Post-Match Thoughts- Liverpool vs Anzhi

Liverpool moved comfortably up to top of ‘group A’ yesterday (25th October), after a fairly uneventful 1-0 win over Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala.

Liverpool looked lively from the start of the game, skilling out defenders (including ex-Blackburn captain Chris Samba) with ease. Assaidi also looked lively, with some lovely bursts of speed to open up the opposition. However, despite Shelvey being provided with a good chance to open the scoring (which he blasted well over), the first half ended goalless.

Half-time saw Brendan Rodgers make a change, with Sterling coming on to replace Glen Johnson. This meant that Downing, who thus far had been fairly ineffective, dropped to left back. The second half started as the whole of the first half had gone. Liverpool were pushing forward a lot, and trying to get goals. Agger and Skrtel both tried shots from distance early in the half, and Shelvey had a good chance too. Finally the goal game, from the unlikely source of Stewart Downing! He hadn’t been able to contribute to the attacking much at all in the first half (when he was playing at left midfield), but when he was moved to left back he suddenly found his ability to attack again! He cut in from his wide position, and fired the ball into the bottom corner. It was a very good goal, and prompted the Kop to start singing ‘Stewart Downing, he scores when he wants!’

This goal prompted Anzhi into finally making some attacks of their own. Samuel Eto’o tested Brad Jones on 70 minutes, and Agger was forced to clear from near his own goal-line near the end of the match. Fortunately, Liverpool were able to withstand the rather belated Anzhi pressure, and finished the game comfortable victors.

Overall, I think that the best way to describe Liverpool in this match is solid. They were up against a team with very good attackers, and kept them out with apparent ease. They also managed to create some good chances, although I would have liked to have seen more of them taken. If they can retain this form against Everton in the derby on Sunday, I think we should be able to get the three points.

Lay off Luis Suarez!

Fact: Except for Liverpool fans, nobody likes Luis Suarez. Indeed, even some LFC fans are turning against him. Ever since the Suarez-Evra racism issue, the press have picked on him, labelling him as a liar and a cheat. I have largely been trying to ignore this anti-Suarez campaign, but when it got to the point that our number 7 striker was being labelled by someone on this very website as such a cheat that he deserved to be sold, I decided I had to act! On that note, here is my defence of Luis Suarez.

Firstly, I’m going to talk about the racism issue. I must make it clear that I am not defending what Luis Suarez did, and certainly am not defending racism. However, I do have a problem with the FA’s inconsistency. At the time of the Suarez-Evra issue, I thought that Suarez should just take his punishment, and although I was frustrated that we’d lost our best striker for eight games, I didn’t feel that the punishment was particularly unjust. However, after the verdict was given on the recent John Terry racism issue, I was outraged! The cases are almost identical, and yet for some reason Terry got half the ban, just four games! To me, this seems like clear evidence that the anti-Suarez media campaign has spread to the FA. It is disgraceful that the organisation representing all of English Football can show such bias and unfairness.

The other main issue people have with Luis Suarez is his supposed diving. Again, I am not trying to pretend that Suarez is entirely innocent in this matter. Suarez does often exaggerate the extent of fouls, and also occasionally goes down under no contact whatsoever. This is against the rules, and therefore should not be overlooked. These rules are applied to Suarez, and that I have no problem with. However, what about Gareth Bale’s blatant diving in recent matches for Tottenham and Wales? I’m also pretty sure chest-stamping isn’t allowed, but Robert Huth got away with that one! Where is the consistency? Referees have an expectation that Suarez will cheat, because the media are constantly telling us he does, not focusing on all the other cheating that goes on the Premier League. Because they expect this of him, they judge him more harshly than other players. In fact it has got to the point where the media has given Suarez such a bad reputation that even when he is fouled, the referees overlook it. This is absolutely unacceptable, and is one of the main reasons why Liverpool have made a less than satisfactory start to the season.

In conclusion, although Suarez may well deserve the punishments given to him for racism and diving, so do many players. Luis Suarez has become the scapegoat for all cheaters in the Premier League, which is totally unfair on him and on Liverpool.

Liverpool vs Stoke Post-Match Analysis

Today (Sunday 7th October), Liverpool faced Stoke City at Anfield. Despite the home side creating a decent amount of chances and dominating possession, the game ended as a goalless draw.

I will start with the positives from the game. The first is that they were able to continue the passing prowess that they showed at Norwich. They were moving the ball around very nicely, and had a very large percentage of possession. These weren’t just short passes either. In the first half particularly, Gerrard played some exquisite long balls, which nearly carved open Stoke’s defence on many occasions.

Another positive to take from the game is how much Liverpool seems to have tightened up at the back. To be fair, Stoke didn’t have many meaningful attacks at all, but on the few occasions that they did push forward Liverpool handled it well. There were also a lot less stupid errors. As a result we were able to keep a clean sheet, which is encouraging.

On the other hand, our chance conversion was once again poor. I have had to say this so many times, and I really hoped that we’d turned a corner last week at Norwich when we scored 5. However, they were simply not able to reproduce this scoring form today, despite creating a lot of goal-scoring opportunities. Admittedly we were unlucky, striking the woodwork an incredible 4 times, but it seems to me that we need to put a lot of work into our finishing.

