Topic: Liverpool v Brighton & Hove Albion Saturday 1st October 3pm

[Brain Potter]

At long last we resume our stop start Premier League season with a Saturday afternoon visit from Brighton.

Our last league fixture was played on the 3rd September when the Queen was still alive, and Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson was still PM.

If you can remember 4 weeks ago, we drew 0-0 at Goodison Park !!

We haven't started the league season fantastically well, but it's early days , but we can't really afford too many more slip ups. We are in 8th place, strangely our opponents have outperformed us so far and lie in 4th, 4 points ahead having played the same number of games, so I don't think this will be easy at all.

Match Officials

Referee: Andy Madley. Assistants: Derek Eaton, Steve Meredith. Fourth official: Tony Harrington. VAR: Simon Hooper. Assistant VAR: Darren Cann.

Brighton & Hove Albion

Whilst we laboured to a goalless draw at Everton, Brighton's last fixture was on the same weekend an emphatic 5-2 home win over an ailing Leicester City. Similar to ourselves they have had both subsequent fixtures called off.

Now the big change at Brighton......Graham Potter did want to go to Chelsea having done excellently in his time at Brighton. His replacement is Roberto De Zerbi, a 43 year old Italian, for whom Saturday will be his 1st game in charge of the Seagulls.

I don't now too much about De Zerbi, but Brighton have got their recent managerial appointments spot on. He was a bit of a journeyman player mostly for lower ranked Italian teams , and has managed Palermo, Benevento, and a successful spell at Sassuolo, which led him to get the managers job at Shakhtar Donetsk, whom he led to the league title before resigning as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

We have played Brighton 10 times in the PL era, winning 7 , drawing 2 , with our only defeat being at Anfield during our nightmare run of home defeats during the Covid season.

Last season we drew 2-2 at Anfield, losing a 2 nil lead.....we would  have found those lost 2 points very useful as it transpired.

Within the Brighton squad, we welcome back Adam Lallana to Anfield....however to the surprise of nobody he is presently injured.

They do have some very good players within the squad....Alexis Mac Allister can hit a great free kick, Trossard is a current Belgian international.

Liverpool....

It goes without saying that we really need to pick up a win here....we've dropped more points than we'd ideally like, and our season hasn't really got going yet.

On the injury front Konate should be fit again, whilst Henderson turned out for England in the week. Robertson remains out as far as I am aware.

Maybe......Alisson, Trent, VVD, Matip, Tsimikas, Fabinho, Thiago, Elliott, Salah, Jota, Diaz,

Hopefully a Liverpool win......2-0 is my prediction.

[disgraced cake]

New manager bounce? Let's hope not. Hopefully these are a little lost without Potter.

Just win this to start what is hopefully a nice run until the World Cup which we can take in with us to 2023. Ideally a comfortable win where we can get a few off ahead of Rangers but any win will do.

Your team looks good, it could very well be that but wouldn't be surprised to see Henderson or Nunez start for either Elliot and Jota.

[duvva 💅]

Thanks for the OP Brain and I agree that I think this will be a tough game. On paper are we better, obviously, but that’s not how things have been working out so far.

I thought our last performance v Ajax was much more like it, but the worry is the big gap and internationals mean we’re sort of starting again. Fingers crossed this is where we kick on.

I’d have thought rather than a new manager bounce, the change would be more disruptive given how well they were doing and how long they’d been used to working with Potter and his methods.

Come on Reds time to press on and start piling up the points. Nothing is lost yet

[Cruiser]

Finally back to real football!

Jota definately needs to start. Get him back up and running and ready for Arsenal the following week!

Confident we can get all 3 points here.

[meady1981]

I have no idea what this means

[So… Howard Philips]

The season starts here!

Eight games in and we should now be back to where we were if we’d had a normal pre-season, or is ten games the magic figure. My head hurts, just score a few goals, DON’T concede and that’ll do fine.

