Rodgers was forced to hand Mamadou Sakho his debut for us following injury to Daniel Agger – and the towering centre-half was handed a stern test against Swansea. Sakho, who is a towering 6ft 2 ins, didn’t disappoint when it came to dealing with crosses into Mignolet’s area, whilst he made a number of timely interceptions. Admittedly, at times, Sakho appeared cumbersome and wasn’t immune to a rush of blood to the head as it was evident works is needed in terms of his positional play.
The Liverpool manager also dropped Iago Aspas in favour of on-loan forward Moses. It was I felt justified considering the Spaniard’s encouraging but at times lightweight start to life in the English top-flight. Moses started on the left wing, allowing Philippe Coutinho to move into a central role, and the on loan player from Chelsea impressed, particularly in the first half. The 22-year-old is powerful and quick, giving the Reds much-needed width down the left flank. He capped his debut with a first-half goal and Rodgers will hope to nurse the best out of Moses, as he has done with Sturridge.
Reds boss Brendan Rodgers took a massive gamble and allowed Shelvey to leave us after three inconsistent seasons, so it was clearly a sweet moment when he gave Swansea the lead with less than two minutes played.
After making a hash of an attempted volley from long-range, Shelvey recovered his composure and surged away from our new £18 million ($30 million) centre-back Mamadou Sakho before clipping a fine finish past Simon Mignolet after his first effort was blocked by Martin Skrtel.
It was the first goal we had conceded in the league this season and Shelvey celebrated wildly.
But within two minutes he was looking to the sky in dismay after his careless mistake gifted Liverpool their equaliser.
Picking up possession just outside his own penalty area, Shelvey flicked a woefully under-hit pass back to goalkeeper Michel Vorm without noticing the lurking Sturridge, who gleefully rifled home a cool left-foot finish.
Shame he hadn't done that sort of pass more in a Liverpool shirt or he would have still been there!
Sturridge's sixth goal in five matches this season allayed any fears he would be short of sharpness after missing England's World Cup qualifiers against Moldova and Ukraine with a thigh strain.
And Sturridge went close to his second of the night when Vorm brilliantly kept out his header after good work from Moses unhinged the Swansea defence.
We had made our best start to a campaign since 1994-95 and took the lead as Shelvey's match took another turn for the worse in the 36th minute.
Under no pressure, the midfielder played a dreadful pass straight to Moses and the punishment was instant.
Breaking from just inside his own half, Moses advanced at pace and, with Swansea's defenders backing off, he unleashed a powerful low shot that left the flat-footed Vorm rooted to the spot.
Swansea remained a threat and when Mignolet palmed Nathan Dyer's shot across the face of his unguarded goal, it seemed certain Wilfried Bony would turn in the loose ball, only for Skrtel to slide in with a superb last-ditch challenge. Fantastic defending!
We then suffered a blow when Philippe Coutinho was forced off after a bodycheck by Ashley Williams left the Brazilian playmaker visibly wincing in pain.
And our frustrations grew even greater in the 64th minute as Swansea drew level.
Remarkably, Shelvey played a major role yet again as he finally provided an assist for his own team, timing his run to meet a through ball with a clever flicked header into the path of Spanish forward Michu, who slotted past Mignolet for his first league goal of the season. This goal was caused by debutant Sakho rashly leaving his defensive spot to enable Shelvey to run behind him to create the set- up for Michu.
With the momentum totally with Swansea we spent the rest of the game trying to stop Swansea getting a winner. This thankfully was a task achieved by the lads.
The drawn game now means that after 4 games we are top of the league
by remaining undefeated with 10 points.
Swansea City: Vorm, Chico, Williams, Rangel, Davies, Britton, Shelvey, Michu, Dyer (De Guzman 46), Routledge, Bony (Pozuelo 66)
Subs not used: Tremmel, Amat, Tiendalli, Canas, Vazquez
Goals: Shelvey 2, Michu 64
Booked: Williams, Shelvey
Liverpool: Mignolet, Jose Enrique, Sakho, Skrtel, Wisdom (Toure 69), Gerrard, Coutinho (Aspas 55), Moses (Sterling 81), Henderson, Lucas, Sturridge
Subs not used: Jones, Kelly, Alberto, Ibe
Goals: Sturridge 4, Moses 36
Booked: Wisdom, Henderson, Lucas
Man of the match Sturridge 4 goals in 4 games brilliant goal return for the clinical striker.
Positives: Top of the league after 4 games
Negatives: Defensively poor and the team again seemed to lose momentum after half time for the 4th game in a row that does not bode well long term.
All,
ReplyDeleteFelt sick with our 2nd half performance.
I can't believe that with 3 minutes to go into injury time and we have a throw in near their corner flag and we pass the ball back to our keeper rather than have a long throw and try to get the winning goal or at least put a bit of pressure on them.
Also, I can't believe than SG took all out corners and we did not get close to any of them.
Henderson and M Skertl played well but disappointed with Wisdom, Couthino faded in the 2nd half.
I think a better quality side would have murdered us on last night performance.
Mo
this was the point I was making to you earlier, it ok scraping 1 goal wins, but not for long and not for us, eventually teams will come back second half, and we don't seem to hold on that pressure and therefore make mistakes, concede goals.
