It was a tough evening to endure for every Liverpool fan. What was supposed to be the beginning of a revolution ended leaving a sour taste in every Liverpool fan’s mouth. What went wrong for the Reds? Here are my picks on the 5 things that went horribly wrong.
1. Anonymity of Steven Gerrard:
If you think of Liverpool, the first man you think of to make a difference is their talismanic skipper. But against WBA, what we saw was a Gerrard without inspiration, a Gerrard who misplaced most of his passes (Now, how rare is that?) and a Gerrard who gave the team no forward thrust whatsoever. Maybe age is catching up with the Liverpool skipper and maybe he needs to decide to shift into the kind of role that Paul Scholes is currently playing at Manchester United, as that would be less demanding, at least physically.
2. Rustiness of Lucas Leiva:
Lucas was absolutely overwhelmed by the duo of James Morrison and Youssouf Mulumbu. This, from a man, who last season nullified the threat of Yaya Toure. Maybe, Rodgers has thrust him into action a bit too early. Admittedly, Lucas was pretty impressive in pre-season, but was found wanting by the West Brom midfield.
3. Skrtel and Agger:
Completely lacklustre on the ball. Shane Long gave the two established Liverpool Centre-Backs an absolute nightmare. Yes, Long is someone who doesn’t know the meaning of the phrase “LOST CAUSE”, but Agger and Skrtel should’ve known and been bit more alert with the ball at their feet. Skrtel was found out completely by Long for the second penalty and Agger was beaten for pace in the leadup to the first one. Liverpool really do need to sort out their centre-back pairing for the next 3 games without Agger. Maybe, young Sebastian Coates will be thrust into action, as there is no way Jamie Carragher can cope with the pace of the Premier League.
4. Non-Functioning Frontline:
Unfortunately, nerves of a debut is what Fabio Borini had to endure. Misplaced lots of his passes, and didn’t pose any sort of threat to the West Brom defenders. Stewart Downing had a bright opening 10 minutes but after that, he was the Downing of 2011-2012, with absolutely ZERO impact. Luis Suarez was bright all game, but just couldn’t put the finishing touches to any of his moves. If Suarez can finish atleast 60-70% of the chances he creates, he will be the Premier League’s best striker BY A COUNTRY MILE.
5. Susbstitutions:
Joe Cole brought on at 2-0 down, goes off injured within 10 minutes. Andy Carroll had to be brought on much earlier in place of Fabio Borini, and Gerrard had to be replaced considering the nightmare he was having. None of this happened, and , as expected, West Brom had a stroll in the park after they scored their 3 goals.
So, maybe Rodgers has to rethink his starting 11 for the game against the Champions next Sunday, and if Liverpool can play upto full potential, they do have the ability to cause City a problem or two.
3 Comments
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Srikanth Rajgopalan Joined 0 pointsI feel its high time suarez starts finishing his chances, or he is not going to be at liverpool in the coming seasons. Any decent striker would have buried that header and the open tap in. That’s the difference between us, and a lower team who get once chance and score (read Lukaku). That was not a sending off, and if we were 11 v 11, we would have given a fight – it was the proper fire up the backside. the ref just killed the game with the sending off and the second penalty – and note that Kelly was pulled down in the box in front of the ref. But no use complaining, we will march on.Its the first game, better to learn our weak points in the first game, than mid-season. YNWA
commented on 19th Aug 2012 at 11:26 am -
Prakhar Gupta Joined 0 points
I’d say this article is poorly written at places. Tbh, I’d say Gera’s strike ended our hopes early on. Especially for the debutants. It was his genius. Then the wrong sending off and the stupid non existent penalties put our morale down. The ref changed the match. No wonder we played shit at times. Specially Stevie G. Though I’m a big fan and I disapprove of the scholes idea. If you saw Gomel return leg you’d know how well Bprini Suarez and G linked up. Lucas was trying his ass off. Not his fault. Allen was wonderful. The passing was heavenly. Just the finishing. I think Man City is a nice start to our campaign. West brom are just too mainstream for BR and co. :P
commented on 19th Aug 2012 at 11:20 am
Taking about Gerrard he had bad day but after 1 match you can’t say he should play scholes way. 1 of the reason he wasn’t able to provide attacking thrust was empty left wing.Suarez went inside from left and so Gerrard was force to move left.