TENSE at the end that. Tense at the beginning as well, to be honest. With some tense moments in the middle thrown in. But Liverpool Reds 1 Bournemouth Tories 0. And When The Reds Win We All Win — and all that. Here are some footballers and numbers which you really shouldn’t get as upset about as you did last week. Honestly. Have a word with yourselves.
Simon Mignolet 5
Looked very unsure on crosses. Don’t start that again, mate. Still hasn’t had a proper save to make all season though. Let’s have a think about that.
Nathaniel Clyne 7
Really like him. Solid defending and comfortable on the ball. One great tackle in a dangerous position first half and a terrific ball for Benteke at the end.
Joe Gomez 7
Really like him, too. Had a slight dodgy moment both halves, but it’s a great start to what should be a long Liverpool career on the basis of the evidence so far.
Martin Skrtel 6.5
Extra half a point for getting the ball right in the head and barely flinching. Seemed to cope with everything fairly easily.
Dejan Lovren 6
Gets done on toast early after a lucky ricochet, but there aren’t many centre halves who enjoy being exposed one on one to pace like that. Recovered ok. And another clean sheet. I can feel the Lov, can you feel it, too?
Jordan Henderson 7
His importance shown by what happened after he went off. Helped get us on top, along with Milner, after a good start by Bournemouth.
James Milner 8
Man of the match. Won 17 tackles in a minute at one point. Honest. Check Opta. Rubbish free kick at the end like.
Philippe Coutinho 7
Terrific from 20 to 60. Should score at least one though. Fitness will improve, which will help him influence for longer.
Adam Lallana 6
Ah, I feel like I’m always picking on Adam. Did some really good work, carrying the ball out of danger a few times and will receive the ball anywhere. But while he is starting in a front three he needs to be getting goals and assists. And he never looked like getting either.
Jordon Ibe 5
Had a decent 10 second half but generally on the periphery. Feels like he’s playing on his own a bit at the moment. Couldn’t get in left or right.
Christian Benteke 7.5
Goals pay the rent. Although he maybe should have put a down payment on next week at the end. But was pacey and a pain throughout.
SUBSTITUTES
Emre Can 5
Ah, I wrote something before the game about how he should be playing defensive midfield and he made a bit of a tit of me. To be fair it was all the pros and cons in 35 minutes. Some great tackles and some switching off. And plenty of not really knowing where he should be stood. Only way he will learn is on the pitch though.
Roberto Firmino 5
Would like to see him do a bit more off the bench before I join the OH MY GOD, WHY ISN’T HE IN THE TEAM? brigade. But did some good running and obviously enjoys the ball.
Alberto Moreno 7
Best cameo since Charlton Heston in Wayne’s World 2. Got stuck right in and nearly scored the best goal Bournemouth have ever seen. Even won some headers. Is right, lad.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda Photo
Worth pointing out Lallana wasn’t at any point part of a front three, so while he absolutely needs to add goals & assists to this team there should be less of an onus when he starts in a midfield three like tonight. Think his pressing and turns to face towards opposition goal are infinitely more productive from midfield. But yeah, still needs to show & do more to be truly worthy of starting.
Thought Lovren was decent again, despite the early roasting. Having Gomez alongside him as opposed to Moreno who loves going AWOL in opposition half is a massive help.
No real MOTM for me, as with last week. Just another gloriously gritty 1-0. Roll on next Monday #WTRWWAW
Didn’t get the Lov at all mate.
– Challenge with the wrong foot on Wilson early doors is a pen against City / Chelsea etc, they just go down.
– Their disallowed goal, he’s daft as a brush if he’s playing for a foul there, he’s favourite for the ball and suddenly ducks his head, we go away with it, rightly or wrongly.
Improved second half, but, nah, not me. Those two mistakes cost us big on another day.
Dont care about the player ratings, but the pre-match periscopes were great, so I’ve decided to rate them.
Driving with dad to the match – 8. Lovely, TAW probably needs more pessimistic dads.
Walking to stadium – 6. Light made it tough, a little too distracted with the truss.
YNWA – 9. Periscope of the match.
Haha great stuff. Nice one
Simon Mignolet: 5
Nathaniel Clyne: 8
Martin Skrtel: 7
Dejan Lovren: 7
Joe Gomez: 8 – worrying that our LB never uses his left foot
Jordan Henderson: 5
James Milner: 5 (+1 for all the running)
Adam Lallana: 5
Philippe Coutinho: 5 – seemed affected by the Brazil situation #DungaOut
Jordon Ibe: 5
Christian Benteke: 8
Emre Can: 6
Roberto Firmino: 4
Alberto Moreno: 6
why bother with idiots like you, 5 for henderson? wow, bore off to chelsea
Well, you’ve obviously just bothered there by replying, so in the future feel free to just fuck off yourself.
