Big Ben strikes again against mediocre Sunderland to end the year 2015 on a winning high and catapault us upto 7th place

Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)

Sunderland 0 Liverpool 1 (Benteke after 46 mins)

Pre-match News: Our last team selection of 2015 only involved one change with Klopp selecting Benteke for the injured Origi from the side that defeated Leicester 1-0 on Saturday. The main question was how were we going to set up either as a  4-4-2 with Firmino and Benteke up top, or would we leave Big Ben alone up top. Ibe and Teixeira are the only attacking options off the bench, which might not bode well if the lads are chasing a goal late on. 

A long range effort by Nathaniel Clyne and a horrible first touch and harmless dribble by Firmino after an interception and pass from his international teammate Coutinho  - the touch was so poor it was comical and also a sign that Firmino needs another game like against Man City earlier in the season where he looked an outstanding talent but hopefully he will get better in the second half of the season.

Defoe shot tipped wide by Mignolet after our players continually back off from him allowing a free shot at goal for a clinical striker – not a highly recommended thing to do!!

Coutinho did gets a chance to show his Brazilian genius at taking free kicks but the chance goes over – it seems that Gerrard’s tips in training have so far not worked with Coutinho as yet.

Benteke then picks up a needless and senseless yellow card for sticking his boot out while the keeper was punting the ball. Good thing we have another striker to come in if he picks up a suspension. Oh wait.

Firmino almost has his moment of redemption, banging a cracking long-range shot off the post. Mannone makes a great save to palm the well-hit strike onto the post and deny Firmino with his fantastic effort.

Injury prone Sunderland’s Jack Rodwell again then pulls up injured after about 30 mins – reminding us that its not just us with our woes at trying to get Sturridge fit and able to play because this player was seen as one of England’s brightest hopes several years ago but like Sturridge seems to forever having injury setbacks.

Yesterday our former striker Borini claimed he would love to score against us – his wish was nearly granted when he shot wide late on in the first half

Firmino is again on target, this time with his head, after some sustained pressure from us. Another chance that with Firmino being confident would have buried.

Half-time thoughts:

In general we are controlling the game without a real end product with Sunderland sitting back playing predictably deep, we are playing too many misplaced passes and wrong decisions being made in the attacking third of the pitch- we again despite having three potential number tens on the pitch are good going forward without the expected creativity, and a couple shaky moments at the back. Not our best half, but far from our worst. Firmino, other than his first effort, has looked lively and likely to score, so far accounting for 2 of our 3 shots on frame. If we can get some coolness in the second half, then we should have no problem getting all three points. 

The vital breakthrough goal arrives!! Not even 30 seconds into the half and Benteke is played in on goal from a nifty back heel from Lallana, and a niftier dummy from Firmino. The big Belgian calmly converts, and the traveling Kop is singing, TRA-LA-LA-LA-LA. Klopp doesn't even celebrate. Like a boss who expected the goal !!! The last Premier League goal of 2015 and also the fastest this season in the second half with the goal coming 22 seconds into the half.

We then struggle for the next 15 minutes to gain and retain possession – we are starting to look like we will need a second goal to put this game to bed despite playing such a poor side.

Lucas on for Henderson. It looks like our captain has re-injured his heel sadly. Hopefully it's just a precaution, but it's us, so probably will now be out until the end of February !!!

Looks like Coutinho has gotten the shooting but not passing bug again. He's unleashed several efforts from outside the box tonight, mostly when he had other options around him, and none really tested the keeper.

Throughout the rest of the second half we kept giving away too many set pieces which caused several nervy moments for Mignolet and co.

Ibe a late substitute for Coutinho then misses a great chance to settle our nerves with a chance that looked easier to score than to miss.

We soon after proceed to play Benteke through for a one on one – he shows no finesse by trying to dip a shoulder or dink it over the keeper and instead tries to place the ball low which the keeper easily saves – like the previous game against Leicester we get away with Benteke’s lack of confidence when he has to think what to do with an opportunity and his instinctive finish early in the second half wins the game for us – 0-1.

Full time thoughts: A good but fruitless first half lead to an early goal in the second, followed by 44 minutes plus stoppage time of hanging on. We managed to survive a litany of set pieces and dangerous counters to wrap up all three points on the road. Not a great performance by any stretch, but it was just enough against a manager and a type of team we've struggled against in recent years.

