Huddersfield V Liverpool: A Reflection

After a miserable week with the Reds losing to Swansea and being knocked out of the FA cup by West Brom, Liverpool made an impressive comeback with a 3-0 win over Huddersfield. After performing poorly against both Swansea and West Brom, Liverpool had a point to prove last night. Needing to keep the pressure on teams like Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal the Reds couldn’t afford to leave the John Smith’s stadium last night with less than three points. Goals from Emre Can, Roberto Firmino and Mo Salah now means that the Reds are level with Chelsea on 50 points. There were no clear cut chances in the first half for the visitors and it took until the 25^th minute when Can struck a half-volley from 25 yards and after getting a slight deflection it ended up in the bottom corner of the Huddersfield net. The home side came close to an equaliser when Chris Lowe curled a free kick just past the post. Just before half time, Liverpool where able to double their lead after Mane released Roberto Firmino on the left side and after having time to decide where to put the ball he opted to slot it past the keeper inside the near post. Liverpool had plenty of chances to increase their lead in the second half with Mane having a header from 12 yards out but Lossl made a comfortable save and with James Milner also having a driven shot tipped over the crossbar by the keeper. Mane had another opportunity to put a header past the keeper but it went just wide of the post, Huddersfield still remained only two goals down despite only having 20% possession in the first half.The home team had started to find their way in the game and where putting a bit of pressure on the Reds with 15 minutes to go but a push on Can in the box saw the referee award a penalty to the visitors and Mo Salah managed to slot the ball home making that his 19^th Premier League goal of the season, 26 in all competitions. The win last night helps with the confidence for the players who go into Sundays’ game against Tottenham at Anfield looking for all three points. My Man of the Match last night would have been Roberto Firmino, there is a lot of talk that Liverpool needed to sign an out and out striker in January and with Sturridge leaving on loan to West Brom, it leaves us with Ings and Solanke as back up. But his performance last proved to a lot of people that he can take on that responsibility of leading the line for the Reds and after netting a clever goal late in the first half, that brought his tally up to 19 goals for the season in all competitions, his best goal scoring record in a Red shirt so far. Other notable performances where made from Liverpool’s’ midfield three. After watching the Swansea and West Brom game, I felt that our midfield was too weak and a lot of the time it looked like Can, Oxlade-chamberlain and Wijnaldum didn’t know what to do or where to play. You could see as soon as Henderson and Milner came on against West Brom that they would be starting the next game, they both came on and starting controlling the game and putting in crosses and through balls that would have made the difference if they had started the game. The one surviving midfielder from the two previous games was Emre Can and he had a brilliant performance, playing in that number 8 role really helped him stand out, he was making great passes, putting in some good tackles and even got himself on the scoresheet with a great half-volley from 25 yards out, you could say he was the biggest attacking threat from midfield last night. You also have to give credit to Liverpools’ defence, both Matip and Lovren had great performances and a stat that stands out is Joel Matip had a total of 161 passes last night, this is the most recorded by a Liverpool player in Premier League history. Overall it was a solid performance from the Reds and it showed the type of performance that you can expect from a Liverpool side and hopefully we have the same result on Sunday against Tottenham. Article by Lauren BlackFor more Redmen TV content including podcasts, subscriber exclusives and three new shows every week subscribe now and get your first month for FREE bit.ly/RMTVjoin