LIVERPOOL drew 2-2 with Swansea at the Liberty Stadium on Monday night.
Daniel Sturridge and Victor Moses got the goals for Brendan Rodgers’ men while old boy Jonjo Shelvey who played a part in all four goals scored his first Premier League goal and Michu got Swansea’s equaliser.
Brendan made 3 changes to the starting 11 that played against Manchester United.
Daniel Agger and Glen Johnson were out injured so Mamadou Sakho came in to make his debut alongside Skrtel and Andre Wisdom slotted in at right back. Iago Aspas dropped to the bench so Victor Moses also made his debut.
Steven Gerrard captained Liverpool for the 400th time in all competitions. His first game as captain was in November 2002 versus Southampton in a League Cup match.
Daniel Sturridge does it again
Swansea’s lead lasted less than a minute, from the restart Jonjo Shelvey who had just given his new
club the lead passed the ball back thinking that Vorm was there however Daniel had other ideas; if you look back on his goal he had already made his move before Shelvey played the ball. He took control of the loose ball inside the Swansea area after good pressure by Jordan Henderson and whipped a superb finish beyond Michel Vorm.
Daniel Sturridge is only the 4th LFC player ever to score in opening 4 league games of a season the others being Sam Raybould (1900), Kenny Dalglish (1978) and John Aldridge (1987). Since Daniel came on against Chelsea in April (last season) he now has a goal or an assist every 57 minutes.
Daniel now has a phenomenal 17 goals in 21 matches for Liverpool including 3 assists. He has directly contributed to 20 goals in 20 appearances.
Moses opens his account for Reds
Victor Moses on loan from Chelsea started brightly wearing the red of Liverpool and was awarded with a debut goal he took possession from guess who Jonjo Shelvey, and sprinted into the Swansea half and drilled a beautiful low effort into the bottom corner past keeper Michel Vorm.
Moses faded in the second half and was replaced by Raheem Sterling however his first half statistics look very promising for the Nigerian international thanks to @anfieldindex for providing the following statistical information.
Moses Stats at Half Time
Chances Created: 3
Shots: 1
Goal: 1
Passing: 81% complete (13/16)
Crossing: 100% complete (2)
Dribbles: 100% complete (3)
Overall a positive start for his Liverpool career and I am sure with more game time he will show his skills and what he can bring to the team. During his 80 minutes on the pitch last night Victor scored – a goal from his only shot, 3 chances created 3 successful dribbles, 2 tackles and an interception.
Mamadou Sakho more positives than negatives
Sakho did look shaky at first but that is understandable knowing that it was his debut for the club and he will need time to adapt to the Liverpool way of play and also how in the Premier League you have less time on the ball compared to Ligue 1 in France.
But as the game progressed Sakho did look more composed and playing alongside Skrtel would have helped him get to grips with playing in the Premier League.
I was impressed with his performance statistics after the match and if they are anything to go by we have found ourselves a quality defender.
Mamadou Sakho Performance Statistics
15/15 clearances
10/10 headed clearances
95% pass completion
The diagram above shows Sahko’s 15 clearances along the pitch. He also completed 40/42 passes throughout the game.
Final thoughts
A point away from home is always ideal however to be 2-1 up and lose the lead is slightly disappointing. The introduction of De Guzman for Swansea and the withdrawal of Coutinho due to injury disrupted our rhythm. Before Coutinho left the field the team completed 48 final third passes, when he was substituted the team only completed 11 passes. Sterling and Aspas did not really offer us anything when they came on in the second half. And at times it looked like we were hanging on.
Again for me we are not consistent enough throughout the full 90 minutes its either good 1st half disjointed 2nd half or vise versa. Hopefully Brendan will work with the squad during the week and all being well against Southampton the team can put in a positive performance for the full match.
Before Monday night’s game Victor Moses’ last Premier League goal for Chelsea was also against Swansea, he even scored against them during his Crystal Palace days.
Simon Mignolet may have lost his clean sheet record last night, but he has still saved 18 of the 20 on target shots he’s faced this season. Nevertheless he still has to work on his distribution, his passing down the middle of the pitch was poor a lot of the time possession was lost due to the fact the balls had become 50/50 balls.
10 points from a possible 12 (considering it took us 9 games last year to get 10 points on the board) is excellent and who knows what heights we can achieve even when Luis Suarez comes back. I am not getting carried away as the league is a marathon and not sprint still 34 games to go but I am happy how the season has started hopefully we can go from strength to strength.
Follow me on Twitter @MRSSG
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I thought Sakho did well considering it was his first appearance for new club new country so what I don’t get is why carra slaughtered him. I agree he was shaky at start but given the circumstances it should be understandable. Can someone tell me what I’ve missed???
Sakho did well considering the fact he knew he was going to play 15minutes be4 kickoff and also his first game in the epl,as for sterling i want Ibe to take his place cos all round player i think Ibe is better.Aspas should start ahead of Moses so that we utilise Moses pace and power in closing moments of games now that he’s not fit enough.
Sakho was at fault for our conceding the second goal,for me he dint really do well,that aside can somebody tell me why suso was sent on loan instead of sterling#english politics.suso and ibe remains the future of this club.sterling no where near these lads.give BR a chance to perfoem yes but RB stl remains d dream manager for us.
Second goal? Is Gerrard above criticism? Lucas didn’t stop Wilfried on the ball, Sakho moves in to nib it in the bud, now what good dmfs do is quickly check runs of players because immediately Sakho forces Bony to pass he has to stick with bony if none of the other dmfs are interested, as it seems, Lucas and Gerrard were not, so Sakho is left infield, the ball flies into Sakho’s abandoned position the real funny thing is Shelvey joggs past both Gerrard and Lucas to get in an assist. You should look at the bigger picture.
Gerrard and Lucas seem to run out of steam, was letting Sahin go so early a mistake? is putting so much hope on an a aging Gerrard a mistake? There were very good box-to-box players cum dmfs around we could have gotten for 20m, Schneidelin and Benat would have cost as much as Sakho and we could have gotten Sahko on a free next season or considerably cheap in January. Schneidin and Benat would have been excellent players for us.
schnerderlin?..are you beginning 2 eye southampton becus they are our next opponent?..get a life mate,he shld get them at the top of the table if he is good!