DeleteIn all our games this season the engine room goes flat after 60 mins. In my opinion we need to recruit a top class central midfielder in January to ease the pressure on Stevie. Coutihno’s withdrawl underlined just how reliant we’ve become on the little bazilian, the whole system fell apart without him. Hopefully Suarez will give us another out ball from midfield when he comes back at the end of the month. We were very lucky to leave with a point last night, it’s early days but Sakho looks like a bomb scare every time the ball came near him, he needs more time on the training pitch before he gets back near the starting eleven.
DeleteCorrect me guys but I think that Sakho was pulled off the back of the defence for the 2nd goal ( he went with one of their players and left a gap in the middle for JS to nod down to Michu. It was a very good tactic by Swansea. I also think that SG was at fault for their 1st goal, turning his back on the none-volley by JS.
DeleteMo
That's what happens when you have five centre-halfs and no central midfield support - which we've been knocking on about since the first game. Sending out the likes of Connor Coady, when with just one injury to Joe Allen it shows up the lack of depth. A midfielder rather Aspas was what was needed and again bringing on Sterling when we needed to sure things up showed the lack of options on the bench.
DeleteOn Barry's point re Coutinho, after he went off Sturridge was basically ploughing a loan thorough up front with the lack of support and to his credit he never stopped running or trying. Both they're goals came through the middle of the defence (not a lot of shielding in front when you consider we play two holding midfielders) and while it was pretty poor defending by Stevie, turning his back like that, Shelvey had plenty to do, after that the defending left plenty to be desired.
Jonjo, may have had a hand in all four goals, but by the close of the game he looked the only midfielder capable of winning the game. Once our performances plateau out, we don't have a player looking or capable of dictating the game from midfield.
Not going to slate the player (Sakho) totally he was at fault for the 2nd goal by leaving the space behind him but in parts showed why we have purchased him especially in the air. He does need further training before he is up to speed - he was thrown in the deep end last night due to accident/injury prone Agger hurting his ribcage in the gym on Sunday. There is always something with Agger !!! He is highly frustrating because he is a fantastic talent at the back but you can't rely on him to stay fit for more than 10 games in a row.
DeleteWe were always going to struggle if we continue to concede so much possession to sides in the second half of games - 30% 2nd half possession for a top side is exceptionally poor.
It needs to be addressed as quickly as possible or we will have a very quick fall from the promised land at the top of the table.
Is it a stamina problem? I don't know but all I know is that we in hindsight should be happy with the draw as our second half performance especially in this game didn't merit a win.
David,
DeleteYou made a very good point about stamina. While watching the game we looked tired and I was thinking to myself not all out players played in midweek so why do we look tired.
Mo
That’s the massive mystery to me !!! Are they just lazy - where is the extra edge that should be there because we are at the top.
DeleteThe players yesterday did not show the desire, determination and fight to go and confirm a 3 point lead in the Premiership especially disappointing when we were winning 2-1 at half-time.
David,
DeleteI am in total agreement.
Mo
I know no one will agree with me on this one.
ReplyDeleteI thought that Coutinho should have "manned up" and continue playing he went out like a wimp last night - he needed to suck it up and show more commitment to the cause.
He has so far not produced the form he was expected to after a very encouraging end to the season - he went off with an injury to his waist for Pete's sake !!!
If Shankly was the manager he would be extremely angry with him !!! He needs to show more bravery - its not like he had twisted his ankle or got his knee smashed !!!
Maybe I am being harsh but him coming off and Aspas coming on was another pivotal moment to the game for me. Aspas is just too lightweight whereas Coutinho has more skill on the ball to get things moving in the forward positions for us.
I must say that he did try to play on but ..........
DeleteAlso, one thing we must bear in mind there is no point in staying on if it is going to get worse and miss games.
Mo
DeleteA waist injury - come on are you serious !!! As I said earlier these players have not got any fight in them - you shrug off those sorts of injury !!!
Did it break his rib? Hell NO !!! - just refer back all those years ago to Gerry Byrne for Liverpool playing in a cup final with a broken collar bone which happened in the 3rd minute of the match and he played the full game plus extra time!!! then you will see why I have no sympathy for these type of injuries. Proper LFC soldier/legend Mr Gerry Byrne was !!!
They don't make them tough like him nowadays !!! LOL
David,
DeleteSorry, William tackle on the boy was very bad. Some ref would have shown him red card. I think Wisdom should have been rested seeing that Kolo is back. Well I think it will make them more determine to get 3 points from Southampton game before the return of the wantaway man.
9 games, 7 wins and 2 draws without LS. So he is not dispensable after all. That said, I am on the side that we might have won that game if he played. I think the issue I have with Liverpool entire team is 45minutes great and 45 minutes hang on for dear life. That to me is not good enough. Yes we top the table after 4 games, with fans blood pressure being pushed to the limit in the closing minutes. I feel that must change and that fast too.
Well it seems like Coutinho did some damage to his shoulder as he's out until the end of October! He'll undergo a procedure on the said shoulder.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant, Ashley Williams is a toe rag. I hope he has the decency to come out and apologise because that was a horrible deliberate piece of nastiness but I doubt he’ll pipe up.
ReplyDelete....big blow and Suarez's return can't come soon enough. Nice to see alberto scoring a hat-trick for ressies the other night...
DeleteHe won't apologise cause he won't ever see he has done anything wrong !!!
DeleteRemember he nearly killed Van Persie and hasn't apologised for that either !!! LOL
Look on the bright side, it will be an opportunity for another player to shine.
DeleteMo