As for Henderson, aside from a good assist, which on another day is an offside situation and nothing comes of it, I didn’t see much else. He was on the field for 50 mins, he was completely wasted playing as the deepest of the midfield players, and as far as I remember only had a limited ammount of impact when it came to set pieces. In that good spell we’ve had from about the 20th minute until the end of the first half, I thought our open play went mostly through Clyne and then Coutinho and then Benteke, or it went left to Ibe where either he loses it or wins a corner, I don’t remember much of our attacking play going through the middle of the park.
And a 5 is for bang average. You’d have to be a fool to think our midfield was anything other than that. 2 shots on target and a crossbar, at home to a newly promoted side, with our striker having a good game, is well below average, but it’s only game two, and I think Bournemouth deserve to be identified as more than just a newly promoted side, they play a good game. If the ref doesn’t call a foul on Lovren, or any of the defenders cock up and we concede, on that performance, you’d be slamming every single one of our midfielders.
I’ll stick with John’s ratings if it’s all the same with you, lad.
Don’t get the Lov at all. He was shite, would have given away a penalty early on tackling with the wrong foot, shit out for their goal and I’m all for front foot defending, but, nah, shite for me.
Thought you were being a bit harsh on Lallana as well, couldn’t remember why?! So have to agree
Loved Clyne, Milner, Benteke and Gomez performances (How many cheers did he get!! Flanno with pace!?) – Agree Coutinho was untouchable for 20 minutes there, got into positions he would normally score from, will get to 15 this season I reckon, unlucky tonight.
I still don’t get it with Lallana and I doubt I ever will.
Another largely anonymous performance.
Then again I didn’t see it with Joe Allen last season when everyone was singing his praises.
Disappointed that Emre came on and made a pigs ear of it though.
Looked like he was picked in yet another position that isn’t natural to his game.
Decided Clyne’s me favourite player. Finnan with electric pace. Delighted with him. Seriously, I’m not even messing. Even after two clean sheets, I still can’t trust the center backs and keeper as far as I can throw them. They have me all on edge. It’s funny you mention Can, when I was watching him two passes behind the play I actually thought of just shaking your head devvoed with him (like Benteke in reverse for me: he looks like he’s gonna make a massive tit outta me. Glorious.) Moreno went full Riise in a good sense at left mid(like Enrique in Rodgers’ first season.
… It’s all a bit too new though, isn’t it? Y’know, considering we had such a young team the season before last. When Henderson and Coutinho both went off we were sans them, Suarez, Sturridge, Sterling, Gerrard, Allen, Flanagan, even Johnson the big dope. The Lads – gone forever. Like your favourite band splitting up.
I really don’t get the lovin’ Lovern thing. I did miss the first game but then again his first game last season was alright and look how that went for him.
His positioning is terrible – either two steps behind play or too close to his opponent that he gets skinned or too far away from his opponent who has time to place a cross, or in this game, a delicate nutmeg into the box. Let’s face it – every time he is one-on-one it’s not going to work out for the reds and needs to be dug out.
Completely at fault for the goal that should have stood.
He does ok challenging when the ball is in the air directly in front of him, but if on any angle he might as well be playing for the other team. How many awkward lounges did he do which placed the ball in a precarious situation for the defence?
His distribution is terrible as well.
If he keeps starting then it could be the undoing for Rodgers second run.
Mind you, Skrtel was just as poor today.
Mignolet 5
Clyne 7
Skrtel 6
Lovren 6
Gomez 7
Henderson 6
Milner 6
Coutinho 6
Lallana 6
Ibe 4
Benteke 7
Rodgers 5
Crowd 4
Joe Gomez looks the real deal and you won’t get a better response to being dropped than Albie Moreno’s. Imagine what Gomez will be like in a couple of years. He could be our very own Raphael Varane, he has the potential to be way better than Skrtl or Lovren if wisely managed.
Felt our CBs were reasonably solid.
Weaknesses were Ibe and Lallana. People compare Ibe and Sterling, is right – both have an issue with end product.
Would be very surprised if Rodgers plays the same 11 again at the Emirates
Another win based on hardwork that see’s us with 6p of 6 possibly, no matter how we play i’ll say it’s a terrefic start.
Man of the match for me must be Clyne who didn’t put a foot wrong through the whole game. If you wondering what solid means, have a look at him would you.
Also thought Henderson looked great until the sub, and even though i feel he’s beeing somewhat wasted in the holding role he dictates our play really good. Also shows his importancy to the team as we almost fell apart when he was subed.
