Liverpool went behind on two occasions before finally killing off the game with a late Steven Gerrard winner as Bolton ended the game with 10 men.
Rafa Benitez handed new Greek signing Kyrgiakos his debut in place of Martin Skrtel. Albert Riera made his first start of the season with Yossi Benayoun switching to the bench. Ryan Babel was dropped from the squad.
Earlier in the day the reds substitute keeper Diego Cavalieri learned the sad news that his father had passed away so Peter Gulacsi replaced him on the bench as the player flew home to Brazil.
There was little excitement in the first half an hour as Liverpool were heavily man-handled by Bolton. Steven Gerrard was shadowed around the pitch by some decent man-marking.
When the reds failed to deal with a corner Kevin Davies was on hand to fire Bolton ahead.
Shortly after a Gerrard corner was partly cleared and Glen Johnson fired a shot in to the net to equalise.
HT: 1-1
Within a minute of the second half a long ball was flicked on by Kevin Davies and Cohen fired in the volley to give Bolton a 2-1 lead.
Liverpool were stunned, but this was the goal that woke them up as they dominated the second half.
When Lucas was on the receiving end of a foul Davis was shown a second yellow card and off he went.
Liverpool piled forward and Gerrard saw a shot return off the bar before Fernando Torres scored the reds second equaliser of the day.
The clock was ticking down and Liverpool were attacking the goal from all angles when eventually the ball landed at Gerrard’s feet and he fired in the winner.
Liverpool could have had another but Fernando Torres’ shot was cleared off the line by the acrobatic Jaaskaleinen.
The reds have scored 9 times in their first 4 league games, but conceding 7 will be the most worrying statistic facing Rafa Benitez – for a team renowned for their defensive strength.
Our Man of the Match
A constant attacking presence and proving himself a promising signing we have singled out Glen Johnson (Vote for your man of the match here in the forum)
Post Match Comments
Rafa Benitez:
“All our players wanted to impress and do well. Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, among others, knew they needed to improve.
“We showed we have quality players and they all fought hard to show their improvement.
“We had a lot of possession and were in control for much of the game. To concede two goals like we did is disappointing, but the team hit back and proved their quality.”
(On the second yellow card for Davis) “When you foul someone like that from behind, it is a yellow card, there is no doubt about it.”
Stats
Shots (on target)
Liverpool: 26 (14)
Bolton: 8 (5)
Possession
Liverpool: 63%
Bolton: 37%
Team News
Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Insua, Carragher, Kyrgiakos, Leiva, Gerrard, Mascherano (Voronin 74), Riera (Benayoun 63), Kuyt (Dossena 89), Torres
Subs not used: Gulacsi, Plessis, Kelly, Skrtel
Goals: Johnson 41, Torres 56, Gerrard 83
Booked: Gerrard
Bolton: Jaaskaleinen, Samuel, Cahill, Knight, Ricketts, Muamba (Riga 90), Taylor, Cohen (Steinnson 78), Davies, Elmander (Basham 59), Davis
Subs not used: Al Habsi, Robinson, O’Brien, Lee
Goals: Davies 33, Cohen 47
Booked: Cahill, Muamba, Davis
Sent off: Davis
Referee: Alan Wiley
Attendance: 23,284
The overall proformance didn’t exactly fill me with confidence. Bolton have the look of a team who could go down this season and for periods we made them look good.
Yet again Lucas did very little besides get Davies sent off.
Kyrgiakos looked a bit clumsy.
We have to sort out our defending from set pieces. I agree with Irish Red, the zonal marking is causing more problems than its solving.
We had a good go at them after the sending off why not before?
we dominated play for the whole game but only went for it when were behind.
Our defence is a shambles at crucial times free kicks and corners.
Pepe Reine must be more involved and come for the ball instead of standing there watchin what our out field players are doing .He was beaten again twice without making a move for the ball as per usual.
on the pepe plus side he did make a great save from the free kick which was going in the top corner which would have put us 2 down and poss no way back at that time?
Lets get our defence sorted and weve got a chance!!!
THE MIGHTY REDS LFC
Another dodgy proformance for me. Bolton are at best mediocre and we made hard work of it. Yet again our defence on set pieces is shite. We looked all over the place for their two goals. Why Rafa insists on this f**king zonal marking is beyond me.
