RELIEF FOR RODGERS
LIVERPOOL SURVIVE TRIP TO BOURNEMOUTH
SOMEWHERE in this performance was a message from Brendan Rodgers and his Liverpool team. It was defiant and even dizzying at times.
In a week when just about every bad statistic going has been used to criticise Rodgers and his methods, Liverpool are Capital One Cup semi-finalists with a two-legged tie against Chelsea to look forward to next month.
‘It didn’t matter who we got in the draw, it was just important to get there — to win this competition you have to win games against big sides,’ said Rodgers afterwards.
‘I thought it was a brilliant performance from us, it was always going to be a difficult job, but we controlled the game and pressed at the right times and created chances. We thoroughly deserved it.’
This performance, played at breakneck speed and designed to blow Eddie Howe’s t actical strategy into the English Channel, was a reminder that Liverpool can still put teams away.
The next test comes quickly, when Arsenal travel to Anfield on Sunday, but for once we have to give this team 24 hours to reflect on a place in the last four. It is the least they deserve.
They were 3-0 up, thanks to two goals scored by Raheem Sterling and another by Lazar Markovic, before Bournemouth finally hauled themselves into this game.
Dan Gosling scored after a clumsy mistake by Liverpool keeper Brad Jones and the former Everton midfielder went on to shave the post with another effort. Still, this was Rodgers’ night.
Once they got through some testing early moments, Liverpool assumed total control.
There were a staggering 51 passes in the build up to Sterling’s opener, a head- turning move that left Bournemouth’s defence bewildered.
Such was the speed, it was hard to keep up, but eventually Markovic swung a cross in from the left for Jordan Henderson to head back across Artur Boruc’s goal.
Sterling applied the finishing touch with a deft header.
That was a team move, the ethos that Rodgers has been trying to promote at Anfield during a wretched run that has already brought seven league defeats.
This was impressive, a message that Liverpool are in possession of a squad of players who can play on the front foot away from home.
What a lesson for Howe, the young Cherries manager in charge of a team that scored five in their victory over Cardiff last Saturday.
‘It was frustrating for us,’ he admitted. ‘We were not at our best in the first half after an electric start. Liverpool kept the ball well and showed their qualities.
‘But we showed our quality in the second half and that was the pleasing thing.
‘A mark of our character and the players we have was that we kept going. We put Liverpool under pressure in the second half and on a different night we’d have scored more goals.’
Bournemouth tested Liverpool’s three-man defence in the opening minutes. Callum Wilson knows he should have put Bournemouth ahead, tricking his way into the Liverpool area in the opening minutes before he rolled his effort well wide of Jones’ post.
After that, this Bournemouth team simply invited Liverpool to put pressure on them.
Adam Smith, Eunan O’Kane, Junior Stanislas and Matt Ritchie did some decent things in patches, but this game was played by Liverpool at full pelt. It seemed as though they had scores to settle.
They were two goals ahead after 27 minutes when Philippe Coutinho forced Boruc into a save.
From the rebound, Markovic was perfectly placed just inside the penalty area to cushion a side volley into the net.
There was a whiff of controversy about the goal because a Bournemouth fan behind the goal blew a whistle, causing captain Tommy Elphick to check his defensive run when Coutinho was about to shoot.
Rodgers is persisting with this three-man defence. He is short of a controlling influence in there, but they have plenty of muscle with Kolo Toure, Martin Skrtel and Dejan Lovren protecting Jones.
They eased off occasionally, allowing Yann Kermorgant the chance to pull a goal back for Bournemouth immediately after Markovic’s strike.
He missed and you felt then that this would not be one of those famous midweek Cup nights.
There was no let-up. Throughout, Liverpool operated at a different level and whenever Bournemouth’s defence drifted off, Sterling was there to take advantage.
He scored his second in the 51st minute, rinsing Elphick inside the penalty area before his cute touch evaded Boruc at the far post.
There was brief moment when this raucous crowd could finally get on their feet, roaring their approval when former Everton midfielder Gosling pulled a goal back for Bournemouth.
It was an error of judgment by Jones, the man entrusted with the gloves after Rodgers revealed on Sunday that he would be first choice for the foreseeable future.
Even after Gosling hit the post, there was never quite the sense that Liverpool could manage to throw this away.