Liverpool Player Ratings v West Brom

The only thing that made me angrier than this loss was listening to the pundits talk about how well West Brom did and how resolute their defense was; no it wasn't...at all. If they had been able to limit Liverpool to a handful of shots and opportunities I would agree, but Liverpool took 25 shots at goal and WBA relied on some fantastic goalkeeping. That is not a good performance or good defense, it is a very lucky performance...lucky for them Liverpool can't finish.

STARTERS:

Reina - 7 - Commanded his area and did well to stay alert to make a full stretch save on Mulumbu's shot. Really had very little to do other than pick the ball out of his net.

Johnson - 6 - I've been saying this for weeks, but something is off with Johnson. His touch is lacking at times and he looks as if he is playing with no confidence.

Carragher - 6 - He did well to disguise his old age for most of the game, but never should have been pressing so far high. Nearly scored, but put the header just off target.

Agger - 4 - We can talk about his two defensive errors that lead to the loss, but don't forget about his missed headers. Two in quick succession. Stupidly, however, he has recieved a ton of abuse on twitter which is ridiculous. He showed good humility to tweet this today, "I agree with most of you. My performance the last 10 minutes of yesterday's game was NOT good enough. It's as simple as that!!!!!" He then followed it with another, "But thank you for letting me know:0)))))))"

Enrique - 6 - He was slightly wasteful with the ball at times. Overall he was a threat down the left flank...until he gave the ball away. However, he miraculously recovered possession a number of times after he gave it away. Only his second game back from injury and he looked absolutely gassed at the end.

Lucas - 6 - I have seen some say he was great, I don't know if he was great. His pressing high was partly responsible for the quick counters that lead to the goal. While I realize Liverpool were desperate at the time, how much attacking threat does Lucas really provide? That said he did well for much of the game to break up WBA's counterattacks.

Henderson - 5 - Apart from a cheeky little flick and some early pressure, he failed to really influence the game. Not his fault though, he was played way out of position when there were clearly other options to play on the right or where ever it was he was playing.

Gerrard - 6 - Mixed bag, he was doing quite well spraying the ball around well for much of the game. However, he did miss the penalty. He appears to have gone very Charlie Adam on us. According to whoscored.com, he attempted 18 long balls with 13 being accurate. He forced one of the best saves you'll see out of Foster as well. While not highlight reel material, the save Foster made on Gerrard was probably one of the most technically difficult there is, especially because of the strength it required.

Downing - 8 - He pulled all the strings and ran WBA's backs ragged. Put a number of decent balls in the box as well and had a few decent chances at goal. In addition, he proved that he does indeed have afterburners. In addition, played a fantastic ball to find Sterling to set up Gerrard for his shot that should have gone in.

Shelvey - 4 - Drifted offside entirely too much. I lump that in with his movement sucked. He played much of the game entirely too close to Suarez when Suarez or anyone else cut into the middle. He was just on a different wavelength than the rest of the team last night and failed to make room for Suarez with movement.

Suarez - 6 - Earned a soft "penalty". Threatened at times, but lacked his usual ability to unlock defenders on his own. While the cheeky behind the leg cross was great, it really was unnecessary. Speaking of unnecessary, he also talked his way into picking up his 8th yellow which puts him 2 from a suspension. His lack of clinicality was on full display last night too.

SUBS:

Sterling - 6 - Lively and possibly showed that he should have started. did well to take on his defenders and also played a great ball to Gerrard for his shot that was saved.

Borini - 4 - Missed a sitting rebound, gave away possession and really looked poor...just like the rest of the team.

Coutinho - N/A - Not enough time, but looked like he almost got Liverpool a penalty towards the end when he blasted the ball off of a WBA defender's hand.