Fourmiddable- Liverpool Thrash Everton

Last night, one of the most eagerly anticipated fixtures of Liverpool’s season was played out. It’s always a good occasion when the reds take on their local rivals, but in recent times it hasn’t got quite as sweet as this. Liverpool dominated throughout the game against a limp-looking Everton side, and came out 4-0 victors!

Liverpool started brightly. Both sides looked very much up for it right from the outset, as is nearly always the case in the derby. Nobody had very much time on the ball, and the game was consequently extremely fast-paced. It was Liverpool who took the lead from a corner on 21 minutes. The captain, Steven Gerrard, headed the ball powerfully into the back of the net from a Luis Suarez delivery. Though the header was excellent, James McCarthy (who was stationed on the near post) should have done better at getting the ball away. From here on in, the win never really looked in doubt. The threat which Everton had initially posed rapidly faded away, and in their desperation to launch some decent attacks their defence fell apart. Daniel Sturridge capitalised fully on this, with goals on 33 and 35 minutes to put the reds out of sight. The first was simple but classy- Sturridge ran through a huge gap left in the Everton defence and was picked out beautifully by Coutinho (who, incidentally, had an extremely good game). He then slotted very coolly past Howard. His second goal was sublime- again he found himself clean through, this time after getting on the end of a long clearance from Kolo Toure. Tim Howard charged out to meet him, but could only watch helplessly as the ball flew over his head and dropped perfectly into the net.

The second half only saw one more goal, but it could have been a lot more. In many ways, Everton can be thankful that they only let in four! Suarez managed to get on the score-sheet, getting to the ball in front of Jagielka and, somewhat inevitably, beating Howard in the one-on-one. Soon after this Liverpool won a penalty, after Howard came out and took the man instead of the ball. Sturridge, on a hat-trick, stepped up to take it. Unfortunately he blasted it over the bar- he looked absolutely devastated, but the fact that we were already four up must have been of some consolation! Still, it was good to see how gutted he was; it points towards the hunger for goals he has that has seen him rise to 3^rd top scorer this season despite missing many games through injury. The miss seemed to knock his judgement- later on, determined to get his hat-trick, he went for goal and put it over rather than playing a square ball to Suarez for a simple tap-in. Rodgers subsequently subbed him, much to his displeasure. On the whole though this mini-saga didn’t cast much of a shadow over the result: a 4-0 win over Everton is never going to be disappointing!

But why was it so one-sided? The injury sustained by Lukaku in the aftermath of the first goal almost certainly had something to do with it. Up until the goal, although Liverpool had created a few more chances than Everton, the game had been relatively even. Lukaku’s physicality combined with the pace of Kevin Mirallas is a threat against any team, so against our defence it was particularly worrying! Had Lukaku not been forced off it seems highly unlikely that Everton would have failed to score. As it is Roberto Martinez was forced to bring on Steven Naismith, who failed to produce any noteworthy chance all game.

That said, nothing should be taken away from Liverpool. In attack they were excellent- my man of the match was Coutinho, who finally seemed to click back into the form he was showing before his injury. Sturridge and Suarez were also excellent as usual, and Sterling, though not quite perhaps as prominent as he has been in the last two or three games, still played a very big part going forward. Defensively there was very little to do, but Mignolet made a few decent saves when called upon.

To sum up, it was a very good all-round performance. The team generally worked together in a slick, fluent manner, and the counter-attacking football on show was supreme. It will certainly fill the players with confidence, which will hopefully see us get onto a nice run of form. It also cements our place in the top 4,  which is a place we will surely be come the end of the season if we keep putting in performances such as these.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Stoke 3-5 Liverpool- SAS Storm the Brittania

Phew. After a thrilling contest yesterday against Stoke, Liverpool finally prevailed as victors. Though the win was certainly significant (a win away at Stoke is a tough result to get at the best of times), the most poignant aspect of the match was perhaps the return of Daniel Sturridge from injury. As the title suggests, he immediately managed to pick up where he left off with strike partner Luis Suarez, scoring one and excellently assisting another.

