TWO points dropped against the worst Premier League team to visit Anfield this season. Frustration for Jürgen Klopp and Liverpool on an afternoon where they battered Everton from pillar to post, but just forgot to win.
On a weekend when rivals have dropped points, The Reds were denied the chance to take advantage on a snowy day in L4.
There will be inevitable criticism coming Klopp’s way for leaving Phil Coutinho and Bobby Firmino on the bench, but the team he did put out dominated the game, but just couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net often enough.
That the game’s key mistakes/turning points came from regular starters means that perhaps this was just one of those days where Sky Sports presents the Merseyside derby was meant to finish 1-1.
Anyway, here’s how they rated:
Simon Mignolet: 6
Hard to mark someone who had nothing to do all game. Deals with a couple of crosses well, and gives us all heart palpitations as he races to clatter the ball and Oumar Niasse early on. Would have given him all the ratings if he’d stayed where he was on the Wayne Rooney penalty and headed it away.
Joe Gomez: 9
Joe Colossus they call him, or they should anyway. Best performance in a Liverpool shirt for me and definite MOTM. Defensively did everything right, even did good bits going forward and epitomised the general domination up until the penalty. Needs more of a final ball but was never going to randomly be John Barnes in that regard today. Keep it up, Big Joe.
Dejan Lovren: 6
Now this could go either way. If you agree that it was a penalty, you’ll probably demand he get a two or something, but as far as I can see he does no more wrong than Jordan Henderson did at Brighton last week. Dominic Calvert-Lewin puts his body across him, Lovren puts his hand on his back but makes absolutely no pushing motion, and Calvert-Lewin collapses in a heap. Very, very harsh I thought. Some will say he gave the ref a decision to make, but that’s true of almost every situation where a defender dares to touch a striker who will fall over at the drop of a hat. Otherwise mainly did fine, but his continuing lack of ability to do anything from corners at the other end is doing my head in.
Ragnar Klavan: 7
Mostly dominated in the air, was calm on the ball but like his defensive partner, wasn’t overly tested until the last 15. Makes a couple of silly fouls but was largely fine. Not much else to say about the Klavster really.
Andy Robertson: 7
Did the Albie Moreno role well in that he was basically Liverpool’s entire left side. Got up and down all game, gave Rooney all kinds of problems first half and got into several positions of threat. Only problem was the lack of final ball. Could have had about five assists on another day but ball after ball found Everton players or sailed out for a goal kick. Might improve with more games though, which are likely to come in Albie’s absence.
Jordan Henderson: 6
The captain has been the subject of loads of “Is he shite/Is he boss” chat this week, so I’ll land somewhere in the middle. Was the cog in the midfield that allowed Liverpool to control the vast majority of the game and put himself about like he knew what a derby meant, but at the same time picked wrong options loads (including that horrendous effort in stoppage time) and another whose final ball was left wanting far too often.
James Milner: 7
Of all the bizarre selections today, I was most worried about Millie if I’m honest. His appalling performance against Chelsea had me doubting his midfield capabilities for high octane games like this one, but he pleasantly surprised me. Was full of energy (probably after snogging Klopp ’cause he told him he wouldn’t be left back) and made loads of tackles and interceptions. Lots of nearly moments, but encouraging that he’s capable of better performances like this in the middle.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain: 7
A game of two halves for Oxo-Chambo. Thought he was really poor first half, misplacing passes all over the shop, but second half he seemed a lot more confident. The fear that he appeared to have in the first 45 was replaced by a willingness to get in places that matter, win the ball, carry it and whip crosses in. At least two balls in deserved to be put away. Unlucky not to emerge from the game with some numbers.
Mohamed Salah: 8
If you weren’t sure what Cuco Martina on toast looked like before the game, it was that. Little Mo terrorised him all through the first half, staying wide, making him ruin Everton’s shape, before coming in and trying something. Amazed it took over 40 minutes to work but when it did it was spectacular. Another excellent goal, 19 for the season from a lad we just hoped would give us double figures. Has more joy second half but as with others, final ball just wasn’t quite there. Rested for last 25 or so and therefore hopefully starts again on Wednesday.
Sadio Mane: 6
What an incredibly difficult one this is to score. On one hand, he was typical Mane in that he was doing bits all over the pitch. A constant thorn in Everton’s side, getting into positions and causing soiling of underwear for visiting fans every time he did. But — and this is a general theme of today — did the wrong thing in front of goal. His failure to square the ball at the end of the first half and drag a shot wide with his left is arguably what actually costs Liverpool the win. He’ll recover and do wonderful things in future games, but that moment will haunt him until he makes up for it by banging a hat trick in the FA Cup tie.