I was also quite disappointed with Raheem Sterling today. He has been a stand-out player for LFC so far this season, but some of his movement and energy seemed to be lacking today. He had his moments (such as when he made a great run past 3 or 4 Stoke players near the end of the game, only to be stopped by a Dean Whitehead foul), but generally he wasn’t able to do much when he got the ball. Without Sterling’s bright runs to vary the play, Liverpool became a little over-reliant on Luis Suarez. However good Suarez is, he can’t do anything without sufficient back-up from the rest of the team, which in my opinion there wasn’t enough of today.

Overall, I think Liverpool deserved to get the three points from the game. They had by far the most possession and created quite a lot of chances. However, a combination of poor finishing and an over-reliance on Suarez meant we were not able to find the net, and thus only came away with a point. Hopefully Liverpool can work on their shooting, and become more efficient in front of goal. If this happens, Liverpool should soon be back to winning ways.

Norwich vs Liverpool- Our Season has Started

On Saturday 29th September, Liverpool played Norwich at Carrow Road. They played exceptionally well, and won 5-2, with Luis Suarez scoring a hat-trick. The other scorers were Nuri Sahin and Steven Gerrard.

It was a well deserved victory for Liverpool. Luis Suarez played phenomenally, getting three goals and an assist. However, it wasn’t just an individual effort. The team were passing and keeping possession well, and apart from Skrtel’s error that gifted Grant Holt a goal they defended very well. The ease with which Liverpool were scoring goals is very encouraging, as finishing and chance conversion were huge problems for us last season.

Although fans can take heart from this victory, a lot of people are still questioning why it took so long for us to get our first win. To me, the answer seems obvious! To adapt to a new manager is hard for any club, especially when he brings with him a brand new style of play. In our first few games, the tiki-taka way of playing that Rodgers likes so much wasn’t quite working for Liverpool, and they couldn’t play to their full potential. Now, however, the players have been able to fully adjust to this more technical style of play, and are a much better team because of it. This is where our season begins. If Liverpool are able to maintain this level of play, they may stand a chance of turning around our bad start and challenging for a top four spot.

The main problem with this is our striker’s reliability. So far I have not been impressed with Borini, and Suarez seems to either be inspired or useless. On his day, he will terrorise defences and score with apparent ease, yet he sometimes plays extremely poorly and seems unable to shoot properly. The fact remains that if Liverpool want to stand a chance of once again becoming title challengers in seasons to come, they will need to become more consistent.

Obviously the win against Norwich was extremely encouraging, but I think the key now is to stay calm. Liverpool played extremely well, but they need to maintain this level of form. If they play with such assurance and confidence against Stoke next week, I think they should win easily, and if they continue like this for the rest of the season, then maybe, just maybe, we could be set for a long-overdue return to the top 4.

Why Always Us? Liverpool vs Manchester United Post-Match Analysis

On Sunday 23rd September, Liverpool lost 2-1 to Manchester United. Unlike some of our other defeats this season, this game certainly brings fans many valid reasons to complain. Things just never seem to slot into place for Liverpool at the moment, and the question that has to be asked (to mis-quote Mario Balotelli) is why always us?

Firstly, it has to be said that Liverpool were clearly the better side in the match. They played brilliantly, and Manchester United were underwhelming. So how did United come away from Anfield with all three points? I know people say this after every game, but this time I think it is fair to say we have a valid reason to blame the referee. LFC were totally dominant in the first half, with Manchester United seeing very little of possession. The passing style of Brendan Rodgers was working well, and United were not getting a look in. However, very near the end of the first half, referee Mark Halsey showed Jonjo Shelvey a red card. How Halsey reached the decision that Jonjo deserved red I shall never know, seeing as all he did was go in for a 50/50 ball. Both Shelvey and United defender Jonny Evans went in two-footed, and both got something of the ball. The only difference was that Evans started writhing about on the floor, whereas Shelvey got up and chased the ball, committed as ever to the cause.

Once Liverpool had been reduced to 10 men, they could hardly be expected to play fluid, passing football. With United’s one man advantage, it would have been almost impossible for LFC to maintain possession for long stretches at a time. However, I was hugely impressed with how Liverpool responded. They kept up the pressure until the end of the first half, and then came out just as attacking at the start of the second. Despite United having a man more than Liverpool, the majority of the meaningful attacks were still being mounted by LFC. Sure enough, this pressure paid off just minutes into the second half, with a great goal from Steven Gerrard. In a huge fixture such as this, it seems Liverpool can always rely on Steven Gerrard, who certainly gave all his doubters something to think about. It seemed Liverpool may triumph, despite the poor refereeing decision that had gone against them.

Unfortunately though, the captain’s goal seemed to kick-start United into action. They finally seemed to be able to make the most of their one man advantage, and began to see a lot more of possession. In fact, they hit back at Liverpool in just 3 minutes, through a lovely strike from defender Rafael. In all fairness to Man U, their build-up play was good and it was a very sweet finish. However, this did not seem to put out Liverpool’s fire, and Suarez twice came close in the coming minutes.

