ham and Liverpool are away to Wolves whom they lost to at home last month.