Liverpool player ratings: 1-3 Swansea

A poor performance from Liverpool as they lose against Swansea in the Premier League

I think that even with the young team, Liverpool should have done more in this match. Away against Swansea seemed like a reasonable fixture to field some of our other players, but it proved massively unsuccessful.

The weaker, inexperienced midfield partnership (consisting of Pedro Chirivella and Kevin Stewart) was exploited and Swansea had chance after chance, scoring three goals. These two youngsters can’t exactly be blamed, given the fact the whole team was shocking.

Every defender who started, apart from Dejan Lovren, got booked – with Brad Smith receiving  a red card. Danny Ward had a decent game despite conceding three, but the rest of the team just lacked any real impact.

Oddly enough, Daniel Sturridge played the entire game here, but went unused in our Europa League semi-final. This suggests he might not start again, and I just don’t see why. Some say he’s lazy and can’t hold up play, but he adds a dimension of threat and a source of goals we absolutely need.

In my opinion, he’s far more of a reliable attacker than the currently out of form Roberto Firmino, and the false nine didn’t work last Thursday.

He left the pitch today frustrated, featuring in a poorly performing side and leaving without going over to the travelling fans. He’s causing a reasonable rupture between the fans, with many wishing our best striker would start and others arguing that he doesn’t offer enough.

This game was poor, but now all our attention must turn to next Thursday night. We need to win and make it to the Europa League final, or else our season is pretty much over.

Here’s Rush the Kop’s player ratings for our 3-1 loss against Swansea.

Next: GK