The media had been hyping this league encounter all week. It was the visit of the club that had forced Roy Hodgson out. Delicious stuff for the papers, including the last time we came to the Hawthornes we lost, a statistic often thrown around when discussing Roy and West Brom.
Finding decent form is a struggle for Liverpool at the moment, however a 2-1 win over Stoke at the Britannia Stadium in the Carling Cup fourth round, should provide the platform for a good run.
The Liverpool team set out as a 4-2-3-1. At the back there was a new centre back pairing of Skrtel and Agger as Johnson and Enrique took up their flank positions. The midfield boasted Lucas and Adam, behind the three of Downing, Henderson and Suarez. Carroll played up front on his own.
Dalglish was forced to leave the talismanic Gerrard and Carragher out of the side due to injury. Fans went into overdrive on twitter, on one hand salivating at the possibility of a Skrtel and Agger defence and on the other hand fearing the worst for the midfield. No one need have had a concern though.
Yesterdays game was dominated by Liverpool. They had 56% possession and 17 shots, 4on target, with 2 in the back of the net.
There weren't many controversies to speak about in the first half, Olsson clearly had an agenda to stop Suarez and Carroll, as he repeatedly fouled both and brought Carroll down in the box, without a penalty being awarded. Suarez was fouled running the ball out of the 18 yard area, Jay Emmanuel Thomas running a leg across Suarez.
Adam and Carroll argued over who would take the penalty, Adam brushed aside Carroll and placed the ball. He had to wait nearly a minute as two West Brom defenders tried to sandwich Carroll and prevent him running onto any rebound. Eventually Adam took it and slotted home easily enough.
West Brom didn't really mount a serious response to going behind and on the stroke of half time, into one minute of injury time, Lucas played out a killer pass on the outside of his right foot to Suarez. Suarez volleyed a first time pass to Carroll who was unmarked and who ran towards the goal, Foster rushed out to meet Carroll whose first touch was heavy, yet as Foster went to ground, Carroll poked a left footed shot through his legs and into the goal.
After the break it was relentless pressure from Liverpool, but the game was over. West Brom tried to mount attacks yet they had no real steam. Liverpool made one change, that of Suarez and Bellamy in the 81st minute.
All in all, it was a good days work from Liverpool, a clean sheet for Reina as captain and the partnership of Skrtel and Agger. It was always going to be a match of intense scrutiny from the fans as Carragher and Gerrard were both injured. However the class of Lucas and Adam shone through in the midfield with Henderson coming on in leaps and bounds. Skrtel and Agger seemed relaxed and their performance was full of bold moves to break up the play.
Liverpool back up to fifth and hoping for Tottenham and Newcastle to lose or draw. The race for fourth place is starting to take shape as Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool seem the likely candidates.
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