Friday, 21 September 2012

Shelvey shines in sloppy win over Young Boys

By dedlfc (David Douglas)

Brendan Rodgers decided to rest most of his first team squad with the imminent league game vs Man Utd coming up. The sad events of the past seven days have weighed heavily on the minds of all LFC fans and football fans in general.

We went into the game having not won since an own goal to Hearts in this Euro league competition and needed to ensure that we were on our most combative form to get anything out of this game vs our Swiss opposition.

I would have started the game with Adam Morgan as the main focal point of our attack but Rodgers decided to give a rare start to the almost forgotten Daniel Pacheco.

The first major incident in the game happened after almost 4 mins when a Downing cross from the right was inadvertently headed home after a richocet onto  Juhani Ojala. The goal settled the team down and gave the team a semblance of control for the majority of the first half.

With the Young Boys struggling to make an attacking impact on the game they had their first slice of luck when hesitant defending again cost us a goal - this time the inconsistent Enrique obliged and the lack of basic defending in a dangerous area cost us a goal with a calamitous mixup with keeper Jones.

Young Boys didn't get much time to celebrate with us again taking the lead 2-1 from a corner with a fantastic towering header from right back Andre Wisdom on his first start for the club.

At the half-time whistle with us winning 2-1 the outstanding performer was Andre Wisdom who through his assured performance had shown that he definitely is one for the future.

The second half started very poorly for us as we seemed to lose all impetus to our game and eventually conceded a second equaliser with the previous villain Ojala this time getting a goal at the right end of the pitch for his team.

With confidence slowly ebbing away from the team we went behind 3-2 to a neat chip by Zarate over Jones with Carragher again at fault with his lack of positioning and strangely strength in the original tackle. This was now a test of character to see what the players on the pitch had in terms of match resolve.

Rodgers quickly reacted introducing the ever improving talent that is Jonjo Shelvey for debutant winger Assaidi who had a decent first run out. His impact was immediate, showing maturity beyond his years, with his calming influence taking effect immediately.

Liverpool quickly reasserted parity via a corner from the right from Downing which Coates headed in with Borini just missing out on a final touch to make it 3-3
We then took the lead with a lovely move involving Borini, Henderson and finally Shelvey to finish the move to take the lead again 3-4 and then the combination of intelligent selfless running off the ball to distract defenders by Henderson freed up our strong running Shelvey who smashed the ball home left footed for our 5th goal for a resounding 3-5 victory.
Special mentions - Jordan Henderson - very tidy passing and intelligent running - best performance he has made in a LFC shirt for a while.

Andre Wisdom - right back looked very good in the first half but the defence struggled collectively in the second half so has to continue working on his all round game to maintain his first half level for a full game.

Assaidi and Suso did relatively okay and  just need more games - they both had very good moments especially Suso with one mazy run which caused havoc to the Young Boys defence.

Sahin was also very tidy throughout the game, with Pacheco a little disappointing, due to lack of decent service so didn't get a chance to impress.

Man of the match - Super sub Jonjo Shelvey -came onto the pitch and showed he belongs at first team level from now on - he has been the most improved player in the squad at the moment.

Final mention goes to our manager who despite the lack of support from the board retains his dignity which I greatly admire so far.

Let's now hope that the first team can produce a performance against our biggest rivals Man Utd after being given a rest for this Euro league game.





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