Today, Liverpool went to
Although the performance put in by Liverpool was not quite
up to the standard of the excellent showing against Swansea a couple of weeks ago, it wasn’t too
far off. The first half in particular was impressive; Coutinho continued his
run of excellent form, using his exquisite passing to split the Sunderland defence many times. The problem was taking
these chances – Borini, though extremely hard-working as always, squandered a
fair few decent opportunities. He did, however, record an assist for Markovic’s
goal; he should be given credit for managing to divert the ball into the Serb’s
path. Markovic himself could well have added to his tally: he was fouled in the
box very early on but denied a penalty by the referee, and later came within millimetres
of scoring the goal of the season. The ball came back to him after a corner,
but was at an extremely awkward height. Showing immense powers of
improvisation, he attacked the ball with a scissor-like movement, sending his
shot rocketing off the bar. Sunderland didn’t
really create anything going forward in the first half, and in truth the game
should have been beyond the reach of the Black Cats after the opening 45
minutes.
As it was, the game was still anything but a foregone
conclusion as the second half began. The first five minutes were encouraging – Liverpool looked as if they were simply going to carry on
where they left off. However, this momentum was halted by an incident which in
theory should have helped the reds (who, incidentally, were playing in their
yellow change strip today). Liam Bridcutt was shown a second yellow, meaning Sunderland were reduced to 10 men. Rather than going for
the jugular and attempting to kill off the game, Liverpool sat off at this
point, inviting pressure from the suddenly potent-looking Sunderland
players. Adam Johnson in particular appeared to have been given a new lease of
life – he came by far the closest to levelling the match, with his swerving
shot from outside the box smacking against the underside of the bar. Mignolet
was left completely stranded. While the incident did leave him looking rather
foolish (comparisons to The Matrix have been made), the extremely strong wind
did make the ball move extremely strangely in the air.
After a couple more half decent attacks, Sunderland
settled down again. Liverpool began to push
forward once more, with the line now being led by Mario Balotelli. He came on
for Borini, and looked extremely bright. He used his physicality well, and
almost managed to net his first league goal after cleverly turning his defender
– he was only denied by a smart stop from Pantilimon. He has come in for a lot
of criticism – which, given that he is a striker yet to score in the Premier
League is understandable – but he has certainly shown signs of promise. One
feels that once he gets his first league goal he might be able to kick on and
really succeed at the club; the imminent return of Daniel Sturridge will surely
also benefit him.
As it was, Liverpool didn’t
manage to score a second. They were forced to withstand some late pressure, but
the only late ‘drama’ was a hilarious piece of theatrics from Sunderland
stopper Costel Pantilimon. He came up for a very late corner, and having failed
to get his head to the ball went down in dramatic fashion, claiming he was
pushed. You can’t blame the ref for not booking him; giving yellow cards to
keepers for diving sets a dangerous precedent!
So it ended 1-0, and Liverpool
came away with a deserved three points. Although they will come away from this
match knowing that they need to be more clinical, the excellent attacking play
of Coutinho and Markovic (as well as the solid defensive work of Sakho, Can and
Lucas) are encouraging. The draw against Leicester
last time out had fans worried that we were witnessing another false dawn, but
there were enough positive signs in this match to suggest that we are indeed on
the road to revival.
-James Martin
Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013
No comments:
Post a Comment