Football News: Crystal Palace v Liverpool - A Liverpool Perspective

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Crystal Palace v Liverpool A Liverpool Perspective

A complete change from the previous game against West Ham. Palace were compact, organised and kept it tight at the back, while Liverpool seemed a bit lethargic and lacked that fluidity they had shown against the Hammers. Going from playing a game every 3 or 4 days in pre-season to having to wait over a week before a game showed. Just when you need that fluidity of passing and movement to break down a tight, well organised defensive unit, it was not there. Despite that, there was enough quality in the attack to get chances and that saw Liverpool grind out the result they needed.

The more worrying thing was the number of times Palace got through, despite their only attacking ploy being to give the ball to Zaha for him to run into a dangerous area and through himself to the ground in the hope of getting a free kick, penalty or someone sent off. Ironically in view of how the game turned out. Also ironic to hear the Palace fans jeer Salah for diving etc when they cheer Zaha so vociferously for doing that 50 times a game.

Thankfully, on those occasions Palace were able to break through, they found why Becker cost so much, as he pulled out a couple of good saves. The big worry for me was the way Palace were able to break through so easily on a few occasions, with the centre backs not looking to be working together all that well as a partnership. They do need a few games to build that up, ones like Palace where they do get put under pressure, unlike against West Ham.

Klopp - I am not sure what he could have done differently, other than substitutions. Those were not that impressive. The introduction of Lallana seemed to have a negative impact on our performance, as he struggled to make any kind of impression on the game at all. Not that it mattered in this game, but you would hope in future subs would, especially when introduced against ten men teams, have a positive impact for the team.

Alisson - an excellent performance, not only keeping the ball out of the net, but his calmness and top class distribution of the ball gave Liverpool a real advantage. He is really looking like a player who has moved the team up a level.

Alexander-Arnold - struggled again with his delivery last night and with his defending. I also spotted a few times he was left foundering in the wake of a Palace break after he had made a charge forward. A learning experience for him. His corners were decent though.

Gomez - needs to work on his understanding with van Dijk. They did not look like a settled partnership and a couple of times they were caught out by not working in tandem. It does not feel as comfortable and intuitive a partnership as the one van Dijk has with Lovren, but he can hopefully develop it in time.

van Dijk - strong and forceful, making sure to attack every aerial ball and won almost every header. Made a number of poor decisions with his choice of where to head the ball, putting the team in trouble a couple of times, but at least he made sure to win the headers in the first place. However, like Gomez, he does need to work on his understanding with his partner.

Robertson - struggled a bit last night. Was overrun a few times defensively and did not offer much going forward with his delivery. To be fair, Palace made sure to pack the box and defended in depth to make it difficult for good deliveries.

Wijnaldum - was anonymous for most of the game, one of his ghostly performances for large periods. However in part that was down to him not having much to do defensively and being limited by his role, so it is hard to judge his performance last night. Looked better after Henderson came in and took over protecting the defence from him.

Keita - nowhere near as influential as on his debut, just a few flashes of quality. A delicious ball over the top to Salah for instance.

Milner - worked hard, did some good things, but was nowhere near the level of the previous game, still one of the better players on the night and put the penalty away with aplomb.

Salah - always a threat, hence the two decisions going his way. Showed excellent movement and workrate last night, though I do feel he went down a little too easily on the penalty, Sakho did take two bites at him and so only has himself to blame for the decision. On the second one, when he was bursting through, it felt harsh on Wan-Bissaka to me, who just seemed to tangle legs, rather than deliberately take him down and the free kick should have been the only punishment I feel.

Mane - was given little space to work in, but still managed to cause havoc on the ball with his touch and skill. And he got the goal to kill the game off. Played well.

Firmino - worked hard, chased around as usual but looked a bit off the pace and like he was carrying a few pounds too much, though that last bit could be the shirt it is likely it is down to his late return to training following the World Cup. I expect him to get sharper by the game.

Subs:

Henderson - replaced Milner, who was beginning to flag, in the 67th minute. Immediately steadied the ship and shored things up, by moving Wijnaldum further forward. The team looked much more balanced with him in there.

Lallana - replaced Keita in the 87th minute. Well off the pace and struggled badly to get in the game, though that could have been down to how little time he had to affect it by the time he came on.

Sturridge - came on in the dying seconds to replace Firmino and barely got a touch.

Written by Tris Burke August 21 2018 12:26:28