Hopefully our manager Mr Klopp has players in mind in January to improve the quality of the squad all-round as some of these players are not good enough long term for us.

Lallana to not score any goals at all this season despite his assist today is not good enough in my opinion when you pay £25 million for a player over a year ago he should by now be producing more consistent performances – the standard he is producing is not really acceptable.

Coutinho has had a total of 10 shots in the last two games (1 shot saved, 2 shots blocked and 7 off target – for our most talented player that is not good enough – he needs to get back to trying to create chances for others and then taking a shot as more of a surprise element as he is starting to become very predictable – comes in from the left and then shoots – when it would make us more unpredictable to play against if he tried the occasional pass instead of shooting.

Lovren and Sakho despite looking dodgy again on occasions again have another clean sheet which makes it 5 in 7 appearances together. Time to seriously think about leaving Skrtel out when he returns from injury. They both faced a lot of aerial threats and handled it well.

Special mention to Mignolet for obtaining his 16 clean sheet of 2015 – which is the most in the Premier League – may not be the answer long term but deserves credit for this achievement.

We go into 2016 level on points with Man Utd in 7^th place only 5 points off 4^th place and 9 points off the leaders and the press continue to think Man Utd are in the title race – so with a couple of quality signings what is to say we cannot be title contenders!!

Man of the Match – Christian Benteke

Wins the match for us for the second game in a row – but needs to work on his movement as mentioned previously and also needs to work on his clinical finishing as he should now have at least three more goals this season (vs Arsenal one on one – tap-in missed), (vs Leicester through on goal with just defender to beat on the line – missed) and now (vs Sunderland one on one – missed) – the good thing about Big Ben is that he will again get into that position and hopefully not let it phase him like all good strikers. Still not pleased by his general play but goals win matches and in such a poor game he gets my vote for getting us the vital win.

Sunderland XI: Mannone, Jones, Coates (Yedlin), Brown, Van Aanholt, Cattermole, M'Vila, Rodwell (Watmore), Johnson (Lens), Borini, Defoe

Sunderland subs: Pantilimon, Graham, Toivonen, Beadling

Liverpool XI: Mignolet, Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno, Can, Henderson (Lucas), Lallana, Firmino (Toure), Coutinho (Ibe), Benteke

Liverpool subs: Bogdan, Smith, Teixeira, Randall

Manager’s comments:-

"We were the better team and you could see that the pressure on both teams was big," he told Sky Sports 1. "A little bit more for Sunderland because of the intensity of the last weeks and months.

"You could help yourself if you got an early goal, we didn't but we did not do too bad in situations against a very good defending team. They were only defending so that makes it pretty hard for us because you don't get space and you always have to go again and slow down the game.

"Then we made the goal after half-time and we controlled something like the game.

"They were waiting for set-plays, they are difficult to defend but we did it. We could have got made a second or third one, we didn't, we had to wait until the final whistle."

Liverpool 1 Leicester 0: Liverpool out Leicester, Leicester

High flying Leicester came in to the match knowing that a win would officially secure their League position, but if truth be known we needed the win in order to hang on to the coat tails of a Champions League position.

Martin Skrtel’s loss for six weeks was soften somewhat by the return of Dejan Lovren with the prospect of facing the most feared goal scoring partnership in the Premier League of Vardy and Mehrez.  Bogdan will have felt disappointed that his claim on the first team jersey was over before it began following is disappointing performance against Watford.

In a bid to negate Leicester’s blistering counter attacks, Jurgen Klopp set Liverpool up to mirror Reinier’s 4-4-2 formation.

This was Liverpool back to the fast starts pressing high up the field.  Coutinho ducking in from the left whipped a curling shot just past the far post.

Mehrez dancing feet twinkled past Moreno and the covering Coutinho before seeing his cross cut out.

Liverpool continued to pile on the pressure with Coutinho featuring in a starring role prompting and probing, but unable to eek out a clear cut opportunity.

That being said half chances were being served up.  Coutinho, body arched for his famous curler shot into the Anfield Road stand, and Lallana motoring in to the area fired past the near post with surely inside the far surely the better option.

Emre Can looking a more imposing figure playing alongside saw his shot well shovelled round by Schmeichel.

