LIVERPOOL ECHO SPORT

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When Liverpool got drawn into Group B alongside the likes of FC Basel and Ludogorets most fans thought they’d got the luck of the draw and stroll into the last 16 in second place behind last year’s Champions League winners Real Madrid who they also got in their group. However after a dismal performance against FC Basel at home, a 1-1 draw was not enough to see the reds progress further this season and now see themselves in the next round of the Europa League having finished in third place.

The Merseyside club have been out of sorts all season since the loss of Luis Suarez who moved to Barcelona in the summer transfer market, and injuries to their other key forward Daniel Sturridge have not helped either. They have been unable to find the form they played at last season under Brendan Rodgers and look as if they have been unable to find a suitable replacement for Suarez, as most of their new signings have yet to reach their top ability just yet.

Poor performances both in the league and Europe will not go down well with reds fans especially after the season they had last year, narrowly missing out on the league title and with rumours going around already it is starting to look clear for all to see that Rodgers might not be the right man for the job.

Rodgers has always been known for his specific style of play, keeping possession of the ball and a short passing game has always been in his nature, he also likes to play with the lone striker up top. Last season with the likes of Suarez and Sturridge one could always play down the centre with another cutting in, it was a dream for Liverpool but with no cutting edge in the final third this year as well causing their own problems in defence far too often, it seems as if Rodgers plan is going to backfire unless he changes his strategy, or else he could find himself out of the job unless Liverpool have a drastic change in form when they turn into the new year.

Liverpool look to get their season on track as they pick up back to back league wins

LIVERPOOL man-ager Brendan Rodgers could be facing the exit door with the pressure heating up as his side have had their worst start to a season in over 20 years. The Merseyside club sit in the bottom half of the table below fellow Merseyside rivals Everton and are yet to kick start their campaign this season, after narrowly miss-ing out on first place last season which saw them slip up with just a few games to go which handed the Premier League crown to Manchester City.

Reds skipper Steven Gerrard who has been taking a lot of criti-cism in recent weeks; with his future at the Merseyside club being speculated as he has been far from his best this season silenced his critics with an out-standing man of the match performance. The performance which seen him score the vital goal which swung the match into Liverpool’s favour and to put his side in the lead when the game was tied at 1-1, Gerrard pulled the strings at the heart of midfield, looking very much like his old self.

The match started of scrappily with both sides unable to get a foothold on the game and creating very minimal chances, both unable to stamp their

authority on the match but just shy of the 20-minute mark Liv-erpool keeper Simon Mignolet made an awful error as he seen his pass go straight to Leicester midfielder Esteban Cambiasso who then had the chance to slot the ball into an open net but narrowly misses the target to the relief of the reds goalkeeper and onrushing defend-er Martin Skrtel who the pass was intention-ally meant for.

Leicester managed to open the scoring in the 22nd minute as forward Leonar-

do Ulloa’s low shot bulleted of Mignolet’s near post and hit the keeper on the back and rolled into the Liverpool net, unfortu-nate for the away side but poor defending yet again cost them as centre halves Skrtel and Kolo Toure where unable to get the ball clear, 1-0 Leicester.

However the home sides lead was short lived. In the 26th minute Liverpool mid-fielder Adam Lallana managed to smash the ball past Schmeichel in the Leicester goal after Rickie Lam-bert caused all sorts

of problems for the Leicester defence after Lucas had hit in a long hopeful ball, the game was tied 1-1.

The sides went in at half time level, which was pretty much, a fair reflection of how things panned out in the first 45 minutes with both sides de-fenders not having their better days.

As the second half got underway it was the home team who started of the better putting pressure on the Liverpool defence but with nothing to show. It proved vital in the 55th minute as man

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Steven Gerrard celebrates his goal against Leicester in which he gave a match winning performance, meanwhile Brendan Rodgers gives his instrucions whilst watching on from the sideline during a game earlier in the season.

Could Brendan be heading for the exit door as Liverpool spiral to a new low?

Liverpool look to get their season on track as they pick up back to back league wins

of the match and reds captain Gerrard put Liverpool 2-1 in front, he managed to slot the ball past the Leicester keeper and into the bottom right hand corner of the net after some sublime team play by the reds had cut the home teams defence wide open before the ball was calmly slotted from around 15 yards out.

