On a cold December night Liverpool kissed goodbye to 2014
with an assured performance against a lacklustre Swansea side who briefly
offered some sort of resistance.
With a swagger that has been missing of late, the home side
started the match fast; exploding out of the blocks. Rodgers had obviously ordered a high tempo of play which
was unlucky not to be rewarded after 5 minutes. Heavy pressure brought a corner
which Henderson drilled in; Fabianski did well to stop a close range Martin
Skrtel header. It was an early indication
of things to come.
Raheem Sterling was once again on fine form; twisting and
turning his markers inside out on a night Fernández and Williams will want to
forget. As it was the Kop had to wait
until the 33rd minute for the deadlock to be broken. In a move more reminiscent to the Liverpool
of last season, Albert Moreno got the all-important contact to a first time
Henderson cross. The Spaniard had
started the move and did well to ensure he was on the receiving end of some
quick one touch football.
In contrast Swansea offered little and were thankful Andre
Mariner somehow missed a forearm smash to the face of Can; the perpetrator?
Step forward Jonjo Shelvey the pantomime villain; it is doubtful that his ill-discipline
will have been overlooked by Gary Monk or the FA once they see the tapes in the
morning. The half ended at it started
with a Liverpool flourish; Coutinho denied by a good save from Fabianski from a
wickedly twisting 25 yard drive.
The Swans introduced Rangel at halftime to try and deal with
the threat from Manquillo; it didn’t work, the Liverpool attacking wingback was
on top form. However; for all of Liverpool’s
attacking threat their 2nd goal came from a goalkeeping error. Fabianski failed to clear his lines when
offered the opportunity and instead drove the ball into a chasing down Lallana who
watched the rebound cannon into an empty Kop net.
What followed was a fast 3 minutes in which Sigurdsson
pulled one back for the visitors; who should have gone on to score another
almost from the restart as Bony went close.
The following corner led to a breakaway in which Sterling looked on as
his effort hit the post; Anfield had woken up.
Lallana, spurred on by his goal, started to turn the screw;
he jinked past a static Swansea defence to drill his second, Liverpool’s 3rd into a waiting net. A sumptuous finish
worthy of his summer transfer saga.
Jordan Henderson looked to have crowned a captains performance
with a goal direct from a well driven corner, closer inspection saw the telling
touch had come from Shelvey who flicked the ball over his goalkeeper and into
the far corner. An own goal to go with a
potential ban for the New Year; a night to forget for Shelvey.
Adam Lallana was replaced late on and received a standing
ovation for a performance that was without doubt his best in a red shirt so
far. Balotelli shrugged off the shackles
of the substitute bench to make a late appearance and was unlucky not to be on the score sheet; a latch ditch tackle prevented the Italian from what would
have been a simple finish.
If 2015 starts the way 2014 ended Liverpool fans will be
glad to see the back of a year which offered so much but failed to deliver the
ultimate prize. A solid 4-1 victory
which sees the Reds leapfrog Swansea into 8th.
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