ON The Anfield Wrap’s Tuesday Review, Sean Rogers often talks about watching games of football back and then seeing things really differently. There was loads of anxiety around me today in the ground but never really anything to worry about was there? Anfield needs to collectively relax. Ratings, then.
Simon Mignolet: 7
If he did that every week we’d all be getting on famously. And by famously I mean, we’d have less to complain about. Bar that daft flap. Couple of really good saves.
Nathaniel Clyne: 6
Solid. Didn’t do anything wrong. Missed Milner again. Never had less to say about a footballer’s 90. Which is how I like my full backs.
Dejan Lovren: 8
Best he’s been for ages. Won loads in the air, tackled hard, used the ball well. We’ll take more of that. Implored him to put Vardy in the front of the Kemlyn at one point and he found a red shirt with a slide tackle. Had me right off there.
Mamadou Sakho: 4
I really like him. And now I’m fuming. Because two years of nonsense has just had 180 minutes of vindication. Stop giving them the ball in the middle of the pitch, mate. You’re better than that.
Alberto Moreno: 8
Mahrez was anonymous and he’ll have had something to do with it. Nearly broke someone’s head with a shot first half.
Emre Can: 7
Linked up beautifully with Firmino for the goal. Used the ball cleverly, won it well, protected the defenders. Seemed to have Vardy on him all the time. Bit odd he was getting marked by the league’s top scorer.
Jordan Henderson: 5
Did well but that side foot when he had men to choose from? You messing? Jesus tonight. Had to take two away.
Philippe Coutinho: 7
Stop shooting and I’ll give you what your general play deserves. You’re well better at passing. Do that.
Adam Lallana: 8
Ran that much he made me tired. Lovely turns. Lovely hair. Lovely boots. One of those games where he probably won’t get the appreciation he deserves so it’s on me. Should have scored first half.
Roberto Firmino: 7
Great for the goal. Lovely awareness. Passed to a man who was 15 yards offside so I’ve knocked a point off.
Divock Origi: 7
Started well, shame he got injured but the fella who came on for him scored.
SUBS:
Christian Benteke: 7
Scored. Won some headers, ran 50 yards backwards to mark their keeper from a throw in. How he’s not bagged at the end I’m not sure. Probably felt sorry for the linesman.
Lucas Leiva: 7
Won a header, gutted he never scored.
Joe Allen: 10
Great facial hair game.
Main Stand Lino: -40
Main bit of your job is offside. Gave a lad who was 15 yards offside, onside. Big chance it’s the worst decision any official has ever made. Thought it was big of us to keep him out the headlines.
Ground Wi-fi: 0
Died as Vautour jumped the last and I missed the end of the King George.
Lift: 2
My old man wanted to drive to Warrington from Anfield via Switch Island and my head fell off. Should have got him a Sat Nav for Christmas. Or a map.
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Pics: Propaganda-Photo–David Rawcliffe
bang on
Stopped reading after Henderson 5. Sorry Phil but you got that so wrong. Mom and 8 for me. All about opinions!
Probably supposed to be witty. Got to fill the space somehow now they’re a commercial outfit.
Fuck me, someone dug up Scrooge.
He took 2 off for the wayward side footer so it’s a 7 if that counts. Mate if you think that’s bad there’s a fella directly behind me in the Main Stand who leathers Henderson on a weekly basis. I was dying for him to bury that instead of squaring it to nobody just so I could crack up in his face.
Lallana was MOTM anyway. Up The Reds.
Sorry frankc but your off the mark, don’t get me wrong everyone played well today but to say Henderson was mom means that you didnt appreciate what lovern and llanna done when the going got tough.
I’ll give you a clue, the tough got going! I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone as tired as llanna make that many tackles, he was begging to come off but coutinho did, and then he made 5 more tackles!
Spot on with the Sakho thoughts. He made me really sad at times today.
Really want Sakho to be among our socalled ‘backbones’ in the team. But his ‘rustiness’ for two games in a row now is a bit concerning. Thank goodness, Lovren played like our 20mil man today…We need him week in week out this way. Hope Lovren-Sakho combination would work out for us long term. (today’s match was against fast/nippy players; hope they stand up well against giants/power as well).
