Before he got injured I heard a lot of criticism around Gerrard, I guess people just took him for granted. The man is a world class footballer, I'd say one of the top 5 to have played for Liverpool, and there could well be an argument to say he's the best Liverpool player there's ever been.
One of the very, very few utterings of note that Mark Lawrensen has graced us with was concerning Gerrard, when he described him as 'Souness with pace'.
Some statement, that. The very fact that you can actually argue a case for it says it all though.
As for the game itself, well, like the OP has said, there was more than an air of Sunderland about it wasn't there? Very fast, intense start, straight at Brighton with a high pressing game and quick, incisive, pass and move football. It was great to watch and quite honestly, Brighton struggled to live with it.
Bellamy looked fantastic at times, linking up well with Suarez and Kuyt in particular. On this evidence, signing him up for free looks to be one of the bargains of the summer. It also gives Kenny a (welcome) selection headache for the weekend because for my money, Bellamy surely must have played himself into contention with that showing. The same can be said of Dirk and despite the error at the death, Jay Spearing as well. Another question and one that seems to be becoming a recurring theme as the games pass, is where does Carroll fit? Again we looked a slick, incisive, pacy attacking force without Andy in the side. Do we stick with the personell that appear to be working most effectively as a collective, or does Andy come back in in the hope that it will begin to click? It's a question for debate.
We could, and really should, have been out of sight by the time the half-time whistle was blown. Suarez, in particular, missed a couple of gilt-edged chances, although in his defence he simply couldn't get any closer without actually scoring (on both occasions the 'keeper was beaten). These were the finest of fine margins and sooner or later they will turn in Suarez' favour and these near misses will instead see the net bulging and our 'goals for' tally increasing. A player of his undoubted class won't continue to miss them, that's for sure.
Frustratingly, we failed to match the intensity and tempo of the first forty-five once the second half got under way, allowing Brighton to force us back in much the same way as we had done to them. Whether it was a case of us taking our foot off the gas or Brighton simply responding and proving what a good side they are is debatable, but the very fact that this kind of Jekyl and Hyde performance is not an isolated occurrance this season is a concern.
Too often in the second half Brighton found themselves running directly at our back four, with Spearing and Lucas forced into desperate lunges in an attempt to thwart the danger that was mounting. Some of these challenges were successful, others less so. What these kinds of challenges do though, is increase the risk of conceding free-kicks in dangerous areas and I found myself looking through my fingers on a couple of occasions, awaiting the sound of the referee's whistle.
That said, overall I thought that what was an inexperienced defensive unit actually stood pretty firm for the most part and had it not been for a single poor decision from Jay Spearing at the death then they would have walked away with the clean sheet that they probably deserved. Making his full debut, Coates looked reasonably composed and seemed to be reading the game well at times, although his distribution could have been better, with one terrible floated pass across the back four almost leading to an equaliser for Brighton. This side of his game will certainly improve with time though, as he becomes more comfortable within the team and the system and in turn, more confident.
We did enough to go through in the end, against a dangerous side, and I suppose that's all that we can ask.
It's good to see that we're taking the competition seriously and Stevie's comments since seem to back this up. So, it's on to the next round and hopefully a long awaited return to 'Anfield South' in February.