As soon as Lucas pulled up I feared the worst for the team and expected us to lose maybe 3-0 as Shelvey was coming on but I'm happy to say Shelvey proved me wrong and stuck to his task well and put in a great shift and performance. Over the past two weeks its clear to see when Shelvey plays with quality players such as Lucas, Allen and Gerrard he performs much better. Compare that to when he has had to play with Adam and Spearing and his performances havent been that great as the quality around him has let him down and kind of influenced his game. Joe Allen keeps impressing me the more I see of him. He's so composed and he does all the simple things effectively. The highlight for me was that disguised pass to Suarez it kind of reminded me of how Alonso used to pull the strings in the midfield under Rafa. I think come the end of the season we'll look back to the acquisition of Allen and see it was a real bargain at 15 million. I was happy with the whole team performance, the first 10 minutes or so we looked shaky and not with it but as soon as we settled down it was all us and our passing improved and it was great to watch. Young Raheem Sterling did himself proud, he put in a great performance and cause Toure all sorts of problems. Him and Suarez were always a nuisance to the City defense. The whole team played very well it was just a shame we made two mistakes for the two goals conceded but I think its clear to see we're still getting used to the way Brendan wants us to play. I was also impressed that Adam and Spearing were not in the squad at all, maybe this is a strong hint that both of them are going to be sold to help fund getting Dempsey. I still think we need another striker as Borini doesnt look clinical enough (mind you he's playing on the right it would be nice to see Suarez on the right and Borini down the middle). We can take heart from todays performance and hopefully replicate this performance (minus the mistakes) in the future both home and away more often. What are your thoughts and who would you like us to sign before end of next week?
Agreed we need to get rid of the dead wood from last season such as the players mentioned above. Adam, Downing, Cole and Spearing for me need to go so that we can build on and keep improving. Dempsey is a proven PL goalscorer so he would be a great signing and hopefully we get him for a reasonable price. I guess if we get him we dont need to get another striker right away but I'm still worried about us scoring enough goals we cant rely on Suarez alone to score 20 odd without no one else scoring around 10-15. Borini looks good but is playing in the wrong position for me but its too early in the season to judge seeing as though he's new as well. Can't blame his work rate though, good signing overall.
I'm glad we proved a lot of critics wrong today, it was important to get our first point under our new manager and what better way to do it than against the current champions? Unfortunately the fixtures aren't going to get easier in the next few weeks with us having to play Arsenal and United both at home and a tricky away game against Sunderland who have strengthened their strong very well. But we'll relish it and we'll get a great glimpse of Rodgers philosophy which is slowly filtering in to the club. Like Rodgers said last week, there will be plenty more lows but it's all part of the journey, we have to keep a level head and have patience, we are far from the finished article. As a club over the last few years we've had many false dawns, but the vision of FSG and Rodgers is something that is real and it bodes well for the future. I've heard a lot of Swansea fans saying that Rodgers just carried on Martinez's good work. If that's the case then I don't mind, because pass and move it's the Liverpool groove!
. I actually do think they could be dark horses to be honest, but obviously it's way to early to judge. It will be very interesting to see who we bring in if Rodgers still in the market. It's been a fairly good window so far
Just come back from the match and I thought we were outstanding.As good as it could have been without winning Good performances all round form all the lads, with a couple of defensive lapses from lads who normally dont make them If we keep playin like that, we will have a good season
Wasn't Downing a proven winger who had the most assists this season and that? Wasn't Robbie Keane a proven goalscorer? Wasn't Harry Kewell a proven winger? Bottom line is that some players cope with the big time and some don't.