The game started quite well for Liverpool. Though Stoke looked half-decent going forward, they also looked very shaky defensively. Their problems were compounded after just 5 minutes when Aly Cissokho’s wild shot took a wicked deflection off Ryan Shawcross and into the back of the net. It was a comedy goal, but Liverpool were worthy of their lead. Stoke continued to be uncharacteristically shoddy at the back, a problem which the second goal they conceded summed up perfectly. Pieters failed to deal with a bouncing ball, heading it into the path of Suarez. The Uruguayan was then left with the simple (for him at any rate) task of getting to the ball before the hesitant Shawcross and smashing the ball into the net past Butland.

Unfortunately, the tide began to turn at this point. Our ex-players came back to haunt us- Peter Crouch scored the first goal for Stoke, beating Toure easily to score the Potters’ first headed goal of the season. 6 minutes later Charlie Adam scored a most unlikely equaliser, emphatically shooting the ball through Skrtel’s legs into the corner of the net from outside the area.

I’ll take this opportunity to moan about Gerrard. For this game Rodgers deployed him in a very holding, defensive role- as such it was not unreasonable to expect him to do some actual defending! Admittedly he made a couple of decent tackles, but mostly he was drifting forward in order to play ridiculous, usually inaccurate long balls up the field. Those determined to make excuses for Gerrard are saying that he “took one for the team” by playing out of position- this would all be very well if he had in fact fulfilled the role he was entrusted with. The sad fact is he’s too slow and frankly too much of a blunt instrument to work in the Liverpool that Rodgers has created. Don’t get me wrong, I love Gerrard as much as the next Liverpool fan, but his time has come. Playing him in new positions won’t solve the problem- if he’s playing in a defensive role and we fail to hold a comfortable 2 goal lead against Stoke, it’s clear there’s an issue! For me he was the worst player out there in this game, and that’s saying something considering we had Cissokho and Johnson playing!

Right, back to the match. Sorry about that. Anyway, the second half saw Liverpool come out strongly. There was worry that we might have been deflated by two goals conceded late in the first half, but if anything it seemed to fire us up. Indeed, we re-took the lead just 6 minutes after the restart, Gerrard finally making a positive contribution by scoring extremely coolly from the spot after Sterling was knocked to the ground. Some are accusing him of diving, but it was definitely a foul. Admittedly it was very soft and they aren’t normally given in the area, but by the letter of the law it was indeed a penalty. Nothing much of note happened then until the 66^th minute, which marked the very welcome return of Daniel Sturridge. He came on to replace Philippe Coutinho, who had played decently but sadly once again failed to reproduce the form he first showed on his arrival at Liverpool. He was an injection of life into our attack, and really reminded everyone how much we’ve missed him. Just 5 minutes into his return, he ran past two players then played an absolutely exquisite pass into the path of Suarez, who did what he does best, curling the ball beyond Butland with a first-time shot.

So, 19 minutes to play and 4-2 up against a side who prior to this game had scored just 19 goals all season (less than one per game). Surely this was in the bag? Apparently not! Liverpool decided to give us all a scare by conceding yet again, this time to Jon Walters. Mignolet was at fault for this one- he saw the ball late, but still should have been able to prevent it from rolling tamely past him into the net. Thankfully, Sturridge was on hand to put our minds at rest. Suarez played in a nice ball, and Sturridge saw his effort smartly saved by Butland. He then managed to keep the ball in play superbly, before cutting back in and firing the ball powerfully into the back of the net.

In conclusion, although it was an absolute rollercoaster of a game, I can have no qualms with the result. A win against Stoke is something any team can be pleased with, and the return of our deadly partnership of Suarez and Sturridge is certainly a huge boost. If they both stay fit top 4 is practically a given- they are currently one of the best, if not the best outright, strike partnerships in the world. However, the game did further highlight our need for some squad strengthening- it is clear that we need a new defensive midfielder, as well as (ideally) two new full backs and another centre back. Still, it does not do to dwell on the negatives, especially after a win that fires us into the top 4, and on the whole I am feeling very positive going forward.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Caught in Chelsea’s Webb- Liverpool Slip to Second Consecutive Defeat

Liverpool went into the game at Stamford Bridge with a relatively high level of confidence- despite coming into the game on the back of a defeat against City, we had performed well in that game and felt that we had the ability to beat Chelsea. History was also in our favour; previous to this fixture Liverpool had never lost two consecutive games under Brendan Rodgers, and Chelsea had not defeated us in the league since 2009/10. Unfortunately it just wasn’t our day- both of these runs were broken as Liverpool ended up losing 2-1.

