LIVERPOOL got back to winning ways and moved up to second place only two points behind leaders Arsenal after Daniel Sturridge and Luis Suarez, making his first start in the league since his 10 game suspension, scored the goals which kept Sunderland bottom of the table.
Brendan Rodgers named the same starting 11 that unluckily got knocked out by Manchester United in the Capital One Cup midweek.
The team set-up in a 3-5-2 formation. Defender Tiago Liori was named for the first time in a match day squad as a substitute.
Jordan Henderson made his 100th appearance against his former club; he also made his debut and his 50th game for LFC against Sunderland.
Interesting Pre match facts
10 of Daniel Sturridge’s last 15 Premier League goals have come away from home.
Lucas has attempted the joint most tackles this season (26) winning 69% of them.
Sturridge the goal-getter does it again
Liverpool took the lead after 27 minutes after Daniel forced the ball (with a little help with his arm) over the line from close range from a Steven Gerrard corner.
@optajoe tweeted after the goal
“Eight of Liverpool’s last 10 Premier League goals have been scored by Daniel Sturridge”
Scintillating Suarez back to his best
161 days since Luis Suarez last played in the Premier League it took the Uruguayan just 35 minutes to get back to scoring goals.
Gerrard hit a delicious long ball to Sturridge that was only bettered by the wonderful take-down by the striker that allowed him to go one-on-one with Cuellar. He beat the defender with ease and sprinted towards for the line before knocking the ball across the box to Suarez who asked for the ball to played right in to the space at the back post and he tapped in to the empty net.
Mignolet, who had been at fault for Emanuele Giaccherini’s goal on his return to Wearside, redeemed himself by starting the counter-attack which lead to Luis Suarez’s second goal and ending any hope for Sunderland gaining a point. He threw the ball out to Suarez, 16.5 seconds later it was in the back of Westwood’s goal via a lovely cross-field pass from Suarez to Sturridge on the right. Sturridge put his head down and run for the goal before sliding the ball across the goal to Suarez who continued his run and continued his impressive run of scoring against the Black Cats with a fine finish at the back post.
That is now 7 goals in 6 games for Luis against Sunderland!
Final Thoughts
Credit must be given to Sakho, Skrtel and Toure who were excellent defensively every one of them marshalled the back line with great aplomb, and when called upon either cleared the ball or tackled to win the ball back. Sakho had an aerial dominance throughout the 90 minutes.
I have had a closer look at Sakho’s performance statistics for the match, his best performance for the Reds so far.
Impressively while on the pitch together for LFC, Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge are averaging a goal between them every 82 minutes. Sturridge (6) and Suárez (7) have scored 13 goals in 809 minutes .
Simon Mignolet again showed some great moments during the course of the match however he still has to improve on certain areas of his game. He is a great shot-stopper but in the modern game you need to be more than just a shot-stopper. As the following diagram shows below Mignolet needs to work on his passing, his footwork when the ball is at his feet and also he must command his box more at set pieces – catching the ball from corners would be a good start.
Victor Moses quietly went about his business yesterday and I found out after the match that he recovered to win the ball back an impressive 15 times.
Thanks to @anfieldindex for the following statistic
Mins per Goal Involvement (goals & assists) 13/14 #EPL (>270 mins):
Sturridge: 77.1
Rooney: 77.6
Negredo: 82.8
Aguero: 85.3
Giroud: 86.8
Overall an excellent team performance to get back to winning ways, and of course it was written in the stars for Luis to write the headlines for the right reasons. It was a lovely touch to see his celebrations in honour on the arrival of his new son Benjamin.
It will be interesting to see how Brendan prepares for when Ian Holloway and his Crystal Palace side visit Anfield this Saturday afternoon.
Who will replace Lucas in the midfield as he serves a one match ban for picking up five yellow cards. Also, does Rodgers rotate the defence and give Agger a starting berth or Aly Cissoko who might be back in contention to take the place of Jose Enrique.
Hopefully Sturridge and Suarez can fire in the goals again to get three points against Crystal Palace.
Follow me on Twitter @MRSSG
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Great article. Really happy that the team won the match at Sunderland. To be honest I was worried about this game like everyone else. Glad that Suarez comes back with a big bang. Hope he stays out of trouble this time.
Mignolet: poor performance and keeps conceding goals in every match.
Suarez: the prized asset of LFC. Not for sale even at 60m pound.