Less than 10 min-utes after Liverpool take the lead Leices-ter go down to 10 men as captain Wes Morgan picks up a straight red card after dragging Lambert

to the ground. The forward was about to run through on goal, and Morgan prevented a clear goal scoring opportunity and gave the referee no choice put to show him the red card.

Although down to ten men the home side never gave up hope on snatching an equaliser as the game made its way into the final 20 minutes. However Leicester should’ve went down to nine men in the 73rd minute as their goal keeper hauled down Gerrard as he knocked the pall past him but

neither the linesman or referee seemed to notice the penalty incident.

Leicester’s at-tacking substitution bringing a winger on for a full back did not pay off despite having a few half chances and in the 85th min-ute Jordan Henderson sealed the win for his side. A long shot could only be fumbled by Kasper Schmeichel and Raheem Sterling reacted quickest as he then back heeled the ball straight into Hen-derson’s path where he then slotted the ball into the roof of the

home side’s net.The score line

suggested the victory was convincing for Liverpool but it was far from a routine win, the home side stayed in the game as long as they could and never looked like backing down and could’ve ended up with some-thing out of the match if they had 11 men on the field, however they are rooted to the bottom of the Premier League and Liverpool manage to creep up the table.

Brendan Rodgers said after the game: “It was a great victory to-

night the players were magnificent, Leicester have only lost one game here all season and they’ve played some very good sides, so to come away with a 3-1 victory we had to work very hard for of course we had to compete, but then our quality came through in the end and it paid off for us. I have got big trust in the play-ers, their commitment an our work over the time I’ve been here is first class so I always knew we need to get back to that competi-tive edge.”

Rodgers also went

on to mention a few words about Gerrard saying “Steven was outstanding tonight, he’s been a world class talent since a young age and still has that, and the legs might not be the same now determining the number of games he can play but its my job along with him to pitch him in at the right times.”

Rodgers also shrugged off any tension there could’ve been between him and his skipper and stated they have not had any form of falling out.

Steven Gerrard celebrates his goal against Leicester in which he gave a match winning performance, meanwhile Brendan Rodgers gives his instrucions whilst watching on from the sideline during a game earlier in the season.

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Liverpool’s first game back in the Champions League where they overcame Bulgarian side Lu-dogorets with a 2-1 victory at Anfield earlier in the season, which seen Balotelli bag his first goal.

Balotelli needs time to settle down at Anfield

When Liverpool were linked with Mario Balotelli this summer at first glance the majority of foot-ball fans laughed it off and seen it as just another ‘comical rumour’ getting spread around during a busy summer transfer win-dow, but it also made some Liverpool fans wince at the fact he has always been more popular for his ‘bad boy image’ rather than his performances and goals on the pitch.

During his spell at Manchester City, Balotelli was never prolific and was in the headlines more times

than not but for all the wrong reasons, such as bust ups with City boss at the time Rob-erto Mancini, and also other incidents such as setting fireworks off out of a window

in his own house on bonfire night. Never-theless he was also the player who passed the ball to Sergio Aguero who scored the crucial goal in stoppage time which won City their

first Premier League crown in the 2011/12 season, with the assist being his one and only assist during his whole time whilst playing in England.

With nine appear-

ances already this term for Liverpool, Balotel-li is still to get off the mark for his new team in the Premier League, and despite the lack of creativity in the final third Brendan Rodgers believes the criticism the striker has been taking is unfair and also thinks the for-wards performances on the pitch have been better than what people are giving him credit for. Rodgers has also mentioned the most important thing is that Balotelli has took on a more mature role and is now working for the team, tracking back and

putting himself more about the pitch, and looks like a rejuvenat-ed player in that area. In the past watching the striker at his previ-ous teams you would often think he was more bothered about playing for himself, not putting a shift in when it was needed and it is questionable as to why his previous club AC Milan were glad to get rid of him at what seemed to be a bargain price at 16 million pounds.

Mario Balotelli battles for the ball against Ludogorets defender which he starred in one of his better games this season scoring one of his only goals.Picture courtesy of Google images.

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