Here is an interview with Brendan Rodgers and his reaction.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/19615059 I understand that he is disappointed considering how well we played. At least for 70 minutes we were the better team today and I agree with him on that.
Player verdicts and thoughts on injuries
Suso impressed and I hope he starts next game if Borini is still injured. One of hte most disappointing things was loosing Agger and Kelly to injury. I do not think Kelly is a huge issue as Enrique comes in and Johnson switches back to left back but as mentioned in previous blog post Kelly is a better defender than Enrique and the way he twisted his knee I fear he can be out for a wee while. Hopefully it was just a tweak but I worry. It was a strange angle he twisted it.
Agger's injury also looked bad and he may be out for a while if he has broken something. That is what it looked like to me but as I said lets hope it is not that serious. If it is I really hope Coates takes Agger's place and not Carragher. Jaime has been fantastic for LFC but needs to move to the coaching staff. He is way past his best and a liability when he is playing now due to his pace.
Coates will develop if he gets a lot of games and can be a real threat on set pieces if he is given the chance. Look at his goal against Young Boys. It was brilliant, although Borini perhaps should have stuck it away.
Reina looked better today although apart from the two goals he did not have much to do.
Glen Johnson was perhaps our best player along with Steven Gerrard who played his best game since Brendan Rodgers took over.
Sterling looked ok but was less direct today than he normally is and did not try to get to the line and get crosses in the way he normally does but it was also due to goo defending by Evra.
Suso played well when he came in for Borini who himself made some good runs but as was pointed out by the announcers missed a bit with his first touch a couple of times to finish things off. Lots of potential and he will come good.
Allen had another good game in the centre of midfield. He remains one of our better players and is consistently good.
Suarez had a decent game but needs more support. Sterling did not have the penetration he did against city and although Johnson provided some width down the left we suffered when going down to 10 men @ around 42 mins.
The red card
Jonjo Shelvey should have been sent off. There I said it. I saw the incident several times and initially I thought it should have been a yellow. Then after several replays I came to another conclusion for a few reasons 1) shelvey siccor kicks and leaves the ground 2) he is later to the ball 3) he was higher off the ground than Evans and got to the ball second (yes he got the ball).
He could have got away with it but people tend to forget that the game has changed a lot. They are a lot stricter on those rules than what they used to be. Just look at the Van Persie tackle later in the game that he is carded for. 7 years ago noone would have got booked for that challenge. He get the ball and slide tackles and keeps his legs on the ground. Evans was off the ground but only slightly.
Personally I do not like this rule change. That is despite I know it limits injuries etc.
I thought Andy Townsend put it well when he said Evans challenge was reckless, Jonjo Shelvey's challenge was endangering the opposing player. One could argue that Evans was as well and I would have been happy to see them both go because they both left the ground but I can see how some would say Jonjo's tackle was worse because of his attitude, the scissor movement and being late to the challenge.
One should also not forget the previous challenge Jonjo had in the game where a free kick was given and he showed dissent the way Suarez does with raising his hand to the referee.
When he still goes into the next challenge in the same manner after that fact I do not think he gives Halsey a choice to be honest. The ball is also not in a place where they are going to immediately score after that and therefore I think it shows that he is a bit immature in that part of his game.
Because the rules have changed players have to adapt and Gerrard for example has. He used to go into more challenges like that. Jonjo needs to learn and now we are without a very good player for 3 games I believe.
Lets hope Nuri Sahin steps up and fills his boots. Alternatively Jordan Henderson is another option who could play against Norwich and still be decent. He also needs the match fitness.
The penalty decision
Just a joke. Valencia goes down way too easy and it never should have been a penalty. Johnson touches his back leg ever so slightly but referee Mark Halsey gave away two points to united and took away one from Liverpool.
So that would be my conclusion. We played well, was the better team but probably should have come away with a point due to the penalty decision. If it had not been for the silly tackle from Jonjo Shelvey we may have come away with all 3 points but that remains speculation.
Thoughts and comments are welcome!
YNWA,
Stian
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