Liverpool 2-0 Sunderland
I said before the game that there would be no excuses for not winning. Yes we were missing Lallana, but he was the only member of our starting 11 missing. Yes, Sturridge not playing was also a bit of a blow, but with 10 of your best 11 you have no excuses, in fact I don't think there's a single title contender who should consider themselves a title contender if they can't beat a team like Sunderland missing just one of their best team. It's slightly different if it's against a title rival, for example if Chelsea were to play Man City without Hazard, but against Sunderland at home, there's no excuses. Even when Phillipe Coutinho went off injured with what looks to be hopefully not too serious ankle ligament damage, there would be no excuses. Shorn of arguably their three most influential and dangerous players (Lallana influential, Sturridge dangerous, Coutinho both), Liverpool still had a front four of Wijnaldum, Firmino, Mane and Divock Origi. That's a front four with enough quality to beat Sunderland.
But for 75 minutes, my review of the Sunderland game could have been almost a copy and paste of my review of the Southampton game. Sunderland were absolutely terrific defensively, but lacked much in terms of attacking flair. Matip and Lovren were both peerless, Henderson was the best player on the pitch (again), Emre Can was excellent, Wijnaldum was awful, we needed to see more from Firmino and Mane at points, great defensively, but lack of cutting edge. I'll pick on some of these points in a minute, but fortunately my review for this game has a different end to the Saints game. Moreover, whilst a draw at St Mary's is a very credible result (just ask Everton who went there yesterday and were thoroughly outclassed, even if the final score was only 1-0), a draw at home to Sunderland is most decidedly not.
And it was Divock Origi who produced the moment of magic with his first Premier League goal of the season to break Sunderland's stern resistance. This was by far Origi's best opportunity in the league this season, having been reduced to just ten substitute appearances, totaling just 162 minutes, with nearly an hour of that occurring against Sunderland. Before that game, Origi's longest appearance was half an hour in the second half against Chelsea. And it's a shame that someone of Origi's talent hasn't been able to make more of an impact in the side, given that he averages a goal every game and a half for LFC this season, with his two goals in the League Cup factored in.
But Origi knows his role in the squad as well as Daniel Sturridge does. Sturridge is the first attacking substitute, with Origi utilised in various situations from the bench. With Coutinho, Sturridge and Lallana all out, Origi got his chance and he took it with aplomb. He will surely be starting tomorrow night against Leeds, but unless injuries persist, will struggle to make the starting eleven against Bournemouth.
Away from Origi's moment of magic, once again it was our central defenders and midfielders who were seriously impressive. Matip and Lovren look like they're building a real partnership and kept their second clean sheet in a row for the first time this season. Liverpool have now conceded only one more than Arsenal and only two more than Man City, with even Spurs and Chelsea only conceding four more each. But a key part in our clean sheets has been the majestic Henderson. Henderson's work off the ball has been unmatched by almost anyone in the league, with once again tackles, interceptions and passes unmatched by anyone in the Liverpool team. The thing that impresses me about Henderson is his passing accuracy, as he played 130 passes with an accuracy of over 90%, which included 12 attempted long balls, with a 50% accuracy, and an assist for Origi's goal. For a man who attempts a lot of raked balls into the box, he still manages to maintain a seriously impressive accuracy, and right now his passing stats are unmatched by anyone in the league, as he averages 15 passes more than closer contenders Fernandinho and Pogba, with a higher accuracy, despite playing more crosses or long balls than either. Right now Henderson is looking like the complete defensive midfielder.
Alongside Henderson, Emre Can is looking increasingly at home in his new role in the side, running, passing and getting into attacking areas. Considering that Can is supposed to be the more defensive minded midfielder, and Gini Wijnaldum is supposed to be an attacking midfielder, Can had more attacking influence, with more shots (5 to 4), more key passes (4 to 0, only Hendo played more than Can's 4), almost thirty more passes, more crosses, more long balls, and the same amount of take-ons. In fact, it's hard to imagine that Wijnaldum did anything better than Can, given that defensively they had the same amount of tackles, but Can had more interceptions and Wijnaldum gave away more fouls than anyone on the pitch.
The reason that I was so disappointed with Wijnaldum was that with Lallana out, the attacking midfield role was one that he was supposed to inherit with aplomb. He was signed to play the same role essentially as Lallana, and whilst he did a competent job with Lallana in the side, with the Englishman out for a couple of weeks, Wijnaldum had the chance to shine, and he once again vanished into the background. With Liverpool's two best creative forces missing, Wijnaldum needed to step up and he simply didn't.
As for Sunderland, I was very impressed by Ndong, who tackled harder than anyone, made plenty of clearances, and generally got in Liverpool's face. Billy Jones and Lamine Kone were also very very good, and behind them Pickford was excellent. Duncan Watmore made a couple of really good attacking runs, and forced Karius, who was excellent today and finally coming into his own in a Liverpool shirt, into two top saves.
But ultimately, this was a match decided by two moments. The second was Origi's wonder goal, but the first was a moment of inspiration from Jurgen Klopp mid-way through the second half. Henderson attempted a through ball that didn't come off, and the Kop crowd groaned and muttered in discontent. Klopp was on his feet, shouting at the Kop, waving his hands, urging them on, orchestrating them with one clear message: don't get on my player's backs, get behind them. And the Kop responded, roaring their team on, and it was clear that that inspiration from the stands boosted the players on the pitch, as Liverpool were a lot better in the second half and were good value for the win in the end.
