Liverpool FC 2014/2015 Season Review

Month by month, if you seriously want to relive it, here is the season review.

*All images in this post are taken from www.guardian.com*

August


After finishing second in the league at the end of the 2013/2014 season but also losing their star striker Luis Suarez, it was always going to be an interesting season for Liverpool. The Reds appeared to get off to a good start in August as they managed to collect wins over both Southampton and Spurs.

A late goal from Daniel Sturridge sealed all three points against Ronald Koeman's side whilst goals from Sterling, Gerrard and Moreno secured the win against Spurs.

A 3-2 loss to Man City was difficult to take however Liverpool have often struggled at the Etihad. Brendan Rodgers took his side into September with optimism.

In the news...
- British actor Richard Attenbrough dies at the age of 90.
- Cristiano Ronaldo wins the UEFA Best Player In Europe award.
- Barack Obama orders an independent inquiry into the shooting of Michael Brown.

September


Excitement bubbled around Liverpool in September as the Reds prepared to welcome the Champions League back to Anfield. Steven Gerrard and Mario Balotelli were on the score sheet in the Ludogorets win and everything looked rosy for the time being.

In the League Cup Liverpool had to score 14 penalties after extra time just to get past Middlesbrough, it was an ordeal to say the least but the Reds were through and that was all that mattered.

In the League however, things didn't go very well for Brendan at all in the month of September. A loss to Aston Villa was hard to take as Liverpool failed to score, followed by a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Sam Allardyce's West Ham side.

To end September, Liverpool had to face Everton in the Merseyside derby at Anfield. Liverpool played well for the majority of the game and Steven Gerrard put us into the lead but Everton refused to give up and a sublime strike from Jagielka late on left Liverpool dumbstruck.

In the news...
- Oscar Pistorius is found guilty of the 'culpable homicide' of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.
- Ban Ki-Moon announces an emergency mission to respond to the Ebola virus in West Africa which at the time had killed over 2,500 people.
- 20,000 people are evacuated from the island of Luzon in the Philippines as volcano Mayan erupts.
-The Liver Bird turned 6!

October


On to October. The Reds had two Champions League ties this month, one against Basel in Switzerland and one against Real Madrid at Anfield. In Basel, Liverpool lost for the first time in Switzerland and looked extremely lacklustre in the 1-0 defeat.

The Reds also lost to Real Madrid at Anfield conceding three goals. The biggest surprise though apparently was Balotelli choosing to swap his shirt at half time.

In the League Cup, after getting past Middlesbrough the Reds were faced with Swansea. Goals from Mario Balotelli and Dejan Lovren ensured Liverpool progressed to the next round.

In the League the Reds collected a win over West Brom to start with. In the game against QPR three own goals were scored but Liverpool were eventually victorious. A goalless draw against Hull completed the league fixtures for this month.

In the news...
- Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi share the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize
- The Euro 2016 Qualifying game between Albania and Serbia is postponed after a drone descends on the pitch promoting 'Greater Albania' creating a riot
- The San Francisco Giants win the World Series

November


By November I was already pretty darn frustrated with the way Brendan Rodgers was choosing to set up the Liverpool side. Even when we went on to have a decent streak later in the season we still didn't play particularly well.

November was a dismal month for the Reds, it began with a 1-0 loss to Newcastle followed by a 1-0 loss to Real Madrid. In fairness it wasn't like we expected to beat Real and we actually played pretty well, particularly Kolo Toure who showed the Spaniard's how to be a skillful defender.

A fixture against Chelsea at home also ended in a loss but Emre Can did manage to get on the score sheet in that game. Prior to the Palace game in November, Liverpool were dealt even more bad news about Daniel Sturridge who was set to remain out injured for another six weeks, little did we know that he would get injured again later in the season.

The game against Palace also ended in a loss with the Reds conceding three and scoring a consolation goal via Rickie Lambert.

A draw with Ludogorets for the Reds on the 26th meant they remained in the Champions League and Rodgers' side finally picked up a win against Stoke at the end of the month after that heroic header from Glen Johnson.

In the news...
- The Liver Bird was voted for by the fans as "Best Female Blog" at the 2014 Football Blogging Awards
- The official opening of One World Trade Center took place 13 years after 9/11
- Huge crowds gathered at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to mark the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin wall
- The Philae spacecraft lands safely after bouncing on comet 67P - the first comet landing in history

December


December brought eight fixtures for Liverpool. In the Champions League Liverpool were knocked out after another poor performance against minnows Ludogorets. Upon hearing the teams in their group the Reds must have been confident of progressing but it all ended rather embarrassingly for Rodgers' team as they failed to get out of the group after being absent from the competition for five years.

The League Cup brought some positives for the Reds as they beat Bournemouth 3-1 to get through to the semi-final.

In the league Liverpool picked up three wins this month, a 3-1 win over Leicester, a 1-0 win over Burnley and a confident 4-1 victory over Swansea. Draws were picked up against Sunderland and Arsenal.

The Arsenal draw was a particular high for me as I had a quid on Skrtel last goalscorer and a quid on the scoreline to be 2-2, I ended up winning about £40. If only I'd have put the bet on as a scorecast!

In the news...
- Typhoon Hagupit makes landfall in the Philippines
- A storm hits Scotland, Northern Ireland and northern England leaving 14,000 people without power
- Air Asia Flight 8501 crashes in the Java Sea after experiencing trouble during a thunderstorm

January


January was another very busy month for the Reds with four league fixtures, two semi final fixtures against Chelsea in the League Cup and two fixtures in the FA Cup.