Apparently, it’s now 4 clean sheets in six starts for the Sakho-Lovren combination.
Interesting stats. Based on that sample size of 6, if we were to get clean sheet in 66% of our matches by pairing Sakho and Lovren, I would use super glue, anytime… cheers. :)
Lallans was a bad ass all day. The Midfield was on fleek. Well done boys. Mama is still Mama – no way he’s a 4 – we ended with a clean sheet.
Apart from Sakho, everyone else performed really well. Ming made important saves and was cool and confident throughout. Probably, Hendo, Moreno and Lovren stood out with 8’s and all others except Sakho were 7’s. Origi is getting better quite noticeably (as compared to the first few weeks of leading the line on his own; and please allow me to milk a bit here for saying all along he would be the long-term asset for us : -).
Happy days….
I’ m afraid this time I think you’re well off on some of these numbers, Henderson MOM a real captain’s performance. Lalanna might run a lot but what does he really achieve , very little in truth , never an 8.
Firmino gets a 4 for me and that’s because he got an assist. He’s presently the poorest Liverpool player.
*Lallana 8?? are you joking? Absolutely no contribution. no end-product and even his pressing was not very effective. Deserves a 6 for me.
*I can’t understand how Emre can is better that henderson. I don’t even know what Can did. Henderson was head and shoulders above him and was the best player along with Lovren.
Ground wifi! What’s that? Never ever worked for me in the Kop. Lovren, Clyne & Lallana excellent.
Lovren, Hendo and Origi our best players today. The Sakho pass was a result of another clueless roll out, but Lovren was the better player today. Whisper it, but he’s been playing consistently well recently……Hendo was great apart from the choke. Can was the best of the rest. Still worry about Benteke.
Couthino gets an extra point for unintentionally taking out their two 6ft + defenders (WWF style) (around 85 min mark) high up the pitch and we almost scored.
Firmino got an assist but was dogshit for 95% of the match I thought. Sakho’s gangly nature is something I’ve come to accept for ages now as it clouds how often reliable he is. But today his gangly style had me sweating a good few times.
Lovren brilliant, as was Henderson I thought, hard to separate them.
Everyone else decent.
Lallana MOTM, closely followed by Lovren – both outstanding.
Great to see the flags back on the Kop today. That should have got a rating in its own right. It didn’t, so I’ll do it…
Flags on the Kop: 9 …. would have got ten, but I thought there were a few flags & banners missing today. Clearly they didn’t get the text saying “we’re back on!”
Bullshit ratings. We win, big scores, 7, 8, 10 etc. We lose, 2, 3 and 5’s. Crazy, bipolar nonsense.
Firmino 7?
Henderson 5?
Do you write for Liverpool-kop?
Click bait scores I’m afraid.
Henderson was a dynamo. Firmino was none existent apart from the assist.
Leave the comedy to the funny people.
Bruce Wilson: 8
Excellent start. Got the team ticking over in the right mood. Plays the game with a smile on his face.
FrankC: 4
Gave up a bit early, but showed enough there that he could play a part.
Paul: 2
Got to do better with the ball. Not arsed enough. Misread the game completely.
David Brown: 7
Much better. Read the game and tackled well.
Tom M: 4
Positive, but again, some moments of madness.
Josh K: 5
Over eager, but bright at times. Could do better with the final ball. Minus 0.5 point for the term ‘Ming’ (the other -0.5 is for the ‘told you so’ attitude)
Evangel: 7
Would have an eight or an eight point 5 if there was, again, a better reading of the game.
David Brown: 8 An opta stat to gladden hearts.
Mark Rodgers: 1 He’s just not arsed with this is he?
And: 5 Yeah, I think a 5.
Pauloffinland: 6 Not sure he knows what he’s doing, but it’s all good nonetheless. Hope he’s back on shore now.
Marshy: 8 Much more like it.
Jimmy Corkhill: 5 Potential is there, but lacking instinct.
Chris: 5 Lacking penetration.
Howard Cover: 8 Offered something different.
haha. A good one. R. Wornum gets 9 for this unique sense of humour.
would have been a 10, if a bit more generous with my 5, because I think I deserve extra 1 for sharing JK initials with our world class manager. cheers :)
Haha, I’m Sakho. I’ll take that all day.
