my pre match analysis ( girls may be bored reading this)

i found myself constantly thinking about the liverpool bolton match so i thought i might as well blog it out... =)

the last thing liverpool need after a gruelling international period is to meet bolton.. let's face it, bolton do not have as many internationals as liverpool so they would be able to prepare for the match better... it's always hard to train your team when there's only 4 or 5 of them left at the training ground

and of course there's the obvious fatigue factor... steven gerrard, steve finnan, garcia, sami hyppia and john arne risse would all have had to play more matches in the same time, especially gerrard who is almost guaranteed to play tonigth against azerbijan.(spelling definitely wrong sorry)..on the other hand, for bolton, i think only stelios giannakoupolus the greek striker played an international??

good teams are able to grind out a win despite their fatigue and while i do wonder about the commitment of some of the liverpool players i do believe that they would work as hard as they can for a win because they know how important it is.. i even think the international break did some good because liverpool do tend to take it easy after a good win...

the problem is that's how i felt when liverpool played blackburn.. this was a team who is not strong in the goal scoring dept and are gaining points simply by frustrating their opponents to death..hmm.. i wonder what other team is like that too..BOLTON !! duh...

against a team like middlesborough who do try to play more football than rugby, it's easier to find a goal..but when you're up against a team hell bent on just knocking away the ball at every oppurtunity, you gotta prepare your attacks well and train hard on how to break down tigt defences.. which is the luxury we do not have during an international break...add to that the fact that most bolton players should be full of energy to run down their opponents and you just wonder if this tie is actually the trickiest obstacle to that coveted 4th spot

the only good news is that garcia seems not only fit but still in good form.. he almost scored a goal against china that day when playing for spain.. so he may just be able to play the lone striker role in a 4-5-1

i predict liverpool will play 4-5-1 although not out of choice. they will employ nunez and riise as wingers and try and support garcia up front. so if they start to attack alot it may end up more liek 433..which i hope is the case

gerrard, smicer and biscan will play centre midfield assuming there is no injury.. the back four would have only one change in traore instead of warnock. the weak link is smicer..he cannot tackle well enough to play central but who else do we have left with injuries to hamman and alonso?

defence will be the order of the day.. both teams would be more concerned with a clean sheet than a goal..liverpool will of course have the obligation to win but i can foresee a cautious approach rather than the all guns blazing style we saw in the previous match

all in all, as a neutral i predict a 0-0.. a 1-0 win is only a fraction less likely and even then the win could go to either team..but being a liverpool fan i have to stick my neck out and go for a 1-0 win to liverpool..

my prediction: liverpool 1 bolton 0

let's see how accurate my numerous predictions are =)