Liverpool’s new, more beardy Joe Allen was the standout tonight
Midfield
Kevin Stewart – In the role Stewart took up tonight, you want a player to be efficient, no-nonsense and support his defence. He did exactly that. Very solid. Rating – 6
Joe Allen – What’s going on with Joe Allen these days? That beard and longer hair seem to have slowly transformed him into a different player. Of course, he isn’t Samson so we can’t seriously be associating his improved form with the amount of hair he has. What is more likely is that the arrival of a new manager that doesn’t coddle him has seen him have to come out of his shell and show what he can do. Allen once again was the furthest player forward on a number of occasions, making bursting runs into the box. It worked, and he opened the scoring in similar fashion to his equalizer against Arsenal last week. Rating – 7.5 Man of the Match
Cameron Brannagan – Brannagan got through a lot of work in the midfield, and his presence (along with Stewart’s) saw Joe Allen much more involved further forward. Having played around half a dozen games for the Reds this season, we’ve gotten to see a fair bit of Brannagan and he looks like a very tidy player. Rating – 6.5
