Liverpool 1-1 Man City

This season has been frustrating for a Liverpool fan with some excellent results, particularly away from home mixed with disappointing home draws. Nevertheless, today had many pleasing aspects to the performance. I felt it was a fair result in the end and against Man City this season that is a no mean feat. But for the heroics of Joe Hart, a win would have happened, but there was a lot of excellent effort by the team today and some good chances. Specifically, Lucas had an outstanding game and Charlie Adam as well created much of Liverpool's good work and Suarez was as dangerous ever. On the debit side, Enrique was a little shakier than he's been in an excellent debut season so far and again Downing offered little but workrate. I don't want to comment too much on the quality of the squad as I think I covered this in my 'Liverpool's Squad Status' blog, but again I did feel a little frustrated that we seemed to lack that touch of creativity and magic, particularly in the midfield on the wings. Nevertheless, the pressing and general attacking mindset of the Dalglish era (this time around) must please any Liverpool fan and I feel we're on the way to something positive. As an aside, I felt the sending off of Balotelli was harsh. The first booking was fair, but I felt the second was a perfectly fair attempt to win possession and shouldn't have warranted a booking and is typical of the increasingly card-happy approach coming into refereeing. Not blaming the refs, they've been told to follow this, but I'm not a fan. A more detailed blog on this to come.

Player ratings:

Reina - 7
A couple of excellent saves although one or two uncharacteristically shaky moments
Johnson - 6
As ever, a real threat going forward but defensively reasonably sound as well
Enrique - 5
Not his finest game today, seemed jittery
Agger - 6
Solid and good going forward
Skrtel - 7
Did a fine job on Aguero and defended sensibly
Henderson - 7
Battled hard and injected a good energy into attack
Downing - 5
Worked hard but unable to offer a great deal in creativity
Lucas - 8
Deservedly named man of the match by Sky, a tireless display with vital interceptions and good distribution
Adam - 7
Has grown in stature in recent weeks and this was another good display
Kuyt - 6
It's unneccessary to say this guy worked hard because he always does
Suarez - 7
Always a nuisance to the defenders and looked a real threat although finishing was a tad wild

Subs:
Carroll - 5
Not much time to make an impact but he didn't

Man City ratings:

Hart - 8
Richards - 6
Kompany - 7
Lescott - 5
Clichy - 6
Milner - 6
Barry - 7
Nasri - 5
Silva - 6
Y Toure - 7
Aguero - 6

Subs:

Balotelli - 4
Dzeko - 5
K Toure - 6