Origi impressing leading the line with his pace, strength and movement was giving the imposing Morgan an uncomfortable afternoon.   Collecting the ball on the right the Belgian striker cut in before powering a blistering shot just over the bar.

His promising start to the game was soon stopped in its tracks by a pulled hamstring.  It was disappointing as style of play lends itself to the pressing game club Klopp prefers.

Jurgen Klopp mentioned in midweek the need for Benteke to give more outside the box and he told the player so.  Benteke replaced the unlucky Origi.

Mahrez skilfully bought himself some time before shooting powerfully with barely any back lift.  Mignolet palmed over in expert fashion.

The start of the second-half as with first saw Liverpool looking lively.  Jordan Henderson swept a wonderful curling ball around the last defender and into the path of Benteke only for the striker to fail to control the ball in his stride and then fail to pick out a colleague.

The striker was soon to show he would be unbowed by the mishap.

A superb one-two between Firmino and Lallana and saw the Brazilian scuttle clear down the left to pull the ball back across the area for Benteke to brilliantly manufacture a finish on the half-volley on the stretch to leave the diving Schmeichel with little chance.

Leicester were far from finished and almost struck back in inimitable fashion with Mignolet pulling off a stunning point blank save from Fuchs.

Coutinho fashioned out space for himself before unleashing a tremendous drive form 20 yards which dipped before brushing the top of the net on the way down.  Firmino latching on to a ball over the top after Morgan and Simpson collided going for the same ball volleyed narrowly passed the far post.

Jordan Henderson, with Liverpool counter-attacking in the final moments failed to pick out a Benteke or Firmino.  Liverpool were almost made to pay when only a last ditch tackle from Emre Can in front of Mignolet’s goal saved a certain equaliser.

Then a comical moment.  With the four minutes of injury time almost over, Schmeichel making the extra man in the area for a corner was left languishing as Liverpool charged up the pitch with at least five players against one.  A fully confident Benteke receiving the ball 35 yards would with no goal keeper and a defender not yet in front of him would have rolled the ball in.  This version, in trying to make sure took the ball into area before meekly prodding against the recovering defender before Lucas headed the rebound wide.

Liverpool was almost made to be pay and Leicester with the last chance of the match headed over with the goal beckoning.   Lucky.

Man of the match:  Emre Can – showed majority in covering back with no Lucas covering in behind and going forward when appropriate.  Had a couple of shots on goal making the goal keeper work on one.  The responsibility in a two man central midfield appeared to grow in stature and can only reiterate would like to see him alongside and a champion midfielder in the future.

Critical eye: The Liverpool defence as a whole deserve praise for allowing down Vardy and Mehrez to one attempt on goal apiece. Jordan Henderson was excellent and seems to be close to his old self and while Firmino struggled he played a vital role in assisting Benteke for his winner.

Coutinho looked to back to his best drifting across the line from the left to fire-in some trade mark range finders.

The manager will be please that his team followed his worth ethic relentlessly pushing forward until the end, but he will know that this is a work in progress with his team failing to capitalise on its dominance throughout, which could have been counter-productive particularly against a team who recent successes have been based on the counter-attack against teams with the majority of possession.

Teams:

Liverpool: 22 Mignolet, 2 Clyne, 6 Lovren, 17 Sakho, 18 Moreno, 14 Henderson, 23 Can, 20 Lallana (Allen – 93 mins), 11 Firmino, 10 Coutinho (Lucas – 91 mins), 27 Origi (Benteke – 38 mins)

Subs: 4 K Touré, 9, Benteke, 21 Lucas, 24 Allen, 34 Bogdan, 53 J Teixeira, 56 Randall

Leicester: 1 Schmeichel, 17 Simpson, 5 Morgan, 6 Huth, 28 Fuchs, 26 Mahrez (Kramanic – 80 mins), 10 King, 14 Kanté, 11 Albrighton, 20 Okazaki (Dyer – 69 mins), 9 Vardy (Ulloa – 69 mns)

Subs: 2 de Laet, 19 Kramanic, 23 Ulloa, 24 Dyer, 27 Wasilewski, 32 Schwarzer, 33 Inler

Referee: Martin Atkinson

Attendance: 44, 123

Emre Can, Liverpool’s future

When I look at Emre Can I see a player of infinite promise, still learning his trade,  but the level to which he can rise to is still unchartered territory.

