Five things we learned from today’s huge win, including why we should have always trusted Brendan Rodgers…
There’s a theme of reprisal in tonight’s review. Brendan Rodgers, Simon Mignolet and Joe Allen were all heavily criticised at the start of the season, but the trio stole the show in tonight’s 1-0 win over Swansea City.
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Our unbeaten run now stands at 13 top flight games, while tonight’s result has also made it six away games in a row without conceding a goal – equalling Bill Shankly’s 40-year-old record. We’ve now taken 32 points from our last twelve matches, ten more than Premier League leaders Chelsea in the same period.
Here are five things we learned from this evening’s game:
5) Brendan Rodgers deserves a lot of credit
It’s difficult to believe that people were talking about Rodgers getting the sack three months ago. The turnaround he has led since December has been nothing short of sensational, and he emphasised all of his managerial qualities as he engineered tonight’s victory. The Reds were poor in the first-half, and there were big question marks over whether we’d get the victory. But the change to a midfield diamond made a big difference – we dominated the second-half and grabbed the goal we needed.
4) Simon Mignolet is fast becoming one of the best around
It’s hard to believe how far the Belgian stopper has come since reclaiming his spot in the side on Boxing Day. Everything that was wrong with him at the start of the season – his confidence, his command of his area, even his shot-stopping – has improved ten times over. Mignolet has gone from a national laughing-stock to, quite possibly, one of the best goalkeepers in the country! He certainly saved us again tonight, with two brilliant first-half saves. His transformation has been wonderful to behold, and long may it continue.
3) Joe Allen was superb again and needs to keep his place
Brendan Rodgers is going to have a big selection headache ahead of Sunday’s game with Manchester United. Does he recall captain Steven Gerrard, who came on as a substitute against Swansea City, or does he stick with Joe Allen? Despite the fact that our legendary skipper would be loathe to miss out on a final chance to take on the old enemy, tonight’s performance has made it near-impossible to drop the Welshman. Allen controlled the game tonight, and if we bear in mind the excellent job he did against Manchester City as well, then he has to start.
2) Sorry Dejan! There’s no doubting our best back three
Against Blackburn Rovers, we had a back-three of Glen Johnson, Kolo Toure and Dejan Lovren. Fair play to them, we kept a clean sheet, but I think you’ll be hard pressed to find a Liverpool fan that was disappointed to see our regular trio back together. Martin Skrtel – coming back from being knocked out and carried off on a stretcher against Rovers – was superb, while Mamadou Sakho and Emre Can quickly settled after some early jitters.
1) Sunday’s game is absolutely massive!
We just thought we’d point this out, just in case it wasn’t entirely obvious already. Manchester United are just two points above us, and we can go above them with a win at Anfield! United finally found a little bit of form last weekend, thrashing Tottenham Hotspur 3-0, and will no doubt be desperate to avoid an embarrassment similar to the one they suffered on Merseyside last season. All we can say is… come on Liverpool!