[Schmidt]

Thanks for the OP Brain and I agree that I think this will be a tough game. On paper are we better, obviously, but that’s not how things have been working out so far.

I thought our last performance v Ajax was much more like it, but the worry is the big gap and internationals mean we’re sort of starting again. Fingers crossed this is where we kick on.

I’d have thought rather than a new manager bounce, the change would be more disruptive given how well they were doing and how long they’d been used to working with Potter and his methods.

Come on Reds time to press on and start piling up the points. Nothing is lost yet

As good as the performance was against Ajax our midfield injury problems were still there, we've now potentially got Thiago, Henderson, Fabinho and Arthur all fit and available which is huge. Trent has had a rest too, and Salah seemingly was given the last international game off, though one or two other lads like Jota/Nunez/Diaz might be a bit tired.

I think we could see a really good performance here. Brighton are a decent outfit but they don't necessarily have the type of players to hurt us.

[Stevo79]

Didn’t Diaz go on holiday?

[Schmidt]

Didn’t Diaz go on holiday?

He played twice in friendlies.

[DelTrotter]

We are actually going to play a football match, fucking hell! Hopefully we continue on from the Ajax performance, we're going to need to as these can be a pain in the arse then it's not getting any easier with Arsenal and City after, time to start performing consistently so basically pray Thiago stays fit 

[4pool]

Didn’t Diaz go on holiday?

Luis played last night, USA West Coast time, v Mexico. Came off in the 91st minute.

The match finished about 5am this morning UK time.

Unless there is a private jet for 1 player, Luis won't make it back to England until the wee hours tomorrow morning.


The club share the cost for a private jet for those South American players with other PL clubs. As no other South American clubs were playing on the West coast, I doubt there would be a private plane for just Luis.

[Ghost Town]

Suits us that the only Potter involved is the one who wrote the OP

[MH41]

Bad memories from this fixture last season.
2-0 up, play superb football and looking like it could be a cricket score. Mané makes it 3-0 on the half hour mark, after a horrendous mistake by the keeper, only for it to be 'correctly' ruled out because it struck Mané on the hand at close range! (Hardly his fault). This was followed by a Salah goal, again correctly ruled out for offside before disaster struck just before HT when Brighton got a goal very much against the run of play.
To level things up, Brighton also had a goal ruled out at the end of the 90 minutes that would have won them the game.

Fine margins and all that, but if that Mané goal had stood, we would have won that game comfortably.
City were beaten at home by palace that same day, but it felt like 2 points dropped.
Was it the difference between us winning the league or not? Who knows. It might have been.
Anyway, back to Saturday. Just win. But I'll go 3-0 with goals from TAA, Jota and Salah. With Thiago fit, we are a totally different animal.

[killer-heels]

I absolutely hate playing Brighton, they were such a tough match up for us. Hopefully Potter not being there is a plus for us, otherwise it will be a really tough game.

[MH41]

I absolutely hate playing Brighton, they were such a tough match up for us. Hopefully Potter not being there is a plus for us, otherwise it will be a really tough game.

You hate playing Brighton? I'm still having nightmares about being knocked out of the FA  cup by them in 1983 and 1984!!!
The 1983 is an interesting read. Us well top of the table, them bottom. Us 63 home cup matches unbeaten. Jimmy case for Brighton, and a rare missed penalty from Phil Neal. A standing ovation from the Kop at the end for Case and Brighton manager Jimmy Melia. Apparently the club's first ever game at Anfield on a Sunday, and they had to sell team sheets, as they weren't allowed to sell match tickets!
In 1984 Brighton again knocked us out of the FA cup. They were in the 2nd Division that season.

[Crosby Nick]

^^^
Remember seeing that in books in the late 80s and not quite believing it!

They almost did the same to us in maybe 90/91? We got taken to a relay and scraped through it 3-2 I think having been losing at one point.

We owe these from last season. 2 up, very briefly 3 up before VAR intervened and then instantly it was 2-1 and the whole game changed.

