S.A.S. Task Force deliver again: Liverpool 3 Crystal Palace 1

On a day when Luis Suarez with newly born son Benjamin and daughter Delfina in tow for the pre-match handshakes made his first reappearance at Anfield since the end of his 10 match ban and with Kenny Dalglish in watching on having taken up his role as a non-executive Director Liverpool returned to the top of the league with their fifth victory in seven games. 

Lucas Leiva, missing following 5 yellow cards, Brendan Rodgers switched Henderson inside to play alongside Gerrard, with Sterling asked to show his adaptability by starting at wing-back with Liverpool again starting with three-centre backs in Sakho, Toure and Skrtel.

In an open game, which was more about football in its purest form than any real intensity, Crystal Palace started well creating early chances, only lacking composure in the final third.

Victor Moses, whose touch let him down in front of goal minutes earlier, intelligently moved the ball from right to left finding Suarez, who in turn found the ever willing Enrique overlapping outside him.  The Spaniard, as he tends to do in those situations found Saurez, who under pressure from Jason Puncheon fell to the ground showed he is a predator by nature in hooking the ball home.

The other part of the striking duo then got in on the act, with a devastating finish. Collecting Enrique’s long ball up the field the England striker strode majestically into the area before with no support, twisting and turning Damian Delaney, before one last faint and turn set him free to release a stunning angle drive into the far corner past Julian Speroni.  Sturridge has now amassed 19 in goals in 24 games since his January transfer from Chelsea and has in the last 11 games assisted or scored 16 goals.

The understanding between the front-two almost brought a third, when a long ranged one-two between the duo ended with Sturridge just failing to get on the end of Suarez cross before the outstretched boot of Delaney.

Much to their credit Palace continued to get forward, running through the Liverpool midfield with alarming ease at times.  Jim Kebe pounced on Sakho and Skrtel’s indecision, his shot superbly blocked by Toure and Mignolet saving Cameron Jerome’s shot.

Liverpool’s productive first half was not over.  Sterling linking up with Suarez, fastened on to the returned ball over Dean Moxey only for the left-back to pull the young winger down as he entered the area.  Referee Anthony Taylor after consulting with his assistant pointed to the spot.  Steven Gerrard dispatched the penalty for his first goal of the season and the 99^th Premiership goal of his career.

Moses hit the bar from little more than two yards out after Luis Suarez fired in a low cross to him just before the break.

As with Liverpool performances this season it was a tale of two halves.  The intensity levels dropped and Palace with the introduction of Gayle and Campana took on a more threatening persona.

The drop of in performance led to yet another goal conceded from a dead-ball situation.  Gayle stole ahead of Steven Gerrard, leaving the Liverpool captain floundering at the near post with a superb flicked header.

Stung into a response, which suggested the second-half lethargy could just be a state of mind Liverpool, Sturridge and Suarez, starved of any supply, finally worked themselves into the second period linking up only to see Sturridge right volley come back of the post.

Man of the Match:  Daniel Sturridge – Looks a player at one with his game and not fazed by the returning Suarez, in fact his game seems to have gone up a level, in terms of the awareness of his colleagues in the final third which may have a lot to the respect he has for his strike partner.

His goal was one of a striker full of confidence and clinical by design.  He and Suarez are looking as lethal a pairing as seen at Anfield in a long time with their link up play seemingly almost telepathic.

Victor Moses combined well with the front two and also gives us a powerful runner capable of picking the ball up from deep and driving forward as he did against Sunderland from defensive areas. The Chelsea loanee received a splendid ovation from the whole stadium on being substituted.

Luis Suarez is pure class, he has now scored 19 goals in his last 22 Liverpool games.

Critical Eye:  Yet again we conceded from a dead-ball situation which smacks of a lack of concentration.  We have to eradicate this as invariably sides getting a sniff when the game as it was today is already won.

The midfield again failed to stifle the threat from the opposition with Crystal Palace often getting through to confront the backline without much effort.

Manager’s comments from the Liverpool Echo:

"The game is evolving all the time but the style never changes," he said.

"I've always asked teams to control and dominate the ball, be aggressive in their defending and press really aggressively and high up the pitch - but that can be in whatever system."

"What I've said to our front two is that when we're defending in our half of the pitch, when we can't press and we are under pressure, I am happy for them both to stay up there.

"That gives us nine men behind the ball, the opposition have to leave at least two defenders back covering so the maximum number they can put in our half of the pitch is eight.

"I'll take that we can defend nine versus eight if that gives me two-v-two in their half of the pitch because of our strikers' pace and power.

"For me, it's all about getting a numerical advantage centrally to try to dominate the opposition."

"I am not one to dwell on too many negatives [Southampton defeat]," he said.

"We were disappointing in that game, we maybe didn't deserve to lose it but we didn't deserve to win it. We have moved on well.

"There are still lots of areas that we can be better but we have confidence and belief at the moment.

"We are team who are evolving and we are starting to understand that side of football that with every attack you can't score, sometimes you have to disrupt your opponents' organisation and then make goals from there and that requires patience from the players and supporters.

"The beauty for me is that I think we've still got a lot of improvement to make and we'll just look to keep winning the next game."

Team: 22 Mignolet, 37 Skrtel, 17 Sakho (Agger – 67mins), 4 Toure, 31 Sterling, 14 Henderson, 8 Gerrard, 3 Jose Enrique, 7 Suarez, 12 Moses (Luis Alberto – 66 mins), 15 Sturridge (Iago Aspas – 88 mins)

Substitutes: 1, Jones, 9 Iago Aspas,  33 Ibe, 26 IIori, 47 Wisdom, 5, Agger, 6 Luis Alberto

Referee: Anthony Taylor

 

Attendance: 44,721