Coutinho and Sterling rescue our FA cup hopes - Bolton 1 Liverpool 2

Blog by dedlfc

Bolton vs Liverpool - FA Cup replay 4th Round - 04/02/15

Before this game we were hoping that we could hurdle this FA cup replay obstacle without any worries. After being rested in the league at the weekend with a tight thigh muscle, It looked like our captain Gerrard would be dropped further back in his 700th appearance for us (specially commemorated with special 700th appearance boots)

Special 700th appearance boots for capt Stevie G

and play in a double midfield pivot with Joe Allen. On most occasions this would be a cause for concern, but against Bolton there was hope that we could control the midfield. 

The appearance of our returning hero Sturridge and the added insurance of having Jordan Henderson highlighted our bench, while Mario Balotelli and Dejan Lovren remained absent from the squad despite other players needing a break to keep them fresh.

We began with a patient approach, calmly trying to play the ball out of the back with short passes as Bolton looked to pin us in our own half. Whenever we broke into Bolton's half, horizontal passing avenues opened as Bolton collapsed hard onto one side of the pitch.

In the 12th minute, Philippe Coutinho found some open space outside the box and unleashed a strike that trickled wide of the post. Soon after, we attacked Bolton on a quick counter attack and Sterling put a shot on target after outfoxing his defender at the edge of the area.

Bolton came close to a goal in the 20th minute, as David Wheater directed a free header right at Simon Mignolet on a set piece.

Neil Danns looked like Bolton's best attacking threat early on, as his neat dribbling skills seemed to catch us off-guard on multiple occasions.

Bolton started to stretch us by launching long balls into the box, executing their initial pressing game plan very well.

A Yellow card quite early in the first half for Danns after he clattered Allen in the midfield was to prove so important later in the game.

Raheem Sterling hit the post after Adam Lallana set him up following a lovely spin move. After Bolton's brief spell of control, we jumped back onto the front foot as by picking up our attacking pace and urgency.

Half-time thoughts: Lots of almost-but-not-quite's for us in the first half. There was a period in the middle of the half that was cause for concern for the us as Bolton nearly found success through their aerial game, but besides that, we looked comfortable. The Allen-Gerrard midfield pivot was not a complete disaster, but a possible second half introduction for Henderson seemed to make sense.

Early in the second half Sterling limped around after a very tough challenge, but moments later he was able to break forward on a counter attack. At the time I was thinking he may be injured for the Merseyside derby and thought it may be a good idea to take him off but keeping him on was to prove later to be extremely beneficial to the team.

Not long after Sterling was put clear through by Coutinho, but a poor touch allowed defender Dorian Dervite to regain positional control and touch the ball away. On the regather, Sterling tested goalkeeper Andy Lonergan with a curling shot aimed at the upper right corner of the net which the keeper managed to claw away onto the post and wide.

Sterling goes close with a curling shot

Henderson replaced Lallana in the 54th minute to strengthen and energise the central midfield despite some very silky touches in the first half by Lallana.

Bolton were then awarded a penalty in the 58th minute, but it looked like Martin Skrtel made minimal if any contact on Zach Clough. My whole problem with the penalty was the fact again that the poor defending of Skrtel forced the referee's hand with him making it easy for him to give the penalty through Skrtel lunging in rather than being a smart defender and waiting for the attacker to commit.

Eidur Gudjohnsen converted from the spot with the resulting penalty and Bolton led 1-0. We were now in a spot of bother with a another cup exit being a serious likelihood.

Gudjohnsen makes no mistakes with the controversial penalty

Markovic after not being very effective then picks up an injury and is eventually replaced in the 65th minute by striker Borini.

Then the massive turning point happens when Bolton midfielder Danns (lifelong red) was deservedly sent off for Bolton, as he put two feet through on Allen.

Danns arguing being given a second yellow card

With us already looking sharp enough to possibly equalize, and the red card giving us even more space to attack.

Immediately following the red card, Bolton elected to drop deep to defend their lead. In an effort to overcome the host's defensive structure, Brendan Rodgers brought Sturridge into the match taking off the ineffective Joe Allen who had picked up our only yellow card.

Bolton almost scored a second in the 71st minute, but Gudjohnsen's far post header was powered straight into Mignolet's grasp, when a header across the keeper would have caused us some serious problems.

The next 10 minutes were extremely painful to watch for LFC fans where we maintained the pressure but were unable to execute our chances with first Henderson hitting the post with a swerving firecracker from outside the box, then Sturridge bursting into the box with immense pace and nearly creating a goal. We followed that up by winning a string of corners that amounted to very little.

We then hit the bar again! The impressive Emre Can rocketed a long range effort towards goal, but Lonergan denied him with a fingertip save onto the woodwork. It really looked like one of those nights but then our fortune finally changed and our hard work was rewarded.

Can lofted an exquisite ball over the top for Sterling who finished calmly first time on the volley with his left foot. 1-1 This was our 700th goal in the FA cup and fittingly scored by our brightest young player.

Sterling excellent finish for the vital equaliser

We then pushed on to try and finish this game to avoid extra time and achieved our target with Coutinho netting the winner with a sublime curler from about 20 yards which clipped the bar but this time went in. 

