after the latest failure to progress in the europa league, liverpool now turn their focus on the barclays premier league. it wasn't a great performance but a 2-0 result against sunderland was much wanted. 3 points, another clean sheet, closing on spurs at 5th place was a perfect boost for the players and the fans.
without gerrard, aurelio and kelly missing through injury, king kenny had to shuffle his line-up. jay spearing starts and this was also the first time carroll and suarez combined together to lead liverpool's attacking department. on defence, it was good to see agger back. hopefully he can last until the final game without anymore injuries.
liverpool didn't really start brilliantly. they were a little bit sloppy and can't seem to keep possession. sunderland was all over the man in reds as they closed them down quickly and chased every lose ball. it wasn't until the 18th minute when liverpool got the break, courtesy of a 'wrong' call from the linesman. it was a run made by jay spearing into the box - notably was one of the better players for this game. he was brought down outside the box. referee kevin friend gave a freekick and later changed his mind after consulting with his assistant. bad call but liverpool was awarded with a penalty which dirk kuyt coolly converted it.
even after taking the lead liverpool didn't really settled. luckily sunderland could not take advantage of the situation. if liverpool were to collect as many points as they wanted they have to be more consistent for the rest of the 8 remaining games. they can perform better as they did against chelsea or man utd. this is where king kenny has to work on with the boys.
with carroll around they tend to use long ball straight to him. carroll and suarez still needs time to really gel as a terrorising partnership. the second ball from carroll never really reached suarez and it resulted with sunderland players get hold of possession. during the game against braga too many long balls were used and it was managed by braga's defenders easily. liverpool are more dangerous when they keep possession and play the ball on the grown.
a moment of magic from another best player of the night, luiz suarez where he scored from a ridiculous angle. on the 77th minute he picked up a pass from the ever hardworking kuyt and beat a defender on the byline. he leaned his body to the left and just blast the ball into the net beating sunderland's keeper on his near post.
suarez surely deserved his goal as he was the most creative player that liverpool had throughout the game. 2nd goal since he joined the reds but he has been showing what a world class player he is in every game he has played. he left the game limping as though he suffered from a groin injury. hopefully it is nothing serious as liverpool needs his creativity and magic to gain as many points.
as the king spoke earlier, they just need to focus 1 game at a time and try to collect as many points and at the end of the day just see where they will finish. yes its true fans are already wishing for a miracle hoping they could finish fourth and grab the last spot for champions league for next season. with kenny and suarez around, you'll never know ... YNWA !!
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