In the league on New Year's Day, Liverpool threw away a 2-0 lead over Leicester and picked up just a point. The game against Sunderland ended in a win after one goal separated the sides scored by Lazar Markovic.

The Reds also won an away tie against Villa with both Lambert and Borini finding the back of the net. The final January league fixture against West Ham also ended in a win with Sturridge scoring on his return.

In the FA Cup, a Gerrard brace gave Liverpool the win over AFC Wimbledon. Their second FA Cup tie of the month against Bolton though ended 0-0 forcing a replay for February.

In the League cup semi-final first leg Liverpool picked up a draw against a boring Chelsea side who did nothing but net a penalty. Unfortunately for the Reds, the second leg didn't end well either, despite holding out until extra time, Ivanovic found a late goal for Chelsea and Liverpool were knocked out of the competition.

In the news...
- Gary Anderson wins the PDC World Darts Championship
- Two commuter trains in Mequita Brazil collide causing the deaths of 158 people
- Gunmen attack the offices of Charlie Hebdo in Paris, 12 people were killed and 10 injured

February


February saw Liverpool enter the Europa League, gaining a place after dropping out of the Champions League. The first leg against Besiktas was a win but it will forever be remembered for an apparent "controversial penalty" which had no reason to be controversial in my book.

The second leg saw Liverpool knocked out of yet another competition as Dejan Lovren missed an all important fifth penalty for the Reds.

In the FA Cup Liverpool managed to get the better of Bolton in the replay after a simply stunning goal from Philippe Coutinho. The following FA cup clash was against Crystal Palace, they'd been a tough side for Liverpool in recent meetings but this time the Reds won the game with goals from Daniel Sturridge and Adam Lallana.

In the League Liverpool picked up a 0-0 draw in a drab Merseyside derby. An 83rd minute goal from Mario Balotelli ensured Liverpool secured all three points in the Spurs game (possibly my favourite moment of the season) and finally a 2-0 win over Southampton enabled the Reds to close in on fourth.

In the news...
- Cรดte d'Ivoire win the Africa Cup of Nations
- A large meteorite falls in the north of New Zealand
- A new world record is set in ski jumping with Anders Fannemel from Norway jumping 251.5m

March


March was a quieter month for the Reds with just the FA Cup to worry about outside of the league.

March began in brilliant fashion with a win over Man City thanks to two fantastic strikes from Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho. This was in the midst of a period where the Reds appeared to be on the ascendancy but as mentioned earlier, for me, there were still far too many problems tactically.

A win over Burnley followed in the league but things quickly began to take a turn for the worse whilst I was enjoying myself in Mexico. I watched the Swansea game in the centre of Cancun relatively pleased with our 1-0 win over Swansea. Eager for the United game I was convinced we would be able to at least pick up a draw but in a game that saw Steven Gerrard given his marching orders after just seconds on the pitch, it just wasn't to be for Liverpool.

Fortunately, the Reds still managed to keep their FA Cup dreams alive, just about, as they forced a replay with Blackburn after a 0-0 draw.

In the news...
- Russian politician Boris Nemstov is assassinated
- A supermoon was visible on March 20th
- Germanwings Flight 9525 is deliberately crashed into the Alps in Southern France, 150 people lost their lives
- A 7.7 magnitude earthquake is recorded off the coast of Papua New Guinea

April


Two FA Cup ties in April for Liverpool eventually saw them knocked out of the competition. The Reds made it through to the semi final after a Coutinho goal sealed a win over Blackburn, Rodgers' side would now face Aston Villa.

Liverpool were very poor against Villa and had no real excuses as they had to watch the Midlands' side head to the final.

In the league, Liverpool lost a lot of ground on that precious Champions League spot after losses to Arsenal and Hull. A 0-0 draw with West Brom didn't help matters either and the only win the Reds managed to notch up was against Newcastle.

In the news...
- The 26th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster is remembered with a memorial service at Anfield.
- Jerry Brown the governor of California announces mandatory water restrictions as the state suffers its worst drought in history
- Many Clouds wins the 168th Grand National
- Nepal suffers a 7.9 magnitude earthquake causing the government to announce a state of emergency, the death toll exceeds 8,000 people

May


May saw Liverpool end the season in 6th. A 2-1 win over QPR with a goal from Steven Gerrard started the month well but this was soon followed by a draw with Chelsea.

A loss to Crystal Palace and then an embarrassing 6-1 defeat at the hands of Stoke in Steven Gerrard's last game for the club was pretty hard to take. I can't put a shine on what was a terrible season in my opnion and whilst some will disagree I place the blame at Brendan's door almost 100%. I hated his set ups from the off and this only got worse when Daniel Sturridge was unavailable which ended up being for the majority of the season.

Not to mention some of his substitutions in vitally important games. Who brings on the likes of Glen Johnson when you need a winning goal? I've just been mega, mega frustrated this season and I hope, whoever ends up at the helm, they can take us forward in 2015/2016.

In the news...
- May 29th marked 30 years since the Heysel disaster where 39 fans at the European Cup final tragically died.
- Football remembers the 56 fans that lost their lives in the Bradford fire.
- Mayweather beats Pacquiao with rumours immediately circulating of a re-match
- Arsenal win the FA Cup final