You see it his chasing back, his hooked tackles, his wonderful checked side spin pass into Sturridge in the Capital One against Southampton and his imperious performances for the European Under-21 Championship in the summer dictating play from the holding role.

The fact that his future lies in midfield, belies the fact that in the scheme of things he has relatively little experience and is still learning his trade.  It’s all too easy to be overly critical of the player, but with the demise of club legend Steven Gerrard the expectation levels have risen exponentially with the former club’s captain’s heir apparent in Henderson missing most of the first part of the season through injury and the workhorse James Milner unable to provide the subtle quality and power to drive the Liverpool midfield.

I believe a midfielder of the ilk of Kovavic alongside Can  would have seen the midfielder blossom.

Jordan Henderson espouses many qualities when his fit, most of all his running power and of the players Klopp has available to him he is the standout player to play alongside Can.

The fact that he was bestowed the captaincy makes it difficult for Klopp.  Dropping the club captain sends out the wrong message, but will a future midfield two of Can and Henderson have enough quality to dominate?

If Liverpool were to bring in a world class midfielder and Klopp decides to go with Can, A N Other and Henderson in a midfield three that potential looks formidable, but in a four one wonders whether Henderson possesses the intricacies to complement Can if Klopp goes with a conventional 4-4-2?

Admirable as James Milner is one cannot see a future with the ex-City man and Henderson in the same midfield, the same squad yes, but not the same first eleven.
Liverpool need a midfield with a more explosive core and James Milner and Lucas Leiva are too one paced to start regularly in a midfield with Can who as talented as he doesn’t possess a decisive turn of the foot.  Liverpool’s possession football is often compromised against teams counter-attacking with pace and power as with Leicester and Crystal Palace and the midfield lacks creativity.

The misguided transfer policy which saw Dele Alli  and Memphis Depay move to Spurs and United respectively could haunt the club unless they arrest such failures in future transfer windows.  The pressing game which Klopp prefers could so easily have been bolstered had Raheem Sterling still been at the club, but this is a team under Klopp which is work in progress and the spine of the team still needs major surgery.

A goalkeeper, centre-half, midfielder, winger (will Markovic return?) and arguably a striker depending on the success of Benteke and the recovery of Sturridge in the second-half of the season.

It is still early doors under Jurgen Klopp and we’ll get there eventually, but whether Liverpool can get to the top four this season is open to question if they to do not bring in any quality in January.

We’ll wait and see…

Liverpool drop further behind their rivals and get embarrassed and stung by Hornets.

Blog by dedlfc (David Douglas)

Watford 3 Ake 3', Ighalo 15' , Ighalo 85'
Liverpool 0

Pre-game thoughts: Solid line-up for Liverpool, especially in the attack. Roberto Firmino starts up top in the false number nine role and will be supported by Philippe Coutinho and Adam Lallana. Lucas Leiva, Mamadou Sakho and Adam Bogdan enter the team. 

Bogdan replacing the injured Mignolet – who had a hamstring injury.

The match starts as poorly as possible for us. Bogdan attempted to catch from a corner...catches...and then drops...a simple cross.  Watford capitalised with Ake stabbing home which on replays looks like a foul but the goal is given and it's 1-0 inside three minutes.

Further poor defending by Skrtel out muscled by in-form Watford striker Ighalo who decisively shoots home  makes it 2-0 within 15 minutes – this was fast becoming an extremely bad day.

The out of form Skrtel goes down after a tangle with Watford striker Deeney, we were struggling to cope with Watford's power and physicality.   Not much positivity to mention apart from one shot on target by Coutinho and a couple of nice diagonal cross field passes by Henderson, despite having more possession we do not looked toothless.

Skrtel returned to the fray and we only look marginally better for a couple of minutes before further chaos ensued and Watford should have a third goal.

Bogdan is an absolute mess in his league debut for us.  He is all over the place.

Watford play a rather aimless long pass forward and Bogdan charges out to gather it, before bizarrely attempting to punch it forwards.   The ball smacked into Lucas and pops back behind the stranded keeper, but fortunately for Liverpool, Skrtel is on hand to thump it clear.

