Football News: Liverpool vs Brighton Review 13 May 2018
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Liverpool vs Brighton Review - in a game that was comfortable, for more or less its entirety, this is how I saw it.
Karius - so little to do its difficult to assess. He distributed the ball reasonably well, didn't do much wrong, comfortable.
TAA - pretty lively, good support to attacks in the first half and for the most part comfortable in defence (though little to do) - the lad has had a good season.
Robertson - got himself a goal, rampaged forward at will due to Brighton's lack of real attacking threat and looked decent going forward. Crossing consistency needs to improve but he has done well this season - way better than I expected, I'm happy to have been proven wrong.
Van Dijk - won most, if not all, of the aerial duels that came his way. Was a bit careless, especially second half, but no major concerns.
Lovren - also got himself a goal and defended what little there was to defend adequately. His partnership with Van Dijk looks solid.
Henderson - effective, particularly in breaking up their rare break away's. Distribution was good, had a lot of freedom - he thrives in games like these - needless to say but sterner tests to come.
Wijinaldum - played deeper than I like but did reasonably, broke up play when it needed breaking up and kept the ball ticking off. Nothing awful or spectacular, which sums up his season in many ways.
Firmino - played deeper than usual
but was an absolute menace, excellent inter changes and passing, made their lives difficult. Should've had a goal.
Mane - mad game for the lad. Should've crossed the ball to set Firmino up on a plate but shot instead then, with that incident clearly in the back of his mind, made the decision to square it to Salah when he himself was through on goal and fluffed the pass. I actually thought he played well and caused them lots of problems, he's had a really, really good 2018, key played for Kiev.
Salah - another obligatory goal, lots of link up play, looked dangerous, set up Solanke and was basically the thorn in the oppositions side that we have seen all season. let's hope he can produce one more time in Kiev.
Solanke - I've criticised him recently but he did a number of things well today. Firstly he scored! Well done lad. Was a really good finish too. Secondly he linked up really well with his team mates and was one of our better players first half (setting up Salah for his goal in the process) . He also never stopped working, from first minute to last. Credit where it is due, he put in a shift, played well, and got a goal - good on him.
Substitutes:
Lallana - came on when the game, as a contest, was finished. As usual some nice flicks and tricks, nothing too amazing to report.
Woodburn - came on late as a double substitution and the game really was petering out at that stage. Looked neat in possession but did not have much of a chance to show us what he can do.
Ings - cam on late with Woodburn and displayed his usual energy though, at that stage little to play for so nothing much doing.
Klopp - got it spot on, took the game to them from the get go and they never looked comfortable. Finished 4-0 but could've about 8 by half time had things went our way. Liverpool never looked in danger once the first goal went in and, when Lovren crashed in the second it was all over. We didn't learn much except we are a very good team who can score goals - Brighton had little to play for and that was apparent as well. To think we were worrying about this game last week. A good way to finish the season - guaranteed CL which is very important and now a final to look forward to. We are heading in the right direction.
Referees - this has to be mentioned because, for whatever reason, they seem determined not to award us penalties. The Brighton handball, whilst arguably accidental, prevented the ball from going through to Salah 8 yards out, surely a pen? There was then another dodgy handball that was ignored before the blatant penalty for the foul on Salah that the ref, from mere yards away, missed/ ignored. I don't know what is going on with the refs but they don't seem to want to give us much. Never the less it had little impact on the result, thankfully, but another instance of bizarre refereeing.
Overall though a good game for us to watch, CL secured for next season, a CL final to look forward to and a team that continues to look solid and impress. Let's hope they can finish the season in real style.
Written by Seano_ May 13 2018 19:44:36