Liverpool v Cardiff City: Match Preview December 2013

With Liverpool striker Luis Suarez pledging his future to to the Reds, we have a great value offer on this match with a ‘money back on losing bets if there are more than 5 goals in the game!!!!’

Full details at the end of the preview>>>>

Suarez, who has already netted 17 Premier League goals this season, was already under contract with the Reds until the summer of 2016, but has now lengthened his deal further.

I believe I can achieve the ambitions of winning trophies and playing at the very highest level with Liverpool.

Luis Suarez

And Suarez, who moved to Anfield from Ajax in January 2011, is confident that his club are well placed to push on and challenge for silverware in the coming campaigns.

“We have some great players and the team is growing and improving all the time,” Suarez told his club’s official website.

“I believe I can achieve the ambitions of winning trophies and playing at the very highest level with Liverpool. My aim is to help get us there as quickly as possible.”

Suarez, who has scored more league goals this season than 10 Premier League teams have managed, is 2/7 to be the top scorer in the top-flight this season.

He is also 15/8 to open the scoring at home to Cardiff City today and 4/11 to find the net at any time against the Bluebirds.

Reds boss Brendan Rodgers, whose side are currently second in the table, is also delighted with the news about Suarez, adding: “Luis is a world-class talent and securing his services is crucial for what we are trying to achieve here.

“What’s most important and most exciting is that, at just 26 years old, his best years are still ahead of him and we now know we’ll be seeing him reach that potential in a Liverpool shirt.” Liverpool are 9/1 to edge the crunch clash 1-0 and 7/4 to win the Premier League title outright this season.

Bluebirds ‘manager of the moment’……. Malky Mackay has a fully fit squad to select from.

They do however, await news on whether ex-Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy will be fit to face his former club.

MATCH PREVIEW

Meetings between Cardiff and Liverpool don’t come along too often. This will be the first since the Welsh club were beaten in the League Cup final of 2012 by virtue of a penalty shoot-out in which only half of the 10 kicks were converted.

That was at Wembley of course, but Cardiff’s last visit to Anfield also finished in defeat – 2-1 – also in the League Cup in 2007. You have to go back another 48 years for the next most recent clash, which was surely the most significant of all.

It was 19 December 1959, and a Liverpool team containing boot room legend-to-be Ronnie Moran, future Chelsea boss Bobby Campbell and later World Cup winner Roger Hunt were beaten 4-0 in a Division Two fixture by a Cardiff side heading for promotion that season and helped at Anfield that day by two goals from former Arsenal striker Derek “Tappy” Tapscott.

Malky Mackay’s problems seem to be off the pitch because his Cardiff side keep getting results when they need them. It is asking a lot for Cardiff to get anything at Anfield, though.

At home, against teams in the bottom half, Liverpool have been winning games very comfortably and it should be a similar story on Saturday.

This is all very interesting, but what made this game really significant is that it was the first in which Liverpool were managed by Bill Shankly.

There are quite a few people wondering whether this game, 54 years later almost to the day, might not be the last in which Cardiff are managed by Malky Mackay.

Mackay says he won’t quit, and why should he, but it seems that his relationship with majority shareholder Vincent Tan is one very small step from being untenable. Tan, through chief executive Simon Lim, has repeated his assertion that Mackay overspent his summer transfer budget, and that as a result he’ll get “not a single penny” to spend in January.

Given that Iain Moody was sacked as head of recruitment for this supposed misdemeanour, it seems a bit petty to have raised it again with the blame now being firmly placed at Mackay’s door.

If Tan sacks Mackay, and who’d bet against it, he guarantees himself a storm of protest from fans already being peddled shirts that are red instead of blue. He guarantees himself a major headache in finding a credible replacement willing to work under his regime, and he might just guarantee himself a swift return to the Championship. Like Moody, Mackay would not be out of work for long.

Players, managers and owners tend to come and go; some all too quickly and some not quickly enough, but Cardiff’s magnificently vocal supporters deserve better.

MATCH FACTS

Head-to-head

Cardiff have won on eight of their 15 visits to play at Anfield in all competitions.
Their last meeting in any competition was the League Cup final in 2012. Liverpool won on penalties after the match finished 2-2 following extra time.
Cardiff have won twice as many matches as Liverpool in their previous 30 encounters. Cardiff have won 18 times and Liverpool nine, with three draws.

Liverpool

Luis Suarez has scored 17 goals in 11 league games this season, which is more than 10 of the 20 teams in the Premier League.
Liverpool have scored 25 Premier League goals before half-time this season, more than any other side.
The Reds have scored 14 goals in their last three league games and have scored 79 goals in 2013 – four more than Man City.
They have scored three or more goals in three consecutive top-flight league matches for the first time for 26 years, when they set a club record of four matches with four or more goals in 1987.
Liverpool have had the most goals scored by English players in the league this season (16).

Cardiff

The Bluebirds have won four matches this season in the Premier League, and they have all been by a one-goal margin.
They have failed to score a first-half goal in 13 Premier League matches this season – the joint-most in the top flight.
Peter Whittingham’s 65th-minute goal against West Brom last weekend ended a run of 335 minutes in the Premier League without one.

STOP PRESS……5 goal thriller offer!!!!

Money back offer if your bet goes down if the match has 5 goals of more!!!!

Always Back Winners are running a5 goal thriller promotion with BetButler

After a slow start, the Premier League goal tally is hotting up. With this in mind, we’ve put a special Five Goal Thriller offer together on the following games:

Saturday 12:45: Liverpool v Cardiff (BT Sports 1)
Sunday 16:00: Swansea v Everton (Sky Sports 1)
Monday 20:00: Arsenal v Chelsea (Sky Sports 1)

£25 Five Goal Thriller Money Back Special

If a featured games see five goals or more, we’ll refund losing Correct Score & First Scorer bets up to £25!*

Terms & Conditions:

Place a Correct Score or First Scorer bet on any of our featured games and get a £25 refund on losing bets if the same game ends 0-0.

Higlighted terms

Strictly 18+ only
Maximum refund £25 per customer
One refund per customer per selected game on losing correct score and first scorer bets.

*Bet Butler £25 Five Goal Thriller Back Special

The refund will only trigger if the listed games end with five goals or more: Saturday 12:45: Liverpool v Cardiff (BT Sports 1)
Sunday 16:00: Swansea v Everton (Sky Sports 1)
Monday 20:00: Arsenal v Chelsea (Sky Sports 1)

Liverpool v Cardiff City: Match Preview December 2013