Shortly afterwards Skrtel came off with a hamstring problem and Klopp gambled throwing Origi into the attack,  moving Lucas into the back four.

Half-time thoughts: Yikes. We are getting worse with every game against another supposed lesser side. Leadership is nowhere to be seen on the pitch for us. Need a really inspirational Klopp team talk to turn this score around at halftime.

We at last look dangerous to start the second half.  Origi's made an immediate impact.

Ultimately we lacked the cutting edge and creative spark throughout the game.

Bogdan! Not only does he make a save, but he makes a top class save after a one-on-one following a major Sakho slip left him vulnerable.

Henderson came close to cutting the deficit, only for an excellent save by Gomes.

Benteke and Ibe came on for the ineffective pairing of Lallana and Firmino.  But, their inclusion failed to stop rot.  Ighalo wrapped it up with his second and Watford’s third to make it 3-0.

One of the worst performances Liverpool have had since the end of the Hodgson era.

An absolutely terrible and unforgiveable performance by so called top level players.  It was embarrassing and the type of performance which may make the manager think twice about many of these players with the initial upward curve of the Klopp era wearing off.

Full time thoughts: Losing to Newcastle and drawing to West Brom wasn't enough, apparently.  Now a 3-0 defeat to Watford and this team has some serious questions to answer.  We have in Benteke (£32m) and Firmino (£29m) and Lallana (£24m) three players totalling £85m which have not produced the goods for us at all – hopefully Klopp will be shrewder in how he spends the money in January because Rodgers rank poor signings have again come back to bite us. These three players have to really start producing the goods or they will quickly be shown the door if it stays like this. 

We seem to go into our shells whenever we go a goal behind and then struggle to recover. Our character tests have so far failed for me under Klopp – we therefore need more leaders and fighters before we can seriously look to challenge.

The chances of at least obtaining a top four slot gets harder every week with every dropped point with Spurs continuing to create a gap week in week out.

As per usual Klopp's emotions on the sidelines told a different story ranging from anger, to exasperation, to resignation.  No doubt his frustrations were aimed at the players on the pitch, but when he has time to reflect, he is likely to question those above who control the purse strings as frankly this squad is not good enough.  

Liverpool’s chief executive Ian Ayre and his fabled transfer committee need to accept responsibility for leaving the former Borussia Dortmund boss with a group of players which, quite frankly aren't good enough to get us back to where we all want to get to.

That’s not to say they are bad footballers – there is plenty of talent at Anfield – but there is no sense of cohesion, direction or, dare I say it, a philosophy.

Mr Klopp should be allowed to mould the team totally in his image as it seemed like he was doing when you saw the performances away to Chelsea, Man City and Southampton but he is going to have to be allowed to make some tough decisions on players which some fans may not agree with in the short term but for the long term good of the club we need to now trust our manager's judgement totally. 

Manager’s comments:- Klopp admitted his team did not react well to the early goal, but also felt Ake’s opener should have been disallowed with Bogdan appearing to have the ball knocked out of his possession after dropping a corner.

“The rule is really clear. The first one (mistake) is his fault, don’t let the ball drop in a situation like this, but then both hands on the ball, no question any more, it’s goalkeeper’s save,” he said.

“It was the wrong decision but we made many more wrong decisions today. It was a bad start to the game. It was 1-0 and our reaction was really bad

“We didn’t play well in the first half. The start of the second half was absolutely OK . If we scored one goal everybody knows the game is open again, but we couldn’t do that and we have to accept this high, high defeat.”

Man of the match - For the first time I am not going to name a man of the match as that our team display was so poor all round that not one player can leave the Watford ground happy with that level of performance.

Watford (4-4-2): Gomes ; Nyom , Britos , Cathcart , Ake ; Abdi  (Behrami), Watson , Capoue , Jurado  (Anya ); Deeney ., Ighalo  (Guedioura).

Subs not used: Arlauskis, Oulare, Holebas, Diamanti.

Scorers: Ake, Ighalo (2)

Liverpool (4-3-3): Bogdan ; Clyne , Skrtel  (Origi ), Sakho , Moreno ; Henderson , Leiva , Can ; Lallana  (Ibe , ), Firmino  (Benteke , ), Coutinho

Subs not used: Fulton, Toure, Randall, Allen.