Thursday 18 December 2014

Match Review - Bournmouth

At last a win with the performance to go with it.  We finally played well, looked a threat and scored the goals.  Probably only the second good performance of the season.  There were signs  against Man United despite suffering a heavy defeat and today we looked good, created and scored.

Rodgers played three central defenders with Henderson and Markovic as win backs two central midfield, Lucas and Gerrard, Stirling as a striker with Lallana and Coutinho as inside forwards, not wingers proper inside forwards and it worked, enough to suggest it's a formation we should stick with.

I was worried, at the back Jones as a Liverpool goalkeeper just doesn't cut it he is not good enough and I have lost trust in Lovren he has made to many mistakes for me and I don't understand why he has not been replaced by Sakho, who when he came on for the injured Lovren did well a solid performance.  We did look weak at the back again, I think the keeper was at fault for the Bournmouth goal and we never looked confident when defending but we did ok, as normal there is plenty of room for improvement but getting the correct personnel in is a start.

It was going forward where we looked better, much better and it was a delight to watch.  I have felt for a while that Stirling should be given a run up front (see article Do we already have the new Suarez, published on the 20th October) and although he didn't score against United I thought he looked a threat throughout, in this game he added the goals and for me looked very good in this role, please keep him here he looks like he could be a real threat.  Coutinho and Lallana playing as inside forwards were also dangerous constantly switching with each other and providing the movement that has been missing as well as causing the defence problems when running with the ball.  But for me the player of the game and the one who produced the biggest smile on my face was Markovic who looked fantastic, he was played out of position at wing back but defended ok but going forward he was a revelation, again we have had a couple of promising cameos recently but this was the performance we have been waiting for, real pace, real skill and real composure, he really looked the part and deserved his great goal he looks like he could be finally showing us why we paid twenty million for him.

I hope we have finally started to turn the corner with this result and performance, I think we have a formation that Rodgers likes and seems to fit our current players i would like to see a couple of changes with Moreno coming in as a wing back allowing Markovic to take up one of the inside forward rolls.  Sakho to remain in the team at the expense of Lovren and I think Coutinho instead of Gerrard in the midfield role allowing Gerrard to be an impact player from the bench.  Still obviously work to do, its only a win over a Championship team, but at least now we can see a way forward and Stirling up front could be very very exciting.

@lfclumo

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