Liverpool 1 Reading 0

Brendan Rodgers striker lite service, more pronounced in the the absence of Fabio Borini and the manager’s reluctance to pick either Adam Morgan or Samed Yesil for the match day squad, remained unchanged for the visit of Reading.

The early exchanges saw Reading put on the back foot, with Sterling having a shot blocked and a speculative shot easily gathered by McCarthy. Gerrard unhindered from England’s lackadaisical performance in midweek, looked revitalised with some crunching tackles in midfield, one of which, a block tackle, saw Karacan’s day end early.

Liverpool continued to dominate with Suarez showing his speed of thought with a crafted chip after he miscontrolled, which sailed just over the bar. A stinging move from the centre of the park, after another Gerrard interception, involved Sahin sweeping the ball out to Sterling who return the complement to the Turkish midfielder who blazed his shot over from inside the area. As has been the norm recently Liverpool’s dominance in possession resulted in a plethora of missed opportunities which ramped up the tension in the ground.

Almost on the half hour the impressive Suarez, supplied a beautiful flicked pass which set the electric eel like Sterling away, to unleash an unerring finish inside inside the far post to become Liverpool’s second youngest scorer in the Premier League behind Michael Owen.

Suarez snaking run ended with a flashing drive past the post and Glen Johnson, after his run was picked out delightfully by Sterling, had his shot parried away by McCarthy.

Early in the second-half Suarez should’ve put the game to bed when after a characteristically mazy run, fluffed his lines when a simple finish in the corner of the net should have been the order of the day. Reading broke up the other end of the pitch and Jones pulled off a smart sprawling block to deny McCleary and pulled off a decent save from Jobi McAnuff.

Reading began to grow in confidence with Liverpool’s lack of precision finishing. Even so, the home team had chances to finish the game off with McCarthy again denying Suarez and flipping behind Sterling return cross. Shelvey on for Sahin, was found by a devastating defence splitting ball from Suarez, but caught in two minds, tamely wasted a golden opportunity.

Gerarrd stretched McCarthy from an acute angle, with Skrtel and Johnson also coming close to killing off a spirited Reading side who had chances to cause more than an embarrassment to the Liverpool defence, particularly in the last 20 minutes with Jason Roberts inclusion and a change of tact in going long.

Man of The Match: Raheem Sterling – Dispatched his goal with the clinical nature of finisher, which stood out like a beacon on a day when Liverpool were profligates in front of goal. His has the mature ability to pick out colleagues in tight situations by picking his head up (many of his colleagues could learn a thing or too, Suarez included), as such he is aware and is able to invariably make the right decisions. It was no coincidence he was given a standing ovation as left the field to be substituted.

Comment: With Liverpool's continued profligacy in front of goal, one is tempted to think of just where the team would be with a top class finisher in the line-up. Rodgers is not afraid to blood young talent with Sterling and Suso proof positive in that regard, but why does he refrain from blooding a youngster in the striking role or even on the bench?

It's not that we consistently miss chances, but it's also that chances in the box are spurned and the ratio of shots off target tends to be too high for club with Champions League pretensions, 23:13 in this game alone.

There is still over two months before the next transfer window and as such enough time to mount a challenge for the 4th Champions League spot or for that challenge to dissipate even before January. We talk about not being ready, but with the amount of possession we have in games a cutting edge up front would obviously increase the dimension and potency to Liverpool as an attacking force.