Blog
by dedlfc (David Douglas)
With
Milner pulling out of the match with a hamstring issue – Jordan Ibe after his
winning goal performance vs FC Kazan on Thursday replaces Milner in the side.
Lucas takes over the captaincy.
It will
be interesting to note whether that shifts Liverpool into more of a 4-2-3-1,
which is Jürgen Klopp's preferred formation.
For
Crystal Palace, injuries to one of our nemesis’s Gayle meant that Yannick
Bolasie was played as a striker.
Mignolet’s
sets the tone of the match by a nervous clearance to Bolassie and co pressing
which was a nightmare scenario to start the match.
Palace’s
defensive shape after the early exchanges falls back into a 4-4-2 with the
Palace athletic wingers out wide allowing them to counter with strength and
pace.
The early
play was dominated by Palace and they took the lead after 21 minutes with poor
defending the root of our defensive problems again !!!
Can
provided a wonderful little touch in the box to lay it off for the effervescent
Bolasie, who smashed it past Mignolet – extremely poor defending by us.
First
third of the match gone, and we look pretty calm after going a goal down.
Lallana and Coutinho are trying to find their feet as foils for the directness
of the excellent wing play of Ibe and striker Benteke.
The only
problem is Palace appear equally calm in soaking this stuff up and taking their
chances on the break.
We are
now playing better with the final ball again being the main problem and the
potential toughest nut to crack in Klopp’s early games as Liverpool manager.
Everything
reassuringly returns to being the worst as Sakho lands awkwardly unfortunately and
Lovren warms up to replace him. The Beast Sakho tries to run off the injury but
nearly gives away a second goal but for offside and then shortly after realises
he can no longer continue – just hope the extra minute or two spent on the
pitch has not made his injury worse. Lovren replaces him with Sakho’s name
again being chanted around the ground whilst he is coming off the pitch.
The
excellent equaliser comes after 42 minutes with Ibe playing the ball to Clyne
who feeds it into Lallana who passes to Coutinho with Benteke dummying the ball
for Coutinho to slot home. Excellent team play!!.
Lovren
then produces two good headers from two set pieces which are saved on the line
by keeper Hennessy and cleared by Delaney respectively just before half time.
Halftime
1-1 Pretty
exciting game. Two teams that know each other well engaged in a game of
chicken with both sides capable of blinking first. Just felt that our midfield
players such as Can needed to impose himself on the game more.
Klopp
starts the second half yelling in a way that makes us think his instructions
aren't being carried out quite as precisely as he would like.
Benteke
fluffs his lines to be the hero by missing a left footed shot which he hits
over.
Then ten
minutes later Palace produce a fast counter attack with Zaha holding off two
LFC defenders playing a nice pass across to Sako who with his favoured left
foot hits it to the near post wide when it would have been better to hit it
across the keeper.
Benteke
again heads over this time from about eight or nine yards.
Two
thirds of the game gone and Crystal Palace are still totally dangerous on the
break.
Roberto
Firmino's introduction ends Can’s poor day at the office
The
winning goal came after 82 minutes with local lad Scott Dann producing a header
which was poorly parried straight in front of the goal for Dann to head home –
disastrous keeping and we are again behind to Palace.
Mutch and
Origi on for Cabaye and Ibe, respectively. Liverpool look up for the equalizer,
but will they stitch it together with four minutes of stoppage time?
Coutinho
has a late effort with his left foot parried over but to no avail and Klopp has
his first loss as LFC manager.
Man of the match – Jordan Ibe – continued his
form from Thursday night with a positive wing display but unable to help the
side this time to get anything from the game.
Positives – we again showed the desire to
keep going after going a goal down even though we ultimately lost the game
through further bad defending.
Jordan
Ibe’s confidence has now returned and he is a massive asset to have in the side.
Negatives – the defensive performance have
again cost us points and another loss at home. Our keeper’s unsteady play at
the outset of the game set the tone for a poor display. Now is the time for
Emre Can to start imposing himself on games as our supposed driving midfielder –
so far under Klopp he has not shown the determination and drive to push us on
to victories which for me is very disappointing indeed.
The
biggest concern is the fact that we are not producing a cutting edge in the
final third with Coutinho being our only bright spark and also unable to score
more than one goal in a game despite creating a couple of clear chances this
afternoon.
Palace have
now won the last four trips to Merseyside, sadly now there is an international
break which now means we have to wait 13 days until we play Man City away – we failed
to capitalise on a great win last week again which is become a standard problem
with LFC sides over the years unable to back up great wins with another follow
up win.
Liverpool
(4-2-3-1): Mignolet: Clyne, Skrtel, Sakho (Lovren 40mins), Moreno: Lucas,
Can (Firmino 65mins): Ibe(Origi 87mins), Lallana, Coutinho : Benteke
Subs not
used: Allen, Brannagan, Bogdan, Teixeira.
Goal:
Coutinho 42
Booked:
Clyne
Crystal
Palace (4-2-3-1): Hennessey: Kelly, Dann, Delaney, Souare: Zaha ,
McArthur, Cabaye (Mutch 86mins), Puncheon(Ledley 79mins): Bolaise , Sako (Wickham 65mins)
Subs not
used: Speroni, Ward, Hangeland, Bamford.
Goal:
Bolasie 21, Dann 82
Booked: Souare,
Puncheon
Referee: Neil
Swarbrick
Attendance: 44,115
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