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Norwich v Liverpool Player Ratings and MoM

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Oh boy that sucked, almost as much as the strep that caused me to have to DVR the game, but not as bad as watching my Colts get killed 62-7. I watched the whole Colts game. I am a glutton for punishment.

As I have said before, these are the games we have to win if we want to finish 4th this year. The table is tighter than ever and Liverpool cannot afford to drop points at home...again. Here are the ratings as I saw them. I am writing this a few hours after I watched the game. I have tried to push the game out of my memory already so feel free to point out anything I miss or post your own.

STARTERS:

Reina - 5 - He gets a 5 because while he did make one spectacular save, he was at fault for the goal. He had no business coming for a ball that far out when the guy was already marked by 2 players. I think this is also why it looked as if Johnson and Carra (I think it was Carra) looked inept in defense on that play.

Enrique - 6 - Good enough, but not his spectacular self. Did he get shifted into the midfield when Agger came on? This might be an interesting move to provide a lot more width when needed in the future if Aurelio ever comes back.

Skrtel - 6 - Nothing good, nothing wrong. Should have scored in the 30th second.

Carragher - 6 - Was partly at fault for the goal (although most of the fault is with Charlie Adam and Reina)

Johnson - 6 - A decent showing considering how rusty he must be. It will be nice to have a selection headache at RB again.

Downing - 6 - Started brightly, faded quickly. He is in a bit of a slump and it hurts the team. As I have pointed out before, this team dominates when Downing can impose himself on the game. When he doesn't though, we struggle. Today was a case of the latter. That being said, I don't understand subbing him.

Adam - 5 - He had a decent game, but for the love of God, stay on your feet son. Fair or not, he has been labeled a diver. I think this crept into the refs thinking. He was ok and his 5 is only for his give away that lead to the goal, but I wasn't too fond of the line-up itself. i don't remember him being so quick to go to ground at Blackpool. Is my memory just shot?

Gerrard - 7 - He gets a 7 because he did so much that to me seemed to easily go unnoticed. Essentially he was playing for Lucas, but still managed to get forward and try to pull the strings in the offensive half. He appears to have never rusted. Apparently he is made of titanium, well except for his groin.

Kuyt - 5 - Who was playing wide, Kuyt or Bellamy? Either way, Kuyt failed to find the net on a number of occasions. This was definitely not one of his better games, but as usual he worked his socks off.

Suarez - 7 - Always threatening, but nothing to show for it. He did everything he needed to do, except score. However, it took some fantastic saves by Norwich's keeper. I keep saying that in most games if we get these chances they will go in, but ...well...I keep saying that. Something has to give.

Bellamy - 7 - Scored albeit with a deflection. Hard to tell if it was actually going in. I liked the idea of having him on the pitch and it seemed to work well, but he did fade in the second half.

SUBS:

Henderson - 5 - This was his chance to build on last weekend's cameo and he failed to deliver. Again got lost in the game.

Carroll - 5 - Should have scored, that's is what we paid for him. If he isn't good enough to make the starting line up against Norwich, then I have no idea what his future holds.

Agger - N/A - What an odd sub, in stoppage time when you are pushing for a goal. Is Kuyt hurt? This one had me baffled.

In the end, Norwich probably were deserving of a point. With United and Chelsea dropping points, I feel as if we are missing our chances to gain ground in the table. There may not be a ton of these kinds of weekends left. I hope Kenny can figure this out. We missed Lucas, but there should be no reason we would need him against Norwich. Perhaps Kenny would have been better served using Spearing there and sticking to a formation similar to the one that did well against United.