Sentiment wins the day but it costs us a vital two points - Everton 0 Liverpool 0

Blog by dedlfc

The game was headlined as the final derby farewell in the Premiership for Stevie G.

At the start, Spurs through the inspired hurricane Harry Kane beat their North London rivals and with Southampton's late winner against Queens Park Rangers a Liverpool win was imperative in the Merseyside derby to give the race for fourth a somewhat congested look.

The big surprise selection was Jordon Ibe starting ahead of Lazar Marković on the right, Adam Lallana's injury meant he was out and Steven Gerrard joined Philippe Coutinho behind Raheem Sterling as Daniel Sturridge continued on the bench.  There was again no place for Mario Balotelli.

The game started at a typically fast pace and the opening ten minutes were not entirely comfortable for us as Everton squeezed up whenever we were in possession in deep areas.

Coutinho played a delightful through ball for Sterling to run onto.  Arriving just before Everton keeper Robles hit the opportunity wide.

Coutinho was fouled on the edge of the area by Gareth Barry with the anticipation ramped up ten-fold.  Up stepped our Captain Fantastic for his moment of glory.   His free-kick heading for the top right hand corner of Robles goal, only for the Everton keeper to save well.

Everton showed zeal in the tackle early on with Kevin Mirallas, Steven Naismith, and Gareth Barry making strong challenges and pestering for the ball.

Liverpool then suffered a major setback when Lucas had to come off after 15 minutes for Allen probably aggravated the thigh injury that kept him out of the replay against Bolton.

Debutant Jordan Ibe almost scored a minute later after the ball rolled out to him in the Everton area from Sterling's deflected shot but his delay meant that the ball didn't end up in the net and instead went for a corner to us.

The exciting Ibe's run from the right and powerful rising drive had Robles beaten on the 27 minute mark, but not the post.  It would have been a wonderful first derby goal from the youngster.  That was the most notable effort of the half as we took more control of the game against a side that increasingly played on the counter.

One final chance of the first half fell to Coutinho which was easily saved by Robles.

Half-time thoughts:

It seemed Everton were able to target significant pressure on Sakho, who struggled with no outlet or movement further ahead.  There were also a couple of questionable headers that lacked conviction and accuracy.  Martin Skrtel battled with distinction, Emre Can stood up to Romelu Lukaku, and Jordon Ibe offered the same ball carrying ability as Lazar Marković.  Philippe Coutinho was unsurprisingly Liverpool's best player in the half as he continued his fine form.

Steven Gerrard was the worst.  The captain lacked movement and meaningful involvement except for his free-kick and the midfield wasn't faring too well with Henderson and Allen both providing middling contributions in the absence of Lucas Leiva.

A powerfully struck free-kick early by Mirallas in the second half flashed wide warning us of potential danger.  We pressed in Everton's half to create a good opportunity for a pass and goal on the counter.  Sterling was put through by Coutinho, and Gerrard acrobatically volleyed an effort goal wards from a corner that hit the head of Naismith.

Aaron Lennon introduction on the hour for Mirallas providing fresh legs out wide for the home team.  Daniel Sturridge’s introduction for Philippe Coutinho, was a puzzling decision by Brendan Rodgers considering Coutinho had been our best player.

For the next 15 minutes the game was scrappy with much of our attacks coming down the left. However, an attack on the right from Jordon Ibe brought an excellent chance for Alberto Moreno who couldn't sort his feet out to put us ahead.

Handbags!  It's about the only fiery incident in a quite mild mannered Derby as Naismith and Henderson got into a very furious set of verbals following a clash between Muhamed Besic and Ibe on the floor.

Both were booked after players from both sides waded into the row, with referee Anthony Taylor cooling the situation before dishing out the yellow cards.

Rickie Lambert came on for Raheem Sterling on 82 minutes as Rodgers looked for a late winner with Ross Barkley making a late entrance in place of the troublesome Muhamed Bešić a few minutes later.

Lambert almost made an immediate impact from a Gerrard set up but hit his shot straight at the keeper - he has to do better with those sorts of opportunities.

Barkley made an immediate impact with a pass for the marauding Seamus Coleman forcing a very good save from the commanding Simon Mignolet.

Gerrard curled our last chance just wide from a Sturridge pass with Liverpool lacking enough urgency in the final three minutes of stoppage time.

Positives

Another clean sheet with Can particularly impressing again.  Mignolet showed more aggression though he was rarely tested.  A win at home to Tottenham would make this result look a lot better. Jordon Ibe and Steven Gerrard illustrated the future and the past respectively and our manager would do well to be mindful of that in pursuit of qualification for a Champions League place.

Negatives

Another game in a season where we have not capitalised on other results and with games running out if we cannot win our games we will not achieve our set targets for the season.  Sakho in particular was strangely shakier in possession on the ball than of late.  Playing Stevie G for 90 minutes in games is no longer a viable proposition to our chances of winning games as his energy levels are nowhere near where they used to be.

It seems like our manager went with sentiment by playing Stevie G for the whole game rather than looking to win the game by keeping on our match winners.  Sadly playing him for the last 20 mins of games slows down the tempo of our game and we need our manager to be more ruthless and make decisions that our best for the team.

Man of the match: Jordon Ibe - Very encouraging debut, made great efforts to run at the Everton defence and was very unlucky not to cap his performance with a goal with his shot hitting the post and bouncing wide.

Everton (4-3-3): Robles; Coleman, Stones, Jagielka, Oviedo; McCarthy, Barry, Besic (Alcaraz, 86); Mirallas ((Lennon, 60), Naismith (Barkley, 85), Lukaku.

Liverpool (3-4-3): Mignolet; Can, Srktel, Sakho; Ibe, Henderson, Lucas Leiva (Allen, 16), Moreno; Gerrard, Sterling (Lambert, 82), Coutinho (Sturridge, 56).

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Att: 39,621

Manager's comments:

"Over the course of the game, I thought we were clearly the better team," "The balance in our game was very good."

"We switched off towards the end, in the last five minutes they had a counter-attack that led to their only shot on target.

"Apart from that, we defended very, very well and pressed the game well at the right moments and I thought we looked exciting in terms of our threat going forward.

"We needed a bit of luck in the final third of the field, we had opportunities both in the first half and the second half but just couldn't quite take them.

"But it's another clean sheet for us, a point away and we keep moving forward."