Wednesday 4 December 2013

Liverpool FC v Norwich : Preview

LFC starting line-up v Norwich

Mignolet, Johnson, Agger, Skrtel, Flanagan, Allen, Gerrard, Henderson, Sterling, Coutinho, Suarez.

LFC subs v Norwich

Jones, Toure, Sakho, Moses, Alberto, Aspas, Lucas

Tonight Liverpool face Norwich, a team who of late have not given the Reds much to worry about but could that be different tonight?

After the defeat to Hull, the steady flow of upcoming games and the pressure to finish in the top 4 or higher - could Liverpool let that all get to them tonight? Or will the home crowd and previous result against Norwich help the red to get back to winning ways? 

Only time will tell.

One thing we can tell however, is that Rodgers isn't taking the defeat to Hull lightly and has dropped or recalled players where he thinks it is needed.

Vice-Captain Daniel Agger is recalled after mysteriously being dropped from the starting XI v Hull, this is good for the fans as they know how strong a partnership Agger has with his fellow CB Martin Skrtel, who keeps his place despite his role in Hull's third goal. Plus, Liverpool have more often than not won when Agger has started, so that is a positive to take although it does mean that summer signing Kolo Toure is dropped back to the bench - but being the professional he is, he wont mind as long as the reds return to winning ways.

Stalwart Lucas Leiva is also dropped to the bench following an uncharacteristically bad showing v Hull and in comes the much maligned Joe Allen who will obviously be hoping to get the fans back on side and show that he does deserve his place.

Unsurprisingly Victor Moses has been dropped after and extremely poor showing v Hull and replaced by the little Brazilian magician Phillippe Coutinho - which will be much to the fans delight. 

Nothing else has really changed for the reds although there may still be some questions asked about the Merseysiders line-up.

Where is Martin Kelly? The young full back should be back to full fitness now and has been seen in all of the training pictures so is it really a case of he's still on his way back or has Rodgers decided he just doesn't fancy him after all? Or could it really be a case of Kelly needing to fight more for a position on the bench and the starting XI? It is odd considering how poor Glen Johnson played against Hull but I guess Rodgers and the player are the only two who know what's truly going on.

As mentioned, Johnson didn't have a good game v Hull so why is he still in the line-up yet others who had poor games i.e Lucas, Toure and Moses all got benched? Is this a case of hypocrisy form the manager or does he just think that the others where worse than Johnson on the day? It's the same with Mignolet, who has let in 6 goals in two games yet he remains in the starting XI and Jones doesn't even get a look in. Does that show hypocrisy from the manager again? Is it different for goalkeepers? Or do we just generally need a better number 2 to fight for first team action with Mignolet?

And what about Aspas? With Sturridge out surely giving the Spaniard more time to show what he can do would be the best option?

Whatever the reasons are behind the line-up, one thing is for sure that Liverpool need to win this game. On paper they should win it comfortably but in reality with this league we know that anything could happen.

A win is a must to take momentum and confidence into Decembers packed schedule, can Liverpool do it?

No comments:

Post a Comment