Baggies disposed of as Reds progress

Liverpool proceeded through to the fourth round of the Capital One cup thanks to a well deserved 2-1 victory over West Bromich Albion at the Hawthorns last night. Loanee Nuri Sahin grabbed both of the Reds' goals on a night when their youngsters shone, with Pacheco, Suso and Yesil particularly impressing while Jerome Sinclair became the youngest player to ever appear for the club at 16 years and six days old. 

Brendan Rodgers made eleven changes to the team that fell to a 2-1 defeat at home to Manchester United on Sunday, as the Northern Irish boss handed starting opportunities to youngsters and squad players, with Jamie Carragher and Brad Jones as the two experienced players.

The evening started poorly for the visitors, as a goalkeeping clanger from Australian stopper Jones gifted the hosts the opening goal. The keeper embarrassingly and fatally dropped a free kick into the box and Gabriel Tomas took advantage of his error to convert into an unguarded net.

On-loan Chelsea striker Lukaku then terrorised Liverpool's defence, going close to adding a second immediately after the opener before beating Carragher far too easily and crossing to Rosenberg, whose low drive was parried by Jones. Thankfully, although Jones wasn't exactly on top form, Foster seemed to be performing even worse, and a mistake from the former Manchester United goalkeeper allowed Sahin to level the scorelines on 17 minutes. The Turk's drilled effort from distance should have been relatively comfortably saved by Foster, but instead the ball squirmed under his body and into the net.

Sahin scores his first Liverpool goal

From that point on Liverpool were dominant. In fact, they played with panache and a pleasing swagger that bodes well for the future. Sahin dictated play from midfield, Assaidi dribbled menacingly at pace on the wing and debutant Yesil, who signed from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer, looked threatening in front of goal. Before the break, Assaidi and Pacheco combined promisingly, with both seeing shots saved by Foster. Downing's ambitious volleyed attempt also flew over as the away side searched for a second.

In their pursuit of the lead, Liverpool continued to test the shaky Foster in the second half. A strong strike from Samed Yesil worried the keeper, who just about managed to beat his effort away without inadvertently turning the ball into his own net.  The formerly marginalised Dani Pacheco, who looks revitalised after returning to the fray under Rodgers, then went close twice.

First, his sensational curling strike from the left edge of the area dipped over Foster and bounced clear off the crossbar. Then, his skillful nutmeg created space for himself, which he used to unleash a shot at goal and trouble Foster, who made a meal out of what should have been a fairly simple save. The Baggies keeper went some way to compensating for his earlier errors, though, when he made an excellent save to prevent Coates turning Sahin's whipped left wing free kick home. 

On 81 minutes Rodgers made an historic substitution as Jerome Sinclair replaced Yesil to became the youngest player in the club's history. However, it was the other half of the double substitution that really changed the outcome of the game. After replacing Pacheco, Suso was instrumental in setting up the winner. He ran at West Brom's defence and then played a pass through to Assaidi, whose fantastic square pass across the face of goal gave Sahin an easy finish that he couldn't miss from yards out.

Sahin celebrates an excellent team goal

Although Fortune's volley hit the post six minutes from time, West Brom never looked like forcing extra time and Liverpool secured the win and the place in the next round of the League Cup that their performance merited. This display was light years better than what was produced on the opening day of the Premier League season, when the Merseysiders fell to a humbling 3-0 defeat away to the Midlanders.

Hopefully, not only will this win kick-start our floundering season but also inspire the club's youngsters to continue to work hard and improve further, in order to gain more game time in the first team. If they do so, they'll have a bright future and Liverpool may finally have another bumper crop of talented youngsters knocking on the proverbial door of the first team.

YNWA