Liverpool somehow drew at home to West Brom today despite taking the lead at Anfield and totally outplaying a defensive Baggies outfit.
Henderson scored early on but two set-piece goals from West Brom, and another which was ruled out, gave the away team the chance to steal the win. Jurgen Klopp threw on all his attacking options off the bench though, and Divock Origi’s deflected injury-time shot snatched a late equaliser.
To compound the poor result, Dejan Lovren left the field late on with an injury following a terrible, dirty tackle from Craig Gardner – and it looks like he’ll be out for the foreseeable.
Klopp made four changes from the side which drew 0-0 with FC Sion midweek, with Moreno coming in for Smith, Benteke for Origi, Coutinho for Firmino and Skrtel for Toure.
Jordan Henderson opened the scoring in the 20th minute with Liverpool dominating the early stages. Coutinho found some space and pinpointed a ball onto Adam Lallana’s head. The playmaker nodded down to the onrushing captain who smashed home.
We’ve badly missed that kind of offensive midfield run from one of the central three, but the fit again captain will hopefully be able to provide us more goal threat now.
But the joy was short-lived, as a Simon Mignolet error of judgement saw Tony Pulis’s rather uninspiring side level up. The Belgian came for a corner but flapped, and a mixup with Nathaniel Clyne saw Craig Dawson level with a sloppy goal.
Mignolet’s set to sign a new contract at Liverpool, but this error was almost made worse 5 minutes later when he decided to inadvertently dribble outside of his box. He wasn’t dispossessed, but if he had been, the fallback would have been deafening.
Benteke then had an effort in the 37th minute which would have been a goal of the season contender. The striker, back in the side, took a long ball on the chest and tried an unconventional bicycle kick which went just wide. Coutinho had a few more pop-shots from deep, but he couldn’t connect cleanly, and James Milner messed up his curling shot too.
It looked like it got plenty worse after Jonas Olsson headed in from a wonderful Dawson cross, but thankfully – the assistant referee called over Craig Pawson and the referee ruled the goal out for offside.
Liverpool started the 2nd with purpose, bouyed by West Brom’s goal being disallowed. Milner fired wide and Benteke headed over after excellent work from Emre Can. Lovren then missed a header from a Milner cross, and it looked for all the world that the Reds would take another lead soon.
The pressure mounted and Benteke missed a volley after excellent Lallana work. It seemed only a matter of time before Liverpool would score with West Brom backs fully against the wall.
But somehow, it wasn’t to be. And as Jordon Ibe came on for a tired Coutinho, late on, Olsson scored from a corner to give West Brom a totally undeserved lead.
Liverpool pushed manically in their attempts to save the game and a deflected Origi shot saw us go 2-2. It was the least we deserved, and Klopp urged the crowd and his team to find a winner, but it wasn’t to be.
Overall, a positive performance, but a bad result in the circumstances.