Mignolet – 5
Clyne – 7 – MOTM
Skrtel – 5
Lovren -5
Gomez – 5
Hendo – 7
Milner – 7
Lallana -5
Coutinho – 6
Ibe – 4
Benteke – 7
Can – 5
Fimrminho – 5
Moreno – 6
Pre-match grub (hunters chicken with roasties made by the missus)…8
Viewing position (on the laptop with a piss poor stream and unreal amounts of pixelation…grrr!)…4
Post-match grub (humble pie made by me), thought Benteke was everything I never expected him to be and hopefully get to eat a slice every week…10
6 points out of 6, 2 clean sheets and we’ve barely got out of 1st gear. Hope we find the gearstick by the time we play Arsenal..
I thought Lallana was very good at all the things you don’t really want him to do be doing the caveat to that is it just feels off point when it comes to killing a side.
It is all just too nice for me with Lallana, the drag backs, the turns, the passing, it is nice, lovely to look at but I want to see him hurting teams, finding a mean streak, being a bit nasty, I doubt that will ever happen though which is probably why I will never be fully on board with him.
Benteke was everything he actually is rather than the lazy journalism/stereotypes levelled at him, that touch and go with Coutinho was very reminiscence of the December 2012 goal for Villa.
Big fan of your ratings, John, but Lallana was mostly playing on the left side of a central three. In the second half, in particular, I thought he’d been given a very clear instruction to show deep for the ball to help the defence out (which you rightly acknowledge – on a side note, this ties in neatly with your analysis of Can).
Instead of overtly criticising him (and Ibe), I think we need to appreciate how these players are being used in speicfic games more. Last night, it felt to me that Rodgers was very much focusing on helping our best player – Coutinho – flourish. (He needs to be scoring in games like last night, otherwise it will cost us ample points across a season.)
Equally, though, that doesn’t mean that Lallana et al can’t produce more either. Arsenal had this issue with Ozil and Cazorla for some time, but Wenger has found the solution. It will be interesting to see how Rodgers does so with Lallana, Coutinho and/or Firmino.
Hi Brett
Thought Lallana started high up the pitch and got deeper as the game wore on. As you say, be interesting to see how the manager uses him going forward
The ref: 10 :-)
Moreno as a Gareth Bale-style winger ahead of Gomez on the left? Could be something in that!
Great piece John, love the Charlton Heston cameo gag!
I also thought Jimmy Milner was MOTM and I am surprised more people haven’t said it. He really was popping up everywhere, like a mole on speed. The two players I was a ‘little’ underwhelmed that we bought in the summer were Milner and Benteke (yes, guilty) they were probably two of the best on the pitch (together with Clyne).
Benteke, eh? He looked some player last night – perfect number 9, great touch, quick, very strong, legs like a tractor engine,etc. Lots to be positive about, albeit the balance is clearly not yet right. What odds for yet another Lazarus-esque comeback for Lucas, I do feel the midfield will need shoring up if Henderson is unfit at Arsenal.
Pre-match drink: Sainsbury’s German Riesling.(doesn’t work with Mexican but I was thirsty; usually an 8 with Eden Smokies). 5.
Pre-match snack: Mini fake Magnums from Waitrose. 9.
Weather: had some lovely evening sun in Edinburgh, so had the drink above out in the garden. 10.
Pre-match meal: homemade fajitas with carefully preped homemade salsa and guacamole (the missus).9.
View: missus donated the couch, so feet up, coupled to a great Acestream link from RAWK. Missus even donated the big-screen to
project the game. 10.
Match 1st half: Lovren was like the lad who goes on a stag giving it large about this and that, but actually doesn’t get up to much; trys to approach the Hen party but slips on the stairs; ends up going home early. 6
Match 2nd half: Clyne is on the same stag, doesn’t say anything in the build-up, but wins the carting, pulls the entire hen party and stokes the coals of the camp fire with his mickey without a word nor grimace. 7
Post-match: Carragher vs Neville. Really? It just doesn’t feel right, like the new filling on your upper 2nd right molar.2.
Bed-time viewing: The Following. Ryan Hardy reminds me of a weasle-esque variant of Tony Adams and John Terry. 5.
Moreno was fucking hilarious. More of that. All of that. Just unleash him at 70. Bonkers. MOTM
Lovren was fouled. He showed the ref he was fouled, the ref blew very early and we got a free kick. He is much smarter than anyone saying he was beaten or ducked out or whatever, because if you ignore the foul and challenge for it, you lose that goal far more often.
So find something else to complain about him, because a defender that ignores that foul is not clever enough for our club.