Good Game Bad Game [vs Sunderland]

There are a number of excuses to which we could turn in order to sweeten this defeat: Darren Bent's fluke goal, the absence of both Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres, the late arrival of Mascherano, Lucas and Insua, the little time for preparation that Liverpool had and the length of time that Sunderland had in order to get ready for this game.

The truth, however, is that Sunderland were unlucky not to score more whereas for Liverpool this was the worst performance in the last two years with players unable to string three passes together.

I won't go as far as saying that we should forget about the league because it is still too early for that but it isn't looking good, is it? Indeed, given a choice I'd focus more energies on the games against Lyon and even the one in the League Cup against Arsenal rather than the league game against United.

Good Game
The only one to come out of this with any credit was Pepe Reina. Absolutely not at fault with the goal he saved Liverpool in the second half when Darren Bent broke through and was solid throughout.

Bad Game
Going forward Fabio Aurelio was decent enough - although his corner taking was attrocious - but he will have nightmares about Andy Reid for weeks. Indeed, the beach ball incident has probably saved Aurelio from having to answer why he let Reid pass him so easily in the move that led to the goal.

On the opposite flank Glen Johnson tried his best to ignite Liverpool's attacking play but more often than not seemed to hang on too much to the ball.

In the centre of defence, Jamie Carragher, Daniel Agger and Martin Skrtel were given a torrid time by Kenwyne Jones and Darren Bent. In truth, they didn't really look like they knew what they were supposed to do which was probably down to their unfamiliarity with the system in which they were playing.

There are those who believe that Benitez plays Lucas Leiva instead of Jay Spearing purely because he paid a significant amount for the Brazilian midfielder. Well, today we saw that this quite simply isn't the case. Not that Lucas played well today - he failed to impose himself on the game - but Spearing was quite simply attrocious. He was over-run in midfield and too often didn't know what to do with the ball particularly when Lee Catermole - a player many snobbed when it was rumoured Liverpool were interested in him - was close by.

As with practically everyone else, practically nothing that Yossi Benayoun tried out worked. Dirk Kuyt did have a couple of moments but overall, he looked absolutely knackered which perhaps can be excused given that he was a doubt earlier in the week.

The next time that Ryan Babel opens his mouth to complain about the lack of opportunities he gets, all that needs to be done is show him a video of this game. After a good first few minutes, he simply disappeared and every time he touched the ball it went to a Sunderland player.

Substitutes
Well, it shows how desperate we were that we looked at Andriy Voronin as a potential saviour. Not that it had any impact as he simply spent the half an hour he spent on the pitch giving the ball to Sunderland players. Tired or not, Javier Mascherano gave order to the midfield and Liverpool started to play a bit better when he came on.

Same goes to David N'Gog who caused the Sunderland defence more problems in fifteen minutes than Babel did throughout the whole game. Probably deserved to come on earlier.

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