[redk84]

Potter left them in a good place so hopefully won't see the usual "manager bounce" but a bit of the opposite as these have caused us problems in the past.

I'm sure they'll be just be playing off muscle memory mostly, and that we'll be too good for them and take our chances early

[LovelyCushionedHeader]

So is this a pre-season friendly or something?

[lionel_messias]

I remember Premier League football from the Elizabethan age. We weren't very good for a spell, hopefully this new chapter will be better.

[Lynndenberries]

Boring 1-0 win will do.

[Fromola]

Weather looks awful Friday/Saturday here (strong winds and rain) and we'll be lacking rhythm, so it's just a case of getting the 3 points any way we can. At least Potter has left as he always gave us a tough game at Anfield.

Our bench should be looking strong now.

[El Lobo]

Luis played last night, USA West Coast time, v Mexico. Came off in the 91st minute.

The match finished about 5am this morning UK time.

Unless there is a private jet for 1 player, Luis won't make it back to England until the wee hours tomorrow morning.


The club share the cost for a private jet for those South American players with other PL clubs. As no other South American clubs were playing on the West coast, I doubt there would be a private plane for just Luis.

I wonder if this is why we held back on a CM in the summer

[killer-heels]

This basically now kicks off the intense run of games until the world cup. We have such a chance after the world cup with so many rested players that if we can start winning games then we will be in a really good position.

[CanuckYNWA]

Big game here, need to go on a run of winning games and get momentum.

Overall was a good international break for us with lots of time to recoup and recover from plenty and only like 3 outfield players playing 180mins with VVD, Diaz and Nunez. Plus no one has reported injuries and supposedly Konate, Ramsay and Kelleher are all back in training

Im hoping that Brighton are a bit lost after losing Potter and figuring out how Zerbi wants to set-up for a bit that we can get a quick easy win.

Alisson
TAA
Matip
VVD
Tsimikas
Fabinho
Elliot
Thiago
Salah
Jota
Diaz

Adrian, Phillips, Gomez, Milner, Henderson, Arthur, Carvalho, Nunez, Firmino

[Too early for flapjacks?]

Luis played last night, USA West Coast time, v Mexico. Came off in the 91st minute.

The match finished about 5am this morning UK time.

Unless there is a private jet for 1 player, Luis won't make it back to England until the wee hours tomorrow morning.


The club share the cost for a private jet for those South American players with other PL clubs. As no other South American clubs were playing on the West coast, I doubt there would be a private plane for just Luis.

Might be a good game to give Carvalho a go on the left hand side of attack.

[Rosst10]

Hi, hope this is ok in this thread as it is regarding the game. Can anyone help me out with info where to park securely Saturday, I’m mega stressing out about it as I usually take train from Scotland but driving down for the first time. Any help appreciated.

[Ghost Town]

Hi, hope this is ok in this thread as it is regarding the game. Can anyone help me out with info where to park securely Saturday, I’m mega stressing out about it as I usually take train from Scotland but driving down for the first time. Any help appreciated.

No need to stress. There're loads of places nearby, if you're willing to pay and walk a few minutes. Just look out for the 'Match Parking' signs.

North Liverpool Academy is pretty big and secure, on St Domingo Rd; used to be well priced but think it's a tenner now, which seems like daylight robbery to me, but plenty are willing to pay it as it's always rammed by kick off. Exit the far side on Breckfield Rd N and a fairly straight walk up St Domingo Vale brings you to up by the Sandon not far from the Kenny. Or I think the Anfield Sports and Community centre on Lower Breck Rd also do it. Or try Goodison; never parked there myself but I hear they are assiduous in taking care of redshite cars 

Loads of smaller places, too but they get filled up. Basically anyone with a bit of asphalt or open space will cash in. Try and get there earlyish and you'll be fine.

[4pool]

Or park in a City centre garage and take the #17 or soccerbus up to Anfield. Especially if you're staying the night.

