April 3 2018

Christian Benteke

Another late winner by an away side at Selhurst saw Liverpool inflict a cruel 2-1 defeat on Crystal Palace. Mike Scott scores the players…

For the first time since Palace’s return to the top flight, Liverpool registered two wins over the Eagles in the league thanks to a late winner by Mohamed Salah.

In fact, the last time the Reds managed to gain all six points from their games against Palace was 20 years ago. Not that this stat will make the defeat any easier to take, especially because the Eagles have now sunk to three home defeats in a row where the winning goal has come in the final 10 minutes...

Wayne Hennessey - 6

The Welshman registered 100 starts for the club with the game, and it seems like this analysis could have been written after a fair few of those games. There were some great stops, including an excellent impulse save down to his right to deny Sadio Mane and another to deny Mohamed Salah in the first half. But Liverpool exploited his weaknesses with crosses; Kelly blocked a good effort from Trent Alexander-Arnold after Hennessey misjudged a cross he should have taken. The goals didn’t come from his mistake though.

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Aaron Wan-Bissaka - 6

It’s true Wan-Bissaka made an error of judgement for Liverpool’s equaliser, turning away as James Milner fed him a dummy and played the ball to Sadio Mane to score, but very little else of note came down Liverpool’s left wing. Early on, an excellent block prevented Mane causing trouble; almost no crosses made their way past him. He was much less of an outlet going forward than in previous games, but there was hardly any opportunity for it.

Martin Kelly - 6

The Sakho-Tomkins partnership has kept five clean sheets in eight starts together this season, so it was a blow to see Tomkins out, but Kelly did well enough as cover. Discipline was immaculate early on, with Liverpool creating very little when playing the ball on the floor. He did misplace a ball that landed straight at the feet of Roberto Firmino, but luckily wasn’t punished. He stopped Alexander-Arnold scoring, but looked in two minds for the equaliser.

Mamadou Sakho - 5

An uncharacteristically tough afternoon for Sakho, who had a hand in responsibility for both Liverpool goals. Early on he let Virgil van Dijk have a free header and was lucky he missed; for the first away goal, he had the opportunity to head the ball away at the beginning of the move and he should have done better to stop the finish. Mohamed Salah got the better of him for the winner. He did marshall the defence immaculately for the first half, with positioning being pretty much perfect, but he’ll want to forget this game quickly.

Patrick van Aanholt - 6

A lot of what Liverpool produced began down their right, so Van Aanholt had a really tough afternoon. As most defenders have had this season when they’ve been up against Golden Boot winner-elect Salah. He had good support from McArthur and Zaha throughout the game and did what he could, but even with some excellent positioning he was powerless to stop the away side getting in behind him. In the second half, he charged forward with the ball a fair few times, linking up with Zaha; it was unfortunate nothing came from it.

Yohan Cabaye - 7

A quietly solid performance from Cabaye saw him play a conservative role, doubling up in front of Wan-Bissaka and the centre backs. He wasn’t on call for a lot of the set pieces, but did play some very promising passes, including some excellent long balls, one of which set Zaha off early and on and left him one on one with the keeper.

With just under 20 minutes to go, RUBEN LOFTUS-CHEEK (7) replaced him and he gave the side an instant injection going forward, playing right across the width of the park behind Zaha and Benteke. He’ll play a big part in the run in.

Luka Milivojevic - 9

Milivojevic now has nine goals to his name in the league, thanks to another immaculate penalty, but he was also arguably Palace’s best player on the pitch. Despite scoring, Salah had a quiet game, with Roberto Firmino being frozen out from playing his usual, drifting role behind his forward colleagues too. Milivojevic can take a huge amount of credit for that. To add to that, he put in countless challenges, took some promising set pieces and won 50/50 balls all game long.

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James McArthur - 7

Like his midfield colleagues, McArthur had to be on his game to avoid Liverpool running riot and he put in another strong shift. When he dispossessed James Milner early on, it set the tone. His passing was faultless all afternoon and he helped Milivojevic keep the forward three as quiet as they could. As with the best performances from McArthur, he was quietly effective.

Andros Townsend - 7

On another day, he would have got another assist to his name, having set Benteke up perfectly. And yet, after the game, there was talk on social media from some fans suggesting he had a bad game and even some saying he’s not working out at the moment. This seems crazy; he put in a hell of a shift, covering in front of Wan-Bissaka and providing the outlet for balls for the quick break. He didn’t have that many opportunities to cross the ball from the bye-line, but he’s so much more to Palace than that when he doesn’t get too many chances to put balls in high.

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Wilfried Zaha - 6

First and foremost, he won the penalty that saw Palace take the lead. He could have already had a goal to his name too, after finding himself one on one from a long ball from Cabaye. But he did look slightly off the pace by his usual standards (a 6 out of 10 for Zaha is an 8 for most mere mortals), running the ball out and failing to beat Alexander-Arnold and Joel Matip perhaps quite as often as he would have liked. A couple of his crosses were hit very deep too. But, having said that, he was Palace’s only consistent outlet and their best way to break up play when Liverpool were dominating. He’ll win Palace enough points in the remaining six games if he plays like that against lesser opposition.

Christian Benteke - 5

It is getting harder and harder to defend Benteke against the vitriol and abuse on social media and, if he does go at the end of the season (or even worse, if Palace go down - which they won’t), this game will stick in people’s memories, because he missed two golden chances within a minute in the second half. Having said that, the criticism needs to come for his finishing; he still set up Zaha for the penalty and he still caused Liverpool problems.

He may be Hodgson’s biggest headache, but no player deserves the mindless abuse he is getting, however glaring his faults are. Hodgson said he thought he played very well before the misses when he spoke after the game; that might be stretching it, but he was a crucial part of a side who led Liverpool at half-time.