It all started so well. Martin Skrtel, who has come under fire a lot recently for his error-prone nature (and all-round inability to function particularly effectively as a centre-back) opened the scoring after just three minutes, poking the ball, for once, into the correct goal! Sadly, that was pretty much it in terms of Liverpool attacks in the first half. From then on it was all Chelsea; the reds didn’t look their usual selves at all, getting completely dominated. Chelsea pressed well and got their reward on 17 minutes- Hazard equalising with a lovely curled effort after the ball fell kindly for him. Despite my hopes this did not provoke a reaction from Liverpool. We continued to sit back, and on 34 minutes were punished again, Eto’o firing home after a catalogue of defensive errors (as well as a weak attempt at a save from Mignolet). For the last 10 minutes of the half Liverpool seemed fractionally improved, but still lacked any sort of attacking potency.

A lot of the game was sadly much more focused on the officiating than the football being played. I thought we’d been very hard done by at City- this was even worse! The referee, Howard Webb, didn’t exactly cover himself in glory in the first half, not even showing a card to Samuel Eto’o after he tackled Henderson, studs showing, inside the first minute. He should have been off, but nobody thought too much of it at the time as Skrtel scored from the subsequent free kick.

Things only got worse in the second period, with Webb seemingly determined not to give Luis Suarez a penalty. Personally I think Suarez has cleaned up his act a lot lately; he seems to go down much less easily than he used to, and in general seems to have a more relaxed, civil demeanour about him. Officials don’t seem to have picked up on this, and consequently his reputation as a diver still goes before him. The first incident was from a corner- John Terry (incidentally playing his 600^th game for Chelsea) jumped on top of him, completely preventing Suarez from jumping for the ball and bundling him to the ground in the process. Webb was placed well to see the incident but gave nothing- a blatantly unjust decision. The second was even worse: Suarez was involved again, this time getting fouled by the man who should already have been off, Eto’o. Cesar Azpilicueta had just done well to dispossess Suarez, then Eto’o came across and knocked Suarez to the ground right in front of Webb’s nose. Unbelievably he gave nothing, and Chelsea went on to retain their 1 goal lead and win the game.

These weren’t the only two refereeing decisions I was aggrieved at. Oscar dived multiple times during the match, and was never once punished for it. He later committed a clearly bookable offence on Lucas, so he should have been off the pitch. Willian also totted up about 6 fouls early in the game without any reprimand. That said, Liverpool were by no means at their best. Though the referee has to shoulder a large portion of the blame for the result, we could have played much better, and at the end of the day the two penalty shouts would have been inconsequential if we could have scored more from open play.

To sum up, I’m very frustrated about the defeat and am angry at Howard Webb for his awful decision-making, but I don’t think we can complain too much seeing as the players were also at great fault. Fortunately this is only one game, and this defeat is by no means, as some reactionaries are dubbing it, ‘the end of our season’. The next game is against Hull on New Years Day- onwards and upwards.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Spurs 0 -5 Liverpool: Post-Match Thoughts

Yesterday (Sunday 15^th December), Liverpool travelled to White Hart Lane to face a team who have been widely tipped as their rivals for a Champions League spot, Tottenham Hotspur. If Liverpool were at all concerned about the potential season-long ramifications of the game then they did not show it- despite (or perhaps in part thanks to- I’ll get to this later) the absence of the skipper Liverpool put in arguably their best performance of the season to come out, astonishingly, 5-0 victors.

For the first five minutes it looked as if the game would pan out as widely predicted. Both sides were piling on the pressure, trying to get in the faces of the opposition. If anything, Tottenham had the better of the early exchanges. However, they were quickly overwhelmed by the rapid passing and movement of the Liverpool attack- Sterling in particular wreaked havoc. The reds deservedly broke the deadlock after 18 minutes, with Henderson and Coutinho combining nicely before Suarez exquisitely beat his man in the box and curled the ball into the corner. Spurs had no answer to the Liverpool pressure, and consequently Liverpool were able to add a second before half time- Suarez this time turning provider for Jordan Henderson.

