Football News: Liverpool vs Swansea: Review
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On Monday night just a couple of days before the new year, Liverpool gave their fans a glimpse of what they will hope is to come next year. It was arguably their best performance of the season against a tired looking Swansea side.
Liverpool crafted a brilliant team goal for Moreno after 33 minutes with Lallana sliding a ball in behind for Henderson, who then drilled a cross into Moreno's feet for a first time finish. Fabianski got a hand to it but couldn't keep it out. What was a first half of excellent football was only slightly blackened by Jonjo Shelvey swinging his forearm into Emre Can's face in an incident that probably should've drawn a straight red card.
Early in the second half Lallana charged down a Fabianski kick and scored what is probably the luckiest goal of the year! It cannoned off of his side and looped into the empty net leaving Fabianski cursing his luck.
A minute later Liverpool were caught napping by a determined Swansea side who weren't going down without a fight back; however brief it may have been. Routledge looped a brilliant cross to the back post for Bony who had escaped Sakho far too easily. Sakho tried to make amends by throwing himself over the top of Bony to beat him to the ball and had he not headed it straight into the path of Sigurdsson I'm sure there would've been some very legitimate penalty shouts. Sigurdsson placed the ball beyond Mingolet as though he had ice running through his veins. It was no less than Swansea deserved although Rodgers will be questioning why Skrtel allowed himself to get caught under the cross, and then allowed Sigurdsson to latch onto the loose ball unchallenged. The big Slovakian got caught well and truly ball watching.
10 minutes later Lallana latched onto a brilliant first time back heel from Coutinho, rounded two Swansea defenders, and then drilled a low left footed shot into the far bottom corner. It was a well deserved brace for the Liverpool player and yet another brilliant team goal.
Inevitably, Shelvey found himself involved in yet more drama against his old club as he headed a Henderson corner into the far top corner of his own goal. It was admittedly very unfortunate.
The scoreline would remain at 4-1 until the final whistle with the only notable incident in the final 20 minutes being a small punch up in which Sterling immaturely over reacted, seemingly punching a Swansea player in the face over the linesman's shoulder. The young attacker was incredibly lucky not to be sent off and like Shelvey, may yet face retribution from the FA when the footage is reviewed. Gomis also hit the bar with a brilliant curled effort as Skrtel and Sakho stood off him inside the penalty area.
A dramatic, yet brilliant game of football capped off a rollercoaster year for Liverpool. They went from the highs of an 11 game winning streak, to the lows of the infamous capitulation in which they threw away the title, and have been so far this season a shadow of the team they were last season. They will need to string together an incredible run of results to have any hope of a top 4 finish this season but they now find themselves just 5 points behind Southampton and Arsenal in 4th and 5th place respectively so this result does keep them within touching distance.
In terms of what Swansea can take from this game, they did cause Liverpool a lot of problems when they got forward with Sigurdsson's vision, Bony's hold up play, and Routledge's pace proving difficult for Liverpool to cope with. The Welsh side will certainly not be fighting relegation this season and that is testament to the brilliant job former Swansea player and captain Garry Monk has done. They must improve defensively in their next game though as Liverpool found it far too easy to carve out chances. Had Sterling in particular not been so wasteful in front of goal, it could've been a cricket score.
Player ratings:
Liverpool - Mingolet (7), Can (7), Skrtel (5), Sakho (5), Manquillo (7), Henderson (8), Lucas (7), Moreno (8), Lallana (9), Coutinho (8), Sterling (4)
Subs - Markovic (6), Balotelli (6), Borini (5)
Swansea - Fabianski (5), Richards (5), Fernandez (5), Williams (6), Taylor (5), Britton (5), Shelvey (4), Dyer (5), Sigurdsson (7), Routledge (6), Bony (7)
Subs - Rangel (5), Gomis (6), Ki (5)
Written by Adam Jones December 29 2014 22:46:58
