This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/23/crystal-palace-liverpool-premier-league-match-report

The article has changed 2 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Crystal Palace come from behind to condemn Liverpool to sixth defeat Crystal Palace come from behind to condemn Liverpool to sixth defeat
(about 4 hours later)
If Liverpool had arrived in this corner of south London haunted by last season’s capitulation here then they will feel properly traumatised now. A season which had spluttered too often already sunk to a new low in the November drizzle. Brendan Rodgers skulked down the touchline at the end wearing the haggard look of the defeated. He will be glad to see the back of the place. All the fight appeared to have drained out of Brendan Rodgers in the aftermath. The Liverpool manager mumbled through his post-match assessment as he struggled to comprehend another damaging result, his team’s spluttering campaign sinking ever further into the mire. While he offered up a few defiant words, stressing the need for immediate improvement with a cluttered schedule upon his team, his downbeat delivery said more.
What made this all the more wasteful was that his team had actually led from their opening attack against a Crystal Palace side who had begun the afternoon in the bottom two and winless in five. With Mario Balotelli back on Merseyside nursing a groin complaint, Rickie Lambert had registered his first Liverpool goal in the opening two minutes and the visitors should have prospered against fragile opponents thereafter. Instead they imploded, utterly unable to cope with Palace’s slippery pace across a sodden surface. As telling was his admission that, even after last season’s rapid development and near miss in terms of the title race, he cannot count himself immune from dismissal. This campaign’s more onerous workload, with the added demand of Champions League football and tighter scope for domestic improvement, is taking its toll.
The home side’s decisive rewards were registered late, but they deserved credit for recovering their poise from that early concession, their bustling approach exposing Liverpool’s rather ponderous play. There was pace and unpredictability down both flanks, Jason Puncheon offering reminders of last season’s form and Yannick Bolasie, all elastic limbs and blistering pace, gloriously energetic on the counter. He had only returned on Thursday after scoring a brace for DR Congo against Sierra Leone to secure his country a place at the Africa Cup of Nations, and it was his shot after gleaning space from a disorientated Dejan Lovren which fizzed on to the far post. Dwight Gayle, on a first league start since mid-September, reacted smartest to convert the rebound through Simon Mignolet’s desperate attempt to block. “That was bitterly disappointing,” he admitted, “and it’s my responsibility as the manager, ultimately. Overall, that intensity and togetherness in our game isn’t there.” His side are saddled with a minus goal difference and languish closer to the relegation zone than the top four. They were outfought here by a Crystal Palace side who started the match below the cut-off. That is damning in itself.
Other first half opportunities were passed up, Bolasie blazing wide having been cleverly supplied by Puncheon and seeing another rapid breakaway culminate with a shot deflected behind for a corner as Liverpool heaved to recover some authority. It was the former Bristol City winger who forced Mignolet into a fine save down to his left after Javier Manquillo’s desperate and blind defensive header. There was uncertainty across the visitors’ back-line, even if they could justifiably complain that their numbers had been depleted – with Joe Allen being bandaged for a head wound – when Gayle had actually registered that fourth goal in three appearances against these opponents. This performance was arguably more troubling than the infamous late capitulation in May. Back in spring, dismayed by that damaging home loss to Chelsea a few days earlier, the visitors’ thinking had been muddled in pursuit of inflating their goal difference, all focus blurred and panic gripping over a madcap 11-minute period in the contest’s finale. Here they led within 90 seconds against a team whose fragility has been all too clear this term, and still contrived to wilt almost apologetically.
That indecision never truly disappeared, the goalkeeper rarely sure and dreadfully wasteful in dispatching a free-kick into touch 12 minutes from time. From the throw-in Bolasie tricked a flat-footed Lovren and squared for Joe Ledley, an undersung but key component of this Palace side, to dispatch his shot through the Belgian and in. There were appeals for a penalty as Joel Ward and Raheem Sterling wrestled almost immediately at the other end, but Liverpool were panicked and undermined. When Skrtel tugged back Gayle, there was Mile Jedinak to curl a glorious third from the resultant free-kick into the corner from 25 yards. The plight of those across their back-line rather summed them up: Dejan Lovren and Martin Skrtel are diminished in the centre, their vulnerability exposed by Dwight Gayle and Marouane Chamakh; both full-backs were flummoxed throughout by the pace on Palace’s flanks; the goalkeeper, Simon Mignolet, is bereft of confidence, with his every error punished.
It was hard amid the home support’s joyous celebrations to contemplate just how this contest had veered so decisively away from Rodgers’ side. Retreat back to the start and Lambert’s reward had been almost instant, the forward edging away from Martin Kelly to collect Adam Lallana’s fine diagonal pass with his left foot before dispatching his shot with his right. Julian Speroni was grounded and his team had been breached within 90 seconds. It was a flashback to Southampton days, where that combination of Lambert and Lallana had been so potent. A 13th appearance for Liverpool had finally yielded the England striker’s first goal. Had he better directed a couple of first-half headers then perhaps his new club might have reimposed themselves but, as the game drifted, so did the visitors’ composure. Their defeat ended up feeling resounding. Yannick Bolasie, all elastic limbs and blistering pace, illuminated this occasion, with his extravagant skill striking terror into his markers. It had been his shot which skimmed across Mignolet and on to the far post just after the quarter-hour mark, Gayle converting the rebound smartly on his first league start since mid-September, and his flick over Lovren was thumped through the goalkeeper by Joe Ledley to thrust the hosts ahead. Bolasie returned from DR Congo only on Thursday after scoring a brace to propel his country to the Africa Cup of Nations. Sensing his opportunity, he had been irrepressible until replaced late on. “He doesn’t know what he’s going to do next,” said Neil Warnock, “so the full-back doesn’t have a chance, does he?”
Man of the match Yannick Bolasie (Crystal Palace). Mile Jedinak belted in a third from a 25-yard free-kick and, while Liverpool could complain over the softness of that award, they still ended bedraggled and well beaten. There was no obvious plan to their approach, short of tapping into the understanding enjoyed by Adam Lallana and Rickie Lambert from their Southampton days.
That combination had earned them the lead, the England striker’s first Liverpool goal converted slickly to suggest a cakewalk ahead. But the visitors were stodgy in their approach thereafter, all that zest from last term a faint memory, offering neither width in attack nor zip through the middle. The post-match statistics suggested both Steven Gerrard and Skrtel had not won a single tackle, with Jedinak the most authoritative midfielder on the pitch and Ledley snapping at his side.
Palace should have scored more, so eagerly did they wrest back the initiative after that poor start, with Liverpool wincing at the ferocity of the home side’s breaks upfield. Jason Puncheon recaptured last year’s form – his combinations with Bolasie cutting Rodgers’ side apart, and there was no one among the visitors’ ranks to stamp authority on the occasion.
“We can’t complain,” said their manager, whose side have won only twice in nine Premier League matches. “We’d hoped to build on the last two years but we need to get back to basics, to get back to fighting and working hard.” This smacked of a surrender.
Man of the match Yannick Bolasie (Crystal Palace)