Not with words, but with goals. Sure, the opposition on the last match Liverpool will play this year was weak, not to say pathetic at times, but a win is a win. When you’ve had such a horrible year which caused a club legend like Kenny Dalglish to be fired, a brace from Luis Suarez against the weakest of opposition is enough to lift everyone’s spirit.
It was almost too easy in the first half. QPR’s defense was a mess, like it has been all season, and no magic wand from Harry Redknapp is going to change that. When you take out your striker at half time and throw in another centre back, that pretty much tells it all about how much Redknapp thought of his team’s quality and spirit to mount any sort of comeback after going down 3-0 in the first 30 minutes.
For Liverpool, it was their day in the sun. So much space to roam in the midfield isn’t going to be there against anyone in the Premier League. Joe Allen, usually finding it hard to play as the defensive midfielder, saw no pressure coming from anyone, making it very easy for Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson to continuously push forward as there was no question about who is controlling the middle. All this made it far too easy for Luis Suarez.
Liverpool’s best player was miles away from his Stoke City performance, or maybe it’s just the difference between Stoke and QPR? Some say it’s this mental block Liverpool have, although it’s weird when you think about it: When they’re under a lot of pressure to win before they get into some sort of trouble, they usually come through. When it’s about their destiny in their own hands and making a push towards the higher regions of the Premier League table, everything falls apart in an embarrassing manner, sometimes impossible to explain, like in the losses to Aston Villa and Stoke.
Luis Suarez is consistent. He gives it his all every match, pulling everything he has from his bag of tricks. Sometimes it’s good for only a frustrating evening, which also leads to his unpopular side, but sometimes it’s too much for defenders to handle. Clint Hill was left for dead during the first goal; the entire QPR defense was broken down by Suarez, who broke from the right, crossed and was the first to pounce on the ricochet from a QPR leg to make it 2-0. The game felt over while some people didn’t even get to take their seats at the stadium.
No clever insights about Liverpool’s defending, because it was so easy on the day. Jose Enrique is out, possibly for a while, and that may be a problem. It will mean that Glen Johnson will move back to left back, as Stewart Downing, sitting this one out, wasn’t too impressive at a position he knows nothing about.
Jordan Henderson enjoyed a rare start, and the club enjoyed him. There are plenty of midfielders to use and an obvious rotation, with Steven Gerrard the untouchable man unless he’s completely exhausted, but Henderson showed that in the middle, playing the right kind of minutes and the right position, he’s very useful to the team with his pressing and passing. Food for thought for the sick Brendan Rodgers, coming from a display that was deceivingly good, but was too easy to really learn from.
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