Recent Games Round-up Part 2

West Brom 1-2 Liverpool

Liverpool travelled back to the Hawthorns in an attempt to gain revenge for their season-opening 3-0 drubbing against West Brom with a tie against the same opponent in the Capital One Cup. Brendan Rodgers used the cup competition to throw youngsters and new signings into the deep end yet again, with Sebastian Coates, Andre Wisdom, Jack Robinson, Dani Pacheco and Samed Yesil all awarded a starting spot, as well as opportunities for new signings Nuri Sahin and Oussama Assaidi.

The game started in the worst possible fashion for the Reds as Gabriel Tamas capitalized after reserve goalkeeper Brad Jones had dropped a lofted free kick, with replays showing that the Australian keeper was in fact struck in the face by West Brom defender Jonas Olsson just as he went up for the catch. 

It took only 14 minutes for Liverpool to reply though, with Sahin firing in a speculative shot from thirty yards only for Ben Foster to make a complete hash out of the save and could only watch the ball bounce into the back of the net for the Turkish internationals first goal for the club after his loan move from Real Madrid.

It was a surprisingly bad tempered game, with Youssef Mulumbu extremely fortunate to stay on the field after studding Jordan Henderson high on his ankle long after the ball was gone.

More youngsters were introduced in the second half as Liverpool pushed more and more for a winner, with Suso coming on for Pacheco and 16-year-old Jerome Sinclair – who has been scoring for fun for the Under-18’s this season – coming on for Samed Yesil and becoming the youngest ever Liverpool player for the final 9 minutes.

It was the latter who made the most meaningful action, as Suso drove at the Baggies defense before releasing a perfectly weighted ball to Assaidi who in turn slipped the ball across the face of goal to Sahin for an easy tap-in and his second of the game. It proved to be enough for Liverpool as the youngsters impress yet again and march on to the next around against Rodgers’ former club, Swansea City.

Norwich 2-5 Liverpool

Liverpool head to Carrow Road to face Norwich City still looking for their first Premier League victory of the season. The stadium was a happy hunting ground for the Reds last season as Luis Suarez put on a sensational performance, scoring all three goals as the Liverpool ran out 3-0 winners.

Rodgers yet again put his faith in youth ahead of the clash, with both Wisdom and Suso getting their first Premier League starts for the club. Sahin came in for the suspended Jonjo Shelvey while the impressive 17-year-old Raheem Sterling kept his place on the wing.

It took Suarez only two minutes to get going in this one. He latched onto a ricochet at the edge of the area and drilled a low shot passed John Ruddy in the Norwich goal to give Liverpool the early lead. After having a blatant penalty shout turned down, Suarez missed a great opportunity to double the lead when he was clean through on goal only to slot the ball woefully wide. Ironically, straight from the ensuing goal-kick, Suarez pickpocketed Michael Turner, nut-megged him, and curled a sumptuous shot with the outside of his foot passed Ruddy.

The Reds picked up in the second half where they left off in the first, with Suarez escaping down the left hand side of the Norwich penalty area before picking out Sahin to tap-in his third goal of the week and Liverpool’s third goal of the day just two minutes after the restart. Suarez was not finished there, as he notched his second consecutive hat-trick against Norwich with a deflected shot from the edge of the area that nestled in the side netting giving Ruddy no chance.

Norwich did put up some resistance as Steve Morison slammed home after a poor throw-out by Pepe Reina in the Liverpool net, but after Sterling escaped down the right and cut the ball back for Captain Steven Gerrard to knock in yet another deflected shot, the comeback was over. Grant Holt did manage to snatch another consolation goal with three minutes remaining but that is how it would finish.

A thoroughly professional performance from Liverpool who finally had their first league win under their belt. The youngsters came into the team and provided plenty of flair and guile, but this day was all about Suarez and his three goals.