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Brendan Rodgers’ former team managed to get one over the now Liverpool manager with incisive counter-attacking football to grab a ticket into the next round of the Capital Cup (or otherwise known as the League Cup).
The team put out by Brendan Rodgers was a huge contrast to the one which he put out during last week’s mid-week match against Anzhi (I won’t go into their second name again). We had a nearly entirely second-string squad in the likes of Samed Yesil, Jordan Henderson and Joe Cole starting. Only Brad Jones and Joe Allen retained their places in the starting eleven from the Merseyside derby over the weekend (which featured arguably our best eleven at press time).
The opening exchanges saw neither side exhibiting their passing football philosophy that both are renowned for, with both sides continually pressing and harrying opponents into passing errors, but Swansea City upped the tempo of their game and were subsequently rewarded, as they soon began to carve out more chances for themselves.
Chico Flores opened the scoring for Swansea City with his first goal for the club after some debatable defending from Liverpool from the set-piece.
Liverpool had chances of their own, but Joe Cole could only head the ball tamely when the opportunity presented itself, making for an easy save for Swansea goalkeeper Gerhard Tremmel.
The first half saw a start for German youngster Samed Yesil, touted for big things at the club, but he failed to turn up. The forward was unable to hold up play as the spearhead of the attack, whilst not offering an offensive threat in his 45 minutes of play.
The break presented a chance for Brendan Rodgers to change things up against his former side, as he put on Luis Suarez and captain Steven Gerrard for the ineffective duo of Joe Cole and Samed Yesil.
The introduction of the duo brought inspiration to a Liverpool side sorely lacking in ideas. Suarez proved to be a huge problem to the opposition, whilst Steven Gerrard was unlucky not to have a goal, with his shot coming off the post – Downing should have put Liverpool on level terms with the rebound, instead putting it wide.
For all of Liverpool’s attacking dominance, it was Swansea who came up with the second goal of the game, producing a swift counter-attacking move for Nathan Dyer to finish off.
Their lead was gone in an instant, as Luis Suarez scored from a Steven Gerrard set-piece to offer hope for the Reds.
However, Liverpool didn’t manage to find that equaliser and were instead hit on the break, conceding a third goal from the counter-attack.
A notable performance came from Assaidi, who was once again dangerous from out wide, as he provided some trickery and swift changes in pace to offer an alternative attacking threat for Liverpool FC.
