Liverpool FC vs. Cardiff City || December 21

We are coming off of arguably our best performance under Rodgers. It was a week of dreams for all Red involved.

We are on a 3 game winning streak. The golden sky is finally upon us after the soul crushing storm that lasted 4 years.

This is the first time we're playing Cardiff since the Carling Cup Final where we won our last trophy to date. It was a night of dreams. I remember it fondly and yet I still remember the nerves. I remember I almost had a heart attack and how my heart had sunk when both Stevie and Sir Charlie Adam had missed their spot kicks. For a second in my head I remember even giving up after Adam's orbit peno but I knew the trophy was ours when Kenny Miller missed right after that.

Cardiff are primed for a relegation battle this season. They are sitting 15th at the moment but don't look at all convincing away from home.

One interesting stat is that we haven't won 4 league games in a row in the league since 2010-11 season under Kenny. It's high time to change that I think and we couldn't have asked for better opponents.

This seasons form dictates we'll make a short meal of Cardiff but I hope the team don't get too complacent.

Same team please Brendan, maybe with some Agger flavor on top

The number one thing is to not think about the Tottenham game when going into this match. The players need to work just as hard and be just as sharp, formation and tactics need to be right and preparations done and not take it for granted that because we just trashed Spurs in London we're going to have it easy against Cardiff at home. In short, our feet must stay on the ground.


Things I'm most excited to see:
1. How does our midfield perform in the second game without Gerrard.
2. Will Sterling continue his fine form.
3. Henderson.
4. Suarez.

I'd start the same line-up as against Tottenham. Can only see a change in CBs if Rodgers wants to rotate our strongest position.

Yeah, first thing we MUST ensure that we aren't cokey. We will start with the same team as against Spurs but I would like some of these to get some minutes: Kelly, Alberto, Aspas.

Welcome back home Bellamy.

Now, he better not score against us, he has a habit in scoring against his former clubs when I see him play. :X

Will Rossiter make the bench for this game?

We have Man City 5 days after this, Chelsea 3 days after that, and then I think we have Hull "Tigers" 2 days after Chelsea.

We should try and get the result against Cardiff by half time and then rest a few. It's at Anfield, and Suarez will destroy their defence on his own (although I hope we play as a team again...). I have no real worries about Cardiff, but like Art said, we need to keep our feet on the ground and earn the 3 points. We're not just going to win them by showing up.

We lack depth in midfield with Gerrard out. Allen, Lucas and Henderson will need to have massive games against Chelsea and City. With a very congested fixture list and with limited depth in midfield right now, we should try and rest some of them. Alberto will have to feature at one point, but he's less mobile than Jonjo... so I doubt he'll start. Same team for me. Defence has finally found some consistent and we've managed to win 3 games in a row finally keeping a clean sheet after 8-10 games. Win this, and it's 4 in a row!

Cardiff's results against the rivals to top 4:

Cardiff 3 - Manchester City 2
Cardiff 0 - Everton 0
Cardiff 0 - Tottenham 1
Chelsea 4 - Cardiff 1
Cardiff 2 - Manchester United 2
Cardiff 0 - Arsenal 3

___

They can steal points off teams if teams get complacent. We need to turn up.

We can potentially be first place after this game week.

Arsenal and Chelsea have to vs each other, if they draw and we win, we go first.

I would start the same CB pair, no messing up there at all
Although I would start Alberto ahead of Lucas and play Allen further behind. If we need Alberto to start or play some major minutes in Chlesea or ManCity, it will be good to have him some more PL minutes.
Play more possession based football against Cardiff, hopefully it will be less tiring for players ahead of busy schedule in the end Dec.

Gonna go to 11th St. for this one

Dom, if you see this, any interest? PM me.

I would start with the same team that started against Spurs. Alberto (for Allen), Kelly (for Flanagan) and Moses or Aspas (for Coutinho or Suarez) to get some minutes.

3 points with no injuries or suspensions please.

Would be nice to get a win nice and early, and then watch the rest of the league battle.

Yeah I'm just hoping for a win, don't care for the scoreline or even the performance. We must take this opportunity.

screw all of you, ynwa says 'this is an opportunity to improve our performance even further'

We SHOULD continue to progress under the pass and move game we played from last season. We play like that, and we'll win.

We played it at the end of the 20 minutes against West Ham, played it against Spurs (where they were poor and people are over exaggerating quality but we WERE good, not 5-0 good, but a solid 2 or 3-0 was on the cards before the card) so I hope we continue it here.

No idea what Rodgers was thinking in the first 5-6 months when he decided to drop it to implement something that DIDN'T suit the players at the club. Keep in mind every "top" club is suffering from problems in their squad and have dropped points. We could of exploited that but we didn't.

Anyway, back to the Cardiff game.

Mackay looks set to be under pressure from the chairman. That can either way really. They can turn up and the players can win for Mackay and for what he's done for the club / fans, or they'll bottle it under pressure and Luis Suarez will be responsible for 3 separate managers getting sacked this season. We'll soon find out.

*bleep* systems in every thread

I would've preferred that Mackay was sacked before this game rather than after. Now that he's still there the players might put up a real fight for him.

I agree with McAgger, I don't care about the performance or scoreline right now, just three points one way or the other to make it that little bit easier going to those Chelsea and Manc City games

Why am I not comfortable for this game...


Almost everything is pointing towards a win for us. Our home form, Suarez form, new contract, last week...Cardiff's away record and turmoil.

usually, in those situations the unthinkable happens. hopefully not tomorrow

Need to play it like a cup final, no complacency. Get an early goal and I can see another rout. I'm a little nervous but man the reward is top of the table if we win. Should be a real good motivation for the players to do anything to get a win.

-Have not met in the league since December 19th 1959 when Cardiff beat Liverpool 4-0 at Anfield.

-Luis Suarez has scored 27 goals in 25 PL games in 2013.
-Last year (2012) RvP was top scorer with 27 in 39 games.
-18 of Luis' 27 goals have come at Anfield.

-LFC has scored 39 goals in 16 games this season; the last time they had as many was in the title-winning 87-88 season. (It's our league to lose if we fix the defence and bring in a number 10.)

-Cardiff haven't won consecutive top-flight games since April 1963.

Confirmed Lineup

Mignolet, Johnson, Skrtel, Sakho, Flanagan, Lucas, Allen, Hendo, Sterling, Coutinho, Suarez

looks like a hard fought victory to me today

same line up as against the spurs......should be fun to watch

same line up as against the spurs......should be fun to watch

Makes sense to keep the same XI as in our best performance of the season so far.

They've replaced Campbell with a midfielder, I guess they'll play 4-5-1 and just sit deep in there, but we should have what it takes to open them up.

I would have played Alberto instead of Lucas