Well that was a bit tense! Firstly, hats off to Cardiff for a magnificent performance. I thought they were outstanding and I felt incredibly sorry for them at the end of it all. I have to add as well I heard on 5live much criticism of Liverpool's performance which I personally felt wasn't wholly merited because I feel Cardiff played so well and deserve the credit for stifling Liverpool. I didn't feel Liverpool were bad but yet again they failed to provide an end product to too many moves. I felt a lot of this was caused by the team selection - Henderson was truly dire but in his defence he just is not a winger and shouldn't play there and certainly not over Kuyt. Downing had a busy game and made more of an impact than normal but was mystifyingly moved to the right in the second half which meant his crosses were not as good as he was on the wrong side. And of course the odd omission of Bellamy from the starting lineup was not popular while I also feel Gerrard and Adam is not a good combination because it leads to Gerrard playing deeper and I'd rather he was further forward because let's face it it's Gerrard! And on that subject, I think he is beginning to lose that ability to run box to box understandbly. Given the outstanding uselessness of Carroll I wonder whether he could be played in a more advanced role. I've never understood the nonsense of 'Gerrard should be played in central midfield not as a second striker' given it conveniently forgets that in that role just behind the striker Gerrard scored 25 goals a season...
Ratings:
Reina - 7
Commanding as ever.
Johnson - 8
Excellent going forward.
Enrique - 7
Solid and busy.
Agger - 6
One or two dodgy moments but generally ok.
Skrtel - 8
One of the best players this season and another good performance.
Henderson - 4
Truly dire.
Downing - 8
Worked hard and was unlucky to be put on the wrong side in the second half...this was his best performance in a Liverpool shirt.
Adam - 6
Worked hard but created relatively little. A truly dire penalty!
Gerrard - 8
At the centre of most good things as ever.
Suarez - 7
Lively.
Carroll - 5
Poor.
Subs:
Bellamy - 7
As expected livened things up.
Carragher - 7
Solid.
Kuyt - 8
Should have started.
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