West Brom v Liverpool: Player Ratings

A bad day for goalkeeping though. Butter fingers had a great game yesterday and Ben Foster was probably happy to hear that final whistle. Shocking that he was once in England's squad.

On to the ratings:

STARTERS:

Jones - 5 - Tell me if you have heard me say this before, Brad Jones was too aggressive. It cost Liverpool an early goal and gave them a mountain to climb. His over-aggressiveness nearly did them in again in the second half when he came charging out for a ball that Carra luckily took care of. He ended up paying the price for that one. He really struggled to kick the ball with his left foot toward the right sideline. Not a good showing.

Robinson - 7 - Overall he played quite well. He really kept Fortune relatively quite, limiting him to just a handful of opportunities. He had a rough start where is touch let him down, but recovered quite well to put in a solid defensive performance.

Carragher - 6 - He still looks shaky, but I lost count of how many shots he blocked this game. He also took care of the ball Jones had no business coming for so I'll give him some points for that. He still scares me out there.

Coates - 8 - He was absolutely immense today. He was everywhere and was extremely unlucky not to score. Unfortunately for him the one time Foster decided to pull his head out of his arse was on his beautiful touch from a corner. He also had a number of excellent tackles during the game too.

Wisdom - 7 - He really didn't put a foot wrong all game. He was calm in possession and really shutdown his side of the pitch. He looks like a solid prospect for a regular first team position going forward given the injuries (yes, I know it has only been two games). He provided way more attacking threat than Downing. Very unlucky to be booked.

Downing - 5 - Just failed to get into the game. Had a few decent crosses early and then just completely faded. However, did we really expect anything else with him playing on the right?

Sahin - 10 - Perhaps a bit high considering he really looked tired during the last 10 minutes, but everything good that Liverpool did came through him. He was in complete control of the midfield and his distribution was superb. This was an absolutely fantastice display that was capped by two goals. The second goal more impressed me because he was where Liverpool players should be, but never are in situations like that.

Henderson - 6 - He wasn't terrible, but he was partly responsible for that first goal with a horrible hospital ball to Wisdom. That wasn't the only time either, he was a bit sloppier with the ball tonight overall. It looks as though he really wasn't sure of what his position was out here as he kept pinching in quite often unless that was a 4-4-2, but it sure didn't seem like it was.

Pacheco - 7 - Dangerous a couple of times, striking the token bar for the game on a wonderfully taken shot and unleashed a nice shot from distance that handcuffed Foster who narrowly avoided the embarrassment of nutmegging himself for a goal. He also defended quite well, dropping very deep a number of times to break up play. However, this did tend to keep him from being as involved in the actual attacks.

Yesil - 7 - He really should have scored early on on that header. It is good to see a Liverpool player in the box actually...you know...being in the box and on top of that attacking the ball. It seems rare. He was lively early, but it was obvious that match fitness isn't quite there yet. Looks like a good find though.

Assaidi - 8 - I'm torn between a 7 and 8, but he was gave Dawson and Jones absolute fits out there on the left. His cross set up the second goal and he really was the one person keeping West Brom on their heels most of the night.

SUBS:

Suso - 7 - He did what I was waiting for someone to do all night, he took his space. He showed brilliant patience too in order to set up Assaidi for the cross on the goal. Not a bad contribution for 10 minutes. He is quite exciting.

Sinclair - 6 - Didn't do a whole lot wrong and nearly had a breakaway, but appeared to have been tugged back even though the officials failed to spot it call it. He got himself in good positions for through balls even though they were very late to be released or not at all. It will be interesting to see how much time Rodgers gives him. In the end, he didn't screw anything up and did well to buy space for Suso on the second goal. That's a good frist appearance in my book.