Sunderland 1-3 Liverpool review

After writing three match reports in a row without a win I feared I would become known as a fairly pessimistic writer, so this win has come just in time for me to set that straight. Hooray! Suarez is back and all is well (all isn’t well, there were some very identifiable problems but we can save them for later). SAS (Sturridge and Suarez), a nickname I hate for reasons beyond my own understanding, have started where they left off, both players scoring, but with a more favourable result for the team as a whole. Recent media ramblings about whether the two strikers could play together were put aside as we launched ourselves back into the top four and beyond, finally stopping at second, Suarez’s second putting us above Tottenham on goals scored.

The performance was far from assured and at times we struggled to keep possession, however this was never going to be an easy game. Kevin Ball did well to get his team raring to go from the first minute, and it could be seen by how much better they played than us early on in the game and directly after half time. I felt the three centre-backs were solid but the gaps left behind our wing backs got exploited far to often, Adam Johnson in particular got plenty of joy playing in the spaces Enrique vacated. As I said in my match report midweek, these problems will fix themselves in time; the team is only 5 days more familiar with this formation than they were against united. Also, the return of Johnson into the first team, as well as Cissokho coming back to give competition to Enrique should boost individual performances on both of our wings. Skrtel and Toure were more impressive than Sakho for me, but he was good enough for me to put his deficiencies down to still getting used to the pace of the premier league. As far as I’m concerned the change to 5-2-1-2/3-5-2 is brilliant and suits our squad perfectly, my previous worries have been eased to say the least.

I also feel unfortunately vindicated over the slight problem I have with Simon Mignolet. I’ve been saying it from day one that no matter how good a shot-stopper he was, his handling would cause us problems and, for the first time this season, it cost us a goal. Now I agree that Ki’s strike was a difficult one to hold, however it was his responsibility to get the ball away from the goal, instead he palmed it straight into the path of Giaccherini. In fairness to the Belgian it is the first goal we’ve conceded this season that I can say he was largely to blame and as long as he only makes a one mistake every 6 games I think he can be forgiven. I feel that the midfield two of Gerrard and Lucas looks more comfortable sitting in front of a back three and the possession stats show we controlled the game well for a team playing away from home. Coutinho being re-introduced to the side will also help us a lot as he will be able to retain the ball better high up the pitch than Victor Moses can, therefore taking a lot of pressure off Gerrard and Lucas. A continued problem this season however has been Lucas’ disciplinary record, with the Brazilian now banned for our home tie next weekend against Crystal Palace, a game that should be easy now with a slight question mark over it. Hopefully Agger, Allen and Kelly will all be fit enough for that game, giving us some options to a squad looking thin through injuries. Moses played okay once again; a player evidently built for the wings making the best out of his new, unfamiliar position. With a fully fit squad I would pick Coutinho, Henderson and Allen all ahead of him there so I’m just thankful that he isn’t playing as bad as Aspas did against Southampton.

Now to look at the strikers, where the real story lies. Weirdly, the thing that pleased me the most about Sturridge and Suarez’s performances is that overall they weren’t amazing. Sturridge individually was fantastic but their link-up play could have been better, and that excites me. Once Suarez sharpens up and Coutinho fully recovers from his injury we’re going to witness some fantastic football over the course of this season. This makes wins against Sunderland, when we’re not at full strength and a bit rusty, all the more important, if we can keep up with the league leaders up until mid November I think we have a magnificent opportunity to grab hold of a champions League place.

All-in-all I believe this could be one of the most important wins of our season. It has boosted Suarez up to full confidence and gotten three points when we’re at our weakest. This is not a title winning side, far from it, but Suarez coming back with a bang has given us more than a few reasons to look forward to our remaining 32 games. Please leave comments below, feedback is (as always) much appreciated.