Coutinho celebrating and giving thanks for the cup tie winner

The shooting practice looks to have finally paid off! 1-2 to us after a stressful cup replay with us making harder work of this through not being clinical enough.

Positives

What a game that was! We recovered from a controversial penalty to win the match with two late goals. The red card helped our cause, but it was a still a brilliant comeback victory.

The determination of the side to comeback was a very refreshing sight and it would have been an injustice to lose to another side that didn't make much effort to win a game after losing to Chelsea in the Capital One Cup semi final last week.

Our two best attacking players by far in the last month has been Sterling and Coutinho and they were both our brightest sparks in his game to maintain their excellent form with both players scoring the all important goals and Sterling showing another sign that he has what it takes to be converted full time from a winger to a striker of some note by putting away his vital chance with confidence despite being unlucky with a couple of other chances earlier in the game.

Massive credit also goes to Emre Can who bossed the last 25 minutes of this game with his driving runs from the back and played the vital pass for the equaliser, he showed the required drive and determination to lead from the front in our dramatic fightback.

Negatives

Our inability to convert our chances earlier in the game meant that we went behind to an undeserving Bolton but this problem has occurred in the last few games and we need to become more clinical or we will continue to suffer more heartache in the following few months.

Joe Allen has to play to give Lucas a well deserved rest after his recent impressive performances but he was completely ineffective and looked like a player that was both rusty and not able to raise his game to aid the team. 

Man of the match - Phillip Coutinho 

Definitely our best player since the change of formation to 3-4-2-1 and scoring a curling winner tonight which shows he has everything in his game to be elevated to world class status if he can keep steadily improving and start putting the chances that he creates sometimes through his own individual brilliance. After signing his new contract to keep him at the club till 2020 this week, he made very effort to ensure this first season of the new contract ends with glory.

BOLTON 3-5-2: Lonergan, Dervite, Wheater, Ream, Feeney, Vela,  Danns, Moxey, Clough, (Trotter 72'), Gudjohnsen, Mills

Subs not used: McNaughton, Hall, Fitzsimons, Threlkeld, Iliev, Walker

Booked: Danns, Wheater

Sent off: Danns 

Goals: Gudjohnsen 59' (p)

LIVERPOOL (3-4-3): Mignolet, Can,  Skrtel, Sakho, Markovic,(Borini 62mins), Allen(Sturridge 70mins)  Gerrard, Moreno, Coutinho, Sterling, Lallana, (Henderson 55mins)

Subs not used: Johnson, Lambert, Manquillo, Ward

Booked: Allen 

Goals: Sterling 85', Coutinho 90'

Ref: Roger East

Att: 22,171

Manager's comments:-

Brendan Rodgers watched Philippe Coutinho celebrate signing a new long-term Liverpool contract with a stunning winning goal against Bolton Wanderers and then stated 'He's on his way to becoming world class'.

And Rodgers enthused afterwards: "You'd just pay money to watch that kid.

"You watch how he plays football and I think he's a great role model for lots of technical players in this country - young British players that maybe for many years would have been discarded because they were technically good but maybe not as big in stature.

"He'll become world class in the next couple of years. We had Luis Suarez who was at that level, played in this team and he grew and grew with the game model and rightly went into the world-class bracket.

"I can see Coutinho following a similar sort of line. He might not be as prolific as Suarez was, but he's certainly on the way to that level.

"He's a wonderful, wonderful player and signing the new deal shows he's really committed to Liverpool and his development."

Like Coutinho, Rodgers is confident the summer signing from Bayer Leverkusen has a big future ahead of him at Anfield.

"He's a kid that is going to go on and be a big player for this team, but also Germany as well," said the manager. "You see his stature in the game; he can defend, he can pass, he is quick and powerful, then you see his pass for the goal - a wonderful pass.

"A lot of these young players are standing up and being counted now, the likes of Emre, young Phil Coutinho and Raheem - these are guys that are playing exceptionally well at the moment.

"Emre is getting great confidence from playing every week."

"I think the win was justice, in all fairness. Even at 1-0, I expected us to win. The confidence of the team at the moment is very high.

"We had some chances in the first half and didn't quite take them. Then we went a goal down to what was never a penalty. But our composure and quality after that moment was very good.

"We scored two but could have had many more. But give credit to Bolton as well over the two games. Neil [Lennon] has done a brilliant job with his squad - they are very resilient and very hard to beat. They took us right to the very end, but it was a great win for us.

"We have a great habit at the minute, which is winning games. You can't question their character; they have shown in my time here that they have a really strong mentality.

"They might not have been playing or performing well, but certainly we needed to arrest the momentum that was going the other way after the Crystal Palace game.

"After that, we did that with seven points out of nine. But it was then putting something in place that was going to get us back operating how we have done. That momentum has now come the other way over the last seven to eight weeks.

"The team is back at the level technically and in the intensity of the game. It's pleasing because you can see the confidence and even at 1-0 down, we still looked like we were going to create and score goals.

"The players were magnificent tonight and you've got to give them a huge amount of credit. In a tough game away from home, 1-0 down, to come back and show that character and the quality of the goals was outstanding."