Liverpool continued their pre-season preparations as they
met AS Roma on Wednesday night at Fenway Park in Boston. After a first half
littered with misplaced passes and scuffed chances from both sides, the game
picked up in pace and quality in the second half. Michael Bradley opened the
scoring in the 63rd minute, before Alessandro Florenzi extended the
lead seven minutes later. Charlie Adam fired in a consolation goal for the Reds
with ten minutes remaining but ultimately Roma ran out deserved winners.
The first half began in unspectacular fashion, with both
sides struggling to create clear-cut chances. Pablo Osvaldo spurned a great
chance when played clean through on goal after an error from Jay Spearing with Peter
Gulacsi diving to his right to deny the Italian striker – the first of a number
of impressive saves from the Hungarian stopper.
This woke Liverpool up as
returning loan stars Alberto Aquilani and Joe Cole both began seeing a lot of
the ball and looking dangerous. The two combined to good effect in the 32nd
minute as Aquilani’s chipped ball over the top found Cole whose lobbed finish
clipped the crossbar before going behind.
20-year-old midfielder Jonjo Shelvey was undeniably the
star performer of the first half, as he ran the Liverpool midfield and showed
excellent footwork on two separate occasions to create space for a shot inside
the Roma area but was denied by goalkeeper – in both instances.
The defense looked shaky to say the least. 17-year-old Ryan
McLaughlin made his debut at right-back, and looked composed and confident on
the ball, if a bit suspect defensively. Veteran Jamie Carragher struggled to
deal with the movement of Osvaldo, with center-back partner Martin Skrtel
bailing out his Captain several times. Jose Enrique looks to have enjoyed his
holiday a bit too much as he looked out of shape and vulnerable yet again after
a poor showing against Toronto.
Spearing complimented the attacking instincts of Shelvey
and Aquilani to good effect, nipping around in front of the back four in
typical fashion.
Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers chose to start with a
front three of Cole, Nathan Eccleston and Raheem Sterling. While Cole impressed
the most with his quick changes of pace and good close control, Eccleston and
Sterling struggled. Manchester-born Eccleston did a decent job running channels
and winning a few free kicks, but struggled to see the ball anywhere near the
goal. Sterling on the other hand saw quite a lot of the ball without really
doing much with it. The youngster has great pace but for whatever reason would
rather make runs with the ball at his feet than make runs behind the defense in
order to receive the ball in greater space. This reluctance slowed down several
counter-attacks and allowed Roma to regroup.
After a number of changes at half-time, the quality and
tempo of the game picked up in the second half. Brad Jones replaced Gulacsi in
goal, Jon Flanagan took the place of Ryan McLaughlin at right-back, Daniel
Agger saw his first minutes under Rodgers at the expense of Carragher, Adam
replaced former Roma midfielder Aquilani, Suso replaced Cole, Adam Morgan
played through the middle in place of Eccleston and Dani Pacheco replaced
Sterling.
Roma made a number of changes too, with young prodigies
Bojan Krkic and Erik Lamela both entering the fray.
Flanagan offered more offensively than McLaughlin,
overlapping consistently throughout the second half and linking up well with
Suso. Skrtel and Agger renewed their domineering partnership, while Enrique and
later Wilson continued to struggle.
Spearing patrolled the midfield well before being
replaced by Lucas who looked like his old self, going into challenges without
fear and shrugging off the attentions of Roma midfielders on numerous
occasions. Shelvey continued his dominant performance and was extremely
unfortunate not to score with a free kick that swerved just wide. Despite
scoring, Adam looked off the pace and other than a few nice passes did not have
a particularly good game. He looked lethargic from the start and gave up on his
defensive responsibilities.
Suso showed why he should be playing in central midfield,
not the right wing, as he cut inside on his left foot every time he received
the ball and tried to play-make. This caused an imbalance in the team as Suso
crowded the middle of the field and mainly ran into trouble. Pacheco on the
other hand hugged the left touchline for most of the game which gained him a
lot of space to work some magic when he did see the ball. He had a number of
impressive runs and shots, and looks likely to be part of Rodgers plans this coming
season. Morgan posed an entirely different threat to Eccleston, with his
tireless running and great attitude. He hassled and harried the Roma defense
from start to finish, upsetting former Manchester United defender Gabriel
Heinze in the process.
The referee and his linesmen had an atrocious day out,
making a number of poor offside calls and awarding Roma constant soft
free-kicks.
Considering Roma are much further along in their
pre-season schedule than Liverpool, and have most of their first team back,
while Liverpool still have the likes of Reina, Johnson, Kelly, Gerrard,
Henderson, Downing, Carroll, Suarez and Borini to welcome back, a single goal
defeat is not necessarily a poor result. Many positives can be taken from the
game, and the system that Rodgers is attempting to introduce will only look
better and better once Liverpool’s key and best players slowly but surely enter
the fold over the next few weeks.
Line-up: Gulacsi (Jones 45’); McLaughlin (Flanagan 45’),
Skrtel (Sama 59’), Carragher (Agger 45’), Enrique (Wilson 59’); Spearing (Lucas
59’), Shelvey (Adorjan 59’), Aquilani (Adam 45’); Cole (Suso 45’), Eccleston
(Morgan 45’), Sterling (Pacheco 45’).
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