IT may be a shame going out of the Europa League against Zenit St Petersburg on away goals.
But crashing out in that manner did show one thing, perhaps Liverpool players are finally tired of being walked all over and made to look like schoolboys.
It wasn’t surprising to see Luis Suarez on top of his game, scoring those two goals.
After missing a fair few chances in the first leg he had a point to prove to himself perhaps.
It does make you wonder what might have been, had he taken a few of those in Russia, or perhaps if Jamie Carragher hadn’t fumbled that back-pass straight into Hulk’s path for that crucial away goal.
As in life, mistakes happen in football. But to keep fighting and staying on the front-foot for longer than 5 minutes – that’s something Brendan Rodgers will have to record and play back to his squad before every game.
Daniel Agger’s run was more than magnificent, which led to the first free-kick. The second Suarez goal itself was magnificent. It started way outside the near post and swerved viciously just enough to sneak in past the pot and in to the net. A couple of penalty claims which could’ve gone either way as well. We’ve seen them given, but in this case, not so.
There was a tactical issue though which didn’t quite pan out – Jordan Henderson playing on the left as an attacking forward/midfielder. He kept drifting inside towards the centre and there were a few occasions when Suarez or Gerrard played the ball where they thought he might have been, only to find there was no one – Henderson was in the middle.
You may say he isn’t used to playing down the side and the last few games did see him in more of an attacking role in the middle. You still need to be aware of your position though and he wasn’t. It was a minute glitch but something I’m sure the manager will have noticed and mentioned as well.
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It’s vitally important to take everything you can from this momentum now till the end of the season though. Daniel Sturridge (and Coutinho) will be available now as well and what a difference he could’ve made against Zenit, Thursday night. Sturridge may be giving Liverpool what Kenny Dalglish paid £35 million to see from Andy Carroll. The Geordie failed to show what many knew he was capable of but perhaps the pressure of the price tag, or being seen as the man replacing Fernando Torres (who was immense back then) got to him.
Danny Sturridge doesn’t seem to have any issues there though. He’s solid in possession, adds a different dimension in attack with his left footed play, and holds the ball up perfectly allowing Suarez, Gerrard, Downing, and the rest of them get an extra yard or two closer to the 6 or even just the 18 yard box. That’s priceless.
The remainder of the season?
Just go out and play like the way we did against Zenit. Undaunted by giving away a silly goal and still pressing ahead. You could see it in the demeanour of the players, they weren’t losing this. Their body language seemed to say ‘We’re better than you, there’s no way you should be 3 ahead and we’re going to change this!’
They did. Unfortunately it was the away goal that got Liverpool the exit pass. Fair enough, we’ve ridden that rule to our advantage in the past, and sometimes it goes the other way.
There is no away goal rule in the league though; just play the way you did Thursday, every match-day from now on. Not just for the rest of the season, but the foreseeable future. That’s the only way the team’s getting anywhere near the heights we were used to seeing years ago.
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