Full Time: Crystal Palace 1-2 Liverpool
An afternoon at Selhurst Park was never going to be easy, especially after the international break and that was exactly what we saw as Liverpool just about defeated the home side.
It was Crystal Palace who started brighter as Loris Karius clattered into former Manchester United man Zaha and gave away a penalty which the home side took advantage of.
It seemed to be one of those days for us as a Sadio Mane header was ruled offside and even Mohamed Salah was not looking sharp. However, he forced Wayne Hennessey into a great save. Mane even had a penalty claim turned down and was booked after reacting late to some contact in the box.
The second half was a different story as Mane first got the equaliser before Salah scored a late goal to help us keep the pressure on Manchester United and charge ahead for a place in the top four in the Premier League.
Our next game is the mouth-watering CL clash against Manchester City and hopefully, we will play better than how we did against the Eagles.
Liverpool Player Ratings
Loris Karius – 7/10
The German did his bit to keep us in the game by pulling off a couple of great saves in the game. He did have a rush of blood in giving away the penalty but there really was not much he could have done.
Trent Alexander-Arnold – 5/10
This was another game, similar to the Manchester United clash where a smart winger taught the youngster a lesson or two. Zaha really did a number on Trent and hopefully, we won’t see a similar performance against City.
Joel Matip – 6/10
Matip was another player who did not have the best of games. Dealing with Christian Benteke was never going to be easy. The Cameroon international has to gel better with Virgil van Dijk.
Virgil van Dijk – 7/10
Van Dijk could have scored early on in the game but saw his header get misdirected by Sadio Mane. He did have a hiccup when he allowed Benteke to have a shot on goal but fortunately, the Belgian missed.
Andrew Robertson – 8/10
Possibly our best player on the field. Robertson seems like a great buy at the moment and hopefully, he will do well against City too.
Jordan Henderson – 6/10
This was another poor game from our captain as he gave possession away too many times and did not seem to be in gear.
James Milner – 7/10
Milner didn’t have a great game either as our midfield seemed very light.
Georginio Wijnaldum – 5/10
Wijnaldum really was missing in this game as he barely did anything of note at Selhurst Park.
Mohamed Salah – 7/10
The first half seemed to be another one of those days where things did not go well for the team. However, he turned it around in the last few minutes of the game as he smartly slotted past Hennessey to give us three points.
Roberto Firmino – 6/10
Firmino seemed to be off the pace today and even though he tried a lot, he just could not get things going for the team.
Sadio Mane – 6/10
This was a trying day for Mane as he was lucky to stay on the pitch after the ref did not give him a second yellow for handball. The former Saint did score the crucial goal for us but he was trying way too hard, with little end product.
Substitutes
Adam Lallana – N/A
Things are not going right for Lallana as he had to be replaced just six minutes after coming on.
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain – 7/10
The Ox was brought in to replace Mane and did a solid job in the second half of the game.
Dejan Lovren – 7/10
Klopp made it a back-three after Lallana suffered an injury. Lovren played a huge part as we got the three points.
