Goalless Draw At Liberty For Liverpool

Rodgers discusses tactics with Gerrard...
Image: teamtalk.com
Liverpool had to settle for a 0-0 draw at the Liberty Stadium on Sunday as Swansea held out the Reds attack and failed to find the net themselves. It was probably a fair result in the end but Liverpool did appear to have the better of the chances, unfortunately for Brendan's side though they were not converted.

Liverpool had recalled Henderson and Downing to the starting line up after they featured in the Europa League and Brendan also decided to utilise Jose Enrique's presence in attack pushing him forward on the wing.

It was a very balanced 90 minutes from both sides perhaps boiling down to the fact that both managers enjoy a passing game, it was so similar we cancelled each other out at times and it was always going to take something special for a lead to be gained.

The early exchange of attacks saw Swansea force Reina into action just after the 10 minute mark when Routledge put in a strong strike. Shortly afterwards a searching cross into the box from Glen Johnson left Enrique having to use his chest to try and turn the ball home and he was nearly successful.

Glen Johnson and Jose Enrique had another good game in terms of attack for Liverpool especially Enrique who relished every chance to push himself forward and try to help gain his side a goal. Luis Suarez wasn't as lively as he has been of late but a chance in the first half left Tremmel having to make a last ditch save to prevent the away side from taking the lead.

Sterling followed the Suarez chance with perhaps the best effort for Liverpool in the game, his volley had power and almost enough accuracy but the youngster had to watch it smash off the crossbar, Swansea were still in the game. More pressure was on for Laudrup's boys though, this time Enrique was back to cause trouble, a Suarez ball in the box found it's way to the Spaniard but fortunately for Swansea his goal was disallowed and he was ruled offside.

Liverpool had ran through several decent chances already in the first half but crucially they hadn't converted any, it wasn't going to get any easier to score, only harder.

In the second half one of the main highlights ended up being a collision between Pepe Reina and Nathan Dyer. Free on a break into the box Dyer knew he had to make it to the ball first but so too did Reina, both players took a nasty knock, Reina in the face! But encouragingly both players got up, shook hands and smiled and just got on with things. Sometimes it's refreshing to see that sort of reaction.

A counter attack in the second half for Liverpool after a Swansea corner failed left Suarez and Sterling in acres of space. Suarez played the ball to Sterling and continued his run but Sterling put too much weight on his return and Suarez was left with more to do that he expected, his shot was saved and you can't help but think if only Sterling made the perfect pass.

It's hard to determine whether to be pleased with a draw at the Liberty considering Brendan spent so much time there but I suppose ultimately it was a decent result. I must admit immediately after the game I found myself describing it as "boring" but after watching the highlights back it's clear that's not the case however I still feel so frustrated with the amount of passing compared to end product, it's really doing my swede in but I don't think that is going to be fully addressed until the January transfer window.

Next up for Liverpool is a big game with Tottenham on Wednesday night.