On Saturday, Liverpool hosted Hull City in a sunny Anfield stadium. It was a day where Liverpool would be looking to bounce back from Wednesday’s demolishing by Real Madrid. Steve Bruce’s sides have always been difficult to play against for Liverpool in recent history, and today was no exception.
The gaffer pre-game (liverpoolfc.tv)
After plenty of speculation and controversy, Mario Balotelli retained his place in Brendan Rodgers’ starting line-up. Rickie Lambert was named on the bench and Fabio Borini wasn’t even in the squad. Javi Manquillo came in for Glen Johnson. Adam Lallana came in for Philippe Coutinho and Emre Can replaced Jordan Henderson.
It was a rather dull first-half, if the truth is to be told. It was a half with few clear-cut chances from both teams. Dejan Lovren got on the end of a Steven Gerrard corner. Unfortunately for the Croatian, the ball was cleared away from the Hull defence. Mario Balotelli made a good run to latch on to the end of a Raheem Sterling through ball. However, the Italian’s shot wasn’t much trouble for Hull’s third choice ‘keeper, Eldin Jakupovic. There were a couple of brief moments for Hull. All of them came from counter-attacking. There wasn’t anything that was seriously going to trouble Simon Mignolet between the Liverpool posts, though.
Liverpool knew they had to improve in the second-half to try and gain something from this game. Rodgers would’ve surely gone over and over this during the half-time team talk. It was evident that he had, too. Liverpool looked a lot better in the second-half. Rodgers’ side were playing with more urgency and pace, something that was extremely limited during the first 45 minutes.
To try and break through a stubborn Hull City back-line, Philippe Coutinho and Rickie Lambert came on for the home side. Many thought that Lambert would’ve been a direct replacement for Balotelli. I was happy when he wasn’t. Lambert came on for Lallana, meaning Balotelli stayed on the pitch. Meanwhile, Joe Allen was the man departing for Philippe Coutinho.
Coutinho was the star man when coming on. His magic on the ball was clear. Coutinho’s running was fantastic, on and off the ball. The Brazilian was always giving the deeper midfielders options whenever they were looking forward to try and start something offensively. The movement made such a difference and it was worrying how little there was before the #10 entered the pitch.
Mario Balotelli got on the end of a ball from strike partner, Rickie Lambert, and Balotelli appeared to be bundled down by a Hull defender. Having watched it first time live, I thought it was a penalty. After watching many replays from various different angles, my opinion hasn’t changed at all. Balotelli should have had a penalty and Neil Swarbrick has bottled it. He had an appalling game (the referee).
Philippe Coutinho made a chance out of nothing with some determined running on the left-hand side. The midfielder whipped a great ball in with the outside of his foot. It appeared to be all set for Mario Balotelli, last kick of the game, winner, first goal in the Premier League. However, he opened up his foot too much and didn’t make contact with it, otherwise it was surely a goal. But, it wasn’t to be for Liverpool on the day.
A frustrating 0-0 draw, in a game which they just simply have to win to be competing in and around up at the top. A clean sheet is always a positive, due to our defensive woes so far this season. But it is so evident how much the side misses their talisman, Daniel Sturridge.
Standout performers, for me, were: Philippe Coutinho, Emre Can and Mario Balotelli. Balotelli had a very good game, I thought. He seemed to be working a lot more and was holding it up better than he normally does. He had a couple of moments that made the crowd appreciated, moments of magic. Also a couple of frustrating moments. Can was very good. He looked like a complete powerhouse in the centre of midfield. Some of his powerful, surging runs were fantastic to see. He looks very composed on the ball, too, for someone of his massive size. Coutinho was my man-of-the-match, and he was only on the pitch for 20 minutes (ish). He just looks amazing at the moment. Easy to say in hindsight (although I said it before the game), but I think he should have started, considering the form he’s been on recently.
Overall, a very frustrating day for Liverpool fans. Next is Swansea, on Tuesday in the Capital One Cup.
Bobby Vincent
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