Liverpool Echo Sport 15/12/2014 Page 1.

From bad to worse for Brendan Rodgers and the Reds reaction and much more inside from a dissapointing day at Old Trafford for the Reds against their arch enemies. Plus transfer talk and the fans views on a poor season so far.

FROM BASEL TO WORSE

Nightmare week for Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers. (Pictured above)

Liverpool Echo sport 15/12/2014 Page 2.

REDS ROCKED IN MANCHESTER. The Fans Corner.

I spoke to Liverpool season ticket holder Dale Omara to get his views on what has been a pretty difficult week for any Liver-pool fan. First the reds crashed out of Europe after only mustering a point at home to Basel and then saw them-selves comfortably beaten at the hands on their arch enemies. It’s hard to be opti-mistic at the moment admits Dale, who’d of thought after the highs of last season we’d be in this situation now, I don’t think anyone would of. It’s never nice to go out of the champions league he adds, especially with a performance like that it was all abit flat fromt the fans to the players it definitely wasn’t one of those special nights at Anfield that we’ve all seen before. The team selection left me scrathing my head if I’m honest surely you’ve got to have at least one striker on the bench just incase they do go a goal up which happened. Another

moment of Gerrard magic gave us half a chance didn’t it but to be honest we wouldn’t have deserved it I don’t think. And then it went from bad to worse this for Rodgers weekend didn’t it, a win against Manchester United and people would have forgot all about Tuesday it’s the way football is, it’s still the biggest game of the season for me and it’s always nice to beat them. It wasn’t to be howev-er as the Reds slipped

Wasteful Liverpool cap dreadful week with defeat at Old Trafford and pile pressure on manager Brendan Rodgers.

Written By :Joseph Alley.

Echo Sportand Liverpool FC correspondent.

Rodgers selection looked to have worked in the opening stages Liverpool starting the game well and dom-inating possession creating a few decent chances. Twelve min-utes in however, they were behind a great David de Gea save from Liverpool’s Ra-heem Sterling set off a counter attack that saw Valencia beat Lovren far too easily and then cross for Wayne Rooney who swept home smartly past Brad Jones who maybe

shouldof done better. Glen Johnson limped off for the visitors with what looked like a thigh strain adding to Liverpool’s injury list. Kolo Toure recently named the clubs play-er of the month came on in his place. Liverpool unfazed by going behind continued to domi-nate keeping hold of the ball well looking threatening against Manchester United’s makeshift defence. Smart saves from De Gea kept the score 1-0

untill the 40th min-ute where an Ashley Young cross was flicked on by Robin Van Persie and then pounced on for a tap in by diminutive Spainard Juan Mata it was a cruel blow to Liverpool right before the half and in truth one that wasn’t de-served on the balance of play. Additionally Mata looked clearly offside and despite the protests of the Liverpool players the goal stood much to the dismay of under

to a damaging 3-0 defeat. I thought the scoreline didn’t really reflect the perfor-mance actually, De Gea has had an unbe-lievable game and also Sterling and Balotelli should be doing better with the amont of chances they both had finishing was the difference in the game in my opinion without doubt. So after just three wins in the last thirteen games where does this leave Rodg-ers I ask ? I think most fans still back him Dale says but that could change very quickly another few defeats and I think people could turn and it hasn’t been good enough the last few months since Stur-ridge’s injury we have looked awful not many of his signings have worked and I think the players that are play-ing need to step up Lovren and Markovic haven’t showed what their capable off at all yet. Looking ahead now I think the Capital One

cup becomes huge for Rodgers because an-other season without a trophy and Champi-ons league qualifica-tion is the end for him. It’s been two seasons now and a third with-out a trophy isn’t right it’s who Liverpool FC are at all. But saying all that we are only seven points of 4th and in the quarter finals of the cup, so the situation of the club and Rodgers could change quickly. The next few months are huge for the club and Brendan Rodgers.

Above: Lovren celebrates his goal vs Swansea.

Action shots as Liverpool fall to 3-0 defeat at hands of bitter rivals.Page 2 below : Gerrard looks on as Liverpool concede and Gerrard tackles United’s James Wilson. Page 3 below : Sterling and De Gea go head to head De gea comes out on top.

Liverpool travelled down the East Lan-cashire road under heavy pressure for possibly the first time under Brendan Rodgers tenure. After being knocked out of the champions league in midweek the Reds boss knew that a posi-tive result against their bitter rivals would go a long way to helping secure his future. Before the game all the talk was about the Red’s team selection with out of form keep-er Simon Mignolet be-ing dropped in favour of Austrailian counter-part Brad Jones. The manager also opted to start with Raheem Sterling leading the line just as he did in the second half against Basel on Tuesday. Dejan Lovren was also given another chance with Kolo Toure being demoted to the bench. The reds went into the game with just three wins in the last twelve in all com-petions and already well of the pace in the league. However if any game could kick-start a stuttering teams sea-son it was this one. United youngster James Wilson part-enered Robin Van Persie in attack for the home side with Wayne Rooney being used in a much deeper mid-field role Michael Car-rick started at centre back due to United’s growing injury list.

Liverpool Echo Sport 15/12/2014 Page 3.

REDS ROCKED IN MANCHESTER. Echo Sport.The number one for Liverpool FC.

