Liverpool 4-0 Fulham Match Report

Liverpool 4-0 Fulham Match Report

Liverpool has not seen many victories at Anfield this calendar year so they were hoping to sign off their last game of 2012 with a win against Fulham. Liverpool were on a decent run of form until last week’s poor performance and result at home to Aston Villa, which brought their run to an abrupt halt. Possibly a good opponent for Liverpool to play after that poor result last week, as Fulham do struggle away from home, although Fulham won this corresponding fixture last season 1-0 courtesy of a Martin Skrtel own goal.

The Team

Brendan Rodgers tweaked his side a little from the team that lost to Aston Villa. The fit again Enrique came back into the side at left back and young Suso was also given a start. Joe Allen and Raheem Sterling were given a rest ahead of the busy festive period of fixtures. Reina kept goal behind Johnson at right back and Skrtel and Agger in the middle of defence with Enrique on the left. The midfield was Suso on the left, with Downing in his more familiar role on the right of midfield with Lucas and Gerrard in the middle of midfield with Shelvey supporting lone the striker Suarez.

The Match

Liverpool got the perfect start to the match in only eight minutes when a Gerrard corner was superbly volleyed into the net by Martin Skrtel giving the home side an early lead. Downing came close to doubling Liverpool’s lead but he shot wide after cutting in from the right and shooting with his favoured left foot.

Liverpool continued their dominant play and continued to create chances and should have doubled their lead in the 25^th minute, but Agger contrived to miss from 3 yards out as he slid in to get on the end of a deflected Suarez effort.

The second goal eventually came when the impressive Downing played a beautifully weighted reverse pass behind the Fulham defence to Gerrard who turned and shot first time low into the net.

Within six minutes of the second half Liverpool ended the match as a contest when Downing smashed a screamer of a third goal after combining with Gerrard once again. It was the much maligned Downing’s first Premiership goal since joining Liverpool.

Liverpool looked a confident side now and continued to create chances, Suarez created a chance for Shelvey but his effort was deflected wide for a corner.  Next the dangerous Downing cut inside from the right before hitting another rocket just missing the top right hand corner.

Suarez put the icing on the cake, tapping in from an Enrique cut back in stoppage time. This was the first time this season that Liverpool had scored four times at Anfield.

The Summary

Great to see Enrique and Suso starting and I felt Sterling and Allen had been struggling a little in recent matches and a rest might do them good. Liverpool got the perfect start with Skrtel’s great strike and Liverpool have struggled all season to score early in matches and what a difference it makes, they just kicked on from there showing great confidence, although the second took a while to come. It was brilliant to see Gerrard get a goal as he has not scored as often as usual this season. Gerrard was superb in midfield alongside the industrious Lucas as he sprayed passes all over the park like an American football quarterback. I don’t know what Brendan Rodgers said to Downing before the game but he looked a different player wide on the right, as he looked to run and attack former Red Riise at every opportunity. Downing scored a tremendous goal and what a pass for Gerrard’s goal, it will be interesting to see if he can continue this form in the coming weeks. Suarez got his reward for his industry with a late goal ending his short barren spell. A much needed win and performance from Liverpool and many positives to take from the match, although Fulham were very poor and Liverpool will face much bigger tests in the future, starting at Stoke on Boxing Day.