Not too sure about this new Greek lad, only time will tell.
Onwards we struggle.
First of all. It was Sean DAVIS, not Kevin Davies who was sent off.
Secondly, anybody who watched the match in full will realise that after their 2nd Liverpool were dominating the game with plenty of attacks. We most probably would have won the match anyway, and the game got the right result.
Think were missing the point about this match , the fact that davies got sent off dose not mean as much as pundits say , i mean liverpool were not being out played or even matched toe to toe before that.
You can argue that it was a slice of good fortune but not undeserved fortune and Davies deserved to get a yellow ! ( lucas was heading for goal, he clipped him from behind and pushed him for good measure )
Dose a man being sent off turn a game more than a penalty awarded ? after all you still have to go and get that goal and in our case two, How much good fortune did united get yesterday ? it’s the same thing and the type of game that can define a season, break a bad run or inspire form.
My point is that yes were not the finished article, yes we still have problems at the back and yes some players are to find form but for the first time this season when under pressure before and during the match the team managed to find that type of spirit that helped us overcome so much last season. We won and at the moment in our form thats all that really matters .
Lucas is learning all the time for sure and has shown good improvement.
As for getting Davies sent off – If Davies is daft enough to run across another players legs whilst chasing back, well! He deserves to go for crass stupidity, let alone anything else. Was it not the same player who clattered DK from behind and got away with it?
………..JayDee
Ha, Ha, Ha….
11 men against 11 men, we will not win. 10 men against 11 men, if we cannot win against teams like Bolton, better forget about the title. Lucas cannot go far, every pass is a square ball & I have to agree the best he has done in this game is to get Davies sent off.
It would have been an absolute criminal injustice if we had not won this game becuase we dominated it from start to finish. Clearly, we need to work on defending at set pieces becuase we look especially vulnerable but on a more positive note, we are creating so many chances that it will only be a matter of time before some one gets a good pasting off us.
If we can pick up points when we’re under-strength and not playing well then that is positive. Think of it this way, if this is our sticky period then at least it happening now and can be put to bed ASAP. The result against Villa was an absolute freak. On any other evening we’d have won comfortably. That’s not ignoring the defeciencies in our perfromance but come on, Villa are at best average as they proved agaisnt Rapid in the week. Similarly, Spurs may encounter their own sticky patch soon, following Modric’s broken leg and injuries to King and Defoe.
Conversely, we can look forward to the return of Agger, Aurelio, Skrtel and Riera on a more regular basis, and of course Aquilani is still to make his debut. the inclusion of these palyers would add 20% to most sides. All of the doom mongering is not good for us people, we’ve got what we’ve got and we can’t change that, so lets get behind the team and the manager and start being more positive. Things will be worse for a long time before they get better if Rafa leaves. What top manager will want to come to work for those clowns with nothing to spend every season. We can also kiss good bye to all the spanish lads if Rafa leaves. Can you envisage us without Torres or Reina who are the best at their respective jobs in the land. Keep the faith we’ll be there or there abouts come may.
Left midfield looks better after Riera comes back -.-
They spirit came back after Davis get the RED CARD-.-
I’m so relieved that we managed to defeat the mighty Bolton with a truely breathtaking performance!.The brilliant Lucas did the best thing of his Anfield career by getting Davies sent off that greatly helped us win the match….
Seriously,i’m glad that we won but another lacklustre performance especially at the back.Our new Greek signing with that terrible outdated ponytail doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence so we neen Skrtl and Agger back ASAP.Aurelio will probably remain injured for the rest of his career…
Why oh why can’t Liverpool play like this week in week out without conceding stupid goals, the game was good but we are too vulnerable at the back, Zonal marking is no good.
Would we have beat them had they had 11 men to the finish?????
All in all well done lads you got the 3 points.
I love Benayoun 🙂 what a smart player!
At last thats the old magic from last season, going behind but never giving up and putting teams under immense pressure and getting our reward !
The way we responded was what counted today and perhaps thats what was missing in our two defeats this season ?! that bit of determination not to go down.
This was the perfect type of game and even result to kick off our season, i think mentally maybe if we’d have just won the players mite not have addressed those two defeats but because of the nature of the win and at one of our bogey grounds that this may just be more than three points on the board .