Lallana was excellent again today, if you can’t see beyond an assist or a last ditch tackle perhaps you should take up something else. Phoning radio 5 to complain about the roads or something? Been the most consistent out of the attacking midfield trio all season. Instead of making our lads whipping boys perhaps we could have a go at the opposition. Just a though like. Lovren very impressive alongside a normally reliable but today an unfortunately calamitous Sakho. He always seems to need a run of games o get to a high level. Henderson seems to be splitting option option, still looks a little rusty but improving to me.
And you lot keep disgracefully perpetrating the myth that is Adam Lallana as a footballer. An 8, really? Rubbing about is just about compulsory and every player in a Red shirt ran and worked hard tonight. It’s yet again unbearable the bias this guy gets from just about every TAW staff here. Lallana gets credit for someone else’s bit of genius on the ball when we win and gets away scott free when we lose when win or lose he’s always been our weakest link. Not good enough, plain and simple, a nothing player on the ball, even MOTD are picking up on it. 1 PL goal in 2015, 33 games, 2 assists in that time span as well, just atrocious.
Lack of communication and decisiveness in the final third plagued us yet again today. Offside… Final ball behind the run… Getting caught on the ball on the counter… Benteke’s choke at an open goal… All of these are symptoms of the same underlying problem: lack of communication and decisiveness in the final third.
I don’t know about the rest, but Joe Allen is really growing into that beard. Shame he has to wait for somebody to get injured, because he had ben playing pretty well. He’d better learn German if he wants any chance of overtaking Can at this rate. But I’d settle for him taking some time to bulk up significantly.
Really have no idea why he fascinates me so much. Probably because so few people rate him, and it annoys me to no end that they go on about the “Welsh Xavi” thing, and it all just makes me want to be in his corner. Or maybe I just like the idea of someone so selfless, giving themselves entirely to the collective endeavour to make others shine. More Kuyt than Kuyt.
So, yeah, hope to see him against Sunderland with his flowing Welsh beard.
Henderson and Lovren stood out for me.
Lallana an 8?! If Benteke didn’t score, Lallana’s influence on our attack and the scoreline was powder puff once again. It’s incredible how people choose to ignore the fact the guy has the penetration of an impotent billy-goat.
Indeed, if ever a player sums up the difference between today’s Liverpool and the great Liverpool sides it’s Adam Lallana. He’s precisely the type of player Bob Paisley refused to sign whilst managers like John Bond, Big Mal and Big Ron splurged millions. He’s Duncan McKenzie without the goals or the end product. We’ve all played in teams with the likes of Lallana, the guy who has all the tricks in his locker, lovely balance but too little heart.*
* This sounds awfully mean, and I’ve no problem with his workrate or personality, he just seems so very ineffectual, bought to add flourishes he is neither pianist or carrier. He needs to add some end product if he’s to justify his place in the team.
Understood the point you are trying to make. But just thinking out loud, Who from the current squad could play in Lallana’s role if the similar set up with Origi or Sturridge leading the line? We do not have any, actually.
Because the line-up was 4-2-3-1 (or so the reports said : -)… so the “3” are naturally Coutinho-Firmino-Lallana. Because Ibe, although he can be one of the 3, he may unbalance the set-up due to his lack of defensive work (as compared to Lallana).
Allen, Hendo, Lucas, Can and Milner would share the “2” positions (although Milner might be ok for that right side of the “3” I see Milner as a step down from Lallana in terms of attacking moves.
That leaves us with Texira who has not played much under BR nor JK… So, until JK brings in either a specific Piano Player or Carrier for Lallana role, he would keep his place for sure. (and I would just hope that Lallana would either score a few goals in consecutive matches or assist a few as well).
Btw, our little magician Coutinho has not played any better or worse than Lallana, in my opinion, but Coutinho, being our favourite and our supposedly main man for years to come, still has his ‘credits’ in the bank for now…I guess.
Cheers.
Lil Phil scores goals.
Phil, you may know this by now but Vautour got chinned on the line by Cue Card. Cracking race.