Aldo: Liverpool got what they deserved and Sturridge can turn a game
If anyone was going to get a late winner in the Merseyside derby it was going to be us, writes John Aldridge.
Everton to be fair had done a good job on us, the way Ronald Koeman set his stall out did well for them.
It was a poor first half, when they did really well, but they didn’t really hurt us. We kept going at it and second half Liverpool were an awful lot better.
You have to say the best thing that happened for us was the goalkeeper (Stekelenburg) going down because you knew it would be the best part of 10 minutes to add on and it gave us the opportunity to get Daniel Sturridge on.
It needed something a little bit different and Sturridge does that.
There was a little bit of fortune around the goal but it was fortune that the second half performance deserved.
Having someone of the quality of Sturridge to come off the bench just makes the whole squad feel stronger. We’ve had nothing off there for a few games.
Don’t get me wrong, they’re good young players but you need that strength in depth.
It was a good run, it wasn’t a great shot but we got a bit of luck there.
Sturridge will need time on the pitch but he’s going to get that in the next three games coming thick and fast, especially the Manchester City and Sunderland matches.
The stats show that Everton didn’t really trouble us at all, probably for the first time ever at Goodison.
I think they were probably too worried about Liverpool going forward.
If anyone was going to win it, it was going to be us.
I thought Ragnar Klavan was excellent at Goodison - and he has been for the last two games.
He impressed me in pre-season.
It’s great for us because Joel Matip has been brilliant but he’s been injured and Klavan’s come in and he’s a real, no-nonsense 1980s type of defender, very, very good and he played brilliantly on Monday.
The first half in many ways was an old -school 80s style derby. Everton did what they had to do, got among us, a couple of our players didn’t really fancy it. The second half they’ve run out of steam and then we started to get on the ball.
It was a good half-time team talk from Jurgen Klopp, we tired them out and they just couldn’t hang on to get the nil nil.
We got what we deserved in the end.
What a time to beat your local rivals in the city. Before Christmas, in the 94th minute, in a really tight-fought match going into a tough group of fixtures.
That lifts everyone. Coutinho’s nearly ready, a couple of players are coming back and it just regenerates you. Coutinho’s knocking on the door again which is quite timely.
I thought it was a great result because nine points behind Chelsea and you’re thinking going away to Everton, if you get a result great, if you get a draw, it’s not bad.
But we’re right on their tail again, so you take every game as it comes and you see where it takes you.
I’m not saying we’re going to win the league but we’re still in with a shout.
After the result at Bournemouth we’ve done very well in getting seven points out of nine.
Source: Liverpool Echo
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