Dominic Solanke: 6
Possibly the biggest eyebrow raiser on the teamsheet going in, and it felt a little harsh that it was his selection that seemed to be mainly sending Reds Twitter into meltdown for an hour before kick off. It was a tough game for him, with Ashley Williams doing a man-marking job and bullying him to some extent, and he hardly got any chances to actually face the goal. As he showed at Stoke though, is good at simple but effective passes and layoffs to teammates around the edge of the box. Will have better games and will have learned loads from this experience.
SUBS
Roberto Firmino: 6
Has a decent effort at getting Liverpool to put the game to bed but it wasn’t entirely clear what position he was playing. May sound harsh but felt he could have broken his neck a bit more to get on the end of Robertson’s late ball across the box.
Phil Coutinho: 6
No doubt there’ll be plenty who’ll bitch that he didn’t start after his whirlwind showing in midweek, but supposedly was carrying an ankle knock and hadn’t trained since the Moscow game. Tries to create things but with little time and 42 Everton defenders behind the ball was always going to be difficult. Hits a world-class free kick that would have won it if Jordan Pickford hadn’t cleverly placed himself in the middle of the goal rather than picking a side.
Danny Ings: N/A
Didn’t get injured (I don’t think), so fair play.
A frustrating end to what had been a remarkably comfortable afternoon up until the referee gives the very soft penalty, but these things happen. There’s plenty of points to be won between now and the next time we face Sam Allardyce’s bus-parking Blues, so let’s do just that, then give them what they deserve by dumping them out of the FA Cup.
Less than a month to go until we do this all again. Let’s learn lessons, lick wounds and then destroy the shite on a Friday night when they’ll hardly touch the ball.
Incidentally, I have a new book for all of you struggling to think of something to buy the Red in your life this Christmas. Kloppite: One Man’s Quest to turn Doubters into Believers looks at Klopp’s first two seasons at Anfield, the ups, the downs, and most importantly, the derby wins… It can be found here, or wherever else books are sold.
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I stopped reading when Klavan got a 7 and Salah got 8.
Mane was smiling after his shot when others better placed. Took this to mean he felt further chances would come; which they have recently to be fair. Can absolutely see that a player putting the brakes on in front of a defender can look like a foul and Degsy could avoid that only by having his hands behind him. Ref tho’ bought it like a boy at an ice cream van.
Replay can’t come soon enough, would it have gone our way on this occasion? I think just about, it’s softest of soft penalties, in fact in replay it almost appear Lewin (little t***) pushes himself to ground off of Lovren. Pawson bottled it to be sure. We should have be at least 2 up by that point, Sadio’s first very poor decision in a red shirt to he fair. Otherwise, we bossed them and confirmed Everton are in fact as shit as advertised, to think Sigurdsson cost more than Salah, HA! Also, f*** fat Sam, because, well, he’s a gobsmite piece of trash, and that stupid gum!
Hahahaha oxlade was our best player in the first half you wool.
Get Ben johno back on these instead of some southern lad promoting a book nobody will read if it’s anything like his ratings.
Kinell.
Yo Jon, calm the fuck down.
It’s only some meaningless ratings.
Ben couldn’t do the ratings today so I had to step in at the last minute. And sorry for mentioning my book, but I’m quite a big fan of being able to put food on my family’s table.
Thanks for reading though mate, it’s much appreciated.
Completely unwarranted mate. Dont let the head fall off just cos the ref bottled a peno.
Generous marks those, particularly for Henderson and Milner who were ponderous and predictable. I doubt they will both survive next summer’s squad improvement.
Weird how we all see the game differently – I personally thought that both Milner and Henderson had good games.
Fair enough Paddy. It’s great that football can generate such different views.
Then football isn’t the sport for you.
No it really is. Played it for 20 years (still knocking around with the odd 5 a side game) and watched Liverpool for 40 years. I love, live and breath it mate.
Generous ratings for players who didn’t beat “the worst” team to play at Anfield.
Fuck sake.. that’s all
@david segar,
Good luck to you. I hope you sell thousands and your family aren’t scraping by but you won’t guilt trip me into liking your ratings.
All the best…
Bring back Johno
You don’t have to like them mate. Literally the point of it is it’s a game of opinions.
Johno will be back (I think) for West Brom. That’s rotation for you.
Oh and buy my book.
“Oh and buy my book.”
Cheeky b… ;)
I wondered what other people would think of Henderson today, because i honestly he was excellent. He and Gomez were our best players by a country mile i thought.