When the first half ended it was a disappointment- we had the upper hand, and I was worried the break would kill our momentum. It wasn’t to be- Liverpool came out very strongly. In all fairness Spurs made a half-decent attempt to rally- they had a few decent attacks, but in truth never really looked like scoring. Any distant hope of a comeback was quashed on 63 minutes when midfielder Paulinho was sent off. There has been a fair bit of debate surrounding the red card, but I definitely think it was the right decision. Accidental or not the fact is Paulinho caught Suarez in the chest with his ridiculously high boot, a dangerous ‘challenge’ (in inverted commas as it was never really a contest for the ball- Suarez was always getting there first) worthy of a sending off.

12 minutes later Liverpool took advantage- Suarez played a nice cross into the middle, where Jon Flanagan of all people hit the bouncing ball expertly into the very top corner. This crumpled the last of Tottenham’s resistance; the floodgates opened and Liverpool slammed two more past Spurs in the latter stages, Suarez scoring the 4^th with an excellent lob and Sterling rounding things off in the 89^th minute.

Although Tottenham were not at their best, it cannot be argued that Liverpool weren't deserving of the win. They played some sumptuous football, moving the ball round expertly in midfield then making a slick, smooth transition into attack. This may well have been partially down to the absence of Steven Gerrard- though his long balls are exceptional when they come off, he does have a tendency to be wasteful. His age also means he isn’t quite as mobile as he once was- the role of technician that Allen played in his place was a breath of fresh air for the team. 

To sum up, Liverpool put in one of the performances of the season to thrash Tottenham away from home. Suarez was excellent as usual, involved in all 5 goals, but the emphasis was more on the team than the individual. If we can keep up this standard of play we will certainly be in with a very real chance at the title come the end of the season. A lot of people are still dubious, but if a 5-0 win away from home against the team that finished just a point off 4^th last season isn’t enough to make people reassess just what we’re capable of, I don’t know what is. The future is bright.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

A Tale of Two Articles- Language Analysis!

Note: This piece has been uploaded for a bit of fun! I did it as my English homework- it isn't an actual article, it is merely a comparison of my previous piece on the Norwich game and an article on the same game from the official Norwich website.
See the two articles here: http://www.canaries.co.uk/fixtures-results/match-report/index.aspx?MatchId=3661274&tcmuri=974294

http://www.liverpoolfcfanscorner.com/1/post/2013/12/suarez-crushes-norwich-with-four-goals-post-match-thoughts.html

The first text is an article written about Liverpool vs Norwich, from the perspective of a Liverpool fan. The other is a match report on the same game that was published on the official Norwich City website.

Though both texts are about the same event, the tones created by the respective authors are very different. On the Norwich website, phrases such as ‘on the wrong end’ are used, which imply that Norwich were not particularly at fault, and they were simply unlucky. In contrast, the article on LFC Fans Corner focuses mostly on the good play of Liverpool rather than the bad luck of Norwich. Emotive words such as ‘spectacular’ and ‘phenomenal’ are used to express the level of play that Liverpool were attaining.

Another technique used in the article on LFC Fans Corner is alliteration. Phillippe Coutinho is described as ‘creating chances’ and ‘dribbling round defenders’; the flowing nature of the language mirrors the fluid play that Liverpool were producing. Alliteration is also used in the article from the Norwich site, but to create a different effect. It describes Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers as ‘applauding in admiration’-in this instance, the use of alliteration alludes to the repetitive nature of the action. It suggests that applause were drawn a lot from Rodgers due to the extremely good performance of his team; this in turn makes Norwich look better as it further emphasises their helplessness in preventing the landslide victory.

