Liverpool 4-0 Fulham Another mightily impressive display from Brendan Rodgers’ side at Anfield saw Liverpool move within two points of Arsenal and position themselves comfortably in second place in the Premier league table. The long-due rout began in the 23rd minute when a Steven Gerrard free-kick was headed into his own goal by Spanish defender Fernando Amorebieta, Liverpool’s second came from another Steven Gerrard set-piece, this time Martin Skrtel powered home a forceful header from around seven yards out. The Reds continued their domination and effectively put the game to bed after 36 minutes, when a Jordan Henderson through-ball was calmly finished off by Luis Suarez. After starting the second half brightly, the Merseyside club hit their fourth goal past Martin Stekelenburg through another Suarez side-footed finish. Key Stats: The complete domination of Liverpool over Fulham throughout this game is reflected in the key statistics from the match. The Reds had 33 shots on the Fulham goal, 11 of those on target. The fact Liverpool had nearly nine times the number of shots on goal that Fulham had, shows how dominant Liverpools display was. As well as The Merseyside team having nine times the number of shots on goal that their opposition had, The Reds expressed their dominance on the game with 63% possession of the ball over the 90 minutes. Liverpool have to be credited for this. The Reds simply refused to give the ball away cheaply and also not allowing Fulham, when they had possession, to put the home side under any sort of meaningful pressure. Man of the Match: As surprising as it may seem, Martin Skrtel was given our Man of the Match award. This is for many reasons, the main one being the Slovakians superiority over Fulhams weak attacking force. The former-Zenit St. Petersburg defender commanded the defence and led them to their first clean sheet since 1st September, this is some achievement considering the centre-half was, if reports are to be believed, on his way out of Anfield in the summer transfer window. This may still be the case during in January but how well the Slovakian has played between September will not have gone unnoticed.. Alongside the 28-year-olds five clearances, Skrtel also had a 100% tackle success rate, a 100% headed duels win-rate, a 94% passing accuracy and of course, a crucial headed goal, which came at a pivotal time in the game. Performance Score: As you can see, the Performance Score from the game displays Liverpools dominance to a tee. Although starting off slightly nervy and with the ever-famous Anfield crowd not being as lively or as passionate as can be said for most home games, Liverpool impressively gathered control over the game by dominating possession early on, especially in midfield. Once the first Liverpool goal hit the back of the net, the crowd relaxed, as did the players and The Reds started to take the game to their opposition, this is evident by the sheer amount of shots Liverpool bombarded the Fulham goal with, every attacker wanting to score, none more so than Philippe Coutinho who had nine attempts on goal- nearly a third of the Merseysiders total. Fulhams main problem was that they couldnt keep up the intensity of the home sides play. This was evident as when Liverpool firmly took grip of the game, the majority of The Cottagers players looked shell-shocked and in awe at what theyd been subjected to by a very intricate, clever home side. Key Observation: A key statistic from the game is the performance of Liverpools captain, Steven Gerrard. He displayed the type of performance that has made him one of the greatest midfielders to ever grace the Premier League and once again proved all of his doubters over whether he still should be playing, emphatically wrong. Whereas his contribution on the ball was one of muted efficiency, his set-piece delivery was outstanding. Gerrard took four corners - three of those corners were successful, those three turned into key chances for his team-mates, including Martin Skrtels headed goal. Everybody knows that corners wont single-handedly win you games of football but when you have somebody with that ability, theres always a chance that they can help you win game. One other statistic from Gerrards performance was his extremely accurate pass completion rate of 91%, those passes were all over the field.
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 23:04:13 +0000
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