This is a result that leaves Liverpool second, still one point behind Chelsea, but now six points clear of 5th place Spurs, and ten clear of Man United. Whilst the top four is far from decided, Liverpool have put themselves in a wonderful position to be in the mix in April and May, especially with Spurs and United not looking in the same league as the top four at the moment.
Man United 1-1 West Ham
Meanwhile, Man United drew 1-1 with West Ham, a result that leaves them 6th, eight points off the top four, nine points off the relegation zone, and eleven points off Chelsea with a hugely inferior goal difference. This was United's fifth draw in seven games, and their fourth draw in a row at Old Trafford, the first time they've failed to win at home four games in a row since 1990, and their worst league start since 1989.
United are in serious disarray right now. Whilst their comfortable wins against Leicester and Swansea papered over the cracks, those cracks keep coming back, bigger and more prevalent than ever. Mourinho is increasingly descending into mania, sent off yesterday for a bizarre overreaction to a clear dive from Paul Pogba, who other than that embarrassing moment had a terrific game, picking a wonderful pass for Ibrahimovic's goal. It's indicative of United's season that Pogba has made 23 key passes but only picked up one assist, such is the shocking level of finishing that United are displaying right now.
And right now the questions have to be leveled squarely at the strikers. This is the fourth game in a row that United have dominated the game, created more chances and "deserved to win". I put that last bit in quotes because there's only so many games that you can deserve to win without actually taking your chances before bad luck can be taken off the table. The time for blaming external factors is long since past. United only have themselves to blame.
I want to start with Ibrahimovic. It may seem churlish to blame the man who has seven goals when nobody else has more than three in the league, but the truth is that Zlatan has not scored as many as he should have. He has the highest xG in the league by a comfortable margin, yet has less goals than Aguero, Costa and Lukaku. Now xG is a system not without weaknesses, but the simple truth is that top strikers consistently score more than xG predicts that they will. And with the chances that Zlatan has had in this team, think how many goals Aguero, Costa, Kane or Lukaku would have. At least ten, maybe even more to be honest. Again against West Ham, Ibrahimovic was a culprit, missing two or three big chances.
But whilst it's easy to take shots at Wayne Rooney or Antony Martial, who have only scored one goal each this season, or even the manager who can't seem to find a combination of players that works for more than one game (and has as many sendings off to his name as home wins), I feel it's time to take aim at a slightly more awkward target. Marcus Rashford.
People in the media have been loathe to pick out Rashford for criticism, given who he is. He's a young English player who exploded onto the scene last season and since then has been touted as the future of English football. So naturally, nobody wants to get the knives out for him, or put too much pressure on his shoulders. Every time an England team is announced, the question is: why isn't Rashford playing? But the truth is that Rashford is struggling. He hasn't scored in ten games in all competitons, and truthfully he hasn't played well in two months either. Against Arsenal he was given the responsibility of leading the line and he did nothing. Against West Ham, Rashford was given a golden opportunity to break his drought, and he fluffed his lines. Now Rashford has three league goals this season at a goal less than every three games. That's not terrible at all, particularly as he's been shunted out on the wings, but Rashford's confidence looks absolutely shot and simply put he's not deserving a place in United's starting line up ahead of the likes of Mkhitaryan or Mata right now.
Another player who simply put shouldn't be anywhere near United's starting line up, let alone England, is Jesse Lingard, who was also not great against West Ham. The fact that Mkhitaryan ran the show in midweek merely reinforces the point that right now, United simply don't have the right cogs in the right holes. I'm not even sure Jose knows what his cogs are, given his inability to fit them together. Or maybe the problem is that he only signed one striker in the summer, a 35 year old who's been plying his trade in a rubbish league leaving United with two strikers past their prime and two strikers yet to reach it. Chances are, it's a bit of both.
As for West Ham, this was a decent game for them overall. They scored an excellent goal, with a wicked ball in by Dimitri Payet headed in brilliantly by Diafra Sakho and they had other dangerous moments, mostly involving the dangerous Frenchman, who looked somewhere close to his best. Defensively was a bit of a mixed bag. They had some very good defensive moments, with Collins making a brilliant tackle to deny Zlatan and some other good blocks, but on the other hand, their defending was far too passive for the goal and downright abject at other moments, particularly off their own set pieces where they let United counter-attack them far too easily.
It was a decent point for West Ham, but I didn't see enough to suggest that they're going to be rapidly climbing the table any time soon. They're currently only one point off the drop zone, and whilst their defending has improved massively, especially when you consider Swansea and Palace just below them, they still have a lot of work to do. As far as I'm concerned, nobody from Burnley downwards can take their survival for granted.
The Hard and Fast Section
- I'm glad the cricket is on at 4am. Shambolic. Again.
- Nico Rosberg claimed second and his maiden world title. Majestic.
- Brendan Rodgers picked up his first trophy as Celtic manager.
- And England saw off Argentina despite Daly's sending off. Character.
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