Finally, the Norwich article uses litotes to try and portray Liverpool’s victory as somewhat fortuitous, again to show Norwich City as unlucky rather than merely outplayed. It describes the move that led to the second Liverpool goal as ‘nothing special’, suggesting Liverpool were lucky to get a goal from it. The piece on LFC Fans Corner, on the other hand, uses hyperbole to make Liverpool seem even better than they actually were. When describing the same goal, the author of this article said ‘it required a large amount of skill’. This serves to dispel any nagging thoughts the reader might be having that the goal was lucky. 

Canaries Creamed

On Wednesday, Liverpool hosted Norwich City. A win in their previous game had seen Norwich climb out of the bottom 3, and Liverpool came into the fixture on the back of a shock 3-1 defeat to Hull City. This did not seem to knock their confidence too much, as they eventually came out 5-1 winners in a victory inspired by Luis Suarez.

Norwich started the game brightly, and at first there were worrying sings that the absence of Sturridge could once again lead to a failure to create and convert chances. However, as it turned out, we don’t need chances to score! After 15 minutes, Suarez conjured a spectacular goal out of nothing. Ruddy hit his goal kick long, which, after an aerial duel, broke to Suarez. The Uruguayan took the ball on the half-volley, despite being 40 yards out. It shot through the air, with power, curve and deadly accuracy. Ruddy was helpless as the ball flew perfectly into the top corner of his net. It was a phenomenal goal, but Suarez was by no means finished.

14 minutes later, he netted again. This time it came from a corner- Gerrard looked as if he was going to header, but pulled away at the last second. This caused confusion in the Norwich defence, and Suarez was on hand to slam the ball emphatically into the roof of the net. Though not in the same league as his first, this goal required a large amount of skill, as it was tough to keep the bouncing ball down. It would have been easy to completely sky it (just ask Torres), but Suarez made it look easy.

Just 6 minutes later, he was at it again! On 35 minutes he completed his hat-trick, and completed it in style. Having flicked the ball brilliantly over a defender, he then shaped to shoot. Instead of hitting it straight away he delayed it slightly, creating more space. Once he’d got the space he was after, he cannoned it home into the corner, leaving poor Ruddy helpless once more. It was arguably even better than the first goal, and that’s really saying something.

Liverpool could have had another couple before half time, but the teams went in at 3-0. When the match got underway again, Norwich showed little sign of making any sort of comeback, and Suarez continued to wreak havoc with their defence. On 74 minutes he unbelievably added a 4^th, and it required just as much talent as the rest. Gerrard won a free kick, and Suarez stepped up. Sublimely, he curled it round the wall and into the corner. On any other day it would have been goal of the match! Suarez nearly got one or two more to his name, but it was actually Norwich who scored next. A nice cross, put in by youngster Nathan Redmond, was excellently headed in by Bradley Johnson. This didn’t change the flow of the game though, and Liverpool got their reward for continuing to press in the 88^th minute, when Suarez (who else?) set up Sterling to score the 5^th and final goal.

Contrary to what the article may have had you believe so far, Suarez was not the only Liverpool player to make a contribution. Coutinho was fantastic, creating a lot of chances and dribbling round defenders with ease at times. Johnson also had a good first half, though he faded off as the game went on. Sterling was very lively, and consistently made extremely selfless runs and passes. His reward was a goal and assist. That said, Suarez will rightly take all of the plaudits, because he was just sensational. It was quite possibly the best individual performance I have ever witnessed, and if we can hold on to him in January it should be regarded as the biggest achievement of our season to date.

Obviously it would be unreasonable to expect such stellar performances from Suarez every week, but the fact that he was able to so emphatically step up to fill the void left by Daniel Sturridge is promising. It shows that we can win, and win well, without him- hopefully we’ll be able to retain our place in the top 4 during the time he is sidelined.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013

Everton 3-3 Liverpool: Post-Match Analysis

I’m still in shock. Yesterday (Saturday 23^rd November), Liverpool and Everton played out one of the best, most dramatic Merseyside derbies to date. Many predicted it would be a good game, with both sides having good seasons, but nobody could have foreseen that it would turn into a six goal thriller, filled with all the ingredients to make a great game of football- controversy, exceptional play, drama and action right to the final whistle.