Funny how some people seem to take your comments personally just because they (presumably) don’t agree with them. Ain’t life grand. :)
I believe Klopp would see it that way too about Hendo’s performance today (and his view matters most :). And Ox is an improvement over say Lucas or Allen, for example. Kopp is definitely building something special for a long term in my opinion. (Compare our team to MU for examples. After spending a good more they still have a very average and quite a boring midfield)
If Klopp thinks Henderson played well today, he’d need his head examined. Dreadful.
Henderson was our worst player until Lovren made a mess of things.
Disagree with you Paul. Henderson might not be captain fantastic as most of us have fantasized of him being but to say he was the worst player isn’t fair. Solanke did fuck-all and didn’t score the whole time he was on does this mean he was crap too?
Lovren made a basic mistake on replays of the incident, Klopp put out the right selection but his subs didn’t make sense and Mane had more than one opportunity to kill the game.
Henderson is playing in the wrong position and has been for a while. He isn’t very good there as opposed to someone like Keita or Kante who might be a natural.
Henderson did okay by me in the match, could’ve done better or maybe subbed out for Can. Bashing his performance for no reason isn’t helping.
I know he’s a kid but Solanke has had enough chances now and I’m not seeing anything. Has he carved one decent scoring opportunity out for himself in ALL the minutes he’s played for us? Bearing in mind he is a centre forward, like.
Least Klopp knows now for the foreseeable future he isn’t an able deputy to Bobby yet and is still some way behind.
Solanke getting a 6 instead of a 3 is almost as bad a decision as Klopp’s to leave him on for 82 minutes.
His failure to square the ball at the end of the first half and drag a shot wide with his left is arguably what actually costs Liverpool the win. He’ll recover and do wonderful things in future games, but that moment will haunt him until he makes up for it by banging a hat trick in the FA Cup tie.
Fully agree on that.
He made the wrong decision, no one will disagree. But this kind of ideology basically says that we’ve reached a point now were our attackers apparently have to have flawless performances in order for us to win games of football. Talk about pressure.
Everton were awful, simply awful. We should have been able to win that game 1-0. Penalty or no penalty, Lovren gave the referee a decision to make, a decision that cost us. Mane misses that chance/fails to square it- wouldn’t it be nice if for once the defence could bail out the attackers?
Three goals conceded at home. 1 a mis-hit, 1 a soft pen (regardless of what MOTD pundits think).
Let’s not all lose our heads
Am liking these ratings – mainly cos they’re written in a positive spirit towards our team, and are therefore an antidote to some of the tiresome whingeing I heard on 606 on Radio 5. The Henderson-haters in particular are doing my head in.
“His failure to square the ball at the end of the first half and drag a shot wide with his left is arguably what actually costs Liverpool the win. He’ll recover and do wonderful things in future games, but that moment will haunt him until he makes up for it by banging a hat trick in the FA Cup tie.”
That’s taken from the ratings up above- a little dramatic don’t you think? Believe me I don’t buy into the media narrative that our defence is made up of clowns but I just think that kind of analysis is incredibly harsh on Mane. Furthermore whilst it raises semi-interesting questions, this splitting of the analysis of our defence from a home and away viewpoint is almost redundant. It’s pretty obvious when you look at the tactics of away teams at Anfield why we’ve conceded so few goals, but under pressure away from home (domestic and Europe) we are prone to a bit of a crumble when the pressure is on. Even today Lovren totally misjudged what was admittedly a good pass by Rooney and then seemed to panic. Honestly look at him as that ball sails over his head and he spins round and then looks shocked to see Calvert-Lewin there- it’s simply not good defending. Soft pen or not, he should have dealt with the situation a lot better.
Like I said in my original comment, Mane should have squared it, no doubt about it and no-one disagrees. He also should have been taken off before Salah as his overall performance was poor. But he’s been one of our best players since he signed and it would be nice if he could be let off the hook just this once. If we weren’t winning that game by 2, 3 or even 4, then 1 should have been enough.
This – ‘giving the referee a decision to make’ – talk is utterly ridiculous. If that was the case, their defenders ‘gave a referee a decision to make’ every time we knocked a ball up to Solanke or floated one into the box. That amount of contact happens hundreds of times all over a football pitch in every game and it’s never given.
Suspect that some fans are just using it as a rod to beat Lovren with because they’ll look for anything to slate him. Don’t get me wrong, he can be clumsy and brainless and has cost us points before – but this is not one of those times, he defends there as i’d expect my defender to defend that situation.
Thoughts on the game:
Predominantly English players picked because of conditions and the Dogs of War mentality – Breeze block Head would initiate.
The Fab Four would be reconciled at 70 mins once legs were tiring.
Penalty soft although we have had daft once for us in recent derbies.
Mane more accountable for result than Lovren.
Henderson looked really good however, this is more about the Shite on the Blue Half than his actual ability…