LINE up two die hard Liverpudlians and ask them to summarise their view on pre-season games and one may argue they are a strong indicator of player form and the manager’s long term plans, whilst the other could label them as an insignificant commercially-driven sideshow.
There seems to be two types of fan for pre-season games – those who watch attentively and those who tend to ignore them.
Most would agree however that whilst these games provide an excellent opportunity to accumulate much needed match fitness, they very rarely serve up a bonanza of beautiful football and numerous goalscoring chances. Terms like ‘disjointed’ and ‘lacklustre’ are often widely used in the media and although Liverpool’s opening pre-season game didn’t entirely break the mould, their 1-1 draw with Major League Soccer’s FC Toronto proved to be a mildly entertaining contest.
Observing Liverpool’s first game under Brendan Rodgers always promised to be interesting after his much publicised advocacy of passing football. Encouragingly, there were signs from the first whistle that his ideas have struck a chord. Tangible evidence of this was provided in the stats: after 30 minutes, Liverpool had enjoyed 75% of possession. Hopefully this is a taster of what is to come but the quality of opposition has to be a consideration of course.
Reports from Liverpool’s training camp seem to suggest that the squad have enjoyed the possession and pressing based drills in training, which will probably provide the soon to be returning England internationals with a refreshing change from the negative containing tactics which apparently played a large part in Roy Hodgson’s sessions during Euro 2012.
The first half contained very few chances but there were decent performances from two of Liverpool’s younger players. Daniel Pacheco was a frequent danger down the left hand side and Jordan Ibe – at an incredibly tender age of 16 – performed with a boldness and bravery beyond his years, looking to dribble and create at every opportunity where it would have been understandable to play it safe. Alberto Aquilani was also tidy in possession after his return from a season long loan at AC Milan. It was Toronto who had the clearest chance of the half though, where Ryan Johnson’s low side footed drive forced a smart save from Brad Jones.
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After eleven changes in the Liverpool side, the second half was played with greater intensity and a more competitive edge. Liverpool continued to control possession but still lacked incisiveness in the final third. Their lack of cutting edge was punished on 58 minutes – Peter Gulacsi could only parry a long range Sergio Camargo shot straight to Quincy Amarikwa, who fired into an empty net.
Liverpool responded reasonably well and began to look more purposeful in possession. The youth ranks produced another notable performer in the second half in the form of Suso, who displayed fleeting glimpses as to why he is so highly regarded by those at the club. His passing, vision and trickery were impressive at times and he soon forced a save from Quillan Roberts after a well struck curled shot.
Liverpool’s equaliser came from a pleasing source on 69 minutes. Joe Cole intercepted in a good area and edged the ball wide to the again impressive Raheem Sterling who beat his marker and edged in a low shot from a tight angle which beat the keeper and fell to the grateful Adam Morgan a couple of yards out, who tapped in to score his first senior goal in a red shirt. It may not be a competitive fixture but it clearly meant a lot to him and a goal of this nature encapsulates his predatory reputation at youth level. It was endearing to see his passionate celebration and fellow scouser Jamie Carragher was one of the first to congratulate him from the sidelines.
The game was played out at a decent pace but neither side created a clear chance and the closest Liverpool came to a winner was in injury time when a well struck Suso shot from the edge of the area was saved at the near post.
It’s clearly far too early to make any judgements of what we can expect in the oncoming season, but there was some evidence to suggest that Rodgers’ ideas are having an impact. The highlight from the game was some good performances from our younger players and it was a welcome sight to see Lucas returning for the closing 20 minutes.
Final score: FC Toronto 1 -1 Liverpool
You can catch our resident match reporter Antony on Twitter @antonyjlfc
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