Hull came out as if hell bent on leaving a mark on Luis Suarez with some very questionable tackles led by Alex Bruce, some of which were bordering on the brutal and one particular follow through from Meyler seemed to have plenty of venom behind it.
Liverpool with Aspas starting on the right, coming in for Allen and Cissokho returning at left-back, moved Agger to his preferred centre-back role following Sakho’s pulled hamstring against Chelsea started understandably tentatively coming off the back of two successive defeats and languishing in fifth position having headed the table on Christmas Day.
Hull looked comfortable having arrived at Anfield following their 6-0 demolition of Fulham and it was the Humberside club who offered the first meaningful attempt on goal, with Yannick Sagbo and Livermore linking up just outside the area to leave Daniel Agger for dead before the Ivorian shot powerfully over from 20 yards.
Suarez, after two games without a goal finally found the back of the net with a header from Coutinho’s free-kick, only to have the goal disallowed as he’d crept into an offside position.
Following a long pass from Agger, Suarez expertly guided the ball in the path of Sterling with a deft headed flick to send him away in the inside left channel. Opening up his body as if curl the ball into the far corner, he shot straight at Allan McGregor.
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| Suarez shows's his magical right boot |
The game should have been all but over as contest by half-time. A devastating move which deserved a goal was started by Coutinho who played the balled into Aspas who cushioned the ball with enough weight to invite the marauding Henderson to double the lead, unfortunately he screwed his effort wide of the far post. During the move Suarez was unceremoniously mowed down with the referee offering very little in way of protection for the Uruguayan.
The final move of the half saw Coutinho involved as he controlled Henderson’s chipped pass in sumptuous fashion near the penalty spot only to pull his shot wide. One started to get the feeling that the missed chances could comeback to haunt us.
That feeling dissipated five minutes into the second-half with the inimitable Suarez showing just way he is unquestionably the MVP in the Premiership at the moment. Brought down by James Chester 25 yards from goal, he sauntered up to the ball and whipped the it up over the wall, curling away from McGregor into the corner of the net for his 20 Premiership goal of the season, equalling Andy Cole who reached the landmark on New Year’s Day in 1994 for Newcastle, but Liverpool’s no.7 has done so in only 15 games.
There seems no end in sight of our injury woes at the start of the New Year. Worryingly, Glen Johnson went off to be replaced by Kolo Toure with a leg injury and if Johnson is to be out for any length of time Liverpool will be without both senior full-backs.
The second-half also saw the re-introduction of our club captain replacing the ineffectual Aspas, who one hopes gets another outing in the FA Cup as he needs a run of games if he is to adapt to the physical nature of the English game.
We coasted through the rest of the match without much alarm. Coutinho had two efforts, the first easily saved, but the second saw the Brazilian at his best sparkling best. Picking up the ball from just inside his own half the youngster ghosted past three tackles on his way to the area, failing to add a finish to what would’ve been one of the goals of the season.
Man of the Match: Jordan Henderson – Showed just how far his game has come slotting easily into a holding role in the absence of Joe Allen, but also being in the position to almost steal a goal away from Agger and popping up to shoot just wide before half-time. He also provided an inch perfect pass to Coutinho who in turn shot just wide, showing both short and long range passing in the match.
Luis Suarez showed the maturity and discipline his manager has been claiming he has added to his make-up as he took some severe punishment from Bruce and Huddlestone, respectively. The striker went on to score the winner in his brilliant, but to Liverpool fans, familiar fashion for his 20th goal of the season.
Critical eye: Philippe Coutinho in flashes produced some fantastic moments in the match. But, it mask the fact that for the third game in succession his final ball, apart from on one occasion, left a lot to be desired. He looks for the flashy ball, where the simple ball is often the better bet and as I said in the last blog often gives away possession that has been well earned and as we learnt against Chelsea possession is nine tenths of the law in football.
He seemed in a mind set to score today, shooting from distance when there were better options on. For a player who sees the ball more than most in the Liverpool team we need him to be frugal and not giveaway possession so easily. There is no doubt he has a bright future and when he puts all the pieces together he’ll be one of the best in the Premiership.
Only the third time this season where we have kept a clean sheet and we were much better defending set pieces than we have been of late.
Teams:
Liverpool: 22 Mignolet, 2 Johnson (Kolo Toure – 55 mins), 20 Cissokho, 14 Henderson, 37 Skrtel, 5 Agger, 9 Iago Aspas (Gerrard 62 – mins), 21 Lucas, 7 Suarez, 10 Coutinho, 31 Sterling (Moses – 76 mins)
Substitutes: 1 Jones, 4 Kolo Toure, 6 Luis Alberto, 8 Gerrard, 34 Kelly, 46 Rossiter
Hull City:
1 McGregor, 27 Elmohamady, 3 Figueroa, 6 Davies, 4 Bruce, 5 Chester, 7 Meyler (Boyd –59 mins), 14 Livermore, 20 Sagbo (Fryatt – 58 mins), 10 Koren (Graham – 59 mins), 8 Huddlestone
Substitutes: 2 Rosenior, 9 Graham, 12 Fryatt, 17 Boyd, 22 Harper, 23 Faye, 29 Quinn
Referee: Craig Pawson
Attendance: 44,627
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