With Liverpool playing so well and United nowhere near their best, it seemed Liverpool were certain to get at last a point out of the game if not more, even though they had a man less than the visitors. However, Halsey once again intervened. Liverpool were trying to push forward again, when a wayward pass from youngster Suso allowed Valencia to sprint 40 yards up the pitch. In my opinion, Glen Johnson did absolutely brilliantly. He sprinted down the pitch and managed to get back at Valencia, throwing himself into a tackle to try and win the ball back. However, he didn’t get the ball, and neither did he touch Valencia. He slid to the side of both man and ball. However Valencia still went down (somewhat predictably), and Halsey, who seems to simply enjoy seeing Liverpool suffer, awarded a penalty. This was grossly unjust. It almost seemed that justice would be done when Reina made a brilliant attempt to save the Van Persie penalty, but in the end it was just too well placed. The fact that this penalty was given was made even more of a sore point given the fact that LFC had already had two or three legitimate penalty shouts turned down.

In conclusion, the fact that Liverpool got nothing out of this match was massively unfair, and almost entirely down to the referee. Firstly he put Liverpool at a massive disadvantage by sending off Shelvey, and then practically gifted United a goal by giving them a penalty. LFC can be extremely encouraged by their performance, and on any other day with any other ref (except perhaps Howard Webb!) they would certainly have taken all three points.

Liverpool in the Europa- Can our young boys take on the Young Boys?

This evening (Thursday 20th September), Liverpool will face Swiss side Young Boys at the Stade de Suisse. Brendan Rodgers has fielded a very young and relatively inexperienced side, but could this backfire on Liverpool?

Firstly, I must make clear that I am very much in favour of young players being given a chance to prove themselves in the first team. To have a successful club, you must have a successful academy and youth system. The young players can’t stay in the youth and reserve squads forever, and it is good to see the likes of Raheem Sterling making the step up to the regular first team. Liverpool are expected to win against a side such as Young Boys, so Rodgers might have made a good call in picking this game to give some of the younger players their chance.

However, I personally think that this is a bad strategy. I for one want to see Liverpool do well in the Europa league this season, and it would be awful if we were to lose to a side such as Young Boys, in a game which we should be able to win fairly comfortably. Youth should be fed into the first team slowly, not all thrown in at once. I know it is a possibility that all the young players will do really well and get a win for LFC, and I certainly hope this happens. However, I think we would have been better off only including a few young players in the side tonight, and fielding a mostly experienced team to try and secure the result we need.

On the other hand, as you will probably know, there is an extremely important Premier League clash with Manchester United on Sunday. I can see that players need to be rested for this game, as it is arguably more important than our fixture tonight against Young Boys. Hopefully, as Manchester United fielded an almost full strength squad in their game against Galatasaray in midweek, we will have an advantage over them. Most of our main players won’t have been in action for over a week when it comes to the game against United, so this could give us the edge we need to win our first game of the Premiership season.

Overall though, I think a bit more experience should have been included in the squad for tonight’s game against Young Boys. More experience would have made the win easier to seal, and playing so many young players is definitely a risk, but hopefully it will pay off. We shall have to see how things pan out tonight.

Sunderland Vs Liverpool- My Thoughts

In the late kick-off game on Saturday15th September 2012, Liverpool faced Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.  Despite dominating the match, they could only manage a 1-1 draw. Fletcher was the goal scorer for Sunderland, and Suarez netted for Liverpool.

I think Brendan Rodgers will have been pleased with the way his team started. They were passing it around nicely, getting the ball forward and creating chances. However, Liverpool were unable to make the most of these chances, and after 29 minutes were punished. Totally against the run of play, Sunderland mounted a good attack down the right wing and got a good ball into the box, which Fletcher buried. Although it pains me to say it, Reina was once again partially at fault for the goal, coming for the cross and missing it.

After this, I was pleased with how well Liverpool responded. They didn’t let the goal get to them, and continued mounting good attacks, although not quite as regularly as they had been before the goal. Once again Sterling was playing exquisitely, and causing the Sunderland defence a lot of problems. I was also more pleased with Borini’s performance than I have been in previous games. Suarez also looked lively, and should have been given a penalty when he took the ball round two defenders and was then tripped up. The referee did not give it, and to add insult to injury booked him for simulation.

With all of Liverpool’s forwards looking so bright and lively, it seemed inevitable that they would score. However, I started to get worried when we were still a goal down with 20 minutes to go. Eventually though, after a great piece of play from Sterling, Suarez was able to smash the ball into the net from close range. Liverpool had a fair few chances after this as well, and were unlucky not to go on and win the game.

Overall, I think Liverpool played very well and can be pleased with their performance; however the recurring problem of finishing again has to be brought up. With such dominance and so many chances, it has to be said that Liverpool should have won the game. On the other hand, although we didn’t get the result we were after, I think there are many positives to be taken from this game. We should build on this result to try and get the win next time out, against Manchester United. What a sweet first win of the season that would be!