Brendan Rodgers confirmed in his pre-match duties that Mario Balotelli, Joe Allen, and Glen Johnson were all available for action. Dejan Lovren was training too. Allen and Johnson came in for Lucas and Martin Skrtel while Lovren made the bench. Mario Balotelli did not make the matchday squad, but Jordan Rossiter did. There were five changes from the side that drew with Chelsea at Anfield earlier in the week. José Enrique, Javier Manquillo, and Adam Lallana all started.
With Chelsea, Man City, Southampton and Tottenham all losing today this FA Cup is now wide open for us to try and win it for our captain Stevie G in his last game for the club - what we needed to do was to ensure we did not have any slip ups at home to Bolton.
The first half hour was full of our possession in pursuit of an opening goal against a stubborn Championship side that has become defensively organised and hard to beat under Neil Lennon. Bolton's away support was fierce and so was their defending. It was interesting to see old Premier League faces such as Eidur Gudjohnsen and ex-Liverpool stalwart Emile Heskey in action.
The home side's main tactic seemed to be to release Raheem Sterling into space in the inside left channel and the youngster's movement was more effective than his work in the area.
Bolton looked threatening in a couple of counter-attacking opportunities even if the moves broke down before creating a shooting opportunity. Dean Moxey's sweet long-range strike after the half hour mark travelled wide of Simon Mignolet's right, but it was a warning for the home side.
Mamadou Sakho and Emre Can were majestic in how they defended and passed the ball. Can may prefer playing in midfield but has to feature in defence for the rest of the season. As for Sakho, if there's any player in the squad who feels that playing as a left-sided centre back is where they'd show their best for us, they have to be prepared to be the Frenchman's understudy.
Half-time thoughts: Coutinho was the most enterprising attacking player on the pitch, but if only he had the shooting ability of a Pavel Nedvěd!
Emile Heskey led the line quite well on his return to his former club and Bolton were very much in the game. More of the same from the visitors wouldn't be the worst tactic against a home side that did not seriously test Bolton keeper Adam Bogdan.
We lacked penetration from wide areas and the introduction of Lazar Marković for Enrique made sense with Liverpool looking for penetration. Rodgers kept Manquillo on to assist Johnson on the right side while Sakho provided security on the left behind the marauding Marković.
Bolton started the second half with a higher tempo and increased pressing compared to end of the first half. The first contentious decision arrived within five minutes as Marković attempted to break through into the area but was caught on the edge by Matt Mills, who was on a yellow card. It happened quickly but Kevin Friend had one decision to make, but failed to make it.
Bolton should have faced us with only ten players for the remainder of the game. Lucas Leiva was brought on for the disappointing Joe Allen with around twenty minutes to go, and Fabio Borini was also introduced for Manquillo with Rodgers looking to avoid a replay.
Increased tempo brought two good chances for Gudjohnsen either side of the hour mark. We were in a real battle and keeper Bogdan was having an excellent game. Anything Liverpool threw at Bogdan was dealt with and Bolton looked increasingly dangerous. We tried to find a winner with half-chances in the last twenty minutes, but couldn't create enough chances against stubborn resistance.
Kevin Friend, no friend of ours on this occasion made another poor decision when he failed to give a penalty on the 80 minute mark after substitute and another Liverpool favourite Jay Spearing pushed Henderson in the area before the Liverpool captain could strike at goal. Along with the Marković-Mills red card decision and numerous rough challenges that were ignored it was a game to forget for the referee.
Liverpool had one last attempt with Lucas Leiva's shot saved in added time.
Man of the Match - Markovic - Came on at half time and immediately created further impetus which could and should have resulted in a goal.
LIVERPOOL: Mignolet; Johnson, Can, Sakho; Manquillo (Borini 66), Henderson, Allen (Lucas 66), Enrique (Markovic 45); Lallana, Sterling, Coutinho.
BOLTON: Bogdan; Dervite, Mills (Spearing 71), Ream; Danns; Feeney, Vela, Pratley, Moxey (Wheater 83); Gudjohnsen, Heskey (Wilkinson 56).
Referee: K Friend
Attendance: 43,847
Full-time thoughts: It's an additional game for an increasingly demanding schedule as Bolton earned a replay. We didn't play badly and did okay against a well-drilled side, but lacked the cutting edge in the last third.
Brendan Rodgers needs a striker that he can trust to score goals in the absence of Daniel Sturridge. It wasn't the result the Liverpool fans wanted, but after looking at today's games in the FA Cup, it could have been a lot worse.
Yes it gives us another game in an ever increasing schedule, but the positive is we didn't lose. Critics grumble about Gerrard's decreasing influence and negating his goals against AFC Wimbledon, but this was the kind of game where we need others to step up in his absence and pick up the mantle, particularly those who haven't been playing as much recently.
ReplyDeleteJoe Allen is one who needs to step up particularly with Lucas and Can in future laying claims to the few midfield vacancies.
Thierry Henry coined the term "fox in the box" and Liverpool are definitely in need of a striker of that ilk and although we will have that with the return of Daniel Sturridge, there is still a need for the back-up strikers to be capable of delivering and although Raheem is doing a 'sterling job' leading the line he is not a poacher.
With Brendan Rodgers telling Mario Balotelli he must change his game to have a future, the quality up front lacks depth as although fit failed to make the squad.
As I said, if we had lost we'd have had a lot more to grumble about and we are there to fight another day in a competition where it is now looking increasing possible for all of the remaining teams to dream of success with demise of so many big name clubs.
Tell me about it! Replay but we still in it, unlike Chelsea, City, Spurs and Southampton, not to mention Swansea. Mourinho was so disingenuous towards the achievement of Bradford. The best team lost (BS)
DeleteIf we to say we played out standing then we have to say we should have won the game for me, simple as that. We could not get around Bolton defence or had a plan B to win.
ReplyDeleteWe should have won , would of liked to see Balo come on for a bit, may have seen some change up front.