Jürgen obviously knows more than I do about his squad and last night's game, but I would have loved to see Couts and Benteke come off early and have Tex show what he could have done playing behind the two strikers of Studge and Origi. It was bold going with 3 forwards, but we can't say it really worked out can we?
The only one that really failed I thought was Origi who looked completely out of place on the left.
It was odd that once we got the runners all our midfielders suddenly thought they were Gerrard too though, it was like this shock to the system for them to see people actually moving in front of them that they couldn't resist the hollywood pass and that hindered our play too much.
I know people will say we removed the bridge between the two but it was a case of both, there was plenty of space for our midfielders to move into but whether tiredness (Chiravella and Stewart were knackered at this point) or just that "wow, runners" sensation brought it out of them.
I think what will have helped is people can see how we will look with a better player up there, Sturridge transformed our attack, completely night and day seeing him dart between the lines, grab the ball and actually beat people with some pace about it, different class entirely.
I was really disappointed in Benteke not actually passing on the occasions he had to Sturridge at this point he'd already missed 5 or 6 chances so perhaps it was born out of frustration that caused him to screw up but his shot when Jabv compared it to the "paralytic hamster" Sturridge was free about to completely break their defensive line and would have had a 1v1 with a simple pass, or the 5v2 where Benteke had so many options and still screwed it up waiting far too long were the bigger disappointments about his play for me.
I know I harped on about the 9 missed chances but I can actually cope with that, what I can't cope with is 1 lad making 1 mistake in the whole match (that wasn't even a foul on reflection) and the support jumping on his back, completely disproportionate.
I absolutely can't wait to see Sturridge with Firmino and Coutinho. Whether we choose to play them as a tandem up top with Cou behind or get someone on the left other than Origi I'm not sure but it was a delight to see how well they played together. One thing I'll give Sturridge credit for is every time he comes back from injury (perhaps it's practise) he does seem to hit the ground in decent form and he looked close to top form straight away last night.
Keep him fit (miracles could happen) and we might have a really encouraging end to the season.
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