I said before the game this was going to be a frustrating game and it turned out to be that way in the end. WBA were dogged in defense and again we looked off the pace once they equalised. We started well and for the first 25 minutes looked really good and having Coutinho back made us look a lot more menacing, but Mignolet's horror calamity took the wind out of our sails and put it into theirs.
We're absolutely sh*te at defending set-pieces and WBA targeted this and Mignolet as our weak areas and it paid dividends for them.
It was good to see Henderson get ahead of the forwards for his goal, our midfielders don't usually do that enough, but apart from his goal I thought his all round play was sloppy and at times poor. I suppose it could be put down to rust but he was trying to play the Hollywood passes and more often than not found a West Brom player.
Up until their second goal, my reassurance was growing in Lovren who looked like a center back. He was caught slightly flat footed for their second goal in marking or making the aerial challenge with Olsson. But to be fair the delivery was exceptional and so quick that whoever was getting to that ball first only had to get their head on the thing and steer the ball (in our case into the net) using the pace of it. Hope Lovren isn't too badly injured, I watched the replay of that a couple of times, and I think Lovren turned away slightly from the Gardner challenge. I was always coached to go in committed as if you went in half hearted you were more likely to get injured and I think that if Lovren went in without turning his body slightly he may not have got that injury - though I'm probably wrong about that observation.
I thought Milner was our best midfielder today, was everywhere, played some decent passes and really did all the leg work in midfield. Can too did a good job in-play.
I watched Benteke today more and while it's clear he doesn't posses the movement this team thrives on, he looked a little more up for it today. That said, he looks like a fish out of water in our set-up. It looks as though he isn't sure what to do when Coutinho, Lallana etc. are tippy tapping it around the box and is often nowhere near the play. He looks to get on the end of crosses which look as likely as us scoring from corners. They've got to be perfect and the odds of doing this consistently don't look favourable. He's willing to be a target man and all that jazz but when the ball is on the deck which 9/10 it usually is, he looks like a spare body clambering around the oppo's defense to no effect.
Lallana floated around doing his usual stuff and should have really scored just after WBA went 2-1 up. He needs to have much more of an impact on games when playing as a 3 up top. He needs, along with Firmino, Coutinho and our midfielders to up their goal conversion rate. It was a nice assist from Lallana to Henderson. However, I just wish he could have a bit more of an impact on the game. I remember hearing all the hype about him at Southampton and IIRC he scored a few too, he hasn't reached those heights with us here as he?
I think Clyne had a decent game at full back and got forward more than Moreno who for all his pace and eagerness getting forward usually, didn't provide enough kind of width IMO.
Another frustrating day watching the Reds, thankfully we were able to get a point out of it.
« Last Edit: Dec 14, 2015 03:02:39 am by Beerbelly »
Logged