Jordan Henderson and his forward runs the key for Liverpool

Jordan Henderson after scoring the winning goal against Swansea

Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool side welcomed his former team Swansea City in a Barclays Premier League encounter at Anfield in a game that finished 4-3 to the hosts. Three points were crucial for The Reds from this game, especially after Manchester City, Arsenal and table toppers Chelsea all registered wins yesterday.

Liverpool started the game on the back of a defeat at the hands of Arsenal in the FA Cup, whilst aware of the face that any slip up against The Swans would create a 3 point gap between themselves and Manchester City, who have a game in hand. Rodgers set up his team in an attacking 4-3-3, with Daniel Sturridge and Raheem Sterling on the wings, alongside talisman Steven Gerrard in his now customary deeper role.

Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho, positioned ahead of Gerrard in a three man midfield, looked to provide the base of their attack, with the former Sunderland man’s late forays forward adding another dimension to it.

As for Swansea City, Garry Monk, their Bedford born player-manager chose to go with a rather attacking 4-2-3-1 formation, with Jonjo Shelvey, the former Liverpool man, placed in behind Wilfried Bony, flanked by Wayne Routledge on the left and Nathan Dyer on the right. With Leon Britton and Jonathan De Guzman playing the pivot in the centre of the park, their opponents of the night were in for a tough night considering the ability of the former to keep the ball while making sure they can attack with venom with a minimal chance.

Monk’s side on Thursday had an outing at home against Napoli in the Europa League and substantial questions over the freshness of their squad were asked before the game with only two days to rest and recoup for this clash at Anfield.

The Reds started the game with some good interplay between Sterling and Coutinho as their left hand side looked to create whatever little passes they could string together. England captain Gerrard, who has adapted promisingly to his new role of spraying passing and controlling play from deep inside his own half, was at it again, looking to set the tempo of the game by finding Sterling and Coutinho time and again.

It was just the 3^rd minute, when Sterling won the ball deep inside Liverpool’s half from Swansea right back Rangel and unleashed an inch perfect 30 yarder pass. With not many teammates ahead of the young Englishman, one would have expected him to pass the ball to a nearby red shirt, thereby keeping possession. But instead of that, Sterling used his vastly improving vision to spot Sturridge’s run in between Chico Flores and Ashley Williams, the gap between whom was ideal for a poacher of Sturridge’s class. The former Chelsea striker then rounded off Michel Vorm to give Liverpool the lead.

At the other end, Swansea were doing little to show their ability to keep the ball and catch their opponents by surprise with Jonjo Shelvey being directly pitted against his former captain Gerrard. He had very little to do to get away from Gerrard and find space from himself in the early parts of the game, with Shelvey failing to utilize and take advantage of the same. Routledge and Dyer, though were both attacking outlets for their team, moving centrally whilst inviting full backs for stretching their play.

Liverpool, however, were thriving on the quick switching of play instructed to them by their manager, with Uruguayan Suarez releasing Sturridge down the right in the 20^th minute. The Englishman was playing in a role similar to an inside forward, narrowing Liverpool’s play, whilst switching positions with Suarez consistently. The former Ajax man was dropping deep to link up play with Coutinho and Henderson, allowing Sturridge and Sterling to make runs across the Swansea defense.

On this occasion though, Sturridge was forced to receive the ball from Suarez near the right hand touchline, coming inside and finding Henderson near the edge of the box. The Sunderland born midfielder took a touch and accurately found the back of the net, leaving Vorm completely stranded. Liverpool were threatening to run riot with Swansea having done little wrong till now.

As the Welsh team looked to have been blown away by their opponent’s incisive play, a good cross field run from Routledge inspired Dyer to find Shelvey at the end of the area who took a shot with his first touch and comfortably beat Mignolet with it. In a flash, Swansea were back in what was a first real threat on goal from them. Both the sides played as per their abilities and had little wrong doing in any of the goals yet. Monk’s side is built on the stability provided to them by their holders Britton and De Guzman and was in the game as far as the scoreboard was concerned.

It was not much after the Shelvey stunner that Gerrard was found a tad too uncomfortable with the defensive responsibilities that come along with the deeper role once again, when he passed to an under pressure Skrtel. What resulted was a disputable free kick, which was put in the box dangerously for Bony to head towards goal. It would be safer to say though, that Mignolet was wrong-footed by Skrtel’s touch on the way directing it into an open net for the scores to be level.

The game had turned upside down, but it wasn’t a result of a change in style for Swansea. Some weak defending by the hosts adding to the nerves the first one got into them was enough.

The two goals looked to have brought some anxiety in to the Kop not to mention the players, with Sterling notably drifting out of the game. As the game edged past the half an hour mark, the hosts did come back into the game following some patient hold up play. Suarez led yet another counter, stretching the Swansea defense before crossing accurately to find Sturridge. The England forward, yet again found space in between the two defenders who were supposed to close the space between them, and guided his header past Vorm to give his side the lead once more.

Swansea had been a tough opponent on the night, but were time and again beaten by individual faults, and perhaps the better quality on Liverpool’s roster. At half time, Shelvey, who had been one of the best creative players for the visitors, was replaced due to an injury to be replaced by Jose Canas. De Guzman was then moved forward to play in the hole behind Bony, who had given Agger and Skrtl some decent work up till now.

Canas sat in the pivot alongside Britton in a move that saw spaces being opened a bit more for them. As the second half began, Swansea began positively with Dyer getting the better of Johnson on the right hand side, in what was one of the few times Johnson let the ball get past him on his side. His cross was dangerous enough for Skrtel to clumsily foul Bony, who converted the resultant penalty.

In what was a slightly defensive tactic deployed by Rodgers, he brought on Joe Allen in the midfield to replace Sterling and shifted Coutinho out to the left. Probably a decision made to stabilize the midfield defensively and bring some variation to their attack; it looked to have worked as he moved the ball better with Coutinho joining the attacking three. Suarez and Sturridge both had shots on target as they continued to press in search of a winner though Swansea were holding out for a draw.

In a surprise substitution, their manager Monk again switched their no. 10 with Pablo Hernandez, who usually gets positioned on the wing. He would bring some much needed creativity up front with deft touches the Spaniard is capable of.

As it turned out though, Henderson latched on to Suarez’ blocked shot just a minute after the one from Hernandez entered the field, which was eventually the winner of this enthralling game.

Tactically speaking, Monk looked to have been undecided on who really should be the player to drive their attacks forward through the centre, which really is an important area for their style of play. Shelvey, De Guzman and Hernandez played there in a span of 90 minutes with each impressing in their own way.

As for Liverpool, they continued to display a plethora of variations from short passing to quick switching in play alongside full backs’ presence in attack to chase their actual ambition of top four this term.