In their usual fashion, Liverpool started quickly. They won a corner inside 4 minutes, and subsequently scored from it- Coutinho smashing the ball emphatically into the net after Suarez had his shot blocked. Everton would have been disappointed to concede in such a manner- the marking was questionable, and James McCarthy, who was meant to be on the line to clear the ball, was standing in the goal! Consequently, his attempted clearance was ineffective, and Liverpool took the lead. However, it didn’t last long. 8 minutes into the game Leighton Baines delivered a very nice free kick, which, after a bit of a scramble, was turned home skilfully by Kevin Mirallas.

A few minutes later, Mirallas was involved again, but not in the right way. He tried to rob the ball from Suarez by sliding in, but his tackle was late and high, and his studs were up. It clearly should have been a red card (I may be biased, but I’m sure anyone would agree it was a horrendous challenge), but referee Phil Dowd only deemed it worthy of a yellow. This was not an isolated incident. The Everton game plan essentially seemed to be ‘try and get Suarez stretchered off the pitch’, and Mirallas in particular was guilty of multiple fouls. How he didn’t get sent off is beyond me.

Unfortunately for them, even dirty tactics could not contain the Uruguayan. 19 minutes in, he won a free kick in a promising position. Agger, Gerrard and Suarez all looked interested in taking it, but in the end it was Suarez who took on the responsibility. He certainly delivered- his glorious, curling effort got through the (admittedly somewhat scrappy) wall and past the outstretched glove of Tim Howard.  The game then died down a little, although both sides were still creating chances. Mignolet pulled off a couple of great saves to keep Liverpool in front going into the break.

After half time, it carried on in much the same way. With Baines off for Deulofeu, Everton became slightly more attacking, and Liverpool were forced into defending quite a lot. Mignolet made some astounding saves to retain the reds lead. With 30 minutes to go, Joe Allen was presented with a glorious chance to reward Mignolet’s hard work by all but sinking Everton. Suarez dances exceptionally through 3 Everton defenders, and the ball broke for the Welshman. He was clean through on Howard, with Suarez to his left. He opted to shoot, and understandably so, for it was a very easy chance. However, he somehow put the ball wide of the target, letting Everton off the hook. It was extremely frustrating; even if he wasn’t confident taking on the simple shooting chance, why not just square it to Suarez for a tap-in? Suarez seemed to be thinking along the same lines- he was visibly furious with Allen.

This was arguably the catalyst that Everton required. They redoubled their efforts, and with 20 minutes to go levelled the game through Romelu Lukaku. The chance came after Mignolet made yet another sublime stop (he made 9 in total throughout the game), but could not gather the ball. The Liverpool box was crowded with blue shirts, and when the ball got driven it and fell to Lukaku, the outcome was inevitable. At this point Rodgers took off Lucas for Sturridge, a real sign of intent. Unfortunately, it did not immediately pay off. Everton won a corner in the 82^nd minute, which Lukaku headed powerfully home for his 2^nd and Everton’s 3^rd, putting them in front for the first time. Sturridge was on the line, but could not prevent the ball sailing over his head and in.

Despite the fact that there was so little time left, it didn’t really feel like the scoring was over, and so proved. With just a minute left of the ninety, substitute Daniel Sturridge headed home after a great free kick from the captain, Steven Gerrard. This brought things level, but Liverpool were not done. They kept piling on the pressure deep into added time, resulting in what was very nearly the winning goal. Suarez was denied by a good save from Howard, and Sturridge actually put the ball into the net, but from an offside position. Eventually the final whistle blew, bringing the rollercoaster of a match to an end.

Mignolet gets my man of the match award, as without him we would have ended up with a result a lot worse than a draw. Jon Flanagan, who was filling in at left-back for Enrique and Cissokho, also deserves a mention. He made some good tackles, and though he didn’t provide much attacking impetus he was solid at the back. All in all, although it was disappointing not to win against our fierce rivals, a draw was probably a fair result. It was an excellent, hard-fought game of football, and a pleasure (albeit a stressful pleasure) to watch. It should be remembered that an away draw against e team sitting 6^th in the table is nothing to be ashamed of, and with three very winnable games coming up the overriding feeling at Anfield should be optimism.

-James Martin

Follow me on Twitter @JamesMartin013