Premier League preview: Bolton v Liverpool
When Blackburn’s El-Hadji Diouf – a former player for both of these clubs – rolled a scuffed effort towards the Anfield Road end goal last Sunday afternoon, only to see Paul Konchesky clear it off the line, into the face of Jamie Carragher and then into the net, the home crowd experienced a familiar sense of dread.
“Here we go again,” would have been the cry from the Liverpool fans, as they watched their struggling side pegged back level having dominated for large periods of the match during what was easily their best Premier League performance of the season.
On the bench, Roy Hodgson would surely have been uttering slightly stronger words under his breath, but the look of joy and – quite understandably – relief on the Liverpool manager’s face as he leapt off that bench just two minutes later told even more of a story.
Fernando Torres had just tucked home what proved to be the winner – a welcome goal for a forward who has been struggling for form – but it is the big man who scored Liverpool’s first goal who Hodgson has been keen to heap praise on this week.
“You can see that ‘Soto’ really wants to get his head on it,” said the Reds boss of Sotirios Kyrgiakos, the unheralded 31-year-old Greek defender who headed home his second goal of the season against Blackburn from a Steven Gerrard corner.
“He is like the way Tony Adams used to be and, before that, Jackie Charlton or how John Terry is now. It's not that they have got clever movement or they jump higher, they just want to get there.
“He is making our corner kicks look a h**l of a lot better, but we should really be doing much better at corners because we have got one of the best deliverers of a ball [Gerrard] around. Every time we get a corner he's dangerous.”
With his straggly hair and somewhat rugged appearance, Kyrgiakos – who Rafael Benitez signed for the Reds from AEK Athens for £1.5million last August, and who made his Liverpool debut in a 3-2 win at Bolton in the same month – would appear to be a surprise choice for the poster boy of the new Hodgson era, but what he lacks in subtlety and skill he certainly makes up for in drive and determination. He is fully deserving of the place he currently occupies in the starting line-up, and his qualities will have to rub off on his team-mates if Liverpool are to get anything from the Reebok Stadium on Sunday.
It’s been a tough week for Bolton boss Owen Coyle, who first had to defend last weekend’s challenge from midfielder Fabrice Muamba that left Wigan’s James McCarthy with a spell on the sidelines, before seeing forward Ivan Klasnić arrested on suspicion of rape.
Coyle can always rely on one man though, England’s newest international, and oldest for 60 years; a man who doesn’t take the glamorous lifestyle of a Premier League footballer lightly.
“I was cleaning all the flesh and blood off the floor,” said Kevin Davies, speaking not of a particularly feisty training session under Sam Allardyce, but instead of his first job as a butcher.
“I’ve always worked. I did paper rounds in the mornings and Saturday jobs washing pots in a restaurant. I worked in a pizza shop, I’ve done all sorts. I just had to do whatever I could to earn money. My father was deaf after suffering meningitis at the age of one so couldn’t work, and my mum needed all the help she could financially so we all pitched in.
“I learnt from an early age that you’ve got to work hard to get your rewards. That work ethic has driven me through my career.”
That career reached its apex with the 33-year-old’s substitute appearance in England’s otherwise unremarkable goalless draw with Montenegro earlier this month, ensuring that Davies had come full circle after being branded a laughing stock following a failed spell at Blackburn Rovers, where he scored just once in 23 league games after a £7.5million move in 1998.
The man who signed him for Blackburn will be hoping to nullify his threat at the weekend, and Hodgson will more than likely use Kyrgiakos in an attempt to do so.
Both players will be vitally important in both penalty areas, and this battle could prove decisive in who comes out on top in what is sure to be a close contest.
Too close, perhaps, to foresee a winner – a result that will hardly be a Greek tragedy for Kyrgiakos, Davies, Hodgson or Coyle.
Prediction: Bolton 2 Liverpool 2
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