Wasteful Liverpool cap dreadful week with defeat at Old Trafford and pile pressure on manager Brendan Rodgers.

Moment of the match :David de Gea saves brilliantly from Liver-pool youngster Raheem Sterling. De Gea would continue this theme throughout the game and go on to win the man of the match, Liverpool and Raheem Sterling being made to rue missed clearcut oppurtunities along from the young-ster and teamate Mario Balotelli.Team ratings : Manchester United.

De Gea :9 Jones :7 Evans :7 Car-rick :8 Mata :7 Rooney : 8 Young :7 Valencia :8 Fellaini :7 Van Persie :7 Wilson :6

Team ratings : Liverpool.

Jones :5 Johnson :5 Lovren :4 Skr-tel : 6 Gerrard :7 Henderson :6 Moeno :6 Allen:6 Coutinho :6 Lalla-na :7 Sterling :7.

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fire Brendan Rodgers. Liverpool went in at the half two down and looking to have no real way back into the game. Rodgers brought on Balotelli just after the interval and the Italian maver-ick had some effect as Liverpool continued to put the home team under pressure with De Gea saving from Balotelli three times in the half. Liverpool were hand-ed a route straight back in to the game when Johnny Evans

played a poor back pass that was latched onto by Raheem Sterling who tried to take it around the keeper but spurned his oppurtunity badly, the man of the match De Gea saving brilliantly a continuing theme in the game. The miss seemed to affect the Liverpool team perhaps knowing they had blown their chance to get back into the match. And Man-chester United began to dominate for the first time in the match

the attacking prow-ess of United clearly troubling the much maliagned Liverpool defence. Van Persie shot wide with a chance that would surely have put the game to bed as United began to assert themselves Wayne Rooney dominating the midfield after be-ing started in a much deeper role than he’s used too. United however did manage to put the game away on the 71st minute a comical

attempt at a clearance by Dejan Lovren gave Van Perise the chance to seal the game after being played smartly in by Juan Mata, he did cooling slotting in to a wide open net Brad Jones not for the first time looking rather hapless in the Liverpool goal. The game was over and it was a question of whether the Man-cunians could score again and make the scoreline even more humiliating for their bitter rivals. Brad

Jones made a good stop to prevent a 4th but Liverpool were beaten and and limped towards a 3-0 defeat much to the delght of the home crowd. After the game a de-fiant Rodgers was ad-amant that Liverpool deserved more from the game, arguing that it was a case of missed chance rather than a poor performance. He had praise for United keeper De Gea agree-ing that the Spainard was man of the match. The Northern Irish-

man clearly enduring his worst spell as Liv-erpool manager. Van Gaal was pleased with his teams perfor-mance when he spoke to media after the game saying they de-served the victory over Liverpool and also defended his deploy-ment of Wayne Roon-ey in his deeper lying midfield role. With the win United moved eight points off league leaders Chelsea with Liverpool languishing seven points off the champions league.

Action shots as Liverpool fall to 3-0 defeat at hands of bitter rivals.Page 2 below : Gerrard looks on as Liverpool concede and Gerrard tackles United’s James Wilson. Page 3 below : Sterling and De Gea go head to head De gea comes out on top.

R.

Pictured above : Swansea striker Bony who according to rumours is a target of the reds.

Rumour Mill : Liverpool are rumoured to be after Swansea striker Wilifried Bony the Ivorian who has scored the most goals in the 2014 calendar year is rumoured to be a potential target for Brendan Rodgers side in a bid to solve their current goalscoring crisis.

Tottenham are reportedly braced for transfer offers from Premier league rivals for Belgian defender Jan Vertonghen. Liverpool are one of the clubs that may be interested. The versatile defender is valued at £17 million.

Martin Montoya wants to leave Barcelona in January according to his agent with Liverpool one of his preferred destinations according to his agent.

Up Next :Liverpool’s next game is a crucial Capital one cup tie against Cham-pionship high flyers Bournemouth who currently sit top of their respective league. Fans will expect nothing less than a win from Brendan Rodgers under pres-sure team. Liverpool fans will see this as a real oppurtunity for some silverware being just one game away from the semi-final with a chance to make another Wembley

Up Next :Next up in the league for Liverpool is the visit of Arsenal to Anfield. The clash will feature two under pressure managers and two teams seperated by five points in the table both chasing the Champions league places in the table. Arsenal are coming off a convincing 4-1 defeat of Newcastle. The gunners also qual-ified for the knockout stages for the Champi-ons league in midweek but boss Arsene Wen-

ger still remains under pressure off some Ar-senal fans after a per-cieved lack of progress in recent years. Liverpool who beat Arsenal in the same fixture last year 5-1 will be hoping for a repeat that would lift Rodgers side who are in cup action in the midweek. Two wins for Liverpool could finally kickstart their season. A defeat for either side would increase the already substantial pressure on either manager this game a crucial one for either side.

apperance. The Reds who are the record eight time winners of the trophy are expect

-ed to ring the changes after a gruelling last few weeks. The tie will be played at Dean Co-

urt (pictured above). Kick off is 19:45. A slip up would be unthinka-ble for the reds.

Liverpool Echo Sport 15/12/2014 Page 4.