[RogerTheRed]

Come on Redmen!!
Been a long time. Usually those who stay behind feature and expect similar on Saturday. Good that Jota, Mo and Nunez scored while away as it sounds like Diaz may not start this if so late back.
A narrow win will do but with rhythm to our play I hope for a two goal victory margin.

[thaddeus]

Thanks Brain  .  I can't say I'm upset that Lallana is out, he's the type of player we've struggled with this season as they've been able to find spaces in our usually crushing press.

The Ajax performance was a hint of better things even if the narrow score-line and nature of the late win suggests otherwise.  I can't say I'm that bothered about the level of performance on Saturday but more about stringing a few wins together.  Brighton have recently been a side we've made hard work of - the modern day version of Rodgers's Swansea City - so I expect it will be another tough game.

The spine of our team looks about the strongest it has for a while; Alisson, Virgil, Matip, Fabinho, Thiago and Jota/Bobby/Darwin.  Trent and Salah pretty much pick themselves, Kostas is a shoe-in with Robbo out so only really the third midfield spot and left-sided forward up for grabs.  My guess would be Harvey and Jota with Bobby in the middle but it's good we have a few options in both positions.

[duvva 💅]

Hi, hope this is ok in this thread as it is regarding the game. Can anyone help me out with info where to park securely Saturday, I’m mega stressing out about it as I usually take train from Scotland but driving down for the first time. Any help appreciated.

There’s a thread on car parking - linked below

https://www.redandwhitekop.com/forum/index.php?topic=268179.400

Can vouch for N Liverpool Academy as mentioned by GT. was £8 last season. Some parts of the road it’s on can also be used for free if you’re there early

[Dave McCoy]

Seems our season is going to hinge on Thiago's health or lack thereof. I guess the Fulham opening 50 minutes before he went off injured could be used as a counter to that claim but if we assume we're getting nothing from Keita this year then I think that's a fair assessment. It's hard to just focus on this Brighton game when you look at the run in to the World Cup but focus on this game we must. Can't say I've watched any Shakhtar recently to have any type of opinion on Zerbi. Why would anything change from Potter though in such a short amount of time? His teams clearly gave us problems in the past and until proven otherwise I'm going to assume the same here. It shouldn't matter though as with Thiago on the field we're probably one of the best 2 or 3 teams in the world. Without him? Well so far this season it's not looking good.

So going with a solid 2-0 win for the Reds. Can't wait.

[kavah]

At long last we resume ...

Hallelujah 

Thanks Brian

Seems our season is going to hinge on Thiago's health ...

needs it's own thread 

[him_15]

Proper football is finally back!

[Macphisto80]

Fuck me, it feels like the start of a new season.


Then we've to do this bollocks again for the world cup.

Fuck this season already.

[Alonso_The_Assassin]

Hi, hope this is ok in this thread as it is regarding the game. Can anyone help me out with info where to park securely Saturday, I’m mega stressing out about it as I usually take train from Scotland but driving down for the first time. Any help appreciated.

Around Newsham Park is the best place, I find. Although it's a good 15 minute walk to the ground, there's no hassle getting out after the game. It's just off Rocky Lane, too, which will get you straight back into town. 

[Dougle]

Cheers Brain,
What's football ?
Feel like I've been drugged for a long time. Mad.
Doesn't matter what I think or feel about this game because we simply have to win.
Scrappy, we'll need to bring them down to our level.

[bird_lfc]

Fuck me, it feels like the start of a new season.


Then we've to do this bollocks again for the world cup.

Fuck this season already.

Taking that first part as a positive

One of those games I think we’ll get the opposite of A new manager bounce

2-0 to the reds after a scoreless first half

[The Final Third]

Presser, starts 5.45 in..

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/G360SEWD2x0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/G360SEWD2x0</a>

[Phineus]

Weird game this, not really sure what to expect from Brighton as they were in good form before losing their manager.

If Klopp says Nunez and Jota didn’t train through precaution maybe Firmino starts?